Sanchez explains COPA notice, offer, and match process
Sanchez describes COPA as a tool to interrupt speculative cycles by giving mission-driven organizations a chance when buildings change hands. She explains that covered 4-to-100-unit buildings with HPD affordability agreements or physical distress would require owners to notify qualified entities, allow offers, and let a qualified entity match later private offers.
And that's why today's vote is so exciting, because with COPA, New York City gains a new tool to interrupt those cycles and put buildings on a path toward long-term stability and responsible ownership.
Championed by Councilmember Sandy Nurse and heard by this committee several times, COPA recognizes that the moment a building changes hands is a critical opportunity to change its future
by giving mission-driven organizations a meaningful chance to acquire the buildings and chart a different, non-speculative future for families who live there.
905 would require that if owners of a select group of multifamily residential buildings decide to sell those properties, they must offer these buildings to select nonprofits
called qualified entities before they can complete the sale of those buildings to a private party.
COPA would include buildings with between 4 and 100 units that either have
affordability agreements managed by HPD or have a baseline level of physical distress.
HPD would manage a list of qualified entities who are experienced operators of residential buildings and owners of covered buildings would be required first to notify these entities before they complete a sale,
then to give those entities a period of time to make an offer to purchase the building.
If the building owner rejects any offers from a qualified entity, that qualified entity would be given the opportunity to match any offers that the owner later receives from private sellers.