The Financial District asset converted to commercial condos last year, and RVM’s purchase was one of the first to close, said Eric Cagner, of Newmark Knight Frank, who represented the buyer with Newmark colleague David Falk.

40 Rector Street (Courtesy Property Shark).

As an early buyer, RVM Enterprises was able to get a “very attractive purchase price relative to the market,” for the 17^th floor office, Mr. Cagner said.

RVM moves from 80 Pine Street, where they were located in a 13,000-square-foot space.

“We were attracted to the light on four sides and the efficient floor plate,” said Mr. Cagner.

The arrangement also allows RVM to consolidate all their operations to one floor. Asking rents in the building are now up to $300 per square foot, said Mr. Cagner.

As of last June more than 49% of tenants in the building were New York City agencies, according to Crain’s.

The building’ sponsor, Philips International, was represented by a Newmark Knight Frank team of Scott Klau, Erik Harris, Aaron Maltz and Hal Stein.

It's a party of three!

Add another RSVP to the great guest list of life -- a newly minted nightlife power couple will soon be a family of three.

Party blog doyenne Rachelle Hruska and her new husband, hotelier Sean MacPherson, are welcoming a new member this December, Ms. Hruska confirmed to The Observer.

"We’re very excited!" she said over the phone. "We’re going to have a new Guest of a Guest baby."

The future mother and her husband, the impresario responsible for The Jane Hotel and a swath of other hotspots in Meatpacking and Chelsea, were married on Montauk earlier this summer.

The baby will come just after Ms. Hruska and her company launch Guest of a Guest Global, a new venture that will expand the site's coverage and purview to other continents.

"We’re gonna start covering people and parties in places around the world –- Cannes, Art Basel Switzerland, Paris Fashion Week, and the Oscars," she said.

The expansion will go live sometime this Fall.

To celebrate, Guest of a Guest is throwing a bash this Wednesday at the Cabanas at the Maritime Hotel, the venue Mr. MacPherson famously refurbished in the early 00s. And if you can't make it, we're pretty sure a certain website will have the complete coverage the following morning.

Diamond is a senior vice-president at Realty Capital International, a real estate investment banking firm, and a former vice-president at Bear Stearns. Prior to his career in finance, he served in the U.S. Navy and was the Navy's legislative liasion to the House of Representatives. A Truman Security Fellow, he also serves as vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee's Veterans and Military Families Council.

According to a Times story about his 2004 wedding, Diamond's mother served as the district director to former Staten Island Republican Congressman Vito Fossella.

Grimm was a political novice when he eked out a win 2010 against one-term Democrat Mike McMahon. The district covers parts of Brooklyn and all of Staten Island, and has voted heavily Republican in presidential elections over the last several cycles, but is likely to become more Democratic after the most recent round of redistricting, and is seen  as the quintessential New York City swing district

McMahon has been hinting that he will run himself, but has made no moves yet to put together a campaign.

Grimm has come under fire in recent weeks for his full-throated endorsement of Paul Ryan's budget, even though cuts in that proposal could hurt seniors.

A phone call to Diamond was not returned.

Scott Royce, a former New Hampshire field director for Jack Kemp's 1988 campaign will be coordinating the Draft Trump movement in his home state of South Carolina.

Royce joins two other political operatives--Jay Kenneth Klinge and James Stockdale--whom the Draft movement announced yesterday.

"He is one of us," proclaimed Royce. "He is not a career politician, thus will not be paralyzed by the influence of special interests when resolving the big issues that challenge the country at present and that is exactly what is driving his popularity."

Draft movements typically work to build support in early voting states while simulataneously trying to create a groundswell of support to convince the draftee to run.

According to a bio sent out by the Draft Trump operation, Royce is also an "active Libertarian and Anti-Tax activist in South Carolina and key supporter of South Carolina's Republican Governor Nikki Haley."

Trump reached out to Haley earlier this week.

