A ray of hope for run-down buildings? (Kim Velsey)

It's been six weeks since the apartment building at 2 Thayer Street in Washington Heights had gas or hot water—ConEd shut it off as a safety precaution because of leaks in the pipes. The walls are cracked, pieces of plaster crumble from the ceilings and as of a week ago, the 47-unit building had 94 open violations with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. But on paper, at least, 2 Thayer Street doesn't number among the city's worst buildings. Not even close.

In the past, a building with only two violations per apartment would have had a hard time attracting the city's attention. In the wake of the housing crisis, as hundreds of multi-family buildings fell into disrepair, HPD relied on individual tenant complaints to gauge the level of building deterioration, focusing their energies on the most egregious violators, the city's "worst buildings," which often have 10 or more violations per apartment.

Hundreds more were also in bad shape, of course,  and getting worse, as tenants became the victims of real estate speculation gone bust, but inspections and intensive intervention efforts started only after the the building's racked up an appalling number of violations.

But in late April, not only did a team of HPD inspectors come to check out 2 Thayer Street, but so did deputy commissioner Vito Mustaciuolo, who spoke to a group of tenants gathered in the lobby.

"If conditions in your apartment are bad, call 311," Mr. Mustaciuolo said."This is only step one, it's not going to happen overnight, but we'll do it together."

The tenants nodded, somewhat dubious expressions on their faces.

The inspection was part of the Proactive Preservation Initiative that HPD started in 2011. The initiative focuses on kind-of-bad buildings that are at risk of deteriorating into disasters, which are bad for tenants, obviously, but also for the city, which must often make emergency repairs, and then place a lien against the building, without a guarantee of repayment. The initiative aimed to inspect 500 buildings in its inaugural year, but managed to check out 642 buildings, 152 of which were placed on an at-risk list. After a year, 18 have been discharged from the list and 134 remain.

As for 2 Thayer Street, despite its relatively low number of violations, it had come to HPD's attention after Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez told the agency that many problems in the building had gone unreported (also, gas being shut off is the kind of thing that does not go unnoticed).

"It is clear that the landlord who owns the building has not been providing the services that they should, and they should know that it's their responsibility," Mr. Rodriguez told The Observer in a phone interview. "Being a supporter of tenants' rights is one of my first priorities."

The owner of the building is Susan Moy, whose registered address with the city is a P.O. Box in Brooklyn. She could not be reached for comment.

"The building is dirty all the time, we don't have gas, many times we don't have water, we can't cook," said Rosanna Aran-Rodriguez, who lives in the building with her husband Virgilio Oscar Aran and 10-month old son. Mr. Aran is the founder of the labor organizing group the Laundry Workers Center, which has taken up 2 Thayer as a cause. "The landlord doesn't resolve the problems that we have," she concluded.

Ms. Aran paused to situate the baby more comfortably on her hip.

"When he was born, I called the landlord to repair the big hole in the ceiling and he doesn't listen to me," Ms. Aran said. "I was scared because the walls have asbestos and that's toxic for my baby. And me and my family."

Her mother-in-law Ramona Caraballo, has lived in a rent-stabilized one-bedroom for the past 15 years. She said that she'd like to move to affordable housing, but she's been on the waitlist for 10 years and she can't afford to move anywhere that's not affordable.

"When I came here, I needed an apartment, I had two children," Ms. Carabollo said. "The problem is that things are getting worse, instead of improving."

Resident Ilemar Espinal agreed. It had never been good, but things were going downhill.

"From the cracks in the wall we're getting mice like there's no tomorrow," she said with a sigh.

Deputy commissioner Mustaciuolo said that there are many reasons why people don't report problems to 311—sometimes the owner persuades residents that the condition will be fixed, sometimes people are specifically told not to contact 311, and sometimes people simply don't realize that they should.

As it happens, buildings recommended to proactive preservation by local nonprofits, community groups or council members often turn out not to look as good in reality as they do on paper.

In the last two weeks, HPD inspectors have visited 2 Thayer Street twice, gaining access to a total of 38 apartments in the building. The result: the building now has 423 open violations (59 class A, 247 class B and 117 class C, according to the Buildings Department). Bad on paper, and in reality.

kvelsey@observer.com

Who wouldn't want to call this home?

If you  aren't comfortable living in a church, that's fine. But what about a library?

The Municipal Arts Society is leading the conversation on converting public libraries into apartment buildings, the Real Deal reports. President Vin Cipolla noted that the change in technology (read: Kindles and iPads) will lead to under-used, or even unused, library spaces.

“What will 21st Century libraries look like when they go digital?” Mr. Cipolla told The Real Deal yesterday. “There’s going to be development opportunity, unused space opportunity.”

Mr. Cipolla further released a statement for clarifiction—it isn't that he wants to turn all the libraries into apartments, but rather that he wants help the community:

We are not working on a plan to turn underused city library space into housing: we are looking for new ways to support libraries to be libraries, and provide local communities with access to information, resources, cultural experience and opportunities for enrichment.

A spokesperson for New York Public Libraries denied discussing possible plans with MAS and that "[it] is not on the table."

Eric Bederman, a spokesperson for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, added that the requirements and specifications for affordable housing are different for public libraries. Ouch.

That plan burned out faster than a copy of Catcher in the Rye.

mewing@observer.com

A team led by the Hudson Companies will give rise to a mixed-income village along the banks of the once-toxic Gowanus Canal, the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced today. The Gowanus “Public Place” will have 774 units of housing (541 below market rate) among a complex of buildings, and comes as the city eyes a transformation for the once (and still, to some extent) industrial area.

The winning team, which also includes the Bluestone Organization, the Fifth Avenue Committee and Jonathan Rose Companies, beat out Stephen Ross, the Miami Dolphins-owning, constantly building CEO of The Related Companies.

Mr. Ross, who built the Time Warner Center, has had a big string of defeats in the competitions on publicly-owned land. Related’s Pier 40 proposal has been all but tossed out, the company lost its bid for the West Side rail yards after News Corp. pulled out as an anchor tenant, and now this.

Toll Brothers has its own residential project lining the Canal, as does Whole Foods, which is trying to put a supermarket on a brownfield.

[This article has been updated with a changed number of affordable units, due to an error in the original HPD press release].

Press release below.

CITY ANNOUNCES SELECTION OF DEVELOPER FOR NEW MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT AT PUBLIC PLACE, ON GOWANUS CANAL

Residential and Commercial Development to Include Over 600 Units of Affordable Housing and Public Space Along the Canal

New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Shaun Donovan announced the selection today of the team chosen to design and construct a mixed-use development consisting of community, commercial, and residential spaces located along the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. The development team, the Gowanus Green Partnership, is a consortium comprised of the Hudson Companies, Inc., the Bluestone Organization, the Fifth Avenue Committee and Jonathan Rose Companies.

Marked by pioneering sustainable design in keeping with PlaNYC, Mayor Bloomberg’s plan for a greener, greater New York, the development will result in 774 units of mixed-income housing. 541 apartments will be affordable to low- and middle-income families, including 120 units of low-income senior housing. The mixed-use development will feature over 25,000 square feet of cultural space, 38,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and nearly 100,000 square feet of public open space located along the canal. The canal-side park, in addition to landscaped waterfront space for passive and active recreation, will feature arts and educational programming and significant recreational opportunities for the surrounding community. The overall development is part of the Mayor’s historic New Housing Marketplace Plan, a $7.5 billion commitment to create and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing, over 70,000 of which have already been financed.

“I am very pleased to be able to announce the designation of a development team as strong as the Gowanus Green Partnership. Public Place has lain vacant for far too long and its cleanup and redevelopment will be a great benefit to this neighborhood,” said HPD Commissioner Shaun Donovan. “Now, thanks to the Mayor’s New Housing Marketplace Plan—a ten-year plan to create affordable housing for 500,000 New Yorkers—not only will this development provide new affordable housing, commercial space and dynamic new community resources such as the much anticipated boat house and daycare center, it will do so in a way that sets a precedent for future developments by integrating sustainable design features with an impressive level of affordability.”

