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Mark interviews Steve Cuozzo, New York Post journalist. · The Mark Simone Show

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Well, we're looking for Steve Cuzo. We'll find him. We'll
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: track him down. The snow is coming. It's going to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: begin after midnight on Saturday, could be as early as
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: one am, more likely around three or four am on
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Saturday night. So we'll start when you wake up Sunday.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: It'll be snowing. It'll continue all day long, all day,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: just won't stop, and it'll go overnight Sunday night into Monday.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Might stop Monday morning, but then come back just a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: little Monday afternoon, and then by the time it's all over,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: expect six to eight inches. There's various models. One model
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: shows four inches, one shows twelve, but most of them
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: showing six to eight inches. So it'll be a mess. Hey,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Steve Cuzo is the great columnist New York Post. Nobody
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: better on real estate, restaurants and what's going on in
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: New York. Steve Cuzo, how you doing morning.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I can't wait for this blizzard because I have a
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: secret source mark that tells me there's going to be
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: no inches.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Well, I don't know who that source is.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: It's another one of these overhyped phenomena, you know, I
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: don't know.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: It looks like from our best weather people, it's locked
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: in at this point.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: It's not gonna I know, I know, I know. Here
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: we go.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Hey, hey, Yeah, from what I can see from your
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: columns you're reporting and everything else I can see in here,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Manhattan real estate is booming. Is that really the.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's yeah, it's not.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: It's the whole city, but especially Manhattan's a phenomenon. You know,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: last night, I don't know if you were there, Mark,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: but it was a Real Estate Board of New York's
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: annual gala event, biggest party in real estate, and at
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: the it was at the Waldorf Astoria, and which was
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: a great thing because they for one year they didn't
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: do it because of COVID. Then three years was at
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: this event space on the far West Side and no,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: but he wanted to go to And so now it's
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: back in full.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: Force at the Waldorf for the first time.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: And you know, the Waldorf is the new Waldorf is
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: quite spectacular.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: And it was a party. It was a.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Celebration, had all these real estate people, both commercial and residential,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: having a blast, and they were well dressed and it
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: really felt like a celebration. That said, you know, when
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I worried about Trump, when I worried about Mamdani, when
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: I worried about you know whatever, Greenland.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: We had a great year and they did.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: You know, there were a record number of excuse me,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: commercial market which I cover, leasing was over the moon
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: building sales, which had really lagged behind the leasing improvement
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: over the since the end of the pandemic. And last
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: year it was like eleven billion dollars of investment sales,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: which means that's the term for sales of buildings and
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: selling office buildings. First time in five years there was
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: a sale for over a billion dollars five ninety Park
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Avenue on Madison Avenue.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: So real estate is doing phenomenally well.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: The only thing I don't believe is doing as well
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: as they say is retail. You know, I get tired
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: of reading all these wonderful surveys by all the brokerages,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: by the Business Improvement districts, by the Real Estate Board
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: of New York itself about how you know, record retail
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: leasing this that, And I walk around and I see
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: gazillions of empty stores. But you know, it's a matter
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: of it.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of nuance, but that real estate, real
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: estate stuff that's not a factor of Mandani or leadership.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: That's just not retail diying.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: No, no, no.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Also residential sales. This is not my field of expertise,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: as you know, but from everything I'm told and everything
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I read in the Post and elsewhere, a great year
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: for the residential market. Super high sales of luxury condos
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: and co ops. Co ops mounted a real rally after
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: a couple of years of playing second fiddle to condos.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: A lot of people don't want co ops anymore, but
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: they bounce back to So yeah, it's a hell of
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: a good sign for the city as a whole, no
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: matter what happens on the social front. You know, all
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: the problems with the schools, which Mondani is only likely
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: to make worse.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: So yeah, it was. It was a banner year.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: One of those jentas is yelling everybody's leaving New York.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: It's not true. It's not true, of course not.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: It's never been true. And in the past.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: I remember when when Trump got elected people everybody was
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: leaving the country, remember that one. Yeah, and then when
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: he got re elected there was there was nobody left
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: to leap because everybody had already left.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: So yeah, these things look, you.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Know, we've got to sell papers. Broadcast media has to
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: attract the viewers. Uh. Social media just has to make
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: a lot of noise whenever they can. So yeah, I
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: don't have any good feelings whatsoever about Mumbani, and yet
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: I think that commercial real estate especially is oblivious to this.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: The only thing that could be harmful is if the governor,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: you know, caves in and gives in too Mumdanni's pipe
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: dream of raising taxes on corporations and everything. She wouldn't
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: do that this year because she's up for reelection, but
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: next year the following year could be a problem. But
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: commercial real estate is so strong. It's the driver of
