city officials: The statement represents a shift for the company, which as recently as Tuesday, made no such pledge, even after multiple reports and questions about its approach with recently vacated units, according to The Independent. It also comes shortly after Mayor de Blasio said city officials were planning to have some serious conversations with Blackstone over an agreement it signed four years ago with the city to keep roughly half of the apartments at the sprawling complex affordable. Jennifer Friedman, a spokesperson for the private equity landlord Blackstone, told Gothamist on Friday, We are renovating and leasing all vacant units, and we will continue to fulfill our commitment to voluntarily preserve 5,000 affordable apartments. Although landlords are not mandated to keep rent-regulated apartments continually rented, back in 2015, the city struck a landmark agreement with Blackstone that gave the company 220 million in subsidies in exchange for keeping 5,000 of the roughly 11,200 units affordable for a 20-year period. During his weekly appearance on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show on Friday, de Blasio acknowledged that the rollback of landlord-friendly rent laws passed in June was having unintended consequences. At the time, de Blasio hailed the deal as preserving a middle-class haven for New Yorkers.
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