Abandoned Office Furniture Stir Rumors About 55 Hanson's Fate

resurfaced this week as piles of discarded furniture continued to be spotted outside the office building named for longtime Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

Among the items left in two dumpsters on the S. Elliott side of the building were office chairs, desks, tables and wire baskets—all available for the taking.

In January, state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery sounded the alarm about a possible sale of the building, a possibility she said "continues the wasteful pattern of selling state buildings and then renting space from state offices to private developers."

But a spokeswoman for the state Office of General Services, the agency responsible for the building, denied that a sale was imminent.

"As part of the administration’s ongoing effort to reimagine state government operations, we have been developing a strategy to manage all of our real estate assets statewide, including this building," Groll wrote in January. "Our goal is to maximize the use of space, and minimize costs for New York State taxpayers."

The building currently houses several state offices, including that of Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, D-Fort Greene.

Calls and emails to OGS for an update on plans for 55 Hanson were not immediately returned.

The discarded office furniture, some of it in decent condition, was a boon to everyday residents and scrap metal collectors like Ozzie Ott of Ro & Oz Scrap Finders.

"There's a lot of good stuff in here," Ott said as he pulled pieces of metal into his van parked outside the building on Thursday.