In the News: Holiday Inn in Fidi will be temporary home for migrants

Crain’s and The Broadsheet report that the Holiday Inn on the corner of Washington and Rector will be rented by the city as a shelter for immigrants who were kicked out of Florida and Texas, according to court documents filed this week. The hotel has 492 rooms; the deal would run through March 1 till April 2024.

From Crain’s: “Chinese developer Jubao Xie, the owner of the 50-story, 492-room Financial District building, had been pursuing a contract with New York City Health + Hospitals to turn the now-empty building into housing for migrant families after facing foreclosure and a November bankruptcy protection filing. A bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of New York granted him permission this week to make the deal.”

“The hotel’s preliminary agreement with H+H, which is leading the charge on the shelter program, would run through at least April 2024 and would cost $190 per day per room. If the hotel were to be fully occupied with asylum seekers, that would accrue a price tag of $93,480 per day and $2,804,400 per month for the city, according to court filings.”

The Broadsheet notes that the hotel filed for bankruptcy in late 2022 and closed twice during the pandemic, causing the business to default on a $137 million loan. As a result, the deal had to be approved in US Bankruptcy Court. The lenders also have concerns about fire risk, since tenants will be cooking in their rooms, and tenant rights, since they will be staying long-term. But the extra revenue might sweeten the deal.

From the Broadsheet: “Rocco Cavaliere (part of the legal team from the firm of Tarter Krinsky & Drogin, representing the hotel, told the Broadsheet that, ‘as a result of the Court’s decision, within the next week, this Holiday Inn location will temporarily stop accepting reservations from tourists and instead provide much needed accommodations and food to asylum seekers for the foreseeable future, under the supervision and oversight of the New York City Health & Hospitals Corporation. By providing such accommodations, the hotel is proud to be involved in helping the City in their efforts to humanely address the sudden influx of asylum seekers in New York City.'”

 

16 Comments

  1. Immigrants = rapists and pedos. Must be nice to talk with your veil of anonymity about people you don’t know and who are looking for a better life.

    Truly gross. Try harder to be human.

  2. Sorry but we have our own homeless with nothing in this city. I do not agree on freebies for these people. Also , yes there are criminals that crossed the border it’s a fact !! They are here sec traifficing, gangs, terrorist. It’s sickens me. We work hard and they come here illegally and live for free. No vetting. We have no clue who these people are. An agenda to destroy this country. My opinion we can’t help our own that have nothing we help them ? Disgraceful and dangerous

    • “They” are people, too. “They” are seeking asylum from horrifying conditions in their own homelands, which they likely left under duress.

      Crossing the border illegally is a civil, not criminal offense. People have lost all humanity. Everyone seems like they feel like they got theirs, so let’s pull up the bridge for everyone else.

      Housing asylum seekers isn’t going to really impact your day-to-day life, but it will immensely impact theirs, but I guess you need to find an ‘other’ to blame for all of our problems.

      Also, since when have you evinced any concern on this site for our domestic homeless? In my recollection, you’ve used the same dehumanizing language to talk about them. Where do you get these goalposts with wheels?

      • Mayor Adams grow some and send them back they are u grateful .

      • Free housing, free food, free health care, free education, free cell phones, free transit passes. These are enormous costs paid by taxpayers who are presumably paying for their own housing, food, healthcare and the rest. If only proponents of this disaster would financially sponsor arriving illegal immigrants, for generations to follow, the rest of us might feel less like the idiots we are, for paying for our own day to day lives.

        • Thank you Bobbie. Stretching every city they come to to the limit ! The impacts of this are endless.

          • As a fact.. from bloomberg news (not the NY post)… (and our Gov actually mentioned it on the budget proposal yesterday:

            NYC Faces $1 Billion Tab From Migrant Influx as Economy Strains Budget, Comptroller Says

            As a result the tax increase for companies will be extended (and lucky us they didnt raise our taxes…

            Im all for humanity but this is INSANE and unsustainable.. not to mention the attitude of some of them, that for example refused to move to brooklyn because its too far.. i mean RUFK? how nice it must be to arrive and be given everything including prime time location living, all paid by us, who already pay WAY over other states pay in taxes… ENOUGH

      • Yawn, how many illegals are you housing?

