Rafael Cestero took over HPD at about the worst time imaginable.
He was appointed commissioner in the winter of 2009, the low-point (God willing) of the housing collapse, and not only was he faced with dwindling financing for affordable housing, but also a dwindling city budget. And yet over the past two years he Read More
Tuesday’s hearing on the 421-a Property Tax Exemption Program almost didn’t happen.
“When we mailed out the notice and we reached out to a lot of people, there was almost no response,” Vito Lopez, chairman of the state Assembly’s housing committee, said. “So it’s quite interesting.”
At issue was whether 421-a, which gives tax breaks Read More
Will the dangling of city money be enough to get stalled condo projects moving again?
Perhaps.
The city is launching a $20 million initiative to restart stalled condo projects, turning some of the unfinished developments into below-market-rate housing. Details are still hazy, but Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the commissioner of the Department of Housing Read More
Mayor Bloomberg has tapped a former deputy commissioner for the city’s top housing job, as he announced this morning that Rafael Cestero will be the new commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Mr. Cestero, who left the city for the nonprofit Enterprise in 2007, takes the spot recently left vacant by Read More
Bloomberg just named Rafael Cestero as his new housing commissioner in a press conference at City Hall.
Cestero has been working as the senior vice president and chief program officer of a housing nonprofit called Enterprise Community Partners, where he oversaw the organization's national housing program. Previously, he worked at the city's department of housing Read More
Rafael Cestero, the deputy commissioner of development at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development who oversaw the 421-a reforms and New Housing Marketplace plan, is returning to the Enterprise Foundation, a non-profit financer of low-income housing, where he had directed the New York office before moving to HPD in August 2004. Read More
Rafael Cestero, deputy commissioner at the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, is the first insider to say what some outsiders had already suspected: Forest City Ratner has made no commitment to complete the second phase of Atlantic Yards by any particular date, according to Norman Oder’s account of yesterday’s City Planning Read More
