FORT WADSWORTH — A controversial project to turn the former Jesuit retreat house Mount Manresa into condos hit another snag when the permits to demolish the site expired.
Work halted on the site after the permits — first issued in August — expired on Dec. 23, the Staten Island Advance first reported.
Developers the Savo Brothers' application for the permits is on hold until they provide proof to the city that they notified the nearly 200 nearby homes about the work, a spokesman for the Department of Buildings said.
Neighbors fighting against the project previously complained that the developers had only notified about half of them about the project when work first started.
The site was hit with stop work orders in September and October after the city found traces of asbestos in demolished buildings even though inspectors filed reports that claimed they contained none.
Inspectors Paul Santoro, 35, and his father Gaspare Santoro, 74, were arrested earlier this month for falsifying paperwork to claim no asbestos had been found, prosecutors said.
