Crain's New York Business, August 26, 2024

What happened to renovating Penn Station?

A year after state leaders pledged to kick-start an upgrade, there has been little progress

By Nick Garber and Eddie Small

Ayear ago, the hottest transit question in New York was how to renovate Penn Station. As politicians and developers squabbled over competing proposals, there was one thing almost everybody agreed upon: It was vital to act fast.

BY THE NUMBERS

“We’re no longer tolerating delays,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a June 2023 press conference at the Midtown rail hub. She vowed to press ahead with the state’s $7 billion project to transform the station into a single-level facility with a wide-open entrance hall, even as she shelved a plan to pay for it by permitting new skyscrapers.

The number of daily commuters who navigate Penn Station, the nation’s busiest rail hub

Rail-friendly President Joe Biden’s presence in the White House promised a good shot at securing federal funding. But

Metro-North trains were set to arrive at Penn Station starting in 2027 as part of a separate project, leaving little room for a big renovation. In the governor’s view, New York had a “narrow window” to rebuild the station, her o ce wrote in a con dential memo to local elected o cials in the lead-up to the June event.

But more than a year later, that sense of urgency seems to have dissipated, with little public word from either the state or Italian developer ASTM, whose renovation plan had garnered signi cant support.

Multiple state lawmakers told Crain’s it has been months since they received any signi cant update on the project from the

Adams quietly cuts staff managing city’s urban forests

Funds for 51 parks positions that help maintain New York City forests, wetlands and grassy areas were not included in the FY2025 budget

By Caroline Spivack

e Adams administration has quietly eliminated funding for dozens of parks workers tasked with caring for the city’s forests, wetlands and other natural areas — spaces that are key to mitigating the e ects of climate change and ensuring New Yorkers can

mosquito

safely access nature.

e city’s budget for Fiscal Year 2025 adopted in July cut some $2.5 million in funding that supported 51 positions in a parks department division known as the Natural Resources Group, according to parks advocates with the environmental nonpro ts the Natural Area Conservancy and

LIST A ranking of the largest physician groups in

New Yorkers for Parks who were briefed on the cuts. e sta ers are part of what researchers say is a historically underfunded team of parks workers who care for the city’s 10,000 acres of natural areas, more than a third of the city’s parkland.

A tree limb damaged during a recent storm partially blocks a trail in Van Cortlandt Park. BUCK ENNIS

State leaders have clamored for years to renovate Penn Station. Besides improving the passenger experience, the renovation is also necessary to reduce crowding and improve safety, of cials say. | BUCK ENNIS

Millions of freelance workers in the state win protections as new law takes effect this month

By Nick Garber

Some 2 million freelance workers across New York state will come under new protections starting this month, when the Freelance Isn’t Free Act passed last year goes into e ect.

e law, which takes e ect Aug. 28, aims to address workers’ longstanding complaints of missing and late payments. It requires employers to provide contracts for all freelance work worth more than $800 over a four-month period, and make payments by the due date listed in the contract — or

hiring is entitled to a contract. Number two, you have to pay them on time,” he said in an interview. “If you do those two things, you won’t have any problem whatsoever complying with this law.”

e law contains a few other provisions. Employers will be barred from o ering less money than promised in exchange for a quicker payment — a bait-andswitch that freelancers say is all too common. And the contracts given to freelancers must include information like an itemized list of services being provided, the value of those services and the method of payment.

“Number one, the person you’re hiring is entitled to a contract. Number two, you have to pay them on time.”

State Sen. Andrew Gounardes of Brooklyn

within 30 days of work being completed when no date is listed. It builds o a similar set of policies that New York City enacted in 2017.

Employment law rms have begun warning their clients about the “extensive” scope of the law, which will be enforced by the state attorney general. But Andrew Gounardes, the Brooklyn state senator who sponsored Freelance Isn’t Free, said the provisions are straightforward.

“Number one, the person you’re

SEPT. 18

BEST PLACES TO WORK IN NYC

Annually, Crain’s New York Business ranks the Best Places to Work in New York City. These companies have gone the distance in creating an atmosphere of collegiality, collaboration and caring, whether assigning a mentor to ease each new hire’s transition into the fold, offering paid time off for volunteer work, empowering employees to turn their ideas into projects or hosting company getaways in scenic destinations.

Marriott Marquis,

Little will change for New York City-based employers, who already had to comply with the city law of the same name. But Gounardes said city-based freelancers will now have more options if they feel their rights are being violated, with the ability to now le complaints with the state attorney general in addition to the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.

e state law also allows freelancers to le a civil lawsuit for non-payment or if their employer retaliates against them for exercising their rights. Workers who prove non-payment will be entitled to damages worth twice their promised fee, or $250 in damages if they prove they were never given

a contract. e attorney general can also ne employers up to $25,000 if they have a “pattern or practice” of sti ng freelancers.

e law carves out construction workers, medical professionals and attorneys, none of whom are covered by the new protections. Gov. Kathy Hochul had vetoed a previous version of the Freelance Isn’t Free Act in 2022, saying it would put too much strain on the state’s Department of Labor. But she approved the bill last year after its authors shifted the enforce-

ment burden to the attorney general’s o ce, making New York the second state after Illinois to enact such protections for freelancers.

e law was initially slated to take e ect in May, but Hochul and the Legislature agreed to push the date back to August as part of a socalled “chapter amendment” added early this year after the bill had passed.

e AFL-CIO and International Brotherhood of Teamsters labor unions both lobbied lawmakers on the bill while it was being discussed

last year, as did the National Federation of Independent Business. State records do not specify any of those groups’ positions on the bill Supporters of the law have pointed to a 2022 survey of 400 freelancers nationwide, which found that nearly three-quarters said they do not get paid on time. Nearly 60% said they were owed more than $50,000 for completed work, according to the survey, which was done by the worker’s advocacy group the Independent Economy Council.

