Overview
- The measure would grant prequalified nonprofits, tenant groups, and certain preservation developers a first opportunity to bid on eligible rental buildings before open marketing.
- Eligibility focuses on distressed properties or homes with expiring affordability, with carve-outs for owner-occupied buildings under six units and any building with three units or fewer.
- The latest draft sets a 45-day notice period for qualified buyers to declare intent, with HPD involved in shaping and administering the process.
- Industry and small-owner groups warn the process could stretch transactions to roughly six months, complicate financing and estate timelines, and strain an already thinly staffed HPD.
- HPD has testified that roughly 90,000 buildings could fall under COPA, and the Council is also weighing land bank and tax-lien measures that lack similar agency backing.