A convicted felon stands to reap as much as $1 million from a deal to build a city-funded homeless shelter in Brooklyn, Comptroller Alan Hevesi charged yesterday.
Abraham J. Weiss, who owns an old factory where the 400-bed shelter will be located, shouldn’t rake in mega-profits from tax dollars, Hevesi said.
“If somebody has a history of corruption, we don’t do business with them,” Hevesi said.
Weiss pleaded guilty in federal court in June 1999 to rigging bids at land-foreclosure auctions.
In a deal unrelated to the conviction, Weiss used a complicated transaction to get control of a factory in East Williamsburg for $37,000 last year – and is now selling it for $2.5 million to the city.
The city has designated the spot for a new men’s homeless shelter and work program.
Though Hevesi yesterday said he would refuse to register the $176 million, 22-year contract for the shelter run by the non-profit Doe Fund, Mayor Giuliani immediately used his power to force the issue.
“The person involved in it does have a record. It has nothing to do with the land, doesn’t taint the land,” Giuliani said. “This is a perfectly legitimate transaction. The comptroller is misstating it for political purposes.”
Giuliani hinted that Hevesi, who is running for mayor next year, is trying to win favor with neighbors who are opposed to the shelter.
A Hevesi spokesman would not comment on the order from Giuliani to register the contract because the comptroller had not yet received official word.
The bitter showdown is the second between Hevesi and Giuliani this year. In March, Hevesi successfully nixed a welfare-to-work contract because the company had a head start over competitors in negotiations.
Weiss, who bought the former factory land in March, will make between $700,000 and $1 million after paying the city $1.6 million in back taxes. Most of the profit will go into a charitable foundation run by Weiss and his wife, Yitta, Giuliani said.
“That can be used for the benefit of the people in the community, which … offsets the concerns of having a large homeless facility,” Giuliani said.
Doe Fund President George McDonald said he doesn’t expect Hevesi’s objections to hold up the project, which is slated to open in 2002.
“The mayor said we’re going ahead with it. That’s all I need to know,” McDonald said.
Weiss did not return a call for comment.
Hevesi praised the Doe Fund and said his problems with the no-bid contract have nothing to do with politics. Established in 1998, the foundation gave away $5,000 last year, mostly to Orthodox Jewish groups, according to its latest IRS filing.