- Frank Carone is selling his Mill Basin mansion for $7M
Mayor Eric Adams' former chief of staff and onetime counsel to the Kings County Democratic Party Frank Carone is giving up his Brooklyn bona fides and settling down in Manhattan with his wife. Carone, a politically connected attorney who served as City Hall chief of staff until stepping down at the end of 2022 to launch his own consulting firm called Oaktree Solutions, is selling his Mill Basin mansion at 2626 National Drive for an asking price of $6.9 million, a source familiar with the family's thinking confirmed to Crain's. The mayor's long-time confidante — who is expected to help run Adams' re-election campaign next year — and his wife Diana first put their home up for sale last year but little traction caused them to remove the listing. They decided to re-list it this spring, when the market is traditionally better, according to the family source and the Real Deal, which first reported on the listing. City records show that the family bought the property for a little over $1 million in 2003, before tearing down what was there and building their current seven-bedroom waterfront abode from the ground up and raising their two children there. Although the decision to move out was a difficult one, the source said, adding that now that the children have moved out, they don't need as much space — the roughly 9,000-square-foot chateau sits on more than 14,000 square feet of land and boasts a bi-level backyard with a saltwater pool, dock access to the bay, a cabana and a wood-burning pizza oven. Inside, the 3-story home features a chef's kitchen, a custom wine cellar and a primary suite with a balcony, according to the listing on Zillow, which names Brooklyn 4U Realty's Anthony Sciortino as the realtor. Once the sale is finalized, the Carones will settle down full-time in their 45 Sutton Place South apartment they bought for $2.2 million in 2021, according to city records — when they're not visiting their daughter in Florida, who is soon to be wed, the source said. The move also makes more sense for Carone's job and political machinations, according to the family source, who said a commute from Mill Basin to Midtown is just "not conducive." Carone re-joined his old Brooklyn-based law firm Abrams Fensterman last year after resigning from his post at City Hall, according to reports, and also teamed up with real estate giant SL Green in its bid to open a casino in Times Square. - Cohen Bros. president fires back against lender in explosive affidavit
Charles Cohen has pushed back hard against the lender seeking millions from him in a blistering affidavit that accuses the firm of manufacturing a loan default to go after him and potentially causing more than $1 billion worth of damages to his properties. International investment firm Fortress Investment Group had agreed to lend entities tied to Cohen's namesake firm Cohen Bros. up to about $534 million in 2022 and sued Cohen over the funds in March, claiming the borrowers had defaulted on the payments in February and that Cohen had personally guaranteed the loan. But Cohen argues in his response that Fortress pulled out of an agreement they made over the funds in bad faith and at the last minute, meaning their entire suit should be dismissed. Cohen and his affiliates reached this agreement with Fortress in December, he said. Under the alleged deal, Fortress would defer payments and extend the loan through the third quarter of 2025, while Cohen would put up 49% of his interest in the Manhattan office building at 3 Park Ave. and the Manhattan design center at 979 Third Ave. as additional collateral. However, Fortress reneged on this agreement "at the 11th hour," telling Cohen on Jan. 30 they would no longer honor it and giving him and his affiliates just 48 hours to pay Fortress about $19.2 million, he claims. This came as a huge shock to Cohen. "All of us believed that we had a deal and there was no indication at all from Fortress between December 14, 2023 and January 30, 2024, that we did not have such a deal," he wrote, adding that the company's behavior "smacks of bad faith." Cohen accuses Fortress of engineering a default so the company could sue him, given his personal guarantee of the loan. He says he "never would have agreed to increase my personal liability in this manner" if not for the agreement they reached in December. Fortress' conduct calls the validity of the February default into question and warrants denying the company's motion for a summary judgment and dismissing their suit, Cohen argues. The real estate executive also accuses Fortress of trying to maximize the harm and financial jeopardy their lawsuit places him in by unnecessarily filing unredacted copies of the loan agreement with it. This agreement includes sensitive information such as bank account