Charles Gargano

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 »

• 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
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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

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

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.

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."  read more »

- Matthew Schuerman

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.  read more »

- Matthew Schuerman

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.  read more »

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

- Tom Acitelli

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

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

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."  read more »

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

Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, was asked some tough questions for tonight's Channel 13 special on Atlantic Yards, according to a transcript posted on Norman Oder's blog. In response to one of them--why the public cannot see the financial projections that E.S.D.C. used to calculate the economic impact of the project, Gargano answers that the public will see them--though by that point it will be too late to do anything about them:

Completed documents, once the project is approved, once we have completed the negotiations with the developers, they will all be public record.

-Matthew Schuerman

Details, details, details! The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, a quasi-opposition group, handed in its response to the draft environmental impact statement for Atlantic Yards. At 229 pages, submitted at about 1 p.m., came in earlier and shorter than imagined. The gist: "The DEIS too often reads like a promotional piece for the project as proposed." Why is it important: the impact statement is supposed to guide the Empire State Development Corporation in its decision to approve or disapprove the project. Why is it not important: the E.S.D.C. chairman, Charles Gargano, has already said the 22-acre mega-project is just fine the way it is. -Matthew Schuerman

The Brooklyn Papers publishes this photo of two fans of Atlantic Yards, state economic chief Charles Gargano and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, standing near one of the proposed development's celebrity foes, actor Steve Buscemi. The occasion was last week's unveiling of their "leaves" (well, for Gargano and Buscemi, not for Markowitz) on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Celebrity Path, a down-home version of the stars on Hollywood Boulevard.

The woman in the picture is Pamela Wasserstein, niece of the late playwright Wendy, who also was honored with a leaf but whose position on the controversial complex is not discussed in the article. Please tell us, What would've Wendy thought?

-Matthew Schuerman (via No Land Grab)  read more »

We know guessing when the Ground Zero negotiations will end is a game no one wins, but we couldn't help noticing the time frame Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia mentioned in a press huddle after his meeting today:

"We are very optimistic that in the ensuing weeks that we are going to come to some sort of agreement."

Coscia, as well as Vice Chairman Charles Gargano, disputed the notion that the New Jersey and New York delegations had put forth different interests. A source said that while the Hudson River tunnel had not played into negotiations at all, that Jersey board members were pushing for a harder bargain from developer Larry Silverstein, pushing him to hand any discount on rent over to build the World Trade Center memorial.

Silverstein took the opportunity to play up the disarray within the Port Authority. He put out a statement today saying: "It looked as if a final, fair deal was at hand. However, we now find that the process has apparently gotten bogged down inside the Port Authority, which is as frustrating to me as I'm sure it is to New Yorkers."

-Matthew Schuerman

Larry Silverstein made a new offer to the Port Authority today. No word yet whether this one is “more in the public interest,” as Port Authority Vice Chairman Charles Gargano required it to be before resuming World Trade Center talks. -Matthew Schuerman

Charles Gargano’s “greedy” comment is taking on a life of its own. The state economic development chief backed down yesterday on using that language to describe developer Larry Silverstein, saying during a television taping, “Emotions got a little high the other day and I think it's time to look to see how we can go forward."  read more »

Charlie Bagli and David Dunlap frontload their analyisis of the bungled talks at Ground Zero with Charles Gargano's press-conference statement last night:

"We have decided that there will be no continuing of negotiations with Larry Silverstein and his group until they put something on the table that is in the public interest," Charles A. Gargano, the state's top economic development official and the vice chairman of the Port Authority, said at a news conference yesterday.

"We fully expect Larry to begin construction on the Freedom Tower in April. This is a commitment he made to the public and to the Port Authority and we expect him to fulfill that commitment. And if he does not, then we want him to move out of the way."

Michael Cooper's somewhat perplexing news analyisis accompanying the piece notes something we looked at yesterday:

The governor has made the rebuilding of the site a legacy issue, only to see construction there stymied by delay after delay as his final term in office winds down.

