Billionare's row luxury tower apartments on 57th Street are not getting billionaire's interest

NY Post

Swank apartments are begging for buyers on Manhattan’s “Billionaires’ Row” — with more than 40% sitting unsold in towers that top out at 100 stories, The Post has learned.

Five years after the iconic One57 building became the city’s first “supertall” residential skyscraper, only 84 of its 132 pricey condos have been bought — leaving more than a third of them still on the market and none under contract, according to data compiled by leading appraiser and researcher Jonathan Miller.

Six other nearby buildings have as much as 80% of their units available, the figures show, with the total value of all the unsold inventory estimated by one analyst at between $5 billion and $7 billion.

Another building that’s set for completion next year — Central Park Tower, at 217-225 W. 57th St. — will put an additional 179 apartments on the market.

Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, which also built One57, got state permission to start selling a 
Central Park Tower in 2017, but no deals have closed — which would push the overall unsold percentage to nearly 65%.

Online listings show asking prices for available units that range from $2.1 million for a 14th-floor studio at 100 E. 53rd St. to nearly $64 million for a four-bedroom, duplex penthouse on the 76th floor of 53 W. 53rd St.

Top broker Dolly Lenz blamed the stalled sales on the sky-high prices, saying, “When people come here from other parts of the country and from around the world, the first thing they want to see is Billionaires’ Row,” she said.

“We toured them through the properties but many felt they were too pricey for the market — $7,000, $8,000 and $10,000 a square foot,” she added.
Lenz said the high prices were caused by a combination of factors, including the costs of property, construction, financing and high-end marketing — and savvy developers who have clauses in their contracts that keep lenders from forcing them to drop prices, thereby cutting into their profits.

Uh-oh. Could this be why REBNY lobbied Albany to kibosh the pied-e-terre tax?

It's the skyscrapers, stupid!

Dirty Buildings Report by Alexander Kaufman on Scribd

From Huffington Post:

The 90-floor tower nicknamed the “Oligarch’s Erection” is the gaudy centerpiece of Manhattan’s Billionaire’s Row ― a place where a corrupt Nigerian oil tycoon set a $51 million record for the biggest foreclosure in the city’s history in 2017 and a Silicon Valley tech mogul bought the most expensive home ever sold in New York for $100.5 million in 2018.

But 157 West 57th Street is part of another, equally exclusive club that includes Trump Tower, the Trump International Hotel & Tower, the Kushner family’s 666 Fifth Avenue, the ritzy Baccarat Hotel and Residences and 15 Central Park West, where Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein lives.

That club is the biggest contributors to carbon dioxide pollution in New York, where just 2 percent of buildings produce nearly 50 percent of the city’s climate-altering emissions, according to a report released by New York Communities for Change, the People’s Climate Movement NY, the Working Families Party and two other city-based environmental nonprofits.

Bloomberg considers London mayoral run

From New York:

In the 15 months since he ceased to be New York City's chief executive, Michael Bloomberg has made it quite clear he does not intend to spend the rest of his life doing free consulting work, lobbying for gun control, and perfecting his golf game. After Bill de Blasio took over City Hall, Bloomberg reinserted himself into the day-to-day operations of the company he founded, Bloomberg LP, despite having said that he had no intention of doing so. And, earlier this year, New York's Gabriel Sherman reported that the billionaire was interested in buying the New York Times. Now the United Kingdom's Sunday Times claims that his ambition has outgrown New York altogether. According to the paper, Bloomberg is "considering" running for mayor of London in 2016.

Trump's $269M taxpayer funded golf course now open

From A Walk in the Park:

Trump Golf Links At Ferry Point Park, located on the former Ferry Point Park landfill surrounded by housing projects near the Whitestone Bridge in the Bronx, is now open for business - for the rich.

It's April Fools Day every day for the city's tax payers as billionaire Michael Bloomberg's gift to billionaire Donald Trump finally opens today but not before sticking the taxpayers with a reported $269 million dollar bill.

In one of the most fiscally irresponsible deals made during Bloomberg administration the city paid to build the country's most expensive municipal golf course for the billionaire real estate developer.

The project, one of the Parks Department's most scandal-plagued developments, was originally supposed to open in 2001 and cost the tax payers only a few million dollars.

