De Blasio is still collecting $9,000-a-month from three rental properties he owns in Park Slope because ‘his tenants are employed and can pay’ while small business owners and commercial landlords bleed dry for as long as NYC stays closed
- De Blasio owns two buildings in Park Slope which contain three separate apartments
- He and his wife collect more than $9,000 a month from the apartments
- They live in Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side for free and will stay there until he leaves office next year
- Thousands of residents have not been able to pay rent since the pandemic began
- De Blasio and Cuomo have called for compassion for tenants and made it unlawful for anyone to be evicted for not paying rent
- De Blasio says though that he still can because his tenants are employed and can afford it
- Meanwhile small businesses are begging the city to reopen as coronavirus numbers dwindle
- They say De Blasio, who doesn’t want to reopen until June, is holding the city hostage
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Mayor Bill de Blasio is still collecting more than $9,000 a month from two rental properties he owns in Park Slope, Brooklyn, while other landlords across the city bleed dry and cash-strapped residents flee the city because of the ongoing lockdown.
De Blasio and his wife live in Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side and will do until he leaves office later this year but they also own two properties in Park Slope.
One is a single family home which they charge $4,500-a-month for and the other is a building with two separate apartments in it. The one bedroom apartment rents for $1,825 and the two-bedroom rents for $2,950.
It earns them more than $100,000 a year, on top of his $258,000 salary as mayor.
De Blasio earns more than Governor Cuomo who this year takes home $225,000. His pay will increase next year to $250,000, as part of a pre-negotiated sliding deal, which will make him the highest paid governor in the country.
One of De Blasio’s properties is a two-unit building in Park Slope which earns him $4,775-a-month
The living room of de Blasio’s two-bedroom apartment in Park Slope which he rents out for $2,950-a-month
There is also a one bedroom apartment in the building which he charges $1,825-a-month for
At the start of the pandemic, Gov. Cuomo issued a moratorium meaning no tenant could be evicted for failure to pay rent in a bid to ease financial hardship.
De Blasio, speaking at a press conference about rent freezes, said his tenants were able to keep paying rent because they are all employed.
A spokeswoman later claimed he’d asked them if they needed help with April rent and that they told him they didn’t.
Meanwhile other landlords, specifically commercial landlords, are struggling and may not be able to pay tax bills on July 1 which will take a huge chunk out of the city’s tax revenue.
Precise data for the residential market is difficult to come but experts say it’s likely 30 percent of the city’s tenants did not pay rent for April or May.
Many residents are asking their landlords for rent reductions or concessions to help them cope.
The situation is far more dire for commercial landlords.
A whopping 80 percent of one major landlord’s retail tenants failed to pay rent in April and May.
De Blasio also owns this house in Park Slope where he used to live with his family
Records indicate that de Blasio and his wife bought the property for $450,000 in 2000. It is now estimated to be worth $1.7million
De Blasio and his wife Chirlane McCrane currently live in Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side
Staten Island restaurateurs Max Calicchio and Alison Marchese (left) and an employee from Aunt Butchie’s (right). They are all begging the local government to let them start making money again
It is causing an ‘alarming’ drop in tax revenues which could be detrimental to the city.
In April, NYC and the state collected just $78.5million in tax revenue on the sale of commercial and residential properties, down from $217.5million in March.
Tax revenues pay for the city’s essential services like road repairs, sewage systems, police and fire fighters. Those will take a hit if the situation continues.
‘This dramatic loss in tax revenue is alarming. The real estate sector is the city’s economic engine.
‘The pandemic has caused that engine to stall and we should expect such alarming trends to carry through May and June in the best-case scenario,’ James Whelan, President of the Real Estate Board of New York, said last week.
