A Manhattan Community Board 5 official nominated to replace the chairman elected in a boardroom brawl two months ago has left the influential Midtown neighborhood group.
Craig Slutzkin departed yesterday, effective immediately, after he wasn’t reappointed for another term by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. Levine acted after Slutzkin, as a member of another board, supported a resolution challenging a Department of Education policy allowing transgender girls to play on female sports teams.
His exit could pave the way for the re-election next month of Chairman Samir Lavingia, 29, who was elected CB5 chairman in a close vote in March and is campaign coordinator at Open New York, a Silicon Valley-backed housing-development advocacy group with a lobbying arm.
CB5’s nominating committee opposes the ouster of Slutzkin, who had been the board’s second vice chair and was voted by the full board to run an emergency meeting last month after Lavingia’s contentious election.
“We all determined that no one on our entire community board is more qualified than Craig to serve as the chair,” the panel said in a letter to Levine dated yesterday. “The failure to reappoint Craig compels the nominating committee to endorse a candidate other than the one that we believe is best.”
A second letter to Levine today, signed by 26 of CB5’s 50 members, described Slutzkin as an “invaluable asset” and said “failing to re-appoint such a respected, reliable, and experienced person as him to our Community Board is unprecedented and outrageous.”
Levine had no immediate comment on either letter.
However, Assembly member Tony Simone said he was pleased that Slutzkin was pushed out, describing Slutzkin’s March vote on the Community Education Council for District 2 as transphobic. The controversial measure was in front of the council that covers Midtown, most of Lower Manhattan, and the Upper East Side.
“Slutzkin’s decision to vote for a hateful and prejudiced resolution like #248 renders him unfit to serve on a Community Board,” Simone said in a statement Wednesday.
Invited to speak at last night’s CB5 executive-committee meeting, Slutzkin said “I have nothing to say,” and walked out of the room with board secretary Mary Brosnahan, who also left CB5. Neither replied to requests for comment.
CB5 is the most important of the city’s many community boards, with a district reaching between Eighth and Lexington avenues and from 14th to 59th streets. The 50-member group gives Midtown residents a seat at the table when city or state authorities are tackling big issues, such as the redevelopment of the Penn Station district or the rezoning of East Midtown. CB5’s recommendations aren’t binding, but they are often sought by developers seeking to build in the area and closely watched by elected officials.
The exits of Slutzkin and Brosnahan are the latest in a wave of departures that began in February with the resignation of CB5’s chair of 15 years, Vikki Barbero, a former administrator at the Fashion Institute of Technology. In March her successor, residential real estate broker Nick Athanail, left and so did the longtime head of the board’s powerful land use committee, Layla Law-Gisiko. Departed officials criticized the four Open New York members on CB5 for creating a divisive environment and for not disclosing their affiliation before joining the volunteer board.
Community board members are nominated by City Council members and appointed by borough presidents to two-year terms. Some Open New York members see the boards as beholden to NIMBYs reflexively opposed to housing development. In a January message on Slack shared with Crain’s, Lavingia urged Open New York members to get involved on CB5.
“We are taking it on by the horns,” he wrote.
Four of the CB5’s six officer positions are vacant and are to be filled at a meeting next month in which Lavingia stands for re-election. Meanwhile, the board has been restocked and 12 new voting members will join the monthly meeting Thursday, Lavingia said last night. One member asked how many of the newcomers belong to or work for Open New York; Lavingia said he didn’t know.
Now that Slutzkin is out of the picture, a person familiar with the matter said the nominating committee will meet over the next two days to try to find a second candidate by Thursday’s meeting.
“It’s back to square one,” the person said.
Lavingia told Crain’s it would be healthy for CB5 if another contender emerges for the chairman’s role and there is a contested election. He added: “No matter who is on our board, our focus remains the same. We will continue to represent the people of our district and tackle the issues they face every day.”
JetBlue Airways took hits in all three segments of the latest airline rankings from J.D. Power.
