Sanctuary City For Sale

THE CITY

It was already dark when Mayor Eric Adams and his security detail pulled up to the curb of the Wyndham Garden, a drab hotel next to a strip mall in Fresh Meadows, Queens.

At the time, his administration was paying for the hotel to shelter more than 100 formerly incarcerated New Yorkers integrating back into society after their release.

But the mayor wasn’t here to check in on one of his criminal justice initiatives. On that November evening nearly two years ago, Adams was visiting Winnie Greco, a top mayoral staffer, who had recently moved into one of the rooms at the Wyndham Garden.

Adams got out of the car, walked through a side door and went up to Greco’s specially arranged suite on the 11th floor, according to two sources with knowledge of the visit.

The mayor had been to the hotel before. Its owner, Weihong Hu, had thrown two campaign fundraisers with Adams present when he was running for mayor in 2021. Now Hu, who was reaping millions of dollars in city business through this very facility, was housing Greco in a room paid for by taxpayers, business and government records obtained for this story show. 

Greco ended up staying at Hu’s hotel for more than eight months, initially as she recovered from surgery, according to two sources with knowledge of her stay.

The lodging arranged for the mayor’s advisor is just one facet of a mutually beneficial relationship between Adams, an aggressive campaign fundraiser, and Hu, an ambitious hotel operator who bundled tens of thousands of dollars in campaign checks for his mayoral campaign and subsequently scored behind-the-scenes benefits and millions in contract dollars from his administration, an investigation by THE CITY, The Guardian US and Documented reveals.

The details of how this relationship blossomed in the odd setting of a hotel-turned-shelter offer a rare window into the way transactional dealings have taken shape in the Adams era. 

This report is based on a review of thousands of pages of city and business records and interviews with more than 20 of Hu’s former associates and current and former government officials. Nearly all sources spoke on the condition of anonymity citing fears of retaliation from Hu or the administration. Several provided reporters with photos, text messages, emails and videos to back up their claims.

In Hu’s case, multimillion-dollar city-funded contracts to her companies’ hotels continued to flow as she befriended a tightly knit core of the mayor’s longtime associates, some the subject of law enforcement investigations and ethical controversies who multiple sources say pledged to go to bat for her with city agencies.

It was at a 2021 fundraiser with Adams at her hotel that Hu became acquainted with a longtime pal of the future mayor, John Sampson. Formerly a state senator, Sampson had been released from federal custody only a month earlier, after being sentenced to a five-year prison term for trying to obstruct a probe investigating allegations that he embezzled more than $400,000. 

Hu named Sampson as CEO of one of her hotel companies in early 2023, and, according to a former city official familiar with the situation, he committed to helping her land a lucrative contract for a migrant shelter at a hotel she operates in Long Island City, Queens. A month later, the Department of Homeless Services approved a city-funded migrant contract slated to disburse $7.5 million annually to the hotel.

Hu also enlisted the help of another trusted Adams advisor, Rev. Alfred Cockfield II, whom she introduced to colleagues as a “consultant,” according to one former associate who said he attended business meetings with Hu and Cockfield. The former associate and another source with direct knowledge of the matter said Hu enlisted Cockfield to help her reverse city orders halting construction at two major hotel developments in midtown Manhattan.

Cockfield is a politically wired pastor who, after Adams won the mayoral primary, launched a political action committee, Striving for a Better New York, which he told Politico was intended to uplift “moderate,” “pro-business” candidates in the Adams mold. 

“The work I’m doing is God’s work,” he said. 

Yet campaign finance records show the PAC paid Cockfield $144,000 in wages and consulting fees — many times more than what it ever gave to an individual candidate. It also gave $60,000 to a charter school Cockfield leads. Last year, the school returned the entire sum after the state’s Division of Election Law Enforcement sent inquiries to the PAC about some of its allocations. 

The mayor’s son, Jordan Coleman, dressed in black and pushing a roller suitcase, and an unidentified woman also stayed in a room in November 2022 at the Fresh Meadows hotel where Greco was staying, according to a former worker at the hotel. That room, too, was among the 148 paid for by taxpayers.

