You should have said that instead of digging at the attempt to provide housing. Seems like an engineering mishap.
It's literally what they were doing, and I'd wager it's a near certainty that the only way the developer could have a remote chance of cost-effectively repurposing a downtown office skyscraper in Midtown for 'affordable' housing would be add unit capacity to the footprint.
And let's be honest, beyond that, the idea that you're going to put "affordable" housing at 42d and 3d avenue is profoundly silly. I know it's nice and cool for the kids to aspire to live in the City, but we can't all live at Gracie Mansion, and Manhattan is Manhattan, which is to say, not affordable. Except, I suppose, that if those units ever do become available (ie, after remediation, litigation, a possible bankruptcy by one of the development partners, etc.), they may not be affordable from a cost to build perspective, but they may well be incredibly affordable from a demand-price perspective now that this has occurred.
