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The City Council quietly passed a controversial bill that would give nonprofits the first shot at buying up distressed Big Apple properties.
The “Community Opportunity for Purchase Act,” or COPA, requires some sellers to delay putting their properties on the open market for 90 days while “community land trusts” and other nonprofits have an exclusive shot at buying them up.
But the new legislation, which was recycled by progressive Brooklyn lawmaker Sandy Nurse earlier this year, is a watered-down version of a prior proposal that included a much larger number of properties.
The tweaks brought some real estate groups on board.
“[The Real Estate Board of New York] appreciates the constructive engagement and thoughtful leadership of Speaker [Julie] Menin and Council Member Nurse, which has resulted in a more targeted and practical bill,” said REBNY President James Whelan, who was a vehement opponent of the prior bill.
Former Mayor Eric Adams vetoed that last piece of legislation on his way out the door.
The new bill is expected to affect under 2,500 NYC buildings, which are already mostly managed by the city’s Housing Preservation Department, rather than the more than 10,000 under the previous iteration.
It still gives the nonprofit first dibs on the properties when they go on the market, but owners can still run out the clock and sell them on the open market.
Nurse claimed the version of the bill passed last year was “legally sound” and the changes were made for for city agencies.
“It was more that there was a number of different points that could be sued over, so it wasn’t that there was anything unconstitutional; it was just that they wanted an opportunity to re-strengthen now that they’ve had a third review of it,” she said.
But one critic told The Post that the effort “is just a foot in the door.”
Ann Korchak, board president of Small Property Owners of New York, railed against the legislation.
“COPA, in any form, is a destructive housing policy for renters, owners, and affordable housing. COPA will devalue buildings, forcing small, often immigrant and multigenerational, owners to sell their buildings for pennies on the dollar,” she said.
“Giving the right-of-first-refusal to nonprofits shuts out conventional buyers who have the financial wherewithal to immediately improve and rehabilitate a failing building.”