But the city's cost to build the luxury course isn't the only thing that has skyrocketed since Trump signed the deal in 2013: Prices to play at the exclusive course have also continued to go through the roof.

Green Fees. In a further bilking of taxpayers, the city is allowing Trump to charge the public more than three times what is paid to play at other Parks Department golf courses.

The original contract signed by Donald Trump's Ferry Point Partners for green fees in 2013 listed $100 for a round of golf (Monday-Thursday), and $125 on weekends and holidays. He was also allowed to charge non-residents $25 more on weekends without the approval of Parks or the city.

Since then the sky-high green fees have dramatically increased even further.

The green fees are now $141.00 during the week and $169.00 on weekends. For non-residents prices are now $190.00 during the week and $ 215 dollars on weekends.

Trump is also permitted to increase green fees annually according to his agreement.

Trump is required pay the city nothing through the first four years of his 20-year contract. Years 1-4: No Fee. Year 5: $300,000 or 7% of Gross Receipts plus 3% of sublicense gross receipts. By the 10th year, he is required to pay $360,000 or 7% of Gross Receipts plus 3% of sublicense gross receipts. By year 20, he is required to pay the city $470,000 or 10% of Gross Receipts plus 3% of sublicense gross receipts.

Catsimatidis willing to pay to restore NYS Pavilion

From the Daily News:

Billionaire World’s Fair buff John Catsimatidis said he is willing to crack open his checkbook and help the crumbling New York State Pavilion for the right “visionary” project.

“I’ve certainly been there ready and able to write a check,” Catsimatidis, a former Republican mayoral candidate and supermarket magnate, told The News on Friday. “I can make it happen. But you need people who have dreams.”

Catsimatidis, who wore a tie featuring the iconic image of the Unisphere, made his comments at the Queens Museum after a press conference Friday to announce a line-up of activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1964 World’s Fair and 75th anniversary of the 1939 World’s Fair.

DeBlasio at billionaire disadvantage

From BuzzFeed:

One of Mike Bloomberg’s signal accomplishments in New York City was reversing the flow of corruption. In the old days, and in every other city in the world most days, favor-seekers bribe politicians — with cash in envelopes, with legal contributions, or with political support. In Mike Bloomberg’s New York, the mayor bribed you, buying the silence or cooperation of individuals, cultural organizations, and social service groups with hundreds in millions of dollars spent on small personal favors — a legal payment here, a medical procedure there — and charitable contributions.

As a liberal Democrat, Bill de Blasio’s biggest challenge when he takes power in January will not be keeping crime down or funding an ambitious expansion of early education. It will be dealing with the explosion of Bloomberg’s machine after the grease of money is gone and the gears start sticking.

Bloomberg’s wealth, and his generosity, “was protection money. In many ways it inoculated him from potential criticism and stimulated people to do things that they might not have or shouldn’t have done,” says Doug Muzzio, a professor of public affairs at New York’s Baruch College. “Now the pie is smaller and the needs are larger, in the end there’s going to be enhanced conflict. And it’s going to take place in the halls of City Hall. It’s going to be the old days.”

Bloomberg’s close aides have always acknowledged that his wealth was, as much as his electoral mandate, a central source of power. But many observers confuse this civic grease for the straightforward millions he’s spent getting himself elected. The other money has been, for several reasons, hard at times to characterize, a secret lubricant of urban consensus.

That’s in part because the participants in the machine — the mayor, and the recipients of his largesse — have a shared interest in not talking about it.

23 acres of prime real estate for $1!

Once upon a time, there was a billionaire that took control of a city. Everyone did whatever he wanted and did not challenge him. He used lots and lots of taxpayer money to buy up land across the street from a stadium run by his fellow billionaire buddies. Then he sold it to them for $1. He also gave them $100M in taxpayer-funded city grants to build a mall. Even though one of his deputy mayors promised that the stadium owner would pay for the total cost of remediation of the land - that, if truly contaminated, hurts no one because no one lives there (save for a man that lived more than 80 years of his life there) - he put a cap on how much remediation cost the stadium owner would be required to pay at a fraction of the expected total.

