The City Council will investigate why Mayor Bill de Blasio reportedly pulled financing in November for Halletts Point, a development near NYCHA’s Astoria Houses, that the developers claim would have covered needed fixes to boilers at the public housing complex.
The investigation follows a Politico New York article last month detailing the withdrawal of bond financing that “led to an indefinite delay in the retrofit of four NYCHA boilers,” Councilman Ritchie Torres, chair of the council’s Committee on Oversight and Investigations, said in a statement Monday.
“In light of the troubling report, which comes amid a citywide collapse of heating systems in public housing, I am investigating the circumstances surrounding the loss of immediate heating upgrades for 3,000 NYCHA residents,” he added.
Funding for a 163-unit Halletts Point building was yanked in November following a public disagreement between the mayor’s office and the developers, the Durst Organization, according to Politico.
But the mayor’s office said the Halletts Point development would create a new problem rather than address the existing boiler issues. The efficiency of NYCHA’s burners would have to be upgraded because the proposed project is taller than NYCHA’s stack.
Durst also offered $550,000 for boiler mud legs, but the mayor’s office said it’s not necessary because the boilers are already scheduled to be replaced.
“As we’ve clearly explained, the work proposed by the Durst Corporation was to support a new project the developer planned, not to improve heat at Astoria Houses. Indeed, we’ve allocated $20 million in federal and City funds to deliver the heating upgrades residents deserve.”
Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for Durst, said in an email that the new burners and mud legs to the boilers “will allow the boilers to burn hotter, more efficiently and cleaner and extend their useful life.”