"We are deeply troubled by Thomson Reuters' apparent attempt to break the union representing more than 420 of its employees and its treatment of union members," the council members write. "In addition to possibly violating federal labor law, your company has resorted to the rarely used aggressive tactics of halting the collection of union dues and refusing to arbitrate disputes. At the same time, it has dramatically cut employees' compensation and more than doubled their healthcare costs."

The letter comes after the National Labor Relations Board advised Thomson Reuters that it will charge the company with violating federal labor laws by illegally imposing rules that cut pay and benefits of employees. The council members also note that Thomson Reuters chairman David Thomson was ranked as the richest person in his home country of Canada by Forbes Magazine, and that the company has received taxpayer subsidies from New Yorkers.

The NLRB has alleged that the company has violated federal labor law by restricting employees rights to discuss their working conditions on Twitter and for attempting to strip the union of its collective bargaining rights.

Full letter from the council members below:

"I'm very happy where I am. Best job in America," he told a scrum of reporters after a press conference at Grand Central Terminal with Department of Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano, Congressman Peter King and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. The group gathered there to announce a plan to scrap the old Bush administration's terror alert system in favor of a new, streamlined system.

Senator Chuck Schumer has been pushing Kelly for the job and, according to Murray Weiss, the police commissioner is inclined to take it.

Asked if he has been asked to consider the job, Kelly told reporters, "I don't want to discuss it."

When one reporter followed-up by asking if that means a "yes or a no," Kelly said, "It's an 'I don't want to discuss it.'"

Asked if he would endorse Kelly for FBI Director, Congressman King said, "I endorse Ray for whatever he wants but he does an outstanding job as New York City police commissioner."

The fundraiser is tied together with a performance of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and according to our reader, specifically targets members of the LGBT community. (The show is about two drag queens and a transsexual who get a cabaret gig in the desert, and this particular performance will be right in the middle of gay pride month.)

Gay rights groups have been generally pleased with the first couple months of Cuomo's term, but many activists are anxious for him to fulfill a campaign pledge and begin a serious push for marriage equality.

Tickets for the show alone go for $100, but for dinner and the show can go up to as much as $15,000.

The governor will be hosting a smaller lunchtime affair next month at the Waldorf-Astoria. According to disclosure reports filed with the Board of Elections, Cuomo still has more than $4 million on hand.

06 14 11_-_Priscilla (2)

06 14 11_-_Priscilla (2)

"The battle lines have been drawn," writes Minard. "The campaign for the presidency is joined...The revolutionary agenda proposed by the Republicans would drastically transform the relationship between our government and the American people. The budgets and policies offered are truly staggering in the burden they will place on the middle class, actually anyone outside the top 2% of the population. We need to stand with this President so he can continue to implement the progressive policies of our agenda."

The evening will be topped off by a performance by The Roots at Town Hall Theater. Tickets for that range from $44 (for those in the "Gen 44" category) to $1,000 (which includes a  VIP pre-reception with "campaign leaders.") Tickets for the Waldorf event will set you back a little more, going from $2,500-$25,000

Full email and invite below:

Dear Friends,

The battle lines have been drawn. The campaign for the presidency is joined.

President Obama will kick off his re-election campaign in New York on Wednesday, April 27.

I invite you to join me at a gala dinner at the Waldorf with the President.  

The revolutionary agenda proposed by the Republicans would drastically transform the relationship between our government and the American people. The budgets and policies offered are truly staggering in the burden they will place on the middle class, actually anyone outside the top 2% of the population.

We need to stand with this President so he can continue to implement the progressive policies of our agenda.

I would love to share my table and the evening with you. The event will be relatively small; several hundred of us in attendance with the President. Respond as directed in the invite or call me and we'll sign you up.

Let me hear from you.