New Jersey to eliminate about $100 million in medical debt for nearly 50,000 residents

By Ethan Geringer-Sameth

Some New Jersey residents will see their medical debt eliminated using federal funds from the American Rescue Plan, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Aug. 20.

e state will erase some or all medical debt of close to 50,000 New Jersey residents who together owe roughly $100 million to hospitals, collections agencies, and other entities, his o ce said. Murphy is partnering with Boston-based Undue Medical Debt, a national nonpro t focused on buying and forgiving medical debt, using $550,000 from the American Rescue Plan.

e move would eliminate debt for nearly 18,000 people owing $61.6 million to hospitals owned by Ontario, California-based Prime Healthcare, which has more than a dozen sites in the state. e state will also eliminate $38.4 million in debt for more than 31,000 residents who owe to collectors and other players in the secondary debt market.

e initiative is funded using part of a broader $10 million American Rescue Plan allocation for medical debt forgiveness in

the state budget, according to Maggie Garbarino, a spokeswoman for Murphy.

Qualifying debt

Undue partnered with Prime Healthcare to acquire qualifying debt belonging to people living in poverty, according to a press release from Murphy’s o ce. Medical debt is often sold in large, bundled portfolios at a steep fraction of its face value, according

to Undue spokesman Daniel Lempert. e organization was able to purchase the full debt sum of $100 million using the state's allocation, he said.

New Jerseyans earning four times below the federal poverty line or who owe more than 5% of their annual income to medical providers or collectors will qualify for relief. Residents need not apply. Undue will purchase debt portfolios from Prime Healthcare and clear the debt automatically, according

New York City partnered with Undue Medical Debt to delete $2 billion worth of medical debt for 500,000 New Yorkers using an $18 million allocation.

to Murphy’s o ce. ose who qualify for relief may receive a notice letter as soon as this week.

In January, New York City partnered with Undue Medical Debt (at that time known as RIP Medical Debt) to delete $2 billion worth of medical debt for 500,000 New Yorkers using an $18 million allocation. Last month, Murphy signed legislation that prohibits medical debt collectors from reporting to credit agencies and limits how much interest they can collect, among other things. New Jersey is one of ve states that both prohibits such medical debt reporting and has also funded a relief program, according to the governor’s o ce.

State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, sponsor of the Freelance Isn’t Free Act, said the law boils down to on-time payments and clear contracts.

You know the rat czar.

Now, meet the mosquito baron, Dr. Waheed Bajwa.

As head of the city’s Of ce of Vector Surveillance and Control, he is responsible for controlling West Nile virus in the ve boroughs

Ethan Geringer-Sameth

e 2,200-acre, marsh-covered swath of northwest Staten Island known as Fresh Kills has always been a dumping ground. On a recent Wednesday afternoon, the now-defunct land ll was the recipient of thousands of pounds of pesticides dropped from a helicopter owned by the city Health Department. e target was millions of mosquito larvae and the man who ordered the deluge, Dr. Waheed Bajwa, head of the city’s O ce of Vector Surveillance and Control, was trying to save human lives.

cases of West Nile fever — a syndrome caused by the virus — have gone undocumented.

“We are not killing mosquitoes. We are killing, actually, vectors of disease.”

Dr. Waheed Bajwa

Bajwa is responsible for, among other things, controlling West Nile virus in the ve boroughs, the issue he was hired to address in the early aughts when the virus still vexed public health o cials. Sixty-one people have died from the disease since it rst appeared in the city in 1999. Each year, as few as three and as many as several dozen infections are reported, but the Health Department estimates more than 12,000

Bajwa is among the majority of scientists who believe changing global temperatures has led to a rise in several deadly mosquito-borne illnesses. New York City saw its own surge two years ago when 46 cases were recorded, an uptick in infections he suspects was driven by a new variant of West Nile. This year, the city experienced record heat in the first months of summer.

e vector lab has identi ed the virus in more than 1,000 samples of mosquitoes collected from testing sites around the city so far this year.

ere is no treatment for West Nile virus and no human vaccine. While most cases are harmless, severe infections can cause swelling of the brain and spinal cord. Roughly one in 150 cases impact the central nervous system and 10% of those are fatal, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

e primary method of controlling the virus has been to eradicate the mosquitoes that carry it. But mosquito breeding never stops and the work must begin again year after year. Bajwa believes if his o ce eased up, there would be billions more pests each year and the number of deaths would likely rise.

“We are not killing mosquitoes. We are killing, actually, vectors of disease,” he said over the thwack of helicopter rotors.

Bajwa leads a team of 13 people with a lean $3.5 million budget. They spend the year collecting, testing and exterminating mosquitoes on a mass scale. The office, which also specializes in other diseaseladen pests like ticks and fleas, has surveyed the entire city to locate breeding grounds, from sprawling swamps to flood -

ed lawns. During the summer months, the team spends long days spreading pesticides — by hand or truck in residential areas, and helicopter over the wetlands. e mosquitoes' territory is not homogeneous and di erent species tend to gravitate to di erent neighborhoods. ey are particularly attracted to single-family homes, Bajwa said, where backyards and front lawns accumulate water. In 2022, the Health Department received 1,200 complaints of standing water on a property and issued 448 violations, according to a report from the o ce.

