Tenants Question Cost of Sidewalk Shed, Other Work

Landlord applied for MCI rent hikes based on exterior facade restoration and related engineering services. The DRA ruled for landlord. Tenants appealed. Tenants questioned costs that were related to the facade work. They said that landlord installed a sidewalk shed one and a half years before starting the MCI work. And they claimed that other work that the DRA gave landlord a rent increase for was unrelated to the facade restoration.
The DHCR ruled for tenants in part. Washing the building, removing existing paint from decorative metal work including window grilles and doors, using heavy-duty paint stripper on paint and graffiti, installing of a fence to protect newly cleaned surfaces, application of an anti-graffiti coating, and polishing exterior decorative elements was all work done in connection with and directly related to the MCI. The cost of this work qualified for a rent increase. But the sidewalk shed was used in connection with the MCI work for only half the time it was up. So the DHCR reduced the amount of the sidewalk shed cost for which the rent increase was granted by 50 percent.

270 Riverside Drive: DHCR Adm. Rev. Docket No. TG430084RT (4/28/09) [5-pg. doc.]