Friday, January 27, 2012

Broken For 10 Years, Roosevelt Island Motorgate North Elevator About To Be Fixed Says RIOC - Work Commences April 2012 - Staircase Lights Should Be Working By Next Week

Reported earlier this week about a hazardous condition of lights not working at the Motorgate Parking Garage. Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) President Leslie Torres explains what happened:

Earlier this week there was a lighting outage in the staircases at Motorgate, which has been known to happen during bad weather. This time the culprit was water om melting snow. Electricians are working to replace the panel that feeds the staircases and should finish the job next week. In the meantime, we have increased Public Safety patrols at Motorgate. Ultimately, we’re planning to replace all the lights at the facility with LEDs, which should provide a long-term solution.
Responding to the original post, a reader comments:
they will never fix it.. Oh maybe they will the same time they fix the elevator at the far end of the parking garage.. near 40 river road..
Image of Broken North Motorgate Parking Elevator

and another reader asks:
Have they fixed the escalator in Motorgate yet?
Image Of Broken Motorgate Escalator

Well, hold on to your hats because the Motorgate North Elevator is about to get replaced according to a resolution approved at the January 2012 Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Board of Directors meeting (Video web cast here).

As shown in the video below, RIOC Chief Financial Officer Steve Chironis explains that after 7 years of RIOC negotiations with Motorgate Garage partner Roosevelt Island Associates a/k/a Manhattan Park (Manhattan Park owns 39%, RIOC 61%), a tentative agreement has been reached to replace the Motorgate North elevators damaged by water infiltration and out of service for approximately 10 years. Mr. Chironis reports the agreement calls for sharing the approximately $575,000 cost to totally replace the North elevators in the same percentage as ownership with RIOC paying $384,000 and Roosevelt Island Associates $190,000. At Roosevelt Island Associates request/insistence, included in the cost to RIOC will be payment of about $89,000 to correct original defects in Motorgate North Elevator design. According to Mr. Chironis, work will commence in April 2012.


You Tube Video of Motorgate North Elevator Replacement

RIOC Director David Kraut said that over many years Roosevelt Island Associates had demonstrated recalcitrance in maintaining and upkeeping these elevators at their own expense though he still voted to approve the agreement.

Mr. Chironis mentioned that a stumbling block in the negotiation to fix the Motorgate North Elevator has been that Roosevelt Island Associates wanted RIOC to fix the Motorgate escalator. I am not sure what that is about but RIOC has wanted to remove the escalator for a long time.

Mr. Chironis added that Manhattan Park is also replacing the elevators in their building.

4 comments :

jay minute said...

Wow, WTF is happening to all of the money that HUNDREDS of people pay in every month for 10 years? The Motorgate is a JOKE! Elevators always down, temporary lights on the 7th floor (after a year), stairwells always smell like piss, the escalators haven't worked in the 3 years that I have been on the Island. Invest some of the money we pay back into the Motorgate! I'm a FED UP with all of the monopolies on Roosevelt Island! Including "Greasy Gristedies!"

Trevre Andrews said...

As I have found and you will find you are shouting at the wind when asking RIOC to do something or proposing a good idea to them. 

YetAnotherRIer said...

I don't think we can put the blame squarely on the RIOC here. MP management park is extremely greedy and stingy when it comes to apartments. I am not surprised that they have been a stumble block despite their contractual obligations in regards to Motorgate. Not surprised at all.

CheshireKitty said...

What about the little office up a flight of stairs from the bridge deck level - the office that appears to have been out of use for years?  Is the office supposed to be a security/monitoring location?  Does PSD ever use it to keep on eye on bridge traffic/vehicles coming onto or exiting the Island? 

The escalator should either be fixed or removed.  I can't believe it would cost that much to disassemble and remove the escalator.  If RIOC wishes to retain it, then it should be fixed.  I do not think escalator repairs are as costly as elevator replacement.  It might make it more convenient for people arriving on the Island to walk into Motorgate on the bridge deck level and take the escalator to street level, rather than having to walk into the garage and then take the elevator down.  This was undoubtedly the original intention of the escalator.  

Also - even though the windows were washed, the building struts still have bird droppings all over them - they weren't scrubbed when the windows were washed.  The train station has managed to eliminate the bird problem and clean the struts of bird droppings.  Could the company/agency that accomplished that task share the know-how of cleaning these droppings with RIOC - so RIOC can either assign RIOC workers to do the same at Motorgate or hire an outside contractor to clean the struts and also put in place the same "miracle"/method employed at the train station way to keep birds from perching on the struts?