Facade Restoration

Has anyone out there used the NYC Historic Preservation Fund as a lending resource for facade restoration work? If so we are interested in your experienc.
If not. DON’T DO IT!!!!!
We have had a horendous experience with them.
First the Trust ropes you in with promises of a low interest 5% fixed loan with a 5 year term, good deal??? Maybe. they provide you with a good faith estimate of closing cost and architectural fees related to the amount of the loan you are taking out. In our case, closing costs where cited as apprx. $3500 and architectural fees of $10,000.
So…we closed on the loan about a year and half ago, closing cost where almost double, nothing you can do, just sign the friggin papers… then we started searching for an architect, using the Fund’s list of suggested (by the way the Fund states, they can not vouch for any of these architects, although they do recommend them)
We contacted and interviewed 5 architects from their list. Received proposals for oh….$37,000, $35,000, what the freak, geezzz I could have sworn the Fund said architectural fees would be around $10K. SO now we have been suckered into this loan agreement with erroneous fee estimates from the loanee. Don’t worry this gets better. So we keep interviewing architects, we finally find one who will do the job for $14K including construction administration. Good. we checked her references, seemed to all check out fine. Signed her on in May 2, 2008 with with an AIA contract form and assurances from HER that she would have bid documents prepared and ready to go in 3 months max. So time goes by, she sent staff over to measure, July comes around, nothing, August comes around, nothing. We leave for summer vacation, return first week of September nothing. Oh get this!!!!!!!!!! during the summer and while we where on vacation the NYC Historic Preservation Fund uses our loan money to pay the f…kin architect 90% of her constuction documentation fees without consulting us, seaking our approval or consent..see next post