Dear PlanNYC Users:

Thank you for visiting PlanNYC.

As of July 7, 2010, we have suspended daily news updating on this website, and will not be adding new developments or policy and legislative debates.

PlanNYC, a student-run website based at NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, has proudly served New Yorkers for five years. During that time, the growth of online information on land use and development issues, along with advances in technology such as RSS feeds and news alerts, have created many opportunities for New Yorkers to stay informed about housing and land use debates in the City. As a result, the daily news updating on this site has become less unique and less critical to our users.

We are pleased to keep the existing PlanNYC content online as a resource; all content on the site is current of July 6, 2010, but will not be updated after that date.

We hope you continue to use the data and research available at the Furman Center (which you can find at www.furmancenter.org), and we welcome your ideas and suggestions for how we can continue to provide objective information and analysis about land use and housing policy debates in New York City.

For additional information or questions, please email furmancenter@nyu.edu.

421-a Tax Abatements Extended

  421-A TAX INCENTIVE PROGRAM  
July 7, 2009
The Real Deal

The City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development has relaxed the eligibility requirements for the 421-a tax abatement program, in order to sustain developments stalled due to reduced access to financing. Previously, the tax abatements were only available to projects worked on continuously and completed within 36 months of breaking ground. Under the new rules, developers will still be eligible for the tax benefits even if work stops or if the project takes longer than 36 months to complete, provided that the delays were due to an inability to secure financing. Ambiguous wording of the new rules will likely cause some disagreements as to the eligibility of specific developments under the revised guidelines.