By Sarah Ryley
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
CONEY ISLAND — Life at the Sea Rise apartment complex in Coney Island is rough. Tenants complain that the elevators are routinely broken, forcing them to walk up dozens of flights of stairs in the smoldering heat. One year, they said a man fell to his death down an open elevator shaft, and another was caught free falling inside an elevator, permanently damaging his neck and back.
Alfie Davis, president of the tenants’ association, said three teenagers slammed her up against a brick wall, leaving her wallet-less and with an injured jaw, a commonplace occurrence at Sea Rise, opened in 1974. The boys couldn’t be identified, she said, because most of the security cameras are broken — this was confirmed when reporters and elected officials toured the complex last weekend, some managing to nudge behind the guard’s desk to see for themselves.
Other times, tenants said the complex’s security guards, who are unarmed, watch as fights break out. They complain that the security booth was removed from the entrance to the development on Neptune Avenue in Coney Island, leaving only an open gate.
And tire rims, bottles and live animals are often thrown from the balconies — once, one of the thrown cats was pregnant and later gave birth to stillborn kittens. The kids said they’re tough, just used to seeing things like this, although one girl admits that she’s scared to sleep sometimes because the lock on her front door is broken.
Many of the apartments are riddled with leaks, mold, rust and broken bathroom fixtures that haven’t been repaired for over a decade.
Mabel James, one of the first to volunteer her apartment as evidence, has asthma and chronic respiratory infections. She didn’t know that the mildew forming around the various leaks in her apartment — one that used to be above her bed and another around her bedroom air conditioner — could exasperate her health problems until this reporter told her.
“When it rain, it rain all over my apartment,” said Rose, a Nigerian immigrant who has lived at Sea Rise for two decades and in her current apartment for 13 years. She said the leaks have been there as long as she has, and that when she requests repairs, the management company paints over them.
Congressman Jerrold Nadler, State Senator Diane Savino, state Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny and city Councilman Domenic Recchia toured the 672-unit Mitchell-Lama development on Saturday, followed by at least a dozen television and newspaper reporters — an impressive delegation for residents of the oft-forgotten complex owned by the Starrett Corporation.
They clamored to tell their tales, hoping that something would be done. Afterward, one resident walked up to a group of her fellow tenants proudly clutching Brook-Krasny’s business card, exclaiming, “These are my people. My people were here.”
Grenadier Realty Corporation, the real estate management subsidiary of Starrett Corporation, manages Sea Rise I and II, in addition to roughly 58 other developments, primarily in the metropolitan area.
Officials from Starrett and Grenadier decline to respond to specific complaints from residents, but said in a statement that they “are fully committed to maintaining this property at the highest level possible under the financial constraints dictated through the revenue stream and budgets set by the state.
“Due to the age of the property, major capital improvements are necessary to ensure the longevity and fiscal viability of the property.”
A spokesman from the state’s Division of Housing and Community Renewal confirmed the claim that additional funding would be necessary to fund major capital repairs on the complex, estimated to cost around $17 million. Starrett is in discussions to refinance the development through bonds, which would keep the units affordable for a period of time, or at least until the existing tenants of each unit move out. Under the Mitchell-Lama program, which was enacted in the 1950s, the building owners can only receive subsidies if all units are kept affordable.
Starrett’s statement said “discussions are underway with various city, state and federal entities, which would allow the refinancing of the complex and provide the necessary revenue for major capital improvements, while maintaining it as an affordable housing complex.
“In the interim our management company will continue to respond to tenant requests for repairs as expeditiously as possible.”
But Councilman Domenic Recchia said if repairs aren’t made to Sea Rise now, it could preclude Starrett from getting “certain breaks from the city in the future,” including other deals the corporation is seeking for various projects throughout the city.
“Grenadier is without a doubt the worst management company,” said Recchia. “What’s going on here is terrible.”
Starrett Corporation dates back to 1922, and constructed the Empire State Building, Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Village, Parkchester in the Bronx and the Javits Convention Center, as well other developments around the world. Later, Starrett financed and managed its own urban renewal projects, such has Starrett City and Sea Rise, which were heavily subsidized by the city and state government.
Starrett subsidiaries also include Levitt Corp., most known for building suburban-style Levittowns across the United States, Puerto Rico and France.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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