After back-to-back years of the Queens-based airline ranking No. 1 for customer satisfaction in first and business class, Delta Air Lines overtook the throne in this year's rankings, which were released this morning. JetBlue now sits second in that segment, followed by United Airlines.
JetBlue ranked No. 2 in the premium economy category last year but did not crack the top three this time around. Delta held onto the top position in that category, followed by Alaska Airlines and American Airlines. JetBlue holds the No. 4 slot.
JetBlue also fell out of the top three for economy and basic economy satisfaction. Southwest Airlines and Delta continued to lead that category, with Allegiant Air overtaking the No. 3 slot. Alaska sits at No. 4, followed by JetBlue.
J.D. Power surveys North American passengers about airline staff; digital tools; ease of travel; level of trust; on-board experience; pre- and post-flight experience; as well as value for price paid. It was fielded from March 2023 through March 2024
It’s a slight change from last year’s survey criteria of aircraft, baggage, boarding check-in, cost and fees, flight crew, in-flight services and reservation.
The consumer-research firm said ease of travel and trust were more important to passengers than price, despite rising fares that accompanied the recovery of travel after the COVID-19 pandemic. “While things like value for price paid are important, it is more important to passengers just to have a seamless flight,” the firm said.
Here are the full 2024 rankings:
Best in First and Business Class
1. Delta Airlines
2. JetBlue Airways
3. United Airlines
4. Alaska Airlines
5. American Airlines
6. Air Canada
Best in Premium Economy
1. Delta Airlines
2. Alaska Airlines
3. American Airlines
4. JetBlue Airways
5. WestJet
6. United Airlines
7. Air Canada
Best in Economy/Basic Economy
1. Southwest Airlines
2. Delta Airlines
3. Allegiant Air
4. JetBlue Airways
5. American Airlines
6. WestJet
7. United Airlines
8. Air Canada
9. Spirit Airlines
10. Frontier Airlines
John Pletz of Crain's Chicago Business contributed.
A confetti-shooting, 65-foot-long hot dog now sits in the heart of Times Square. Created by artists Jen Carton and Paul Outlaw, the animatronic sausage sculpture “Hot Dog in the City” seeks to celebrate the American hot dog while delving into the interconnected themes of consumption, capitalism, class, and culture within the context of the iconic [...]
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The Manhattan developer looking to demolish a pair of buildings in SoHo's historic district conceded Tuesday that he's unable to realize his original dream of erecting a commercial office tower in the neighborhood given the ailing state of the market.
"So I'm kind of embarrassed coming back here to say, 'Hey, we have to change gears and can't build this building,'" United American Land founder Albert Laboz said during a Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing May 7.
In 2017 Laboz bought three properties for $5.4 million at the corner of Canal and Broadway — at 301 Canal St., 419-421 Broadway and 423 Broadway — and went before the Landmarks Preservation Commission with an application to demolish two of them and put up an 8-story building in their place. Designed by Morris Adjmi Architects, the new structure would have included office space with retail on the ground floor.
But seven years and a whole pandemic later, Laboz acknowledges that times have changed, and the demand for office space is not what it used to be. Crain's reported last month that the availability rate in Manhattan during the first quarter of this year hit a record 18.1%.
"We have this site, we bought it pre-Covid, and we designed this beautiful building. Unfortunately, we designed an office building. I don't have to tell you where the office market is or where the financing for the office market is," he said at the hearing.
The Manhattan-based, family-owned development firm is still eager to revitalize the corner, however, and went before the Landmarks Preservation Commission for a second time with a revised application. Laboz's new scheme includes plans to tear down the buildings at 301 Canal St. and 419-421 Broadway, both of which have fallen into disrepair, and replace them with a new 1-story retail building. The proposed structure could either stand on its own in perpetuity or serve as an interim on the bustling block until the market bounces back, he said.
"Let's go again and build something as a placeholder, like a 1-story, beautiful, gorgeous retail building that we can all be proud of and come back and fight another day when the market comes back," Laboz told the commission.
