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Slope to Shaya: Fix J.J. Byrne Park now

By Dana Rubinstein
The Brooklyn Paper

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Members of Park Slope’s community board want the city to prevent tenants from occupying one of real-estate mogul Shaya Boymelgreen’s new Fourth Avenue buildings until he fulfills his promise to repair a local park damaged during construction.

Even though the promised repairs began on Monday, locals are asking the city to make sure they’re completed before Boymelgreen’s NOVO condo residents can move in.

Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID

“Certainly, the fact that they’re starting [reconstruction] is a positive sign,” conceded Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman. “But the board wants some assurance that the city won’t issue Boymelgreen a certificate of occupancy — which would allow the developer to start moving people into the building — until the repairs are made.”

The dispute dates back to 2004, when Boymelgreen damaged a handball court in J.J. Byrne Park during construction of NOVO, a 12-story luxury condo tower at Fifth Street.

By the end of 2005, the Parks Department made a deal with Boymelgreen that required him to make repairs to the park in exchange for the right to use the damaged parkland as a staging area for construction.

The $1.6-million renovation will include “two basketball courts, eight handball courts, a dog run that will be approximately 5,000 square feet and a 15,000-square-foot skate park,” according to Rebecca Regal, a spokeswoman for the developer.

BoroDeal

Regal said the repairs would be completed by the end of the summer.

Meanwhile, the Buildings Department spokeswoman Kate Lindquist said the city would “do what we can” to address “the community’s concerns.”

©2007 Community Newspaper Group

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