Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

The New York Times is poised to announce they’re sending their Wal-Mart reporter, Michael Barbaro, to cover City Hall, according to two people familiar with the move.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg has struck a deal with Wal-Mart that will have the world’s largest retailer keeping records on guns they sell that are used in crimes.  read more »

The city and state comptrollers want America’s 10 largest companies to disclose who they make political contributions to.

“Shareholders need full and complete disclosure of companies’ political expenditures to fully evaluate the political uses of the corporate assets,” Bill Thompson said in a public statement.

The companies targeted include Halliburton, Wal-Mart, Entergy and Charles Schwab.

More info over here.

Andrew Cuomo got the nation's largest student loan company to curb its business practices and pay $2 million to educate the public about the industry.

Unlike George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer based his federal PAC in New York.

Joe Bruno promised to a problem with the Saratoga Springs.

Christine Quinn is getting members in line to override the mayor veto of a cap on pedicabs.

The city comptroller wants to know if Wal-Mart spied on its shareholders.

 read more »

• Wal-Mart 'would like to be' in the outer-boroughs.
[Crain's]
• Hamptons rental season strongest since '03?
[NY Sun]
• 'Keen' demand among investors for city rental properties.
[NY Sun]
• Meet the city's new urban-design director.
[NY Sun]
• Large rezoning in Jamaica faces opposition.
[NY Sun]
• Concrete on the rise in New York projects.
[NY Sun]
• City Council members gloat over Wal-Mart concession.
[NY Sun]
• Former Elad CFO blames firing on not being Israeli.
[NY Sun]
• Sander picks former boss to head subways, buses.
[NY Post]
• Sarah Ferguson buying in Cipriani Club Residences.
[NY Post]
• Council OKs tax benefits for Mitchell-Lama projects.
[NY Times]
• Brooklyn, Queens buildings sell for $118 M.
[GlobeSt]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

• 6 comments

For the record, I don’t care for shopping malls. Or Starbucks.  read more »

Would Ken Fisher, the former City Councilman-turned-blogger, be able to help a developer get a real-estate project through a gridlocked bureaucracy? City Hall, the monthly published by the folks who bring you Our Town and The West Side Spirit, at one time thought so.

And maybe he could. But more so than a Sandy Lindenbaum or Ross Moskowitz?

The 10-month-old newspaper is about to come out with "The Land Use Power List: 10 People Who Can Make Sure Your Project Gets Built--or Stop It." Mr. Fisher was on an early version of the list that The Real Estate obtained. The others, with The Real Estate's annotations, are below:

Dan Doctoroff (a shoo-in) Amanda Burden (of course) Melinda Katz (if you are Wal-Mart) Robert Tierney (unless you are Tom Wolfe) Avi Schick (maybe in five months) Joshua J. Sirefman (maybe five months ago) Joe Bruno (so long as he stays in office) Eliot Spitzer (time will tell) Sheldon Silver (if your project involves or competes with Madison Square Garden in any way whatsoever, then yes)

Manhattan Media President Tom Allon and City Hall Editor Edward-Isaac Dovere told The Real Estate that the list above is already out of date and will likely change before it is published March 12. Mr. Sirefman--who left the Economic Development Corporation in January--has been cut. Mr. Fisher, a real estate lawyer and lobbyist, may or may not be.

City Hall is still taking suggestions, so feel free to write them in below. You could even nominate yourself and no one would know. Hey, it's the blogosphere! - Matthew Schuerman

"Good rally, guys!" announced UFCW Local 1500 honcho Bruce Both after Brooklyn Councilwoman Tish James led a placard-wielding mob in chants of "No Wal-Mart!" and "Not in my neighborhood!"

After all the banter denouncing "poverty-wage jobs" died down around 1:48 p.m., some fired-up protesters blew off steam by dancing to Outkast's 2003 smash-hit "Hey Ya!" which blared over the activists' PA system amid appropriately "ice cold" temperatures.

The crowd had gathered outside Washington Mutual Bank in Brooklyn's Albee Square on Thursday afternoon to protest the world's largest "gender-biased" retailer's rumored interest in coming to the location.

