From the NY Daily News
Headline "Will Banana Kelly make blocks more appeeling in South Bronx?"
Banana Kelly is making a comeback. The famed community organization - named after a banana-shaped block in the South Bronx - will help renovate five dilapidated Kelly St. buildings ravaged by years of neglect.
When the organization was founded, in the late 1970s, the borough was burning, and 916, 920, 924, 928 and 935 Kelly St. were the only well-kept buildings in blighted Longwood, said Banana Kelly founder and current director Harry De Rienzo.
Three decades later, Banana Kelly is coming out of a rough patch and the rotting walk-ups desperately need repairs.
The four- and five-story buildings were sold to Workforce Housing Advisors on Monday in a foreclosure auction, with the real estate group vowing to work with Banana Kelly to fix them up.
Banana Kelly nearly folded due to mismanagement in the late 1990s, but De Rienzo, 58, called the organization's new project proof that it will survive. "We worked hard at Banana Kelly to recover and now we can help redevelop the block," he said. "We want to make sure the terrible conditions that tenants have endured come to an end."
In 1976, when De Rienzo first began organizing tenants to save Longwood's housing stock, the Kelly St. buildings were the backbone of the fight, thanks to landlord Frank Potts, a beloved neighborhood leader.
But De Rienzo left Banana Kelly for a period and Potts eventually sold the buildings and moved away.
The block changed hands and now the buildings are among the city's worst, with thousands of housing code violations for abandoned apartments, water damage, mold, broken floors, broken windows, garbage and rats.
Workforce Housing bought the $5 million mortgage on the buildings in January, after they were abandoned by their landlord, a greedy speculator, said John Crotty, of the Mahattan-based group.
The city Department of Housing Preservation Development made emergency repairs at the slums and, in March, a judge tapped Banana Kelly to manage the buildings during foreclosure.
Workforce Housing obtained the slums outright at court on Monday. The group will now seek government financing to overhaul the buildings and keep them affordable, a multi-million project, Crotty said.
Banana Kelly will provide social services and support to tenants on the block, De Rienzo said.
Janice Holloway, 25, a Kelly St. tenant living in a nightmarish apartment with leaks, broken windows and no electricity, is crossing her fingers, but added: "I don't want to get my hopes up."
BY Daniel Beekman
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Tuesday, August 2nd 2011, 4:52 PM