Now lots of people work there, so to help his minions in the legislative body save face, the billionaire made his buddies promise to build affordable housing. But, the affordable housing has to wait for highway ramps to be built by the taxpayers more than a decade from now, even though the stadium owners can build them themselves in a shorter timeframe. Oh, but the wording of the contract was changed to make sure they don't really have to build housing at all...

Then there's the free parkland they're going to build their mall on.

To make a long story short, after crying over Madoff, the Wilpons are now laughing all the way to the bank at our expense.

How do I know all this? It's in this week's Queens Chronicle. I suggest you read Joe Orovic's excellent expose and then call up your elected officials and ask them if they think the "fool me twice" saying applies here.

Queens GOP gets big booster

From Crain's:

Supermarket billionaire John Catsimatidis is continuing his pattern of offering financial support to those willing to support his mayoral bid: His just-posted campaign filing shows $23,000 in payments to the Queens Republican Party's housekeeping account on March 1, which came after the Queens Republican Party officially endorsed his candidacy.

In December, Mr. Catsimatidis bluntly told Crain's that his donations to political parties "depends on who is supporting me."

Regardless of the payment, it's not surprising that the Queens Republicans would back Mr. Catsimatidis. He has had a long relationship with the party leadership. And its executive vice-chairman, Vincent Tabone, is a paid consultant on Mr. Catsimatidis' campaign. Mr. Tabone also works for Ms. Catsimatidis' Red Apple Group. In general, Mr. Catsimatidis' generosity over the years had helped endear him to the various county chairmen.

Bloomberg has gas to get to subway

From the NY Post:

Mayor Bloomberg kept his word about taking mass transit to work today as thousands across the area returned and work and school for the first time since Sandy devastated the New York area.

He was spotted riding the 5 train to City Hall [yesterday] morning.

Bloomberg left his East 79th Street town house just before 7 a.m. and was driven in a black Chevy Suburban to the express 5 train stop at 59th St.

He walked briskly through the station and arrived at the train just as it was entering the station and boarded with a half dozen security guards and City Hall photographer Spencer Tucker.

He read the front page of the Financial Times and was silent during the commute with his head down.

In a black jacket and black suit he blended in with commuters on the loosely-packed train.

When a Post reporter tried to ask the mayor how his commute was going a security guard asked her to step back.

He arrived at City Hall at 7:20 a.m.

The Village Voice saw the ridiculousness in the display.

Plutocrats united

From the NY Times:

As two Bloomberg News reporters pointed out last week, both Chicago and Los Angeles spend a considerable amount more than New York does on its parks, as a percentage of overall budget.

But when officials in New York’s more distant parks plead for a little bit more, city officials suggest selling off naming rights and letting corporations slap names on basketball and dog runs. (IMG Worldwide, a sports marketing company, is overseeing the sale of these naming rights, for a handsome fee.)

Or, in the case of the Bronx and Queens, working-class neighborhoods can consent to letting officials plop a parking lot or a soccer stadium in the middle of their heavily used parks.

Got a problem with that, bub?

City officials and their quasi-public hangers-on are rather clear on the rules of this game: You smile at every crumb that falls off the plutocratic table, and only a rube shares his proceeds.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was clear that he would not allow a dime of Mr. Paulson’s gift to slip away to pay for, say, the restoration of grass on the hardscrabble and scabbed grass fields of Marine Park or Flushing Meadows, or the rutted and broken bike paths along the Atlantic in Brooklyn.

The mayor being the mayor, he made clear he found this idea just plain silly.

Geoffrey Croft of Park Advocates charts such inequities with a grim accountant’s eye for detail. “They say that Paulson’s gift puts the onus on the city to provide money for the other parks,” Mr. Croft noted. “But there’s no sign of that — it’s ridiculous, really.”

But perhaps it is the rest of us who are not yet hip to the game. As The New Yorker pointed out recently, the nation’s plutocrats are much taken of late with the notion that their charitable giving should count as privatized taxation.

The notion has a primitive charm. I would imagine a duke in the time of Richard III figured he could settle up by providing a regiment in a pinch and that would be that.

As Mayor Bloomberg pointed out last week, that lovely gem that is Central Park has become a new sort of model for other parks and open spaces, around the city and around the world.

