Council Member Banks on Linden Plaza oversight and management accountability
Banks asks about HPD's oversight before Linden Plaza's rehabilitation and how conditions deteriorated so far, and calls for accountability for the management company that ran it into the ground. Phillips says Linden Plaza's outcome is positive. Alika notes HPD visited both Tracy Towers and Linden Plaza for lessons learned.
And my last question, and hopefully the chair will indulge me, Linden Plaza, which is in my district, which is a city-supervised Mitchell Lama,
which is a Mitchell Lama development in my district and which currently is undergoing major rehabilitation.
Prior to these investments, residents endured deteriorating conditions for many years.
As someone who regularly visited this development, knocked on many a doors, I personally observed the deterioration that was taking place in Mitchell Lama and the concerns that existed.
Going back to oversight, what oversight responsibilities did HPD have before this rehabilitation effort began?
And how were these conditions allowed to deteriorate to such an extent before meaningful intervention had occurred?
Yeah, so our oversight authority, like I mentioned, is reviewing financials and providing some sort of technical assistance.
and advice to the owners and to the management companies and to the shareholders.
I think the outcome of Linden Plaza is actually a really positive one.
From what I've seen so far, maybe I'm talking out of line here, but I think where Linden Plaza got you today is a really good place compared to what it was.
And I would agree.
It's definitely made a lot of progress in Linden Plaza.
But also, too, the question of accountability, because the management company that ran Linden Plaza into the ground, we need to hold them accountable.
And that's the reason why I'm bringing that up.
There has to be some type of justice still exacted on those folks who put them in that condition by refinancing the property and not investing it into the development.
Thank you, Madam Chair, for your indulgence.
Thank you.
Madam Chair, can I just say one quick thing?
I just want to highlight that when the team at HPD and others visited Tracy Towers, we went intentionally.
We left Tracy Towers and we went to Linden Plaza to look at just some lessons learned and best practices, and that was intentional that day.
So I just wanted to actually highlight that.
Thank you.