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City Drags Feet to Renew Lease on Pre-K Building in Clinton Hill: Critics

By Janet Upadhye | March 17, 2015 2:38pm
 A pre-K program is in jeopardy while the city negotiates rent on their Fulton Street building.
Fort Greene Council
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CLINTON HILL — The city is dragging its feet in renewing the lease on a Clinton Hill building that houses a popular universal Pre-K and senior center — putting the programs in danger of closure, critics say.

The city's Administration for Children’s Services and Department of Citywide Administrative Services have had since November 2014 to re-sign the lease at 972-966 Fulton St. — where childcare, the senior center and other programs have been housed for 42 years — but the deal has not yet been finalized, officials at the Fort Greene Council, which oversees the programs, said.

The Pre-K has been there since 1998.

The stall has gotten so serious that the landlord was measuring space to install a "For Rent" sign on the front of the building Monday afternoon and parents, program participants and staff boarded a bus to City Hall to let the city know they are worried and willing to fight for their building.

"The city has had months to sign and yet no action has been taken," Executive Director of the Council, Claudette Macey, said. "The mayor places such focus on Universal Pre-Kindergarten — because of this stall a pre-K program might fall through the cracks."

The Council's long-term lease with the building owners, P V Associates LLC, will end on Sept. 15 and according to Macey, the landlord would like the city to re-sign a minimum of a 10-year lease at a "moderately higher" rate.

The city currently pays around $530,000 a year for the property, the Brooklyn Paper reported. Chris Havens, a commercial broker for aptsandlofts.com, told the paper that "is less than half of the market rate for similar properties in the area."

“We have a wonderful relationship with the Fort Greene Council, and [have] for quite a long time," owner Jim Argento told the Brooklyn Paper. "We’d like nothing more than to extend their lease.”

But the city is aiming for a three-year lease and wants the landlord to pay for half of the utilities (the city currently pays 100 percent of the utilities), according to Macey.

ACS said it is hoping to reach an agreement.

"The Administration for Children’s Services is actively working with our partner city agencies to renew the lease at this site in an effort to continue providing quality early care and education services to children in Fort Greene," a spokesman for the agency said.

DCAS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Still teacher Carolie Mills, who has been at the center for 25 years, is worried — especially given that citywide registration for pre-K opened Monday morning and their lease is still in limbo.

"Parents are already signing up for our programs," she said. "Working families in the neighborhood depend on the services we provide — we have to stay open for them."