Mosquitos thrive in those neighborhoods, Bajwa said, adding, “but not in, like, posh areas of the city.”

Dr. Waheed Bajwa | BUCK ENNIS

Pesticides dropped from city Health Department helicopters help control the area’s mosquito population. BUCK ENNIS

Thai investor picks up second-to-last sponsor unit at Billionaires Row hotel for $20.3 million

The 3,700-square-foot condo has two bedrooms, two baths and a home of ce, but no terrace

C. J. Hughes

One more down, one to go. e Aman New York Residences, the blockbuster 22-unit condo atop the Aman hotel at 730 Fifth Ave. on Billionaires Row, has unloaded its second-tolast sponsor unit.

No. 16B, a two-bedroom, closed Aug. 14 for $20.3 million, according to a deed that appeared in the city register on Aug. 20.

$20M

contract May 15, is a bit of an exception. ough it too was ocially snapped up by a limited liability company, Crown NY 16B, that company’s sole member is spelled out on the deed as Apex Equity Ventures Co., a Bangkok, ailand-based entity. And its director, according to the register, is Cattaliya Beevor, whose signature also appears on the ling.

16B at 730

A veil of secrecy has shrouded several aspects of the condo project, which was developed by a team led by the Vladislav Doronin-helmed OKO Group of Florida. For starters, OKO did not publicly market the condo. And most of the buyers in

OKO Group has said the last sponsor unit is in contract. A $900 million sell-out for the building is expected.

the tower, which set sales records, cloaked their identities behind shell companies.

But No. 16B, which went into

For her part, Beevor seems to be a major investor in ailand-based companies focused on renewable energy and other sectors. Among her investments is Green Tech Ventures, a Bangkok-based conglomerate whose holdings include utility companies and real estate across Southeast Asia as well as a cryptocurrency mining operation in Laos, according to the rm’s website. Beevor is the largest individual shareholder in publicly traded Green Tech Ventures, owning nearly 4% of the company’s stock, according to a regulatory ling from January. Assisting Beevor with the Aman transaction was real estate attorney Steven Carlyle Cronig, a part-

ner at Coral Gables, Florida-based rm Hinshaw & Culbertson, according to the deed. A phone message left for Cronig at his o ce was not returned by press time, and Beevor could not be independently reached.

Based on the condo’s o ering plan, No. 16B has two bedrooms, two baths and a home o ce across about 3,700 square feet, though it does not have a terrace as some of the units do.

With its sale, only one sponsor unit, No. 25A, a four-bedroom with ve baths and a home o ce, remains, according to the city register; the OKO Group has said that the unit is in contract. A $900 million sell-out for the building is expected.

e building has seen other kinds of sales activity. Earlier this summer an owner with links to several executives at Facebook parent Meta completed the rst

successful ip at the condo, when they resold No. 23A for $64 million a few months after shelling out $51 million for the fourbedroom unit, which resulted in a 25% haul.

e condo, which is located at West 57th Street inside the 25story former Crown o ce building, also contains an 83-unit hotel that was considered New York’s priciest when it opened in summer 2022.

Ex-Visa president sells Carnegie Hill townhouse for $12.2M

C. J. Hughes

Hans Morris, who headed Visa when the credit card giant completed its enormous $20 billion IPO, has sold his Carnegie Hill townhouse.

e 7,100-square-foot, prewar property, which is located at 15 E. 93rd St. near Central Park, traded for $12.2 million, according to a deed that appeared in the city register on Aug. 20. e six-bedroom, stoop-fronted home went into contract June 18 and closed Aug. 14, the deed says.

Morris and his wife, Kate, a banker turned philanthropist, had asked $15.9 million last summer when initially listing the home, which sits between Fifth and Madison avenues. But twice they had to decrease the price to sell the 1892 structure, which also features ve full and two half baths, an entire oor dedicated to the primary suite plus a paneled library, and a 700-square-foot, bluestone-lined backyard.

Hints of strength

Although the nal result was 25% less than what the Morrises sought, the couple does seem to

have come out ahead, after paying about $7 million for the property in 1994, according to the register.

e buyer, shell company 201 Quincy LLC, which borrowed $8.5 million from JPMorgan Chase to nance the deal, was represented by real estate attorney Robert Frankel, a partner at the New York

rm Cohen & Frankel. A phone message left for Frankel was not returned by press time.

And the agents for the two brokerages that co-marketed the property, George Vanderploeg of Douglas Elliman and Susan Baker of Sotheby’s International Realty, both declined to comment, so it’s

time. Morris stayed on at Visa until 2010, when he reportedly exited with a $24 million package.

unclear which of them can take credit for the sale.

A longtime executive in Citi’s investment banking division, Morris was recruited by Visa in 2007 to serve as the president as the company consolidated various divisions and prepared for the public o ering, the largest ever at the

Since 2014 Morris has served as managing director of Nyca Partners, a venture-capital rm focused on ntech startups with 80 companies under its belt, according to Nyca’s website. He also chairs the board of Lending Club, a peer-to-peer bank often used for resolving credit-card debt. After stagnating for many months amid elevated interest rates, home-sale activity showed hints of strength in the spring, as sellers and buyers seem to have come to terms with the fact that loan costs won’t drop dramatically soon.

