Response from Vornado regarding obtaining pieces of the Hotel

This is the quite comical response I got from Barry Langer of Vornado:

Steven,
We have noted your request and when the hotel is eventually demolished we will get back to you.
 
Barry Langer | Vornado Realty Trust
888 Seventh Avenue, 44th Floor, New York, New York 10019 
212.894.7911  |  212.894.7949 F

Email them

If you wish to express your feeling to Vornado personally, and tell them how you feel about the "15 Penn Plaza" office tower (that no one wants).  Feel free to email the President of the New York Office.

David R. Greenbaum (dgreenbaum@vno.com), or if you prefer to go straight to the top and ask the boss himself, contact Steve Roth (sroth@vno.com).

If you would like to send him a letter via snail mail, or perhaps some other gift you can do so by sending it to this address:


Vornado Realty Trust
888 7th Avenue
New York, NY 10106-4498

Be sure to put it to the attention of whomever you are sending it too so we make sure the parcels get to the correct location.

Last ditch effort

Despite meeting with Christine Quinn's office (and getting outnumbered 7 to 1), and meeting with Jessica Lapin's office (and her not even bothering to show up for the final land use and council meeting), despite getting support from Assemblyman Gottfried, and having him make a plea to the NYS assembly.   Despite all of that, we still lost the battle.  But the war is not over, yet.  We still have one last tactic that we can deploy that unfortunately I cannot get into the details of the plan, but I guarantee it will cause enough media attention to get recognized, and with luck get the legal support that we so desperately need.

This project when the time comes will require the support of everyone involved.  More details will follow later but for now, we will be keeping an eye on Vornado and making sure they stick to the rules, and follow through to the promises that they made.

Its over and we lost. :-(

The city council voted this morning, 8 in favor, 2 abstained, 1 absent in favor of the destruction of the hotel.  Vornado has won, we lost.  Read the decision here.  http://bit.ly/aowiRi and here http://bit.ly/aB2WX4

More Tower Blues

Anthony Malkin, the owner of the Empire State building took out a full page add in the New York Times on Monday, about the proposed tower replacing Hotel Pennsylvania. Marklin's ad asked the City Council to amend or reject the 15 Penn Plaza tower proposal. The height of the tower is certainly causing an uproar due to the fact of it "destroying" the Manhattan skyline.

City Council Vote

The City Council meeting is over.  Among some of the speakers were Empire State Building's Anthony Malkin, and Vornado's David Greenbaum.  The vote won't be posted until the council finishes it's deliberations.  As soon as we have more info we will post it.

We have learned the the Council will make its vote on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010.  

Public Meeting for Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchise

I contacted the Land Use Committee and inquired how you can go about speaking at this meeting.  Have your speech ready and sign in to speak when you show up, your name will be called and you will be allowed a finite amount of minutes to talk.  You may speak on behalf of those who cannot show up, but be sure to sign that person’s name when you register as well.  Remember this is the absolute last shot at saving the hotel.  If you want to be heard make sure you or someone representing you shows up on time, and in the right place.


The meeting will be held at:

250 Broadway - Hearing Room, 16th Fl.
New York, NY 10007
Monday August 23, 2010 @ 9:30AM

Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchise

The Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchise has posted the agenda for the meeting on August 23rd.  the link to it can be found at their website listed below:    Remember this may be our only chance to speak out against this.

http://legistar.council.nyc.gov

MBPO accepts donations from Vornado and other REIT's.

The NY Observer reported that Scott Stringer (currently Manhattan Borough President) in his bid for the Mayor’s office has amassed a sum of $655,163 in campaign contributions.  From that, $195,000 came from Vornado, and other Real Estate Companies Executives, their families, and related organizations.  As you know, Vornado currently has a ULURP application, on file with (now) the City Council.

"To name a few donors who maxed out: CB Richard Ellis top broker Steve Siegel; RFR Holdings' Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs; and Sherwood Equities' Jeff Katz." reports Elliot Brown of the NY Observer.


There is a law that dictates the campaign limits by which numerous developers that have projects on file with the city, cannot give more than the limited amount to candidates of $400.  Vornado's Steve Roth, who is in the process of a rezoning of the Hotel Penn, (who also received approval from the MBPO), gave $1,000 to Mr. Stringer on July 2 of this year.  Mr. Roth was able to do this due to a provision in the law that does not require subsidiary LLCs to list the owners of their parent companies.  Because the Hotel Penn is listed as "401 Hotel REIT, LLC", Mr. Roth was able to use this provision to his favor to "donate" more than the allowed amount by normal regulations.  A Vornado spokesman said the donation was a "mistake", and Mr. Stringer's campaign claimed the contribution had been "refunded".

It’s amazing how the politicians of NYC, can be bought so inexpensively.

http://www.observer.com/2010/real-estate/stringer-eye-2013-big-real-estate-money