THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR

. By John F. Bailey.January 11,2011:

 

 Louis Cappelli is offering “partnerships” in ownership of  his signature properties in White Plains, the Ritz-Carlton hotel and condominums and the City Center retail complex, he announced this morning during an exclusive interview with WPCNR.

 

Louis Capelli of Cappelli Enterprises.

 (Photo, Courtesy, Thompson & Bender)

 

Cappelli said interest in partnerships in his two White Plains properties has been sparked by a marketing brochure sent out by CB  Richard Ellis promoting 50,000 square feet remainin vacant at the City Center after the Shop Rite opening last week.

 

The developer said he decided on a new business model to generate cash to renovate properties in the future, and acquire “strategic partners” to provide capital for his company’s future. Cappelli said depending on the partners he attracts, he may or may not remain majority owner of the two properties, but would retain management ownership of the two properties.

 

He said the move to partnering was dictated by banks being “closed down” as sources for financing, saying having your own cash to spend was essential in the “new investment model.”

 

 

The reason for the search for partners with cash, he said is that his company is continuing its “new business model” strategy begun in New Rochelle, where he has sold New Roc City, and his hotel there for $21 Million. He is in the process of buying back debt on the Trump Tower and negotiating on  $100 Million in properties in New Rochelle Trump Retail project with an investment partner , and arranged Cappelli office buildings he has owned around the county.

 

Asked why the search for partners, he said, “I do not want to be the biggest player in town any more. I want to be in communities where there are multiple major players. I’m a little fishie in the sea and I like that.”

 

“The most important thing one can do in these times, in (our) new business model is to line up yourself with money and have money. We have, in the last six months met and done business with, so far, three enormous funds to do acquisitions with, and we’re putting up our own capital to do so and they’re putting up their capital, and we’re running and managing and finding these.”

 

THE NEW 2011 CAPPELLI:

 

“I think the new business model for the year 2011, for the year 2020 is have your own cash as much as possible with a money partner, a strategic partner, and either renovate what you have,purchase something at a good price and renovate it, get it redone, repositioned, just be in the marketplace, and have (your own) dollars and sense because banks are closed.

 

 

Banks Closed Down.

 

Cappelli said the banks, even the county banks are not lending:

 

“Their doors are closed. They say they’re open but the regulators have closed them. For example, the days of going to buy  acquisition property because you can get zoning, and you can put parcels together and you can create a parcel for a high rise, you can’t go to any bank today, I don’t care who you are and buy a piece of land that has no income-producing on it, you’re not going to (get to) borrow the money. I don’t care who you are.”

 

Banks are shutdown, even in Westchester, WPCNR asked incredulously?

 

“Westchester, yes, anywhere. You can’t buy land. The old days are gone. It’s history, man. They’re not going to come back, Not the same way. I don’t see it,” Cappelli said,

 

“The new model is raise cash, have cash, and align yourself with big strategic players.”

 

Asked who he is partnering with, Cappelli said:

 

“We’ve been talking with New Verse Advisors, whom we’ve done business with already, done business with S.L. Green on purchasing multiple buildings across Westchester, some of which are now going into contract, and the biggest player in town,Westbrook Partners.”

 

Cappelli said, he lives in White Plains, plans to continue to live here, and in order to have the capital to forge ahead, he needs strategic partners available to capitalize possible future endeavors when the market turns around. He noted that real estate,as always, is now the only “reliable” investment considering how bonds, stocks, funds have uncertain reliability.

 

He said depending on the partners  he is able to attract to the Ritz and City Center, it was not clear if he would remain majority owner of the Ritz and City Center properties.

 

He said he became aware of the interest in the City Center property as an investment to attract partners with cash when CB Richard Ellis sent out a marketing brochure advertising the new addition of Shoprite to the City Center (which Cappelli said is attracting 30,000 visitors a week to the City Center.) The brochure advertised 50,000 of additional retail (the vacant Circuit City space) still available.

 

Cappelli did not say how much in cash he expected to raise by taking on cash investors in the Ritz complex and City Center.

WPCNR Main Street Journal. Special to WPCNR from William O’Shaugnessy, President, WVOX Radio. January 10, 2011:

 White Plains  Mayor Adam Bradley, under pressure to resign as Mayor from five members of  the city Common Council and district leaders of the city Democratic Committee for conviction on a charge of Attempted Assault, Contempt and 3 charges of Harassment against his wife,  received a vote of confidence from the longtime politically active owner of WVOX Radio, New Rochelle, New York today in an editorial distributed to selected media. The commentary is signed by William O’Shaugnessy, the radio station owner:

The commentary:

Embattled White Plains Mayor Adam Bradley has been pilloried andcastigated in the public press. And much of it is fed by the personally ambitious Democrats on the White Plains City Council, many of whom see a “future mayor” when they look in the mirror in the morning. Despite his well-publicized matrimonial woes, Adam Bradley has not given any indication whatsoever that he is not up to the task of governing his important Westchester city.

 

The highly regarded and greatly revered retired Supreme Court Justice Samuel George Fredman, himself a former chairman of the Democratic City Committee who also served as Democratic County chairman, has spoken passionately in defense of Mayor Bradley’s absolute right to remain at his post until his personal domestic issues are behind him.

 

This whole contretemps is a perfect example of our theory of long standing that men and women of ability and quality will not submit to the rigors of public service. And this issue, however unpleasant and contentious it may be, would be treated as a “garden variety” matrimonial matter if Mayor Bradley were in any other kind of endeavor or career.

 

No one knows the absolute truth of what happened in the Bradley household. No one – the Judge included (albeit a very good jurist she is) – knows who is lying. And Mayor Bradley certainly deserves the opportunity to have his case play out via the appellate process. Indeed with all the carping and backstabbing which has been visited on Adam Bradley by members of his own political tribe, he has diligently and sincerely – and effectively – applied himself to the Peoples Business without any noticeable let up.

We don’t believe a man’s political career should be destroyed by the self-serving ambition of the Democratic members of the City Council(or by our own colleagues in the public press!).

And everyone else should just stay the hell out of this mess until it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Mayor Adam Bradley is unable to govern.

So far we haven’t seen that. In fact, he has applied himself to his municipal duties with vigor, determination and an optimistic demeanor – as well as a good heart.

We certainly agree with Mr. Justice Fredman, a man of great probity who, at 86, is, in every telling, a grey eminence and statesman of our Westchester community, that the attempted “public hanging” of Adam Bradley tarnishes and diminishes the image of the entire city as well as a political party.

The Mayor is entitled to all the legal remedies available to him, even in the face of the character assassination to which he has been subjected.

Indeed, our own Republican “leanings and inclinations” are well known to one and all. But the vitriol being heaped on Mayor Bradley by those bearing a political agenda should concern everyone interested in fair play.

The whole, unhappy matter is in the courts where it should play out and remain.

And the Mayor should remain in City Hall where he is doing an exemplary job.

William O’Shaugnessy

WVOX, WVIP RADIO