Real Estate Interests Really Love Giving Money To Cuomo

Attorney General and likely gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo has been netting huge contributions from major real estate interests — a group that some allege Cuomo's office has been hesitant to prosecute. Over the past three years, Cuomo has bolstered his substantial warchest by $18 million with money from land holders and developers including Stuyvesant Town defaulters Tishman Speyer, Atlantic Yards planner Bruce Ratner, and embattled builder Shaya Boymelgreen. But some say he's been less than responsive when faced with complaints against real estate interests.

According to the Times, the real estate industry has opened its wallets to Cuomo, giving the likely candidate one dollar out of every five that he's brought in during the past six months despite the fact that the real estate market is in shambles. But some property buyers allege that Cuomo's office has ignored complaints about residences that don't live up to builders' promises. In one instance, Cuomo's office refused to get involved in a case over a Prospect Heights building developed by Boymelgreen, who had donated $8,000 to his campaign (Cuomo returned that money after the Times brought it up). "Any suggestion that members of the real estate industry exert improper influence over this office's real estate finance unit is laughable and belied by the facts," said spokesman John Milgrim. "The bureau is staffed with professionals of the highest caliber and integrity, and the bureau itself is a model for other regulators."

In his defense, Cuomo just launched a suit against a Manhattan and Queens landlord accused of harassing hundreds of rent-regulated tenants in an effort to replace them with higher-paying renters. The Times reports that Vantage Properties is accused of regularly filing eviction notices that were really "deceptive and misleading representations" intended to scare away rent-regulated tenants. "Landlords who illegally harass tenants to boost their bottom line do great harm to the fabric of the city," said Cuomo.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Ben Muessig in News on January 29, 2010 4:10 PM

Comments [rss]

marqthompson17

This is a wonderful article. The things given are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.

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marqthompson

mls listings

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

Mr Hud. NO surprise to me.

Think2wice

New York politicians are whores.

The real estate companies are going to run us over with a bulldozer when this patsy get's elected. The corruption, the cronyism, the three-men-in-a-room...nothing will change in Albany.

Chuck Schumer's Fat

This is like telling us that water is wet. I remind you that they don't call it "The Empire State" for nothing.

GalBklyn

Now I know why I lost my escrow. AG gave a half baked rationale for giving my deposit for a flaying development (one brooklyn bridge) back to the developer (Levin) - a developer who refused multiple good faith attempts to re-negotiate based on existing marketing conditions.

We had a feeling something was fishy. Thanks NYTimes for giving me the facts. Andrew C. you not only lost my vote - but I'm going to work very hard to make sure you don't win.

sfgal82

nobody's surprised, they are all crooked. But, shouldn't we expect more from an "Attorney General"? (sorry, forgot about Holder)

The real question is if we all know how corrupt this is, how much it should be illegal, will we vote for him cause he's less lousy than the governor we have now?

Helen Thomas knows the score

whats a laughable is that this is the model for a democracy that we claim to want to spread around the world.

To say theres no correlation between companies giving money to politicians and subsequent corruption from the politicians is h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s.

I sympathize with the soldigers who have kill/fight/die for this crazy idiology.

FunChop

+1

FunChop

Well, according to the SCOTUS decision last week this is totally ok and we should just chill out.

Politicians need all the money they can get!

youngpro

hell yes!

Greenpoint60

They want to end rent stabilization and are betting on Cuomo.

JenChungsBaby

I'm shocked -- SHOCKED -- that the real estate industry is contributing money to the person who's most likely to be the next governor.

OTC

Sounds like Vantage Properties forgot to contribute

Iphie

Nah, we'll know if Vantage forgot to contribute only if Cuomo actually follows through with any concessions or damages that Vantage must pay as the result of any settlement or trial win as the result of this suit. If his office's handling of Pinnacle Management and the agreement that was made with them (with then AG Spitzer) over almost identical charges is any indication, this is a lot of bluster, and he does not give a damn about tenants in this city.

Spitzer forced an agreement with Pinnacle shortly before he left office that required Pinnacle to do an extensive forensic audit to find and cure any improprieties that resulted from Pinnacle's efforts to force legal, regulated tenants out of their apartments and illegally jack up the rent and remove the apartments from rent regulation for the next tenants. The only reason Spitzer (no friend to tenants) actually pursued the case was because the abuses and the criminality was so egregious (and the press coverage so extensive), that he really had no choice.

But try to find any real enforcement or follow-through of that agreement by Cuomo's staff, and you'll find that the staff members who are responsible for overseeing Pinnacle's compliance are completely ignorant about rent regulation, and seemingly unaware of the provisions of the agreement they're supposed to be enforcing. No joke, I had to literally email a pdf of the agreement to the AG's office so that someone there could read it before they called me back to discuss it. A pdf that is available for download from the AG's very own website.

Sorry, Vantage tenants, but Cuomo just doesn't care. Actually, sorry to tenants all over the city -- your legal rights are not being protected by AG Cuomo now, and should he become governor, plan on that situation getting much worse.