Surprise! No Rent Increases! - NYTimes.com Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times Residents at 8 Spruce Street were told this summer that they could renew their leases without paying more in rent. A friend recently told me, breathless with excitement, that she was renewing her lease at 8 Spruce Street, the Frank Gehry-designed 76-story skyscraper, without any rent increase. In this red-hot rental market, why would the landlord, Forest City Ratner Companies, renew its leases without demanding more in rent? Most of us who rent, and that is the bulk of New Yorkers, expect to be mildly abused by their landlords. Every year as our leases near the end of their terms, we wait anxiously to find out what next year's outlay will look like. And when we gaze at behemoth rental towers that offer perks like full-time doormen, health clubs and live-in supers, those annual rent increases seem as inevitable as a roof-deck misting station. But that may just not be true. Lynda Lippin, 47, lives in an alcove studio at 8 Spruce, officially known as New York by Gehry at 8 Spruce Street, with her husband and dog, a onetime stray. After two years, she still carries around the silver Tiffany key ring she was given when she moved in, a square in the shape of the tower. She speaks fondly of the private residents-only viewing party held not long ago for a $35,000-a-month penthouse, where cheese and wine were circulated amid the unobstructed 360-degree views. She attends the buildingwide barbecues, where gourmet ice-cream sandwiches are handed out. And even though she doesn't regularly go to the building's gym, "it is lovely to stare at the snow falling on the glass ceiling" while swimming in its heated pool. Last month the managing agent e-mailed her to say that if she committed to her two-year lease by mid-July, rather than wait until it expired at the end of October, she could renew at her current rent, around $3,300 a month. Her annual $300 per-person amenities fee would also be waived. "I couldn't believe it," said Ms. Lippin, a master instructor at Real Pilates, a studio in TriBeCa. I was stunned, actually. She signed the lease immediately. This is a far cry from the rent increases and stiff competition that most New York renters are experiencing. "It's a tough market," said Marc Lewis, the chairman and a senior adviser for Coldwell Banker A.C. Lawrence, whose listings generally skew toward the lower end of the price spectrum. At most buildings, rents go up every year, and the increases have been more this year than last year and the year before that. "Landlords rarely give tenants a hometown discount anymore," he added, referring to concessions offered to current tenants. Now, if you were paying $2,000 last year, this year they are asking $2,700. There are many reasons why Forest City Ratner might forgo rent increases. The luxury market, which has been commanding steadily higher prices for more than a year, may finally have plateaued. This may be especially true downtown, where luxury rents have fallen over the past year. There are also the costs associated with having to find new tenants, as well as competition from new developments in the neighborhood. Rental renewal rates are proprietary to landlords and nearly impossible to track. Declining to discuss specifics, Melissa Roman Burch, the director of commercial and residential development for Forest City Ratner, said in a statement, "Since the building opened we have received great feedback from tenants, who are drawn to Frank Gehry's iconic design as well as the building's world-class amenities, and our renewals reflect this enthusiasm." Cliff Finn, an executive vice president of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, who, while at Citi Habitats, oversaw the original leasing at 8 Spruce Street, said there were "lots of reasons for landlords offering promotions like this." With 899 apartments, the building was so large that incentives like free rent were necessary when it opened, to fill it up as quickly as possible, said Mr. Finn, who continues to represent the building. So now, when these tenants come up for renewal, having a zero percent increase helps them mentally adjust to the full market rent.