A heated feud over the destiny of Nolita’s beloved Elizabeth Avenue Backyard could lastly be coming to an “amicable decision” greater than a yr after former Mayor Eric Adams saved the greenspace from a wrecking ball.
The potential settlement stems from a lawsuit filed in November 2025 by three builders — Pennrose, Habitat for Humanity, and Riseboro — after the Adams administration canceled a plan to transform the backyard into 123 models of low-income senior housing final June.
Town and the miffed growth group now seem like working towards an “amicable decision,” and attorneys for either side will return to courtroom on Thursday after receiving an extension to barter the settlement, in response to courtroom paperwork first reported by Gothamist.
To place an finish to the over-decade-long saga, town and builders are putting a deal to switch one other city-owned lot, 22 Suffolk St., to the event group as a comfort prize, folks acquainted with the negotiations informed the outlet.
“As a part of our dedication to constructing the reasonably priced housing New Yorkers urgently want, we’re transferring ahead to ship over 180 reasonably priced properties at 22 Suffolk Avenue,” Metropolis Corridor spokesperson Matt Rasuchenbauch informed The Publish.
“On the identical time, we’re persevering with to work towards a decision of the lawsuit initiated underneath the earlier administration in regards to the Elizabeth Avenue Backyard web site,” Rasuchenbauch mentioned. “We are going to preserve combating to create extra reasonably priced properties, stronger neighborhoods, and public areas that make New York the best metropolis on earth.”
Native residents have fought the venture since former Mayor Invoice de Blasio first pitched the plan for “Haven Inexperienced,” a personal growth with models particularly reserved for previously homeless seniors, in 2017.
The following combat over the 20,000-square-foot house has resulted in celebrities like Robert De Niro and Patti Smith championing the trouble. Supporters despatched hundreds of letters to save lots of the house.
Adams, who vowed for years to construct 123 reasonably priced senior housing models and Habitat for Humanity workplaces on the web site of the backyard, modified his tune final June.
After “months” of negotiations amongst Metropolis Council member Christopher Marte, Adams, and First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, town agreed to construct 600 reasonably priced models at three different areas, contingent on rezoning a few of these properties.
The three areas included 22 Suffolk, 156-166 Bowery, and 100 Gold St., with Marte saying the compromise really resulted in additional models — representing the most important inflow of latest reasonably priced housing in additional than 40 years.
Work is but to start at any of the areas the Adams administration proposed.
The Adams’ administration additionally made a last-ditch bid to save lots of the Nolita sculpture backyard by designating it as official metropolis parkland earlier than Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration took over in January.
“The proposed settlement on Haven Inexperienced implies that a badly wanted and absolutely permitted venture for seniors was undone by celebrities who had Randy Mastro’s cellphone quantity,” Annemarie Grey, Govt Director of Open New York, mentioned in an announcement.
“The Mamdani administration’s job now’s to ship the properties at 22 Suffolk Avenue, quick,” Grey mentioned. “The Adams administration used the equipment of metropolis authorities, in unhealthy religion, to kill 123 properties for low-income seniors that had survived each authorized and public assessment thrown at them.
“Greater than a decade has been misplaced. Seniors who ought to have been residing in these properties years in the past have died ready. That’s the deep injustice on the middle of this story, and no settlement erases it.”
Pennrose, Habitat for Humanity and Riseboro didn’t instantly reply to The Publish’s request for remark.
