A developer with close ties to Mayor de Blasio and Councilwoman Margaret Chin is angling to build senior housing on the site of a popular Little Italy community garden, The Post has learned.
The nonprofit Asian Americans for Equality finalized a proposal to build a seven-story affordable-housing project for seniors late last year — even though community opposition has reached a fever pitch, according to three sources familiar with the group’s plan.
De Blasio and Chin both back development of the site, but are getting pushback from longtime residents who argue the garden should be preserved due to the neighborhood’s dearth of green space.
Both also have close ties to AAFE. De Blasio named its executive director, Christopher Kui, to his 2013 transition team and appointed him to his Age-Friendly NYC Commission in September 2015. Chin, who endorsed de Blasio for re-election in December, is one of AAFE’s founders and a former president, according to the nonprofit’s Web site.
“This is deeply troubling,” said Jeannine Kiely, president of Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden. “It may explain why Mayor de Blasio and Councilmember Chin are determined to destroy a park when better alternatives exist and when all neighborhood residents and every other elected official opposes the plan.”
De Blasio recently took a lot of heat at a candidates-night event over his support for a move that would essentially erase the 26-year-old garden.
“It looks to me as if listening to the community is what you say you do, but that’s not what you’re doing on Elizabeth Street Garden,” one woman told him at the public forum, to applause.
De Blasio responded that he supports a plan that would “strike a balance” through building the affordable housing while “keeping some public space there so the community can use it.”
“We have immense needs for senior affordable housing,” he said. “It’s a crisis all over the city.”
Residents like Keily who want to preserve the garden argue that the city has plenty of better options to build housing for seniors elsewhere downtown — and pointed to a lot on Hudson Street that would allow for five times the square footage.
“He’s got a tin ear,” said Emily Hellstrom, a longtime neighborhood resident also affiliated with Friends of Elizabeth Street Garden. “They’re ignoring completely their constituency.”
In March, de Blasio signaled that he’s open to developing other sites, but that would not stop development on Elizabeth Street.
AAFE, which did not return calls, isn’t the only entity interested in developing the site, according to sources familiar with the plans. Philadelphia-based Pennrose and the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens also prepared proposals, which were due Dec. 14.
“We judge applicants based on the merits,” said city Department of Housing Preservation and Development spokeswoman Elizabeth Rohlfing.
“We want a project that provides public open space in the heart of Little Italy and desperately needed affordable homes for low-income seniors.”