Beloved Bloomberg on-air blonde bombshell Lizzie O'Leary (who once hid behind the mic at N.P.R.) is parting ways with the financial news service, and hitting it big time: the Observer Media Power Bachelorette is on her way to CNN, where she'll be reporting on-air for the cable news giant on aviation and transportation regulations. Read More
After six months of hard negotiations between Governor Cuomo, Mayor Bloomberg and the Legislature, a deal was finally struck yesterday to bring more taxicabs to the outer boroughs and upper Manhattan.
The sale of the new medallion yellow cabs will inject a billion dollars into the city's coffers. In addition, with 24,000 new cabs (eventually), it will now be possible to hail one in the outer boroughs. Sounds like a brilliant idea, so why were we stuck on the corner, trying to hail a deal for six months?
Well it seems those pesky 'needs of the disabled' cropped up... again. There was also the issue of disgruntled current taxi drivers, who now face competition with 18,000 "hailing" livery cabs. Read More
Through most of the 1990s and 2000s, nonprofits could count on low-cost financing issued through the state’s industrial development agencies to develop buildings, facilities and other infrastructure and construction projects. The bonds didn’t expose the state to any credit risk; rather the vehicle allowed lenders to avoid being taxed on the proceeds in the investment, which in turn incentivized them to accept lower interest rates on the debt. But in 2007, the State Legislature failed to renew the vehicle, cutting off NFPs from an important pipeline of funds. Now, in December, the city’s Economic Development Corporation is planning to roll out a new financing vehicle that will allow lenders to issue low-interest rate tax-free debt to NFPs. The city estimates that at least $700 million worth of projects that had been backlogged could now have access to funds. The Commercial Observer spoke with Steven Polivy, an attorney with law firm Akerman Senterfitt LLP about the upcoming vehicle as well as the impasse that has prevented the IDAs from providing tax free financing in recent years. Mr. Polivy specializes in arranging real estate financing and development transactions that utilize government incentive and financing programs.
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In the aftermath of Mayor Bloomberg’s clearing of Zuccotti Park last week, as helmeted police were still pushing stragglers up Broadway and the first morning commuters appeared, a protester named Jake shouted a warning at the cadre of cops shoving protesters away from their erstwhile home.
“There were people smoking crack, people with puppies begging for money, we looked like shit,” Jake yelled to the police. “Now what do we look like? Peaceful protesters getting our asses kicked. This is the best thing that could have happened. There are thousands of people watching us.” Read More
Luxury handbag stalwart Coach will relocate its offices to the Hudson Yards, scooping up approximately one-third of the planned south office tower as a commercial condo in a deal that will give the New York City-based company approximately 600,000 square feet.
Coach will move its corporate headquarters and consolidate three New York City offices into the building by 2015. The 1.8 million-square-foot tower, at the northwest corner of West 30th Street and Tenth Avenue, is one of 14 residential, commercial and retail assets envisioned by the Related Companies at its far West Side development site.
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Right from the gate, the Invesco Real Estate-Kaufman Organization partnership behind 100-104 Fifth Avenue followed a simple motto: Go big on tech or go home.
Since acquiring the building in January 2011, the Kaufman Organization has leased 100,000 square feet to new tech tenants, including 45,000 square feet to Apple’s iAd mobile advertising unit.
“We’ve been on a tear,” said Grant Greenspan, a principal at the Kaufman Organization.
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Today news broke that Bloomberg has designs to acquire BNA, a D.C. area-based legal information services company, for $990 million.
(Keeping up with the Jones's is expensive when the Jones's are the Thomson Reuters's.)
As such, the terminal manufacturers will welcome BNA's 350ish publications and 600-odd reporters into their fold. BNA specialize in tax and regulatory law, which makes it useful for Bloomberg's burgeoning BGov and for competing with Reuters's News & Insight: Legal division, launched in March. Read More
Mayor Bloomberg recently spent just over 1 percent of his estimated $18 billion fortune to buy a new mansion in the Hamptons. Known as Ballyshear, the 1910 Georgian-style mansion covers a sprawling 22,000 square feet set on 35 acres in the Shinecock Hills near Southhampton. Read More
The debt ceiling, spending cuts, the political hostage situation that even the characters of the West Wing aren't entirely clear on: they're complicated. Alas, the world needs more simple ways to understand the long-stretching implications of these problems. Thankfully, this is where Bloomberg comes in.
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There was no shortage of heroic figures during the debate over gay marriage in New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo, advocates in the State Assembly and Republicans in the State Senate who came to see the issue as a matter of civil rights—they all received their fair share of congratulations. One figure in the debate, however, Read More
According to City Comptroller John Liu, all those warnings you’ve been hearing about the escalating costs of public employee pensions and health benefits are wrong. Mr. Liu recently put out a report that argues that the cost of pensions and benefits actually will go down beginning in 2016. Did we mention that Mr. Liu is Read More
Three days after New York's ban on smoking in city parks went into effect, The Observer, ambling along one of Central Park's idyllic stone paths and in plain view of a number of badge-wearing rangers, lit a cigarette. Wondering about the potential repercussions of the act, we approached the scrum of law-enforcement types.
"Excuse me, officer," Read More
It's not as though he didn't warn us.
When Mayor Bloomberg stepped to the podium to deliver his bad-news budget the other day, the only people who seemed surprised to learn about massive teacher layoffs and other painful cutbacks were members of the City Council, who reflexively denounced the Mayor's difficult decisions. That is their Read More
Another interesting component of Bloomberg's update to PlaNYC: the mayor has said that he wants to reduce reliance on landfills by converting solid waste into energy.
Some are referring to this as "burning garbage," which may be overstating the issue a bit. The new PlaNYC plan mentions that the city may explore technology Read More
Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited Harlem today to unveil a "clean heat" campaign and other green initiatives that will become part of the PlaNYC plan, which is aimed at building "a greener, greater New York."
The event, at Harlem Stage, gave away free reusable water bottles to the media, and distributed press releases on individual flash Read More
