WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER 3,374,995 VISITS IN ONE YEAR—65,000 VISITS A WEEK BY 985,281 VISITORS

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WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. February 16, 2006: Because Rita Malmud’s traditional “rebuttal” to Mayor Joseph Delfino’s State of the City speech on February 6 was not cablecast because of a failed laser at Government Access Television in White Plains, WPCNR reprints it here. The Common Council meeting is being televised nightly at 7 on WPGA TV, White Plains Government Access, Channel 75, “The Voice of White Plains.”

White Plains Common Council President, Rita Malmud. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

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WPCNR STAGE DOOR. By John F. Bailey. February 16, 2006, UPDATED 1:20 P.M. E.S.T. : Kelli Carpenter O’Donnell, partner of television icon, Rosie O’Donnell, stood dramatically and offered $5 Million  for the Helen Hayes Theatre last night.

Kelli Carpenter O’Donnell’s show-stopping moment came at the conclusion of the Public Forum held byThe Board of Directors of  The Helen Hayes Theatre Company in the Theatre on Main Street in Nyack, to discuss their pending deal with Milbrook Partners of Manhasset to sell the theatre for  $3.7 Million and seek proposals to fund the theatre’s continued operation.  The two-and-a-half hour meeting produced three offers to purchase the theatre building for more than Milbrook Partners had agreed to pay for the building in a privately placed deal by the Board of Directors.

I’ll Buy It! Kelli Carpenter O’Donnell Offers $5 Million for Helen Hayes Theatre. Photo, WPCNR StageCam

The Board of Directors of Helen Hayes Theatre Company Getting a Bad Review from over 200 persons in the Helen Hayes Theatre Wednesday evening. It was a passionate drama, filled with fury, invective, insults, from the Board to the audience and members of the audience to the Board. Audience members blamed the Board for not coming to them. The Board blamed the audience for lack of support of the theater. At one point the audience was asked for a show of hands of who were season subscribers. Only 5 or 6 hands were raised. A Board member indicated this was why the theatre was in this siutation. An audience member shouted it was because of “lousy programs.” Photo, WPCNR StageCam.

Kelli O’Donnell lives with her partner Rosie O’Donnell  in  Pretty Penny the home formerly occupied by Helen Hayes, the theatre’s namesake and legend of Broadway. Ms. Carpenter-O’Donnell  stood at the close of the acrimonious 2-1/2 hour meeting and said she would buy the theater outright for $5 Million.

The Board & Management Must Go

Ms. O’Donnell said she and Rosie had only learned about the sale a week ago, and had she and her partner known about the theatre was up for sale she “would have been down with a $5 Million check the next day,”  which would have beaten the privately negotiated placement offer of Milbrook Partners by over a million dollars. 

Kelli O’Donnell told WPCNR she would only purchase the theatre now  if the present Board of Directors and management resigned after her purchase.

Ms. O’Donnell, when asked if she would give the $5 Million to grubstake the theatre and start up its operation, without ownership,  said she would not. Asked if she and her partner were considering legal action to stay the impending closing on the property, O’Donnell said she was writing the Attorney General a letter. The Attorney General’s office approved the sale January 19 and the Rockland County Court approved the petition of sale January 24, and through a spokesperson told WPCNR the approval was being reviewed.

Beats Private Placement Deal

Laura Weiss, a member of the Board of Directors said she negotiated the Milbrook deal and prepared the reported 300-page contract pro bono. She reported she personally brought in Milbrook very quickly when the theatre needed money  (because she knew them), when the theatre was faced with a $275,000 debt  they had to pay, (that was negotiated down from $500,000 by Joseph Lagana, the President of the Board of Directors). Weiss said it was either the timely deal then or go into bankruptcy.

The Board repeatedly said they did not have time to offer the property on the open market in response to audience criticism that they did not put the property on the open market.

10 Days to Save the Theatre

Mr. Lagana  speaking for the Board of Directors gave the public an ultimatum that the Board would entertain proposals from the community to save the theatre.  Lagana said the public had 10 days to submit such proposals, which Lagana and Daniel Rodriguez, another member of the Board, emphasized had to be money-based in order to meet the rent and budget (estimated by Lagagna as being at least $700,000 to reopen the theatre). 

Walter LeCroy of the Board told WPCNR afterwards he would be resigning from the Board of Directors “after the transition.”

LeCroy confirmed to the CitizeNetReporter that  prior to the vote to accept the Milbrook offer, other members of the Board who had not been attending Board of Directors meetings had been determined to have “resigned,” by the six member Board that voted,  because LeCroy said the Helen Hayes bylaws state that if a director missed two meetings, he or she had, in effect, “resigned.”