"Grand Opening" signs at Jay Jewelers and M&M Beauty Supply seemed rather ironic on this day, given the clouds of doom hanging over storefronts across the whole retail complex. Wal-Mart or not, bulldozers are headed to the outdoor mall site, which sold for a whopping $125 million this week, to make way for a "high-rise housing, retail and office complex," according to Thursday's NY Post.

At least one retailer is already moving out. Music Factory on Fulton Street was advertising "over one million dollars in inventory" available at huge liquidation-sale discounts, though a manager there suggested the shop's closing next week had more to do with the general downturn in CD-store business.

And he said he hadn't even heard about the mall's forthcoming destruction.

-- Chris Shott

Local Wal-Mart-resistance forces will gather in Albee Square next week to protest the world's largest retailer's apparent plans to "destroy everything that Brooklyn stands for."

That's according to Thursday's letter from the group Wal-Mart Free NYC, which includes a statement from staunch anti-smiley-face-logo activist and graffiti-artist-turned-shopkeeper Leo Gulfam:

"Our people are crazy about bling," he said. "They aren't crazy about Wal-Mart."

The rally is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 8, at 1 p.m.  read more »

More anti-chain-store rhetoric after the jump.

- Chris Shott

An interesting piece of trivia about the field of Democrats jockeying for the nomination in 2008:

The three leading contenders all have ties to Wal-Mart, a decidedly controversial company among Democratic primary voters.

Writing in The New Republic [subscription], Conor Clarke makes the connections, starting with Hillary Clinton.

Between 1986 and 1992, she served on the Arkansas-based company's board of directors, a position that let her rake in about $12,500 per year. During the 1992 campaign, she still owned about $80,000 in company stock.

Skip

Last January, the senator scolded Wal-Mart for not doing enough about healthcare--but withered when asked if she ever suggested a change when she served on the board. "Well, you know, I, that was a long time ago, I have to remember." Not a good answer.

Clarke notes that John Edwards "used to own company stock--stock he conveniently managed to sell in 2004."

The piece also draws a connection between Barack Obama and Wal-Mart, though that particular dossier is, by the author's admission, pretty thin.

In an impressive demonstration of historical repetition, the senator's wife, Michelle, earns about $45,000 per year (plus stock options) serving on the board of a major Chicago food company whose biggest customer is--one guess--Wal-Mart. If that connection seems pretty distant (and, really, the connection is pretty distant) just think about all the tenuously relevant personal details that can railroad a perfectly respectable presidential campaign. Campaign critics can make a four-course meal out of pretty thin gruel.

-- Azi Paybarah

City Comptroller Bill Thompson reintroduced a shareholder resolution today calling on Wal-Mart to disclose its policy for using corporate money for political contributions.

"Corporate executives should not feel free to use their company assets to advance any political objectives that are not shared by shareholders and the entire company. We are urging these companies to support this important critical governance reform," Thompson said in a release.

Clearly, the wrath of the New York Post hasn't shaken him.

-- Azi Paybarah

• Closing the door on Wal-Mart in the Bronx.
[NY Times]
• Former city official a Spitzer favorite to head MTA.
[NY Times]
• Kalikow won't chair Real Estate Board of New York.
[NY Times]
• World Trade Center redevelopment site expands.
[NY Times]
• Mayor announces new development in the Rockaways.
[NY Post]
• Rent rise closes Upper West Side video store.
[NY Sun]
• Landmark battle brewing on the far East Side.
[NY Sun]
• Mortgage rates rise slightly.
[CNN/Money]
• Condo buyers take developers to court.
[WSJ]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

• 0 comments

Maybe people are so used to learning disturbing things about Wal-Mart that the latest news from Amer  read more »

Maybe people are so used to learning disturbing things about Wal-Mart that the latest news from Amer  read more »