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: the New York economy, not just the city but the state,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: and it's a power behind the entire national economy. Real
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Estate taxes from real estate contribute more to the city
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: treasury than any other than anything else, more than Wall Street,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: for example.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Most people don't know that, but it's a fact.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: So when you see stores closed, wait where you read
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: about Sacks going bankrupt? This the only reason for that
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: is online shopping has nothing to do with New York.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Right, well, it has, it's online shopping is a factor.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: But you notice that Bloomingdale's is doing fine, Macy's is
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: doing fine, nord Stimer is having no problem. In the
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: case of sax Global, the parent company which includes Sacks
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: and Nieman Marcus, which they stupidly bought about a year
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: and a half ago, and Bergdorf Goodman, the only Burgdorf
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Goodman in the world is right here in New York
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: on Fifth Avenue, that was a lot of mismanagement and
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: a lot of needless over expansion.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: And you know, retail is not my forte.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: But I do know I'm very skeptical of all large
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: sized mergers and acquisitions because inevitably any merger or acquisition
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: UH saddles the company with enormous debt, and they basically
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: served to. I mean, they can have their you know,
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: good consequences as well. But I believe that I remember
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: aol time Warner, Yes upon a time, All they do
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: is saddle the company with debt and they and they
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: enrich all the excuse me, all the inside players, corporate executives,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: investment bankers, lawyers, accountants, consultants, at the expense.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: Of everybody else.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Anyway, in the case of Sacks, the stores aren't going
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: to close. I mean they are going to close a
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: few stores outside of New York. Yes, but it looks
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: like they're on their way to restructuring. They're getting a
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: cash or liquidity infusion, and presumably life and business will
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: go on here as it did in the past, at
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: least from the consumer's point of view. If you go
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: to Sacks right now, they're stretching the merchandise. You can
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: see it on the shelves, but because they weren't paying
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: their vendors.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: But I think that's going to change.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Hey, Steve Kisser, there's a lot of skyscrapers going up.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: I mean one hundred stories, seventy story, sixty stories, They're
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: going up all over the place, fifty seventh Street, Park Avenue, Madison.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: So can we handle all that extra traffic here?
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: You mean do you mean crowding? Mark? What do you people?
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Cars?
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: New York has always been overcrowded. I say the more
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: overcrowding the better. It's it means life, it means people
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: spending money. It's what makes the city exciting, why people
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: want to come here, where they want to be here.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: So over the Christmas holidays, you know, my office is
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: two blocks away from the Rockefeller Center Tree and I
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: hated every minute of it, of the six weeks between
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: roughly Thanksgiving and you know, right after New Year's and
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: because you couldn't move on the streets. I couldn't literally
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: couldn't get into the subway right next door to my
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: building because I had to fight my way through crowds.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: And yet that's a selfish concern. The bigger picture is
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: that it's it's life, it's energy, and it's commitment, and
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: it's world for New York City.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: So I'm all, I'm all for that.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you got a lot of hot new restaurants that
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: are I mean, have we ever had this many jam
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: peck restaurants in New York?
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: It depends the good restaurants, the important restaurants, the ones
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: that are backed by big money. I think I'd never
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: done better. There's a squeeze in the middle and at
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: the lower end. You know, everybody's oh the rent is
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: too high. All that rent has always been too high.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: But every Basically, what it comes down to is every
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: place that I go, which is by no means you know,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: the the the the only the elite restaurants, as you
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: might think.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: I go to all kinds of restaurants. It's hard to
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: get a table anywhere. And this is January.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: January is traditionally the worst month for restaurants in New York.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, in the past you could have gotten seats
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: at when Noble is in its original location and the
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: hottest restaurant in like the country. You could eat usually
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: get tables at Noble the week of from the month
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: of January.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: That's not true anymore.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: And I've been to excuse me, NIKEiD restaurants like Lusardi's
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: on First Second Avenue the other night and they're all packed.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: And this is it was about twelve degrees out. So
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: what does that say.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Well, that's good. New York is booming. That's good to hear.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: You should read Steve Cuso's columns. All his columns are
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: up on the New York Post website. You can read
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: them all there, and he writes great stuff. Steve Cuso,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: New York Post. Steve, thanks for being with us.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: Thanks Mark, always a great time.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: All right, take care. So that's all good news. New
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: York booming. Don't listen to these people about everybody leaving.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: It's busier than ever in New York. Hey, don't forget
• 10:49
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• 10:54
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• 10:56
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• 10:58
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• 11:00
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• 11:03
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• 11:07
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• 11:10
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• 11:12
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• 11:18
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• 11:21
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• 11:23
  Speaker 1: ahead on seven to ten. Woir