Coleman hung up on a reporter and didn’t respond to text messages seeking comment. In a phone call, Hu’s attorney, Kevin Tung, denied that the mayor’s son stayed at the hotel overnight, but said he may have visited to discuss business with Greco, who has at times accompanied him to events.

The administration’s largesse flowed back to Hu in a variety of ways, the investigation’s findings show. After Adams came into office, his administration authorized the renewal of Hu’s six-month shelter contract at the Fresh Meadows hotel four times, reaping her business $6.2 million a year in income. 

It also finalized a second contract sending $6.3 million a year to Hu’s hotel in Long Island City, despite a history of elevator breakdowns and minimal housekeeping detailed to reporters by former workers and claimed in court documents. 

Last year, the Department of Homeless Services twice approved a more lucrative arrangement for the Long Island City hotel, bumping its annual potential revenue to a total of $8.8 million, government records show.

The help a close Adams ally can offer was evident on two occasions in which, according to sources, Hu tapped Cockfield for assistance with city authorities.

After a building inspector halted construction at one of her hotel developments, near Bryant Park on West 39th Street, citing a serious safety issue, the minister made a late-night call to top Department of Buildings officials and urged them to allow construction to proceed, according to a source familiar with buildings department operations. 

Roughly an hour later, the agency reversed the stop work order, which department records show was lifted just after 11 p.m.

At the second hotel development, Hu retained Cockfield to help lift a city Department of Buildings stop-work order issued after Hu’s team had begun an illegal demolition of rent-stabilized apartment buildings on West 35th Street in Manhattan, according to a source who said he attended meetings with Hu and Cockfield about the situation. That source said Cockfield and another individual he couldn’t identify promised to call city agencies on the hotel owner’s behalf. 

In late 2022, the Department of Buildings gave Hu permission to resume construction on that site, approving a plan that ignored a previous commitment to neighborhood leaders and the city’s housing agency to preserve affordable apartments.

Resorts World wants to make their world bigger

 

Queens Chronicle

Resorts World NYC last Thursday laid down its markers for the public — and the state — in its efforts to bring full casino gambling, 10,000 construction and permanent jobs and “a world-class entertainment resort” to South Ozone Park.

Resorts World is pursuing one of three downstate casino licenses that have been approved by the state Legislature but have yet to be awarded.

Officials of the international gaming giant were joined in the lobby of their complex next to Aqueduct Race Track by government officials from Queens as well as celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, who has agreed to bring a restaurant to the proposed project. There also was a reception hosted by hip-hop artist and Queens native Nas.

Included in what the company is calling a $5 billion investment in Southeast Queens and the city would be a 7,000-seat arena; a combined 350,000 square feet for entertainment, meeting and conference space; a 1,600-room Crockfords luxury hotel on top of the 400 existing rooms at the Hyatt Regency; and 10 acres of publicly accessible open space.

Robert DeSalvio, president and CEO of Genting Americas East, which operates Resort World NYC, said the site already has pumped billions into the state economy, particularly for education funding. Speaking with the Chronicle after the press conference, he said there would be no need for downtime between receiving a state license and breaking out the shovels and hammers.

“We could begin immediately,” DeSalvio said. “You heard me say we could have full table gaming up in six months. It could take three to four years to build it out fully, but we could start right away.”

State Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Woodhaven) is chairman of the Senate’s Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee. He also is about as staunch an advocate for a full Resorts World casino as DeSalvio.

The senator said as of now there is no hint of when decision will be made.

“That’s the frustrating thing — there’s no timeline yet,” Addabbo said. “Some of the proposals need things like zoning issues which the state would like to see cleared up. I’ve told the state they can’t wait forever.”

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, who is seeking his own casino license for what is now the parking lot at Citi Field, did not need to be mentioned by name when Addabbo was asked if Queens could support two casinos.

“Somebody would have to make that case,” he said.

Betty Braton, chairwoman of Community Board 10, said Resorts World has proven to be an outstanding member of the community since opening; something she said the state should take into account.

