Historic Front Street Residents Can't Go Home Until May 1

Residents of Historic Front Street, the strip of restored and new buildings in the South Street Seaport, were among those exiled by Hurricane Sandy. Initially, management told residents it would be several months before they could return home due to flood damage. A fresh update pushes that timeline back even further: "We hope to be able to confirm a more specific date in late March," management writes to residents. "At this time, however, we do not foresee occupancy prior to April 30."

The memo from management offers a few more specifics on the progress of repairs:

There has been much progress in the design of the replacement mechanical systems. As we previously communicated, the design of these mechanical systems has been underway since the first week of November and these design drawings await approval by the appropriate city agencies. We are working closely with these agencies so that the review and approval processes can be completed without delay. Our construction management team continues to coordinate the restoration and repair work at Front Street, which includes the relocation of mechanical systems out of flood prone areas to make the buildings more resilient to future extreme weather events. Through February, we will continue to work to restore the heating and cooling systems at the Front Street buildings. We have several crews working in buildings 24 and 36 Peck Slip, 217, 220, 225 and 229 Front Street. Additionally, we have been able to restore temporary power in the buildings to complete construction work.

We will be contacting you as we continue to work on the heating and cooling system upgrades for access to your residences. The work will occur in phases. Phase One will include: the removal of sheetrock to access heating/cooling units and related piping. During Phase Two, we will install new heating and cooling units. Patching and painting will be done in Phase Three. Overall, the work will take several weeks to complete all phases, and access to your residences will be required several times.

The Historic Front Street buildings have commercial tenants, too, and management says that most are likely to return. So far, only home improvement showroom Mobili?at the moment, perhaps the most useful business of them all?has decided definitively not to move back in.
· Official Site: Historic Front Street [historicfrontstreet.com]
· Historic Front Street coverage [Curbed]