John Mingione has resigned as co-CEO of the construction firm Omnibuild shortly after being indicted by the Manhattan district attorney's office for allegedly being part of an $86 million fraud scheme allegedly orchestrated by former HFZ executive Nir Meir — accusations the firm has pushed back on strongly at every turn.
Omnibuild posted the announcement from Mingione to its social media channels Wednesday. The move will allow him to focus more fully on clearing Omnibuild's name, he wrote.
"We are absolutely innocent, and I am profoundly sorry for the hurt and pain caused by the DA's wrongful actions," he wrote. "We have been fighting the false charges night and day, and I will not rest until our good name is cleared."
Stepping down will also let Mingione "address some health concerns that have been exacerbated by recent events," he wrote.
Omnibuild co-CEO Peter Serpico will now run the firm as sole CEO.
Omnibuild had worked for HFZ as the construction manager at the XI, the developer's high-profile luxury condo project by the High Line. The firm filed a claim against HFZ in the summer of 2020 for roughly $100 million worth of unpaid bills on the project, one of the first of several lawsuits to hit the company.
Meir was arrested in Florida in February, and the Manhattan DA's office has accused him of being the mastermind behind conspiracies that allegedly stole $86 million from investors, contractors and the city. The office also indicted Mingione and Omnibuild accountant Kevin Stewart in the case over accusations that they took part in the scheme by making it seem as though Omnibuild had completed more work on the XI than it actually had, causing the lender on the project to release more funds.
Omnibuild aggressively disputed these accusations in a civil lawsuit the firm filed against HFZ and the XI lenders in Manhattan state Supreme Court in April. The suit essentially argues that Omnibuild repeatedly tried to sound the alarm about the exact financial issues at the XI that Meir was ultimately indicted over, but the company was ignored every time. The suit seeks about $350 million in damages.
New York City is planning a series of bus, bike and pedestrian improvements in and outside of Manhattan's core as it prepares for the launch of congestion pricing in two months.
Some of those efforts include bus lane enhancements along much of Second Avenue, extending and widening the protected bike lane along Sixth Avenue and developing a plan for bike and pedestrian improvements on Broadway. That last initiative would help fully transform a stretch of streets between Union Square and Columbus Circle into a shared street with new pedestrian plazas spanned by a two-way bike lane.
Another notable initiative is greater bus priority along 34th Street — potentially similar to the busway on 14th Street — where buses currently move at a sluggish 5 miles per hour or less during peak travel times.
The enhancements are among 37 upcoming projects the city’s Department of Transportation detailed in a report published Thursday. Depending on the planning process, the city estimates that the projects will begin to roll out either later this year or in 2025.
Transit officials say the projects generally seek to plug gaps in the city’s existing bike network and create more seamless bus connections along transit-rich corridors. DOT says it will pay for the upgrades out of its budget, rather than out of congestion pricing-related funds, agency spokesman Nick Benson confirmed. The city has not shared specific timelines or cost estimates for each of the projects.
DOT’s plan comes as the Adams administration has taken heat for a lack of new coordinated transit upgrades, particularly for buses, in advance of the June 30 launch of congestion pricing. Once in effect, most riders will have to pay $15 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street.
“Better late than never,” said Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director of the Riders Alliance, a group that advocates for mass transit users. “Optimistically, many of these projects can be ready by day one of congestion pricing because they’ve been in the works for years — many of them are not brand new — and the advantage is the planning has been done, the weather is warm and the painting of lanes can begin today.”
The projects aren’t just confined to Manhattan’s busiest streets. Every borough will receive new transit upgrades as part of DOT’s efforts, including multiple new bus upgrades on busy thoroughfares.
Among them are Hillside Avenue, Grand Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard in Queens; Church Avenue, Flatbush Avenue and Kings Highway in Brooklyn; Tremont Avenue in the Bronx; and Richmond Avenue in Staten Island.
But DOT’s report notes that “for many of these projects, this is the start of a process” it will undertake with communities.
Some advocates say the timing begs the question why city officials waited eight weeks before the launch of congestion tolls to hit the gas on new improvements and publicly share its plans.
“Congestion pricing itself is only half the equation — its success hinges on what we do with the space newly freed up by fewer cars,” said Sara Lind, co-executive director at Open Plans, which advocates for street upgrades. “Optimizing it for people, buses and bikes is the right move.”
New York City is planning a series of bus, bike and pedestrian improvements in and outside of Manhattan's core as it prepares for the launch of congestion pricing in two months.
