The Messenger Receives Backup: Post and Free Beacon Raise Avlon Residency Questions

Back in April, The Messenger ran an exclusive report on former CNN anchor and NY-01 congressional candidate John Avlon (D-Gramercy Park). We obtained tax and building records from various New York City departments that shows Avlon’s ties to his Manhattan co-op, while his landlord receives tax abatements that hinge on tenants’ primary residency in the building.

The investigation also questioned Avlon’s Suffolk roots, in which he claims he has lived in Sag Harbor since at least 2009. The Messenger received documents that showed Avlon purchased the Southampton home for $1.5 million in 2017. The house was purchased under Skokiaan, LLC, which is registered to Avlon’s Gramercy Park address.

The Messenger also photographed Avlon entering and leaving his Manhattan co-op multiple times throughout an ordinary week in April, to which Avlon responded in a later request for comment that he and his family were in town for a wedding for Manhattan residents.

Vanity Fair ran an interview with Avlon earlier this year, in which Avlon said he moved back to Sag Harbor full-time and expected his wife and children to join him in the summer, presumably once the school year ended.

Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests done by The Messenger produced Suffolk County Board of Elections voting information that showed Avlon has voted absentee in the last three general elections, with 2022 being a year that involved the open-seat race for NY-01, the very seat he’s running for now.

Avlon made a late start in the campaign over Professor Emerita Nancy Goroff (D-Stony Brook) but won the June primary handily with 70% of the vote.

Before the primary, The Messenger ran a sequel to the story, in which Avlon defended his Suffolk roots and insisted his primary residence is, indeed, Sag Harbor.

Now, the Washington Free Beacon and the New York Post have run stories raising the same questions, adding investigative details of their own.

The Post also mentioned The Messenger as the first to break the story, including the revelation of the tax documents that virtually cement Avlon as a primary resident of Manhattan.

The Messenger reached out to Avlon for comment on the latest findings but received no response.

The Post writes that Avlon “appears to have raked in around $16,000 in tax abatements for his $3.36 million Gramercy Park co-op unit…despite the savings only being eligible to units designated as a primary residence.”

The Post writes that former New York City Finance Department Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff that the condo/co-op tax abatement program puts the “onus of certifying primary residency on the condo owner or co-op tenant shareholder.” Sidamon-Eristoff adds that “making a false certification” of residency could amount to either a misdemeanor or a Class E felony, pursuant to State law.

“That said, my assumption is that the City, upon becoming aware, would likely pursue a claw-back of improperly granted abatements with administrative penalties and interest,” said Sidamon-Eristoff in his interview with The Post.

However, The Post also reveals that Avlon “skimped on his July payment” and had to pay an extra $133.36 in fees the following month, according to the Village of Sag Harbor Property Tax Portal. The Post also reveals Avlon was hit with tax liens of more than $1400 on properties he owned in March 2008 and February 2015.

Avlon faces freshman Congressman Nick LaLota (R), who secured a ten-point win over then-Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming (D-Noyac), who had run for the seat in previous elections.

NY-01 became more competitive after the 2021 redraw, extending all the way to the county line to take in all of Huntington, Smithtown, the five East End towns, and northern Brookhaven. After Democrats sued to invalidate the remedial map drawn by a special master after the New York Court of Appeals overturned a dramatic Democratic gerrymander, a compromise map was enacted. Lines across the state barely moved, but NY-01 became more competitive, taking in more of Republican-leaning southern Brookhaven starting in Shirley, and shedding the bluer parts of Huntington – Lloyd Harbor, Cold Spring Harbor, Huntington hamlet, Huntington Station, Huntington Bay, and Halesite – to next door NY-03, represented by Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove).