YOUR SOAP BOX – Kamillah Hanks

KAMILLAH HANKS, STAPLETON Executive Director, Staten Island Downtown Council

Thursday, December 04, 2008Staten Island Advance

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — “Everything about who I am revolves around the Stapleton area: I went to Trinity Lutheran School, my first job was at Bayware Video Store, I was married at First Central Baptist, I vote at the New Family Life Center, I shop at Western Beef and Top Tomato and I work down the street at the Downtown Council . . . I have owned my home on Tappen Court for 11 years.

“What I love about the neighborhood is that I know every single business owner, and I love them. I’ve known the guys in the local bodegas and businesses around Tappen Park forever. I’ve got a credit account with Frank’s Pizza, so they’ll deliver a soda for me and I’ll pay them at the end of the week. I have breakfast at Jerry’s Diner, where they have the best Western omelets, every Sunday. I love the merchants at Beuscher’s flower store, the Shampoo hair salon, the car wash and Dunkin’ Donuts. I walk down the street and they say hello; they know me and they know my four kids.”

Ms. Hanks told us why she loves the neighborhood of Stapleton. We’d like to know what you like about where you live. E-mail us at shores@siadvance.com. Be sure to include “Soap Box” in the subject line.

Developer balks at co-operating

Partners got Stapleton parking lot for their project but now seek to rent rather than sell 162 units

Thursday, December 04, 2008By PHIL HELSEL

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Work has stopped on a Stapleton co-op as the developer tries to change the project to rental apartments — outraging community groups who feel betrayed by the about-face.

The city confirmed this week that developer BFC Partners is worried the 162 units initially planned on what used to be a city-owned parking lot wouldn’t sell in the current economic climate, and is petitioning the City Council to change the project to rental apartments.

“It totally changed the equation,” said Congressman-elect and Councilman Michael McMahon (D-North Shore), who said he will fight the change in permit. “The original selling point of this was they were taking a municipal asset and turning it into affordable, working-class housing.”

The sudden change leaves the future project, called Stapleton Court when the company rushed into construction in July to meet a tax-benefit deadline, up in the air. The parking lot has been torn up and dozens of wooden pilings were driven into the muck before work was halted last month.

Joe Ferrara, a principal in BFC Partners and in charge of the project, did not return phone calls this week.

Seth Donlin, a spokesman for the city Department of Housing Preservation & Development, which oversees affordable housing projects, said the change was sought because the builder feared the co-ops wouldn’t sell in the current climate. Others with knowledge about the building’s progress said they were told the same thing.

The scope of the project under a rental property would remain the same: 162 units built in two phases.

The change in ownership is an important distinction, said Kamillah M. Hanks, executive director of the Downtown Staten Island Council, which plans to aggressively fight the change. Ownership in a building means long-term residents with the potential to stabilize the struggling Stapleton neighborhood, she said.

“We already have a lot of rental opportunities in the downtown area,” Ms. Hanks said. “Buying a home means you’re going to stay there and raise a family.”

Donlin said the work stoppage, which began about two weeks ago, was the result of “financing issues” related to the proposed change from ownership to rental.

The underused municipal parking lot on the site is in the process of being transferred from the Department of Transportation to BFC Partners for a token fee, typically $1. The 50,454-square-foot property had last been valued by the city as having a market value of $922,000.

In the current phase of construction, the builder is to construct 92 units on the former municipal lot, with 78 of them slated for middle-class earners — individuals making up to $64,000 a year and couples and families earning up to $136,000. Purchase prices have been estimated to run between $190,000 and $390,000.

Another eight units are to be sold at market rate, and five co-ops are to be marketed through Habitat for Humanity as low-income housing, Donlin added. The plan also includes 156 residential parking spaces and 52 metered spots to be managed by the developer.

Phil Helsel is a news reporter for the Advance. He can be reached at helsel@siadvance.com.