“Who’d have thunk it in 2010 when we stepped outside for the groundbreaking?” Braton asked. “It was hard to envision what we would see. It was a leap of faith, as I’ve said before, and that faith was well-placed. Resorts World has been a true corporate citizen in the best way. We have a proven entity. Everywhere else where there is a proposal, it is a new thing. Our community knows what we are gonna get. The State of New York State knows what it is gonna get.”

Borough President Donovan Richards went into hard specifics.

“There’s a big difference between jobs and careers,” Richards said. “Resorts World has created careers. Sen. Addabbo and I talk about the days of Hurricane Sandy in the Rockaways when we were devastated and we needed to get food on the table for our residents. Resorts World was providing food every single day.

“Then we needed assistance with Covid-19 for testing and the vaccinations, and this institution opened its doors for the community.”

 

Top official for Mayor Adams crashed at hotel shelter housing ex-cons that donated money to his re-election

 

THE CITY 

 

Three contributors to Mayor Eric Adams’ 2025 re-election campaign recounted in interviews in the past month how they — and in two cases their spouses — were reimbursed for a total of more than $10,000 in donations by hotel and construction executives in violation of state law.

The interviews came during a joint investigation by THE CITY, Documented, and The Guardian US into the presence in the mayor’s current campaign of illegal “straw” donations — contributions paid for by undisclosed sources in a way that masks their identity. Suspicions of such donations spurred the indictment by the Manhattan district attorney of a fundraising group involved in Adams’ 2021 race, which has led to two guilty pleas, and are part of an ongoing federal investigation into whether they’ve been used to veil illegal donations from the Turkish government.

A representative of the mayor’s campaign has decried the use of straw donations generally and said that if any were made to Adams 2025, they had eluded a vetting procedure designed to flag illegal gifts. 

Three of the five reimbursements were linked to the owners of a hotel in Fresh Meadows, Queens, where the mayor’s director of Asian Affairs, Winnie Greco, lived for a number of months in late 2022 and the early part of 2023 — even as the site was operating under a city government subcontract as a shelter for formerly incarcerated individuals.

City Hall spokesperson Charles Lutvak said Greco stayed at the hotel “for parts of late 2022 and 2023, as she recovered from a medical procedure” and that she paid for the room out of her own pocket. He didn’t address how much she paid or why, out of all the alternatives, she recuperated at a shelter funded by city dollars.  

City sneakily converts Rego Park hotel into a homeless shelter

 

 

Queens Chronicle

Community Board 6 Chair Heather Beers-Dimitriadis says her board and her community have no issue with carrying their fair share to help with the city’s homeless crunch.

But she did tell the Chronicle that board members were surprised with the speed and lack of communication involved with the Department of Social Services’ decision to open a single men’s homeless shelter at the Wyndham Hotel, located at 61-18 93 St. in Rego Park, as early as March.

Beers-Dimitriadis said the board got the final word during a presentation from the DSS at its Jan. 10 meeting.

“We had been working with DSS on a project to bring family transitional housing to our district,” she told the Chronicle last Friday. “It’s new construction next to the [Rego Park]post office. And we were pleased to see it was coming. We were approached in the fall and told that they were going to be converting the Wyndham Hotel into a single adult male shelter, and basically the letter said, ‘because you don’t have shelters in your community.’ You know, we were sort of surprised, because as far as we were concerned, we thought the transitional housing was sort of us doing our part.”

Board 6, in fact, routinely requests funds for transitional housing on its annual list of priorities for city capital funding.

“And so when we found out this was going to be moving in the first quarter of 2024 — which could be potentially March, it might lead into April — I mean, we had very little time to respond, so we have been sort of scrambling to learn as much as we can.”

The shelter will be run by Community Housing Innovations, which Beers-Dimitriadis said is new to Queens but does operate in surrounding counties.

The DSS and the Department of Homeless Services did not pick up their phones for multiple calls last week, and the phone system did not accept messages. The DSS also had not responded to an email sent through its website to Commissioner Molly Park as of Sunday afternoon.

