Neighbors of a former St. John’s University campus on Staten Island are worried the bucolic site will become low-income housing – but officials say nothing is in the works yet.
Locals in the hill community overlooking New York harbor are bracing for the possibility that a developer will buy the 16-5-acre site and convert it into a massive housing development after 18 months with no announcements about the future of the property, the Staten Island Advance first reported.
“None of the parties that we are in discussion with have expressed any interest in constructing low-income housing,” St. John’s said in a statement.
St. John’s, whose main campus in Queens is still fully functioning, closed the campus after years of declining enrollment and put it up for sale with hopes that another university would buy the property and keep it largely intact.