What's going on at the LaGuardia Airport Hotel?

I got some info this weekend from a tipster who has proven accurate in the past. Connect the dots, if you will.

"SM ROUNDERS, LLC" was formed in January 2014.

In February 2014, STW LaGuardia LLC, located at the same address as SM Rounders, purchased the LaGuardia Airport Hotel for $20.5M.

In August 2014, STW applied for permits from the DOB to alter the building and change the C of O. Most noteworthy is that
1) they are trying to change the classification from "hotel" to "dormitory" and
2) the icing on the cake -

Dwelling Units:
Existing: 209
Proposed: 592

The plans were rejected by a plan examiner in October, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they get their ducks in a row and get approved for what looks very much like it may be an SRO.

The LaGuardia Airport Hotel's website is no longer active. It doesn't even say "coming soon".

Elected officials representing this property:

Julissa Ferreras
Jeffrion Aubry
Jose Peralta

and drumroll please......

Joseph Crowley

DeBlasio proposes corporate tax reform

From the Epoch Times:

Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a major reform of New York City’s corporate tax structure Monday. If enacted, it would be the biggest tax shift since the 1940s.

The reforms would ease the burden on small business owners and manufacturers, while raising taxes on a small number of large companies through broadening the city’s overall tax base. Overall the plan is revenue neutral, meaning that the city budget will be little affected, according to a statement from the mayor’s office.

The plan has bipartisan support, according to officials, and comes after years of complaints from small business owners upset with the current tax systems.

Some small businesses could see a benefit of about $2,000 a year.

Small non-manufacturing businesses with less than $1 million in net income would see their tax rates reduced from 8.85 percent to 6.5 percent. Annually, that would add up to an average benefit of nearly $800, according to the press release.

Small manufacturers with less than $10 million in net income would reap an average annual benefit of nearly $5,300, as their tax rate would fall from 8.85 percent to 4.425 percent. Larger manufacturers, with incomes between $10 million and $20 million, would get a smaller rate reduction.

Why should he follow his own rules?

From The Real Deal:

Governor Andrew Cuomo has become the biggest beneficiary of a loophole in New York State’s campaign finance regulations that allows businesses and individuals to donate large amounts of money to politicians. The lion’s share of the donations appears to be coming from real estate developers.

The loophole in question allows limited liability companies, or LLCs, to give up to $150,000 a year to candidates and political committees. In comparison, the ceiling for corporations is $5,000.

Because developers typically establish an LLC for individual properties, they are able to easily take advantage of the loophole, according to a new report by ProPublica.

The data shows Governor Cuomo has raised $6.2 million from LLCs since he took office in 2011. That’s more than double the amount Eliot Spitzer and David Patterson received from LLCs in their combined four years in office, reports ProPublica.

Governor Cuomo’s top real estate donor is Glenwood Management, with $800,000 contributed through 19 LLCs, according to ProPublica.

The report also cites two donations from Extell Development worth $100,000. Those gifts came two days before the governor signed legislation that awarded Extell and four other developers tax breaks for projects, including Extell’s One57.

Is that all?

From the Daily News:

Campaign finance violations have run rampant while toothless state authorities do nothing to enforce the law, a scathing new report reveals.

The report from the New York Public Interest Research Group found that candidates, political committees and their contributors broke the law more than 103,805 times between between January 2011 and January 2013, while the state Board of Elections did little more than send warning letters to offenders.

Among violators are 346 corporations that donated more than the state’s annual $5,000 limit.

Quinn to support tweeding bill

From the NY Times:

Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker and an expected candidate for mayor next year, is supporting a change to New York City’s campaign finance rules that would significantly expand the ability of unions, corporations and advocacy groups to spend money on behalf of local candidates.

The bill, to be introduced on Monday, would allow those outside groups to work directly with candidates on their internal political communications with members — including phone calls and door knocking tours, although not large-scale mailings — without the costs counting against the candidates’ spending limits.

Critics said the measure, introduced nine months ahead of what is expected to be a closely contested mayoral race, would effectively outsmart the city’s stringent campaign finance system, which tries to rein in spending by interest groups and candidates alike.

In a strongly worded statement on Friday, the city’s Campaign Finance Board said the legislation “would open a gaping loophole” in the city’s regulations, “eviscerate” limits on coordinated spending by outside groups and “allow unions and corporations to operate above the law.”

“A change of this magnitude has never before been proposed this late in the four-year election cycle,” the board said in a memorandum marked “Urgent.”

But supporters of the bill, including civil libertarians and some of the state’s biggest grass-roots advocacy groups, said the measure was intended to guarantee the First Amendment rights of unions and other organizations to speak freely about political matters with their members.