CUNY selling posh $1.4 million home used by campus presidents

The City University of New York is selling off a $1.4 million Staten Island home it bought as a free housing perk for one of its college presidents, The Post has learned. 

The property is one of several CUNY is dumping in New York City. 

The university hired a broker and held an open house last weekend to sell the Tudor-style home in the tony Todt Hill neighborhood of Staten Island. 

The 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom 3,970-square-foot, two-story home with a two-car garage is listed for $1,425,000. The total lot is 10,000 square feet. 

A public notice for the sale boasted that it is “perfect for entertaining.” 

“It’s a very classic-looking house with oversized rooms,” said Susan Tell, a broker with Connie Profaci Realty, who is showing the property. 

“I did two open houses this weekend. We have several people interested.” 

The home, which housed the College of Staten Island president, is now vacant. 

CUNY said 5% of the sale price will be set aside for brokers’ commissions’ — 3% for its broker and 2% for the buyer’s broker.  

School officials also approved a plan to sell a condo unit at 1 Hanson Place — in the iconic Williamsburg Savings tower near the Barclays Center in Fort Greene. 

The university purchased the unit for $1.5 million in 2010 as a perk to house the former Medgar Evers College president Rudy Crew, a one-time New York City schools chancellor. It is now appraised at $3 million. 

CUNY spokesman Joseph Tirella said, “The Staten Island property on 35 Beebe St. is for sale. The property at 1 Hansen Place in Brooklyn is under contract.” 

CUNY provides “housing stipends” to its chancellor and college presidents to help pay their housing costs.

“Housing stipends are standard elements of executive compensation for colleges and universities throughout higher education and are necessary in recruiting and retaining the high-quality leadership critical to CUNY’s long-term success,” the CUNY spokesman said. 

CUNY college presidents get a $5,000 a month housing allowance. Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez gets a $7,500 monthly housing stipend. 

CUNY’s generous policy of providing free housing to its chancellor and campus presidents had long been a source of controversy, and discussions to unload the properties go back 20 years. 

The sale of CUNY-owned residences is long overdue, said one lawmaker. 

State Sen. Toby Stavitsky (D-Queens), who serves as a representative on CUNY’s Construction Fund, said, “CUNY shouldn’t be a landlord. CUNY is in the education business and shouldn’t be replacing light bulbs and doing maintenance repairs.” 

University officials said the cost to maintain the properties was a factor in moving to sell the properties. 

CUNY also is currently conducting its first-ever sweeping review to assess the value of all the university’s 300 buildings across the five boroughs for potential revenue opportunities. 

Tell said ironically it was Profaci Realty that initially sold the brick and stucco home on Bebee Street to CUNY. 

She said reached out to CUNY officials and put in a bid to sell the property after seeing a story in The Post last year that the university planned to sell the island property, along with others. 

Teller said “a lot of work” needs to be done to spruce up the property.