Lagana also told the CitizeNetReporter, he would be resigning after the “transition.”

 The audience of 200 persons had been roasting and toasting the Board of Directors all evening for having not involved the community, and  repeatedly launched pointed questions as to why the property was not offered to the community and put on the open market. Harriet Cornell, Chair of the Rockland County Board of Legislators, disputed the Board’s charge the community and the county had not stepped up to support the theatre in its hour of need, saying the Helen Hayes received the highest amount of arts funding from Rockland County.

Laura Weiss said the Board went to the private placement because Milbrook Properties stepped in in a timely manner when notified by Ms. Weiss of the Helen Hayes Theatre plight. Ms. Weiss stated she had contacted Milbrook to see if they would buy the theatre to pay off the debt because she knew the firm from past legal work she had executed for that organization. It was also revealed during the course of the evening that the $700,000 downpayment by Milbrook on the pending sale was in the form of a mortgage.

White Plains Pullout a Factor?

The sudden financial crisis may have been precipitated in part, WPCNR has learned previously, because of the White Plains Performing Arts Center choosing to terminate its relationship with Helen Hayes Theatre Company, in November,  when the White Plains group found how much money the WPPAC was pumping into Helen Hayes Theatre for two-and-a-half years (reported to them to be $500,000 a year, $900,000 over 2-1/2 years).  

WPPAC is reported as having paid about half the Helen Hayes payroll by paying the salaries of Helen Hayes employees  doing work for the White Plains Performing Arts Center. 

Lagana informed the audience at Helen Hayes that he had personally lent $200,000 so Helen Hayes could meet its payroll  the timing apparently was in November, after White Plains Performing Arts Center had severed its relationship with Helen Hayes.

Money Maneuvers (Update)

Last week, an informed source told WPCNR  that the White Plains Performing Arts Center had severed its agreement with Helen Hayes in mid-November, when it “settled up” with Helen Hayes on what was owed in salaries, and presently the source said there is no money owed, no litigation, no money owed.  “We settled up with them. They paid what they owed us,” but the source did not elaborate nor disclose the amount of the settlement.

A source on the White Plains Performing Arts Center Board of Directors, Bruce Berg, told WPCNR recently  that of the $100,000 Louis Cappelli contributed to WPPAC in late November (when WPPAC severed relations) went to paying WPPAC debt, and most of it went to paying expenses for Saving Aimee, the ill-fated $375,000 production that played the WPPAC in October. Berg also said that $50,000 additional dollars had been raised by Mr. Cappelli and contributed to WPPAC, and that he was raising $50,000 more. It could not be confirmed by WPCNR on the record last night what dollar amount White Plains Performing Arts Center paid Helen Hayes as part of the “settle up.”

It will be recalled by WPCNR readers, that the $100,000 the Common Council authorized to be budgeted to the WPPAC November 27, voted upon at the December Common Council meeting is being used to fund WPPAC operations for the spring season on a “draw-down” basis, according to the source confirming the Helen Hayes settlement.

Tony Stimac told WPCNR in the lobby of the Helen Hayes last night the number of employees shared with White Plains Performing Arts Center was 7, and that he did not remember how much the 7 were costing WPPAC annually.

Lagana, Rodriquez Ask for Proposals with Money to run the Theatre.

Joseph Lagana, the President of the Board of Directors and Laura Weiss, the lawyer who handled the Milbrook sale, said on numerous occasions during the night  they would honor the contract with Milbrook Partners, indicating it was a done deal and they could not back out on the commitment.

A closing on the $3.7 Million deal was expected in March,  Weiss said. When asked if the Board would suspend the deal to seek other offers that were made from the floor,  both Lagana and Weiss were adamant they would honor the contract. Though when Ms. Carpenter-O’Donnell made her offer, Mr. Lagana appeared stunned.

$700,000 and up.

Lagana said the evening’s forum was to seek proposals from the audience for running the theatre after the sale. He said a minimum of $700,000 was needed to reopen Helen Hayes Theatre Company after the sale takes place. Weiss said there was a rider in the contract that gave Helen Hayes about 30 days after the closing to decide if they would continue to run the theatre and pay the rent to the new owners should they complete the contract.

A “forensic accountant,” Gary Kahn, representing Milbrook Properties, after it was revealed by a member of the Nyack Board of Trustees that rent for Helen Hayes Theatre would be $36,950 a month according to the Milbrook-Helen Hayes contract, said his company would be willing to reduce that rent to $18,000 a month, which is what the theatre paid the previous owner, according to Mr. Stimac.