He might be right, and that’s not terribly comforting.

And according to some of the commenters here, you Queens folk are fine with it. No wonder you get the shit end of the stick all the time.

A question of fairness

From Bloomberg:

New York devoted about $338 million, less than 0.5 percent of its $68.5 billion operating budget this year, to its 29,000- acre park system, down from $380 million. The city budget supports about 15 percent of Central Park’s $45 million annual operating costs, according to the conservancy website.

By comparison, the Chicago Park District, a semi-autonomous authority funded through dedicated property taxes, revenue from facilities such as Soldier Field and private donations, intends to spend $407 million on its 7,800-acre system, plus more than $80 million in capital improvements, said Jessica Maxey- Faulkner, a spokeswoman. Los Angeles spends $189.5 million of its $7.2 billion budget on parks.

In fiscal 2013, the city has earmarked $28.8 million for parks in Manhattan, almost double the amount in the Bronx, which has more than twice as much park acreage. The city budgeted $25.3 million for parks in Queens, $23.4 million for Brooklyn and $10.2 million for Staten Island. Staffing in city parks has declined 25 percent since 2009, to 5,744 employees.

Flushing Meadows Corona Park, a 1,255-acre expanse in Queens that was the site of the World’s Fair in 1939 and 1964, is marred by barren fields where grass once grew and shuttered recreation facilities “where the city could easily spend $100 million,” [NYC Park Advocates President Geoffrey] Croft said.

Ferry Point Park in the Bronx “now functions as a public toilet,” Croft said, after officials reduced staff, abandoned ball fields and closed public restrooms. “Without any security or supervision, men set up roulette tables for open-air gambling,” he said.

[John] Paulson’s gift “is a good thing not just for Central Park but for parks generally because it highlights how important parks are to people,” said Holly Leicht, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, an advocacy organization.

“It also puts the onus on the city to make sure there’s enough money in the maintenance budget to properly maintain the 1,700 other parks that can’t draw this level of private funding,” Leicht said.

The best solution to the problem of funding all the parks would be the creation of a citywide conservancy-like institution to attract private and public funding, said Melissa Mark- Viverito, a Democrat who heads the City Council’s Parks and Recreation committee and whose Manhattan district of East Harlem includes a portion of Central Park.

“The challenge is to prevent our parks from becoming a two-tiered system where some have conservancies and some don’t,” said Mark-Viverito.

“We can’t have the city walking away from its obligation and responsibility for upkeep and maintenance,” she said. “That’s not the message we should be sending.”

Queens native gives $100M to fix up Central Park

From Bloomberg:

Billionaire John Paulson and the Paulson Family Foundation are donating $100 million to the Central Park Conservancy, the largest parks donation ever.

Paulson, 56, is founder of Paulson & Co., a New York-based hedge fund that manages $21 billion across 10 funds. Paulson was worth $11.8 billion yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. His contribution will help renovate and maintain park facilities and pay for recreation programs, said Doug Blonsky, president of the conservancy, which is responsible for its maintenance and operations. Half will bolster the park’s endowment, which now stands at $144 million, Blonsky said.

Paulson was raised in the middle-class Beechhurst section of Bayside, in New York’s Queens borough. As a child, his parents took him through the park in a stroller, he said. He was valedictorian at New York University and attended Harvard Business School.

After working in risk arbitrage at Bear Stearns Cos., Odyssey Partners and Gruss Partners, Paulson founded Paulson & Co. in 1994, with $2 million from friends and family.

Why is it that people from Queens who do well for themselves never give back to Queens? Does Central Park really look like it needs $100M? No.
Does Flushing Meadows look like it needs $100M? Yes.

From A Walk in the Park:

Private organizations help raise money for some of the city’s other parks but their budgets are tiny compared with the Central Park Conservancy.

Some advocates of city parks have complained that other parks are neglected in comparison to Central Park, one of the city’s best-known destinations.

“It’s wonderful for Central Park, but there are thousands of other park properties in New York City that desperately need funding,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates. “This gift is a reminder of the enormous disparities that exist between the haves and the have-nots.”

