Business

Javits boat show bully

Political eddies involving Gov. Cuomo’s top aide Howard Glaser (above) are swirling over the rescheduling of the New York Boat Show.

Political eddies involving Gov. Cuomo’s top aide Howard Glaser (above) are swirling over the rescheduling of the New York Boat Show. (Kristy Leibowitz)

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s powerful statewide operations chief, Howard Glaser, personally intervened to persuade Javits Convention Center officials to reschedule the New York Boat Show, sources told Realty Check.

That’s in spite of the Javits Center’s top brass publicly declaring they were totally on board with the move, which Cuomo claimed would “give a shot in the arm” to the state’s boating industry, reeling after Hurricane Sandy.

Javits Center Chairman Henry R. Silverman and CEO/President Alan Steel strongly supported the move to give the Boat Show better January dates than it’s had in recent years, and add a September show — outraging longtime exhibitors knocked out of their usual slots.

But insiders said Glaser and other Cuomo aides convinced the Javits honchos to bless the changes over their objections. Cuomo appoints Javits Center board members.

In an announcement last week, Cuomo hailed the “expansion” of the Boat Show produced by the National Marine Manufacturers Assn. (NMMA).

It will be moved to mid-to-late January from its current early January slot in 2015, and a second boat exhibition will be added in September for the first time starting in 2014.

But the switch infuriated other Javits Center trade exhibitors who’ve put on their shows in late January and in September in recent years.

Two major organizations are demanding that Cuomo and the Center reverse the “unprecedented” decision, which will knock five longtime exhibitors out of their slots — the NY International Gift Fair (now called NY NOW), Business Journal’s MRket Show, Texworld, the National Retail Federation and the Action Sportswear and Street Wear Show.

Both the Major American Trade Show Organizers and Friends of Javits want Cuomo to “postpone all contract discussions” with NMMA for the time being..

Friends of Javits’ lawyer Randy Mastro says the group will “explore all legal options” to reverse the “irrational” decision.

He said, “The Javits Center has a scoring system for booking shows based on, among other things, the number of hotel rooms taken. That was totally ignored to make room for the Boat Show.

“Resolution 544 of the Javits Center Board states that [booking] decisions should be made on the basis of economic return,” Mastro said — including tax revenue and the volume of business that shows bring to hotels, restaurants, tourism-related businesses and to the Javits Center itself.

“Where is the study which shows it makes any economic sense to expand the Boat Show, which has had declining attendance for years?”

George Fertitta, CEO of the city’s tourism promotion organ NYC & Co., has warned that the Javits shakeup “could cost the city tens of millions of dollars.” Cuomo said his staff will meet with angry exhibitors this week.

Glaser is a longtime Cuomo friend and trusted lieutenant. Albany-watchers’ eyebrows were raised in May when The Post’s Fredric U. Dicker reported that his wife, Karen Hinton, had been hired as a managing director by aggressive lobbying and public relations firm Mercury Public Affairs.

One business lobbyist told Dicker it “was an obvious attempt by Mercury to gain even more influence with the Cuomo administration, just what the governor said he would stop.” Mercury is not involved with Javits or the NMMA.

A rep for Cuomo declined to comment. The Javits Center’s press office didn’t get back to us.

***

Dragados USA, the American unit of Spain’s engineering and construction giant Grupo ACS, is moving its local headquarters from 500 Fifth Ave. and consolidating at SL Green’s 810 Seventh Ave. The firm signed a lease for 22,437 square feet on the tower’s ninth floor.

The Dragados lease was negotiated by Murray Hill Properties’ Marc S. Miller for the tenant and Cushman & Wakefield’s Barry Zeller for the landlord. The asking rent was $65 a square foot.

***

Epsilon Data Management has leased 34,792 square feet, the entire 15th floor, at Jack Resnick & Sons’ One Seaport Plaza. The firm will move from 11 W. 19th St. The deal brings the address to 100 percent occupancy. Asking rents have been in the high $40s.

Cassidy Turley’s Steven Bellwood and John Boyle repped Epsilon. Cushman & Wakefield’s John Cefaly, Robert Constable and Andrew Peretz acted for the landlord with Brett Greenberg and Dennis Brady in-house.

***

Kaye Scholer is already growing at Boston Properties’ 250 W. 55th St., the nearly completed tower where it signed for 250,000 square feet last year. The law firm just took 13,795 more feet. The asking rent was $80 a square foot.

The tenant was repped by CBRE’s Craig Reicher, Tim Dempsey and Ramneek Rikhy; Boston was repped by CBRE’s John Powers, Peter Turchin and Christie Harle.

Kaye Scholer will move next year from 425 Park Ave., which is being emptied to prepare for a redesign by Sir Norman Foster.