AOC is MIA from her district offices

 

NY Post

Guess this self-proclaimed woman of the people thinks they are best served from afar.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s New York City district offices are still only open for in-person constituent services on Mondays and Wednesdays — even as municipal workers and school kids have been back at their desks full time for months.

The other three weekdays, AOC’s district office appointments are held virtually.

It’s a sharp contrast to the 14 New York congressional members out of 29 whose offices are open Monday through Friday — and comes after Hurricane Ida wreaked havoc on her constituents.

“Her staff should be here more often, especially for people affected by Ida. There’s no excuse,” said retired school social worker Martha Grubman.

The storm flooded the basement of the 66-year-old retiree’s co-op and knocked out the elevators. Grubman, who’s disabled, was stuck in her home for days. 

“I would like to see them here three days at least, to hear what her constituents want and need,” Grubman said of Ocasio-Cortez’s local staff.

“I don’t know what other commitments they have. Maybe they’re helping her get ready to run for Senate, helping her get on the covers of more magazines,” Grubman conjectured.

Amazon never needed over three billion dollars to come to New York

Slate

Amazon is reportedly back in the market for office space in New York City, which, if true, is a sweet bit of vindication for critics of the company’s whole HQ2 fracas.

 

In February, Amazon dropped its plans to build a massive office complex in Queens amid political blowback over a package of state and city subsidies the project would have received. Now, according to the New York Post, the company is shopping for real estate on the West Side of Manhattan. “The tech giant has been in talks with owners of two shiny new skyscrapers located just one block west of Penn Station — the newly built One Manhattan West and its soon-to-be sister project, Two Manhattan West,” the paper reports, citing “sources.” The company, which already has 5,000 employees in the city, is apparently looking for 100,000 square feet or “much more.”

That footprint is significantly smaller than the 4 million to 8 million square feet of space Amazon planned to build out for its HQ2 project. But the fact that the company is still planning to grow its New York presence without a large, specially crafted subsidy package seems to prove the basic point many of the deal’s critics made, which is that major cities with large pools of business and engineering talent do not need to stoop to corporate welfare in order to attract major tech companies, which tend to go where they can find enough employees. 

 

 

Questions about new construction on Jericho Turnpike

From the Queens Chronicle:

Richard Hellenbrecht loves Bellerose. And he warns a four-story building going up at Jericho Turnpike and Little Neck Parkway could be a nightmare for drivers in the neighborhood.

“We were asking for the [Department of Transportation] to do a study or at least a review on it,” Hellenbrecht, the executive vice president of the Queens Civic Congress, told the Chronicle. “Because that particular point on Little Neck Parkway is very busy.”

According to a DOT spokesperson, the agency did not analyze the intersection — which has a traffic light — for the impacts of the development.

The Bellerose resident, who is a member of Community Board 13, is also concerned about what the future of the community facility planned at the site will be.

“The big question is, will they maintain the community facility?” he added. “Even if they start with the community facility, will they maintain it or replace it with regular offices?”

Seventy-eight parking spots are planned, according to the website of AB Capstone, the site’s developer.

Hellenbrecht said the firm developing the property has repeatedly ignored requests from CB 13 to meet with board members. However, he said that the board’s Land Use Committee did speak with the real estate broker for the site.

More mega-towers planned for Queens Plaza

From DNA Info:

Developer Tishman Speyer released a rendering and update Monday on its massive, two-tower office and retail complex planned for Queens Plaza — a project city officials are calling a "major job generator" for the neighborhood.

The developer and investment company Qatari Diar are building the 1.1-million-square-foot project at 28-10 Queens Plaza South, next to Tishman Speyer's existing building at 2 Gotham Center, which houses offices for the city's Department of Health.

The complex will feature two, 27-story office towers connected by four stories of retail at their base, which will include a food hall, restaurant and parking garage, according to the developers.

HUGE development coming to Flushing shore

From the Queens Courier:

The former Asian grocery Assi Plaza, located in Flushing, is about to change hands again to make way for redevelopment.

Eastern Consolidated’s Capital Advisory Division has negotiated a $42 million bridge loan from a private lender on behalf of Triple Star Realty LLC, which used the loan to purchase the nearly 100,000-square-foot property on which the former supermarket sat. The total acquisition cost was upwards of $90 million.

Triple Star Realty plans to raze the existing structures on the former supermarket site in order to develop a 631,752-square-foot, mixed-use waterfront complex that will consist of a 360-unit condominium and a 200-room hotel, as well as a supermarket, retail and office space, and parking. The development will be comparable to other large-scale projects, such as Sky View Parc, Flushing Commons and Willets Point.

Crowley moving office to Atlas Park

From the Daily News:

The struggling Atlas Park Mall has lured in several new tenants, including City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, the Daily News has learned.

Next Friday, Crowley will move her district office from Dry Harbor Road in Middle Village to the Glendale shopping center, less than a mile away.

