After nearly three years of debate and delay, a Comfort Inn is slowly rising on Webster Avenue.

But the project is once again on hold because of a partial stop-work order due to unapproved steel work and a fight with neighbors over property boundaries.

These are not the first halts the developer, McSam Hotel Group, has faced. Sounding exasperated, Gary Wisinski, McSam’s chief operating officer, admitted in an interview that he “can’t seem to keep the project going.”

Initiated in April 2006, the project was on hold for a full year and a half while McSam sought to allay community concerns that a Comfort Inn would not be viable on Webster and might devolve into a so-called “hot-sheet” hotel, as has happened with similarly sized hotels across the Bronx River.

These fears were among the factors prompting the community board to undertake its current effort to rezone the Webster corridor (see story on front page). Under the proposed new rules, projects like the Comfort Inn could not be built without a variance.

Wisinski said community fears are misplaced and expects the 5-story, 48-room hotel to have a “multi-market” appeal, drawing people with business in the area, and those visiting the local hospitals and universities. Wisinksi expects the hotel to charge $105-$125 per room, down from the $125-$150 per room he had expected before the economic downturn, and to maintain an occupancy rate near 75 percent.

Actual construction on the hotel began last June. Wisinski said he tentatively hopes it will open within 14 to 16 months.
Nine complaints have been lodged with the Department of Buildings since last summer, though only one resulted in a violation. Two others resulted in stop-work orders.

One stop-work order remains partially in place. It was issued in December because “the structural steel work did not conform to approved plans,” said Carly Sullivan, a spokesperson for the Department of Buildings (DOB). Wisinksi said that McSam is in the process of submitting updated plans to the DOB and expects the order will be lifted by the end of March.

The other stop-work order was issued when neighbors Harold and Virginia Hekimian complained that work was damaging their roof, which slightly hangs over the site. That order was rescinded when McSam submitted a survey supporting their claim that the roof encroached on their property, but construction has remained stalled while McSam negotiates with the Hekimians.

The Hekimians say they have been overwhelmed by the construction’s constant intrusion into their lives, and have objected to changing their roof. Both in their 70s, the Hekimians were raised in the house, which their parents bought in the mid-1920s, and have been involved in a series of disputes with McSam.

Recently, McSam decided to build around the encroachment, Wisinski said, despite their claim that the roof is intruding on their property (the Hekimians dispute this claim). The new plans must be approved by the DOB, and he expects construction on the stalled south wall to begin again in April.