Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Harlem affordable project stalled

Margarita Perez, who has three children said the Abyssinian Development Corporation promised her a three-bedroom apartment inside of the new affordable housing building on 123st St. near Frederick Douglass Blvd. but now she and others are in limbo.


Jan Ransom/New York Daily News


Margarita Perez, who has three children said the Abyssinian Development Corporation promised her a three-bedroom apartment inside of the new affordable housing building on 123st St. near Frederick Douglass Blvd. but now she and others are in limbo.



A housing complex that was supposed to bring 60 affordable units to Harlem has ground to a halt, and residents who had waved a warning flag last year are furious.


Construction on the Abyssinian Development Corporation building on W. 123rd St. stopped at the end of July, residents say — but few were surprised by the failure of the company, which was founded by the Rev. Calvin Butts.


“Everything we feared has come to light,” said Joshua Bauchner, 40, a community board member. “We said, ‘They’re not competent.’ Harlem is a beautiful community and this is a blight.”


The 8-story building between Adam Clayton Powell and Frederick Douglass Blvds. was slated to be completed by Jan. 9, but that date now seems hopelessly optimistic.


With construction halted, a third of the block is closed off, frustrating drivers looking for spots. Worse, residents of another Abyssinian building on W. 124th St. were promised apartments in the new building.


“They told me I would get to move into the new building,” said Margarita Perez, 45, who has three children with special needs and currently lives in a cramped two-bedroom apartment on 124th St. “(Now) I don’t know when. It’s important for my kids.”


Abyssinian Development Corporation, a Harlem-based nonprofit, has been plagued by delays at other construction projects in the past and is out of cash, the Village Voice recently reported. Neither Butts nor Abyssinian Development Corporation returned requests for comment Tuesday.


The general contractor A. Aleem Construction also did not call back.





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