Terrace on the Park contract up for bid

From the Queens Courier:

Terrace on the Park operators want to upgrade the facility and are looking to get a new lease on the popular and historic Flushing Meadows-Corona Park catering hall to do so.

Their contract with the city’s Parks Department expires next March, officials said.

The department has issued a new Request for Proposals (RFP) for the 52-11 111th Street site.

“While the current concessionaire has invested more than $8 million in capital improvements, exceeding the requirements of their license agreement, it is clear that additional infrastructure investments are needed,” a Parks spokesperson said.

George Makkos, co-owner of Terrace on the Park, said they have invested $12 million so far to better the catering hall.

But the 100,000-square-foot building needs “millions” of dollars more in capital improvements which cannot be done under the looming lease expiration date, Makkos said.

“Given the size and complexity of the building, the money that we will need to spend will never be recovered in the time, in the lease that we have left,” he said.

Makkos said he and co-owner Jimmy Kaloidis want to retain and upgrade the catering hall.

Here's more on the current owner:

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/pushcart-emperors-live-high-pay-article-1.552540

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/food_filth_fight_goes_round_round_3pdSFZ9AHQUXsdBPwFUO3O

http://www.citylimits.org/news/article_print.cfm?article_id=3019

http://www.ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/press-releases/archived/nov23a_04_attach1.pdf

Shafran carries on a proud Halloran tradition

Shafran & Krinsky

From the NY Post:

Months after beautiful news anchor Molly Rokasy and Queens power broker Austin Shafran married, she claims, he left her for a state employee who’s steadily risen in the government ranks.

Shafran, a City Council candidate, fell in love with then-news assistant Rokasy after meeting her at a 2006 press conference. Three years later, he proposed to her with a 2.5-carat diamond ring.

Shafran, 33, vowed a lifetime of love to the gorgeous journalist, 30, now the news anchor at The Bronx and Brooklyn’s News 12.

The cable-TV anchorwoman and the politician married at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Aug. 21, 2010, then headed to Times Square for romantic snapshots.

At a lavish reception held at the towering Terrace on the Park in Queens, the Rockettes kicked their long gams to welcome the glittering guests, including state Sens. Malcolm Smith and John Sampson, local Teamsters President Greg Floyd and Chaz Bono.

But Shafran’s commitment didn’t last long, his ex-wife alleged in divorce documents.

Shafran met fellow Democratic operative Jennifer Krinsky when they both went to work on Queens state Sen. Tony Avella’s campaign in the summer of 2010.
By March 2011, just eight months after the nuptials, Shafran, then the spokesman for state Senate Democrats, began working with Krinsky, the office’s new social-media coordinator.

“They were working much closer together,” a political source said.

Krinsky went from making $37,986 annually as a community liaison for state Sen. Liz Krueger to earning $44,980 as the person in charge of new media for the Democrats.

A source said Rokasy discovered lengthy late-night calls between her husband and Krinsky.

In October 2011, Shafran packed his bags and moved out, court papers say. He initiated the divorce.

Shafran says he began dating Krinsky only after the separation.

Council Members act clueless at park hearing

From the Daily News:

Hundreds of millions of dollars are being generated each year in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park by big-money operations like the Mets, but Queens lawmakers say the park isn’t getting its slice of the pie.

The Mets and the U.S. Tennis Association pay a total of $2.5 million to lease their sites from the city. Meanwhile, the 900-acre park operates on $11.6 million in city funds and counts only 18 full-time city maintenance workers.

“It’s incredibly frustrating that this city has not identified a way to have our park be able to collect on the revenue it generates,” said City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst), who called a Council hearing on Friday to address the lack of city funding to help pay for the park’s upkeep.

Ferreras said during the packed hearing that she is in talks with the city to create a public-private alliance — similar to the Central Park Conservancy — to fund much of the maintenance of the nearly 900-acre park, which is surrounded by predominantly immigrant and low-income communities.

Ferreras would like to fill the coffers of the alliance with private donations and a cut of the almost $7 million in annual concession fees and rents that are paid by the businesses and stadiums in the park.

Queens officials and parks advocates blasted the city after learning Citi Field pays only about $155,000 a year to lease its Flushing Meadows site from the city. That amount is slated to jump to $400,000 in 2014.

The U.S. Tennis Association, which hosts the U.S. Open in the park, pays roughly $2.4 million a year.

Meanwhile, Terrace on the Park, a banquet hall in Flushing Meadows, pays the city roughly $2.5 million a year.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Park Advocates. Citi Field is “clearly not paying their fair share.”

City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) said, “there’s something fishy in those numbers.”

“It sounds to me like Citi Field and the USTA are getting off really easy,” added Vallone, who said he will introduce a bill requiring all park conservancies with more than $5 million of annual income to give 20% to maintain other needy city parks.