• Al-Maktoum, the ruling family of Dubai, has plunked down $285 million for the Times Square W Hotel. In less than twelve months, the family has spent a clean $3 billion on five New York properties. (Crain's)
• Who knew Wal-Mart had a two-floor office on Fifth and 31st Street? (It's hard to notice, because there's no sign.) Meanwhile Kohl's is getting in on the Manhattan action, "a symbol of excess that is squarely at odds with its frugal corporate culture." Why the NYC purchase? Because Vera Wang said so. (New York Times)
• Our favorite rental-agent columnist heads out to Williamsburg, where his clients "are mostly happy white people with oversized heads and an affinity for hanging out with butterflies." (NY Press)
• The Post eloquently points out, "The Bronx that famously burned during the 1970s is on fire again, this time with some of the best real-estate prices in the city." So what's the fuss? For starters, a gargantuan complex with Target, Home Depot and Best Buy is coming in 2009. (NY Post)
• What happens when you and your wife design a Soho flagship for Alessi with $14,000 espresso machines and "epoxy flooring" and Barrisol stretch ceiling and "vacuum-formed wall fixtures"? The name of your hip architecture firm gets hoisted into the hip Soho store's logo. (See above). (Metropolis)
- Max Abelson  read more »
• 0 comments

As community opposition continues to keep Wal-Mart out of the Big Apple, local retail broker extraordinaire Robert K. Futterman has come up with a brilliant solution to the big-box debacle: Kick the naysayers out of the approval process.

"If they keep going in front of [the City Planning Commission] and community boards, they're gonna have a problem," Futterman said in an interview with The Real Deal, available via podcast. "The ideal situation would be a location, whether it be New York or any of the other boroughs, where they can go in and operate without having to go get, you know, any approvals outside of the zoning."  read more »

“I still think that Wal-Mart is good for poor people,” Andrew Young was quoted as saying after h  read more »

“I still think that Wal-Mart is good for poor people,” Andrew Young was quoted as saying  read more »

The 23rd Annual National Night Out will be celebrated by NYPD precints throughout the city.

Andrew Cuomo hosts a campaign party at his headquarters.

A town hall meeting will be held at 7pm at the Church of Lady of Refuge in the Bronx to discuss how Chicago's recent decision to have big box retailers pay a living wage impacts efforts to keep New York free of Wal-Mart.

—Nicole Brydson

KARA: This weekend I'm going to Massachusetts for my bridal shower. If my life is now a wrinkled Wal-Mart flier, soon it will be a glossy Pottery Barn catalogue. And so I prepare to say...

Your days are numbered, threadbare bed in a bag. I'm tired of your rash-inducing cotton and mysterious stains. He-e-l-l-o-o-o ice blue, 300-thread-count sheets complemented with whimsical sham and duvet cover! Farewell, Mom's 1970's crockpot. Welcome home, all-clad, stainless steel slow rice cooker. Ever-so-chic Asian square dinnerware set? Come to Mama. Sleek, expensive espresso maker and retro yellow Kitchen Aid mixer (for those cakes I know I'll whip up once I have some overpriced kitchen appliances)? Soon, you too will be mine.

This immigration business is giving the country a split personality, true political schizophrenia.  read more »

This immigration business is giving the country a split personality, true political schizophrenia.  read more »

Tomorrow morning, Crain's Business Breakfast Forum features John Faso at the Grand Hyatt.

Then, Anthony Weiner and union officials discuss security at Wal-Mart stores on the steps of City Hall.

Students, faculty and staff of the New School will hold a press conference protesting the selection of John McCain as commencement speaker.

Christine Quinn is scheduled to attend the opening of a new Asian Americans for Equality Community Center at 141 Norfolk Street.

In the evening, the Republican Jewish Coalition will host KT McFarland.

Community Free Democrats, Ansonia Democrats and Park River Independent Democrats will host a candidates forum for the Democratic candidates running for Attorney General.

And tomorrow is election day in Newark, where Cory Booker will close out his day at the Essex County College Gymnasium.

—Nicole Brydson

In the April 24 issue of The Observer, there appeared a letter of mine to Roger Altman with respect  read more »

New York’s politicians view Wal-Mart the way vets view a rabid dog.    read more »

New York’s politicians view Wal-Mart the way vets view a rabid dog.  read more »

Mr. Roger C. Altman Evercore Partners 55 East 52nd Street New York, N.Y. 10055    read more »

Mr. Roger C. AltmanEvercore Partners

55 East 52nd Street

New York, N.Y. 10055

Dear Roger:  read more »

At a Crain's breakfast forum this morning, Christine Quinn spoke harshly against Wal-Mart, saying that the chain store was not welcome in the Big Apple.

