In 2016, the New York City Housing Authority announced plans for an Upper East Side residential project that would help pay for desperately-needed repairs. But more than two years later, the deal still hasn’t closed.
The project, with 50 percent market-rate apartments, would raise millions to fund fixes, the New York Daily News reported. But in the meantime, tenants at Holmes Towers have dealt with a string of problems in the development — and filed six complaints about elevators that stopped working.
The deal was slated to close in June, but following the Daily News’ inquiry, the Department of Housing Preservation & Development said it would be December or early next year.
“This is not a typical deal for us. We haven’t done anything like this,” spokesperson Elizabeth Rohlfing told the paper. “This is the first time and we want to do it right. I think it was just a little more complicated on both ends.”
Holmes Towers is the first of NYCHA’s planned 50/50 projects. Developers lease the land for 99 years and collect all the rent from buildings, the report said. The city tapped Fetner Properties to build a new 47-story apartment building on the Holmes Towers’ playground site. [NYDN] — Meenal Vamburkar