In 2021 the city controversially rezoned the area to allow for building housing as of right as part of the SoHo/NoHo Neighborhood Plan, now allowing Laboz — if he wanted to — to put up a residential tower instead of offices. But that's not economically feasible either, he said.
"Given that the site is pretty small and constrained and interest rates are where they are and the soil conditions — it doesn't make sense at this moment for us," he said at the hearing.
Next door at 423 Broadway, however, Laboz plans to renovate the existing building to accommodate continuous retail space on the ground floor, and two apartments above it — one on each floor, along with solar panels on the roof, said Morris Adjmi, his eponymous firm's principal architect, during the landmarks hearing. The new residential entrance will be at the north end of the building, he said.
The Laboz family has both a personal and a financial interest in that corner, which sits right above the Canal Street subway station that serves the N, Q, R and W trains. They also own 277 Canal St., right across Broadway, where they're working with the same architect to build 100 units of housing, a quarter of which are slated to be below market rate.
But before breaking ground, the Landmarks Preservation Commission must first sign off on the plans because the buildings sit within the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District. A vote on whether or not to approve Laboz's application has not yet been set, said Courtney Clark Metakis, a spokeswoman for the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
An executive at a unicorn-level startup is behind another relative rarity: a Brooklyn townhouse deal.
Richard Valtr, founder of Mews Systems, a 12-year-old software company servicing hotels that claims to have recently hit a $1.2 billion valuation, has snapped up 48 Garden Place, according to the city register.
The six-bedroom, four-bath property, which Valtr purchased with his wife, fashion industry public relations executive Lissy von Schwarzkopf, went for $9.95 million, a deed says.
Featuring a parlor floor with two fireplaces, an open kitchen with counter seating and a skylight, and bluestone-lined backyard, No. 48 had asked $12 million when it came on the market in April 2023, based on online listing data, and so required a nearly 20% price cut to trade.
The seller appears to be Susan Abdalla, a tech consultant who paid $7.5 million for the stoop-fronted 5,100-square-foot site, which sits on a leafy block between Joralemon and State streets in the city’s oldest historic district, in 2014, records show. Previously, the property had been owned by Robert Pierot Jr., the CEO of a family-owned, multigenerational shipping company founded in Europe in 1894.
Compass agent Barbara Wilding, who represented the seller, did not return an email for comment.
Mews, whose cloud-based product promises to make it easier for hotel guests to pay for meals, bike rentals and incidentals as they roam around hotel properties, as well as to help them book rooms and check out, so far seems to have mostly overseas accommodations as clients. Overall, the Amsterdam-based company says 5,000 hospitality brands in 85 countries use its software.
In the U.S., most clients appear to be boutique-style addresses outside of New York such as Roost, a long-term-stay offering in Philadelphia and other East Coast cities; the Local, a St. Augustine, Florida, property; and Revisn, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Although its presence may be limited locally, the 973-employee Mews has had no problem wooing investors, with 17 firms, including Goldman Sachs Asset Management, chipping in $324 million in seven rounds of financing since the firm’s 2012 founding, according to PitchBook. Mews’ latest round, a $110 million series C2, occurred in March.
No. 48 Garden Place is one of only a handful of higher-end Brooklyn townhouses to sell so far this year. Indeed, Just five have closed at $7 million and above in “brownstone Brooklyn,” the historic swath composed of neighborhoods including Cobble Hill, Crown Heights and Park Slope, according to a Crain’s analysis of Streeteasy data. Last year was also slow, with just 10 above that threshold, based on the data, while there were 28 deals in 2022.
High interest rates are making many owners with relatively affordable home loans skittish about selling, depriving the market of inventory and essentially freezing it.
At just under $10 million, No. 48 seems to be one of the priciest single-family properties to sell in Kings County since 2022.
“Our client intends for this to be their family home. It’s really a dream for them,” said Compass agent Rachel Greenstein, adding that Garden Place, a one-block stretch that does not get a lot of car traffic, is especially popular with trick-or-treaters on Halloween.
But other buyers flocking to townhouses in the current market are investors aware of the robust rental potential of the properties, which can fetch $13,000 to $25,000 per month, Greenstein added: “They’re a great investment.”