Here's what the city council speaker had to say about the "bad corporate citizen."

"I don't want Wal-Mart here unless they change their corporate behavior. I may not succeed, but I feel comfortable in opposition."

Apparently, Ms. Quinn was not impressed by the great pitch the company made to Staten Island residents.  read more »

- Michael Calderone

• The Starchitect's selling power is short lived. (The Real Deal)
• The Empire State Building has a staggering 18% vacancy rate. Actually, is that really new? (New York Daily News)
• Apartment Therapy is turned on by bathroom fixtures.
• The swank Blue Moon Hotel, once a très chic tenement, has reopened. (New Yorkology)
• Halstead says that Manhattan's apartment prices are cheaper, not cheap. (The Real Deal)
• With talk of developing retail space in the Brooklyn House of Detention, officials discuss creating space for more inmates. Logical. (New York Daily News)
• Tall Tales of the City: The Anchor That Hit Park Slope (The New York Times)
• Dylan's Candy Bar has a rodent problem. (Page Six)
• Big-box business Wal-Mart, as an inspiration for urban planning. (the box tank)
• The smart shopper, the online shopper, buys in a more transparent real-estate market. (Inman News)
• Fixing up the apartment by New York.

- Riva Froymovich

Charlie Bagli writes today on the dispute between former Belgian diamond merchant Gary Barnett, now a real-estate developer, and the diamond merchants on the crowded strip of West 47th Street where Mr. Barnett wants to build a 30-story tower that would serve as a global diamond exchange.

He says the building could help reinvigorate the dowdy, low-scale block between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas, an important international diamond center that is under siege from low-cost producers, Internet sales, suburban diamond exchanges, Wal-Mart and Costco.

What's the problem?

They fear that Mr. Barnett's tower will steal all the best tenants and leave the rest of the 60-year-old district a "ghost town," if he is successful in lobbying the city for tax breaks and other incentives.

Incidentally, those subsidies would be an important part of the plan to get the building up.

- Tom McGeveran

The NY1/Newsday poll shows Mike's approval rating is higher than ever, even though his ads haven't appeared in months. That same poll puts Rudy ahead of Hillary in the race to the White House. The Sun editorializes about another poll which shows the current guy in the White House is more popular than organized labor. The Times notes Hillary's current campaign strategy is reminiscent of the one George W used to get into the White House.

One person trying to stop Hillary, KT McFarland, considers a few rounds of golf with Rudy as a campaign expense, the Daily News discovers.

The paper also notes the state will face a $1.2 million-a-day delay, thanks to the New York Racing Association. That's almost as bad as the city's plan to buy $7.5 million's worth of disposable voting booths.

There is money to be saved, thanks to Bill Thompson's push for a tax rebate for seniors, which he spells out in a Daily News column.

Albany Times Union notes Joe Bruno says to find out how he'll spend this year's pork, go FOIL it.

Bruno does say he's likely to back a WFP-sponsored bill aimed at how Wal-Mart skirts health care costs, notes The Post. [link fixed]

