Secret land city deal a whopper

Subject: Bloomberg gives Doctoroff pal West Side Windfall
Date: 1/25/2005 3:53:11 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: kitchen@hellskitchen.net
Sent from the Internet (Details)


Secret land city deal a whopper
Daily News
by Juan Gonzalez
January 26, 2005

When the City Council approved the massive Hudson Yards development project
last week, it gave the Bloomberg administration permission to condemn and
acquire several parcels of land on Manhattan's far West Side.

One of those parcels is a city-owned block along 42nd St.'s Theater Row,
between Dyer and 10th Aves. The buildings there would be torn down to
facilitate construction of the No. 7 line subway extension and eventually a
new station on the site.

But the Council was never told the city had no intention of condemning the
site.

The city had quietly decided last fall to sell it to one of this town's
biggest real estate developers, Stephen Ross, for the price of a song:
$100,000.

If it sounds like a sweet deal, Ross must have thought so: He and his
partners, TRM Associates, paid $107 million for the lease rights to the
property, and sources say they plan to build a 60-story building there.

Ross, chief executive of the The Related Companies, is a close friend and
former business partner of Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff.

He bought the site's lease in early November in a federal bankruptcy court
settlement from the partnership that controlled the block for 25 years.

Among the small buildings on the block are the former West Side Airlines
terminal and two off-Broadway theaters, neither of which produces much
rental income.

But the block's real value is its development potential, thanks to the
city's decision to build a new subway station that will have four
escalators and two elevators emptying into it.

On the surface, it smacks of a back-room agreement.

The city issued no press releases on its deal with Ross, and the settlement
papers weren't filed with the city Finance Department until Jan. 18 - the
night before the Council's vote.

Bloomberg aides said last week that the lease sale was a private
transaction, and that City Hall had no favorites.

But according to documents in the bankruptcy case, the Ross group won City
Hall's support as far back as July.

At the time, several developers were feverishly bidding to win control of
the site.

Theater Row Phase II Associates held the site's lease but was in bankruptcy
and owed the city nearly $14.5 million - making City Hall's approval a
necessity.

The Theater Row group, headed by William Condren, had bought the site's
lease in 1980 for just $450,000.

After the sale, the Condren group paid the city $9.5 million to settle its
debt, and walked away with a profit of nearly $100 million.

One of the developers who competed with Ross for the lease was Robert
Gladstone of Madison Equities LLC. His lawyers have charged in court papers
that the negotiating process was unfairly skewed in favor of the Ross group.

Madison Equities points to an unpublicized July 22 agreement among the
city, Condren and one of the partners in the Ross group, in which the city
agreed to back the Ross partnership.

"There was never really a conversation between our side and the city," a
Madison Equities source said last week.

David Burger, Condren's attorney, scoffed at the claim and said Gladstone
is a sore loser.

As for Bloomberg officials, they insist their only concern from the start
was for Condren to pay his debts. They added that the Ross group was the
only suitor to agree to provide the city all the easements it needed to
build the subway and the new station underneath the site.

"It not only cleared up a longstanding dispute, but it provided the city
with money it was owed," said Michael Sherman, spokesman for the city's
Economic Development Corp., and "will allow the No. 7 subway extension to
be completed."

But at the Council, all were shocked to learn about the secret sale of a
property it had just approved for condemnation.

"It's very surprising," said Councilwoman Christine Quinn, who took part in
marathon talks with City Hall over the Hudson Yards plan. "When you don't
make complete disclosures, for any reason, it raises questions."

Ross recently built the giant Time Warner headquarters at Columbus Circle.
His side wouldn't confirm plans to build a 60-story skyscraper.

Jeff Blau, Ross' second in command, would say only that it will be a "mixed
use" commercial and residential structure.

Given the close relationship between Doctoroff, the city's economic
development czar, and Ross, it's natural to ask if the deputy mayor had
anything to do with the transaction.

Doctoroff, once a co-owner of the New York Islanders with Ross, did not
return calls for comment.

"Neither Doctoroff nor the mayor had anything to do with this," said one
city official involved in the deal. "[Doctoroff] is recused from any
decisions involving Ross.

"It was a team decision," the official said.