Leases
QVC inks lease by Bryant Park
Address: 1450 Broadway, Manhattan
Landlord: ZG Capital Partners
Tenant: QVC
Lease size: 13,357 square feet
Asset type: Office
Brokers: CBRE's Ramsey Feher represented the tenant. A JLL team led by Mitchell Konsker, Greg Wang, Thomas Swartz and Lance Yasinsky represented the landlord.
Insurance firm takes space at 1 World Trade
Address: 1 World Trade Center, Manhattan
Landlord: The Durst Organization and The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Tenant: Venerable
Lease size: 11,000 square feet
Asset type: Office
Brokers: Cushman & Wakefield's Michael Mathias represented the tenant. Newmark's David Falk, Peter Shimkin, Hal Stein, Jason Greenstein and Nathan Kropp represented the landlord, along with Eric Engelhardt and Karen Rose in-house.
Online video firm takes space in Flatiron District
Address: 53 W. 21st St., Manhattan
Landlord: West Gramercy Associates
Tenant: PlayPlay
Lease size: 5,000 square feet
Asset type: Office
Brokers: Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant. The Moinian Group's Gabriel Whitman and Gregg Weisser represented the landlord, along with Raise Commercial Real Estate.
Sales
Asset management giant picks up a pair of midsize Park Slope rentals
Address: 784 and 786 President St., Brooklyn
Seller: Greenbrook Partners
Buyer: The Carlyle Group
Sale price: $17.8 million
Asset type: Multifamily
Financings
Charlotte developer lands massive construction loan for Link Apartments QPN
Address: 25-01 Queens Plaza North
Owner: Grubb Properties
Lender: Kennedy Wilson
Loan amount: $214.5 million
Asset type: Multifamily
Brokers: CBRE Capital Markets' Elliott Voreis, Nate Sittema, Kristen Reilley and Owen Hall represented the owner.
One of the angriest community board meetings I ever attended concerned a policy whose name seemed designed to evoke bureaucratic boredom: mandatory inclusionary housing.
The policy was a signature effort from former Mayor Bill de Blasio requiring developers to set aside a certain amount of residential units as affordable in any project that required a rezoning. And despite its name, many who showed up to the South Bronx meeting to discuss it were anything but bored by it. They passionately railed against the proposal, a process that repeated itself at most of the other community boards across the city. Virtually all of them voted against it, citing concerns ranging from gentrification to socialism.
And then, a few months later and with a few changes, the city passed the policy. It remains on the books to this day.
Mayor Eric Adams' administration is now gearing up for a comparable fight with its signature housing policy, known as City of Yes for Housing Opportunity. The proposed changes similarly seek to boost housing production, a goal that almost always faces pushback at the community board level. But the mandatory inclusionary housing experience offers a good reminder that all the fireworks and arguments likely to erupt about City of Yes at community board meetings in the coming months may not amount to much more than group therapy for its opponents.
Community boards have been in the news more than usual lately, thanks largely to the bizarre sequence of events still unfolding at Manhattan Community Board 5 in Midtown. Members of the pro-housing group Open New York took control of the board in March and upset several of its volunteer members in the process by not disclosing their connection with the organization. Open New York campaign coordinator Samir Lavingia remains the board's new chairman but faces accusations of duplicity and an ongoing effort to push him out.
The drama is interesting and raises important questions about who should be allowed on community boards and what members seeking leadership positions should reveal about themselves. But it also obscures an important point that is worth emphasizing: The real estate decisions community boards make are not binding.
This does not mean they are powerless, as elected officials who do make binding decisions pay attention to their recommendations, but it does put a hard limit on how much power they actually have. An extremely pro-housing board, for example, could approve every project that comes its way, and an extremely anti-housing board could reject every project that comes its way (which isn't too far off from our current reality), but all that really matters is whether the local council member agrees.