The sale price for No.

730 Fifth Ave., Midtown | BUCK ENNIS

Be in the room as we break news live on stage.

Kathy Hochul’s DNC speech points to her biggest strength

The governor, unlike her predecessors, has invested in building a functional statewide organization for the New York Democratic Party

Kathy Hochul, like New York Democratic governors before her, secured a speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention.

Hochul could use the boost; her poll numbers are middling at best and she has attracted scorn on both the left and right. While congestion pricing is broadly unpopular across the state, her decision to inde nitely pause the program infuriated transit advocates, city progressives and certain real estate and business interests. She still has not explained how she is going to close the budget gaps that congestion pricing revenue was supposed to ll.

their candidates in the suburban swing districts that might decide control of that chamber next year. is does not mean scuttling the tolling scheme was good policy — it really wasn’t — but it does mean Hochul is the rst governor in decades who cares earnestly about electing Democrats. Eliot Spitzer did, but he only lasted a year, with a prostitution scandal ending his governorship in 2008. Andrew and his father, Mario, served as governor of New York for a combined 23 years, and both were content to let the state Democratic party rot away.

But Hochul does di er from her immediate predecessors, especially Andrew Cuomo, in one particular way that may eventually buoy her political prospects: She’s a good Democrat. Congestion pricing was shut down, in part, because Hakeem Je ries, the House minority leader, and national Democrats feared it would hurt

Mario Cuomo today is remembered as a liberal icon for his own stirring speech at the 1984 convention. Hochul can’t reach those heights. But in New York, the elder Cuomo rarely campaigned to help Democrats in the state Senate break the GOP’s stranglehold on the majority. He did not aggressively fundraise for the party, either, and even hoarded campaign cash that could have gone to down-ballot candidates.

His son went much further, fundraising almost exclusively for his own campaigns while actively helping Republicans keep their majority. In 2012, after Democrats had won enough seats to secure a majority in the state Senate, Cuomo quietly encouraged a dissident faction of Democrats known as the Independent Democratic Conference to form a power-sharing agreement with the GOP.

e state Democratic Party withered further under Cuomo, serving as little more than a shell organization for his own gubernatorial campaigns. He spent little time, until running for his third term, stumping for legislative and congressional Democrats. In Albany, he oversaw a 2012 redistricting process that was designed to, at the very minimum, undercut Democrats who wanted favorable or even neutral lines drawn for their state legislative and congressional districts.

Hochul has taken a very di erent approach. She has hired full-time sta for the state party, including a communications director, data director and voter protection director. Since the start of 2023, she

has pumped $5.5 million into the party, much of it dedicated to a campaign coordinated with Jeffries and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to boost congressional candidates.

Less ashy local campaigns

Direct mail and voter outreach are underway, and the state party has begun involving itself in less ashy local campaigns, like D.A.’s races in Columbia County and Dutchess County, and the ipping of the Binghamton City Council.

e party has also distributed more than a half million dollars, overall, to local Democratic parties across the state.

None of this is groundbreaking, and all of it is done, to a much greater degree, in states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. While

New York is not a swing state at the presidential level, 2022 revealed that the congressional majority will run through Long Island and the Hudson Valley. at alone makes New York far more important than a typical state that overwhelmingly votes Democratic. Hochul, to her credit, understands this, and New York is getting a functional statewide party organization. If anything else, she can boast about this at the DNC. It’s been a long, strange road for Democrats in New York, and Hochul’s bid to rebuild the party infrastructure makes her much more like the other Democratic governors in America who want to see their party win. Cuomo-style triangulation has fallen out of style — perhaps for good.

Ross Barkan is a journalist and author in New York City.

Watchdog wants Hochul to reject city’s $500 million commercial tax break over questions on its effectiveness

By Nick Garber

is spring, state lawmakers quietly extended a generous commercial tax break that costs New York City hundreds of millions of dollars each year despite questions about its e ectiveness. Now a scal watchdog group is urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to reject the renewal.

e Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program reduces taxes for developers who build new commercial projects or renovate existing buildings in the city. e current version, established in 2008, fully exempts taxes for as long as 16 years for some projects, then phases out the abatement over another few years — with the exact bene t varying depending on the location and type of project.

New York City lost $503 million to the abatement in the last scal year, according to the Department of Finance. ICAP’s biggest beneciaries included Tishman Speyer, whose tower at 28-10 Queens Plaza South got a $16.6 million exemption; and Citibank, which was forgiven $8.8 million on its Tribeca headquarters. is “as-of-right” subsidy is automatically given to any projects that qualify, and its size has bal-

looned over time — ICAP cost the city just $28 million in scal year 2016. Around the same time, the City Council released an evaluation that found only 3.6% of ICAP recipients required the tax breaks for their projects to be nancially feasible, calling its necessity into question.

Voted almost unanimously

Yet in June, the state Legislature voted almost unanimously to extend ICAP for another four years, at the request of Mayor Eric Adams — a year before the program was supposed to expire, in March 2025.

e independent Citizens Budget Commission is now calling on the governor to veto the extension or limit it to just one year to allow for a study of its e ectiveness.

