Content area
Full Text
In a dramatic shift, promoters of Donald Trump's latest plan for a megadevelopment on the Upper West Side waterfront are focusing increasingly on affordable rather than luxury housing.
In recent week, backers of the 76-acre Riverside South project have discussed with city and state officials ways to tap into subsidies, tax credits and low-cost financing available to builders of housing for low-income and moderate-income families.
Those discussions illustrate the new character of the development which, as "Trump City" in the mid-1980s, was to include the city's priciest apartments and the world's tallest building. That vision has been changed by the realities of the real estate market, by difficulties in securing financing and by opposition from the community.
"Most of us would prefer to do an economically integrated project," says Richard A. Kahan, chairman of the newly formed Riverside South Planning Corp.
But many housing experts doubt the feasibility of affordable units on a site that already is encumbered by more than $200 million in debt. They also question whether Riverside South would be able to use many of the housing programs cited as possibilities by its backers.
Indeed, some critics of the development contend its supporters are only paying lip service to the idea of affordable housing to obtain city approval. "It's another one of the flimflams we've been getting," says Madeleine Playes, president of the Coalition for a Livable West Side. "There is nothing definite on affordable housing in any of their plans."
A SCALED-DOWN TRUMP PLAN
The scaled-down version of the development was announced earlier this year as a grand compromise between Mr. Trump and critics of the original plan. The development, which is now making...