Friend in highplace
Blasio pal behind ‘illegal’ tower zoning change: suit
A lobbyist tied to the de Blasio administration’s Rivington House scandal helped a Soho developer win approval for a condo tower that will be 100 feet taller than zoning allows, a lawsuit charges.
James Capalino, a longtime supporter of Mayor de Blasio, was paid more than $100,000 to conduct “a lobbying campaign out of the public eye” for developer Murat Agirnasli, according to the suit by a rival developer.
Agirnasli’s SoHo Broome Condos LLC wants to put a 25-story building with 54 luxury apartments and ground-level commercial space on the site of the former Our Lady of Vilnius Church at 568 Broome St.
The project would sit next to — and block the Hudson River views of — a 27-story, rentalapartment building under construction by developer Lou Madigan at 111 Varick St.
Madigan filed the Manhattan Supreme Court suit on behalf of 111 Varick St., alleging that the city Department of Buildings illegally let Agirnasli use a crescent of Port Authority-owned “green space” across from the church site to declare Broome a “wide street” under zoning law.
The move allegedly allowed Agirnasli to raise his project’s height from 185 feet to 287 feet.
Capalino spokesman James Yolles said, “Not only did the DOB issue a lawful determination, but it subsequently concurred with that initial approval in a review. ”
Madigan’s suit seeks DOB records that it says will reveal that the “illegal” allowance was “granted at the behest of a wellconnected lobbyist.”
Capalino’s lobbying firm has been the city’s top earner every year since de Blasio took office.
The firm donated $10,000 to de Blasio’s nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York, and Capalino raised nearly $45,000 for de Blasio’s re-election bid before the mayor last year announced he was no longer meeting with the lobbyist, citing “ongoing investigations” into pay-to-play schemes.
The nonprofit was shut down by de Blasio amid probes by federal and state prosecutors, who ultimately did not file charges.
As part of the probes, officials had looked at the 2015 sale of Rivington House, a Lower East Site property where a deed restriction requiring that it remain a nursing home was lifted by the city.
Capalino’s firm represented the nonprofit that owned Rivington.
DOB spokesman Joseph Soldevere denied any wrongdoing.
“This appears to be a dispute between two developers over views, and they should work it out among themselves,” he said.
The city Board of Standards and Appeals, which is named as a codefendant, declined to comment.