IMore than two dozen concerned residents packed into a cramped Community Board 1 meeting room last month in hopes of learning details about a new development in their neighborhood-a 50-story residential tower planned for the parking lot on Spruce Street next to N.Y.U. Downtown Hospital. They were met by a single lawyer from the hospital, which owns the lot, and he was short on specifics.

"I don't have any prepared presentation to give you because I didn't realize, and in fact no one at the hospital realized until about an hour and a half ago, that this was on the agenda tonight," said the attorney, Stephen Lefkowitz. He made it clear, however, that the sale of the site to a developer, Forest City Ratner, was necessary for the hospital's survival.

"The hospital has not for some while, if ever, been in a strong financial condition," he said.

Representatives from Forest City Ratner also were invited to the meeting but they did not show up.

Board members and residents attending the meeting were frustrated by the lack of information.

"It's not just a general quality of life issue," said a 20-year resident of the area. "We could be enhanced by the property, we could be left kind of even, or we could be crushed by the property. Our property values could go from pretty good to zip."

While the community board is powerless to stop the project (the building is not subject to a public review), Paul Goldstein, the district's manager, was insistent that hospital officials and representatives from the developer attend a public forum in the near future to discuss their plans.

Goldstein told the Trib late last month that he was hopeful such a meeting could be scheduled in May, but said nothing had been finalized with the developer or the hospital.

A spokeswoman for Forest City Ratner said she could not discuss details of the site plans, including the new building's projected height.

A spokeswoman with the city's Housing Development Corporation said Forest City Ratner had applied for $131.4 million in tax-exempt Liberty Bond financing for the tower's residential portion, which will include 370 apartments and is projected to cost $210 million. Liberty Bonds were created after Sept. 11 to promote residential and commercial development Downtown.