Signature Bank seeks buyers for its real estate portfolio

Following the failure of Signature Bank last March, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has announced has begun the process of selling its $33 billion commercial real estate loan portfolio.

In an FDIC news release, the agency said they had a statutory obligation to maximize the preservation of “the availability and affordability of residential real property for low- and moderate-income individuals.”

According to the FDIC, a large portion of those loans are for  rent stabilized or rent controlled multifamily homes.

“To support this obligation, the FDIC will place the rent-stabilized or rent-controlled loans in one or more joint ventures with the FDIC retaining a majority equity interest in the JV,” the FDIC said. “In addition, the JV operating agreement will provide certain requirements that facilitate the financial and physical preservation of these loans and underlying collateral.”

U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres has spoken out against Signature Bank’s mortgage portfolio. In a statement sent to The Riverdale Press, he said he and his staff are currently reviewing the plan for the loans.

While he doesn’t have a final opinion, he said he does appreciate the FDIC’s previous commitment of preserving up to 80,000 units of affordable housing from Signature Bank’s portfolio.

“The FDIC has a statutory obligation to ensure that these loans fall into the hands of responsible actors committed to preserving affordable housing, rather than rent-seekers intent on turning a quick profit at the expense of affordability,” Torres said in a statement.

The marketing for Signature Bank’s assets will take place over the next three months, said the FDIC. Newmark & Co. Real Estate, Inc. is an advisor on the sales. Transactions are expected to be complete by the end of the year.

MTA completes ‘re-New-vation’

The MTA announced Monday completed renovations at the Nereid Avenue 2/5 station in the Wakefield section of the Bronx. Under the “Re-New-vation” program, the city utilized a 55-hour window during planned weekend service outages to make upgrades, repairs, and clean.

This opportunity allowed for workers to install new nets to deter pigeons, clean stairs, weld new safety treads on steps, repair boards on the platform, install new lights, and repaint safety lines

“In survey after survey, customers tell us their train rides aren’t the only part of their journey that matters; they also want cleaner and brighter stations,” New York City Transit president Richard Davey said in a news release.

“With each re-New-vation more and more stations are receiving the deep cleaning customers are calling for, delivering NYCT’s goal of providing faster, cleaner, and safer service.”

In addition to Davey, other electeds chimed in on the plan, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and U.S.  Rep. Jamaal Bowman.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz was quite happy about the renovations and welcomed further renovations.

“I am thrilled that the MTA, through the New York City Transit’s Faster, Cleaner, and Safer plan, has taken steps to clean the Nereid Avenue station for passengers on the two and five lines,” said Dinowitz. “This ‘re-New-vation’ is a welcome investment in the quality of life for our city’s commuters and I welcome further projects to other stations within my district.

Bowman echoed Dinowitz’s praise.

“These improvements are critical in ensuring that our transportation system continues to serve our communities effectively and safely into the future,” Bowman said. “As we celebrate this milestone, I look forward to the continuation of this transformative effort, with additional stations across our borough and city benefiting from these necessary maintenance upgrades.”

Nereid Avenue 2/5 station was the 47th station to be renovated through the program. The city transit agency plans to complete 50 renovations by the end of 2023.

City council district map tool released

When community and City Council district maps were redistricted in 2023, it made it much harder to remember who or what is or isn’t in one’s district.

The city planning department is partially rectifying this by announcing the creation of an interactive tool that shows how the proportion of each community district in each city council district changed during the redistricting.

“DCP’s new interactive tool pulls back the curtain on the relationship between City Council and Community Board Districts, which has changed through redistricting,” said Dan Garodnick, director of the planning department. “Democratizing wonky data like this is a core part of DCP’s work and I hope New Yorkers will find this tool useful.”

Joe Salvo, institute fellow at the Biocomplexity Institute and Initiative at the University of Virginia and former New York City chief demographer, emphasized the tools importance.

“Good governance means addressing the needs of constituents in Community Districts through representation by members of the New York City Council,” Salvo said.

“That is not a one-to-one relationship in many cases, with Community Districts sometimes represented by multiple members of the City Council. By showing changes in how community districts are juxtaposed with council districts, local constituents can better understand how their needs are being represented by members of the City Council.”

The interactive map can be accessed at tinyurl.com/4wj2j7ma.

Once on the map you can zoom into your community and city council district map. There is a online slider that will let you alternate between 2013 maps and 2023 maps.