Park Reservoir’s Board votes to stay co-op

The Park Reservoir Housing Corporation will not be privatized, at least not now.

The co-op’s Board of Directors voted against a shift away from the Mitchell-Lama program, according to a letter from the Board slipped under tenants’ doors last week.

“The Board’s decision is based upon PRHC’s current financial status and the view that it would not be fiscally prudent for the cooperative to proceed with and incur the expense of privatization at a time when it has a number of outstanding financial matters to address,” the letter read.

Board President Howard Leventhal would not comment.

Park Reservoir’s three buildings — 3835 and 3845 Sedgwick Ave. and 3915 Orloff Ave. — were the first occupied Mitchell-Lama buildings.

For some residents, the news came as a relief.

“I was talking to a lot of people, they saw dollar signs. They thought that they would sell it right away ... Later on they would have faced a very grim reality that there is no money.  Who are you going to sell it to? Who is going to buy it?” Natalya Girshman, a single mother who raised her son in one of Park Reservoir’s buildings, said.  

The Board’s letter says the issue is being tabled, but privatization may still be discussed in the future.