The Daily Dirt: Cuomo threatens to close restaurants and bars

Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatened to turn this whole reopening around if local governments don’t properly discipline young partiers.

The governor said he gets it. It is summer. Young people want to socialize. But he thinks they are being stupid, and restaurants and bars could be the ones who pay the price.

“If young people are going to come out and do something stupid, the local govenments have to enforce the law,” he said, citing large outdoor gatherings in NYC, Long Island and Upstate.

If local governments fail to do this, the governor said (pointing a finger specifically at the NYPD), the state will close all bars and restaurants.

“These restaurants and bars are breaking the law and they are going to make it bad for everyone else because if this continues we’re going to have to roll back the reopening plan and close all bars and restaurants,” he said.

This would presumably devastate businesses that have been struggling to make ends meet with takeout and limited outdoor services. The governor has indefinitely put off indoor dining and his undoing of what reopening progress has been made doesn’t bode well for these restaurants and bars. But New York wouldn’t be alone in rolling back its gradual return to normalcy. Last week, California’s governor halted indoor dining and ordered the closure of gyms, shopping malls and hair salons.

Meanwhile, renters in luxury buildings have still been on the hook for amenities that they can’t use.

Bloomberg reports that many landlords have been hesitant to offer breaks on fees for amenities, despite the fact that common areas are closed off. They are, in some cases, providing discounts to new tenants, but not to existing residents.

“The amenity that we’re offering now, in a Covid emergency, is safety and well-being,” Richard Lebow, executive director of the World Wide Group, developer of the QLIC luxury rental building in Long Island City, told Bloomberg. “It’s more expensive and requires much more focus and much more care to run a building.

What we’re thinking about: Have you seen the “NEOWISE” comet? Send pictures to kathryn@therealdeal.com.

CLOSING TIME

Residential: The priciest residential closing recorded Monday was for a condo unit at 415 Greenwich Street in Tribeca, at $16.35 million.

Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day was for a warehouse at 2883 Miles Avenue in Throgs Neck, at $2 million.

BREAKING GROUND

The largest new building filing of the day was for a 24,883-square-foot residential building at 707 Willoughby Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Vision Estates Holdings filed the permit application.

NEW TO THE MARKET

The priciest residential listing to hit the market was for a condo unit at 200 West End Avenue in Lincoln Square, at $4.5 million. Halstead Real Estate has the listing. — Research by Kevin Sun

A thing we’ve learned…

SLAPP stands for a “strategic lawsuit against public participation” – a type of legal strategy designed to simply exhaust an opponent’s ability to mount a defense. Many states, citing First Amendment concerns, have statutes aimed at protecting against SLAPPs. Such anti-SLAPP laws are sometimes referred to as “SLAPP-back laws.” Thank you to Kevin Sun for passing along this tidbit.

A second thing we learned: Today is Kevin Sun’s birthday! Happy birthday, Kevin, and thanks for learning all the things!

Elsewhere in New York

— Smorgasburg is returning to Brooklyn as a take-out only outdoor market, the New York Post reports. Smorg To Go — a pared down version of the food market typically held one day a week during the summer — will be held seven days a week at 51 North Sixth Street in Williamsburg. Fewer vendors than usual (10) will be on hand.

— Two trials later, Sheldon Silver has been sentenced to 78 months in prison, the New York Times reports. The former New York State Assembly speaker was convicted of directing developers Glenwood Management and the Witkoff Group to hire the law firm Goldberg & Iryami for certain tax business. Officials said he then took a cut for himself.

— Approximately one-third of the 230,000 or so small companies in NYC may close permanently, according to a new report by the Partnership for New York City. The report recommends that the city and state partner with private-sector employers and potentially establish a state authority to oversee local planning, Politico New York reports.