All the best,

Sally

Please join

President Barack Obama

for the Re-election Campaign Inaugural Gala Dinner

 

Wednesday, April 27th at 6:30 p.m.

at the Waldorf Astoria - Starlight Roof

301 Park Avenue, between 49th & 50th Streets, New York, NY

 

RSVP to http://my.barackobama.com/April27Dinner?custom1=Sally+Minard

Or contact NewYorkdinner@barackobama.com or (202) 572-5451

 

Contribution Options:

$2,500 per guest

$5,000 per guest, premium seating

$10,000 Photo Reception & Dinner

$25,000 Host (write or raise table) - Photo Reception & Dinner

 

 

Rally: There is also an exciting rally planned for later the same evening.  Details are below.

 

Kick-off Reception with President Obama

with a special performance by The Roots

Wednesday, April 27^th at 7:30 p.m.

Town Hall Theater, 123 W 43rd Street, between 6th Avenue & Broadway

Contribution Options:

$1,000 - premium seating + VIP pre-reception with Campaign Leaders

$250 - guest

$44 - Gen 44

Please note that President Obama will not be a guest at the VIP reception.

RSVP: Katrina Pence at 212-486-0194 or kpence@omcnyc.com

 

P.S.  Please find attached a list of other fundraising events in the NYC area.  Contact the person listed in the right column for more information and to sign up.

Sally Minard

President & CEO

Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, LLC

 

Obama-2011-04-27-Dinner-Invite (2)

No date for a special election has been set, but add another name to the list of potential candidates to replace him: Jesus Gonzalez, a community organizer with Make the Road New York.

If Gonzalez throw his hat into the ring, he would likely be joined by Rafael Espinal, a 26-year-old chief of staff to City Councilmember Erik Dilan and Deidra Towns, the sister of the outgoing Assemblyman and the daughter of longtime area Congressman Ed Towns. The Perez Notes recently reported that the Towns family may run John Rodriguez as a spoiler in an effort to split the Hispanic vote.

In a brief interview, Mr. Gonzalez, 26,  declined to reveal much about his background or his timetable for throwing his hat into the ring.

"I have been working in this community for13 years and I have been working to uplift this community," he said.  "This seems like an opportunity where I can take it to the next heights."

He added, "I have proven my commitment to this community by community organizing."

According to neighborhood sources, if he ran, Mr. Gonzalez would have the backing not only of Make the Road, a sizable social service and advocacy organization, but the Working Families Party as well.

 A Facebook page dedicated to his campaign can be found here.

The Democratic nomination for the special election will be determined by the County Committee, which is currently under the control of the Dilans. Other candidates have to petition their way onto the ballot via third-party lines.

Most of the renegers were Senate Republicans, and one, an Assembly Republican, reneged on his reneging decided to in fact support the reforms once Koch started calling his district.

But Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is not sure that the robo-plan is working, mainly because the public is ill-informed about redistricting.

"We are operating now," he said at an afternoon news conference in Lower Manhattan about the 9/11 Memorial.  ""We are not in a political mode. I don't know what the impact of that is. I really don't. I don't think the public really understands what the whole process he is talking about is."

Silver at first ignored Koch's redistricting push, and threw a few barbs Hizzoner's way, including, at one point, remarking, "I respect the elderly and I think it is, as my former congressman and my former mayor, someone who supported him many times, I respect his position in life now," but as recently signed on as a supporter of redistricting reform.

Still, this afternoon Silver seemed in no hurry to push redistricting reform, arguing that it would, like term limits, lead to popular incumbents being forced to give up their seats.

"I think there is a certain degree of the public [that] generally wants to maintain many of their elected officials," he said. "So I am not sure what the impact [of the robocalls] is."

UPDATE:

Adam Riff, a spokesman for Mayor Koch, passes along the following anecdote told to him by the mayor in response:

"Shelly, a friend of forty years, told me that when we labeled him an 'Enemy of Reform', he was accosted at a neighborhood store while shopping, and someone he did not know walked up to him and said 'Are you Shelly Silver?'  Shelly said,  'Yes.  The accoster said: 'You are an enemy of reform!'  Shelly told me he was very much chagrined by the incident.

"I wish Shelly a sweet Passover."