Andrew Cuomo's gubernatorial campaign is paying just $5,000 a month for office space advertised at $30,000 a month, a cut-rate deal that his opponent said violates state campaign finance laws.
The building's owners are two of Cuomo's biggest boosters, giving $42,500 each to his candidacy, a shade below the $45,000 legal limit for personal donations.
When contributions by their companies and wives are added, they have plowed nearly $200,000 into his campaign.
At issue is whether Cuomo's $25,000-a-month savings between the advertised and actual rents should be considered additional contributions by the landlords to his campaign.
If counted that way, it would mean the owners have exceeded contribution limits - a violation that would force Cuomo to pay the landlord back rent.
A spokesman for Carl McCall, Cuomo's rival for the Democratic nomination, said the arrangement was at odds with Cuomo's portrayal of himself as the candidate of strong ethics and campaign finance reform.
"Andrew Cuomo's hypocrisy is in full bloom," said Steven Greenberg, McCall's spokesman.
Cuomo's campaign manager and the firm that leased the space said several factors justified lowering the rent for the second and third floors of 18 E. 41st St., part of the real estate empire of RFR Holdings, owned by Cuomo backers Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs.
"I wouldn't say it's a sweetheart deal," said Richard Farley, senior vice president of RFR Realty.
The Web-advertised rent of $30,136 - $37 a square foot - was discounted 83% because Cuomo's campaign agreed to a month-to-month lease, required no renovations and did not use a broker RFR would have had to pay a commission, Farley said.
The demolition of a building across the street and the soft real estate market also justified a reduction, he added.
"I don't think it's because of a Cuomo. If it was a John Smith, we would have done the same thing," Farley said.
One real estate executive not affiliated with either campaign, who asked not to be identified, said Farley's rationale for the discount was valid but that 17 cents on the dollar sounded low. "If it was a charity and I had the space and it was month-to-month, maybe," the executive said.
A state Board of Elections spokesman, Lee Daglian, said the inherently "subjective" nature of rents often makes it difficult to prove a campaign finance law violation occurred.