Ed Note: On February 1, 2008, we posted a story on the tenants of 1520 Sedgwick, the building where DJ Kool Herc and his sister threw what is known as the first ever hip-hop dance party, efforts to save their home from being sold to a real estate mogul and private equity investor.

On Thursday, February 28, 2008, the residents of hip-hop’s birthplace finally recieved the results they’ve been fighting months for.

The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development released a letter rejecting the sale of 100-unit building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx to a real estate developer due to the financing of the sale not being reasonable under current rent restrictions.  

The department has made a precedent-setting decision by ceasing the sale of a building under the Mitchell-Lama program, which offers developers low-interest mortgages and tax abatements in return for caps on how much they can charge tenets for rent.

Tenants were concerned that the building would be taken out of the program causing higher rent. Now with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s decision could spur the opportunity for tenants to purchase the building, which would convert 1520 Sedgwick into a permanently affordable, limited-equity cooperative.