From left: Governor Andrew Cuomo, Real Estate Board of New York President Steve Spinola and Tishman Speyer President Rob SpeyerDuring the quiet month of December in an off-election year, a political lobbying group led by REBNY President Steve Spinola and Tishman Speyer President Rob Speyer has spent $2.8 million praising Governor Andrew Cuomo in television ads, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The ads, approved by the three-person executive team of the Committee to Save New York (the third member is Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City), claim that despite challenges Cuomo is “getting things done,” including creating a solid jobs plan and lowering taxes…. [more]

The City Council will hold a hearing on the proposal to institute a new landmark district for Downtown Brooklyn tomorrow and could vote to modify or disapprove the designation, the Wall Street Journal reported. The upcoming hearing has prompted New York City’s real-estate industry to intensify its efforts to stop the landmark designation, which, it claims, will result in nearly $5 million in additional costs for property owners over the next few years.

As The Real Deal previously reported, the creation of the district would mean a spate of newly-landmarked buildings, including the Franklin Building at 186 Remsen Street, which was completed in 1887, the 13-story Temple Bar Building at 44 Court Street and a 22-story limestone, granite and brick Colonial Revival style building at 32 Court Street…. [more]

From left: Council member Gail Brewer, a Duane Reade and Bank of America on the Upper West Side and REBNY President Steven SpinolaTired of chain drugstores and banks replacing mom-and-pop shops on the Upper West Side, City Council member Gail Brewer has been trying to implement zoning laws that would restrict larger stores from moving into the area, the New York Post reported. She said the trend is compromising retail variety for residents of the area.

Brewer has been meeting with the Department of City Planning to devise legislation that works towards that goal, including laws that set a minimum number of stores per block and maximum amount of ground-floor frontage along key Upper West Side corridors. … [more]

Supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement have now begun targeting the Real Estate Board of New York on social media and then in turn by phone, following news reports that REBNY seeks to submit a proposal to the city limiting the public access hours of privately owned public parks. In response to an opinion article in today’s New York Times by Jerold Kayden, a professor of urban planning at Harvard University, on the legal gray area of such privately owned public spaces, and the news reports of REBNY’s plans, a Twitter user called @OccupyMyCat this morning posted, “Announcement! It’s time to Occupy REBNY, the Real Estate Board of New York!”

… [more]

Governor Andrew Cuomo is calling for the board of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey to approve the consolidation of the Moynihan Station Development Corporation and Lower Manhattan Development Corporation’s operations into the Port Authority, according to a statement released today. He is also recommending that Patrick Foye, currently the Governor’s Deputy Secretary of Economic Development, serve as executive director of the Port Authority, replacing the recently resigned Chris Ward.

“Too many different agencies doing the same or closely related work makes little sense,” Cuomo said in a statement. “The Port Authority is best situated to oversee the development at Moynihan Station and the orderly wind down of the LMDC and these changes will consolidate responsibility within the [Port] Authority.”  -- Miranda Neubauer… [more]

From left: Related’s Bruce Beal speaks at the launch of the new DOB development hub and Mayor Michael Bloomberg and DOB commissioner Robert LiMandri give a demonstration of the new software

Related Companies Executive Vice President Bruce Beal made an appearance this afternoon at a Department of Buildings event announcing a new system for reviewing building plans. Filing an application for a residential tower at 500 West 30th Street, Beal was one of the first to use the new system.

Called the NYC Development Hub, the new platform aims to accelerate the approval process for construction projects by allowing architects and engineers to submit plans and resolve issue digitally. DOB employees will be able to video conference with applicants while simultaneously reviewing their plans online, the department said. Other city departments, such as the Landmarks Preservation Commission and City Planning, will set up their own miniature hubs so they can participate in the process…. [more]

Though two dozen construction unions’ contracts were renewed this summer with revised terms, according to Crain’s the biggest changes are yet to come.

Operating engineers, painters and steamfitters, among other unions, agreed to unprecedented concessions amidst the faltering economy, helping to ensure that owners will continue to call upon them for construction work.

But Real Estate Board of New York members and others are upset that wages for carpenters and concrete workers were cut 20 percent only for residential and hotel projects of up to 16 and 20 stories, respectively. … [more]

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]

The Real Estate Board of New York strongly criticized a tentative deal
between concrete workers and an industry association that averted a strike last night, saying that the agreement won’t be enough to
stem a tide towards non-union construction, Crain’s reported. REBNY
also said that the agreement wouldn’t offer enough cost-savings for
developers.  The deal involves wage increases of approximately 8 percent over three years and a 20 percent wage reduction on hotel and residential buildings of 16 or fewer stories, according to Crain’s…. [more]

Concrete workers that abandoned some construction sites in the wake of their expired labor contract were ordered to return to their jobs Tuesday night. Crain’s reported that an arbitrator ruled that concrete laborers at West 57th Street, Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center and Tower 2 of the World Trade Center were in violation of a no-strike provision in labor agreements at those sites.

The Cement and Concrete Workers District Council plans to appeal the ruling, Crain’s said, as it will argue that the no-strike agreement is not applicable since the contract expired in June. But by Wednesday workers at all four sites were back on the job. A similar hearing is scheduled today for walkouts at the new Weill Cornell Medical College on East 69th Street. … [more]