Retooled plan for 1 West End Ave still involves separate entrances, but all residents now have access to amenities

Some residents and officials see the divisions as discriminatory, and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has said it aims to bar separate-door schemes.
Some residents and officials see the divisions as discriminatory, and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has said it aims to bar separate-door schemes. © Alamy

A plan for a luxury skyscraper with a so-called “poor door” is changing to extend more of a welcome to residents of its cluster of affordable apartments, officials and the developers said Friday.

The retooled plan for 1 West End Avenue still involves separate entrances, but all residents will now have access to such building amenities as a courtyard and river-view roof deck, and the affordable segment’s lobby will be stylishly appointed and set facing a park.

The retooling follows an outcry over developments that got government incentives to include affordable housing but have separate amenities and even entrances for higher-paying residents. Developers say such arrangements can help make it financially feasible to build affordable housing at pricey addresses.

But some residents and officials see the divisions as discriminatory, and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has said it aims to bar separate-door schemes.

With 1 West End Avenue approved under a prior administration in 2010, de Blasio aides portray the changes as a notable, if constrained, step toward ending the “poor-door” dynamic.

“We’ve made a blueprint. The blueprint is that you’ve got to have a building that signals, ‘You are welcome here,’” Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Vicki Been told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the changes. Her office had no immediate comment Friday.