numbers, along with what tenants in Cohen Bros. buildings pay in rent and when their leases expire. This allows Cohen's competitors to easily poach its tenants, and brokers have already approached several of them about leaving, Cohen says. This will likely end up causing more than $1 billion in damages across the company's real estate portfolio, Cohen says. Cohen's attorney and a representative for Fortress declined to comment on the case. Cohen serves as president of his namesake real estate firm, and Forbes estimates his net worth at about $3 billion. The company owns several office buildings in Manhattan, many of which are the type of older properties that the pandemic and its aftermath have hit particularly hard. One of the buildings Cohen said he planned to use as collateral in the agreement with Fortress, 3 Park Ave., has been struggling with high vacancies. Its occupancy rate fell to 54% late last year, according to data from Fitch Ratings. - Congestion pricing finally has a start date
New York’s first in the nation congestion pricing tolls will launch on June 30, two sources familiar with the schedule told Crain’s Friday. The long-anticipated launch date marks when most drivers will be charged a $15 daytime toll to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, which is expected to generate billions of dollars for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to improve the region’s mass transit and reduce traffic. Transit officials also on Friday opened an online application portal for motorists to apply for the authority's coveted discounts for low-income drivers, those with disabilities and other limited exemptions. Under state law approved in 2019, congestion pricing is designed to collect $1 billion in annual tolls that the MTA will bond to $15 billion toward infrastructure upgrades for the city’s subway, buses and commuter rails. It will be cheaper for motorists to drive at night. There is a 75% discount on the tolls between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. on weekdays, and 9 p.m. Friday through 5 p.m. Sunday, dropping the toll to $3.75. Drivers traveling into Manhattan through already-tolled crossings — the Holland, Lincoln, Brooklyn-Battery or Queens-Midtown tunnels — will receive a $5 discount, reducing the fee to $10 during the day. During those overnight hours the $5 tunnel credit won’t apply. The credit also does not apply to motorists crossing the George Washington Bridge, which is north of the congestion pricing zone. Commercial trucks will be charged between $24 and $36, depending on their size, to encourage commercial drivers to shift their operations to overnight when the fees are cheaper. For cabbies, the MTA will add a $1.25 surcharge to the fares of yellow and green cabs, while a charge of $2.50 will be added to trips through rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft. Those fees will be passed onto passengers. The $550 million effort by MTA contractor TransCore to install cameras along the perimeter of the congestion pricing zone is all but complete. However, lawsuits filed by New Jersey officials and other detractors hoping to stall or defeat the program are pending. - State office designed to expedite renewable projects is moving too slow: audit
The state office created to speed up the approval of sweeping wind and solar projects is ironically moving too slowly, jeopardizing New York’s renewable energy targets, according to a Thursday audit from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Auditors found that the Office of Renewable Energy Siting, which was created in 2020 to get projects online faster, took an average of three years to approve just 14 projects. Permit applications granted by the office were often delayed due to missing information from applicants that required a lengthy back and forth, the comptroller’s office found. The agency has dozens of upcoming projects in the approval pipeline and the state budget last week expanded the agency’s authority to energy transmission projects, which crucially send power to communities. In short, “without improvements to the process it follows that the chances of more delays increase as ORES workload increases,” the audit states. “New York is rightfully trying to lead the way to a clean energy transition,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “[But] ORES needs to increase transparency around permitting timelines to allow the state to better assess its progress in meeting its renewable energy goals.” New York state is racing to generate 70% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. The audit found that the state agency is meeting its legally-imposed deadlines to coordinate the review process, but that incomplete applications from project developers are largely slowing down the process. ORES executive director Houtan