Occasions Sq. stakeholders help migrant shelter at Candler Constructing

Mayor Eric Adams’ announcement final week to make use of the vacant, landmarked Candler Constructing at 209-213 W. forty second St. for migrant housing made us anticipate that Occasions Sq. stakeholders would howl their heads off over the plan.

Foolish us!

Requested to remark, Durst Group chairman Douglas Durst, landlord of 151 W. forty second St. (beforehand 4 Occasions Sq.), advised us:  

“We recognize every thing Mayor Adams is making an attempt to do to assist asylum seekers discover shelter and to handle the broader disaster. In the end, the federal authorities and Congress particularly should take duty to deal with the underlying downside.”

Occasions Sq. Alliance president Tom Harris sounded equally sanguine: “The Adams administration is utilizing the constructing to resolve a direct disaster and home asylees. Now we have been discussing this with them and have extra plans in place to work with them on all operational logistics in order that it is a clean transition.”

Harris’s remark included this nugget: “There are long run plans in place to transform the enduring Candler Constructing on forty second Avenue in Occasions Sq. right into a resort, not shocking given how sturdy the restoration of the resort business in Occasions Sq. has been.”

However the “Deuce” between Seventh and Eighth avenues is slowly however steadily using the downbound prepare.

Though a migrants’ heart shouldn’t be fairly the identical factor as a homeless shelter, it’s exhausting to think about that such a mid-block shelter will assist to arrest the slide. 

The previous B.B. King’s Blues membership and several other shops and eating places, together with the nation’s once-busiest McDonald’s on the Candler, stand empty.

Work to revive the long-dark Occasions Sq. Theater at 215 W. forty second St. floor to a halt.

The block is a far cry from the damaging, porn-ridden days of the Seventies and ‘80s.

However it’s fallen noticeably from its healthful, circa-2000 peak.

So, with hundreds of vacant properties accessible all around the metropolis, why did Metropolis Corridor resolve to dump unemployed migrants at one in all Occasions Sq.’s iconic places?