What’s happening at Overlook Manor on Manhattan College campus?
Waldo Gardens board would like to know answer as they explore Stagg Group $18M purchase
Mark your calendar in September. That’s when its residents and electeds expect to get some answers about Overlook Manor.
Waldo Gardens tenants are up in arms about the Stagg Group grabbing a Manhattan College dormitory at 3801 Waldo Ave. for $18 million in June.
The board of directors at the Mitchel Lama affordable housing co-op is hosting a virtual community meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 6, to learn how Stagg will use the property.
However, chief executive Mark Stagg can also make his first move as the college’s lease is up on Thursday, Aug. 31, when Manhattan College students will be leaving shortly. Nothing is finalized on Stagg’s side.
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz is not optimistic the chief executive developer will make his way to the community meeting just to be “yelled at,” he joked.
Not surprisingly, tenants of greater Riverdale are at odds with Stagg, who has developed many successful affordable housing and market-rated buildings in the northwest Bronx over the years, such as The Park 6155 and The Station 5959 Broadway.
Even the luxury apartment building The Riverdale Tower on 3745 Riverdale Ave. is one of their buildings, which leasing should begin soon.
But 5731 Broadway was the problem when Stagg was approached with an offer.
There is some bad history between Stagg and Kingsbridge residents. As promised by Community Board 8 sometime in 2017, his new development would be a mix of market-rate affordable housing. But instead, he pulled the rug out from under them.
The community felt as if they had been victim to the classic bait and switch. And now, Riverdale residents worry Stagg will use the same tactic of turning the property into a homeless shelter if the right offer comes onto his lap.
“I’m sure government money is involved that they get paid a lot of money for it,” the Assemblyman said about Broadway’s family shelter. “I remember speaking in one of the public meetings, and I said, ‘Wait a second — you’re just doing a bait-and-switch out of the blue?”
But Assemblyman Dinowitz says he always introduces the shelter as “fine” and “successful,” but the community was misled, he added. Stagg’s move was the assemblyman’s strongest objection.
Staggs’s not-for-profit partner, Praxis Housing Initiative, has gathered a $5.3 million-year contract from the homeless service agency, which adds up to more than $63,600 per family.
It will pay Stagg $2.4 million in annual rent for the 83 units. That’s $2,400 per month.
As for one of Stagg’s newest properties in Riverdale, Manhattan College passed the word through an email with Waldo Gardens that the property will be affordable housing, rental or a co-op. But it was not a satisfying answer for the Waldo board of directors.
The board didn’t believe them, calling them liars as there is no solid proof that Stagg won’t consider at the last minute to transition the building into a homeless shelter. Community Board 8 was also assured it would be affordable housing.
Meanwhile, Manhattan College told The Riverdale Press something different.
After their lease agreement is up, they have “no knowledge of the new owner’s plans for the property. We are committed to the community and hope that the property is used in a way that benefits everyone,” the private institution said.
“Unfortunately, Riverdale is falling apart together with this city. All the signs are here. I’ve been through that in 1992, and this is probably why I can see it clearly,” said the Waldo board of directors.
Stagg did not respond to request for comments from The Press and Waldo Gardens. While Stagg first rejected meeting invitations from the Assemblyman, after an exchange of emails they changed their minds and met with not only the Assemblyman early Friday but also Councilman Eric Dinowitz.
Both expressed their concern to the developer about whether the property will be used for a homeless shelter or affordable housing.
“If it were affordable housing, I personally have no objection to that whatsoever after all, across the street is affordable housing — it’d be hard to imagine how anybody in Waldo Gardens would object to affordable housing being there,” Dinowitz told The Press.
“I mean, there’s affordable, and then there’s affordable,” he said, emphasizing affordable because he wasn’t sure what that meant.
He explained he lived in affordable housing, so he won’t object to it at all. He claimed that is exactly what the community needs. Not another homeless shelter — especially an all-men’s shelter. But he sympathized with people experiencing homelessness because they are rarely welcome.
The Assemblyman said in the eastern side of his district a homeless shelter opened at 4435 White Plains Road. With 55 units, city Department of Homeless Services will operate the site until Praxis takes over. He cited this from an email he received from the social services department on Aug. 2.
The Manhattan College dorm transaction in Riverdale comes at a time when migrants started applying for asylum after Texas and Florida sent migrants up to New York City.
Recently, the former Van Cortlandt Motel has housed around 100 migrants, Assemblyman Dinowitz said. And he hasn’t heard anything bad about it as of yet.
“The property was owned by Manhattan College, they sold it to the Stagg Group and neither the city nor the state has anything whatsoever to do with that — it was a private transaction,” the Assemblyman said.
“And I have my opinions as to what should happen there. But those are opinions.”
“I certainly feel free to speak out and express my opinion to work with people in the community and meet with people who are willing to meet in the hopes that maybe we can influence decisions that are made.”
Keywords
Overlook Manor, Manhattan College, Stagg Group, Mark Stagg, Jeffrey Dinowitz,
