Though Tracey Towers, Norwood’s largest cooperative and the borough’s tallest buildings, is home to some 869 families, refurbishing the towers’ lone playground remained low on management’s priority list for years.

Sitting atop the towers’ parking garage, the aging centerpiece, a jungle gym, shows plenty of signs of wear and tear. Flaky and rusted, the gym stands unattractive and almost uninviting. A basketball court equipped with concrete risers, meantime, takes up half the rooftop. The playground and court’s sizes could barely accommodate the towers’ adolescent population.

“Forty-two years, people. We’ve been trying to get this done for 42 years. It was no easy thing to do,” Jean Hill, president of the Tracey Towers Tenants Association, said at a news conference. There, New York City Councilman Andrew Cohen, who covers Tracey Towers, announced a $200,000 investment into the playground. It’s Cohen’s latest round of allocations he’s given to parks.

“The community that has well-maintained parks makes people think this is a well-maintained neighborhood,” Cohen told the Norwood News.

The capital funds function more as a loan to RY Management, Tracey Towers’ management firm, which will front the cost of the project and later be reimbursed by the capital funds. Should the capital funds have been used in its normal capacity, five years from when they’re officially earmarked, construction on the project could have begun in 2021. In this case, the installation of new play equipment comprised of a slide, climbers and swing set is expected to be completed by spring 2017.

The development ends a decades-long fight by longtime residents to press RY Management to improve the playground’s condition. “Before we focused on the playground we needed to focus on the $26 million worth of renovations that took place,” Bob Vaccarello, RY Management’s property manager, said. Vaccarello referred to the Towers’ top-down renovation that began in 2012 following a massive rent hike.

“This is Phase Two of this project,” Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj, whose district covers Tracey Towers, said at the conference. “This will be the way to keep them close to home, in a safe environment.”

Though the association often clashes with management, Hill was quick to credit RY Management for stepping up to upgrade the playground. “Bumpy roads” aside, Hill admitted RY Management was more of a friend than foe this time out. Donele Harrison, a longtime resident of Tracey Towers, gave credit to Cohen, noting plenty of promises were made by other council members but never followed through until now.

“We have such an abundance of children at Tracey, this is like one of the best things that could happen,” Harrison said shortly after the conference.