City: Knockdown Center investors "lack good character, honesty and integrity"

The Knockdown Center has a long way to go to clean up its act, but at least they're off to a slow start. The tarp covering the derelict scooter sitting outside their property has disappeared (but the scooter hasn't). Also now gone are 2 of the 3 illegal signs that were hanging on the fence.

Anyway, the posts I have authored about the Knockdown Center up to this point have been focused on the behavior that has gone on at the location and its physical condition. This time, I'm going to tell you about the main investors in the property - Tony and Gina Argento, who also happen to be owners of Broadway Stages in Greenpoint. Here's how certain elected officials feel about them:

From the Times Newsweekly:

City Council Member Helen Sears...vouched for [Tony] Argento as a “responsible” individual who “cares for the area.”

From the Daily News:

“I have known the owners for a long time. They also do good philanthropic work.” - Council Member Elizabeth Crowley

From Brooklyn USA:

"AND OF COURSE, THERE’S THE SIBLING SUPER DUO BEHIND BROADWAY STAGES, TONY – AND AS TONY KNOWS, MY FAVORITE – GINA ARGENTO, WHO ARE BOTH SO DEDICATED TO BROOKLYN’S FUTURE." - Borough President Marty Markowitz

But the glowing praise offered by Council Member Steve Levin takes the cake:

"When you talk about who gives back, between Tony and Gina and Paul, you're talking about 90% of what makes this community work sometimes."

Levin was speaking on behalf of Chris Olechowski, present Chair of CB1, Brooklyn at a fundraiser hosted by those lauded. (When Vito Lopez' proteges are praising someone, watch out!)

However, the Argentos are not as saintly as our elected representatives would like us to believe. Here's a dose of reality:

Luna Lighting Inc Denial

In case you don't have time to sift through the entire document, allow me to highlight the most relevant sections:



Somehow, caring for the area, doing good philanthropic work, being dedicated to Brooklyn's future and giving back 90% of what makes a community work seem to be lacking here. It's more like "see what you can get away with before getting caught, and then attempt damage control." It's what happened with Luna Lighting, and it's what's been happening at the Knockdown Center.

Speaking of which, just last Friday, the KDC received their blessing from the Dept of Buildings for a 5,000-person Place of Assembly as a gallery/exhibition hall, after supposedly having "withdrawn" the application.

CB5 was allegedly told that the reason for the initial rejection of their alteration permit was because KDC underestimated the cost of the work at $10,000. When questioned at a public hearing, KDC manager Tyler Myers stated that it was an "erroneous error" and would definitely be correct on the resubmitted paperwork. Owner David Sklar stated within the first 30 seconds of the below video that renovations would likely cost anywhere from $100,000 to $500,000:


Yet the second cost affadavit estimated the work at a paltry $25,000.

1) The Cost Affidavit requires the applicant to attest to the accuracy of the applicant’s estimate of the construction costs, which is the basis for the fees assessed by the DOB in connection with the application.
2) As the home renovation blog "Beating Upwind" states, "Normally [the Dept of Finance] is limited in how much they can jump your property taxes, but when you do substantial improvements that is the one time they’re allowed to bump the taxes up substantially – but only by the amount of improvements to the property."

Say no more.

Despite the ridiculous discrepancy between what the owner estimated his cost to be at the CB5 hearing and what was submitted on paper, DOB approved the application. I guess when the mayor schleps all the way to the rooftop of the main investors' place of business to hold press conferences, the Commissioner of DOB poses with them for photos, and local electeds are fawning over them, they're probably going to get what they ask for from DOB.

Keep in mind that these are people Liz Crowley considers to be "good friends" and is actively working to help them obtain a liquor license to open a 5,000-person capacity rave center across the street from her constituents' homes.

Still too many mobsters in the garbage industry

From the NY Post:

A rogue’s gallery of would-be businessmen hoping to win a city license to operate as a waste hauler is rejected each year by the Business Integrity Commission because of their shady past or mob ties.

And you should hear their whining.

The city’s BIC, which regulates 2,000 individuals, rejects about 4 percent of applicants in its mission to keep the corruption-prone industry free of bad apples and the Mafia, officials say. The agency also weeds out questionable would-be vendors from municipal markets.

BIC officials say the need for vigilance remains strong.

Earlier this month, the NYPD and FBI rounded up 32 alleged mobsters tied to the Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese families who were purportedly involved in the garbage-hauling industry.

They were accused of maintaining a grip on carting companies in the greater metro area, often by masking their involvement through figures who front for them.

None were licensed by the BIC, officials said.

Kept on payroll after she left

From the Daily News:

The outgoing boss of Mayor Bloomberg’s Business Integrity Commission gave his private secretary three hefty raises — even as he managed to keep her off the city payroll.

Mike Mansfield, who was in charge of driving the mob out of city businesses, gave secretary Hope Kennedy three raises in just seven months, pumping up her salary nearly 60%, the Daily News has learned. Mansfield, who is leaving the commission for a private-sector job, was able to hide the pay-raise trifecta by making Kennedy his chief of staff — yet keeping her on the payroll of the Queens district attorney.

Kennedy’s salary climbed from $68,000 to $108,000 during seven months, records show. The raises were hidden because Kennedy continued to be paid as an employee of the Queens DA’s office even after she left her job there, in an arrangement that appears to be unique in the city. By doing this, Kennedy also was able to dodge residency rules that require all Business Integrity Commission employees to live in the city.

Instead, unlike everyone else in the BIC office who lived in the city, Kennedy’s home is on Long Island.

Mafia infiltrated East Side Access project

From the NY Times:

On most weekdays in recent years, giant tractor-trailer and dump trucks loaded with tons of rocks, earth and sludge have been rumbling out of the Sunnyside, Queens, railyards in low gear and turning onto Northern Boulevard.

It is lucrative work, especially in an economy where there has been a substantial downturn in construction. But the company doing the hauling, New York Dirt Contracting, a subcontractor that has been paid more than $2 million for its work on the project since 2007, is winding down its operation, though the undertaking is far from completed.

That is because the city’s Business Integrity Commission has concluded that the company has been too cozy with organized crime figures and revoked its authority to do business in the five boroughs, an action that was endorsed by a State Supreme Court justice last month.

The decision was based in part on affidavits and wiretaps that detail a clandestine meeting in a nursing home between company officials and an influential mob figure, who boasted that he had helped them get a contract on another huge public works job in the city and arranged for them to dump debris from it in a Westchester cemetery. The company’s owner denied wrongdoing.