Community groups say Slate should be barred from lucrative city contract

Local community groups are calling on city officials to take Slate Property Group off of an affordable housing project in Crown Heights in light of its role in the Rivington House scandal.

Slate [TRDataCustom], the developer who bought the nursing home and plans to convert it into condos, won a contract last year to co-redevelop the Bedford Union Armory, a project that includes a 13-story rental building split between market-rate and affordable housing units. New York Communities for Change, the Crown Heights Tenant Union, affordable-housing nonprofit the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board and others plan to protest outside the armory on Wednesday.

“We should not trust Slate with the Armory or any developments moving forward because it’s clear they don’t have the best interests of the residents of New York City,” NYCC spokeswoman Renata Pumarol told Crain’s.

In the past several weeks, new information on Slate’s $116 million purchase of the nursing home — along with Adam America and China Vanke — has surfaced. The city’s Department of Investigations issued a report last month showing that a Slate representative had urged the firm to keep quiet about its deal with the Allure Group until the owner could pull off getting the deed restriction lifted at 45 Rivington Street. City Comptroller Scott Stringer issued a report last week that claimed that Allure plotted for months to turn the property into luxury condos or a hotel. [Crain’s] — Kathryn Brenzel