Moaveni said in a response to the audit that the agency is “working steadily at improving both tracking of applications and communication with the applicant community” on project requirements. “It must be understood that the development of major renewable energy facilities is a complex endeavor,” Moaveni wrote. “The materials required to meet application deficiencies are as varied as the projects themselves and applicants have varying levels of experience and adeptness in providing the requisite submissions.” Since its founding, ORES has reduced the time it takes for large-scale renewable energy project approvals from five to four years. Auditors say the agency must be transparent about where delays occur and track applications from the day they are received to the day they are approved so the public can better understand the review process and how it can be improved. The renewable energy siting office has so far issued 15 final permits for projects adding up to 2.3 gigawatts of power. None of the efforts are currently operational. In a separate report published last summer, DiNapoli’s office found that in order for New York to procure 70% of its electricity from renewable resources by 2030, the state must add 20 gigawatts over the next eight years. - Deals of the Day: April 26
Leases Startup moving headquarters to Refinery at Domino Address: 300 Kent Ave., BrooklynLandlord: Two Trees Management Co.Tenant: WhopLease size: 9,554 square feetAsset type: Office Children’s book publisher inks Midtown South lease Address: 381 Park Ave. South, ManhattanLandlord: ATCO Properties & ManagementTenant: Lee & Low BooksLease size: 5,844 square feetLease length: Three yearsAsking rent: $62 per square footAsset type: OfficeBrokers: Colliers’ Robert Tunis, Kyle Berlinsky and Joseph Mangiacotti represented the landlord. Durst lands another 675 Third Ave. tenant Address: 675 Third Ave., ManhattanLandlord: The Durst OrganizationTenant: Treo Asset ManagementLease size: 2,246 square feetAsset type: OfficeBrokers: Prime Manhattan Realty’s Jonathan Anapol and Todd Abrams represented the tenant. Tom Bow, Ashlea Aaron and Bailey Caliban represented the landlord in-house. Sales Developer and Russian food importer swap sites next to large new FedEx center Address: 73 20th St., BrooklynSeller: Bridge IndustrialBuyer: Galina GendelmanSale price: $13.5 millionAsset type: Industrial Address: 60 20th St., BrooklynSeller: Galina GendelmanBuyer: Bridge IndustrialSale price: $11.5 millionAsset type: Industrial Financings Senior housing complex in Two Bridges lands loan Address: 80 Rutgers Slip, ManhattanOwner: Ditashiah KohnLender: Merchants CapitalLoan amount: $29.6 millionAsset type: Apartments Developer finances new building at former health center in Sunset Park Address: 6025 Sixth Ave., BrooklynOwner: Xiao Jun ChenLender: East West BankLoan amount: $10.2 millionAsset type: Mixed use - Editorial: Renewed focus on illegal weed shops is a good — if overdue — step forward
In neighborhoods across the city, retail closures are often a cause for mourning. But a wave of shutdowns expected in the coming months instead merits a round of applause. At long last, state policymakers are moving decisively to facilitate the shutdown of thousands of illegal cannabis shops that have spread across New York City, undercutting the state’s legal weed market and contributing to an air of lawlessness. The state’s new $237 billion budget allows municipalities to seek emergency court orders to shutter the shops and — critically — empowers state and local authorities to seize cannabis and padlock businesses immediately after an inspection if they are found to be selling illicit products or serving minors. The state also plans to go after suppliers who are stocking the illegal shops. And landlords in the city that fail to start eviction proceedings against an illicit shop within five days of being notified could be fined $50,000. Meantime, conscientious landlords have a new tool to evict tenants in violation of the law: They will now only have to prove that a business is “customarily or habitually” engaged in selling cannabis without a license, rather than “solely or primarily” doing so. The policy changes give regulatory and enforcement agencies all the tools they’ve been asking for, so there should be no more excuses. If the state’s Office of Cannabis Management and local authorities including the NYPD follow through, the illicit shops should begin to fall like dominoes. There’s plenty of work to do: While there are about 100 legal cannabis shops open for business across the state, an estimated 2,000 illegal shops have been operating with impunity in New York City alone. “The illegal shops will not disappear overnight,” Gov. Kathy Hochul cautioned at a press conference with Mayor Eric Adams, who had pushed for the crackdown alongside his Albany ally, Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar. “But New Yorkers eventually will see a change in their communities.” The communities have been waiting long enough; it’s not a big ask to expect government agencies to have planned ahead and put in place common-sense regulation and enforcement mechanisms in advance of legalizing recreational marijuana. The best time to have shut down the illegal shops was the moment they started popping up. The second best time is now. - Top 9 new places to eat, drink and party in the Hamptons this summer
