Lease Beat

Governor’s Office Renews at 633 Third Avenue

By Gus Delaporte 8/07/13 3:00pm

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Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office negotiated a 10-year renewal for its 39,254-square-foot space on the 38th and 39th floors at Time Equities’ 633 Third Avenue. Starting rent was in the low-$60s per square foot, according to CompStak data.

A simultaneous 10-year lease renewal signed by Empire State Development stands to save the agency $2.5 million. In the 104,200-square-foot deal for floors 33 to 37, Empire State Development will pay rents in the low-$60s per square foot, according to data from CompStak, down from rent in the mid-$80s per square foot. Read More

Lease Beat

Empire State Development to Save Millions in Lease Renewal

By Gus Delaporte 8/06/13 7:30am

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A 10-year lease renewal signed by Empire State Development at Time Equities’ 633 Third Avenue stands to save the agency $2.5 million. The 104,200-square-foot deal for floors 33 to 37 will see Empire State Development pay rents in the low-$60s per square foot, according to data from CompStak, down from rent in the mid-$80s per square foot.

The reduction in rent of approximately $24 per square foot will reduce Empire State Development’s yearly rent to $6.5 million through June 2016 from the previous annual rent of nearly $9 million, according to notes from an April directors meeting. Rents will increase to $68.50 per square foot, or just over $7 million per year, from July 2020 until the termination of the lease, but still represent considerable cost savings for the urban development corporation. Read More

World Trade Center

Will 9/11 Museum Deal Lead to Land Sale?

By Daniel Edward Rosen 9/12/12 4:51pm

Museum Pavilion Flag_Rendering Squared Design Lab_0

Otherwise known as “Site 5″, the land, where the Deutsche Bank building once stood, could be sold for upwards of $200 million. In the new accord the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation must honor a 2006 agreement by handing over Site 5 to the Port Authority, in exchange for the title to the 8 acres the museum and memorial take up on the World Trade Center site, Reuters reports. Read More

Racinos and Casinos

Aqueduct Racino Pays Out Most Winnings in NY State

By Daniel Edward Rosen 7/09/12 12:30pm

Photo from www.aqueductblog.com

Aqueduct Resorts World, the Queens racino owned by Genting Malaysia, has been New York State’s biggest tax-revenue producer while also doling out the most winnings among the nine racinos in the state, The NY Post reports.

The racino paid out $3 billion to the users of its video lottery terminals (VLTs) of the $3.178 billion in wagers it collected between April through the middle of June, according to financial reports filed with the state Lottery Division.

Aqueduct Resorts World pocketed the leftover $178 million, with nearly 60 percent of that revenue going back to the state.  Read More

Casino Gambling in the Empire State

Place Your Bets: Real Estate and Gaming Companies Jockey for Position

By Daniel Edward Rosen 6/26/12 1:00pm

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo introduce

One would assume that owning two racinos would result in handsome profits for Jeffrey Gural.
Yet despite reports that the racino at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens made $57.5 million in May, outpacing Mohegan Sun as the country’s top slot-machine moneymaker, the Newmark Grubb Knight Frank chairman’s investment in Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs has not been so lucrative, in part because of unfavorable locations and a high tax rate.

“One problem I have is one racino is five miles away from an Indian casino that has table games—that was a terrible decision,” Mr. Gural said late last week. “My other racino is in Tioga County in a town of 1,000 people. Obviously, if you have a great location like Aqueduct and Yonkers, you’d make a lot of money. But the bulk of the money is going into state taxes.” Read More

Casinos, Schmasinos

Marty Markowitz Wants Coney Island Casino

By Daniel Edward Rosen 6/12/12 12:17pm

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With New York Governor Andrew Cuomo fixin’ to legalize gambling in the Empire State, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said that Coney Island, “America’s Playground,” should be considered as one of the seven non-Indian casino sites throughout the state.

In an op-ed in today’s New York Daily News, Mr. Markowitz said that building a casino in Coney Island “fits the bill in every way imaginable.” Read More

Governor Andrew Cuomo

Committee With Ties to Cuomo Gets $2 million from Gambling Association

By Daniel Edward Rosen 6/05/12 11:59am

Gov. Andrew "Moneymaker" Cuomo

A committee comprised of influential and powerful members from the real estate world that is closely aligned with Governor Andrew Cuomo received a $2 million contribution from The New York Gaming Association, a lobbying group with ties to Genting Bhd. and other gambling interests, according to published reports.

The donation to The Committee to Save New York was made last December, weeks before Gov. Cuomo had argued for legalizing gambling in New York state. It was also made before Gov. Cuomo announced an agreement had been made between the state and Genting to develop a $4 billion “racino” at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. Read More

Cuomo

All the Governor’s Men [and Women]

By Daniel Edward Rosen 5/15/12 8:30am

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A select group of supporters of Governor Andrew Cuomo, 20 in number, raised around $17 million to help support the Governor’s agenda, as was first reported by The New York Times Sunday.

The group, called the Committee to Save New York, provided money to help support Governor Cuomo’s first 18 months in office, even funding a pro-Cuomo media campaign to help counter a barrage of anti-Cuomo advertisements funded by labor unions. Read More

MTA

MTA to Developers: Thou Shalt Build

By Daniel Edward Rosen 3/29/12 11:32am

The MTA to its Flock (figuratively speaking)

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has seven plots of land across 4 boroughs for developers to ply their wondrous trades on, and the agency is fielding RFPs from the biggest and the boldest in an attempt to bump up revenue while scaling back overhead, the city agency announced yesterday.  Read More