Michael A. Smith, Partner

Michael Smith was quoted in Commercial Observer, discussing the Department of City Planning’s decision to vote on West Chelsea air rights. The department announced that it would sell the area’s remaining air rights for $625 per square foot, utilizing the 90 percent rule, a clause that allows the city to step in, create its own pool of air rights, and sell them for a price determined by a weighted average of past sales from the past five years. Smith explained, “when someone assigns, or ‘flips’ an agreement to buy development rights in the High Line Transfer Corridor, you’re really dealing with two transactions,” including from the seller the ultimate purchaser, and the second is the unrecorded assignment of contract from the original purchaser to the ultimate purchaser.