“Our new community office provides a larger and more centrally located space that will help my staff and I better serve the people of the 30th District,” Crowley said in a statement.

Constituents visiting the office will get an hour of free parking. And aides said the 1,267 sq. ft. office is a larger and more cost-efficient space.

The move is also a show of faith in the mall which has grappled to find its footing in the neighborhood and the retail market.

It doesn't get much worse than this

From the Queens Chronicle:

James J. Shevlin, born in 1863 and a son of Irish immigrants, joined the NYPD on Oct. 16, 1886. A rising star in the department, he advanced himself to captain of the old 279th Precinct in the Rockaways.

Shevlin built this mansion, originally numbered 453 Hillside Ave. With his wife, Mary, he raised eight boys — Thomas, Matthew, Eugene, Joseph, Gerard, John, Harold and Charles — in this home. His last child was a girl they named Mary. He even took in his mother- and father-in-law, Matthew and Nora Kett.

Once Hillside Avenue was zoned commercial east down to Hollis, these grand homes were doomed. Few remained when stores started to dominate the area. The price of commercial real state outweighed the value of these grand homes. But the Shevlin Mansion remained, though hidden.

We didn't elect a co-mayor

From the NY Post:

Mayor de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, wants her own office inside City Hall — and to play a hands-on, policy-setting role in her husband’s administration, sources told The Post.

Officials have been scouting space for New York City’s new first lady, who described herself as a “sounding board and partner” to her husband during his campaign and transition to mayor, a source said.

And the administration has been working on a portfolio of issues for McCray to tackle, ­another source said.

McCray would also like a staff — and her top pick to head it up is Rachel Noerdlinger, a longtime spokeswoman and confidant for the Rev. Al Sharpton, NY1 reported Friday.

Is this the skinniest house in Queens?

Wow, that's one narrow house, especially for an unattached one. Is it a one family? There are 2 doors...
The DOB website says it is a one-family, but it was converted illegally into 2 offices and one residential unit. There are some cramped quarters in the shadow of Queens Supreme Court in Jamaica.

The rent is too damn high

From the NY Post:

Data obtained by The Post found that 19 of the 27 senators representing parts of New York City — 70 percent — submitted rental bills that exceeded their $40,000 annual allotment for 2011-12.

Among the budget busters was Democrat Jeff Klein of The Bronx, one of the new co-leaders of the Senate. He spent $49,821, although his spokesman said he moved in October 2011 to a cheaper office — which is still over the limit on a yearly basis.

Malcolm Smith of Queens, who spent $50,000 on a Jamaica Avenue office, is one of the five members of Klein’s Independent Democratic Conference, which formed an unprecedented power-sharing coalition this year with the Senate GOP.

Republican Martin Golden of Brooklyn was also among the transgressors, billing taxpayers $48,000 for his district office in Bay Ridge — the same amount Senate Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman and deputy Democratic leader Michael Gianaris of Queens paid for his district office in Astoria.

And Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens) paid $49,723 for his district office at 38-50 Bell Blvd. He insisted the Senate Republicans negotiated his lease — claiming he didn’t even know he was over the limit.

Even imprisoned ex-Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) and indicted former Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Queens) got in on the fun, despite having represented lower-rent neighborhoods, spending $45,000 and $47,452, respectively.

The bigger they are...

From the Daily News:

Pervy Assemblyman Vito Lopez will have significantly smaller digs — and a rotten parking space — when he returns to Albany next week for the kick off of the legislative session.

The veteran Brooklyn pol was stripped of his leadership posts and committee chairmanships in the Assembly last summer amid a sexual harassment scandal and has now lost the trappings of power.

Instead of his longtime suite of offices on the top floor of the Legislative Office Building across from the Capitol, Lopez has been banished to a small, cramped office four floors below that is typically assigned to freshmen lawmakers.

While the old office had four rooms, a reception area and a shared conference room, the new one is just a single office with a reception area for his two remaining Albany staffers.

His parking space is also now much farther from the capitol door.

More on the office with the tree in it

From the Daily News:

A kindly auto shop owner didn’t have the heart to axe an in-the-way tree when he built his Queens office decades ago.

Now Tommy Cali works with the 50-foot tree growing through the middle of his desk.

“We call it the tree house,” Cali, 59, said of his office at Cove Auto Towing & Recovery in Astoria.

“I’m a a green thumb. I like plants.”

Some 32 years ago, Cali converted the enclosed front porch of his 27th Ave. home into an office for his thriving business. The garage where he fixes cars is right next door.

There was just one problem — the tree.

“My wife didn’t want me to cut it down,” he said. “So we built around it. Everybody said I was crazy.”

His wife’s grandparents had lived in their house for decades.

“It’s sentimental,” he said. “They used to play dominoes under the tree. We all used to gather here.”

I'm sure DOB will be visiting him shortly.

Now here's something you don't see every day

From Scouting NY:

I was driving down 27th Ave in Astoria the other day when a rather large tree in front of an auto body shop caught my eye. Nothing too special about a random tree…but something didn’t seem right…

…And then I realized: was that tree growing through the auto body shop??