--Azi Paybarah

• When the big, bad chain store enters an urban environment (read: Wal-Mart to open in Brooklyn), opposition from residents is usually not enough to keep it away. Some design students imagine an alternative, where Wal-Mart's site also serves as a public space, assembly hall or art center. (Land+Living)
• Is this a record? A Queens landlord has some 7,000 housing code violations and owes about $425,000. (The Queens Courier)
• As commuter flights become more common, carrying luggage should be anything but. Architect Peter Yeadon has designed sleek suitcases that follow your voice and utilize motion robotics for hands-free travelling. (Inhabitat)
• The Housing and Urban Development Secretary announced that 16 universities will receive over $5 million to help rebuild communities along the Gulf Coast. Nine of the grants go to Historically Black Colleges and seven will assist other schools. (Inman News)
• Moishe's movers have thick eyebrows and no sleeves. Yowzah! (Apartment Therapy)
• The New York Yankees are distributing propaganda sheets to South Bronx residents about their new stadium, which claim the construction will not cost taxpayers. But, we know all too well that that's rarely true. (Metro)
• If churches own the land in Harlem, by God, developers will find a way to get 'em. (New York Post)
• Christopher Gray paints a dramatic picture with words: "At the 24th floor, the bare facade bursts out with a band of rich neo-Classical ornament in white against a chalky blue background...The top floor — the 25th — is the bravura closing act." (The New York Times)
• Avalon Riverview North will break ground tomorrow. It is the first phase of the Queens West development in Long Island City. (The Real Deal)
• The freaky "rogue economists" are looking for real-estate brokers that offer a "flat-fee service for clients wanting to list a house on MLS, or know a lot about such services." Interested? (Freakonomics via The Walk-Through)
• Community activism prevailed in Manhattan Beach last summer, when residents thwarted the construction of 40 McMansions. But now, the streets are lined with half-built McMansions. (New York Daily News)
• Transit workers vs. NYC: most public transit workers drive to work, are male and married. (Gotham Gazette)
• Brooklynites! Big Brother is watching. Stay away from the Dunkin' Donuts. (A Brooklyn Life)

- Riva Froymovich

The City Council has over-ridden Mike's veto on legislation targeting companies like Wal-Mart, which would force big grocers to cover employee health-care, and the matter is headed to court.

The argument made by the anti-Wal Mart camp is that these corporations push their health costs onto the public sector, receiving a kind of stealth subsidy via Medicaid. (The Post's grumbles here; Adrianne Shropshire's praise here.)

But the grocers aren't the only ones ducking health costs. As one reader notes, the City of New York does its best to push its own health-care costs onto the private sector, via cash payments to employees who opt out of city health-care in favor of a spouse's (for example) private plan.

The details of the plan are on the site of the Office of Labor Relations. Here's the summary:

"The MSC Health Benefits Buy-Out Waiver Program allows eligible employees who can obtain non-City group health benefits to waive their New York City health benefits in return for an annual cash incentive payment."

A reader writes that civil-rights era hero Andrew Young is heading Working Families for Wal-Mart. (Well, she called it "some bullshit Wal-Mart front group;" others might call it a campaign for free trade and low prices. It does seem to be the minority-fronted arm of Wal-Mart's PR effort, a favored corporate pushback strategy.)

Young also, the reader notes, serves as chairman of the liberal Drum Major Institute, whose fellows tend to take a rather different view of the retailer. The institute's 2005 Injustice Index includes the following:

Income level at which a family of three qualifies for food stamps: $20,376 3 Average annual wage of Wal-Mart sales associates: $14,787 4 Number of Wal-Mart employees in the United States: 1.2 million 5 Net worth of five Walton family heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune: $77.9 billion 6

On the DMI blog, Lisa Duggan derides NYU as "Walmart-U" and labor leader Andy Stern took this (fairly moderate) stance at a DMI-sponsored forum:

"Wal-Mart...probably deserve the earnings it gets from technological and other innovations, but not the wealth it gains by screwing workers and outsourcing work all over the world."

Senator Clinton had a bout of Glenn Thrush-induced amnesia on the subject of what she did on the Wal-Mart Board of Directors back in the day in Arkansas, but she's gone on the offensive against the retail mega-chain in recent days.

It was reported Friday that she returned donations from company execs. Now, The Politicker has obtained a letter(.pdf) from her to the Acting Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the guy who won't be replaced by Diana Taylor) in which she opposes Wal-Mart's application for federal insurance on deposits in a bank-like entity it owns.

This is hardly a radical position -- it's Alan Greenspan's stand -- and the letter is pretty Greenspanian. She writes to "express my serious reservations" about insuring deposits at "industrial loan companies," and adds, "I am concerned about the recent attempts of wholly commercial entities such as e Wal-Mart, to exploit a loophole in this existing prohibition in order to expand their reach into the banking and financial services realm."

Still, Hillary's friends in labor will no doubt notice.