Councilman Jim Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows), who inherited the area in the new redistricting after Board 6 was notified last fall, said in an email that he has been getting up to speed.

“We were not notified about this shelter until after the district lines moved in the new year,” he said. “In spite of that, my office has hit the ground running, and has already scheduled a meeting with the Dept. of Social Services to learn everything there is to know about the shelter and the shelter operator. I am committed to working with DSS and the community to ensure that, if this shelter needs to happens, it rolls out correctly and with full transparency.”

Beers-Dimitriadis said there are concerns that it is effectively across Queens Boulevard from the transitional housing project; literally across the street from the Lost Battalion Hall Community Center, which is undergoing massive renovations; and within walking district of PS 206, the Horace Harding School.

 Was the Maspeth protests against hotel shelter conversions that long ago?

 

Affordable housing for Christmas

 

Queens Chronicle

The JFK Hilton will soon be the Baisley Pond Park Residences now that the city closed a deal on Monday to convert the South Jamaica hotel into affordable housing with the help of a nonprofit and a real estate group that focuses on creating multifamily homes.

The cost for the city to partially acquire and develop the property is projected at $167 million. Located at 144-02 135 Ave., the space will be transformed into 318 permanent units for low-income and formerly homeless New Yorkers, according to the office of Mayor Adams.

“Digging our city out of this severe housing shortage will require every tool in our toolbox, and our administration helped win an important fight to add this hotel conversion,” Adams said in a statement. “Advancing this plan ... is a sign that we can think outside of the box and take advantage of the opportunities in front of us. I want to thank our partners in Albany for making it possible to turn empty hotels into affordable homes and our development partners who will deliver on the promise of this idea for hundreds of New Yorkers.”

The development partners, which include the nonprofit RiseBoro Community Partnership and Slate Property Group, a real estate lender and operator primarily focused on the adaptive reuse of property for family housing, acquired the property for $64 million.

MSquared, a women-owned real estate development and impact-investing platform, will also be a part of the project.

“Our city faces an urgent need for quality affordable housing and Baisley Pond Park Residence is a great example of how we can utilize new strategies and funding sources to address this crisis head-on,” said Alicia Glen, founder and managing principal of MSquared, in a statement.

MSquared provided a key $4.4 million predevelopment loan. The city will get $48 million from the state’s new Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity Act program. The remaining capital is being provided through a $50 million senior loan from the city Housing Development Corp., which is being serviced by Chase, and the project is funded with an allocation of 501(c)(3) bonds from HDC.

There will be 192 shelter residents with CityFHEPS vouchers in the homes, according to city Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park.

Aracelia Cook, president of the 149th Street South Ozone Park Civic Association, said she is excited about the prospect of affordable housing in the Southeast Queens area.

“We definitely need more permanent housing,” Cook told the Chronicle. “Instead of just another hotel to be a center for migrants.”

Earlier this year, the hotel was closed permanently and later it was used as a shelter for asylum seekers, prompting a protest.

“We need a more permanent housing solution,” Cook said. “They spoke to us about their vision and we are looking forward to partnering with them.”

Cook said RiseBoro and Slate Property have been talking to members of her civic since April and she is glad to see that the deal is finally done.

The hotel, which is a half-mile from JFK Airport, will have full kitchens, ADA-compliant bathrooms, community rooms, a computer lounge, fitness room and on-site laundry. The landscape architecture firm, OSD, has also designed a stunning indoor/outdoor garden space for residents. Rent will range from $784 for studios to $1,493 for a two-bedroom unit, according to the city.

 

City bails out failing hotel with stemming the migrant crisis

 

 LIC Post

A four-star hotel in Long Island City will soon serve as a location to house economic migrants, sources tell the Queens/LIC Post.

The Collective Paper Factory, a hotel located at 37-06 36th St., is understood to have closed last week and work is underway to convert it into a Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center, a shelter for economic migrants, according to sources familiar with the plan.

When operating as a hotel, the premises boasted 125 guest rooms, communal spaces, a gym, several meeting rooms, and a bar/restaurant on the ground floor.

