The carpenters’ union wants the City Council to ramp up construction wage requirements on city-funded projects.
On Thursday, Council member Kevin Riley is expected to reintroduce the Fair Share Act, which would require developers to pay their construction workers prevailing wages at certain projects receiving $1 million or more in city funding.
The requirement would apply to projects that are larger than 50,000 square feet or, if a residential project, have more than 50 units.
Importantly, the threshold for city subsidies applies to discretionary funding, not as-of-right tax breaks like 485x, which already has its own set of construction wage requirements.
Riley introduced this measure last year, securing more than 40 sponsors — a veto-proof supermajority, though it never came to a vote. Kevin Elkins, political director for the carpenters’ union, said the organization was ready to “make a real concerted, strong push to make this bill a law.”
“When city taxpayer money is spent on construction projects, it must create good, family-sustaining jobs—and that is exactly what the Fair Share Act guarantees,” Paul Capurso, president and assistant executive secretary-treasurer of the New York District Council of Carpenters, said in a statement.
The measure has been several years in the making. Former Queens Council member Elizabeth Crowley first proposed a similar bill in April 2015, which did not move forward.
The laborers’ union has been pushing a different construction wage bill, the Construction Justice Act. That bill has a more modest ask, mandating a wage and benefits floor of at least $40 per hour on certain housing projects financed with city subsidies.
During a hearing on that bill in October, officials with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development said the measure would be too costly and potentially discourage developers from working on subsidized projects. The Real Estate Board of New York echoed those concerns, and has also indicated that it views the Fair Share Act as unworkable.
What we’re thinking about: What real estate-related measures are you watching for next year at the state level? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Jamie Lee Curtis is in early talks to portray Jessica Fletcher in a “Murder She Wrote” movie, according to Variety. I have a lot of feelings about this.
Elsewhere in New York…
— The mayor’s former chief advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin is expected to be indicted on Thursday, on bribery charges related to a $100,000 loan provided to her son by two businessmen in exchange for help at the Department of Buildings, the New York Times reports. The loan was reportedly to help her son buy a Porsche. One of the businessmen is hotelier Mayank Dwivedi, according to the Times.
— Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced that 250 more National Guard members will be deployed in the city’s subway system, Pix11 reports. Those members build on the 750 members already sent in March. The governor said the latest members were not added in response to a particular incident but as part of a “continuing a strategy that has proven its success and expanding it to protect even more people.”
— A homeowner in Scotchtown, N.Y., spotted a dinosaur fossil sticking out of his backyard, leading to the discovery of a complete mastodon jaw, NBC New York reports. Researchers from the New York State Museum and SUNY Orange, who were called in when the homeowner realized he’d found also found
Closing Time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Wednesday was $9.7 million for a 3,570-square-foot, sponsor-sale condominium unit at 470 Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side. Alexa Lambert of Compass had the listing.
Commercial: The largest commercial sale of the day was $156.3 million for a 312,000-square-foot warehouse at 280 Richards Street in Red Hook. TRD reported on the sale from Thor to Terreno Realty last month.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $10.5 million for a 2,614-square-foot condominium at 500 West 18th Street in Chelsea. Deborah Kern of The Corcoran Group has the listing. — Matthew Elo