[Editor’s Note > Since this article was published the morning of Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, Alma Realty at 4:45 p.m. Friday emailed a notification to tenants, telling them that, as a temporary measure, space heaters will be distributed by maintenance staff while work is underway on the installation of a temporary boiler. In its message to residents, Alma Realty wrote, “In acknowledgement of the disruption experienced, management will be providing a one-month rent concession for February 2026 for all residents.” It did not specify what form the concession will take. Peekskill Herald will update the situation in its weekly Newsworthy Notes, published by 11 a.m. Monday, Jan. 26.]
With a significant snowstorm forecasted this weekend, tenants of Park Place Tower at 1108 Brown Street in Peekskill are voicing concerns over lack of heat and hot water in their building.
Tenants reported to the Peekskill Herald waking up without heat on Thursday, Jan. 22, just a week after heat was restored to the building following a reported five consecutive days (Jan. 8 to Jan. 12) without heat or hot water. It also follows another reported outage earlier this week.
One thermometer (shared in a photo with the Herald) registered 62 degrees at 10:10 a.m. on Jan. 22, less than the 68 degrees minimum required by state law.
(According to New York State: “In general the State Property Maintenance Code requires the provision of heat from Sept. 15 through May 31 at the minimum temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit in all habitable rooms, bathrooms and toilet rooms.”)
Fabrizio Villalta of Alma Realty, which owns the building (that opened in 2024), told the Herald on the phone on Thursday that a boiler technician was trying to diagnose the problem, noting it appeared to be a separate issue altogether from the boiler malfunction the prior week.
On Friday morning, Jan. 23, Villalta provided another update around 9 a.m., saying the heat is expected to be restored today and that the issue comes from a bad heating exchanger.
“Yesterday we finalized everything we needed in order to get a temporary boiler there today,” Villalta said. “It should be delivered within the next hour hopefully and then we’re going to do all the hookups to run into our current equipment. This way you can restore the heat and hot water source of the building.”
As of this writing (10:15 a.m. Jan. 23), the building remains without heat.
About eight tenants shared their frustrations with the Herald. They spoke of a family having to sleep in the same room to keep warm; not being able to bathe without boiling water; having to make accommodations to stay and shower elsewhere; not being able to do dishes with hot water; and having to use space heaters.
“I know it sounds like third world problems, but it feels life altering,” said one tenant, who declined to share their name. “You wake up in the morning to go to work all day and you go to take a hot shower. And [now] you can’t… The anxiety that I personally am feeling, knowing we have a big storm coming on Sunday and Monday, and possibly no heat, is kind of scary.”
Tenants also shared concerns over what they say is continued lack of communication from management when heat goes out in the building. Tenant Sabina Flagg said that tenants rely on each other for information.
“We have a group chat going and a lot of people will just say, ‘Oh, woke up. No heat, no hot water,’” Flagg said. “So that’s how we kind of inform each other within the building. [It] went out that morning on Jan. 9 and then we all were like, ‘Oh, we’re expecting a notice from the building.’ [But there was] Nothing for about a day.”
The current issue follows several complaints reported by tenants in the fall of 2025, including security, quality of life, and communication with management.
For the most recent outage on Jan. 22, which, according to one tenant, started at about 1 a.m., management sent a notice to tenants in an email around 2:40 p.m.
Asked on Jan. 22 about communication when issues occur, Villata said, “Generally, we send an announcement to residents, notifying them. We were made aware that the announcement we had pushed out earlier didn’t go through. So we sent it out about an hour ago again and this time it did go through.”
As a result of reported outages from Jan. 8 to Jan. 12, tenants said they were reimbursed for four days with credit to heat and water concession in February.
In an email to tenant Flagg, City of Peekskill Mayor Vivian McKenzie wrote that she was asking the Building Department to address several complaints the city received about the lack of heat and hot water. She also said residents can contact the Westchester County Department of Health in Mount Kisco for assistance on such matters.
An inspector with the building department did not respond for comment as of this writing (11;26 a.m., Friday, Jan. 23).
In a phone call, Councilwoman Kathleen Talbot shared concerns over the issue due to the upcoming freezing weather forecast.
“It’s terrible that you pay all that money for a housing and it’s supposed to be ‘luxuriant,’” Talbot told the Herald. “It’s not luxurious to have 62 degrees in your apartment and no hot water.”
The market rate rental apartment with eight floors and 181 units opened in spring 2024. It received approvals in 2017 and broke ground in 2019, with an initial target open date in the spring of 2021. It experienced several hurdles, including being required to remediate contaminated soil and stopping work due to the pandemic.
Alma Realty was sued by New York City in 2023 over allegations of thousands of open code violations and unsanitary conditions in 13 buildings.
Some of the worst conditions included deteriorating facades, defective electrical wiring, missing fire doors, lead-based paint hazards, and infestations of rats and mice, according to New York City officials. An attorney for Alma Realty denied the allegations charged in the city lawsuit.
