World's Greatest Bank Finances Project for One of NYC's Leading Affordable Housing Providers

Morgan Stanley Provides Financing to Kick-Start Preservation of Distressed Residential Buildings in the Bronx. Financing Will Help Four of New York City’s Most Distressed Multi-family Residential Properties to Undergo Eventual Rehabilitation.        

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) has provided multi-million dollar interim financing to Workforce Housing Advisors, Inc. (WFHA) to make possible the rehabilitation of four multi-family buildings with 120 units in the Bronx.

The four buildings, located at 2239, 2241, 2323 and 2333 Creston Avenue, have deteriorated significantly in recent years, amassing building code violations, as well as municipal liens and fines.

The buildings, which are occupied, have been placed in the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s (HPD) Alternative Enforcement Program, which annually targets the 200 most distressed multi-family residential properties in the City for intervention.  WFHA, in partnership with the NYC Partnership Housing Development Fund Company Inc., a not-for-profit housing development fund company, has taken ownership of the buildings.

The interim financing provided by Morgan Stanley allows WFHA to pay down the municipal arrears and move forward with preparations to renovate the buildings.  HPD expects to provide a low-interest loan through its Preservation Participation Loan Program, in conjunction with more conventional financing and Low Income Housing Tax Credits, to fund the rehabilitation of the properties and preserve them as affordable for current and future tenants.  In the last two years, this type of public-private financing in partnership with HPD has stabilized 1,500 units in comparably distressed and overleveraged properties, effectively preserving the housing as affordable over the long term.

“We appreciate Morgan Stanley's leadership in stepping up to partner with us on this project,” said John A. Crotty, founding partner of Workforce Housing Advisors.  “Their support will allow us to take the critical first step of a long-term process to transform four buildings in the Bronx in significant need of rehabilitation and make a substantial difference in the lives of the working families who reside there.”

Said Audrey Choi, Head of Global Sustainable Finance at Morgan Stanley: “We are committed to supporting affordable housing in our communities.  We see this as a unique opportunity to improve the living conditions of families and individuals in need of sound, affordable housing in the Bronx.”

Part of the financing provided by Morgan Stanley allows for payment to the City of three-quarters of a million dollars to clear liens due to unpaid taxes, municipal charges and emergency repair expenditures.  Without the new financing, the high holding costs would have continued to burden the properties, further delaying the shift to rehabilitation.

“It takes many steps and many partners to rescue and restore distressed affordable housing,” said HPD Commissioner Mathew M. Wambua.  “The buildings on Creston Avenue have miles to go before their tenants will be able to feel comfortable and secure.  But we are on the right path – and welcome Morgan Stanley as a new partner in our ongoing efforts to preserve the City’s existing multi-family housing stock.  The financing they have provided has kick-started the turnaround process, and that is a commitment for which we are gratified.  More importantly, by making this commitment, they agree as we do, that financing housing in our City is a very sound investment in our collective future.”

In the last two years, HPD financing has stabilized 1,500 units in distressed and overleveraged properties, including two other transactions with Workforce Housing Advisors, with 174 more distressed units slated to begin construction by the start of the summer.

About Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services.  The Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals from more than 1,300 offices in 43 countries.  Since 2006, Morgan Stanley has executed more than $5 billion in loans and investments to strengthen underserved communities.  For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.

About the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)
HPD is the nation’s largest municipal housing preservation and development agency.  Its mission is to promote quality housing and viable neighborhoods for New Yorkers through education, outreach, loan and development programs and enforcement of housing quality standards.  It is responsible for implementing Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan to finance the construction or preservation of 165,000 units of affordable housing by 2014.  Since the plan’s inception, more than $19.4 billion has been invested or leveraged by the City to finance the creation or preservation of more than 130,606 affordable homes.  For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/hpd.

About Workforce Housing Advisors
Workforce Housing Advisors operates in the multi-family real estate market in the New York metropolitan area by repositioning distressed assets as affordable housing resources.  It works collaboratively with for-profit, not-for-profit and government partners to execute redevelopment plans for properties that had previously been subject to financial and physical distress.

Contact: Media Relations, Sandra Hernandez, 212.761.2446

The Story of Hip Hop as told by Grandmaster Caz

A first hand account about the history of the building, the history and other little tidbits.

