Both Sides Cite Progress as IPN Talks Are Drawing to a Close by Ronald Drenger In a flurry of negotiations late last month, the owner and tenant association of Independence Plaza North were closing in on an agreement for the project's withdrawal from the state's Mitchell-Lama housing program. "We're inching towards a deal," said Neil Fabricant, the tenant association's president. Maureen Connelly, a spokeswoman for IPN's owner, Laurence Gluck, said that the parties "have made progress in the negotiations and negotiations are continuing." Ethan Geto, president of Geto & de Milly, the tenants' public relations and lobbying firm, who has been closely involved in the talks, said on Feb. 27 that he was "cautiously optimistic" that a deal could be hammered out by early this month. "It's not impossible for things to unravel," he said. "These negotiations will conclude within the next two weeks, one way or the other. We're at the end of the trail in terms of coming to a mutually satisfactory settlement or not. My own sense is, we're going to get there." The prospective deal, if finalized, would be "fair, livable and affordable for everyone at IPN," he said. A tenants meeting that had been tentatively scheduled for March 3 was rescheduled for March 8. Gluck is taking IPN out of the Mitchell-Lama program, which keeps rents below market levels. The required one-year waiting period for the withdrawal process, known as a buyout, ends in June. After the buyout Gluck will be free to charge market-rate rents. The tenants, many with low or moderate incomes, fear that they will be forced out and have been seeking protections. Gluck has said that about two-thirds of IPN tenants will be eligible, based on their incomes, for "sticky vouchers," federal subsidies that will allow them to continue paying rents equal or close to what they pay now. Tenants who don't qualify for vouchers will face rent increases, which Gluck has pledged will be "fair and reasonable." The size and timing of those increases have been central issues in the negotiations. "We haven't had a final resolution of the rent formula, but we're close," Geto said. Other issues include parking and utility fees, building improvements, and how to handle tenants who qualify for vouchers but are living in apartments bigger than they need, according to government rules. Those tenants are generally required to move to smaller units to receive the vouchers.