ADM. REVIEW DOCKET NO. DA 410257-RO
STATE OF NEW YORK
DIVISION OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY RENEWAL
OFFICE OF RENT ADMINISTRATION
GERTZ PLAZA
92-31 UNION HALL STREET
JAMAICA, NEW YORK 11433
------------------------------------X S.J.R. NO. 5640
IN THE MATTER OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE : ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW
APPEAL OF DOCKET NO. DA 410257-RO
: D.R.O. DOCKET NO.
BH 410003-OD
TREGER REALTY CO.
C/O ROSENBERG & ESTIS P.C.
PETITIONER :
------------------------------------X
ORDER AND OPINION GRANTING IN PART PETITION FOR ADMINISTRATIVE
REVIEW
The above-named petitioner-owner filed a Petition for
Administrative Review against an order issued on December 14, 1988
by the Rent Administrator, 92-31 Union Hall Street, Jamaica, New
York, concerning housing accommodations known as 161 W. 16th
Street, New York, New York, various apartments.
On January 25, 1991 the Commissioner issued an Order and
Opinion dismissing the petition as untimely filed. Thereafter the
owner commenced a proceeding in the Supreme Court pursuant to
Article 78 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules, requesting that
the Commissioner's order be annulled. This resulted n a court-
ordered stipulation of settlement remanding the proceeding for a
determination of the owner's petition for administrative review,
considered as timely filed.
This proceeding stems form an application filed by the owner
herein seeking the Division's permission to modify services to
wit: Renovate the lobby of the subject building (constructed in
1932), convert the two manually operated passenger elevators to
automatic operation; and institute uniform doorman/lobby
attendant services 24 hours per day, seven days a week.
Various tenants responded to the application and expressed
their opposition to the elimination of manned elevator service
stating, among other things, that the proposed modification of
services will violate and threaten existing building security and
result in a loss of essential services; that the modification may
provide the owner the opportunity to apply for potential rent
increases; that the presence of the elevator operators makes it
unfeasible for criminal activity to occur in the elevators and
that the security problem is more acute because Barney's Clothing
Store occupies the first through fourth floors of the building and
ADM. REVIEW DOCKET NO. DA 410257-RO
store employees are constantly in the building and have exclusive
use of the service elevator during many hours of the working day.
During the course of the proceeding which entailed, among
other things, two physical inspections and a review of detailed
plans of the main and basement floors, it was elicited that only
one of the two passenger elevators (situated side by side) operate
at any given time; that manned elevator service is provided on a
24 hour per day basis by four full-time elevator operators who
work eight hour shifts plus a part time elevator operator (two
shifts); and that a doorman/lobby attendant was never a provided
service.
The order of the Administrator, appealed herein, granted the
owner's request for permission to modify services upon the
following conditions:
"1. The owner install closed circuit television
cameras in the automatic elevators and a controlled
(sic) panel at doorman's station in the lobby.
2. Install a 'look out' (sic) device in the freight
elevators to limit the access of Barney's Clothing
Store personnel to the First, Second, Third and Fourth
floors in subject building.
3. The rent controlled and rent stabilized
tenants shall not pay any portion of cost or
a rent increase for the installation of the
automatic elevators or doorman services.
4. Install a buzzer on the doors in the lobby
which open into the internal stairway so that
it will ring at the doorman's desk when opened.
5. Provide relief personnel to replace the doorman
or lobby attendant when absent from their station in
the lobby. Owner is required to maintain doorman
services 24 hours per day, 7 days a week."
In this petition for administrative review the owner objects
to such portion of the administrator's order which determined that
the tenants shall not be obligated to pay any portion of the cost
or a rent increase for the installation of automatic elevators or
doorman services.
After a careful consideration of the entire record, the
Commissioner is of the opinion that this petition should be
granted in part.
At the outset the Commissioner notes that the conversion of
the existing passenger elevators (installed in 1932) to automatic
operation would not be inconsistent with the applicable provisions
of the Rent Stabilization Code and the Rent and Eviction
Regulations for New York City provided the same level of service
ADM. REVIEW DOCKET NO. DA 410257-RO
is maintained. It is not a question of whether the conversion to
automatic operation will result in a decrease in vertical
transportation but whether such conversion will result in a
decrease in building-security and ancillary services.
The conversion to automatic operation is most often sought in
buildings serviced by more than one passenger elevator in order
for an owner to reduce its payroll costs. Since this often
results in a substantial savings to the owner, the conversion
process would be approved on condition that a portion of this
savings is passed on to the residential tenants in the form of a
waiver of any potential rent increase for what may otherwise
qualify as a major capital improvement.
In the case at hand, the record discloses that a
doorman/lobby attendant was never a service provided to the
tenants. Rather, building security was provided on a 24 hour per
day basis by the employment of four full-time elevator operators
and one part-time elevator operator. Since the owner remains
obligated to provide 24 hour per day manned coverage of the lobby
entrance and elevators by means of electronic surveillance, this
redeployment of building staff constitutes a substantially
equivalent service and would not result in any appreciable cost
savings to the owner. Neither would it constitute such an
increase in service as to warrant a rent increase therefor.
On the other hand, the record discloses that the conversion
of the two passenger elevators from manual to automatic operation
would result in a decrease in waiting time and an improvement in
vertical transportation to the tenants of the subject high-rise
building since under the current system only one of the two
manually operated elevators is in service at any given time.
It would not, therefore, be inconsistent with the purposes and
intent of the Rent Laws and Regulations to permit an owner to make
application for a rent increase predicated upon the upgrading of
the passenger elevators to automatic operation (including new
controller selectors), exclusive of the cost of any electronic
surveillance and monitoring system installed as a condition of the
Administrator's order appealed herein.
THEREFORE, in accordance with the provisions of the Rent
Stabilization Law and Code, and the Rent and Eviction Regulations
for New York City, it is
ORDERED, that this petition be, and the same hereby is,
granted in part; that the order of the Rent Administrator be, and
the same hereby is modified by changing condition No. 3 of said
order to read as follows: "The rent controlled and rent
stabilized tenants shall not pay any portion of the cost or a rent
increase for the institution of doorman services, and the
installation of closed circuit television cameras in the automatic
elevators and the monitoring control panel at the doorman's
station." and that as so modified said order be, and the same
hereby is, affirmed.
ISSUED:
ADM. REVIEW DOCKET NO. DA 410257-RO
ELLIOT SANDER
Deputy Commissioner
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