But most of the rest of the piece analyzes how Larry Silverstein appears to have miscalculated in the development of his relationship with the governor, with potentially disastrous results for him.  read more »

So--which is it? Delays are bad news for Pataki, or bad news for Silverstein? That is, can Pataki control Ground Zero or can't he?

At a press conference this morning, Port Authority officials came close to saying that Larry Silverstein was using the Freedom Tower as a trump card in World Trade Center talks.

“Yesterday at 5 o’clock, we had had a long day of discussion,” Kenneth Ringler, the Port Authority’s executive director, said. “We thought we were moving in the right direction. Then at 11:35 they came back with a proposal where their demands were just as high as they were before. They were increasing their demands, and quite honestly, in my view, I think they thought they had leverage and we would back down because we wanted to make a deal and we wanted to move the Freedom Tower forward.”  read more »

They thought they had leverage? Indeed. Silverstein and his team must know how much the Governor wants the Freedom Tower. (We explore this point in detail in this week's issue.)

Parties emerged from talks past midnight on the Governor's March 14th deadline to declare they had come to an impasse. There's no date to reconvene the talks over plans to restructure developer Larry Silverstein's lease on the World Trade Center site.

Here's Charles Gargano, talking to Charlie Bagli at the Times:

"We are terribly disappointed," Mr. Gargano said "We thought we were negotiating in good faith. [Silverstein] clearly demonstrated that greed is his main motivation. Unless we get this right, we will walk away rather than make a bad deal for the Port Authority, the city and the nation."

We went to bed last night pretty sure nothing of substance would come of the talks, and so today Matthew Schuerman offers a take on the talks: that the only person who's really sweating is Governor Pataki, who has little to show at Ground Zero as he heads into the twilight of his governorship; not good news for a Presidential hopeful.

Coverage all over the place, but especially here.

- Tom McGeveran

Oddly, Charles Gargano, the state official behind the Moynihan Station redevelopment, gave this response, through a spokesman, when asked about the Crain’s report: “We cannot speculate on the potential impacts that may exist between parties.” Odd, because it is an aggressive no comment. A mayoral aide said: “We have not seen any proposal to date and it is unclear whether MSG could keep their tax break should they move.”

Our limited understanding of tax law, however, makes us think the tax issue is a moot point: the station will become state property, which is only subject to local taxation under special arrangement with the city (as with Battery Park City).

Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said he saw Related’s president Steve Ross yesterday. “He was very happy,” Spinola told us, without confirming the deal had been signed. Howard Rubenstein, who is repping Related, said, “Both Related and Vornado will have no comment about that report.” He said they will have no announcement tomorrow either.

The silence is deafening.

-Matthew Schuerman

The British architect Sir Richard Rogers unveiled the design for the Javits Convention Center expansion Monday. It has certain elements of the defunct West Side stadium that was going to sit just a block away, and maybe bears some resemblance to the Pompidou Center in Paris for which Rogers is so famous. Here, a few slides:

The idea is to replace I.M. Pei’s dark-glass walls, which Rogers said made Javits look “more like a mausoleum than a great exhibition space.”

The unveiling was notable for other reasons: it shows that Charles Gargano, the chairman of the state-appointed Convention Center Development Corporation and Gov. Pataki’s economic development czar, is not going to pay much attention to alternatives raised by developer Douglas Durst and the Newman Real Estate Institute, which would have brought the convention center south (Durst), or would have torn it up and reconstructed it perpendicularly to the water (Newman), instead of maintaining a five-, growing to six-, block wall along the Hudson River. The development corporation’s president, Michael Petralia, said his appointment with Newman was tomorrow—which would be a little too late to influence the plan laid out today. Petralia said either alternative would require more time and money.

The other newsy tid-bit was that Gargano wants to put the convention center hotel across 11th Avenue between 35th and 36th, where a state-owned concrete plaza called Stonehenge Park is located. Doing so would disappoint developer Steve Witkoff, who had wanted to build a hotel on both Stonehenge Park and a parcel he owns across 36th Street. By using government-owned property, the corporation can apply the $150 million set aside for property acquisition to the center’s construction, which will now cost an estimated $1.7 billion, about half-a-billion more than was previously thought.  read more »

Giving away land for (presumably) free does not mean that developers won't be asking for any subsidies, however. Once the plan is finalized, the corporation will put out an invitation to bid on the hotel—known as a Request for Proposals, in construction lingo. Glenn Johnson of Tishman Construction, a consultant for the state, said, “Any public investment required will be determined by the response to the R.F.P.”

