William Thompson, former city comptroller, and the downtown jail

Former city Comptroller William Thompson recorded his approval on a design contract to expand a Downtown Brooklyn jail just before his term expired Dec. 31, after months of staunchly opposing the project. Thompson had issued three rejections on the $34 million contract, which the Brooklyn House of Detention needed in order to move forward with plans to double its size and add retail space on the ground floor. “This boondoggle has been a disaster since day one,” Thompson said of the project in November. Thompson is also plaintiff in a suit alongside community groups seeking to have the Atlantic Avenue jail — which was closed in 2003 but was recently allowed to reopen to overnight guests — shut down altogether. City lawyer Christopher King told the Daily News that Thompson’s approval was issued after the city agreed to drop a suit that would force him to register the contract. [NYDN]

(Clockwise from left) Brokers Richard Steinberg, Steve Kliegerman, Stacey Max, and Victoria Shtainer talk about real estate priorities post-election.

New construction helped define the legacy of Michael Bloomberg’s first two terms as mayor, whether it was parks, schools, apartments, or more controversial mega-projects. That came in lockstep with a wholesale reordering of what should go where in New York, as Bloomberg rezoned 20 percent of the city, which was the most in four decades. But in Bloomberg’s third term, which he won yesterday in a close election against city Comptroller William Thompson, the city’s real estate community seems focused on different issues — some more far-reaching than others.
Some brokers hope lessons have been learned, like with the Second Avenue Subway, whose famously disruptive construction has hurt sales at the Upper East Side’s Georgica condo, said Richard Steinberg, an executive managing director with Warburg Realty Partnership. [more]

From left: Michael Bloomberg and William Thompson

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]

Democratic mayoral candidate and current city Comptroller William Thompson told the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce today that, if elected, he would reinforce existing zoning laws for manufacturers, protecting them from “real estate speculators who offer only short-term leases,” as a means of encouraging financial recovery. Noting that the securities industry accounted for 25 percent of city wages in 2007, Thompson emphasized the need for New York to diversify the types of businesses it houses and encourage the growth of smaller commercial outlets in the city. Thompson also pledged to help the fashion industry, saying that he would work with labor unions to dedicate one million square feet of space in non-profit buildings for garment manufacturing. “Imagine if we had used the millions of dollars we spent on Yankees Stadium on efforts like this,” Thompson said. “Instead of creating part-time jobs like ushers and concession workers, we would have created many more full-time, good-paying jobs.”

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development never followed
up to see whether developers who got discounts on city land in exchange
for building affordable housing actually built those homes, according to the New
York Daily News. Under the department’s Cornerstone Program,
developers received vacant city-owned land in exchange for building
2,191 residential units on the property, of which 1,510 would be for
low- or middle-income residents. But according to an audit by
Comptroller William Thompson released today, the department did not
track how many developments were participating in the program or how
many affordable units were built. [more]

William Thompson (left), Michael Bloomberg

Rent expenditures for Michael Bloomberg’s campaign for a third term as
mayor of New York City are 71 percent higher than what they were at the
same point in his 2005 campaign, election finance records released this
week show. The billionaire mayor is also far outspending his chief rival, with
records showing he spent 13 times as much on office rent this year as
Comptroller William Thompson. The 2009 Bloomberg campaign paid $873,859 in office rent through July
11, the latest filing deadline for the New York City Campaign Finance
Board, published this week. That represents a 71 percent increase over
the $510,509 he had spent on rent at the same point in the 2005
campaign, the records show. [more]

The Rent Guidelines Board approved increases for rent-stabilized units yesterday, authorizing an increase of 3 percent on one-year leases and 6 percent on two-year leases. According to the Times, after a motion for a rent freeze that was put forward by a tenant representative on the board was struck down, dozens of tenants walked out in protest. In the weeks leading up to the meeting, a number of elected officials joined the call for a rent freeze, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Comptroller William Thompson. The board has never approved a rent freeze since it was established in 1969. “This is a severe recession,” said Ronald Languedoc, the board member who put forward the motion for a rent freeze, adding, “This is not the year to have a rent increase.”

A group of 12 officials wrote to Mayor Michael Bloomberg this week to
urge the city Economic Development Corp. to use the former Bellevue
Psychiatric Hospital to provide nursing and care for seniors, rather
than turn it into a hotel. The officials, including Manhattan Borough
President Scott Stringer and Comptroller William Thompson, are asking
for a meeting with the mayor’s office to express concerns about the
Bellevue development, and to address the shortage of nursing home and
assisted-living housing in the area. “The community’s needs would both
be better served by redeveloping the Bellevue building for medical,
scientific or institutional use, as the zoning requires,” said
Rep. Carolyn Maloney. “The East Side has a wealth of hospitals, but a
serious shortage of nursing home and sub-acute rehab facilities.” In response, David Lombino, a spokesperson for the Economic Development Corp,
said, “Redevelopment of the former Psychiatric Building is necessary to
generate revenue for Bellevue Hospital so it can continue providing
high-quality medical care for the city residents. In addition, our plan
is designed to preserve the deteriorating building without costing
taxpayers. We will be discussing our plan with local elected officials
in the coming weeks.” TRD
[more]