“ e rushed, under-the-radar ICAP extension continues the state’s poor practice of preserving economic development tax incentive programs without proof they work — or in some cases, despite evidence they are ine ective,”

CBC President Andrew Rein wrote in a letter to Hochul, which was rst reported by New York Focus

In fact, the city’s own Independent Budget O ce has been pre-

paring an evaluation of ICAP, which is expected to be released later this year.

e Related Cos., Tishman Speyer and the Real Estate Board of New York all lobbied lawmakers on the extension this year, records show. REBNY spokesman Chris Santarelli said in a statement that ICAP is “critical to ensuring that New York continues to attract high-paying employers and the daytime foot tra c that is essential for vibrant commercial business districts.”

e Adams administration pushed the extension based on fears that letting ICAP expire would cause a sudden surge in electricity prices. Regulators who set electricity prices in New York City consider the property tax rates paid by power plants, according to a memo from the bill’s sponsors. (No such power plants currently receive the break, New York Focus noted.)

Ryan Lavis, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Finance, said in a statement that ICAP’s extension is “necessary” for that reason.

“Reforming ICAP continues to be a key focus for this administration, and we are committed to working with our partners in the

Citibank was forgiven about $9 million in property taxes on its Tribeca headquarters last year thanks to ICAP, a bene t renewed by state lawmakers in June despite questions about its effectiveness. | BLOOMBERG

state to address equitable reform,” Lavis added.

Hochul has until the end of the year to act on the bill from the Legislature but has not yet called it up to her desk.

Tax abatements like ICAP are set at the state level, even as they take money out of the city’s coffers. Current City Council leaders have voiced support for reassessing some of the state’s multitude of abatements and incentives in hopes of saving money, but the

highly entrenched system — supported by lobbying and justi ed by economic development claims — shows few signs of going away. Other ICAP bene ciaries in the last scal year, according to city records, included Brook eld Properties’ 450 West 33rd St. ($7.2 million forgiven taxes), SL Green’s 1515 Broadway ($6.7 million) and the Irvine Cos. and Tishman Speyer’s 200 Park Ave., better known as the MetLife Building ($6.1 million).

Ross Barkan

Gov. Kathy Hochul is accomplishing something Cuomo never did. BLOOMBERG

State regulators to review Con Edison charging city customers double for gas what National Grid does

By Caroline Spivack

e state Public Service Commission said it intends to review new analysis from Rep. Ritchie Torres nding that Con Edison charges users double for gas in the city compared to customers served by rival utility National Grid.

In a review of gas bills across the boroughs, Torres’ o ce said it found “egregious disparities” over the last two years in the service delivery rates charged by Con Edison compared to National Grid. Both utilities have similar supply costs — the price of buying energy from wholesale markets — but their

“The status quo of arbitrarily higher delivery rates cannot be allowed to stand.”

fees for delivering the energy to customers can vary, according to the report released Aug. 18. State regulators said the following day they would review the report.

e report found that Con Edison, which serves Manhattan, the

Bronx and part of Queens, charges between 92 cents and $1.29 per a thermal unit of gas. National Grid, meanwhile, charges its customers in Queens and Brooklyn between 45 cents and 54 cents per a thermal unit; the utility also serves Staten Island but the review did not include that borough.

Rate differences add up

ose rate di erences can add up in a big way for property owners. For example, Con Edison charged one Bronx multi-unit property roughly $7,300 for about 3,800 thermal units of gas between September and October in 2023; as part of the fees, the delivery charge was more than $5,600, the report found. In Brooklyn, Torres’ review found that National Grid charged a similar property using roughly the same amount of gas, some $2,800 for service between April and May 2023, and the delivery portion of the charge was just over $1,800.

“ e status quo of arbitrarily higher delivery rates cannot be allowed to stand,” Torres wrote in an Aug. 16 letter to Public Service Commission Chair and CEO Rory Christian. He urged the commis-

sion to investigate.

Con Edison spokesman Allan Drury did not dispute the utility’s higher costs but noted that energy delivery rates can vary for several reasons. ose include the level of service provided to customers, the geography of an area and the timing of annual state-approved rate hikes. Drury also pointed to Con Edison’s investments in local gas infrastructure.

ere isn’t a one-size- ts-all formula for costs across utilities, said James Den, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Public Service, which includes the Public Service Commission. He pointed to a mix of factors such as di erences in utility operations, the number of energy plants in use, property taxes and corporate structures that can factor into the cost di erences.

National Grid customers across

New York City, in fact, will soon face higher gas bills. As of Sept. 1, customers who use the utility’s gas to heat their properties will, on average, see an extra $30 charged to their monthly bills in Brooklyn, parts of Queens and Staten Island. State regulators approved the rate hike last week largely to pay for $5 billion in new investments National Grid intends to make into New York’s gas system.

U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres

A review of gas bills across the boroughs found “egregious disparities” over the last two years in the service delivery rates charged by Con Edison compared to National Grid. BUCK ENNIS

For Penn commuters, a significant overhaul of the station must stay on track

It was a hopeful moment. Last summer, in a press conference in dark and dreary Penn Station, Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed, “We’re no longer tolerating delays.”

She promised to press ahead with the state’s $7 billion plan to transform the station into a modern, single-level facility with a wide-open entrance hall, taking advantage of what she described in an internal memo as a “narrow window” to capitalize on a transit-friendly presidential administration and close on a long-awaited overhaul of the nation’s busiest rail hub.

