Day-Care Tab: City Must Eat $272G in Rent

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

The Bloomberg administration will have to pay more than a quarter-million dollars in rent on an empty day-care center in The Bronx that it shut down Jan. 11.

RAGLAN GEORGE: 'What a waste of money.'

The city is required to pay rent for a year from when it terminated the lease in October 2007, since it ended the lease well before its 2015 expiration.

$300G Off on Repairs

The Administration for Children's Services had estimated the cost of repairs at $650,000, citing this high cost and past fiscal mismanagement as the reasons for the center's closure. But the city's liability for repairs and improvements to the center is capped at $347,335 over the 20-year period from 1995 through 2015, according to a copy of the lease obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request.

Officials had pointed to a leaky roof as one obvious example of the building's disrepair, but all roof repairs are the responsibility of the landlord, according to the scope of work agreement signed by the city and the landlord, United Capital Corporation.

The only outstanding violation on the South Bronx structure is a notice from the Department of Buildings related to the elevator. But all elevator repairs are also the purview of the landlord, not the city.

"I was shocked when I found out that were going to have to keep paying rent," said DC 1707 Executive Director Raglan George Jr., who represents most of the Lucille Murray employees. "I think it's a terrible, terrible waste of money for the city to do this. They can't tell me that what they're doing is responsible."

The total annual rent for this year was $363,176, according to the lease. The pro-rated amount for the nine-month period from January to October is more than $272,000.

ACS: Would Cost More

ACS officials said that the work required to make the building safe for children exceeded the $347,335 cap. "The landlord refused to fix the roof after repeated requests," said ACS spokeswoman Sheila Stainback. "Extensive renovations were needed on the building, and the decision was made not to maintain a program in that building."

The landlord could not be reached for comment. A policy analyst with DC 1707, who has been talking extensively with the landlord, said that the landlord was ready to begin work on the roof in the fall. She said that ACS had chosen an architect and that United Capital, which holds leases for several other city day-care centers, had gotten a final bid from the contractor in September. "They were waiting for ACS to give the go-ahead when they got the lease termination notice," said Sandy Socolar.

Ms. Socolar also noted that ACS had the right to withhold rent payments under the lease if the landlord failed to do the necessary repairs.

Parents and workers had asked that the center remain open at least until June when it would be easier to find new day-care, pre-kindergarten classes and jobs for the Teachers, but ACS officials said the expense of the repairs and past mismanagement made that impossible.

Advocates had argued that in previous cases when centers had misappropriated funds, a new sponsoring board was found to take over. The closure affected more than 250 children. Dozens of Teachers, Assistant Teachers and custodial workers lost their jobs.

Three other city-funded day-care centers have been closed in the South Bronx since January 2005. ACS officials promised that all of the children would be placed in other centers or be given vouchers for private day-care.