Grand Central TerminalIn the latest twist to the saga of Apple’s lease at Grand Central Terminal, the State Assembly will also investigate the terms of the company’s alleged “sweetheart” deal, the New York Post reported. The store will open tomorrow.
The Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, which has authority over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state agency, has started assembling documents for an inquiry, the Post said. [more]
Buoyed by the endorsement of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the State Assembly proposed new legislation this morning that would cap property taxes at 2 percent, with some exceptions. Cuomo has been pushing for such a tax ceiling since his campaign, and the Assembly had been seen as one of his most challenging hurdles, since the New York City Democrats that lead the body have close ties to teachers’ unions, which have opposed the cap. Senate Republicans have, in the past, come out in favor of tax caps. [more]
The State Assembly has passed a bill to extend and bolster the city’s rent regulation laws through 2016, Speaker Sheldon Silver’s office announced yesterday evening. The bill would repeal vacancy decontrol, which allows landlords to deregulate apartments when they become vacant or when the rent tips above $2,000 monthly. It would also raise the thresholds at which landlords can deregulate apartments based on tenants’ income. Landlords can currently begin charging market-rate rents when a tenant makes more than $175,000 per year and pays at least $2,000 in monthly rent; under the new rules, those limits would be increased to $300,000 and $3,000. TRD [more]
The State Senate voted 45 to 17 yesterday in favor of the property tax cap bill Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed last week, and now the spotlight is shifting to the Assembly, where support for the measure is less than assured, according to the New York Times. Whereas Senate approval was expected — the chamber has passed limits on property taxes in recent years under both Democratic and Republican majorities — several Democratic Assembly members haven’t been as enthusiastic thus far, and were reportedly offended that Cuomo sprung the bill upon them with no advance warning last Friday to get it passed before today’s release of his executive budget. [more]
Negotiations have resumed between the U.S. Postal Service and the New York City Department of Education, in a deal that would turn the Peck Slip Post Office in Lower Manhattan into a 400-seat elementary school, according to DNAinfo. The postal service first entered talks with city officials to sell the property this past summer, after putting the 70,800-square-foot building at 1 Peck Slip between Pearl and Water streets on the market in the spring. But negotiations deadlocked and the proposed sale, which officials say could help alleviate Lower Manhattan’s overcrowded schools, appeared to be in jeopardy. [more]
New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver introduced a set of
guidelines for reducing the number of rats at Lower Manhattan
construction sites today, in response to a reported rise in resident
complaints. “This is a public health issue,” Silver said. “In certain
areas, particularly near Fulton Street, the streets have been literally
overrun with rats since construction and repair projects began earlier
this year.” Among the suggested rat-control guidelines is an uptick in
construction zone oversight, a reduction in the number of hours garbage
is allowed to sit curbside and an increase in rodent bait at building
sites. TRD
A camera lens analogy might help voters understand where Michael Bloomberg and William Thompson, who are New York’s main mayoral candidates, stand on key real estate issues ahead of tomorrow’s election. Bloomberg, the Republican incumbent, seems to favor a wide-angle approach, as his sweeping rezoning of a fifth of the city, or 8,400 blocks over eight years in office, would indicate. Focused on creating denser, more transit-oriented development, according to his PlaNYC, which was unveiled in 2007, the city has famously paved the way for homes to be built into once-industrial swaths of land, notably along the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn. [more]
