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Once again, real estate opens up its coffers for Cuomo
Glenwood Management, BFC Partners among governor’s big supporters in latest filing period
UPDATED, 12:10 p.m., August 13: Top New York real estate players continue to funnel their considerable financial resources to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s re-election campaign, a review of the latest state campaign finance filings show.
Leading the pack by a comfortable distance was Leonard Litwin’s Glenwood Management, which gave $169,200 between July 12 and August 4, according to campaign finance records. In total, Glenwood, which has a rental apartment empire on the Upper East Side and is a vehement opponent of the under-construction East 91st Street waste transfer station, has given the governor over $1 million since 2011.
Retail real estate mogul Richard Baker of NRDC Equity Partners gave Cuomo $50,000 between July 12 and August 4. NRDC, through subsidiaries, owns both Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Entities associated with the Fisher Brothers — which was recently hit with subpoenas by the now-defunct Moreland Commission over 421-a tax abatements that were carved out by Cuomo for the firm — gave at least $40,000. BFC Partners, which is developing the $580 million Empire Outlets mall project on Staten Island, gave $25,000. East Coast Plumbing LLC, which shares a Paramus, NJ-address with a Vornado Realty Trust-controlled entity, also gave $25,000, as did entities associated with Ron Moelis’ L&M Development.
Brokers who opened their wallets for Cuomo in this period include Cushman & Wakefield’s Bruce Mosler, who gave $10,000, and Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Brian Waterman and Michael Ippolito, who each contributed $5,000.
Overall, Cuomo raked in just under $1.1 million in this filing period.
The Fisher Brothers and Mosler made their donations on July 24, the New York Observer noted, just a day after a New York Times investigation revealed that Cuomo may have interfered with an anti-corruption panel that was looking into his ties to the real estate industry.
In the first half of the year, Cuomo’s four top donors all came from the industry, as TRD reported.
Rich Bockmann contributed reporting to this article.
Correction: A previous version of the article incorrectly stated the status of the Fisher Brothers’ 421-a abatements. Fisher Brothers’ project at 78-86 Trinity Place became eligible for the abatements, but the developer did not apply for and did not receive them.