More than a year later, that sense of urgency has faded, and there are few public signs of progress. It appears the state has returned to business as usual: taking a slow-walk approach to the thorniest of problems. Fixing Penn Station will require bold, visionary, decisive leadership, and Hochul should seize that mantle to deliver a project that would signi cantly improve the lives of more than half a million daily commuters.

Multiple state lawmakers told Crain’s

that it has been months since they’ve received a signi cant update on the project from the governor’s o ce, and Hochul has yet to follow through on a suggestion that she might open up the process to proposals from private developers instead of leaving it in the hands of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, as Nick Garber and Eddie Small reported recently.

Messy squabble

State leaders have clamored for years to renovate the gloomy station beneath Madison Square Garden, and a variety of proposals have shown promise, including a zzled plan to fund the work with tax proceeds from new o ce towers. Momentum built last year for another private-sector-fueled plan, led by Italian developer ASTM, but emails obtained by Crain’s show those discussions devolved into a messy squabble between the rm and the MTA, with the state struggling to play referee.

e MTA, which would lose some authority over the renovation if a private

developer entered the picture, disparaged the ASTM plan as a waste of money and a giveaway to the Garden. A lobbyist for the developer red back, lovingly referring to MTA Chairman Janno Lieber by his rst name: “For Janno to shit on us and MSG takes away any opportunity for a fair com-

Silent hazard in the construction industry needs our attention

Mental wellness and suicide prevention are not easy topics for anyone to discuss. Suicide is a quiet killer, and in a gritty industry like construction, mental wellness too often connotes weakness for harddriving workers relying on toughness to earn their paychecks.

Yet data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the construction industry at or near the top of professions where suicide is the leading cause of death. In 2022 alone, 6,428 construction workers died from suicide.

ese workers are nearly six times more likely to die from suicide than from job site-related injuries and four times more likely than the average American.

construction workers in the U.S. have a substance abuse disorder compared to 8.6% of the general population of adults, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Yes, construction workers are more likely to die from suicide than from all job-site accidents, including falls, struck-by, caught in-between and electrocutions.

Substance abuse plays a signi cant role, often arising from a variety of job pressures, the inherently dangerous nature of the work, chronic pain, uctuations in the economy and not knowing where the next paycheck is coming from. Nearly 15% of all

e Building Trades Employers’ Association (BTEA), representing 1,200 union contractors in New York, is recommending a package of policy proposals calling on the city to track suicides more closely in the construction industry and to include mental wellness education in all required site safety trainings and worker safety orientations.

is package is the rst of its kind in New York City as no local legislation has ever been considered or passed previously, speaking to the lack of awareness of this crisis.

Among the BTEA’s most critical proposals is its mandate for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to report annually on suicides categorized by industry. We cannot tackle the construction industry’s suicide problem unless stakeholders have a rm grasp on the scope of the crisis.

Our industry is proposing that the New York City Department of Buildings incorpo-

petition even if there was one put forward.” e prospect of the MTA leading the way on a new Penn Station has looked even more grim since June, thanks to Hochul’s abrupt and ill-considered halt to the agency’s congestion pricing program, the linchpin of its nances.

“It feels like our chance to do something truly grand is slipping away,” noted Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. “I don’t want to wait yet another decade for transformation.”

After 14 months of “tolerating delays,” it’s time for Hochul to step up to the plate with a real plan for the beleaguered station. e improvements are necessary to boost passenger experience but also to reduce crowding and improve rider safety. With local companies still working to encourage their employees to come back to Midtown and other central business districts, a prospect that would boost the fortunes of surrounding businesses, a dismal commute can’t keep standing in the way. For the bene t of Penn’s 600,000 daily commuters, the governor must move full steam ahead.

rate mental wellness into its Site Safety Training Program. ere are currently 390,000 construction workers in New York City who have received site safety training with no mental wellness component. is amounts to a woefully antiquated approach that fails to account for everything we have learned about construction industry suicides in recent years.

Going further, the BTEA proposes that mental wellness be part of on-site safety orientations across the board, and that the Occupational Safety & Health Administration incorporate mental wellness into its OSHA-10 and OSHA-30 training regimens.

Finally, Naloxone (Narcan) should be available on larger construction sites to treat drug overdoses. Naloxone can help restore breathing and reverse the sedation and unconsciousness that are common during an opioid overdose.

Ignoring the reality of opioid overdose in New York construction will not solve the problem. In those rare instances on the job site, being at-footed can mean losing a life.

BTEA contractors are at the forefront in recognizing that more needs to be done to care for the total wellness of our work-

force.  ere is more focus in training workers to understand when a colleague is in distress and buy the time necessary to connect them with the appropriate professional care.  ese interventions have prevented tragedies on a number of occasions. e construction industry is calling on government leaders to enact the changes to improve mental wellness outcomes and save lives.

More contractors, labor leaders, real estate owners, and developers are recognizing the scale of this crisis and are acknowledging the need to address total wellness in the construction industry. Let’s raise awareness, reduce the stigma around mental wellness and save lives — keeping workers and their families together for the long run. It’s time for our government leaders to step up and provide better protections for our vulnerable construction workers, who serve as the bedrock of our country’s economy, with the support that they need and deserve.

Penn Station commuters deserve a real plan for repairing the beleaguered station, Crain’s editors write. | BUCK ENNIS

Elizabeth Crowley is president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers’ Association.

