Sunday, October 21, 2018

Union comes out against commercial-rent-control bill. Powerful groups are on both sides of the proposal to give tenants the right to a lease renewal and arbitration.

Crain's New York Business reports:
A large service workers union plans to testify against the City Council's commercial-rent-control bill next week.

The legislation would give commercial tenants the right to a lease renewal, and, if a tenant and landlord can't agree on a price, arbitration would be used to set the rent. The proposed legislation is coming up for what is sure to be a raucous hearing Monday. The measure is intended to help small-business owners, but the union umbrella group, 32BJ, said that it opposes the measure because it would help corporate tenants, lead to dwindling income for building owners, who then might be dissuaded from hiring union workers.

"It would be a terrible unintended consequence of this bill if restrictions on commercial rents were to stand in the way of workers unionizing," Denis Johnson, vice president of 32BJ, said in a statement.

The union, which counts janitors, security officers, window cleaners, doormen and porters among its members, joins an unlikely roster of allies, led by the Real Estate Board of New York, lining up against the measure. Numerous commercial brokerages; groups representing multifamily-home, co-op and condo owners; business improvement districts; and a trade group representing affordable-housing developers are among those who plan to testify in opposition to the bill, according to the board. In general, the groups believe the legislation would take away landlords' rights to choose tenants and negotiate rents. But their foes are amassing powerful political forces of their own.
Imagine that!