By Nathan Rabin June 21, 2012

Even if he were still alive, Frank Sinatra would probably never give you a personal tour of the Capitol Records building unless you were an unusually foxy dame. Similarly, you can ask politely, but Berry Gordy is not going to show you around Motown, either. But thanks to the good folks over at Hush Hip Hop Tours, you can get old-school legends like Grandmaster Caz (a.k.a. Casanova Fly), solo hitmaker Kurtis Blow (“The Breaks”), and godfather of hip-hop DJ Kool Herc to show you spots around the Bronx where hip-hop was born and bred in the mid-’70s. 

In 2007, the New York State Office Of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation recognized 1520 Sedgwick Ave., a 102-unit apartment building, as the “birthplace of hip-hop” and the site of DJ Kool Herc’s first bona-fide hip-hop party on August 11, 1973. So when Pop Pilgrims decided to visit, it joined forces with Hush Hip Hop Tours and, more specifically, with 52-year-old tour guide and hip-hop giant Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers, a charismatic walking encyclopedia of early hip-hop. 

The owners of the building recently had some bad experiences with film crews shooting without permission, so as a peace offering, we brought along enough food and beverages for a 40-person barbecue for the building’s residents. We loaded the foodstuffs onto the plush Hush Hip Hop tour bus and headed to our destination with the great Grandmaster Caz in tow. “Empire State Of Mind” blared on the stereo as the perfect soundtrack and mood-setter to the afternoon’s endeavors. 

Outside the weather was grey, drizzling, and oppressively overcast, but we weren’t about to let that stop us. We unloaded our gear and food at 1520 Sedgwick and were led to the unassuming rec room that had served as the unlikely birthplace of a cultural movement that would transform pop culture in ways pioneers like Caz and DJ Kool Herc could never have imagined. 

Grandmaster Caz has every reason in the world to feel frustrated by his treatment from the music industry. Everyone from 2Pac to Will Smith to Jay-Z has paid tribute to Caz and his group in song, but the Cold Crush Brothers never released a proper album, let alone scored any hits. Caz’s former manager Big Bank Hank—a non-rapper recruited by early hip-hop mogul Sylvia Robinson to perform in her group the Sugar Hill Gang—notoriously “borrowed” Caz’s lyrics for the seminal and influential single “Rapper’s Delight” (the first true hip-hop hit), without ever crediting or compensating Caz. Hank was so incompetent in his creative thievery that he borrowed lyrics like, “I’m the C-A-S-A-N the O-V-A and the rest is F-L-Y,” that literally spelled out the nickname of the man he was ripping off. 

Yet today, Caz is anything but bitter. His decades in the business have blessed him with humility and a wonderful sense of perspective. He’s grateful for all the places hip-hop has taken him and proud of all it has accomplished. We couldn’t have asked for a more knowledgeable or authoritative guide to hip-hop’s early days. We had the honor of learning about the genre’s embryonic beginnings from a man who lived through them. 

After the interview concluded, Caz suggested we shoot some footage of a young friend of his breakdancing, and we were consequently treated to a private display of virtuoso pop-locking and b-boying from Caz’s gifted young protégé. 

We then left 1520 Sedgwick and Caz gave us a condensed version of the tour he gives Hush Hip Hop patrons. The highlight of the tour came when Caz used the bus’ impressive sound system to perform “MC’s Delight,” a feisty answer-song and extended Big Bank Hank diss track he wrote on the 25th anniversary of “Rapper’s Delight.” The camera crew and I didn’t need any further convincing: At that point, we were ready to head over to Big Bank Hank’s house and deliver some justice. 

We visited Caz’s spot on the Bronx Walk Of Fame and checked out a mural devoted to fellow Bronx hip-hop icon Big Punisher looking shockingly svelte, as well as various locations where the ill-fated50 Cent vehicle Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ was filmed. Caz made sure to note the former location of Disco Fever, the legendary early hip-hop club where much of Krush Groove was filmed. Time marches on, however, and the former location of Disco Fever now houses, not a memorial or a museum, but a 99-cent store of little importance to the history of hip-hop.

In our interview, Caz compared the Bronx in the ’70s to Beirut. It was, in his estimation, a lawless realm, an urban Wild West of burnt-down buildings, ubiquitous graffiti, and rampant poverty, the perfect place for a bunch of kids with nothing but energy, talent, and the boundless enthusiasm of youth to create a whole new culture out of their parents’ old albums, some microphones, and turntables. As wide-eyed pop pilgrims, it was both edifying and educational to visit the vibrant, electric streets of the Bronx with an icon who had helped shape the evolution of hip-hop as a young man.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/new-york-1520-sedgwick-the-birthplace-of-hiphop,81610