Asked by the CitizeNetReporter if Milbrook would be willing to sell the theater portion of the building as a condonimium to a prospective buyer, Kahn,  the accountant, said he couldn’t answer that question, but that the company “was willing to do whatever it could to save the theatre.”

Just such a deal, a “condo-out” was created by the City of White Plains where the City of White Plains purchased the WPPAC space built in the City Center as a condominium from Cappelli Enterprises.

Stimac Being Paid by WPPAC, working free for Helen Hayes during Transition.

Tony Stimac, speaking to WPCNR at the close of the meeting revealed he was still helping with the transition of Helen Hayes Theatre Company during the sale, but was not getting paid by Helen Hayes any more. 

Stimac is being paid approximately $75,000 a year by White Plains Performing Arts Center (according to the Center’s 2003-2004 Form 990,  to prepare  and direct a new WPPAC production of Julius Ceasar with non-equity actors for presentation at the White Plains Performing Arts Center.

He is simultaneously  preparing for the gala fund raiser for WPPAC, The Three Phantoms on March 20, however no prices have been listed for  Phantoms, in the most recent brochure announcing the Spring season. No invitations have been known to have been sent out to White Plains deep pockets.

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WPCNR EMPIRE BUIDER. From Cappelli Enterprises (EDITED) February 15, 2006:  Louis R. Cappelli, Kingpin of Cappelli Enterprises of Valhalla, the “Official Developer of the City of White Plains,” having earned the sobriquet of the Super Developer from WPCNR, added to his legend Tuesday, announcing  his second major stake in a neighboring community to White Plains in two weeks. Two weeks ago, Mr. Cappelli announced major development participation in Yonkers, New York.

Louis Cappelli Style: The Super Developer, Louis Cappelli, who always presents his projects in person   demonstrates his 221 Main Street Hotel Project in White Plains in its first configuration of three towers during the approval process of his latest White Plains project, May 18, 2004. Now the Super Developer is proposing a tower for Stamford, Connecticut, with Thomas L. Rich of F.D. Rich Company, Stamford’s leading developer, and the firm behind the Rich Forum. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

He and Thomas L. Rich of Stamford, CT have applied to the Stamford, Connecticut, Planning and Zoning Boards for the approval of a 37-story high-end luxury condominium tower in the Stamford downtown.  Called Park Tower, the project is being planned for the corner of Washington Boulevard and Broad Street near the University of Connecticut and the Mill River Park.

Mr. Rich stated that “the Costas Kondylis designed project is not only going to be a spectacular addition to the Stamford skyline but will offer an incredible package of public benefits that will be hugely helpful to the city as it continues on its path to becoming a 24/7 world-class destination.” Photo, Courtesy, Cappelli Enterprises.

Luxury on Long Island Sound

Pending project approvals, Park Tower will begin marketing units this summer in its marketing center conveniently located next door to the project site in a Broad Street retail storefront. Construction of the project will start in the fall of 2006 with a delivery date of 24 months thereafter.

Plans submitted for Park Tower call for a total of 185 residences, which will range in size from one-bedroom units of approximately 1,000 square feet to three bedroom duplex penthouses of 3,500 square feet. They will feature the highest quality finishes, granite countertops, hardwood floors, top-of-line appliances, designer cabinetry and marble bathrooms. Most of the residences at Park Tower will have spectacular views of Long Island Sound and the New York City skyline and all will have spacious terraces.

“Park Tower will add 185 homeowners to the downtown core, generate 500 construction jobs a year over the two-year construction period, 15 permanent jobs once completed and add more than $1 million per year in property tax revenue to the city coffers,” Mr. Rich added.

Stamford’s successful Inclusionary Zoning Policy, requires 10% of  Park Tower units (19) be affordable to families that earn 50% of the area median income.

Super Developer Contributes to Mill River Park Restoration

Park Tower will be located across the street from Stamford’s Mill River Park, which is about to undergo a multi-million dollar restoration under the design direction of the Philadelphia-based Olin Partnership. The park restoration will benefit from Park Tower because the project approvals involve a large financial contribution by Mr. Rich and Mr. Cappelli to the Mill River Park improvement project.    

Among the services and amenities provided to residents of Park Tower will be a 24-hour concierge/doorman. The entire 7th floor will be devoted to building amenities, which will include a landscaped deck, an indoor swimming pool, a full-service health club, a clubroom, library, billiards and screening rooms and a state-of-the-art security system. On-site parking will be located on five levels at the base of the building. There will also be approximately 3,000 SF of retail space fronting the corner of Washington Boulevard and Broad Street as being a short walk to the Stamford Transportation Center.