Located at the southeast corner of 5th and Smith Streets and bounded to the east by the Gowanus Canal, the development is part of Mayor Bloomberg’s efforts to integrate the Gowanus Canal corridor with the vibrant surrounding communities of Carroll Gardens and Park Slope. The development will serve not only to redevelop long underutilized land into spaces for residents, local business and community groups alike to call home but will also serve to clean up a brown field that has long been a blight on the surrounding neighborhood. The reclamation of brownfields is a major component of PlaNYC, acting to both “create” new land for needed development and improve the environmental quality of the surrounding neighborhoods and the City as a whole.

The selection of Gowanus Green as the development group for the Public Place site is the culmination of a lengthy community process in which community residents, community-based organization leaders, elected officials and staff from HPD and other city agencies worked together to determine what kind of development would best serve the surrounding communities as well as the City as a whole.

“After years of discussions and many failed attempts, we as a community can applaud the results of everyone involved in the effort to create a mixed-use development with an emphasis on both senior and affordable housing, housing the Carroll Gardens community desperately needs,” said Assemblywoman Joan Millman.

“This is the first step in creating an immense amount of affordable housing for the community, especially for our seniors,” said Councilmember Bill de Blasio. “I applaud HPD for working with the task force and the community to pick the best possible proposal. Now that the developer has been selected, we need to continue our dialogue with them and with the community. Throughout the ULURP process I will be following several principles of development when evaluating this project. I will look at the amount of affordable housing, the developer's level of engagement with the community, their ability to be transparent throughout the process, and their commitment to using responsible contractors. Elected officials and government agencies must also work together to evaluate what impact the project will have on the sewer system, public transportation, our publ
ic school system and other vital services.”

Totaling approximately 675,000 square feet, the residential component of the development will consist of 120 units of low-income senior housing and 654 units of mixed-income housing. Of the 654 units of mixed-income housing, 421 will be affordable to families making between 30% and 130% of HUD’s Income Limits—between $23,000 and $99,840 for a family of four or $16,100 and $87,295 for a single person. 380 of the units will be rental, while the remaining 394 will be homeownership.

The project is expected to be financed in part through The New York City Housing Development Corporation’s Low-Income Affordable Marketplace Program in addition to subsidies from the New York City Housing Trust Fund, part of the Mayor’s $7.5 billion, 165,000-unit New Housing Marketplace Plan, the largest municipal affordable housing initiative in the nation’s history. Construction on the project is anticipated to begin in spring 2010 and be completed in spring 2014.

Marc Jahr, President of the New York City Housing Development Corporation, said, “HDC is enormously pleased to participate in this ‘green’ public-private partnership. By reclaiming a brownfield for residential use, the Public Place development will serve as a catalyst for the dramatic transformation of the section of the Gowanus Canal and the creation of a new mixed income community.”

The development team was selected as a result of a Request for Proposals (RFP) issued by the City in July 2007. Of the six proposals submitted, Gowanus Green’s provided the greatest level of affordability, as well as the greatest balance between space dedicated to housing versus that dedicated to open and cultural uses. In addition, architectural partner Rogers Marvel’s focus on sustainable design is sure to qualify many of the development’s buildings for LEED Gold designation while the work of landscape architects West 8 and Starr Whitehouse will help the overall development to qualify for the pioneering LEED Neighborhood Development program.

Alan Bell, senior partner of the Hudson Companies, said on behalf of the Gowanus Green Partnership, “Our team is excited to bring its diverse talents to bear on Public Place. We look forward to working with the Gowanus and Carroll Gardens communities to realize a shared vision for affordable housing, open space, community facilities, and retail on this site. We believe Gowanus Green will be a transformative development—helping to heal the Gowanus Canal through environmental remediation while providing outstanding design and an array of public amenities to its residents and the neighborhood.”

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development's (HPD) mission is to promote quality housing and viable neighborhoods for New Yorkers. The department is the nation’s largest municipal housing development agency and is implementing Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing over ten years. The New Housing Marketplace Plan is the largest municipal affordable housing effort in the nation’s history. As part of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC HPD is working to create homes for almost a million more New Yorkers by 2030 while making housing more affordable and sustainable. HPD also encourages the preservation of affordable housing through education, outreach, loan programs and enforcement of housing quality standards.