Construction Maison

TOLLING THE TYCOONS — Albanese calls for 'politically popular' pied-à-terre tax, by POLITICO New York’s Conor Skelding : Foreign "oligarchs" who own real estate in New York but don't live in the city should have to pay two or three times what they pay now in property taxes, Democratic mayoral candidate Sal Albanese said Wednesday. The "politically popular" new tax's revenue, which Albanese said would amount to billions, could then be put toward the development of affordable housing . "Look, there's a lot of money across the world that people want to outsource," he said during a news conference outside the gates of City Hall. "There's a lot of money there, and we can use that to build real affordable housing ." Mayor Bill de Blasio promised years ago to "take a look" at a pied-à-terre tax, but the proposal is opposed by many of the city's real estate interests . "They own Bill de Blasio , big real estat...

Editor’s note: This profile originally appeared in Minnesota Lawyer, a sister publication of Finance & Commerce. Mary Wawro spends much of her time with legal documents as senior vice president and general counsel for Minneapolis- based Ryan Cos . US Inc. Seeing projects such as the Downtown East redevelopment in Minneapolis come to life is among the rewards of her job. Downtown East includes the Commons park near U.S. Bank Stadium, apartments, a hotel, a parking ramp, two Wells Fargo office towers and Ryan’s new headquarters in the Millwright Building at 533 S. Third St. “My favorite part has been the interesting projects that I’ve worked on, particularly here at Ryan and with so many smart, dedicated people,” said Wawro, who has been at Ryan for 15 years after two years as outside counsel. “When you work a lot with documents and concepts, it can feel really good to see the physical buildings that resulted from those documents.” Construction- related legal work touches on...

Beijing:  The Kushner family came to the United States as refugees, worked hard and made it big - and if you invest in Kushner properties , so can you. That was the message delivered Saturday by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner 's sister Nicole Kushner Meyer to a ballroom full of wealthy Chinese investors in Beijing. Over several hours of slide shows and presentations, representatives from the Kushner family business urged Chinese citizens gathered at a Ritz-Carlton hotel to consider investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a New Jersey luxury apartment complex that would help them secure what's known as an investor visa. The potential investors were advised to invest sooner rather than later in case visa rules change under the Trump administration."Invest early, and you will invest under the old rules," one speaker said. The tagline on a brochure for the event: "Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States." And the highlight of t...