Some of those efforts include bus lane enhancements along much of Second Avenue, extending and widening the protected bike lane along Sixth Avenue and developing a plan for bike and pedestrian improvements on Broadway. That last initiative would help fully transform a stretch of streets between Union Square and Columbus Circle into a shared street with new pedestrian plazas spanned by a two-way bike lane.
Another notable initiative is greater bus priority along 34th Street — potentially similar to the busway on 14th Street — where buses currently move at a sluggish 5 miles per hour or less during peak travel times.
The enhancements are among 37 upcoming projects the city’s Department of Transportation detailed in a report published Thursday. Depending on the planning process, the city estimates that the projects will begin to roll out either later this year or in 2025.
Transit officials say the projects generally seek to plug gaps in the city’s existing bike network and create more seamless bus connections along transit-rich corridors. DOT says it will pay for the upgrades out of its budget, rather than out of congestion pricing-related funds, agency spokesman Nick Benson confirmed. The city has not shared specific timelines or cost estimates for each of the projects.
DOT’s plan comes as the Adams administration has taken heat for a lack of new coordinated transit upgrades, particularly for buses, in advance of the June 30 launch of congestion pricing. Once in effect, most riders will have to pay $15 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street.
“Better late than never,” said Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director of the Riders Alliance, a group that advocates for mass transit users. “Optimistically, many of these projects can be ready by day one of congestion pricing because they’ve been in the works for years — many of them are not brand new — and the advantage is the planning has been done, the weather is warm and the painting of lanes can begin today.”
The projects aren’t just confined to Manhattan’s busiest streets. Every borough will receive new transit upgrades as part of DOT’s efforts, including multiple new bus upgrades on busy thoroughfares.
Among them are Hillside Avenue, Grand Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard in Queens; Church Avenue, Flatbush Avenue and Kings Highway in Brooklyn; Tremont Avenue in the Bronx; and Richmond Avenue in Staten Island.
But DOT’s report notes that “for many of these projects, this is the start of a process” it will undertake with communities.
Some advocates say the timing begs the question why city officials waited eight weeks before the launch of congestion tolls to hit the gas on new improvements and publicly share its plans.
“Congestion pricing itself is only half the equation — its success hinges on what we do with the space newly freed up by fewer cars,” said Sara Lind, co-executive director at Open Plans, which advocates for street upgrades. “Optimizing it for people, buses and bikes is the right move.”
New York City is stepping up its effort to improve car-free access to Midtown and Lower Manhattan to prepare for the start of congestion pricing, scheduled in just a few weeks. The city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) on Thursday released a report detailing 37 new projects and 47 existing projects that enhance car-free access to [...]
The post NYC to expand car-free access in Manhattan ahead of congestion pricing first appeared on 6sqft.
The owners of 60 Wall St. yesterday announced they refinanced the office tower’s $575 million mortgage at a substantially higher interest rate, paving the way for redevelopment of the empty building with a distinctive public lobby.
“60 Wall will be redeveloped to today’s standards and will redefine the standard of redeveloped assets in the Financial District,” Albert Behler, chief executive of Paramount Group, said on a conference call today. The developer owns the building along with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.
The $250 million project, now underway, is a big bet that tenants will lease space downtown even though there are plenty of options nearby. Vacancy rates in the Financial District are 27.6%, according to Colliers, and newly freed-up office space at 55 Water St., 14 Wall St. and 180 Maiden Lane have contributed to the tumbleweeds vibe of the neighborhood.
Those risks explain why the new mortgage for 60 Wall St. comes with an elevated interest rate.
A $259 million slice of the five-year mortgage carries a 12% interest rate and is a payment-in-kind loan, meaning if the landlords choose not to make a monthly payment then the unpaid obligation is added to the balance of the loan. PIKs are risky because they allow borrowers to add more debt to their balance sheets and avoid paying their interest obligations in the short term.
Another $316 million piece of the $575 million loan has a floating interest rate of 7.8%, the same as the mortgage Paramount and its partner defaulted on in May of 2023. It isn’t clear which lenders originated the revised mortgage; the previous loan was written by German lender Aareal Capital.
Deutsche Bank moved out of 60 Wall St. in 2021 and the building has been vacant since.
Renovation work has begun and the exterior and interior will change at the 47-floor, 1.6 million-square foot tower developed in 1989 for JPMorgan.
