NY Observer > Charles Gargano

Spitzer Fills Gargano's Slot on Port Authority

Matthew Schuerman — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:59:51 -0500

Governor Spitzer has nominated a bond lawyer to fill the vacancy at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey caused by Vice Chairman Charles Gargano's resignation: H. read more »

The Afternoon Wrap: Monday

Observer Staff — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:03:54 -0500

Following Tom Robbins' expose, the state Comptroller will begin an audit into the Empire State Development Corporation. Did Charles Gargano funnel state funds to pay rent for his nephew? That would make him a bad leader--but an excellent uncle. [Real Deal]
Why is England such a grander country? Whereas our richest streets have boring names like Park and Fifth, theirs are titled The Vail, Mulberry Walk, and Cottesmore Gardens. Even better, their wealthiest areas have had the lowest property-value increases since 2000, which keeps things balanced. [Mouse Price, via Luxist]
Where do Village starlets get their mail? Sarah Jessica Parker, Patti Smith, Famke Janssen and Lucy "Warrior Princess" Lawless all head to MacDougal and Houston, where a chatty old man has his Something Special store. We always knew Sarah was too good for the post office. [Villager]
New Yorkers who live in pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods have much lower body mass index levels--but they have shriller complaints about shrinking sidewalks and subway construction. [Medical News Today, via Daily Intelligencer]

Max Abelson

Option to Buy Farley Post Office Expires

Observer Staff — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 08:28:01 -0500

The Pataki administration failed to hold onto the Farley Post Office in the last moments of 2006, but negotiations are continuing, this time under Governor Spitzer's purview. In late December, Charles Gargano, then-chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, announced a last-minute blitz to renew the option that the state had to buy the building as part of its Moynihan Station conversion.

Robert Anderson, a spokesman for the United States Postal Service, said no agreement had been reached by the Dec. 31 expiration date, but that there were no plans to try to sell the building to anyone else.

- Matthew Schuerman

Gargano Wraps Up Milstein Site

Observer Staff — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 11:11:10 -0500

The last remaining parcel in the 42nd Street redevelopment plan gets sorted out in the final days of the Pataki Administration.

Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, announced in a press release on Thursday that the deal with SJP Properties and Prudential Real Estate Investors, which purchased the Eighth Avenue corner from the Milstein family earlier this year, closed, and that it will be office rather than residential--a victory for Gargano and the logical choice for the developer as well, given that is where the demand is.

The new tower will be a million square feet, 40 stories tall, and no more than 600 feet high, according to ESDC spokeswoman Jessica Copen, which is lower than the new New York Times building to the south.

See jump for the full release. read more »

- Matthew Schuerman

ESDC Certifies Atlantic Yards -- Again

Observer Staff — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 06:42:07 -0500

Some 148 comments from the public, 60 of them "substantive," had been left out of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for Atlantic Yards when it was certified Nov. 15, Charles Gargano, the chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, told the press on Monday.

Pataki may yet get Atlantic Yards.

That prompted ESDC staff to work overtime -- including over Thanksgiving weekend -- to put out a revised FEIS, including the new comments and responses to them, all of which were certified unanimously by the ESDC board on Monday morning. The new comments did not change the conclusions of the FEIS, Gargano said.

The upshot for the project: The Pataki administration lost almost two valuable weeks, but there is still enough time to keep Atlantic Yards from slipping into Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer's hands.

Gargano said the missing comments were "inadvertently left out.... There were a lot of comments. Some were sent to the wrong person, some were sent by e-mail."

- Matthew Schuerman

Gargano's Bad Week Finally Ends

Observer Staff — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 08:30:08 -0500

Gargano: a popular target

Charles Gargano must be thankful that this week is finally ending: The Atlantic Yards blunder, Shelly Silver's barbs, and, now, from the other end of the state, The Syracuse Post-Standard uncovering a scheme whereby poor upstate towns sold tax breaks to developers for a fee.

State Senator Liz Krueger says Gargano and other appointees to the Empire State Development Corporation, which is in charge of the Empire Zone tax break program, "either lack the most basic understanding of the very laws they are charged with implementing, or worse, they simply do not care."

Over the past several weeks, The Post-Standard has painted a bleak picture of the Empire Zone program: "None of the 10 businesses that claimed the biggest property tax refunds for 2003 created more than 20 jobs," the paper reports. The whole investigative series can be found here.