Developers and big business will miss Mike

From the Wall Street Journal:

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg leaves office next year, the city's financial and real-estate leaders stand to lose an important advocate, and they worry they won't find a City Hall candidate whose world view matches the outgoing mayor's.

In Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire in his third and final term, the city's business community could count on reliably pro-development policies that produced projects such as a new Brooklyn arena. The mayor has opposed City Council legislation seen as anti-business, such as a so-called living wage bill. And he has struck a tone as a defender of Wall Street culture, speaking up for Goldman Sachs, for instance, when it came under fire for an ethic of greed.

"There is no question people are concerned they are losing Mike Bloomberg. They understand who he is. They have tremendous respect for him," said Steve Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York. "We are going to have somebody new on Jan. 1, 2014, and, so, that troubles them."

As the 2013 mayoral race begins to take shape, some in the city are looking for "Bloomberg 2.0," said state Republican Party Chairman Edward Cox. But no candidate has emerged who possesses the mayor's mixture of money, respect and political skill.

Billionaire braggadocio

From the Village Voice:

...Hizzoner announced he expects to see nearly $2 billion cut from his final budget the next fiscal year. That amount comes out to about 3% of the total budget as a whole, meaning that these cuts are going to be deep and their impact on New Yorkers' lives even deeper. And the targets of this setback ring out this message even louder: in a rare occasion, the NYPD will be on the chopping block.

From the NY Magazine:

"I just spent roughly $600 million of my own money to try to stop the scourge of tobacco, and I'm looking for another cause," Bloomberg said, reminding everyone that he can literally burying people under his piles of money.

So why don't you fix what you messed up by betting all our money on taxi medallion sales that won't be happening, and donate your billions to the city instead of stopping people in Uganda from smoking and eating trans fats?

By the way, there's plenty of city money to gIve raises to Bloomberg's staffers...

Why the media covers for Bloomberg

From Salon:

Have you ever wondered why Bloomberg is perpetually portrayed as an uber-popular mayor, despite consistent polls to the contrary, and despite barely winning reelection after grossly outspending his little-known opponent? Have you ever wondered how Bloomberg could be glowingly billed as a moderate liberty-loving hero even as he has trampled civil liberties and freedom in ways that would make a banana republic’s dictator blush? Have you ever wondered why the mayor of New York is a ubiquitous guest on most major news programs, even though he is but the mayor of one city?

All of that has to do with fear and desire. Simply put, there’s a fear among many in the media that Bloomberg may one day buy out their employer, and that if they don’t treat him well, they’ll be out of a job. Likewise, there’s a desire among many to get a high-paying job from Bloomberg when that buyout moment happens, or to get a fat paycheck at one of the outlets he uses to convert has-been pundits and politicos into his loyal ideological spokespeople.

Fueling rumors of Bloomberg’s impending purchases, then, simply stokes that fear and desire — which consequently expands Bloomberg’s overall influence over the media. Hence, a wildly unpopular authoritarian is typically depicted as America’s beloved “Freedom Mayor,” replete with top bookings on major shows to promote his supposed benevolence. Hence, Bloomberg-ism — read: genuflection to Wall Street, deification of the super-rich and rejection of basic civil liberties — becomes the unquestioned ideological position of many major news outlets.

Bloomberg a little testy after being caught breaking rule

From Eyewitness News:

No amount of City Hall spin could change what the video reveals: A Mayor repeatedly violating a city-imposed noise curfew at an East side heliport.

So after two Eyewitness News reports documenting Mayor Bloomberg's noisy weekend intrusions, 8 in just one weekend, he announced he would use another heliport.

Dr. Ron Sticco, a fed up resident who recorded the scofflaw Mayor's helicopter movements, says he's pleased with Bloomberg's decision:

"This is about respecting the community and abiding by the rules. I'm happy but I really wish it had never come to anything like this," Sticco said.
The Mayor could now end up using the city-owned Wall Street heliport, which is open during weekends. An obviously miffed Mayor brushed off the entire curfew controversy:

"Don't know why it's such a big deal. If that's the news that's fit to print in this day in age, it's a sad day," he said.

But the Sticcos and others say when the Mayor, a man of great wealth and power, behaves as though rules don't apply to him and then gets caught - that they say is newsworthy.