-Matthew Schuerman

Robert Boyle, the chairman of the operating corporation that runs the Jacob K.  read more »

Governor Pataki replaced Robert Boyle as chairman of the corporation overseeing the Javits Convention Center Friday. Boyle has disagreed with Charles Gargano, a top Pataki economic development aide, about the design for the $1.4 billion expansion of the center, located in the far West 30’s.

Back in 1997, Pataki had high praise for the man: “Bob Boyle transformed the Javits Center from a mob-infested facility burdened by high costs and poor service into one of the premier convention centers in the world with a seemingly unending list of shows and exhibits." But Friday an aide to the Governor said that it made sense to replace Boyle since he was a registered lobbyist and that his term had expired long ago. Boyle, who was appointed chairman in 1995, will remain on the governing board of the convention center.

State Assemblymember Richard Brodsky, a Democrat running for state Attorney General, said the decision was made because of the opinions Boyle put forth at a Dec.14 state hearing. “This all came out of the hearing, at which he opposed the Gargano model,” said Brodsky, who chairs the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions. The Pataki aide called that contention “ridiculous…. Ask Brodsky if he thinks a registered lobbyist should be chairman of the operating corporation.”

Boyle favors putting the convention center hotel on 42nd Street, while Gargano believes it should go on 34th or 36th streets along 11th avenue.  read more »

Joseph Spinnato, the president of Hotel Association of New York, has been named as the new chairman of the Convention Center Operating Corporation.

-Matthew Schuerman

Real-estate developer Larry Silverstein has laid the groundwork for a 53-story residential tower at  read more »

Real-estate developer Larry Silverstein has laid the groundwork for a 53-story residential tower at  read more »

Those vacant seats on the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation are filling up fast! Grab one while you can. After today’s rejiggering, there’s only one left.

The Mayor came out strong with a press release at 4:30 p.m. announcing six appointees, including four from his own cabinet: Dan Doctoroff, Amanda Burden, Deputy Mayor Marc Shaw and Finance Commish Martha Stark. The Governor responded minutes later. (The Real Estate uses the word loosely, as we got the news from a phone call from Empire State Development Chairman Charles Gargano, and we may have been low on his list. But hey, a phone call doesn’t take as much time as a press release to prepare for.) His two appointees are the aforementioned Gargano and James Kallstrom, his special advisor on counter-terrorism at Ground Zero.

The Mayor’s other appointees are Verizon President Lawrence Babbio and civic icon Bill Rudin. Stan Shuman and Ed Lewis resigned from the board earlier this week, according to a mayoral aide, “after several years of service.” The Governor, meanwhile, still has one more seat to fill.

Gargano said he did not know whether the simultaneous announcements were planned or a coincidence, but he said he had been asked by the Governor several weeks ago. Asked whether the LMDC would become the arena for a showdown between the Governor and Mayor, he said, “No. It’s not like there are going to be any surprises. The Governor set out a very aggressive timetable for Ground Zero and this puts a strong focus on accomplishing that.”  read more »

And people say the LMDC doesn't have anything left to do. If so, its board will sure have a swell time doing nothing.

-Matthew Schuerman

Call it David Childs' Freedom Tower from now on.After Governor George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomber  read more »

Tilting at Mills: Green Dreams, Dirty Dealings, and the Corporate Squeeze , by Lis Harris.  read more »

The Bloomberg administration is working on an ambitious plan to develop thousands of residential uni  read more »

The meeting of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation on Nov. 14 began in the usual way.  read more »

All New York seems to be gushing about a land deal that promises to save Ground Zero from one of the  read more »

As he spoke to a crowd of 700 gathered at the South StreetSeaport earlier this month, Charles Gargan  read more »

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan brokered the real estate deal of the century while he was soaring in  read more »

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani can't build his West Side baseball pyramid without Gov.  read more »