The Partners

Mr. Cappelli is President and CEO of Cappelli Enterprises, Inc., a leading real estate development company that has developed more than 10 million square feet of mixed use, retail, waterfront, residential, office building, laboratory and parking facilities. The company’s projects include City Center and the Trump Tower at City Center in White Plains, and New Roc City in New Rochelle. Cappelli Enterprises has already begun construction of Renaissance Square, a hotel and residential complex in downtown White Plains and Trump Plaza, a luxury high-rise condominium tower in downtown New Rochelle. In Stamford, Mr. Cappelli previously built Greyrock Towers and the Ridgeway Shopping Center.

Mr. Rich is President and CEO of the F.D. Rich Company. Since 1920, the Stamford-based company has constructed more than 50 million square feet of projects around the country including 15,000 units of housing. The Rich Company is responsible for developing much of downtown Stamford where, as the City’s sole redeveloper since 1960, it has added more than 5.0 million square feet of office, residential, retail and hotel space. 

Some of Rich’s projects include the 1 million SF Stamford Town Center Mall, the 1 million SF Stamford Plaza office complex and the city’s two Marriott Hotels. The company is also responsible for bringing Target to its site in downtown Stamford where Target constructed a 200,000 SF retail complex with an attached 550-car parking garage. The company’s most recent addition to downtown is a 115-room Courtyard by Marriott located at the intersection of Broad and Summer Streets.

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. By John F. Bailey. February 14, 2006: Dennis Power has joined the staff of County Executive Andy Spano to work on economic development, according to Bill Ryan, Chairman of the Westchester County Board of Legislators. Mr. Ryan told WPCNR today he was among the first to welcome Mr. Power to his new position  when Mr. Power dropped into his office at the Michaelian Building Monday.  According to Legislator Ryan, Power told him he would be working on matters involving economic development, reporting directly to County Executive Spano, and not to Sal Carrera, Director of Economic Development for Westchester.

Dennis Power, new Assistant to the County Executive for Economic Development. Pictured campaigning for Mayor, October, 2005. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

Donna Greene, Assistant Communications Director for Westchester County’s Department of Communications, confirmed Mr. Power’s apppointment moments ago. His position, Ms. Greene said, was Assistant to the County Executive for Economic Development, and he will be reporting to Sal Carrera, Director of Economic Development. Mr. Power will be paid $75,665 a year, according to Ms. Greene. Ms. Greene added that Mr. Power’s role would be attempting to bring more business and jobs to Westchester County and he would be working closely with, and reporting to Mr. Carrera.

Ryan did not have an opinion on how Power’s new role would mesh with Sal Carrera’s responsibilities as Director of Economic Development for Westchester County, but expressed confidence that Power had done such a good job with the Hudson River Museum as Director of Development for that organization that Power’s talents would be an asset to the county.

Mr. Power reportedly left his Hudson River Museum position to run for Mayor of White Plains last June, and it was speculated by WPCNR that if Mr. Power lost the race (no other Democratic hopeful except Ron Jackson expressed an interest in accepting the Mayoral challenge) he would be given a county job.

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WPCNR NEWS AND COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. February 13. 2006: Sunday marked the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, whose Presidential performance during the Civil War (1861-1865) was perhaps the most troubled of any American President. He had to create things as he went, dealing with a complex political issue: slavery, while deciding to fight a war to preserve a divided nation. How did Abraham Lincoln handle pressure and political opportunists? He did not have press agents and spinmasters and talk show hosts critiquing his every move and loading him up with advice. Let’s take a look.

In the days of Lincoln, media coverage was simply print media, however, the amount of reporting on the burning issues of the day was far more detailed than today with dozens of newspapers presenting the chronicles of burning issues. For Lincoln’s presidency was the presidency of the nation’s greatest crisis in its eighty-five year history:

 It is interesting to note how President Lincoln conducted himself in dealing with America’s interests, its factions, pulling him to free the slaves.

When Lincoln was running for the Presidency in 1860 at the Republican Convention in riproaring Chicago, he was up against James Seward, a powerful New York politician. However, the western states at the time were highly distrustful of the New York political machine. Lincoln won over support by taking a position of what was good for the nation as a whole.