The Adams administration would certainly still prefer to get these groups on board with City of Yes, if only to help smooth its passage through the City Council. And it may have better luck on that front than the de Blasio administration did, as there seems to be much broader agreement that the city needs more housing now than there was during the mandatory inclusionary housing push almost 10 years ago.
But given what some of the new regulations target, such as the removal of parking mandates and the legalization of small backyard apartments, at least some Community Board rejections are borderline inevitable. If and when their vehement denunciations come rolling in, though—most of which will include some form of the phrase "We support new housing, but ..."—keep in mind that the key decisions won't happen until the plan reaches the City Council. Members will keep the community boards' opinions in mind, sure, but that doesn't mean they'll follow their lead. Just ask all the mandatory inclusionary housing opponents.
With commencement week upon us, almost 300,000 students throughout New York State are preparing to enter the workforce after graduating—a sizable amount that accounts for more than the population of Buffalo, NY. While our newly graduated students will join industries such as life sciences, finance, education and more, there is an essential industry and workforce in New York City that is often overlooked and understaffed.
The New York Building Congress forecasts citywide construction spending to grow to $88 billion in 2024. As a result of this anticipated surge, construction jobs are poised to reach 160,000 in 2024. While this projected boom is promising, NYC Comptroller Brad Lander has found inconsistencies with the city’s annual infrastructure assessment that underestimate the need for tradespeople. Lander’s analysis highlights a foreboding trend, in which the city’s true infrastructure needs could be even greater than current projections.
As New York’s more than 150,000 tradespeople are responsible for building our skyline and maintaining our infrastructure, the city’s future will increasingly depend on them. Now is the time to educate and empower the next generation to join this high demand, rewarding, and growing industry, and to take a moment to thank current tradespeople showing up each day to build the future.
Engaging our audience
It’s critical that we convey to current high school students and graduates that trade school can offer a less expensive path to a satisfying career than a traditional college education. The building industry is expected to add almost 19,000 new jobs within three years, according to New York Building Congress research, yet the enrollment rate for programs to train for these skilled jobs in New York is lower than the national average.
Nationally, enrollment for two-year trade institutions focusing on construction training is up 10.01% from 2021. However, New York's enrollment is significantly lower than the national average, as its two-year institution enrollment has only risen 2.1% from 2021. This trend only reinforces the need to communicate the benefits of a trade-school education to fill the growing void of tradespeople. The average cost of carpentry school in New York ranges anywhere from $12,000 – $24,000, these figures pale in comparison to tuition costs as high as $63,000 per year in the NYC area. Additionally, construction ranked fourth among New York City's highest-paying employment sectors, boasting an average salary of $87,200.
According to another report from New York City’s comptroller, only 57% of NYC’s high school graduates were ready for college in 2019. Considering this data, promoting trade school as a financially friendly path to building a stable career could help decrease unemployment and lead people toward solid careers.
New York benefits from promoting the skilled trades locally
Filling these important jobs will contribute to the city and surrounding areas’ economic growth, and there is a significant opportunity to build this workforce locally. Take these stats for perspective on the importance of tradespeople to NYC:
- It takes 129,935 miles of electrical cable to power a New Yorker’s cell phone– thank you electricians!
- It takes 1 billion gallons of clean water per day to make the world’s best pizza – thank you, plumbers!
- 4 out of 5 rush-hour commuters use mass transit – thank you, mechanics!
Our tradespeople are the backbone of the city. Equipping and empowering the next generation of New Yorkers to explore opportunities in trade careers will not only help meet the industry's increasing demand but also stabilize our infrastructure and make room for more development. Let’s continue supporting local investment in talent, entrepreneurship, and the education of our newer generation about the benefits of joining a stable industry in an ever-growing city.
Maria Ford is the president of commercial, industrial and farm & hardware at Stanley Black & Decker.
Over a decade after the longstanding Pathmark store closed, residents of Two Bridges this week celebrated the opening of a new grocery store in the neighborhood. Brooklyn Fare Kitchen & Market has opened at the base of luxury condominium One Manhattan Square at 227 Cherry Street. The new store measures 25,500 square feet, features an [...]
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