JP Morgan Chase & Co.
JPMorgan Close to Shedding Five Floors at Rudin’s 345 Park; But That’s an Exception as Financial Firms Sit Tight
Given the woes on Wall Street and the billions upon billions in write-downs financial-services firms are facing, it would seem like a fine time for the financial sector to vacate some office space—or so one might think.
But movement on the financial front has been almost eerily quiet in the real estate world. Few major firms are taking space anywhere—that much has been expected—but the banks also seem reluctant to put any office space up for grabs through subleasing. read more »
Spitzer Chases Elusive Tax Breaks
Governor Spitzer was about limiting the lure of “off-the-shelf” tax incentives when he announced this morning that JP Morgan Chase had agreed to lease Site 5 at Ground Zero from the Port Authority. But he gave three different estimates on how much those tax breaks would be.
“They are all a part of pre-existing, lower Manhattan rent exemptions, the as-of-right statutory rent tax exemptions that would be available to anybody within certain geographic parameters,” he said at first. “That will have a value of perhaps $100 million to JPMC.
“From JPMC’s perspective it is a good, fair deal,” he said later, after noting that JP Morgan Chase executives, some of whom were in the room with him, should not feel like they did not negotiate hard enough. “Whether it is the commercial rent tax exemption, the lower Manhattan sales tax exemption or the sales tax exemption on core-and-shell, these are not insignificant numbers. Just those three alone probably come in at about $160 million dollars.” read more »
Union Guy Gets Inside Tax-Break Game
"New York is so vibrant and strong that companies are under significant pressure to be in New York City," Kevin Doyle, executive vice president for Local 32BJ, told The Real Estate. "What's the rationale for spending public money to do things that [companies] are going to be doing anyway?"
It is rare that a labor representative sits on the I.D.A. board of directors. Mr. Doyle, 58, was recommended to the post by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who has a close relationship with 32BJ, an 85,000-member division of the Service Employees International Union, which represents building workers.
Mr. Doyle also said he would question the labor practices of companies applying for tax incentives, mentioning that JP Morgan Chase, which is reportedly pushing for more subsidies to move to Ground Zero, pays its security guards "as little as $8 an hour."
Mr. Doyle, who was appointed in February, is realistic about the impact he will have, given that nine of the 15 members are appointed by the Mayor, and the others, recommended by the borough presidents and city comptroller, must be confirmed by him. (There are currently some vacancies.)
"It's a mayorally driven process," he said.
- Matthew SchuermanAnother for Broadway Partners: Busy Firm Buys 280 Park for Over $1.2 B.
Breakfast at Balthazar
Credit-Card Pirates Ripe for Regulation
Storied West Side Bar Stands Athwart Bank-Branch Boom
Countdown to Bliss
Countdown to Bliss
Countdown to Bliss
DeWine and the Boys
The fund-raiser will take place at the 21 Club -- one of the original old-boy hangouts -- where guests will pay $1,000 for lunch or $2,100 if they want to rub shoulders with Mr. DeWine & Co. at a pre-lunch VIP reception. The hosts include such Wall Street sugar daddies as Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince, JPMorgan Chase chairman Bill Harrison, and Goldman Sachs executive veep Ed Forst, as well as GOP musclemen Senator John Sununu, Senator Chuck Hagel, and Congressman Michael Oxley.
Given DeWine's position on gay marriage -- he's one of the guys who sponsored the amendment banning same-sex marriage -- we doubt he'll be flying in a day early to cheer on the marchers at next Sunday's Pride parade down 5th Avenue. In fact, we doubt he'll be seeing much of New York at all beyond the cool interiors of '21' and his Town Car. But you never know.
-- Lizzy RatnerMr. Puck’s Gefilte Fish
Mr. Puck's Gefilte Fish
Monday: Sunshine and Cabbage Strudel
Downtown Cipriani on West Broadway
- Developer Steven C. Witkoff fired Corcoran Sunshine Marketing from his Cipriani project and replaced them with Prudential Douglas Elliman the following day. Louise Sunshine says "I feel raped," but she and Pamela Liebman remain the best of friends. (The New York Times)
- After Boston's Big Dig, developers entice prospective residents with luxury condos and sprawling park space in the center of town. (The New York Times)
- The Morgan Library complex, J. P. Morgan's "second-hand mansion" and private library, will reopen after renovation in April. (The New York Times)
- The Church of St. Brigid in the East Village, designed by Irish architect Patrick Keely, doesn't have the funds to bring the building up to code and it will likely be demolished. (New York Post)
- The owner of the oldest boatyard in New York is giving up fishing to farm, and developers are knocking on every door nearby, on City Island in the Long Island Sound. (The Village Voice)
- Single women are twice as likely to be home buyers than single men, because, well, men are immature. (The New York Times)
- The ever expanding New York University plans to build the largest research and training facility for children's psychiatric treatment in the world on First Avenue between 25th and 26th streets. (New York Daily News)
- There are "enforceable" rules in coops, like no smoking. (New York)
- Broke after a "bad real estate deal," a plumber went from bankrupt to turning a major profit. (NewYork)
- Nora Ephron inspires new trend: strudel. (New York)
PLA Envy
A Boymelgreen spokesman, Lloyd Kaplan, said that the developer sometimes uses union labor, depending on the project, but he could not elaborate on the Pine Street deal. Anthony Pugliese, an organizer for the New York District Council of Carpenters, said that the carpenters did not reduce their wages nor make other concessions, but that the other trades may have agreed to productivity measures, such as cutting the minimum number of workers needed on the job. In return for the developer promising to hire union on the upcoming Pine Street rehab, Pugliese said locals agreed to stop putting The Rat outside a nearby Boymelgreen project at 15 Broad Street. We waited to post this item until we got more details from participants, but unfortunately we still have not heard back from Ed Malloy, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council, who coordinates the unions that would have taken part in the pact. read more »
-Matthew Schuerman
Eliot's Republican Guest
More than 1,300 people showed up at Eliot Spitzer's $5 million fundraiser tonight, but observers of the state's shifting power structure took particular note of one guest: Michael Finnegan.
Finnegan is a Republican and a former top aide to Governor Pataki who now works for JPMorganChase (a firm that does quite a bit of bond work for the state). Equally important, he's a close personal friend of Pataki.
And now, it appears, he's another player in the state power structure moving toward Eliot. (Not the first: that honor goes, perhaps, to Al D'Amato's lobbyist brother, Armand, who showed up at a Spitzer fundraiser this time last year.)
Finnegan and the rest of the crowd heard Eliot strike a slightly more partisan note than usual.
"No party has done so much for so few who need so little," he said of the GOP.
The setting -- a fundraiser full of lobbyists -- generally struck a contrast with the event's righteous tone, which featured pledges from Spitzer's wife and mother that they only plan to vote for him because of what he'll do for New York State. Mom, one thinks, could be forgiven for voting for him just because he's her son. Silda too. But what about Mike Finnegan? read more »