Taking a Position and Working To it

Lincoln first gave notice of his potential for the Presidency when he impressed Horace Greeley, influential editor of the New York Tribune with a fiery speech at the Cooper Union in February, 1860, delivering a sharp criticism of the South, hard on the heels of South Carolina’s secession from the Union. The speech included these words,

You say you will not abide the election of a Republican President. In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! (The northern states) That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, “Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!”

Greeley printed the speech in his Tribune the next day, scooping the other New York papers, by simply asking Lincoln for a copy of the speech. The subsequent printing in the popular Trib, sent Mr. Lincoln on his way. As William Harlan Hale’s biography of Mr. Greeley (Horace Greeley: Voice of the People)describes the scene at “The original Trib’s” offices, as remembered by Amos Cummings, a young proofreader:

Amos Cummings, then a young proofreader, remembered the lanky westerner appearing over his shoulder amid the noise of the pressroom late at midnight, drawing up a chair, adjusting his spectacles, and in the glare of the gaslight reading each galley (of the Cooper Union speech) with scrupulous care and then rechecking his corrections, oblivious to his surroundings.

A Comeback President

Lincoln had been a highly successful politician from Illinois in the 1830s and 1840s. He was three times elected to the state legislature, and The Kunhardts’ The American Presidency reports he was “a recognized expert at forming collations…he learned how to keep secrets, how to trade favors, how to use the press to his advantage. And he cultivated his relationship with the party hierarchy.”

Graff’s book writes that Lincoln was described as “ruthless,” that he “handled men remotely like pieces on a chessboard.” Humor and frankness were character traits.

Lincoln was elected a congressman, only to serve just one term.

Lincoln had been practicing corporate law privately and had lost interest in politics by 1854, until the repeal of The Missouri Compromise, which had restricted slavery to the southern states. Lincoln felt stirred to come back. He spoke out against the spread of slavery, running for the senate in 1858 against William Douglas, unsuccessfully.

Saving the Union His Mantra

As the furor over slavery and the South’s threats to secede grew, a crisis of spirit and purpose in this nation which makes today’s concerns about terrorism as a threat to America, pale in comparison, Lincoln realized that the Union was the larger issue. He expressed this in response to Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, an influential figure at the Republican (Whig) Convention in Chicago in 1860. Greeley was the kingmaker at the 1860 Chicago convention who eventually swung the western states for Lincoln, giving the man from Illinois the nomination on the third ballot over William Seward, the candidate of the Thurlow Weed “New York Machine.”

Greeley then tried to influence the President-Elect to free the slaves. (Lincoln was being lobbied by the still-powerful Weed-Seward faction to compromise with the southern states on the issue of slavery).

Standing Tall Against Pressure.

Lincoln refused to free the slaves as one of the first acts of his presidency, standing firm to hold the union together, when he announced his attention not to do so, on his way to Washington after being elected. His words in this time of international tension, are worth remembering as America considers starting a war for the first time. Lincoln said:

I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy (the Union, he means), so long together. It was not the mere matter of separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the single people of this country, but hope to all the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance.

Seeing the Big Picture.

After Fort Sumter was fired upon, Lincoln was pressured harder to free the slaves. Still, Lincoln held firm. Mr. Greeley published a blistering open letter to the President, he called “The Letter of Twenty Millions,” meaning his readers (slightly exaggerated)in The New York Tribune. Greeley’s letter took the President to task for not freeing the slaves now that the Civil War was on, writing, “all attempts to put down the rebellion and at the same time uphold its inciting cause are preposterous and futile.”

President Lincoln responded with an open letter which Greeley published in The Tribune. President Lincoln’s letter is instructive as to how a President moves in crisis, when a nation is ripped apart to calm and state his position. He begins with a conciliatory tone, calming Greeley’s bombast:

…If there be perceptible in it (Greeley’s letter) an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always supposed to be right.

As to the policy I “seem to be pursuing,” as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it in the shortest way under the Constitution.

The sooner the national authority can be restored the nearer the Union will be – the Union as it was.

If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them.

If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them.

If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it – if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it – and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.

What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.

I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the cause.

I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be new views.

I have here stated my purpose according to my views of official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free, Yours

A. Lincoln

Wearied by War

Horace Greeley described the toll the Civil War had taken on Mr. Lincoln, seeing him in person shortly beforeGeneral Lee surrendered. Greeley wrote:

Lincoln’s face had nothing in it of the sunny, gladsome countenance he first brought from Illinois. It is now a face haggard with care and seamed with thought and trouble…tempest-tossed and weatherbeaten, as if he were some tough old mariner who had for years been beating up against the wind and tide, unable to make his port or find safe anchorage…The sunset of life was plainly looking out of his kindly eyes.”