It is unclear how many people will be housed at the 5-story facility as the city continues to struggle to cope with an unprecedented surge of migrants. Nearly 100,000 migrants have come through the city’s intake system since the spring of 2022 and the revised cost to the taxpayer is now expected to hit $12 billion by the summer of 2025.

The mayor’s office did not respond to an email request from the Queens/LIC Post seeking to confirm news about the shelter opening at The Collective Paper Factory. However, a woman at the hotel said via phone on Thursday, Aug. 10, that the hotel will soon be housing the migrants, in addition to other sources.

A spokesperson for Councilwoman Julie Won, who represents District 26 — which covers Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside and parts of Astoria — did not say if her office had been informed of the plans. The spokesperson said that throughout the migrant crisis, the city has not notified elected officials before commercial hotel shelter sites opened in their respective districts.

District 26 already has more than 30 shelters currently accommodating migrants, Won’s spokesperson said. For instance, in February, the Wingate by Wyndham, a three-star hotel located at 38-70 12th St., was converted into a shelter for migrants.

 

Moda Crap Upgraded Living 153-30 89th Ave.

 

This is AFTER Sanitation came. And those boxes are food for the supermarket. 

This is the back entrance of the Moda building

Soccer trickle down housing

New York Times

The stadium would be the first significant major-league sports venue to be built in the city since 2012, and is set to be the focal point of a 23-acre project that includes a 250-room hotel and 2,500 units of housing. Officials say the project would be the city’s largest development of entirely affordable housing since the Mitchell-Lama developments of the 1970s.

The deal represents Mayor Eric Adams’s most ambitious economic development initiative and comes as he is about to complete his first year in office. It also spells the end of two sagas: the team’s decade-long search for a dedicated soccer stadium and an even longer conundrum about the future of Willets Point, a once thriving conglomeration of auto body shops.

“Queens, which is the world’s borough, now will become the home of soccer, which is the world’s sport,” Maria Torres-Springer, the deputy mayor for economic and workforce development, said in an interview on Tuesday.

Unlike many stadium deals, including one for the Buffalo Bills negotiated this year by Gov. Kathy Hochul that included nearly $900 million in public funds, city officials said subsidies for this project are largely limited to infrastructure improvements at the site and property tax breaks for the stadium.

The soccer team will pay for the entire construction of the stadium, which is estimated to cost $780 million, city officials said. Neither tax-exempt bond financing nor direct city capital infusions will be used, according to Andrew Kimball, the president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. The developers are not getting abatements on mortgage recording or sales taxes, he said. But the stadium owners will not have to pay real estate taxes for the duration of the lease.

Giving the restoring of the Riis Park Bathhouse another expensive shot

Patch 

 Jacob Riis Park, known as “The People’s Beach,” is undergoing an Art Deco comeback as developers plan to restore the historic bathhouse and open the historic site next year.

Over $50 million will be injected into the project, which will include restaurants, a bar, a pool, event spaces, and 28 hotel rooms in the Rockaway site with two octagonal red brick towers. The hub’ phased opening is set to start in 2023.

“This project to revitalize and rejuvenate the Jacob Riis Bathhouse represents a giant step forward for the Rockaway Peninsula as it continues to recover from the battering it received from Hurricane Sandy a decade ago,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. in a statement.

The project is led by CBSK Developers and the architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle.

The restoration of the bathhouse, built in 1932, will add eateries, a beachfront bar, and retailers stocked with beach supplies. The courtyard will include a pool and lounge areas.

 The New York State Historic Preservation Office reviewed the project.

Didn't they try to make Riis Park a tourist destination before with that glamping bullshit?

Ok, now who's going to tell nature to stop devouring the shore right next to the bathhouse? 

Sleazy hotel torture chamber

NY Post 

A 59-year-old man was lured to a Queens hotel room on the false promise of sex only to be tortured for hours by two suspects who then robbed him, prosecutors said Thursday.

The victim arrived at Hotel Ninety Five outside JFK Airport in Jamaica on Aug. 6, and paid 19-year-old Destiny Lebron for sex after responding to a prostitution ad, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.

