Gary Jacob, executive vice president of Glennwood Management and the Emerald Green

Developers are increasingly including affordable units within luxury
rental buildings as part of the 80/20 program, the New York Times reported.

Steven Spinola, the president of the Real Estate
Board of New York, says at least six 80/20 projects are being planned
in Manhattan that will add some 1,500 affordable and rent-stabilized
apartments.
Previously, when
developers of market-rate residential buildings included affordable
housing in exchange for tax incentives, the affordable units were
often in another complex or even in another borough altogether. But in
2008, the city changed regulations in a way that made it almost
impossible for developers to include the affordable units outside the
luxury buildings. [more]

From left: Gary Jacob, executive vice president of Glenwood Management, Gary Barnett of Extell and Douglas Durst of the Durst Organization have legally used LLCs to contribute to Paterson, Cuomo

More real estate developers are finding loopholes in gubernatorial campaign finance laws by donating under LLCs. While individual persons can’t donate more than $50,000 to candidates for governor, LLCs associated with companies like the Durst Organization and Extell Development have given big bucks to the campaigns of Governor David Paterson and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, respectively, according to the New York Daily News. Durst-affiliated LLCs doled out $90,000 to the current governor while Extell handed over at least $47,000 to his challenger. Curiously, some companies gave money to both the candidates, reports show. LLCs linked to Manhattan-based luxury apartment owner Glenwood Management gave $300,000 to Paterson and $150,000 to Cuomo. In total, Paterson has received a total of $1.8 million in LLC-based donations, while Cuomo has taken in $2 million. New York City actually banned candidates from accepting donations from LLCs in 2008, but the practice is still legal for candidates running for office on the state level. State Senator Daniel Squadron has taken the practice to task, and is reportedly trying to push through legislation.
[more]

From the October issue: Back in 2006, when Glenwood Management began assembling parcels on the
eastern edge of the then newly rezoned Hudson Yards district to make
way for Emerald Green, it knew the project would have plenty of company
when it opened. Thousands of high-end apartments in several massive
rental projects were slated to hit the market in the emerging
neighborhood at the same time or soon after. What they didn’t anticipate was the mess of a market they’d be entering. The 24-story, two-tower building, located at 320 West 38th Street, has
just begun renting its 569 apartments, not long after the release of a
quarterly market survey declaring the past year a disaster for rentals. more