Argentos to receive "good Catholic" awards

From the Catholic Foundation.

I guess they've been spreading their dough around...

Big campaign donor paid for DeBlasios' costumes

From the Observer:

Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife Chirlane McCray were decked out in Greek finery at Tuesday’s Gracie Mansion Halloween party, and they didn’t have to pay a single drachma.

The First Couple’s Halloween costumes were paid for by Broadway Stages, a Brooklyn company whose employees donated $25,000 to Mr. de Blasio’s campaign. The outfits were rented from Abracadabra for $350.

Broadway Stages, a film, television and music production facility, was responsible for the mayor appearing on The Good Wife in March.

The company also paid for the costumes of 100 children from city homeless shelters who attended the Gracie monster mash.

No conflict of interest there. Nah...

Broadway Stages now doing cellar repairs

Well here we are at the John Ciafone-owned 23-22 Steinway Street.

Last year, he applied for a permit to "CONVERT EXISTING ONE FAMILY APARTMENT TO STORE AND CREATE DUPLEX WITH CELLAR". The plans were justifiably rejected.

Now he's got a permit to do "minor concrete slab repairs in the cellar". I didn't realize you needed a permit to do "minor repairs". You'll note that the general contractor hired for this work is none other than Broadway Stages, which he supposedly works for part time and his wife half-owns. (Hopefully he'll go elsewhere for his garbage hauling needs.)

Reform pol doesn't care who gives him money

From City and State:

Another progressive whose TIE fundraising appears to be incongruous with his politics is Councilman Carlos Menchaca, who, like Johnson, was selected as a freshman by his borough colleagues to be a co-leader of their respective delegations. Menchaca ran as a reformist insurgent against Sara Gonzalez, whom he vilified as a tool of “Manhattan millionaire developers” for receiving support from Jobs for New York, the Real Estate Board’s independent expenditure arm. But soon after taking office, Menchaca accepted $1,500 in TIE funding from Taxpayers for an Affordable New York, which is essentially run and funded by the same major property owners who spearheaded Jobs for New York.

Menchaca also took $1,500 from John Ciafone, a Queens lawyer and property owner who was listed on Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s Worst Slumlord watchlist in 2011. De Blasio returned two large contributions from Ciafone when it was revealed that he was a donor, but Menchaca is apparently untroubled by or unaware of whom he is accepting from.

John Ciafone’s wife is Gina Argento, the CEO of Broadway Stages, a large television and film production studio and sound stage company in Brooklyn and Queens. Argento and her brother Anthony Argento are prolific contributors to political campaigns, and each gave $1,500 to Menchaca’s TIE committee.

Last year the Argentos applied to have a subsidiary company, Luna Lighting, receive a license to operate as a trade waste business, which would allow the company to cart demolition and construction debris from worksites. As the Argentos have ownership interest in many industrial sites that they would like to repurpose for other commercial uses (for example, the Knockdown Center in Maspeth), owning their own demolition hauling company would provide vertical integration to their business. The city’s Business Integrity Commission issued a harsh denial of the Argentos’ application, citing a history of illegal carting by Luna Lighting, and also misrepresentation by Anthony Argento of his arrest record.

Furthermore, Anthony Argento was shown to have over $1 million in federal tax liens against him, as well as his business. As of April 2013 Argento owed the Internal Revenue Service more than $600,000. This information was all published by the city and is a matter of public record. One imagines that Menchaca or his staff must have done some cursory analysis of who was giving him money. Or perhaps the Argentos have papered the city with enough contributions that their questionable business practices do not raise the eyebrows of even the most progressive elected officials.
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"Today's reformer is tomorrow's hack." - Meade Esposito

Something reeks at Newtown Creek (and it isn't the water)!

Miss Heather has posted some eye-opening screenshots that seem to indicate that the Argentos of Knockdown Center fame have pulled another fast one on communities on both sides of Newtown Creek. How did they accomplish this? Let’s take a trip back in time to 2010…

Back then, it was announced that the City Parks Foundation was looking for participants to attend meetings to help determine how the Newtown Creek Environmental Benefit Project Funds were to be distributed. People from both sides of the Creek were invited to share their wishes, and ultimately a vote was taken to determine the top finalists.

Here is the list that was published after the vote tally:

The list was vetted by DEC and the NY Attorney General's office, and the final result was this:

You’ll note that a boathouse was the number one vote-getter. It wasn't. It actually came in third, but for some reason, it was given priority over the other projects ahead of it. It’s also controversial because the Dept of Health actually doesn’t want people paddling around Newtown Creek for health reasons, but the Parks Dept & City Planning convinced them to keep it on the list.

Christine Holowacz and "Commodore" Dewey Thompson.
Photo by Stefano Giovannini from the Brooklyn Paper.

