Having failed to sell the nation's largest federally subsidized complex for big profits, Starrett City Associates have settled on a proposal to refinance the 140-acre Brooklyn complex for a profit of $200 million, far less than the $1.3 billion offered by one buyer in 2007. (That deal was shot down by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.) Under the new plan, the owners would refinance the complex for roughly $500 million, or 80% of its value. About half of that sum would be used to pay off the owners' interest-free mortgage and other fees, while some $40 million would go toward capital improvements. Senator Chuck Schumer called the proposal "a way out of the woods" for Starrett City's 14,000 tenants and promised it would keep the 5,881 apartments at affordable rates for at least the next 30 years. Ismene Speliotis at community group New York Acorn expressed "cautious optimism" about the plan, but told the Times yesterday, "I’m hopeful we’ll get there so that this can be a model for preserving affordability at Mitchell-Lama buildings throughout the state. But we’re not there yet."