The Hamptons summer season is looking as busy as ever. Open houses for new listings have been packed , and the rental market is robust, so don’t expect Long Island Expressway traffic to subside anytime soon. Meanwhile, it’s still business as usual at East Hampton Town Airport, despite efforts to restrict small plane traffic, and Blade still promises to get you there from Manhattan via helicopter in under an hour. As Memorial Day looms, visitors are already plotting their dining and nightlife reservations. One positive trend for locals and tourists who are looking outside the traditional summer window: Many of the new South Fork restaurants won’t just be seasonal engagements. Places like the buzzy bakery Carissa’s in East Hampton have shown they can stay busy even after the beach crowds depart, and a handful of soon-to-debut options will serve the local community year-round. Billy Durney, chef and owner of Brooklyn’s celebrated Hometown BBQ, is one of the operators who’ll be feeding diners year-round when his Sag Harbor Tavern opens. He took over last summer’s short-lived Sag Harbor Kitchen to debut an extension of his popular throwback spot Red Hook Tavern, with his famed dry-aged cheeseburger in tow. Meanwhile, Joe Isidori, founder of Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beers — the chain known for its oversized novelty candy-encrusted ice cream shakes — will launch an outpost of his Arthur & Sons in Bridgehampton. And in May the Montauk Yacht Club emerges from its multimillion-dollar renovation with an expansive new waterside restaurant, Ocean Club Montauk. The summer dining calendar will also be graced with pop-ups from notable New York chefs. Cedric Vongerichten, son of famed French chef Jean-Georges, is bringing his big-flavor Indonesian restaurants Wayan and Ma•dé to the home of Buttero, a cute little cottage by the East Hampton train station. And farther east in Montauk, the French incubator concept Fulgurances will host a series of dinners led by chefs such as Mads Refslund of the thrilling new Ilis. Read on for the top South Fork restaurants and drinks-fueled spots you need to know before summer officially starts. Restaurants and Nightlife Sag Harbor Tavern, Sag Harbor Sag Harbor will be home to the Hamptons most talked-about burger when Durney opens an outpost of his classic American spot Red Hook Tavern, complete with its signature, luscious American-cheese-topped patty and its deep vintage wine collection. The tavern, at 26 Bay St. in the former American Legion building, will have 40 seats inside and around 60 outside. There will be an expanded seafood selection, with new raw dishes and wood-fired cooking such as a grilled branzino. To start, the tavern will offer around 150 wines, ranging from bottles from the tiny, women-run Inconnu in California to Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, a revered Burgundy. For decor, Durney says the restaurant will look similar to the Red Hook original, with a turn-of-the-century aesthetic, 1920s-era lighting and floral wallpaper that pays tribute to his grandmother Veronica Sullivan. (As a nurse during World War II, she was honored at the American Legion Hall in Brooklyn, the borough where Durney grew up.) Slated to open: Mid to late May; More information Village Bistro, East Hampton In more Hampton burger news: A raclette cheeseburger will be featured on the menu at the unfussy French restaurant Village Bistro. It’s taking over the longstanding, cozy East Hampton Village space that previously housed Rowdy Hall, which relocated to Amagansett last November. New owners, real estate developer Adam Potter and local hospitality firm NSN Hospitality, are giving the place a bistro look characterized by a taupe, teal and salmon color scheme and anchoring the space with a 12-seat copper bar. Also on the menu: classics like duck confit salad and poached pear. Slated to open: May 10; More information Arthur & Sons, Bridgehampton Isidori is bringing his 1990s-era West Village Italian-American red sauce joint Arthur & Sons Out East. The place, at 203 Bridgehampton Sag Harbor Tpk., will have a 70-seat dining room, a patio and spacious 15-seat bar — and, says Isidori, an “old school-new school vibe.” In Bridgehampton, he’ll lean into seasonality