Tenant rage at NYCHA E. Side slow-go
Towers of woe despite promises
More than two years ago, NYCHA debuted plans for a huge residential tower at an Upper East Side project that would feature 50% marketrate apartments and would raise millions of dollars in repair funds for that development.
Twenty-eight months later, the deal still isn’t closed, and the tenants – many senior citizens or people in wheelchairs – have been enduring a rash of broken elevators and a plague of broken locks.
Since the plan was announced, tenants of the development, Holmes Towers, have filed six complaints with the city Buildings Department about elevators that stopped working. In May 2017, for example, a tenant warned the department, “This is a chronic problem, and most people in this building are disabled and need the elevators.”
“They recently had new elevators installed and they still break down,” said Milagros Velasquez, 42, a former tenant association president who has lived at Holmes for 15 years. She also noted that a new “layered access” system replacing door keys with fobs is useless because the lobby entry doors are all broken “and nobody’s come to fix them.”
Holmes Towers is the first of NYCHA’s planned 50/50 projects — apartment towers built by private developers on public NYCHA property. The developers lease the land for 99 years and get to collect all the rent from buildings that are 50% market rate and 50% affordable.
NYCHA announced the Holmes Towers plan in June 2016, picked developer Harold Fetner’s proposal for a 47-story tower built on a playground in May 2017, and promised to close the deal by June. On Wednesday, the agency changed its story following a Daily News query, providing a new closing date: December or early next year.
Elizabeth Rohlfing, spokeswoman for the city Department of Housing Preservation & Development, the agency arranging financing, said in December the city plans to float a bond for the project that would provide the developer with tax credits. Housing Preservation and another city agency will also provide up to $37 million in subsidies for the affordable units.
She acknowledged the delay was due in part to the unique nature of the deal — it’s the first of the 50/50 projects: “This is not a typical deal for us. We haven’t done anything like this. This is the first time and we want to do it right. I think it was just a little more complicated on both ends.”
At the announcement, the authority promised to steer up to half of the $25 million it raises when the deal closes to Holmes repairs. As of Wednesday, tenants were still waiting for the $12.5 million the plan would generate for a 1969-built development that needs $35 million in repairs.
“That’s what they said initially, but like I said — everything is subject to change with these people,“Velasquez said of the promised repair funds. “Nothing has been set in stone and the buildings are falling apart. The elevators break down; the new doors are broken down. The residents feel very defeated.”
NYCHA management insisted the deal will go through and Holmes tenants will see the results soon after. The lessons learned will inform plans for three more 50/50 developments now in the pipeline, along with five 100% affordable projects now under construction and 18 more planned.
“After the previous administration failed to launch a mixed-income pipeline and generate revenue, we started over to ensure we did this right,” said NYCHA spokeswoman Jasmine Blake. “That means keeping the resident voice at the heart of the project, better prioritizing sites, and working collaboratively with local elected officials and advocates. This upfront effort will mean an easier path forward to new revenue for critical repairs with future projects.”