A stagnant construction project on Long Island City’s waterfront
is showing little promise of moving ahead anytime soon, sources with knowledge of the project said.
Owners of the property at 44-02 Vernon Blvd., the former site of an oil refinery, have been remediating the lot since 2004, a state environmental official said. The process included clearing 150,000 tons of contaminated soil and treating 97 million gallons of water.
But the excavation has left a pit that has since filled with water.
Community Board 2 Chairman Joseph Conley fears that children might get into what locals have begun to call “Lake Vernon,” and
that warmer months could also bring infestations of vermin.
“It has the potential to be a real threat to the community,” Conley said.
The property is in foreclosure, said a spokesman for Durst Fetner Residential, which owns a $32 million note on the property. Though the company would like to buy the site, there is nothing Durst can do until the foreclosure case is settled, the spokesman said.
“The courts move very, very slowly on these things,” company spokesman Jordan Barowitz said.
Conley has repeatedly urged the city to step in, noting that a Department of Education building that neighbors the lot faces the threat of water seepage into the building’s basement, which contains a large book depository.
Eric Bederman, a spokesman for the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said that while the agency currently has no plans to acquire the site, it would be willing to “discuss options with the current owner if they were interested in putting together a viable affordable housing plan.”
But even if the city were to intervene, it also would have to wait until the foreclosure case is settled.
The city can fine property owners Baruch Singer and Marshall Weisman, but it has no authority to take over the property, said a former city official with knowledge of the case.
Singer, who has been cited by the HPD as a notorious slumlord in court cases, declined comment about the stalled development. Weisman could not be reached for comment.
Conley said the costly remediation likely put the owners in financial hot water.
