‘Poor Doors’ No Longer Allowed with New Rent-Regulation Bill

Thanks to a provision added to the newly extended and altered 421-a tax abatement passed last week, developers looking to segregate their wealthy tenants from their affordable rate renters will have to think again. According to The Post, Mayor de Blasio inserted a reform into the tax program plan that would ban the practice in which developers build a separate entrance for folks occupying the cheaper, below market-rate apartments in their buildings—better known as “poor doors.”

In addition to axing poor doors, developers are no longer allowed to concentrate those same tenants into their own section of a building. “Affordable units shall share the same common entrances and common areas as market rate units,’’ states the bill.

The move is in response to Extell Development’s controversial Upper West Side project at 50 Riverside Boulevard which created two towers for tenants (one market rate and one below market) with two completely separate entrances, but was cunningly designed to appear as one singular residence.

In response to the new provision, Gary Barnett, president of Extell Development, told The Post that the company “will continue to abide by the rules, whatever they may be.”

[Via NY Post]

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