State Grants Help Upscale Co-ops Go Green

A day after a housing advocate argued that $528 million in annual co-op and condo tax abatements should be rescinded so the money can fund improvements to public housing, the New York Post claims that state energy grants are also skewed in favor of upper-income New Yorkers. 

Of the 72 residential buildings in the city that received New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) grants to install combined heat and power units, known as cogeneration systems, more than half – a total of 39 – house upper-income residents. At the elegant Eldorado on Central Park West, for instance, a $150,000 grant helped pay for a cogen system. The state subsidy covered roughly a quarter of the $525,000 system, and the building plans to install a second one with another $148,500 grant that is pending. 

Which begs the question: is that a bad thing? Not according to Alex Kalajian, a founding partner of the Solstice Residential Group, which manages the building. The co-op, he points out, is saving $375,000 a year in utility costs.

NYSERDA spokeswoman Kate Muller adds, “Our investments in clean-energy technologies help hospitals, schools, low-income housing, and businesses reap economic and environmental benefits that are shared by all New Yorkers.”