By Albert Amateau
Westbeth, the nonprofit artists’ residence in the West Village, is poised for a momentous transition in July from federal to city regulation.
In a little more than two months, the complex of 13 interconnected residential buildings converted from the old Bell Laboratories will have paid off its 40-year federal mortgage. In turn, its residential rents, now regulated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, will then fall under the city’s rent-stabilization program.
The impending change is causing concern among the residents, many of them senior citizens, who occupy the 383 apartments in Westbeth, where the last rent increase was approved by HUD in 2009.
“Many of us are not clear about what it’s going to mean for us,” said Sherry Lane, a longtime Westbeth resident who recalled that HUD has approved several rent increases in recent years.
Sue Benet, one of three members on the Westbeth board of directors who are also residents of the complex, said the board has been studying the potential impact of the transition.
“If you look at previous recent rent increases, they totaled about 11 percent,” Benet said. “Rent-stabilization increases have been about 3 percent a year — so the difference between HUD and stabilized rent increases seems to even out,” Benet said.
About a quarter to a third of Westbeth residents receive Section 8 federal housing subsidies. The board will try to help tenants not covered by Section 8 to qualify for the subsidy and for the city’s Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) program, Benet said.
HUD determined the basic rents at Westbeth based on square footage, plus surcharges pegged on income. The complicated calculations and formulas fill two binders 6 inches thick, said Steve Neil, executive director of the Westbeth complex.
In 2009, the city agreed to extend the real estate tax abatement for the complex, which saves Westbeth at least $300,000 a year, and in return, the complex agreed to come under rent stabilization. But because Westbeth was still under federal oversight, the HUD rules took precedence.
However, with the last payment in July on the federal mortgage, Westbeth rents will be stabilized at the 2009 level, with increases to be determined by the city’s Rent Guidelines Board. Neil estimated that the average Westbeth rent is about $900 a month.
“It’s better than no protection at all,” George Cominskie, president of the Westbeth Artists Residents Council and a former member of the Westbeth board of directors, said of the switch to rent stabilization. “We would have preferred rents pegged to income. There’s always a base rent with the surcharge pegged to income. It works well for artists, who often face feast or famine, earning a lot of money one year and next to nothing the next. But income-based rent programs don’t exist anymore,” Cominskie said.
The complex’s 13 buildings were built between 1861 and the early 20th century — the last one completed in 1929 — on the square block bounded by West, Washington, Bank and Bethune Sts. The Westbeth Artists Residence was conceived in 1967 by West Village activists including Jane Jacobs and Rachele Wall. It was sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the J.M. Kaplan Fund. Richard Meier designed the conversion, which was completed in 1970.
Because the complex constantly requires maintenance and repairs, the Westbeth board is exploring options for new financing to begin when the current HUD mortgage is paid down. Four years ago, the roof of one of the 13 buildings was replaced, and at lease five other roofs are problematic, Neil said.
“Three need to be replaced right away and two will have to be replaced in five to eight years,” he said of the roofs.
In addition to its artist joint work/living quarters, Westbeth has about two-dozen commercial spaces where rents are market rate. The Merce Cunningham Dance Company and Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the gay and lesbian synagogue, are among the commercial tenants. The Brecht Forum is a tenant in another building. One entire building is leased to The New School’s theater program.
Slightly less than 30 percent of the total rental income comes from commercial rents.
