Judge Blocks Bid to Halt Demolition of Chelsea-Elliot NYCHA Apartments

A judge has shot down a lawsuit seeking to halt a project that is set to demolish the Fulton & Chelsea-Elliott Houses, the historic 18-building NYCHA complex, in order to build a new mixed-income development.

The project is being pursued by NYCHA in partnership with the private developer Related Co., and city officials say that temporarily displaced residents would be offered affordable units on a “one-to”one basis” in any new development; there are currently over 2,000 existing units in the NYCHA complex.

It’s also slated to add 2,500 new market-rate apartments and 1,000 new “affordable” ones, the rent of which is determined by a metric known as median area income. In total, the complex would contain more than 5,000 units, some concentrated in tall towers.

Officials have said that the costs of repairing the existing housing stock at the complex would cost around $2 billion, the same as the cost to pursue the demolish-and-replace project.

Tenant advocates, such as the community activist and District 3 City Council candidate Layla-Law Gisiko, have disputed those figures; she claimed that the real costs of repairing the existing stock would come out at around $1.5 billion, versus $2.5 billion to pursue the Related Co. development.

Then-Mayor Eric Adams ultimately supported the overhaul, moving it forward. Current Mayor Zohran Mamdani has not taken a position on it, although some tenants have called on his administration to come out against the project.

Tom Duane, who represented the area in the NY State Senate between 1999 and 2012, served as lead plaintiff in the suit that ran into serious headwinds on Jan 22.

As first reported by Crain’s New York Business, New York State Supreme Court Judge David Cohen ruled that the suit—which argued that NYCHA should retain sole ownership of the Chelsea-Elliott Houses under a 2010 law—had been filed too late.

Cohen therefore refused to grant an injunction that could have halted the project, which Duane has indicated he will be appealing. “Plaintiffs have known that the demolition at issue is imminent since at least November 25, 2025,” Cohen wrote.

The Chelsea-Elliott Houses are technically separate from the Fulton Houses, although halting their destruction would have clearly thrown a wrench in the entire demolish-and-replace project.

According to Crain’s, an attorney for NYCHA told Judge Cohen at a hearing last week that she anticipated federal approval for the overhaul project “any day,” indicating that Duane’s appeal faces even tougher odds.

Crain’s further noted that critics of the overhaul had shown up to that hearing by the “dozens,” where they burst into a rendition of John Lennon’s song “Power to the People.”

Duane and Law-Gisiko also hosted a Jan. 14 rally, which was attended by Chelsea News. Duane called the overhaul a “well-intentioned project that went way off the track.”

Some residents spoke of their opposition to the demolition plans in strikingly personal terms. Doris Ruffin, 67, said that being repeatedly asked to move out of the complex—in anticipation of the project—had made her battle with cancer more difficult.

“Continue to fight. Fight on,” Ruffin said.