Conditions at Tracey Towers continue to take small steps forward with elevator work and security staff changes under way. But many worry that some problems are endemic at the building and that Tracey will never run as smoothly as other Mitchell-Lama developments.
Following a large rent increase last year, R-Y Management, the company that oversees Tracey, has begun over the last several months to address Tracey’s many problems. The Tenants Council now meets monthly with R-Y’s Bronx manager, Daniel Durante, to discuss short-term improvements for the building. Durante joined R-Y 18 months ago and has years of prior housing experience.
“He has been very responsive,” said Diana Walters, president of Tracey’s Tenants Council, who estimated that a third of the targeted improvements have been completed.
Major repairs are a different story. R-Y finally started replacing Tracey’s notoriously dangerous elevators last month, with work wrapping up on the first of 12 elevator lines. The city Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD), which oversees Tracey through the Mitchell-Lama housing program, says that two elevators serving the lower floors and one for the higher levels will be completed by the summer.
Estimates have varied about how long the total rehab will take, but Virginia Gliedman, an HPD spokesperson, firmly said last week that work will conclude by May 2007.
Tenants had hoped for quicker results. “They’ve got to split them up two at a time, otherwise it will be 12 years before it’s finished,” Walters said.
Tracey’s elevators are over 30 years old, and they shake, race past floors, and stall. This was acutely highlighted last month when Ming Kuang Chen, a Chinese food delivery man, was stuck in one of Tracey’s elevators for almost four days. The building’s security cameras proved useless and staff inattentiveness didn’t help.
The extreme mishap renewed scrutiny of Tracey’s conditions. Durante admitted last month during a tenants meeting that some of the maintenance and security staff are not up to snuff. Durante did not return calls for comment.
The Tenants Council recently told Durante which security agents were inadequate, and a few were fired. “Some of them were sleeping, eating, or up in people’s apartments,” Walters said. “They couldn’t wait to get a job at Tracey Towers.”
Not all Mitchell-Lamas are burdened with such problems.
The conditions at Scott Tower, just around the block on Paul Avenue, offer a stark contrast. “It’s always been a well-managed building,” said Stuart Davis, a 35-year Scott resident. When one of the building’s three elevators gets stuck, Davis says an alarm audibly sounds and management responds immediately.
Scott’s elevators were modernized several years ago. Tenants paid additional charges over their monthly rent to fund the improvements.
After Tracey started a multi-phase rent increase last year, R-Y was able to get a $1.6 million loan to repair the elevators, along with the roof and façade. The building had not raised its rents since 1991, when tenants successfully sued R-Y to stop collecting more money until numerous repairs were made.
HPD and R-Y contend that the long delay in a rent increase is both unusual and detrimental. “The rents really were not covering the expenses,” Gliedman said. Companies that own buildings created through the Mitchell-Lama program, started by New York State to provide housing for middle-income residents, are mandated to put aside some money. It’s not enough, however, to cover capital expenses, according to Gliedman.
Tracey’s owners have only paid interest on the mortgage, and not the actual principal, on the building, according to an annual state report on the Mitchell-Lama program. The mortgage’s interest rate is at a substantial 8 percent. Many other Mitchell-Lamas refinanced their mortgages during the 1990s when rates plunged, according to the report.
The rent increase is not enough to fund an overhaul of Tracey’s boilers, which provided inadequate heat and hot water last winter. R-Y is now looking for assistance from a state energy program.
Tenants, however, have been unhappy with R-Y’s service for years. “It doesn’t feel like you make it an obligation to do what you need to do, said D’Ann St. Paul, a tenant, to Durante during the meeting. “Someone in management has to care.”
But others blame Tracey’s issues on its size. The complex is the second largest Mitchell-Lama in the Bronx, and reportedly the tallest one in the entire city at 41 stories. At that size, providing proper heat and elevator services becomes difficult.
“It’s not that other Mitchell-Lamas are better maintained than Tracey,” Gliedman said. “A complex of this configuration is just costlier and harder to maintain.”
Council Member Oliver Koppell, whose district includes the towers, thought Tracey was burdened by its size, but also believes that its initial construction was shoddy.
Tracey is owned, and was built by, the DeMatteis Construction Corporation, a large and powerful developer. Some think the company hasn’t done its share. “Clearly, Mr. DeMatteis is not doing his job,” said Sheila Reinhardt, a resident, during the tenants’ meeting.
Koppell is meeting with R-Y and HPD this week to discuss Tracey’s issues. Gliedman said that, despite the hurdles, the agency is committed to making progress. “We are definitely committed to making this thing work,” she said.
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