      • Those who enter or reenter the United States without permission, however, can face criminal charges. Title 8 of the U.S. Code identifies federal criminal offenses pertaining to immigration and nationality, including the following two entry-related offenses: “Illegal Entry”/8 U.S.C.
        Over the last two decades, the federal government increasingly has utilized the criminal courts to punish people for immigration violations. Particularly on the Southwest border, federal officials are vigorously prosecuting migrants either for entering the United States without permission or for reentering the country without permission after a prior deportation or removal order (commonly referred to, respectively, as “illegal entry” and “illegal re-entry;” or collectively as “entry-related offenses”). Tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers are subjected to criminal prosecution for these crimes every
        year.

  3. NY Native, your point as to every city is noted. I would love to hear from the likes of Mike Bloomberg and Leon Black. Two billionaires with ample space for migrants in their Manhattan homes. Of course, we can expand the reach to others with means such as George Soros in his heavily secured compound. Or, perhaps, the social justice warrior with his highly bunkered home in NJ, Bruce Springsteen.

  4. Thank God our community has an opportunity to help those fleeing from violence and oppression. This is great news for downtown Manhattan!

  5. Regardless of your position on the illegal migrant crisis, this is a disgusting misuse of city taxpayer dollars. This is basically a scam by a bankrupt developer to dig himself out of his debt hole with taxpayer dollars through a city contract. How many American citizens / homeless city residents could be helped with that same $2.8 million per month in direct assistance from city agencies?

  6. Unfortunately, the entities strained in this situation are the schools. Since January, Downtown schools have received an influx of migrant children and not provided with any additional resources including translation services, as these children do not speak English and have only the clothes on their backs. Chinatown schools have been affected and now BPC schools are next. Assuming this hotel area is zoned for PS150 and/or PS 276. I’m sure those principals are bracing for and already reaching out to their community resources/officials.

    • Is it xenophobic to ask about the vaccination status of migrant children entering schools? The CDC must be giving these children a pass, in the name of equity.

  7. My issue with this is that this country has a process for legal immigration that is being subverted unfairly here just because a group of people don’t respect our laws and boundaries and want better for themselves.

    My father came to this country as an immigrant in the 1940s and had to wait five years to get approval to be here, and that was with a sponsor in this country. He and his family has to pass extensive background checks, demonstrate employable skills, and had to take a civil entrance exam to make they actually knew enough about this country and its culture to assimilate. And they were also fleeing some pretty terrible and oppressive conditions, as I’m sure you can imagine for certain groups in the 1940s in Europe.

    Now, I’m not bringing this up to say “just because it was hard for them, it should be hard for everyone.” I bring it because we have a process in place today for getting into this country — which includes background screening — and that process is being ignored here. Legal immigrants, who this country needs, are the ones getting screwed because a group of illegal immigrants doesn’t feel like they should have to wait or play by the same rules. That’s incredibly unfair and a violation of our laws.

    I totally understand that these people may not be living in great conditions, but these are not all refugees or people escaping oppression. Some just want American economic opportunities. And some, sadly, are bad actors who shouldn’t be here. But the larger point is that just because someone may not have a great life elsewhere in the world, that does not entitle them to free housing, food, and shelter at the expense of a citizen of another country.

    If they want to be here, there is an application system in place for that. I find it quite repulsive that they are jumping the line and immediately being rewarded for it, while others have done things the right way and have to sit waiting while bureaucracy takes it time. And all on the bill of the taxpayers, nonetheless.

  8. Compounding the issue is the eligibility for affordable housing and charter schools.

    Undocumented persons are eligible for affordable and low income housing if they have a passport or birth certificate. However, the head of household must be a US citizen. This creates a loophole where a US citizen can rent an apartment, represent himself/herself as head of household and illegally sublet to a set of people without documentation.

    Migrant children are eligible for charter school admission. They cannot be denied due to residential status.

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