$29.3M for senior housing renovation?

Is $29.3 million really necessary to renovate two low-income senior housing centers in Bushwick? Not so, say experts Henry Stern, a former city official, and developer Ken Diamondstone, who question whether the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council may have padded its request when city officials offered to foot the bill for the multi-million project with taxpayer funds. Among the suspicious fiscal footsteps are an over-inflated purchase price to an investor, an out-of-place $5.6 million architecture and engineering fee and a $3.5 million developer fee, which some say is too much for an 18-month project, according to the New York Post. When all is set and done, the 160 units each cost an average of $183,098 to renovate — a fishy number, some say. [Post]