‘THE LAST CHOICE’ FOR JOB
But contractor may get city’s OK for controversial Union Sq. project
A contracting company with a checkered past is slated to do demolition work on a controversial new Union Square project that neighborhood groups fought to stop, public records show.
Breeze National, which has come under fire for alleged mob ties and a spotty safety record, filed a permit application to perform a “full demolition” at 114 E. 14th St. last month, city Buildings Department records show.
The move has critics in an uproar.
“This company should be the last choice for doing this kind of work,” said Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. “The demolition is going to be done by a company with a completely shady and scary track record.”
Berman expressed concern that the work could “potentially endanger people around the site.”
A 22-story tech hub is set to rise at the city-owned site as part of a deal in which the city granted a 99-year, $2.3 million annual lease to RAL Development. The building being demolished was home to a P.C. Richard & Son appliance store that closed a year ago.
The new building, expected to open next year, will include a digital skills training center, market-rate office space for established tech companies and affordable offices for startups along with retail space, according to the website CityRealty.com.
Nonprofit Civic Hall plans to run a training program for thousands of job hunters from underserved communities.
“People are worried that this tech hub is going to be a purely commercial development,” local City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera (inset opposite page) told reporters last week, according to Town & Village, a community newspaper. “It’s going to be important to look at how we can incentivize affordable housing.”
But the deal — and Rivera’s blessing of it — has drawn broad condemnation from groups like Berman’s that contend it’s a giveaway to a developer that donated generously to Mayor de Blasio’s campaign fund and his now-
defunct nonprofit Campaign for One New York.
RAL alone gave the Campaign for One New York at least $10,000 in 2015. Its head, Robert Levine, kicked the mayor’s 2017 reelection campaign $400. And Andrew Rasiej, the CEO of Civic Hall, a key partner in the project, donated $4,950, just under the maximum contribution allowable under law for an individual.
Breeze’s affiliate Breeze Carting was singled out by the city Business Integrity Commission in 2006 when the agency denied the company a trash-hauling license because it found it lied on its application. At the time, Toby Romano Sr. served as the head of both Breeze National and Breeze Carting — with his wife, son and daughter each holding a 20% stake in the carting business, according to commission records.
The following year, the commission denied Breeze Carting another application because Romano Sr. refused to accept a monitor after he was identified as a Luchese crime family associate. The commission also noted that he had been “convicted of federal felonies consisting of making or promising illegal payoffs to (a federal Environmental Protection Agency) asbestos inspector.”
Despite the setbacks, Breeze National has done well for itself over the years — it was paid $3.9 million for Ground Zero cleanup work and raked in $17 million for the demolition of Shea Stadium. In 2012, one of its workers died during a demolition accident in Harlem, but that didn’t stop the city from hiring the company to tear down an abandoned Brooklyn NYCHA complex in 2013 for $5.8 million. The following year, a contractor accused Breeze of leaving contamination at an Upper East Side school. The school entered into a confidential settlement with Breeze and the other contractor last year.
The company has been forced into settling several federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations over the past three years, including fines for “lead, inorganic fumes and dusts,” agency inspection records show.
Breeze’s current president, Toby Romano Jr., acknowledged the violations but said for a company that’s handled 5,000 jobs since its inception, Breeze has a stellar record.
He pointed to its 81 experience modification rate — an industry standard for safety. According to the Safety Management Group, a workplace consulting company, the lower the rate the better, with a one rating considered the industry average.
Romano Jr. also noted after his father handed control of the company over to him in 2010, he accepted a monitor and has had an unblemished record since. “All I want to do is go to work and do a good job,” he said. “All this stuff is old news. It is not who Breeze is. I worked very hard for that.”
The Buildings Department has not approved the permit application yet but the number of violations Breeze received over the past year — 13 — is not unusual for a firm its size.
“To protect the public, prior to the start of any demolition work, [the Buildings Department] will scrutinize the demolition plans and senior inspectors will perform detailed inspections of the site to ensure that the work can be completed safely,” said department spokesman Joseph Soldevere. “We will also monitor the job for safety compliance once the work begins.”