The City Council is investigating why the de Blasio administration suddenly yanked $43.5 million in financing from an affordable housing project in Queens that would also have provided money for repairs at an adjacent New York City Housing Authority pr🦩oject.
Funding for the 163-unit building in Hallets Point was pulled in November — two months after the developer, the Durst Organization, got into a public spat with Mayor🌊 Bill de Blasio.
“I have concerns about the withdrawal of bond financing from the project and the impact on the boilers at Astoria Houses,” said Councilman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx), chair of the investigations committee.
Under the deal with NYCHA, the Dur💙st Organization paid a $4.2 million deposit to buy land in Hallets Point and agreed to retrofit four boilers at the Asto🦋ria Houses.
In September, when he wrote an op-ed article to defend his dealing with campaign donors, de Blasio cited Durst’s failure to get a city ferry contract as an example of a major donor who didn’t get what they wanted from City Hall.
Durst spokesman Jordan Barowitz responded that “winter is coming,” a nod to the warning issued in the TV show “Game of Thrones.”
“It’s inexplicable since the project will generate nearly 500 units of affordable housing, thousands of jobs and upgraded boilers for the Astoria Houses,” Barowitz told The Post.
Boiler improvements intended for the Astoria Houses are outlined in a Nov. 29, 2017, contract signed by Deborah Goddard, NYCHA’s vice president for capital projects. The contract refers to “the four existing boilers in NYCHA’s central boiler plant.”
But Goddard testified to the council that the upgrades were “all about” addressing emissions issues.
“I have concerns about the accuracy of the testimony,” Torres told The Post.
Torres has already excoriated NYCHA head Shola Olatoye for providing false testimony about workers being certified to conduct l🐻ead inspections.
A city official backed up Goddard, saying because the Durst project would be tallౠer than a NꦏYCHA smokestack, boilers had to be retrofitted to pass environmental review.
“The work proposed by the Durst Corporation was to support a new project the developer planned, not to improve heat at Astoria Houses,” said de Blasio spokeswoman Melissa Grace. “We’ve allocated $20 million in federal and city funds to deliver the heating upgrades.”
Without the bonds, Durst did not close on the deal with NYCHA and the affordable housing project is indefinit🔥ely delayed��.
A city Housing Development Corporation official said while its board initially approved financing for Hallets, there wasn’t enough money available within the city’s annual cap to immediately fund the project.
It was the only bonding approved and then pulled from the last round of ಌfinancing at HDC.