Blas law firm reps developer eyeing city deal
The law firm that helped Mayor de Blasio avoid corruption charges — costing taxpayers $2.6 million — is now representing a developer that wants city permission to build an extra-tall luxury apartment tower on the Upper East Side, The Post has learned.
Lawyers from Kramer Levin are set to appear before the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) next week for an exemption from new zoning laws that would limit the skyscraper’s height.
The situation has outraged members of the East River 50s Alliance, a community group that opposes “mega-towers” looming over their neighborhood.
“It is beyond belief that board members appointed by the mayor are considering an application made by a law firm, Kramer Levin, to whom the mayor owes millions of dollars in unpaid legal fees,” Alliance lawyer Michael Hiller said.
“When one side to a dispute has the ability to control the decision- makers, it creates the appearance of significant impropriety.”
De Blasio initially pledged that he would pay for his own defense during the “pay to play” and campaign-finance corruption probes that ended without charges last year.
But he later reversed course, saying the city should foot the bill, “as it would for any of its employees in a similar situation.”
In addition to its allegations regarding Kramer Levin, the alli- ance is demanding that BSA Commissioner Nasr Sheta recuse himself from voting on the 3 Sutton Place proposal.
Hiller cited Sheta’s former job as a project manager for the Bauhouse Group, which owned the site until it went bankrupt in 2016.
The new owner, Gamma Real Estate, has already begun work on what it hopes will be an 850-foottall, 64-story tower housing 389 swank apartments.
Without a variance from the BSA, new zoning laws enacted Nov. 30 by the City Council will limit the project to just 400 feet.
A de Blasio spokeswoman said: “While the Board of Standards and Appeals is an independent body, the mayor has been clear and public in his opposition to this project.”
Kramer Levin lawyer James Power, Sheta and BSA Executive Director Carlo Costanza all declined to comment.