There are so many things to worry about or get indignant over that the United States’ agreement to  read more »

There are so many things to worry about or get indignant over that the United States’ agreemen  read more »

Crain's is reporting the results of a survey showing a slim majority--51 percent--of New Yorkers favor the invasion of the city by Wal-Mart chain stores:

A new Quinnipiac University poll found that 74% of city voters agree that Wal-Mart’s lower prices hurt smaller businesses. Yet 70% agreed that the low prices benefit people who shop there.

Really? - Tom McGeveran  read more »

By the jaded standards of the publishing trade, it shouldn’t have been disturbing to learn tha  read more »

You may think Buddhists are all centered and less indecisive than the rest of us. Not so for Richard Gere. Apparently, the actor cannot make up his mind over which Hamptons mansion to take, according to the New York Post. Also, George Clooney, Ivana Trump, and Michael Jordan have trouble in Vegas.

Usher is searching for a $10 million downtown pad, according to New York magazine. Courtney Love’s Soho love nest is again on the market. And will Tom Ford ever have his “Wal-Mart on the Hill?”

Instead of looking at boring buildings this week, Christopher Gray writes about men dressed up like buildings, at the 1931 Beaux-Arts Ball. The event was billed as "modernistic, futuristic, cubistic, altruistic, mystic, architistic and feministic." The Real Estate definitely would had been there.  read more »

There’s further evidence this weekend that real estate brokers can do anything, according to the New York Times. Now, they’ll find you a condo, and a spouse to go with it.

-Michael Calderone

To the Editor:  read more »

To the Editor:  read more »

The projects that Richard Lipsky has killed over the years stare down from his office walls like the  read more »

In today's Observer: In Manhattan Transfers, Russian developer Janna Bullock wants to flip an Upper East Side townhouse for a profit--a profit--of $19 million. Marketing strategy? Offer the place up as a "designer showhouse" for charity! Get the place looking snappy and charge for the open house!

Matthew Schuerman profiles Richard Lipsky, the self-styled David responsible for running giant Big Box stores like Wal-Mart and BJ's out of town.

Matthew Grace looks at proposals to make the streets around Union Square less of a death-trap for pedestrians; the locals want “Barnes dances” around the square, where signals at intersections periodically give pedestrians the right of way in all directions.  read more »

The sale of the Edmond and Lily Safra collection at Sotheby's, Brook Mason reports, pulled in $48.9 million for the auction house. That's the highest total ever achieved at a decorative-arts auction in Manhattan, and it may be just the beginning. (Third item.)

Huge turnout expected at tomorrow morning’s city Planning Commission hearing to rezone the Bronx Terminal Market property from manufacturing to commercial, which would pave the way for Related’s Gateway Center shopping mall. The Neighborhood Retail Alliance—a coalition which includes labor unions and grocery store chains— wants to force Related to name its tenants and therefore shame them into keeping non-union shops like BJ’s and Wal-Mart out. Read the official documents here. -Matthew Schuerman  read more »

Richard Lipsky at the Neighborhood Retail Alliance got a hold of a survey Wal-Mart did earlier this year of Staten Island voters. The results? Costco beats Sam’s Club, former BEEP Molinari trumps Bloomberg, and Wal-Mart will get further by advertising the 350 jobs a store would bring than by crowing about low prices.(PDF) -Matthew Schuerman  read more »

The New York Times reports the Jets and the Giants will collaborate on a $800 million stadium in the Meadowlands. It's the first time two N.F.L. teams will have financed and constructed an arena together. It'll be share land with Xanadu, a $2 billion shopping and entertainment facility. Elsewhere in the Gray Lady, there's a report on plans for a half million square feet of retail down Ground Zero way. Wal-Mart is pleased.

It's almost, but not quite, a palindrome, so it's gotta be good. The Post reports that a freedom-free 9/11 museum at Ground Zero will be built by 9/11/09.  read more »

The News reports that residents in the South Slope are getting steamed at developers who are trying to beat the clock on a rezoning that'll take effect in November limiting the size and scale of new buildings. People have been complaining and the Department of City Planning rushed a much-approved down-sizing through. But, like in the Far West Village right now, developers are racing to build, build, build before they're stopped by the new zoning. Remember the bad old days of Prospect Park? Yeah, neither do we. Back then we were too busy scoring in Thompson Square Park. But the News does; now thank your FIDO for cleaning up the park.