As a construction deadline passed, the Board of Alders gave Carabetta Enterprises an extra 18 months to break ground on a 399-apartment addition to its senior housing complex.
The company won that permission Monday at the full Board of Alders meeting.
The Bella Vista complex at 339 Eastern St. currently serves about 2,000 senior citizens and people with disabilities in five high-rises that loom high over the east side of town.
Carabetta Enterprises, which owns the complex, won city zoning approval in April of 2011 to build 399 new apartments in two new towers on the same property. It was the culmination of a months-long process that included numerous public hearings on the $150 million plan.
Carabetta was supposed to start building within 18 months of the approval of its detailed plans by the City Plan Commission, reported Alder Jessica Holmes Monday.
“This was not done,” she said.
Alders granted Carabetta one 18-month extension, which is expiring. So alders granted it a second 18-month extension in the hopes that the project will finally get going.
Fair Haven Heights Alder Barbara Constantinople, who lives at Bella Vista, rose in support of the extension, which won unanimous approval.
Do they need more time to make it even uglier?