Timmy Shin/Staff Photographer The former empty office building at 20 Hawley St. is not ready to open for new student housing for the fall 2011 semester as planned. Difficulty in removing asbestos was cited as a major cause for delay.
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For the hundreds of students who planned to live in the newly developed 20 Hawley St. housing complex next year, Parade Day weekend began with an unexpected twist. The project has been delayed, and there will be no student housing at the site until fall 2012.

Kathleen Labarre, property manager of the 20 Hawley St. complex, sent an e-mail Friday morning to students who had booked one of the building’s 204 apartments containing a letter signed by the building’s owners, Alan and Alfred Weissman, notifying them that the apartments would not be available for the fall.

“With great personal disappointment we must inform you that due to an unexpected delay in the removal of the asbestos in the building, we will be unable to offer you a lease at 20 Hawley St. for the 2011 fall semester,” the Weissmans stated in the letter.

They cited “numerous factors beyond our control” as the cause of the delay in the asbestos removal.

Calls to Labarre, her assistant and the company that owns the property, Alfred Weissman Real Estate, were not returned Friday and Monday.

Labarre sent additional e-mails throughout the weekend stating that she was continuing to work through issues, including reimbursing the application fee and security deposit, as well as assisting clients with finding alternate housing.

In an e-mail sent Monday, Labarre announced plans to provide housing in a Downtown hotel.

“We have arranged for rooms to be available at the Binghamton Riverwalk Hotel for the discounted monthly rate of $600 per person, two students per room,” Labarre said.

She also said this would include the room, maid service, use of the hotel’s gym and pool, free TV, free Internet and a continental breakfast.

“Students will have to follow all rules of the hotel and will not be allowed to congregate in the lobby. A separate lounge will be set up in the building for student use,” she said. “Occupancy will be for the 2011-12 school year, so move out would be in May 2012.” Labarre added that students would be able to move out at anytime if they procure alternate housing arrangements.

Development of 20 Hawley St. began last fall to turn what was then an empty office building into an apartment complex. According to 20 Hawley St.’s website, the apartment complex will include a gym, movie theater and underground parking for residents.

The building, which bills itself as “the newest luxury student housing project in Binghamton,” will offer one to five-bedroom apartments, priced from $750 to $850 per month per student.

The owners’ letter promised all prospective renters that their security deposits and application fees would be fully refunded. But some students who planned to live at 20 Hawley St. were disappointed at how the delay unfolded.

Marc Katz, a junior majoring in biology who planned to live in the new building, said he had been excited to move out of his current apartment to 20 Hawley St.

“It’s much cleaner, it’s much nicer,” Katz said. “It’s more expensive but we were willing to pay for it.”

Katz currently lives at the Tau Alpha Upsilon fraternity house located at 44 Exchange St. Now that 20 Hawley St. will not open in the fall, he said he plans to stay in the TAU house.