Metro

People fleeing their UES neighborhood because of incoming trash transfer station

WHAT A BUNCH OF JUNK: “It’s such a beautiful little hamlet, and they’re going to destroy it,” says Dr. David Friedman, a gynecologist who rents at 1735 York Ave. but plans to leave as soon as his lease is up. (James Messerschmidt)

Upper Easter Siders are scrambling to sell their posh apartments before the city opens a gigantic waste-transfer station, bringing garbage trucks through the neighborhood 24 hours a day.

“The waste dump . . . and the stench and the hazard it poses, that was one of the major factors in the decision to move,” said Dr. Laurence Orbuch, who recently sold his family’s penthouse condo at 52 East End Ave.

That’s nearly 10 blocks away from the $240 million project on the East River at East 91st Street.

“We have small children, and we go to the park in the neighborhood, and the [idea of] garbage trucks rolling through the neighborhood 24/7, it put a damper on the serene nature of the neighborhood,” said Orbuch, who has lived in his home since 2004.

The doctor — who “had to come down in my price” in order to unload his four-bedroom apartment for $3.66 million — is also trying to sell his mother’s two-bedroom apartment at 531 E. 88th St.

Construction will begin this month on the 10-floor facility, which is expected to open in 2015.

It will become Manhattan’s only waste-transfer plant, receiving up to 500 truckloads of junk every day.

Locals dread the traffic congestion, diesel fumes and smell of rubbish they say will follow.

If she’s able to sell, Orbuch’s mother would join four other residents of her 25-unit building in fleeing the neighborhood before construction begins on the plant.

That means 20 percent of units in her building have either sold or been put up for sale since September, records show.

“The building is having difficulty selling because of the [waste-treatment project],” said Jessica Levine, a broker for Douglas Elliman.

“I sold three apartments in this building. I took over the listing from two other agents who had trouble selling.”

That’s been the case for Olga Arandia, a 74-year-old retiree who has lived for 17 years at 200 East End Ave.

She’s been trying to sell her four-bed, three-bath unit for the past year, and “one of the reasons is because of the marine terminal,” she said, using the local nickname for the project.

Even though her apartment is “lovely, with a beautiful view,” Arandia had to lower her asking price by $100,000 from $2.75 million because potential buyers were concerned about the waste plant.

“The only objection they have is to the marine terminal,” she said, adding that the project is “going to ruin the neighborhood.”

And her neighbor Benjamin Hartman, 51, said he and his wife will sell their apartment because the waste-transfer project is “going to crater the property values in the area.”

“It’s the lines and idling trash trucks. I’m very concerned about the traffic increases,” said Hartman, who works as a chief technology officer. “We figure it’s better to move out sooner rather than later.”

Even brokers have had deals fall through, once buyers realize the plant will be so close by.

“It could have the potential to annihilate the market,” said Victoria Terri-Cote, vice president of Corcoran real estate.

“People are distressed about the impact it’s going to have on their investment in the property that they currently have, and how they’re going to sell it.”

An analysis by the real-estate Web site StreetEasy shows that the median sale price of residential property in Yorkville is down 11 percent from the 2008 median price.

That’s a bigger drop than the 9.2 percent across Manhattan during the same period.

“It’s scaring people,” said Phyllis Gallaway, a senior VP with Sotheby’s, who added that she has had buyers who “backed out because of the station.”

Even people who rent in the neighborhood — and were looking to buy — canceled their plans.

“I was going to buy in this neighborhood . . . but I won’t now,” said Dr. David Friedman, a gynecologist who rents at 1735 York Ave., at 90th Street.

“It’s such a beautiful little hamlet, and they’re going to destroy it.”

But Mayor Bloomberg’s spokesman John McCarthy said, “There was an active transfer facility in the same exact location for nearly half a century until 1999, and the neighborhood prospered.”