Elizabeth Crowley, president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers’ Association, calls on the city to track suicides in the construction industry and include mental wellness education in required site safety training. | ANGUS MORDANT/BLOOMBERG

PERSONAL VIEW

Now

is the

time for bold climate action, not half-measures

APew Research Center survey from 2022 found that a signi cant majority of people, 69%, favored the U.S. taking steps to become carbon neutral by 2050. New Yorkers, in particular, understand the urgency of this goal. ey’ve witnessed the direct impacts of climate change, such as rising sea levels and severe storms that have ooded streets and subways, bringing the city to a standstill. Buildings are New York’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for roughly 70% of the total. is challenge extends beyond New York; globally, buildings are responsible for 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. To e ectively tackle the climate crisis, we need widespread adoption of building decarbonization initiatives. So, why is the city considering weakening one of the most ambitious climate action plans, Local Law 97?

narrow perspective will cost the city and its residents far more in the long run, as it often does. e proposed measures in Intro 772 will set New York back in its ght against climate change and cause the city to lag behind its peers.

LL97 mandates that most buildings over 25,000 square feet adhere to new energy e ciency and greenhouse gas emissions limits starting in 2024, with stricter limits set for 2030. However, Intro 772 would exempt 33% of the city’s housing stock from these regulations. e changes would allow co-ops and condos to include gardens and other green spaces in their carbon emissions calculations and permit the courts to consider a building’s median property value when determining penalties and nes. is adjustment would enable buildings to emit more carbon while facing fewer penalties.

ings’ prescriptive energy conservation measure requirement list.

Intro 772 proposes changes to Local Law 97 (LL97), allowing some buildings to count ground- oor open and green spaces in their square footage when calculating carbon emissions, enabling them to bypass necessary carbon-reduction measures. While some may view Intro 772 as a cost-saving measure in the short term, this

PERSONAL VIEW

is bill is gaining momentum in the City Council, with 24 out of 51 council members supporting it. It follows other recent attempts to roll back climate action, such as halting congestion pricing and defanging an impactful energy e ciency measure—individual apartment temperature controls—from the a ordable build-

If LL97 is diluted, New York City will fall behind cities like Washington, D.C., and Boston, which have implemented aggressive climate action plans. If these cities can achieve this, so can New York. By decarbonizing buildings and prioritizing sustainability, we can realize cost savings, create healthier communities, and meet critical benchmarks. Backtracking on climate legislation now will not support our future livability—something UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized during a climate address in New York this June.

New York City has historically been an early adopter of climate action, even hosting a global sustainability summit 17 years ago for the C40 network, which includes nearly 100 mayors from the world’s leading cities united in confronting the climate crisis.

Why we’re joining the fight for longer lives for all New Yorkers

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, constant sirens reverberating through deserted New York City streets alerted us to the dire public health crisis that was unfolding. While those times are behind us, the impact of the virus is not. Tragically, Covid-19 and other causes have signi cantly reduced the lifespan of New Yorkers and seriously impacted population health.

Before the pandemic, the average life expectancy for New York City residents had reached a high of 82.6 years. But by 2020, it plummeted to 78 years. Today, life expectancy has begun to improve, with 2.7 years gained back (from 78 to 80.7 years) from 2020 to 2021, largely due to declining rates of COVID-19 deaths. While this two-year shortfall is alarming, for Black and Latino New Yorkers the numbers are even worse, with an average life expectancy of 78.6 years.

Dr. Ayman El-Mohandes is a pediatrician, epidemiologist, and the dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. Karen Ignagni is the CEO of EmblemHealth, one of the nation’s largest not-for-pro t health insurers, serving more than three million people in New York City and the tristate area.

ed to meaningfully increase lifespan beyond where it was prior to Covid-19. As part of the city’s recovery, the Health Department has launched the HealthyNYC campaign. Its goal is to help city residents live longer and healthier lives, address the lifespan de cit that the pandemic wrought, and close gaps in life expectancy across various populations. Our ambitious goals include increasing the average life expectancy to 83 years of age, while improving the quality of life for all New Yorkers by 2030.

We must stay the course. Relaxing regulations will signi cantly hinder New York’s sustainability goals and send a message of lack of support to individuals and companies leading carbon reduction e orts. To build a sustainable future, New York must uphold and strengthen its climate regulations, demonstrating bold leadership and a commitment to environmental stewardship. Now is the time for decisive action to create a more sustainable future for our city and our planet.

And the story doesn’t end there. Rising rates of mortality from non-Covid-19-related causes — chronic disease, violence, maternal mortality, overdose, and more — indicate that a collective e ort is need-

e Health Department is appropriately challenging a variety of organizations—in the private sector, philanthropic institutions, community organizations, and more—to take action to help achieve these goals. e Department has laid out the vision, and it is up to community partners to collaborate to realize that vision. CUNY and EmblemHealth are examples of the disparate organizations that must come together under the HealthyNYC campaign, integrate these goals into our business plans, and help make change happen.

As an educational institution located in the most severely impacted neighborhoods in the city, the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) is championing this e ort by training and equipping the next generation of public health leaders to use community-centered, equity-focused approaches to prevent disease, promote health, and work using evidence-based approaches.

As a HealthyNYC champion, CUNY SPH will also provide expertise and scholarship on the root causes contributing to shortened life spans for so many New Yorkers, as well as the inequities associated with disparities in life expectancy and quality of life. Our research and advocacy around the reduction of infant and maternal mortality, food insecurity, infectious diseases, health literacy, substance use, mental health, and the health impacts of climate change will be applied directly to ensure our fellow New Yorkers are equipped to live their healthiest lives.

