A portion of Con Edison’s outage map

Powerful gusts of wind and lashing rain that wreaked havoc in the city early Thursday morning have left 5,000 customers without power, DNAinfo reported. The storm, according to Con Edison, sent trees crashing into power lines and interrupted service in parts of Queens and Staten Island. A spokesman for the company said that at one point, over 1,200 Staten Islanders and 1,184 Queens residents were without power. Con Edison’s outage map shows that Richmond Hill was most impacted by the storm, with over 1,419 customers losing power. The numbers, the spokesman added, could yet fluctuate, and repair crews had been dispatched…. [more]

Con Edison’s Craig Ivey

Con Edison is asking for an extra $395 million from its customers next year, citing the need for insurance from disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, Crain’s reported. 975,000 of the utility company’s customers lost power in the wake of the storm, and several thousands remained in the dark for a further ten days. Con Edison announced Friday that it would invest $1 billion in storm protection work over the next four years, including burying wires to protect them from falling trees and building walls around low-lying facilities. Part of the money, the company said, was likely to come from federal funds…. [more]

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Con Edison has asked state regulators to approve its plan to sell a property in Brooklyn Bridge Park for $9.2 million, the City Room blog of the New York Times reported. Con Ed bought the land — 3.4 acres between John Street and the East River — 50 years ago for $250,000 and has invested roughly $600,000 in the property over the years. Half the proceeds of the sale to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation will be split among Con Ed’s 3.2 million customers, who will receive $1.40 each. Park officials are awaiting requests for proposals to build a 13-story mixed-use complex with 130 residential units and retail space on a portion of the land, though concerns about flooding remain… [more]

From left: Sharif El-Gamal and a rendering of Park51

A New York State Supreme Court judge has sided with Con Edison in its ongoing rent dispute with the developer of the controversial Park51 Islamic cultural and community center in Lower Manhattan, the New York Post reported.

Con Ed argued that it is owed $1.7 million in back rent and $47,437 a month in rent for the land, where it leases a substation to Sharif El-Gamal, the Park51 developer, at 45-47 Park Place. However, El-Gamal said he owes just $881,519 in back rent and $25,875 a month going forward. The judge sided with Con Ed in the June ruling, the Post said. [more]

Mayor Bloomberg and the Eastchester Heights Apartments complex

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced today that more than $100 million in financing will be made available to property owners who perform clean heat conversions. Last year, the city banned the heaviest heating oils, which are still used in about 10,000 structures, and urged owners to switch to cleaner heating solutions by 2015. Bloomberg said the conversions would generate $300 million in construction activity. [more]

Soho Properties CEO Sharif El-Gamal, rendering of Park51 community center, and 45 Park Place (building credit: PropertyShark)

Con Edison has ordered Soho Properties CEO Sharif El-Gamal and Park51 developers to pay $1.7 million owed in back rent, the New York Post reported, and threatened to evict the team behind the controversial ‘Ground Zero mosque.’

Con Ed owns a former substation on the western half of the Lower Manhattan property where the developers want to build a community center and rents it out to Park51. Park51 paid $700,000 to lease the substation in 2009, which had a rental rate, set in 1972, of $2,750 per month. But in August, the utility raised the rent, retroactive to July 2008, to $47,437 per month. … [more]

A federal judge has dismissed negligence claims by Consolidated Edison over the fate of the original building at 7 World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, the New York Law Journal reported, after it collapsed into a Con Ed substation.

Southern District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said the events of that day were “much too improbable to be consistent with any duty” toward Con Ed by developer Larry Silverstein and Citigroup.

Silverstein’s 7WTCo., an LLC controlled by Silverstein Properties, was charged with two counts of with negligence related to the development of the building. Tenants were apparently permitted to install diesel-fueled backup generators. Claims against Citigroup alleged that “an unreasonable amount of diesel fuel” in two 6,000-gallon tanks was incorporated into the design.

For Hellerstein, the idea that Silverstein and Citigroup could have foreseen these circumstances was just too far-fetched. … [more]

Even as preparations for the fall-out from Hurricane Irene are
shifting into high gear, some residents in Harlem are still contending
with the the fall-out from another, more minor incident several weeks
ago, WNYC reported. Nearly 800 Harlem residents have been without gas
since a water main break two weeks ago. Outside of public housing, 774 Consolidated Edison customers near the location of the break at 152nd Street
and St. Nicholas Avenue on Aug. 12 are still without gas. While Con Ed said yesterday it it had restored gas to the main pipe, landlords
need to fix leaky pipes before Con Ed can restore gas serve to the
remaining 50 to 60 buildings. According to a Con Ed spokesperson, the electric service company cannot gain access to many of the buildings to check whether the
pipes have passed an integrity test…. [more]

Brooklyn Bridge Park is considering acquiring a three-acre parcel of vacant land near the Manhattan Bridge from Con Edison to complete its plans for an 85-acre waterfront park, the Wall Street Journal reported. The site, on John Street between Adams and Jay streets, would have an apartment tower up to 130 feet tall, a tide pool and additional parkland. Both sides confirmed they are currently in negotiations but declined to comment further. … [more]

The city took its first step towards the $13 million rehabilitation of Waterside Pier, between 38th and 41st streets along the East River, into a public park yesterday, GlobeSt.com reported. The project is funded completely by a $13-million lease fulfillment payment made yesterday by Consolidated Edison, whose lease expired last June. The site had gone unused for years, according to Con Ed. The money will help refurbish the pier’s structural components, and give way to a 34,000-square-foot park…. [more]