and serve plates like lobster pomodoro over the tube-shaped pasta paccheri as well as a burrata Caprese salad with local tomatoes. The menu will also include staples such as Isidori’s mom’s beef and Italian sausage meatballs with ricotta. The space features wall-to-ceiling honeyed wood paneling, along with red, green and yellow Tiffany lights and Rat Pack era art, giving the place a rustic feel. Grab a patio seat and try a pasta alongside a limoncello spritz. Slated to open: May 23; More information Il Pellicano and Bijoux, Southampton Nightlife impresario Kyky Conille (founder of the Meatpacking District’s now shuttered Provocateur) is taking the party to the former Blu Mar space at 136 Main St. in Southampton, expanding his Il Pellicano and Bijoux — the Little Italy Italian restaurant and 1920s Paris-inspired lounge opened in January — with a year-round restaurant and club. Celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito is designing the new Italian seafood-forward menu, which will be served in a clean space defined by forest green banquettes and gold accents. The menu will range from ubiquitous seafood towers to garlic and white-wine-braised shrimp and spring vegetable pasta. At the adjacent Bijoux club, patrons will have the option to order bottle service or à la carte cocktails including a spritzy and tropical-tasting elixir with lemongrass-infused Campari, fresh strawberries and Champagne until 4 a.m. Slated to open: May 23 Montauk Beach House Bar & Grill, Montauk When the Montauk Beach House team decided to replace last year’s pizza and tacos menu, they turned to Yanni Papagianni, director of operations, who grew up in Cyprus. The popular and perpetually packed beach bar and grill is going Greek, with options such as a lamb burger with goat’s milk feta and cumin aioli alongside other Mediterranean staples like grilled beef kebab with pita and a pickled fennel and fresh-dill-accented Greek salad. The kitchen — which is open from breakfast through dinner — is overseen by Molyvos alum Andres Zeron. Menu items will be served on the property’s lawn along with produce-infused drinks from Nikola Jablanovic, formerly of the Surf Lodge — try the Melon Picante, made with ghost pepper tequila and watermelon juice. Slated to open: May 16; More information Ocean Club Montauk at Montauk Yacht Club, Montauk Proper Hospitality — the developers behind chic West Coast hotels like Proper Santa Monica — makes its East Coast debut with a revamp of the Montauk Yacht Club, which opened in 1928 as a private social club. The property’s estimated $13 million facelift includes a 4,500-square-foot restaurant, Ocean Club Montauk, that’s an extension of chef Jarad McCarroll’s Caribbean-based upscale American spot, Ocean Club St Barths. The vast space has wraparound water views with three dining rooms that offer seating both indoors and out. On the menu: red snapper tartare as well as five-hour charcoal and wood roasted beef accented with smoked beetroot ketchup. Prime seats include the U-shaped, six-seat chef’s table, where McCarroll preps his dishes in front of guests. To drink, there’s Italian rosato or the Sunset Sour, the bar team’s take on a negroni with Campari, gin, sweet vermouth, passionfruit and egg white. Slated to open: Early June; More information Pop-ups Wayan + Ma•dé x Buttero, East Hampton As a follow-up to last summer’s two-week residency in Amagansett, husband-and-wife team Cedric and Ochi Vongerichten are staging a full-scale takeover in East Hampton, just a few minutes walk from the train station. They’re bringing their Nolita Indonesian restaurants Wayan and Ma•dé to Buttero from May 24 through Sept. 2. The best seats will be those on the patio, where guests can sample a gin-spiked Calamansi Fizz alongside local heirloom tomatoes with samba oelek vinaigrette, ginger turmeric-dressed fluke sashimi as well as Wayan’s signature wavy wheat noodles with lobster in a creamy black-pepper-flecked sauce. Fulgurances, Montauk Fulgurances, in collaboration with sustainable seafood wholesaler Dock to Dish, is branching out to Montauk. The Parisian chef incubator, that runs the Laundromat space in Brooklyn, has taken over an outdoor space at Inlet Seafood Restaurant with four dinners planned from July 1 to Aug. 26. The lineup includes Nicholas Tamburo (Claud), Victoria Blamey (Blanca), Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson (Frenchette), and Mads Refslund (Ilis). Each chef will highlight the area’s stellar local seafood, cooked over open-fire. The $250 to $280 six-course meals will include a wine pairing. Fulgurances will announce the specific dates on social media during the first week of May. More information Rosewood Mayakoba at Topping Rose House, Bridgehampton Zapote Bar, the drinking spot inside the luxe hotel Rosewood Mayakoba in Riviera Maya, Mexico, that