But the twisted beatdown began as soon as the victim began to undress, according to Katz.

Lebron allegedly threw bleach in her victim’s face before opening the door to let in her alleged accomplice, 22-year-old Gil Iphael.

Iphael charged the victim, covered his head with a blanket and began punching him while demanding his cash, Katz said.

The two delinquents confiscated the man’s car keys, phone and wallet, officials said. 

When the man refused to unlock his phone, Lebron allegedly burned him with a curling iron until he gave in, according to prosecutors.

The duo tried to steal the man’s money by transferring it electronically before making multiple trips to the ATM to withdraw funds instead, the DA said.

The alleged torture continued for hours.

It really doesn't look that bad from the outside. But the reviews say different.

Nursing home magnate buys future hotel in LIC

 

 The Real Deal

A hotel to become a Staybridge Suites in Long Island City now belongs to a nursing home operator who has been active in New York City dealmaking.

Centers Health Care’s Daryl Hagler bought the property at 38-59 11th Street where the unopened 240-key hotel stands for $63 million from an entity called 559 Development LLC, according to city records filed Monday.

Centers Health Care declined to comment. It wasn’t immediately clear who controls the entity that sold the property. The seller of 38-59 11th Street paid $6.2 million for the site in 2013, according to city property records.

The hotel was complete at the time of its sale, said Josh Zegen of Madison Realty Capital, which lent developer Teddy Li $46 million in 2019 to help finish the 183,000-square-foot hotel and community facility. Construction had begun in 2018.

It’s unclear when the 24-floor Staybridge Suites will open. IHG Hotels & Resorts, Staybridge’s parent company, did not comment by press time.

 Hagler has been involved in several deals across New York City in recent months. In May he purchased the nearby 100,000-square-foot former DeNobili cigar factory at 35-11 9th Street in Astoria and its 6,000-square-foot parking lot for $26.4 million from real estate investor Bruce Brickman.

 

De Facto borough tower jail

THE CITY 

One Saturday last May, an elderly man stood on the sidewalk outside a Maspeth Federal Savings Bank branch on a quiet block in Fresh Meadows, Queens, when a stranger walked up to him and punched him square in the face.

This kind of unfortunate incident happens occasionally on the streets of New York City, but in this case an important detail had broader implications: the man arrested and charged with assault gave the police his address as 61-27 186th St., a hotel around the corner from the bank.

That hotel houses inmates released from Rikers Island and state prisons, as it has since the start of the pandemic as part of the city’s effort to curb the spread of the virus. The arrestee was one of those former inmates.

And he was not the only one. Last year, 42 individuals arrested for a wide variety of crimes gave 61-27 186th St. as their address, according to a search of NYPD records performed by Deputy Inspector Kevin Chan, commanding officer of the 107th Precinct where the hotel is located.

Alleged crimes committed by individuals listed at the 186th St. address included robbery, burglary, grand larceny, petit larceny and criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to the NYPD.

“Forty-two is a large number of people who used that address,” Chan told THE CITY. “It’s one location. They’re former inmates. They have been arrested before. I don’t want to assume that everyone who’s been arrested before gets arrested again, but it does happen that in some cases they continue committing the same crimes.”

Residents report an uptick in crime in the area, and a CVS behind the hotel has been hit repeatedly by shoplifters in the last year. Prior to that, the store experienced only occasional theft, workers say.

 

Homeless de Blasio shelters in hotel

  

NY Post

Mayor Bill de Blasio plans on leaving Gracie Mansion true to form: late!

Movers were at the mayor’s official residence on Friday to pack de Blasio’s stuff into a pair of vans, but City Hall said the perpetually tardy bureaucrat would remain there overnight, even though Mayor-elect Eric Adams succeeds him immediately after the stroke of midnight.

With one of de Blasio’s two Park Slope houses rented out and the other undergoing extensive remodeling, sources said he would be relocating to the Marriott hotel in downtown Brooklyn.

It’s unclear how long de Blasio plans to stay there. It was not clear who is paying for the hotel stay.