Paramount plans to install a new glass facade to envelope the lower floors and a grand staircase in the lobby, which offers direct access to the subway and is a privately owned public space. The lobby is filled with white marble columns and the room is one of the largest covered public spaces in the city, delivering what urban planner Jerold Kayden called “overtones of a New York City white-tiled subway station or a stage set for an English garden.”
“There is no way to come out of the subway and not have an emotional reaction to the lobby, whether you think it’s ridiculous, amazing or awful,” said Liz Waytkus, executive director of Docomomo US, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving modern buildings.
The new owners are planning to gut the old lobby, which was designed by architect Kevin Roche who also designed the landmarked Ford Foundation atrium. Sarah Carroll, chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, said it wasn’t clear 60 Wall’s postmodern work was worthy of protection in part because it’s not that old and sometimes the public benefits of privately owned public spaces, or POPS, must be subordinate to the plans of private developers.
“In support of larger citywide priorities including economic revitalization, it may be necessary to alter the interior design,” Carroll said in a letter last year to City Council member Christopher Marte.
For its part, Paramount Group said it will create “a state-of-the-art building for tomorrow’s tenants” designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox. A brochure reads: “This isn’t your dad’s Wall Street. This isn’t your dad’s 60 Wall Street, either.”
Revamping the building interior might appeal to tenants who like new lobbies, but Waytkus wonders how persuasive a selling point that would be considering many older Midtown buildings have already created spiffy new public spaces.
“You’re going to destroy something special,” she said.
A housing lottery has launched for 135 middle-income apartments at a new luxury residential project in Mott Haven. Located at 138 Bruckner Boulevard in the South Bronx, the 12-story mixed-use building offers spacious units, luxurious amenities, and proximity to the Bronx waterfront. New Yorkers earning 130 percent of the area median income, or between $105,875/month [...]
The post 135 middle-income apartments available in Mott Haven, from $3,088/month first appeared on 6sqft.
The number of new office leases in Lower Manhattan jumped 16% in the first quarter of 2024 but are still lagging 35% behind the five-year average, according to a report released Thursday by the Downtown Alliance, a nonprofit organization that manages the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District.
Tenants in Lower Manhattan signed for 582,000 square feet of new office space in the first quarter of this year — an amount that is a single percentage point down from the fourth quarter last year. Prolific charter school network Success Academy inked the largest lease with a 93,937-square-foot expansion at 120 Wall St., according to the alliance.
And the first three months of 2024 also marked the first time in a year that more space in the district overall has been leased than vacated, thanks in part to the city's plan to help the struggling housing market by converting empty office buildings into apartments, said Downtown Alliance President Jessica Lappin.
"As residential conversions continue to entice developers, the health of the commercial real estate market in Lower Manhattan could ultimately stand to benefit," said Lappin, whose organization oversees the area roughly from City Hall to the Battery and from the East River to West Street. "These conversions will not only give more housing options to our residential population, but will [also] help reset the supply and demand across the office sector, as low-demand space leaves the market."
Crain's reported earlier this week that firms leased about 2.7 million square feet throughout all of Manhattan last month, and the boroughwide occupancy rate is still at a high of 18%, according to the latest data from Colliers.
In Lower Manhattan, meanwhile, the office vacancy rate ticked up to 24.7% — also the highest the district has seen, which Lappin attributes to new space entering the market.
For premier Class A office buildings in the district, the average asking rent fell to $59.16 per square foot, compared to $85.28 in Midtown and $91.43 in Midtown South, according to data from Cushman and Wakefield that was published in the alliance's report. Boroughwide, the average asking rent dropped slightly to $74.11 per square foot, Crain's reported.
The area's tourism industry, however, fared better than other sectors. The average daily room price hit $225.69 — the highest first quarter rate in the last eight years and notably higher than last year, helping to buck the citywide trend of rates below $200. The district's 43 hotels also enjoyed an occupancy rate of 74%, the highest in the first quarter since 2008, and a 6% jump from the same time period last year. The new boutique Warren Street Hotel opened in February at 86 Warren St., according to the alliance, adding 69 rooms to the more than 8,400 already available, including at the swanky Greenwich Hotel, Hotel Fouquet's New York and The Beekman. Citywide, the hotel occupancy rate swelled to 82% last year, Crain's recently reported.
And on the residential side, the median rent in the district hovered at $4,100, while the median sales price hit an 11-year-low at $930,000, Lappin said.