Rudin Luxury Condo Lobbying Expenses

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Bill Rudin and the Rudin Family stand to make hundreds of millions of dollars from the Luxury Condo Conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital, so much so, that spending $500,000 in lobbying alone is no big whoop.

Rudin Management Company, Inc., has declared $576,921 in lobbying expenses to New York City under the "Pay-to-Play" campaign finance reform regulations.

Over the course of the last 4 years, Rudin Management has paid at least $371,246 in declared lobbying expenses to the real estate lawyers and other lobbyists at the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. The Fried Frank real estate lobbyist that was most visible during the Community Board 2 hearings was Melanie Meyers. (Fried Frank is the old law firm, where Sarge Shriver once worked as a name partner ; Fried Frank is now disparaging Mr. Shriver's activist commitment to healthcare under President Lyndon B. Johnson's "War on Poverty.")

Another $205,675 was paid by Rudin Management to the James F. Capalino & Associaties, Inc., lobbying firm. Interestingly, over 75% of the staggering amount paid to Capalino & Associates was for lobbying that targeted Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. On November 25, 2011, President Stringer issued a recommendation in favour of the Rudin Luxury Condo Conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital.

A .pdf report of the Rudin Management Company, Inc., lobbying expenses is available on Scribd :

Bill Rudin - Rudin Family Lobbyists - St Vincents Hospital - NYC Search Results

(All the money that Rudin Management has spent on lobbying does not include what amounts are undeclared lobbying expenses, or how much North Shore-LIJ and Lenox Hill Hospital have spent on lobbying, public relations, or advertising campaigns, to install a first aid clinic in the O'Toole Building.)

Rudin and Quinn Are Laughing All The Way To The Bank

Bill Rudin Gang Laugh at Us ; Meanwhile, We Still Need A Hospital

Activists and community members showed up for the first day in an on-going protest and vigil outside the Rudin Management Company's luxury condominium sales office at 120 West 12th Street, at one of the Manhattan buildings that used to comprise the campus of St. Vincent's Hospital.

In a separate action, started by LGBT civil rights activist Alan Bounville, the community is being asked to take part in a phone zap against Rudin Management Company. Mr. Bounville is asking that everybody contact John Gilbert, the COO of Rudin Management Group by calling 1-212-407-2400 and by e-mailing : jgilbert@rudin.com

"Please join the masses and flood Rudin Management Company's phone and email this week so they are aware of the growing wave of public disgust with them stealing a hospital from the community!" urged Mr. Bounville.

Record your phone calls, upload the sound files, and copy and paste your e-mails and links to the Rudin Phone Zap Facebook event page.

The economics of the Rudin luxury condo conversion plan for St. Vincent's is proving to be a very lucrative real estate development plan. Rudin paid $260 million for the St. Vincent's campus, and it obtained $525 million in construction financing for the project. If you combine these two figures, then the total cost going into the luxury condo conversion is about $785 million. If Rudin sells the luxury condos and townhouses for a combined value of over $1 billion, then it would be very easy for Rudin to net well over $200 million in profit from the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital.

The lure of profit well in excess of $200 million during this Great Recession may be one reason that Rudin has spent easily over $200,000 on hiring the real estate lobbyist Melanie Meyers and made a bundle of approximately $30,000 in donations to the 2013 mayor campaign of Christine Quinn.

The lure of profit well in excess of $200 million during this Great Recession has also triggered a possible fraud probe. Two months ago, The New York Post reported that the Manhattan District Attorney was investigating whether hospital executives intentionally let St. Vincent’s fail, so that the Rudin could buy the hospital’s real estate on the cheap.  

No wonder that William Rudin and City Council Speaker are laughing all the way to the bank, while community members are stuck in crosstown traffic or suffering through long Emergency Room wait times in order to get emergency medical attention.