- Matthew Schuerman

Atlantic Yards Approval Could Be Delayed By Impact Statement Snafu

Observer Staff — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 06:08:12 -0500

Spitzer may get a shot at Atlantic Yards.

The Empire State Development Corporation announced on Monday it had to delay the final environmental impact statement (FEIS) for the Atlantic Yards project. It seems, according to a release from corporation Chairman Charles Gargano, that some public comments were not included in the FEIS. It was presented to the ESDC board on Nov. 15.

"All comments inadvertently excluded from the FEIS are being carefully considered," Gargano said. "The FEIS will be amended to include the substantive comments that had been omitted and responses to those comments, and re-presented to the ESDC board for consideration."

What does this mean, exactly? While the Atlantic Yards project looked likely to float toward approval by both the ESDC and the state Public Authorities Control Board before New Year's (and the start of Eliot Spitzer's reign in Albany), the delay on the environmental impact statement could drag the approval process at least into 2007.

The statement, according to a spokesperson for the ESDC, will have to go before the corporation's board again. - Tom Acitelli

Port Authority Says Stewart International Airport Is Next In Line

Observer Staff — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 11:13:04 -0500

Port Authority commissioners endorsed Stewart International Airport near Newburgh, N.Y., as the preferred site for the next New York City-area airport on Thursday when they unanimously authorized the bi-state agency to hire outside consultants to see how the two-runway airport, serving half a million passengers a year, could be made to carry more.

Chairman Anthony Coscia, a New Jersey appointee, said that taking over the Orange County airport, now run by a private company on behalf of New York State, was one possibility, but that the Port Authority may be able to help in other ways.

The move was a blow to Vice Chairman Charles Gargano, a New York appointee who had advocated instead in favor of better technology to expand capacity at the three city airports, and who was absent for the vote. But Coscia said that the increased capacity permitted by technological improvements, which are already under way, would soon be exhausted and that another airport to service the city was needed. Traffic at New York City's present airports is expected to reach 150 million annual passengers by 2025, compared to an estimated 100 million this year. - Matthew Schuerman

No Easy Money for Gargano

Observer Staff — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 06:03:00 -0500

Eliot Spitzer may see to it that Charles Gargano finds his way into the private sector sometime soon. But for his part, Gargano doesn't quite sound ready to cash in on his years in government.

Yesterday, as the Empire Development Corporation released its Final Environmental Impact Study on the Atlantic Yards Project, Gargano told reporters, "I don't intend to be a consultant or lobbyist, that I know for sure."

-- Azi Paybarah

Gargano: "We Are In Charge" On Moynihan Station

Observer Staff — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 10:28:54 -0500

Gargano: quite peeved

Charles Gargano, the chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, is sometimes portrayed as a developer's best friend, but Wednesday morning, in his first extensive comments after the failure of Moynihan Station (and mixed in with much less passionate words about Atlantic Yards), he spat out the word "developer" like it was an unripe persimmon. He also didn't seem to care for Shelly Silver too much.

Here are his choice words:

"The notion that we presented a project that the developers didn't want to build -- who's in charge here, the developers or the public sector? We are in charge and we put a project out in RFP [request for proposals], and we got responses to the RFP that what we presented to the [Public Authorities Control Board]. We did not present a project that included a six to eight order of magnitude larger than the project that was put out in the RFP."

And later:

"The comments that were made by [state Assembly] Speaker Silver were, 'This is not the project the developers want to build.' What does that mean? What the hell does that mean? We put out an RFP. The next thing is, 'Well, we'd like to see the whole project.' Well, we did present the whole project, the Moynihan Station project. So there is no really sound reason not to approve this project. It was just a lot of talk in my opinion to reject the project for personal reasons -- whatever, Madison Square Garden. I don't know what it might be, but we do know, and all of you in the media do know, some of the associations with Madison Square Garden and Speaker Silver."

Gargano wouldn't say whether the state would pay another $10 million to extend the option to buy the Farley Post Office from the feds -- a step that would be required to keep the Moynihan Station project alive. He didn't say the project was dead, either, though he did say that the incoming Spitzer administration would need to "revive" it, and wished them well. - Matthew Schuerman