Through the Green Looking-Glass: A Lender's Guide to New York City's Local Law 97

Summary

In just three short months from now, the groundbreaking Local Law 97 will become the law of the land in New York City and change the way commercial real estate finance business is done in the most populous metropolitan area in the United States. New York City is home to over eight million people living and working in approximately one million buildings. In the same way Alice, the protagonist of Lewis Carroll's 1871 classic novel Through the Looking-Glass, pondered life on the other side of the mirror, so too are lenders who finance billions of dollars of commercial real estate each year analyzing how their deals will change under Local Law 97. Indeed, much has been written about the law since it was first passed in 2019 with several other less publicized laws, as part of New York City's Climate Mobilization Act—from media outlets, real estate brokers, trade and research groups, owners and developers, and of course, law firms (including this one, back in 2020).