By Gus Saltonstall
A 17-story building on the Upper West Side has an elevator problem.
It has led to parents having to carry children up multiple flights of stairs, seniors and those with mobility issues having to choose whether they can leave their apartment, and emergency services being marooned in the lobby of the building.
The passenger elevator at 145 West 96th Street has not operated since August, 2025. The service elevator, which has operated as its replacement, has broken down approximately 30 times since January of this year. That equates to roughly once every ten days.
Why hasn’t the passenger elevator been repaired or replaced?
The owner of the building says it’s because of a lawsuit filed by a group of rent-stabilized and rent-controlled tenants in March of 2025, prohibiting the landlord from installing a brand-new, modern elevator in the building. The tenants claim that the installation of a new elevator would result in a “reduction of services.”
Here’s why.
The Upper West Side building is one of the few left in Manhattan that has a chauffeur-driven passenger elevator, which means there is an operator who rides in the elevator and moves it from floor to floor with a crank.
The above-mentioned tenants of the building sued the ownership on March 10, 2025, after the building announced it would be installing an automatic elevator and eliminating the elevator operators.
Tenants argue in the suit that elevator operators do more than control the elevator. The employees act as quasi-doormen to the building and also deliver packages to residents, according to statements from the court documents and made to West Side Rag.
“They are using the lawsuit as an excuse; they can settle at any time,” a resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from building ownership, told WSR. “They are cost-cutting and trying to make our building uninhabitable as a way to get rent-stabilized tenants out.”
The resident tracked how many times the service elevator has been out of commission this year, finding that it had been down on the following days in 2026:
- January 1
- February 4
- February 27
- April 20-26
- June 2
- August 1
- September 17
- For portions of October 26-27
This string of out-of-service days culminated at the end of October, when the service elevator was down for more than two weeks straight from October 28 through November 9.
“I am really concerned for my elderly neighbors and those with limited mobility,” the resident told the Rag, adding that ambulances had been called on days when there was no working elevator in the building, and parents had gotten accustomed to leaving their strollers in the lobby and carrying their children up flights of stairs.
On November 12, the service elevator again went out of service.
“A technician has been dispatched to inspect and repair the elevator as soon as possible,” reads a note from Tri-Hill Management, which manages the building, sent to tenants of 145 West 96th Street on November 12, acquired by WSR. “We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding.”
During the most recent extended period without a working elevator, Tri-Hill Management put out chairs and water bottles between floors so residents could rest and rehydrate as they made their way up.
Tri-Hill Management told West Side Rag that the passenger elevator has not been fixed because they are blocked from working on it while the lawsuit makes its way through the court system, and that the service elevator that has been used in the meantime is more than a century old.
“Because the elevator [service] is nearly 100 years old, we were forced to order a custom-fabricated part after the elevator failed last week,” Michael Dougherty, a property manager at Tri-Hill Management, wrote in an email to the Rag. “Although we want to install a new elevator, we have been continuously obstructed in our efforts to do so. We are extremely frustrated at this situation.
“We are ready, willing and able to install modern, new elevators in the building, but we have been stymied by a small group of tenants who have challenged us each step of the way,” he added, while also mentioning that he had literarily carried a senior resident up the stairs recently to their apartment. “We have a brand-new elevator cabin literally sitting in the basement of the building waiting to be installed. As soon as the court lifts its order and the State gives us final permission, we will replace the elevator.”
As of Friday morning, the service elevator remains out of operation.
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