And even though he could have declined it, law enforcement sources also said that taxpayers will continue to pick up the tab for de Blasio to be protected by an NYPD security detail for at least six months.

City still using hotel as halfway house

Queens Chronicle

Signs for the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Fresh Meadows came down sometime in the last few months, but it will continue to serve as a transitional community for the formerly incarcerated through the end of the year.

The 61-27 186 St. hotel has been used as a home for formerly detained individuals since April 2020.

“All hotels are under contract, and will remain open, through the end of 2021,” B. Colby Hamilton, the chief of public affairs at the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice said in an email to the Chronicle. “The City is committed to all of our transitional facilities, including those in Queens, that provide those returning from incarceration a much-needed home base of support as they work to reintegrate into our communities. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and our partners inside and outside government are working tirelessly on the next phase of the program in the new year.”

Kandra Clark, the vice president of policy and strategy at Exodus, the group overseeing housing at the hotel, told the Chronicle that the group has not heard from the city about a contract extension date. The staff is working with the 116 residents to help them find permanent housing and employment.

The Fresh Meadows hotel is independently owned and operated as a franchise and hasn’t been affiliated with Wyndhman since September, according to the chain’s global communications director.

Blissfully overbuilding in Blissville

The status as of November 2020: Here it is in 2021: So what the hell is this?

Wait for it....

Stevie needs one more homeless shelter before he exits stage left.

Peruse the filings at your own will.

Sent by the original Crapper

Kew Gardens hotel New Year's Day murder suspect caught

 

 QNS

A Bronx teenager was indicted by a Queens grand jury for murder and related charges in the New Year’s Eve fatal shooting of a Rosedale man, and wounding two other victims, outside the Umbrella Hotel in Kew Gardens, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.

Richard Swygert, 19, was arraigned Monday before Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant on a seven-count indictment charging him with murder, two counts of attempted murder, assault and possession of a weapon in what was the first murder in the city of 2021.

The fatal shooting outraged the Kew Gardens community who demanded the hotel’s closure claiming the Umbrella had been a hotbed of criminal activities, including prostitution, drug dealing and human trafficking. Mayor Bill de Blasio on Jan. 5 said he would move to shut down the hotel that had also received over a dozen violations last year.

According to the charges, Swygert allegedly pulled out a gun after a disagreement between two groups of revelers celebrating New Year’s Eve at the now-shuttered Umbrella Hotel on 82nd Avenue and Queens Boulevard.

At around 1 a.m. on the morning of Jan.1, Swygert allegedly shot 20-year-old Robert Williams, a standout athlete who was just one day shy of his 21st birthday, and two other men. Williams died at the scene and the other two victims were taken to area hospitals for medical treatment.

“The defendant’s alleged actions led to the first homicide in New York City this year,” Katz said. “Senseless shootings have brought grief and heartache to far too many families in our neighborhoods. My office will continue to work with our law enforcement and community partners to stop the proliferation of guns in Queens and to hold accountable perpetrators of gun violence.”

DHS ceases using neighboring hotels for sheltering homeless families

 

Redding St. 2017, JQ LLC

 

Queens Chronicle 

The city will be phasing out the use of two Ozone Park hotels to shelter homeless families in the fall, according to the city Department of Homeless Services.

Travelodge by Wyndham Ozone Park located at 137-30 Redding St. is slated to close Sept. 30, and the Ozone Inn & Suites at 137-08 Redding St. will close on Nov. 30.

The DHS will work with approximately 23 households residing at these locations over the coming weeks to connect some to permanent housing and others to alternative shelter placements.

The agency’s use of the two Ozone Park locations goes back to late 2016. They are not Covid-period commercial hotels, which the agency used throughout the pandemic to provide social distancing for its clients, and also began dismantling in July.

The agency maintains that the effort to transition from its use of hotels for homeless shelters is part of a longer-term process of phasing out the stop-gap use of commercial hotels that goes back to previous administrations.

“No one will be displaced and turned out onto the street. This is normal course-of-business work that is part of the plans/commitments we laid out in the Mayor’s Turning the Tide plan several years ago,” wrote a Department of Social Services spokesperson in an email response to questions from the Chronicle.