State leasing space when its buildings are empty

Council members have pricey digs

From NY1:

City Councilman Larry Seabrook is moving on up in the office world. He opened a second district office last year and also has a space in Co-op City.

Between the two offices, the Bronx councilmember earmarked $68,000 on rent in the last year, more than any of his colleagues.

He spent more than both Council Speaker Christine Quinn, whose office is in pricey Chelsea, and Councilman Dan Garodnick, whose space is in Midtown.

A spokesperson for Seabrook said the two spaces, which are just two miles from one another, serve two separate constituencies.

Seabrook was charged with fraud in 2010 in part because he allegedly misused public funds. He had allegedly been subletting space in his old district office to local nonprofit groups while he profited.

Seabrook wasn't the only councilmember expanding last year. Others were making pricey renovations, and some were moving to larger spaces.

Queens Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz spent more than $8,000 on an office expansion.

Brooklyn Councilwoman Diana Reyna moved to a larger space in Williamsburg, where rent was nearly $5,000 a month, one of the highest of any councilmember.

What's wrong with this sign?

Click here if you didn't catch it.

Fate of St. John's Queens Hospital is sealed

SJQH Proposed Certificate of Occupancy
75 units plus a mall and diagnostic facility but parking for only 18 cars? Sounds about right...

Thank goodness. I was concerned they may put another hospital here! Our poor showing in the census proves that we need more people, not more health care.

Developer wants CB11's help

From the Times Ledger:

Community Board 11 voted unanimously to oppose a proposal to clear the way for an empty Bayside lot to be developed after a series of area homeowners testified against the plan at a Monday night meeting.

For Our Children Inc., a holding of Richard Alexander, owner of Lund Fire Products — bordered by 215th Place, 216th Street, 40th Avenue and the Long Island Rail Road — has been trying to develop a vacant lot next to his business for years.

Alexander’s attorney, Simon Rothkrug, presented a proposal to build a 6,790-square-foot, one-story office building on the residential-zoned parcel. In order to move forward with a commercial development on the spot, a variance to allow commercial use would have to be approved.

But CB 11 members and neighbors balked at the idea, saying Lund already contributes to traffic and parking woes in the area and that an office building would be out of character with the existing neighborhood.

The proposed building, which had no committed tenants, would have provided 12 parking spaces, which residents called insufficient.

Alexander was on vacation and unavailable to comment Tuesday.

Rothkrug returned to CB 11 Monday night to present the scaled-back proposal. He said the site could be developed as detached residential but that due to a 2005 downzoning of the area, only four small homes would fit on the property, which would not yield sufficient economic benefit for Alexander.

“The argument that they need a rate of return is simply stating that they made a bad investment and now they want the community board to fix it,” board member Steve Behar said. “The last thing the area needs is more office space .... There’s already too many trucks in this area, and there’s already no parking.”

Malcolm's not-for-profit conflict

From City Hall:

Though he helped found the organization and sent it $57,000 in member items, Senate President Malcolm Smith has maintained that he has no knowledge of the day-to-day operations of the New Direction Local Development Corp., the non-profit that federal authorities are now probing for potential abuses. New Direction was located in the office portion of a one-story building in Southeast Queen that shares space with a laundromat and gym.

But also located in the building's office space: Great Abstract Company, LLC, a mortgage title company that Smith served as vice president of for more than four years, according to his personal income disclosures with the Legislative Ethics Commission.

Founded in August 2004, Great Abstract was also located at 219-10 South Conduit Avenue, in Springfield Gardens, incorporation and property records show.

The for-profit and non-profit also shared at least one common employee: Joan Flowers, a board member for New Direction who has reportedly been subpoenaed in the federal probe, and who was in care of the organization’s books for at least several years, according to the group’s tax returns.

Flowers, meanwhile, earned at least $1,000 working for Great Abstract in 2008, according to her 2009 financial disclosure with the Legislative Ethics Commission. Flowers also drew up both the 2000 incorporation documents for both New Direction and the 2004 incorporation papers for Great Abstract.

Pols + LDCs = always a shady connection.

Owners of office buildings not doing so well

From the NY Times:

There are 920 football fields of available office space in Manhattan. More than 180 major buildings totaling $12.5 billion in value — from Columbus Tower at 1775 Broadway to the office tower 400 Madison Avenue — are in trouble, meaning in many cases they face foreclosure or bankruptcy, or have had problems making mortgage payments. Rents for commercial office space fell faster over the past two years than in any such period in the last half century.

More than half a dozen experts on commercial real estate in New York City said that despite some flickering signs of economic recovery here and elsewhere in the country, the universe of big buildings and giant apartment complexes has further to tumble.

Rents, they say, will go lower. Vacancy rates are likely to rise, too. Owners of troubled properties will face a final day of reckoning and in some cases lose their properties.

The Real Deal also says that downtown office vacancy rates may increase 64%.