Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a motion this week to stop the sale of the Williams Residence, a building at 95th street and West End Avenue that the Salvation Army plans to sell for $108 million to a private developer. The seniors who live in the building would have the option of moving to a new senior center in East Harlem, but many of them have fought that decision. They say they had been blindsided by the nonprofit’s decision, and would be uprooted from their supportive community.
Capital New York says the brief filed by Schneiderman’s office said “threatens to force some of New York’s most vulnerable citizens from their homes and may violate tenant protection laws.”
“Significantly, the sale would impose severe hardship and stress on the 192 elderly residents of the building, all of whom would have to leave their homes and relocate to other housing,” assistant attorney general Gary S. Brown wrote in a brief. “In addition, many residents feel betrayed and claim that The Salvation Army assured them that they could live out the rest of their lives at 720 West End Avenue. Indeed, some say that they never would have given up their prior place of residence, and moved to the Williams Residences in the first place, were it not for these assurances.”
The AG’s office also argues that the building may have been underpriced, given the value of luxury buildings in the area. By law, nonprofits mus sell buildings at “fair and reasonable” prices.
This is apparently a rare dissent by the AG’s office, which has to sign off on nonprofit building sales and which tends to approve Salvation Army sales, according to the motion.
A hearing about the sale is scheduled for November 14. One resident at the Williams, told us that the news is very exciting but several questions are still up in the air.
“Now the question is whether the SA will appeal. [Another resident] thinks not because all the politicos who have been on our side signed the response. Of course we don’t know what will happen next: Will they try to sell it to a non-profit? Can we find another group to take it over? For the moment we’re too happy to think that far ahead.”
The Salvation Army has argued that it can better serve its mission by selling the building, which it says needs considerable repair. It sent out the following statement about Schneiderman’s motion:
“The Salvation Army is continuing to discuss our proposal with the residents of the Williams Residence. We are confident that this proposal, which will give them the opportunity to a brand-new facility at the Salvation Army’s expense, is the best possible option. We look forward to sharing our thoughts with the court as well.”
We broke the story about the possible eviction here, delved deeper into the issue here, and wrote about a protest over the sale here. Gale Brewer has also claimed the Salvation Army is running an illegal hotel out of the building.
The full brief is below:
I’d imagine the low price is due to the extensive renovation that would be required to make apartments in the building marketable. Though I’m curious what repairs are needed and how much they’ll cost. It sounds like no serious work has been done to the building since the Salvation Army acquired it back in the ’60s(?).
Demolish this ugly building ASAP. The Upper West Side, while being generally low-rent, still needs room for foreign buyers and investors.
Find me on Curbed:
https://ny.curbed.com/users/126924
“Find you on Curbed.” I’d rather find YOU kicked to the side of the curb as you’d like to do with the elderly. Here’s a little secret that perhaps you haven;t considered- You are going to be a “senior” one day and karma will most certainly get you. I’ll toss you a coin as you’re sleeping on the curb, Prince Curbed, as that’s where I guarantee you’ll end up!
Thanks for your compassion for we seniors who live in the Williams–not! I hate to burst your esthetic bubble, but the would-be buyer intends to convert the existing building to condos, not tear it down.
No need to reply. You’ve spoken well for yourself.
I’m on the other side of the fence. Let’s keep a little of what made the UWS the destination it has become.
Prince seems to be a poser troller without crown. The Ed Anger of real estate with as much knowledge of New york, The Upper West Side and real estate as that fictional character. So glad he got his plug in on curbed, where he has zero followers and ignorers. Ouch.
this is great news!! congratulations to the seniors in the Williams who fought so hard. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the next step is a good one too.
Props to Schneiderman, Brewer, Linda and Helen Rosenthal and the other elected officials who helped make this happen.
I think “Prince”, the “demolish the building” guy on this thread, is joking, making fun of those few other posters on this site who supported the eviction. At least that’s my guess.
The Army says that it has been in continuous contact with us, but that is far from the facts. We physically see, but do not interact with, 2 members who come in from who knows where about once a month, but they don’t address us as a group. We know that they said that they would deal with our anxiety, but that is also not the fact. There IS a group that started 2 weeks ago and meets once a week; the leaders are 2 sweet young women who are untrained grad students at LIU who “want to help us deal with change.” There’s little doubt that we, seniors, can teach them more about change than they have ever experienced. They also employ a social worker who has little empathy with our population: it took her 10 days to respond, (with a letter delivered to our our mailboxes) to a very recent suicide here.(And even then, the caliber of her response was to provide a leaflet about suicide and to note that she has office hours Mon-Thurs. (The suicide was on a Friday; when she does not have office hours, even though she lives here.)) Not much help there.One of the residents posted a note about the event one day after it happened, but there was NO response on the part of the Army’s personnel to our group when it was clear that we were very upset.
The Salvation Army won’t really do anything to help you, what they really want is to make a big profit. I heard somewhere, unless I am dreaming, that someone donated this building to the Salvation Army with the stipulation that they were never allowed to sell it. Anyway, good luck, and I hope the best works out for the senior residents of the Williams House.
Sell the building, but allow the seniors to stay (non-eviction plan)renovate the vacant apartments, and sell the vacant apartments as Condos. This way, everyone is happy. But you can’t expect seniors, at the drop of a hat, to pack up and go live somewhere out of their environment. That is just plain cruel, unless the buyers are willing to buy out the senior residents big, big bucks to ease their pain and discomfort. Shame on the Salvation Army, nothing but mercenary non-profit con artists. Tell them to take their holiday bell-ringing and their kettles and shove it. You fight Williams House Seniors, don’t let them push you around!
Seniors – Shminiors – so they’ll have to move to another home, so what?
Have we become, in the age of Comrade Mayor di Blassio, so communistic, that a real estate deal can not go through because seniors will have to move to another location?
It’s capitalism that made NYC great.
Not communism.
Zeus, while many of us are in support of the rights of a private owner to do what they want, it doesn’t preclude having compassion for those that would be adversely affected. I agree with Justine’s comment above. Allow the sale of the building, as is the owner’s right. But grandfather in those residents who wish to stay and/or compensate them justly to make the move to their new state-of-the-art facility when it’s built.
as the Attorney General is pointing out, a sale of the building is NOT NECESSARILY the “owner’s right.” The owner is a non-profit that functions that way through the offices of the citizens of the state of NY. there are restrictions on NFPs. Further, the gift of the building, as noted above, contained restrictions on its use.
PROPS once again to the fantastic Seniors at the Wiliams who, as a comment noted above, can teach many of the youngsters a thing or two about capitalism! people have rights under our society — when they organize.
Filing a motion is not the same thing as winning a lawsuit or stopping anything – maybe save the applause to your politicos until that happens.
You know, the ones who have a team of detectives to drive them around …
So, let the seniors organize, form a union, get backings from the numerous left wingers of the city, and rather than fight city hall, which is one large corrupt union, fight capitalism.
Yep – organize, divide & conquer.
I am so pleased to hear this. I feared that the AG’s office would approve the sale and not announce it until after the election. Despite my concerns, I voted for Schneiderman anyway. I’m glad to have my faith in democracy restored, at least temporarily!!