These hotels have been used as shelters for nearly a half a decade, so why do this now with the Delta Variant spreading?

General hospital grand hotel

 

 Queens Chronicle

A mixed-use building that is part medical center and part hotel is on track to open in the next few months, developers recently announced.

The new 18-story mixed use tower at 42-31 Union St. in Flushing will be home to the Eastern Mirage Medical Center and the Eastern Mirage Hotel and will be operational before September, Fleet Financial Group announced.

The medical center will incorporate the hotel amenities into its patients healing process. Those staying in the healthcare facility will be offered access to an indoor pool, spa and fitness center, as well as a Michelin-rated restaurant and bar.

“Eastern Mirage Medical Center incorporates the most advanced technology available to hospitals today, along with a more welcome, hospitality-inspired setting,” Richard Xia, president of Fleet Financial Group, said in an April 8 statement. “By creating a symbiotic relationship with the building’s healthcare facility and luxury hotel, we hope to create a steady flow of visitors to both businesses.”

According to Fleet Financial Group, the medical center will utilize cutting-edge amenities, such as a five-layer curtain wall providing enhanced sound insulation and natural light, as well as environmentally friendly materials and systems, high ceilings, and Turkish marble floors. 

Patients will have an almost completely touchless experience, as well: The center will use facial and voice recognition features for offices and elevators.

The plans for the building — which will be the tallest in Flushing — also include more than 34,000 square feet of outdoor place, including an all-glass roof terrace with a panoramic view of New York City.

Man who kicked and stomped a 65-year-old Asian woman served time for killing his mother and lived in a nearby hotel shelter

 

 

NY Daily News

 An elderly woman walking through Hells Kitchen became the latest victim of an unprovoked anti-Asian attack, in a brutal, caught-on-video assault.

Cops have charged a man out on parole for killing his mother with the caught-on-video stomping of a 65-year-old Asian woman outside a luxury Manhattan building, a hate crime that shocked the city, officials said Tuesday.

Brandon Elliot, 38, was charged with assault as a hate crime and other charges at 1:10 a.m. Wednesday after cops received numerous Crime Stoppers tips, authorities said.

“This was a horrific, horrific attack,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea told PIX11 Wednesday. “(The victim) has very significant injuries and she has a long recovery ahead of her.”

In 2002 Elliot, then 19, was arrested for fatally stabbing his mother three times in the chest in front of his sister, who was 5, in the Bronx. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

He was released on supervised release and lifetime parole just 16 months ago.

Elliot was nabbed for the hate crime at the Four Points by Sheraton, a hotel-turned-homeless-shelter on W. 40th St. — just a few blocks from where he allegedly attacked his victim, according to cops. Elliot has been living at the hotel, which the city has been using to house homeless men.

Hotel-shelter turned murder scene

From the NY Post:

A 33-year-old man who lived at a Queens homeless shelter was allegedly stabbed to death by a fellow resident of the facility — which neighbors ripped as a beacon for crime that is now spiraling out of control.

A 28-year-old woman who lived nearby her whole life and declined to give her name, said the shelter has brought its share of problems to the neighborhood.

“Shelter’s been here about 3 years,” she said. “Last year or so, cars started getting broken into. Out of control now, every night! My son can’t go in the park. Not even in daytime! Look! Like a prison yard. … Walking around drinking out [of] brown bags! All day, every day! It wasn’t like this back when it was the airport hotel. Never like this.”

“Anything not nailed down disappears,” said a 64-year-old neighbor who identified himself as Mike L. “Steal right out of the front yard. Junkies! I yelled at a guy a couple days ago, like 10 in the morning going through my garbage, on the side of the house. Day is worse than night. Now they’re killing each other — and we’re next.”

“This ain’t getting better,” he added.

Wow! So are Steve Banks and most of the lefty media going to call these people racist for opposing the shelter in their neighborhood? Or are we going to admit that some neighborhoods have valid reasons for not wanting violent criminals living near them?