ranked No. 11 on the World’s 50 Best Bars North America list, will pop up on July 12-13 at boutique hotel Topping Rose House. Joshua Monaghan, bar director at Zapote, is planning to serve cocktails off his newly launched “Call of the Wild” menu inspired by the Yucatan Peninsula’s Mayan heritage and landscape. Alongside drinks like Mono (a mix of tequila, sour orange liquor, kiwi, guava, green apple and dehydrated lime bitters), guests can sample some of the property’s signature plates including sweet-and-spicy catch-of-the-day ceviche with jicama and orange as well as melty Oaxaca cheese shrimp tacos with habanero mayo. More information - Norman Reedus and Diane Kruger find a taker for their Village home after 2 years
Norman Reedus and Diane Kruger finally sell their Village townhouse after 2 years - Former Bronx motel to reemerge as an elementary school
A onetime "hot sheet" motel turned migrant shelter in the Bronx will soon start a new chapter as an educational facility after a city agency scooped up the Riverdale parcel for just above $9 million. The New York City School Construction Authority — an entity separate from the Department of Education that manages the design, construction and renovation of school facilities in the five boroughs — purchased the commercial lot at 6393 Broadway from the Loewy family for $9.2 million, according to a deed that appeared in the city register this week. The size of the lot was not immediately known. For years what was called the Van Cortlandt Motel at the corner of West 256th Street was patronized by sex workers before it was used as a homeless shelter and then to house migrants seeking asylum in the U.S., according to local Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who said that migrants are no longer staying there and have been moved elsewhere. Dinowitz told Crain's that the site, which also includes the parcel at 6389 Broadway and sits across from the sprawling Van Cortlandt Park, has long been an eyesore and will do well as a center for education, especially in a neighborhood that's struggling for classroom capacity. "Having a school there will be a huge improvement," he said. The former owner of the property, Jeffrey Loewy, told Crain's that he had purchased it in the mid-1950s, though he doesn't remember how much he paid, and that the motel was operated by a private group before being used by the city as a shelter. Several decades later, it was finally time to sell it, he said. The authority plans to demolish the two vacant buildings currently occupying the roughly 32,675-square-foot commercial lot to make way for the new pre-kindergarten-through-fifth-grade primary school, which will add about 23 classrooms and 547 seats to the district, as part of the city's capital plan to bring 15 new school buildings and 7,000 seats to the borough. Available real estate is hard to come by in the city, according to the authority, which must seek out sites that check off certain general requirements, such as having at least 25,000 square feet of land. The future school building is scheduled to include two special education classrooms; reading, speech, music and art rooms; as well as a cafeteria, library and gym. Plans for the site also include an 11,800-square-foot play area, according to authority spokesman Kevin Ortiz. Ortiz could not provide a cost estimate for construction of the new classrooms, as the authority has just begun its design process, but said it has an anticipated opening date of September 2028. - At a Glance: April 26
NEW CLINIC: The executive board of New York City Health + Hospitals voted Thursday to execute a $30 million contract with Gilbane Building Company to build a new Gotham Health community clinic in Far Rockaway. According to Dr. Theodore Long, H+H’s senior vice president of ambulatory care, the neighborhood needs more medical resources to treat chronic diseases and mental health concerns, and the clinic would fill a void in the community. The clinic, which will be located across from the Beach 36th Street subway station, will offer adult and pediatric primary care, obstetrics and gynecology and behavioral health services. Gilbane is based in the Financial District and won the contract based on its experience constructing similar health care facilities in projects worth more than $15 million. MENTAL HEALTH IN PRISON: About 20% of people incarcerated in the city’s jails and prisons in March had a serious mental illness, according to the latest Department of Correction data released by Comptroller Brad Lander Thursday. The statistic has stayed flat for four months in a row. About 11,000 incarcerated individuals missed medical appointments in February due to court appointments or refusing to go, the data also shows, a slight drop from January.
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