EDC faulted: Comptroller found waterfront restaurant violated lease’s revenue- reporting and site-improvement requirements. An audit by City Comptroller John C. Liu concluded that MDO Development Corporation violated its lease agreement for a City-owned site occupied by the Water Club restaurant along the East River between East 30th and 32nd Streets in Manhattan. The audit found, among other things, that MDO did not accurately report revenue from the restaurant and failed to make required site improvements. The City’s Economic Development Corporation administers the lease agreement on behalf of the Department of Small Business Services.
MDO in 1979 entered into a 25-year lease with the City to build and operate the restaurant. The City in 2001 amended the lease and extended its term to 2030. For 2009, the agreement entitled the City to an annual fixed rent of $495,000, but if gross receipts exceeded $8,250,000 MDO would pay six percent of its sales, plus seven percent of receipts exceeding $10,500,000. MDO was also obligated to expend $450,000 on tenant improvements within two years of the amended lease’s commencement date. (more…)
Comptroller asserts that insufficient oversight could cost City $6.1 million. A June 2008 audit by City Comptroller William C. Thompson concluded that New York Skyports, Inc. violated its lease agreement for a two-acre City-owned East River site, creating a potential cost of $6.1 million to the City.
Originally executed with the Gulf Oil Corp in 1959, the lease allowed the construction of a parking garage over the East River and the additional use of the two-acre parcel – running along the East River from East 18th to East 23rd Streets in Manhattan – for a seaplane operation, marina, gas station, and a plane, boat and auto repair facility. In exchange, the lease entitled the City to annual rents and 50 percent of all gross revenue from sales and advertising. Starting in 2002, several City inspections revealed needed repairs. In 2006, an inspection revealed issues with the garage’s structural support. In 2007, the City stepped in, spending $464,000 to install temporary shoring to support the floating garage. (more…)
Confusion existed in the closely held Limited Liability Corporation. In 2005, two tenants from 13 E. 17th Street filed a complaint with the Loft Board, claiming the building’s owner failed to install sprinklers as required and requesting fines. The tenants named Nathan Silverstein as the owner.
In Silverstein’s first letter to the Loft Board, he listed the correct owner as “13 E. 17 LLC,” but all remaining documents, including his formal response to the tenants’ charges, contained only Silverstein’s name. Silverstein then personally appeared at the OATH hearing. (more…)
On March 29, 2023, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced that $38 million in financing has been secured to change an Upper West Side illegal transient hotel into permanent supportive housing. The property, known as the Morningside Inn and located at 235 West 107th Street, was previously operated as an illegal hotel by the owner. The building will now help provide permanent housing through single occupancy units to adults facing chronic homelessness. (more…)
An image of the Idling Complaint portal. The proposed bill would require the portal to be translated into ten additional languages. Image Credit: NYC DEP.
On February 2, 2023, City Council Member Alexa Avilés introduced Int. 898 at the full Council meeting. The bill would require the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to translate its Citizen’s Air Complaint Portal into ten, non-English “designated citywide languages.” (more…)
