David Bistricer

Friday morning's New York Times seemed to suggest that David Bistricer's (and Bruce Teitelbaum's) second bid for Starrett City might have a chance. Indeed, it was all about how Mr. Bistricer was enlisting the help of ministers to take his case to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which holds the mortgage to the housing complex and was the entity that doomed the first bid.

But a letter last night from the state Department of Housing Conservation and Renewal (DHCR) may have killed the plan first. Commissioner Deborah VanAmerongen wrote that the plan "would be unworkable under existing statutory law... For these reasons we must disapprove the plan."

"We read it - and more importantly, we understand that DHCR reads it - to mean that HUD or no HUD - the elements of the deal that require state approval will not be forthcoming - hence dead," Jonathan Rosen, a spokesman for the affordable housing advocacy group ACORN, said in an e-mail.

The DHCR letter says that the new plan would have raised rents to "street rents" and caused "the divestiture of all potentially income-producing non-residential property."

The Real Estate is waiting for a return call from Mr. Bistricer's spokesman.

The Times' Empire Zone blog has more on whether the proposal is dead or not here.

- Matthew Schuerman

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So, a big-deal news conference takes place involving the nation's housing secretary, a U.S. senator, several state and local pols, and numerous housing activists regarding one of the hottest populist issues in the city. Just who is going to steal tomorrow's headlines?

Andrew Cuomo is taking the early lead, according to Web sites and blogs, since he discovered that David Bistricer, the winning bidder for Starrett City, was permanently banned from selling and offering co-operatives back in 1998. The Attorney General said he would enforce the ban should the developer try to convert any of Starrett City or build new for-sale units.

Here's the Times version. - Matthew Schuerman

At 3 a.m. on Thursday, the Times reports, Sam Levinson and David Bistricer of Berkshire Equities agreed to buy Starrett City for $1.3 billion.

"A spokesman for Starrett City Associates said this morning that the sellers were just waiting for the cash deposit."

Just how many brown paper bags was that?

This morning, ACORN is staging a protest with "two bus loads of Starrett City tenants" outside Berkshire Equities' Brooklyn headquarters, according to a press release.

- Matthew Schuerman