Christine Holowacz is often referred to as a Greenpoint “community activist”. She and "Commodore" Dewey Thompson (that's what he prefers to be called) are allied with GWAPP, which is the group that pushed for the boathouse with a massive get-out-the-vote drive, including relentless blast e-mails. GWAPP members are also members of various other astroturf groups that were created to make it appear that the whole area wants a boathouse.

GWAPP seems to be under the impression that the entire $7M in Creek funds is theirs:

On October 25, 2011, the DEC and CPF submitted a letter [PDF (3.5MB)] approving the funds of the EBP to building out the boathouse, promising up to $7 million for the project. Runner-up projects would receive any leftover funding that was not used in the creation of the boathouse, however those project cannot receive funding until the principal project, the boathouse, is completed.

Unless there were some closed door shenanigans that we are not aware of, that is not the case. They were approved for $3M as noted in the screenshot above.

The address of the boathouse, as per the Newtown Creek website started December 2013, is now 437 McGuinness Blvd, aka 51 Ash Street. The website also says, "Holowacz and Thompson are currently working to finalize a location to house the boathouse and environmental education center."

Finalize a location? Why is that? The project was approved for 1155 Manhattan Avenue, the site of the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center. These are very specific, detailed plans, incorporating the architecture and history of the previously proposed site. How can they just pick up and move to a not-yet-built site? And how is DEC ok with this?

So, what do you get when you pull up the DOB filing for 51 Ash Street? An application to build a 4-story hotel, with a “private club” listed as the "community facility" that allows the owner to build larger than what is normally allowed. The owner? None other than Broadway Stages, co-owned by Gina and Tony Argento! If the "private club" is temporary, then how do they calculate an augmented FAR based on its inclusion?  Could it be the new permanent home of the North Brooklyn Boat Club?

Is the "Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning" actually pushing for a private boathouse? How do so-called environmentalists sleep at night knowing they have sold out their community to people who "lack good character, honesty and integrity" in exchange for a boathouse? The club currently charges $40 for membership per year. How can public funds be released to build a boathouse that is only open to members? Who the hell in Greenpoint, outside of these charlatans, wants to see a boathouse built with environmental settlement money inside a hotel right next to the Pulaski Bridge?

Bottom line: GWAPP is getting the money for their private club, the Argentos are getting an FAR increase to build a bigger hotel, and everyone benefits except the rest of the neighborhood.

AND NOW LET’S GET TO QUEENS.
From City Parks Foundation:

The Dutch Kills Basin Park Project proposed to construct a park with athletic fields and waterfront access. The proposed park location is along 47th Avenue between 27th and 29th Streets, in the area adjoining the Dutch Kills basin. Long Island City Roots is serving as the primary community representative for the proposed project. City Parks Foundation partnered with The Trust for Public Land (TPL) in evaluating the proposed park location. TPL submitted a letter of inquiry to the property owners of the parcels required to construct the park in the proposed location. The property owners did not respond to TPL’s letter. While awaiting response from the property owners, City Parks Foundation contracted with Goodman-Marks Associates to perform an appraisal of the proposed park location. The appraised value of the property greatly exceeded the proposed project budget. Given this information, DEC determined that the initial project location is infeasible. CPF is currently working with Long Island City community groups in an attempt to find an alternate location.

The decision posted in the second photo above states,

“If after all the projects in the primary group are implemented or projects have been determined to be infeasible to implement and additional mitigation funds remain uncommitted, the State will propose a prioritized list of projects for implementation from the secondary group.”

The language is quite clear. If a project isn’t going to happen, then it’s removed from the list and the DEC draws from the second group. It doesn't say that they'll sit and wait for the people behind a project to scramble to find an alternate location. Yet that is exactly what is happening with the Greenpoint Boathouse and the Dutch Kills Basin Park Project.

Wouldn’t it have been smarter to fund them in the order that they were ready to go? For example, planting trees could have been first and would already be making an impact. If the St. Saviour’s ULURP had been funded back in 2011, there might have been a park at that site instead of warehouses. The DEC knocked that relatively inexpensive item off the list completely, yet kept the construction of the park on, which expedited the death of the project.

The Pulaski Bridge Study was ready to go.
Renovation of McCarren Park would be finished by now.
The Greenpoint Monitor Museum was ready to go as well. (Oooooh, but that would have held back the development of the greenway along the coast! We can’t have that. The site of the Monitor Museum has been proposed for public restrooms. Which means the city will eventually own it. Which means eminent domain.)

Instead everyone now must sit by and wait for a hotel to be built next to the Pulaski Bridge. Because the actual polluting of the Creek wasn't enough punishment.

More to come! Stay tuned!

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.