So let me get this straight... The City Council voted to give the Mets a sweetheart deal when they came to them for permission to build a new stadium, yet now this same legislative body is shocked that the Mets have a sweetheart deal? Nice try, but we weren't born yesterday. And what difference does it make how much rent each entity pays under the current system? It goes into the general fund and hardly any of it goes back to Flushing Meadows anyway.

Hey City Council, how about DOING YOUR JOB by budgeting adequate funding for ALL city parks as you are required to, so there will be no need to further privatize our parks or have dog-and-pony show hearings?

Meanwhile, we have Parks Commissioner Veronica White, who conveniently skipped the FMCP hearing, telling Brian Lehrer (at about 14:00) that Parks chose to fund the High Bridge instead.

New operator for Caffe on the Green

From the Queens Courier:

Patrizia’s of Bayside, the former site of Caffe on the Green and Valentino’s on the Green, has found a new operator, according to Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski.

“We are very excited that a new concessionaire will be operating the former Valentino’s on the Green and look forward to the reopening,” said Lewandowski.

The new operator, 123 Restaurant Group is owned by George Makkos and Paul Nicaji. the pair who run the successful Battery Gardens restaurant in Battery Park. Makkos is also the operator of Terrace on the Park, located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

Tweeding on the Park?

From A Walk in the Park:

The city has finally announced the compensation it will receive from the controversial new Tavern On the Green and not surprisingly it is far less than what it was previously offered, NYC Park Advocates has learned.

The fees to be paid to the city begin at just $1,000,000 a year and rise to $3,273,000 for the final year totaling $ 38.7 million over the twenty year agreement.

By comparison, Jennifer Leroy whose family had operated the iconic eatery since 1974 - agreed to pay the city $86 million in fees over a 20-year lease according to financial documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Law. Mayor Bloomberg rejected that proposal two years ago and instead awarded the license to Dean Poll who offered $57.3 million. Mr. Poll, who runs the nearby Boathouse Cafe - was unable to open the restaurant.

In addition to losing tens of million of dollars in lost revenue the City is also spending $ 10 million dollars in capital improvements fixing up the building for the new concessionaire who will then build out the space. The dramatic renovation has completely gutted the property.

The Bloomberg administration awarded the twenty-year Central Park bar and restaurant concession to the Philadelphia-based Emerald Green Group, where Jim Caiola, a brother-in-law of ex-deputy mayor - and current Bloomberg LP. employee Kevin Sheekey - is a partner. Mr. Sheekey is also the older brother of former Parks Department spokeswoman Megan Sheekey who was appointed by Bloomberg as the president of the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City.

I think an investigation is in order.

History of Terrace on the Park

From the NY Times:

...Terrace on the Park may be best known for the view from the outside, hard to miss from Queens highways: four conjoined, 120-foot, T-shaped towers, which are a dramatic leftover from the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.

The building’s roof was a Port Authority helipad and turned the structure into the fair’s aerial gateway. In August 1965, during the fair, the Beatles used it as a way station toward their record-setting concert at Shea Stadium. They made the short trip to the stadium in a Wells Fargo armored truck.

Jeffrey Kroessler, a preservationist who is writing a book on the history of Queens, said “many people in Queens are fond of it” because it is a symbol of exuberant mid-1960s optimism about a space-age future, a world where people could hopscotch by helicopter among multiple helipads, like one atop what was then known as the Pan Am Building in Midtown. A 1977 accident atop Pan Am dashed that vision.

When the fair ended, the 1,100-seat Top of the Fair restaurant, with its floor-to-ceiling windows, became an obvious site for a banquet hall. A penthouse ballroom replaced the helipad, and part of the roof became an outdoor terrace for cocktails. During its four and a half decades, practically every New York mayor has broken bread at Terrace on the Park.

Big ugly building named after the Vallones

How perfect that an oversized, out-of-character home for the tweeded is being named in honor of the local political dynasty?

Terrace on the Park concession is disappointing

From the Daily News:

The company that runs catering hall Terrace on the Park, a historic relic of the 1964 World's Fair, hasn't lived up to promises to build a grand restaurant garden, a city audit charges.

The report from Controller John Liu also hammers two other park hot spots, the Flushing Meadows Ice Rink and the World's Fair Marina Restaurant, for failing to finish contracted improvements.

The neighboring facilities highlight the Queens portion of an investigation into the city Parks Department's ability to ensure that concessionaires live up to their license agreements.

Facility operators painted the audit as misleading and inaccurate. They acknowledged the initially promised structures were not built, but said alternatives were designed to best serve the community.

But Liu's office stood by its evaluation of facilities such as Terrace on the Park, where auditors noted water-damaged panels and the unfulfilled contractual obligation to create a $345,000 garden restaurant.

The Parks Department said the walkup restaurant was scrapped in favor of a snack bar.

Terrace on the Park did not return calls seeking comment.