If you can't legislate renovate!
Blas & Chirl spruce up post-mayoral digs
They’re back to keeping up with the Joneses.
Mayor de Blasio and city First Lady Chirlane McCray — who must leave Gracie Mansion at year’s end and need a place to live — are doing massive renovations to their century-old, threestory Park Slope home.
Temporary green construction fencing has been placed around the property, with a large blue and white sign erected on-site that says, “Work in Progress: Commercial. Owner: Bill de Blasio & Chirlane McCray.”
There is also a sign noting 24hour video surveillance at the home.
The architectural plan included in the city building permit for the renovations calls for a substantial addition to the first and second floors toward the rear of the building.
The entire house is also getting a face-lift, said a subcontractor working on the job.
Robert Ferrarin said builders are sprucing up the interior-exterior of the house with a paint job, new floor molding and new exterior windows and siding.
“We’re sprucing up the place. We’re making it look pretty,” he said.
“The place needs to be cleaned up. We just got on the job. We just started,” he added.
Ferrarin said he’s working with the project’s overseer, McCray.
“She’s a nice lady,” he said.
Hizzoner had rented the property while residing in Gracie Mansion, but no one is living there now during the renovations.
The mayor and McCray jointly own another nearly 120-year-old rowhouse at 384 11th St.
De Blasio, through the mayor’s press office, declined to comment on the renovations and his future plans.
The mayor has been criticized for spending too much time in his old neighborhood instead of doing his job, particularly because of his frequent trips to the Park Slope YMCA.
He also likes taking strolls in Prospect Park, which he did as New Yorkers struggled with the coronavirus pandemic.
De Blasio and McCray caused a stir when they finally moved out of the digs with daughter Chiara and son Dante back in 2014 by refurnishing historic Gracie Mansion with $65,000 worth of modern furniture donated by West Elm.
New York’s first family reached out to the furniture giant to redesign the museum-like residence into new-age digs for a family of four, and the home chain gladly took them up on their offer — garnering tons of publicity for the makeover.
The furniture was technically being donated to the Gracie Mansion Conservancy to be used by future mayoral families, so it’s unlikely to be moving to Park Slope.