Company says Parkview Apartment repairs don't require Russian parts

Exterior of Parkview Apartments on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023, in Albany, N.Y. A local plumbing supply company says the parts CRM Rental Management needs to address the lack of hot water in its building on 400 Hudson Ave. come from Texas, not overseas.

ALBANY — A local plumbing supply company says the parts CRM Rental Management needs to address the lack of hot water in its building at 400 Hudson Ave. come from Texas, not overseas.

Both tenants and the head of the city's codes department were previously told the two heat exchangers needed to restore full hot water service to the 12-story Parkview Apartments had to be ordered from Russia.

Tenants in the building, many on fixed incomes, have struggled with a lack of steady hot water for months, along with other issues. The city has cited the building several times and is pursuing codes cases in court.

The building's water is warmed by the heat exchangers, which are connected to large pipes within the water tank that run to the building's boiler. The boiler heats those pipes, which in turn, heats the water residents rely on for bathing and washing dishes.

In Parkview, the heat exchangers cracked, according to Rick LaJoy, head of the city's Buildings and Regulatory Compliance department. That meant that for some residents, especially those on upper floors, they needed to run their water for up to five minutes before it warmed up. Hot water also often ran out.

LaJoy said Tuesday that the contractor hired to fix the building's hot water problem explained that the needed parts had to be ordered from overseas.

The Times Union published an article Wednesday detailing how the city and Parkview tenants have struggled to force the building's management to make necessary changes. On Thursday, a representative from Robco Specialties, whom the contractor is working with on getting the parts, provided the timeline for getting the parts and said the supplies are coming from within the U.S.

Dave Heppelle, a technical service manager with Robco, said the contractor received a quote for one heat exchanger on April 3, and purchased it 15 days later. The second heat exchanger was ordered April 25. Both pieces were expected to be delivered six to eight weeks after being ordered.

In a statement Thursday, CRM Rental Management denied having ever told the contractor, or anyone else, the parts needed to be ordered from Russia.

For a custom-made piece of equipment like the heat exchangers, it often can take several weeks before it is available, even before the supply chain issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Heppelle said.

He added that Robco also offered to sell CRM Rental Management a replacement system with a high-efficiency, natural gas-powered hot water heater, which would have been available in less than a week.

Heppelle said he didn't understand why tenants and the city were told the parts needed to be ordered from Russia. He took it as a slap in the face to American manufacturing, he said.

On Thursday, LaJoy said he was simply happy the timeline for replacement had not been misrepresented and the problem will be addressed.

"I was afraid you were going to tell me the parts were sitting on a shelf somewhere," he said. "I would’ve gone and put them in myself."