See more of our coverage in your search results.
This is going to stirrup trouble.
Businessman John Catsimatidis boldly claimed Thursday that the Big Apple’s new ban on the horse-drawn carriage industry was part of a scheme to make millions of dollars for the real estate industry.
The CEO of grocery chains Gristedes and D’Agostino Supermarkets alleged politicians have more of an interest in turning three longtime Manhattan stables into ritzy skyscrapers than freeing the animals from the so-called slavery.
“[Horse carriage drivers] own all those buildings on 11th Avenue where the stables are and they want to build skyscrapers where those stables are, so they want to kill the horses!” Catsimatidis fumed on 77 WABC’s “Sid & Friends in the Morning.”
Catsimatidis called on the US Attorney to investigate how “real estate guys,” including the stable’s owners, have covertly been behind the longtime push to kill the industry.
“They want to get rid of the horses. The ambience in New York — they want to get rid of part of it. I want to know who they paid off and let the US Attorney do their job, because I’m not sure the local DAs will do their job,” he claimed.
Host Sid Rosenberg passionately agreed: “You’re 1,000% right … It’s all about real estate money.”
The conspiracy is one the Transport Workers Union and the carriage horse drivers have been ringing the bell about “for years.”
All three stables housing Central Park’s carriage horses across Manhattan are employee-owned and are considered small businesses — but will be obsolete with the passage of Romanch’s Law Thursday outlawing the industry by 2028.
“If they are banned and we’re not bringing in income, the stables will be forced to sell because they can’t afford the property taxes and they can’t afford a [Certificate of Occupancy] or renovations to use it for anything else,” said Christina Hansen, a carriage horse driver and TWU union representative.
“The real estate people want the carriage people to sell,” she claimed.
Hansen denied, however, Catsimatidis’ claim that the stable owners were turning against their own, saying they held on to the properties for decades despite real estate developers sniffing around “for years.”
The stables sit on prime real estate property that developers can level for high-rise buildings worth $1 billion — with a percentage carved out for affordable housing, Hansen said.
The West Side Livery and Central Park Carriages stables in Hudson Yards are each owned by a single horse-drawn carriage operator.
The Clinton Park Stables in Hell’s Kitchen are owned by 15 people who all either are or were carriage drivers — and pay a collective $25,000 for the monthly mortgage.
The three stables could have fetched a combined $70 million if they sold a decade ago, The Post reported at the time.
“The carriage people up until this point have not sold because they need a place to keep the horses … but if there’s no carriage horses, who’s going to pay the property taxes? They’re losing their income, their businesses. They’re going to be forced to sell,” Hansen said.