'Absence of Direction' from City Hall Allowed Rivington House to be Sold: Comptroller

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer's five-month investigation into the removal of the deed restriction at Rivington House showed several lapses from City Hall, most notably an "absence of clear direction" which allowed the property to be flipped for the building of luxury condos.

While the investigation did show significant lapses from City Hall, it does not single out Mayor Bill de Blasio as being involved in the controversial deed restriction removal. In fact, the report clearly states that de Blasio was not informed the deed restriction had been removed from the point of its removal until the sale of the property to Slate Property Group.

First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris comes out looking the worst. Department of Citywide Administrative Services communicated to Shorris in memos that the deed restriction would be removed. But Shorris admitted he stopped reading weekly memos from commissioners "months earlier" and told them to communicate important matters by phone or email. Yet, he never told the DCAS Commissioner he considered the Rivington House matter to be an important issue.

De Blasio told Brian Lehrer on his weekly appearance on Friday that he still had total confidence in Shorris.

"Given the volume of activity in City Hall – and as First Deputy Mayor, Tony Shorris probably has the most on his plate of anyone who works for me and he has to – he plays a crucial role with police issues, education issues, transportation issues," de Blasio told radio listeners. "A deed restriction change – you can understand – might not be on the top of anyone’s list on a given day. But what we’ve done most importantly is we’ve made the reforms that will make sure that never happens again."

Stringer echoed that what's most important now is that this type of situation never happens again.

“No individual should be allowed to profit off the loss of vital community resources,” Stringer said in a statement along with the release of the report. “But what’s worse is that the checks and balances in place to avoid this kind of outcome were mismanaged. We have to make sure our government operates with the highest level of accountability to guarantee this never happens again.”

Joel Landau, principal of Allure Group, which removed the deed and sold the property to private developers, clearly orchestrated the deed removal and sale, while the city did nothing, according to Stringer's report.

Stringer's report outlines three recommendations to prevent deed removals like the one which happened at Rivington House from happening again:

• Strengthen Mayoral Oversight: Stringer says the mayor should take more of an "active approach" to deed modification requests.
• Ensure Robust Public Input: Public hearings should be "well advertised" and community leaders should be notified of their importance.
• Expand Definition of City's "Best Interests": City Hall has to be consistent in determining what the "best interests" of the city are when discussing deed removals, including whether a future use would conform to the city's policy goals.

The Rivington House, at 45 Rivington St., was a nursing home on the Lower East Side which was sold to luxury condo developers for a $72 million profit by the Allure Group once the deed restriction was removed by the city.

Photo Credit: Google Street View circa October 2014