Rangel rents N.Y. apartments at bargain rates

Mr. Rangel is not the only prominent resident with a rent-stabilized apartment at Lenox Terrace. Gov. David A. Paterson told The New York Sun in May that he pays $1,250 for a rent-stabilized two-bedroom apartment in the complex that rents for $2,600 or more at market rates. Basil A. Paterson, the governor’s father, pays $868 per month for his apartment there, in the same building as Mr. Rangel’s apartments, according to state records.

Percy E. Sutton, the former Manhattan borough president and a longtime ally and friend of Mr. Rangel’s, also lives at Lenox Terrace, though records about his rent were not available.

Under state and city rent regulations, tenants can continue renewing the lease in their rent-stabilized apartments for as long as they use it as a primary residence, and landlords can increase rent only by an annual percentage set by a city board.

A spokesman for the governor said that Mr. Paterson, who owns a home in an Albany suburb and recently moved into the executive mansion, considered Lenox Terrace his primary residence. A secretary to the elder Mr. Paterson, who owns a home on Long Island, said he could not be immediately reached.

Luminaries are nothing new at Lenox Terrace, a large development on 135th Street between Fifth and Lenox Avenues. The Olnick Organization built it 50 years ago as the first luxury community in Harlem. The family-run company has a broad portfolio of retail, commercial and residential buildings, and holds a contract to house federal government offices in Morristown, N.J.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Mr. Rangel received $2,000 in campaign contributions from Sylvia Olnick, an owner of the company, in 2004. His separate political action committee received $2,500 donations from her in 2004 and 2006.

In addition, city records show that in 2005, a lobbyist for the Olnick Organization met with Mr. Rangel and Mr. Paterson, who was then the Senate minority leader, as the company set out to win government approvals of a plan to expand Lenox Terrace and build another apartment complex in the Bronx. Ms. Bocchino said that Mr. Rangel was one of hundreds of people with whom Olnick consulted about its expansion plans in 2005, but she would not discuss whether Mr. Rangel had been asked — or agreed — to promote the project. Neither project has advanced.

Mr. Rangel’s penthouse residence, which has custom moldings and dramatic archways, is decorated with Benin Bronze statues and antique carved walnut Italian chairs, and was featured in the 2003 book, “Grace and Style — African Americans at Home,” by Michael Henry Adams (Bullfinch Press).

The book does not mention that the units are rent-stabilized, but says that the penthouse had been assembled by combining separate apartments. Mr. Rangel’s wife, Alma, is quoted describing the congressman as “the shopper in this family” who has a penchant for hunting down antiques like cut-glass champagne flutes and walnut chests to furnish their elegant abode.

The State Department of Housing and Community Renewal does not publicly release information about rents paid by tenants in rent-regulated apartments. But The New York Times obtained a copy of the agency’s 2007 rent roll report for Mr. Rangel’s building , which showed that the congressman holds the leases on Apartments 16M, 16N, 16P and 10U.

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