Mayor Bloomberg and Midtown East
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s push to modernize Midtown East office buildings has become a legacy issue as the mayor’s reign winds to a close, according to the New York Daily News. Bloomberg wants to rezone the area bounded by Third and Fifth avenues and East 39th and East 59th streets to allow developers to knock down aging, undersized buildings and replace them with taller, modern towers. [more]
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Despite a Supreme Court challenge Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a bill to declare a formal state of emergency in New York City with regard to housing, allowing him to extend rent regulations for another three years, the New York Times reported.
The mayor cited a citywide residential vacancy rate of 3.5 percent as the reason for the extension, at a ceremony this week where he signed the bill. Legally, rent regulations must be terminated if a citywide vacancy rate higher than 5 percent exists. [more]
Fresh Kills from above
The city has issued a request for proposals to design, construct, install and operate solar and wind power facilities at Fresh Kills on Staten Island, according to a statement received today.
Approximately 75 acres of land are available to be developed into large-scale renewable energy facilities. When completed, the project could more than double the city’s current renewable energy capacity, the statement said. [more]
From left: Mayor Michael Bloomberg, state Sen. Adriano Espaillat and the corner of Dyckman Street and Nagle Avenue in Washington Heights
For the past decade, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has touted his commitment to building and preserving affordable housing in New York City. But according to the New York Daily News, he’s overlooking Washington Heights.
While the area’s uptown neighbors in central Harlem and East Harlem have added 2,770 and 2,133 new units of affordable housing, respectively, and the entire borough has seen 11,627 new units, just 139 units have been added in Washington Heights. [more]
From left: Stephen Schwarzman, Richard LeFrak, Sam Zell, Leonard Stern, Stephen Ross
Blackstone President Stephen Schwarzman, Richard LeFrak, Equity International Chairman Sam Zell and Related Companies Chairman Stephen Ross were just some of the big players in New York City real estate to make Forbes’ list of the world’s 1,226 billionaires released yesterday.
But none can match the wealth of the man who has the final say on whether many of their ambitious city projects ultimately get built: Mayor Michael Bloomberg. [more]
Sketch of Willets Point redevelopment
With Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan for a convention center near the Aqueduct in Queens grabbing headlines, the New York Times checked in on the status of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan for a similar, albeit smaller, convention center in the borough.
The Willets Point convention center is still in the works, the Times found. It’s a curious development — two centers within miles of one another — considering the general appetite for convention centers has faded with the growth of the Internet. [more]
Seamless, which runs take-out and food delivery site Seamless.com, combines two industries that power New York City — take-out and technology. And the company has just opened a new headquarters in the Big Apple, overlooking Bryant Park at 1065 Sixth Avenue, according to a statement from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office, whose “digital roadmap” for the city, unveiled this May, urges an expansion of New York City’s technology sector.
The food ordering service, which facilitated over $400 million worth of food orders last year, will locate more than half of its total employees in its new 28,000-square-foot home at 40th Street, the statement said. [more]
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has pronounced any new property taxes proposed by the Bloomberg administration for the next fiscal year “dead on arrival,” in a Monday interview with New York Post reporters.
As rumors swell that the city plans to increase property taxes to fill its projected $2 billion budget gap, the City Council Speaker wants Mayor Michael Bloomberg to know that a tax hike is not on the table. Sources told the Post that the mayor’s aides are trying to convince him raising property taxes is preferable to drastic cuts in services. [more]
From left: Culture Shed model and a rendering of the Whitney Museum in the Meatpacking District
If the city has its way, New Yorkers will be able to walk along the High Line from the Whitney Museum, take a few stops at Chelsea galleries, and continue to a Hudson Yards arts center called the Culture Shed.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the arts center, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg said this week would host Fashion Week, would be home to theater performances, traveling exhibitions and community events. The city hopes to have a clear plan for the center by next summer, including funding and a non-profit organization to lead it. [more]
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and 305 Seventh AvenueThe nation’s first gay senior center is being planned for Chelsea and will be among eight specialized senior citizen facilities opening across the five boroughs that benefit from $3.5 million in city funds, the New York Post reported. The center for the city’s estimated 100,000 elderly gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people will open at 305 Seventh Avenue, near 27th Street, at the headquarters of SAGE, the leading advocacy group for the demographic. It will serve about 130 meals a day.
Other centers, dubbed super centers, will cater to vegetarians, seniors from East Asia and the visually impaired. [more]
