Challenged from the Outside

This chapter discusses how residents of Stuyvesant Town received a colorful missive from Gerald Guterman, a real-estate speculator, which attacked and directly undermined the Tenants Association and Brookfield, the new partner of the complex buildings. It explores Guterman's plan of converting the Stuy Town property to a co-op and selling units to tenants at $130,000 per unit. It also points out how Guterman's plan sparked an anxious debate about who would become the owner of units that were not sold to the tenants who lived in them. The chapter mentions Guterman's intention to sell occupied rent-stabilized units to individual outside investors, a scenario most longtime rent-stabilized renters objected to. It also elaborates Daniel Garodnick's concerns on Guterman's model of short-term ownership that lacked any long-term affordability protections.