An aide to Council Speaker Christine Quinn is living large after helping push through the development of a Hell’s Kitchen luxury building — then landing a coveted affordable apartment there.
Danielle DeCerbo, 33, moved into Gotham West with her wife and their two children after her application for a “middle-income” pad was approved this summer.
Described by colleagues as a tenacious negotiator for the city, DeCerbo scored one of 682 affordable apartments — out of nearly 30,000 applicants — in a housing lottery after working on the West 45th Street development as a staffer on the council’s land-use division.
“For her to benefit from any project she negotiated or worked on, it’s just unseemly,” a political insider told The Post.
Another person with knowledge of the project said DeCerbo was “very much in the driver’s seat” during the years of bargaining over the four-building Gotham West complex.
“She was a regulator . . . and would be the one to put you in line if you would break ranks or do something that Quinn’s office did not like,” the source said.
The $520 million, 1,238-unit complex near 11th Avenue is the result of the 2005 Hudson Yards rezoning, which promised neighbors low-income housing in exchange for office and residential towers on Manhattan’s West Side.
DeCerbo, who earned $85,913 in 2012, also helped secure new offices and housing south of Gotham West, after Mayor Bloomberg’s push to build a football stadium failed.
Last September, the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development began taking applications for 682 low- and middle-income rental apartments at Gotham West.
DeCerbo was selected in the lottery for 530 W. 45th St. with wife Erin Kaiser, 34, a former aide to Manhattan Assemblyman Dick Gottfried who made $34,806 last year.
The affordable building includes a fitness center, children’s playroom, laundry room and courtyard space.
HPD and City Council representatives say DeCerbo won her apartment fair and square.
DeCerbo hung up on a Post reporter who called for comment.
“Danielle’s application was done in an entirely honest, forthcoming manner and any allegation stating otherwise is nothing more than a malicious attack on a dedicated, hardworking New Yorker,” a City Council spokeswoman said.
The lottery was conducted by third-party marketing agents hired by the developer.
An HPD spokesman said that out of 29,610 applications, DeCerbo’s application was picked at No. 728.
Since 48 applicants ahead of her were disqualified for not meeting income requirements, DeCerbo’s lucky number rose up the list and landed her one of the 682 pads.
Applicants had to meet one of four tiered income levels based on family size.
For a moderate- to middle-income, three-bedroom apartment, like DeCerbo’s, a family of four must make $99,875 to $136,950.
The monthly rent would be $2,836 to $3,483, according to the application.