Staten Island-based Giuseppe Gambino, a convicted mafioso once described by federal prosecutors as “an important soldier” in John Gotti’s Gambino crime family, is developing a 20-unit condominium in Coney Island, an offering plan filed last week with the New York State Attorney General’s office shows.
The project, at 2850 West 15th Street, is located just half a block from Gargiulo’s restaurant, where the FBI conducted surveillance on Gotti in January of 1986, court records show.
If the condo application is approved, the 20 apartments will eventually go on sale for a total of $15 million, or $750,000 a piece on average.
Co-sponsoring the project is attorney Richard Gravante, son of noted Gambino family attorney Nicholas Gravante.
Reached by phone, Gambino said the development was not his first and that he had done another one nearby. When the topic of his past was brought up he abruptly hung up the phone.
In 1993, Gambino, who is also known as “Joseph” and “Joe,” pleaded guilty along with his better-known brother, Giovanni or “John,” to narcotics trafficking, murder, jury tampering, illegal gambling and loan sharking charges, according to the New York Times.
The pair had originally fled from Italy, and were convicted in absentia on heroin charges. At their trial, a witness testified the brothers ran a racketeering enterprise out of Caffe Giordano in Bensonhurst, which the FBI had bugged and where a large number of Gambino figures were arrested in 1988. “A crowd of about 100 had gathered at the cafe to hear a newly arrived Italian singer,” James Fox, the former FBI director of the New York office told the Times that year. ”’The agents moved in when the entertainment ended… One of the agents came to the mike and said, in effect, ‘This is your last dance.”’