Residents say for an urgent matter or an emergency, no one would blame the mayor for using the heliport, but 8 times in one weekend, they say shows blind arrogance.

Bloomie likes the leopard-skin look

From the NY Times:

Throughout his tenure, the mayor has taken pains to protect his private life, refusing to divulge his weekend whereabouts, blocking aviation Web sites from tracking the movements of his private planes and swearing reporters to secrecy before granting access to his homes. Yet examples of the grandeur in which he lives had, until Monday, been in plain sight on the Web site of his longtime decorator, Jamie Drake, who is known for exuberance and has overseen rooms for Madonna as well as restorations at Gracie Mansion and City Hall.

The photographs represent a strikingly public display of his most intimate spaces: one image captures his workout room, another shows a brown commode with a pink orchid nearby.

Bloomberg: "Let's tax 'em all!"

From the Daily News:

If Mayor Bloomberg were president, he'd tax 'em all - not just the rich.

"If you want to raise taxes, don't pick one class of people and say, 'I think they have too much money' or 'I don't think they have enough money' or whatever," the mayor said Friday on his weekly radio show.

"Raise everbody's taxes 1 or 2 percent or whatever."

Bloomberg was responding to a question from a caller named Thomas who asked how hizzoner would have handled the nation's recent debt debate.

*(Feel free to caption the photo as well.)

Bloomberg's mediocre legacy

From the Village Voice:

After a charmed first decade in politics, Mayor Mike Bloomberg is mired in his first sustained losing streak.

His third term has been shaky, marked by the Snowpocalypse, the snowballing CityTime scandal, the backlash to Cathie Black and "government by cocktail party," and the rejection by Governor Andrew Cuomo of his plan to change how public-school teachers are hired and fired. With just a couple more years left in office, Bloomberg is starting to look every one of his 70 years.

Soon, he'll be just another billionaire.

The mayor's legacy is remarkably uncertain—largely because he's done his best to keep New Yorkers in the dark about what it is he's really set out to do in office.

In part, this is because the mayor has been far more effective at selling his Bloomberg brand than in getting things done. But it's also because what he has done—remaking and marketing New York as a "luxury city" and Manhattan as a big-business monoculture—he prefers to discuss with business groups rather than the voting public.

Withholding information while preaching transparency is a Bloomberg trademark. He aggressively keeps his private life private—meaning not just his weekends outside the city at "undisclosed" locations, but also his spending, his charitable giving, and his privately held business.

The column is 5 pages long and makes for some great poolside reading! Check this part out:

Middle-class incomes in New York have been stagnant for a decade, while prices have soared, with purchasing power dropping dramatically. Never mind Manhattan—Queens taken as its own city would be the fifth most expensive one in America. While unemployment in the city has dropped below 9 percent, through June the city had replaced only about half of the 146,000 jobs lost during the recession—and the new jobs have mostly been in low-paying retail, hospitality, and food services positions, according to the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. Poorly paid health care and social-service jobs, often subsidized by the city, make up 17.4 percent of all private-sector jobs as of 2007, a nearly one-third increase since 1990. Only 3 percent of the private-sector jobs in New York are in relatively high-paying manufacturing positions as of 2007, a figure that's in the low double digits in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. And the jobs expected to appear over the next decade are also clustered at the bottom of the pay scale.

Bloomberg's shadow government

From the NY Post:

Through a web of charitable donations, backdoor payments and private bonuses, Mayor Bloomberg has created a shadow government that caters to his whims and caulks over budget cuts.

A Post analysis found that over the past two years the nation’s richest mayor lavished at least $99.1 million through his family’s philanthropy and his private company on nonprofits. In turn, those organizations wind up hiring Bloomberg loyalists from his administration, and are often tapped to lend a hand on city projects.

While Bloomberg’s generosity serves as a tangible example of his commitment to the city, the “revolving door” between City Hall and Bloomberg-backed nonprofits is cause for concern, said NYU public-policy professor Rogan Kersh.

The billionaire quietly bankrolls his crusades — healthier eating, curbing smoking, overhauling schools — and it falls to his trusted foot soldiers in government and nonprofits to carry out his goals.