EmblemHealth is proud to support this e ort through targeted programs designed to address chronic diseases. We have a

unique, close-to-the-community delivery system through our neighborhood care centers across the city, where we provide in-person and virtual support, connecting New Yorkers to community resources focused on keeping them out of the health care system. We provide support with a wide variety of needs, including food insecurity, housing, and transportation. Our wellness programming is aligned with the goals of HealthyNYC and, given locations in the most severely impacted neighborhoods in the city, neighborhood care centers are well positioned to support the Health Department’s e orts. With the right support and resources, New Yorkers can lower their risk of preventable disease and premature death. Join HealthyNYC and get involved in helping make this vision a reality. A healthier city is a stronger city, and that’s a goal we can all get behind.

Marshall Cox is co-founder and CEO of Kelvin, a New York City-based climate tech company.

Diluting Local Law 97 puts New York City at risk of falling behind cities like Washington, D.C., and Boston, which have implemented aggressive climate action plans, writes Marshall Cox, co-founder and CEO of climate startup Kelvin.

| BLOOMBERG

The city Health Department is appropriately challenging a variety of organizations to take action and help achieve its goals write Dr. Ayman El-Mohandes, dean of CUNY SPH, and Karen Ignagni, CEO of EmblemHealth. | BLOOMBERG

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

BUSINESS / TECHNOLOGY

Orion Innovation

Cyrus Lam joins Orion Innovation as Chief Financial Of cer.

Cyrus brings over three decades of nancial leadership experience to Orion, with a strong background in the technology and professional services sectors. Previously, he was CFO at CDI LLC and has spent 26 years at KPMG, rising to Managing Director in the Corporate Finance LLC’s Technology Group. He holds a Master’s in Commerce from Sydenham College, Mumbai, and is a Chartered Accountant.

CONSTRUCTION

Contractors’

Association of Greater New York, Inc. (CAGNY)

The Contractors’ Association of Greater New York, Inc. (CAGNY), a multiemployer association composed of some of the top construction managers and general contractors in New York City, has announced Aislinn S. McGuire as the group’s new managing director. Aislinn previously served as the group’s general counsel for more than a decade and is a partner at Kauff McGuire & Margolis LLP (KMM), a law rm which focuses exclusively on management side labor and employment and immigration law.

ENGINEERING

JB&B

KeyBank

HEALTH CARE

VNS Health

Rory Creegan, PE, joins JB&B as their newest Director of HVAC in the New York City of ce, bringing nearly twenty years of experience from high-rise healthcare new construction to commercial of ce t-out projects. Rory has led a range of healthcare projects in New York/New Jersey, is a nationally featured conference speaker, and has been published in the Mid-Atlantic and New York Real Estate Journals. JB&B welcomes his collaborative mindset and commitment to innovative engineering solutions.

Rahwa Teklai joins Key Private Bank as Market Leader in Eastern PA and Hudson Valley/Metro NY. She will lead teams in both markets responsible for leveraging KeyBank’s nancial capabilities for high-net worth clients. Teklai brings 25+ years of experience to Key, most recently from PNC Private Bank. She also held positions with Lincoln Financial Group, MetLife, TIAA-CREF and Vanguard. Rahwa holds a B.S. in Finance from Penn State University and is a Certi ed Financial Planner®.

Brenda Riordan has joined home and community-based nonpro t VNS Health as Senior Vice President, Home Health Care and Care Management Solutions. With 25+ years’ experience in the public and private sectors of healthcare, she brings expertise in home health, including 12 years at Encompass Health, where she spearheaded company-wide operational, clinical and workforce initiatives. Brenda is an Occupational Therapist by background.

Here’s why it costs the city $3,300 to plant a tree

By Caroline Spivack

THE ISSUE

WHAT’S NEXT

THE ADAMS ADMINISTRATION in its climate blueprint said it aims to bring the city’s tree canopy coverage to 30% — up from some 22%. The city doesn’t have a speci c timeline to achieve that goal. In the meantime, the Parks Department says that due to a $136 million investment included in the city’s budget for scal year 2023, the agency expects to plant a tree in “every viable spot in most heat-vulnerable neighborhoods” by 2027. A lack of trees in neighborhoods is a common denominator for a greater risk of death — some 350 New Yorkers die prematurely each year due to sti ing weather.

THE CHALLENGES

MAYBE YOUR FAVORITE TREE is a stately pin oak or a London plane tree that greets you every time you step outside, or there’s a lush row of American elm trees you walk slightly out of your way to enjoy. The city’s more than 5.7 million trees beautify blocks, boost property values and play an increasingly important role in addressing climate change by cleaning the air, cooling streets and buildings, sopping up oodwaters and capturing planet-warming carbon. And trees are an investment with staying power; the city’s oldest planted tree is supposedly an enormous tulip tree in Alley Park Pond in Queens that was a sapling more than 350 years ago. Planting more trees and preserving the ones we already have is perhaps more important now than ever, but it’s not as simple as plopping a sapling in some soil and watering it. Growing the city’s urban forest — 53% of the city’s trees fall under the purview of the city’s Parks Department — is timeconsuming and costly. In scal year 2024, which just ended in June, the average cost for the city to plant a tree was an eye-popping $3,300, according to the Parks Department.

THE PLAYERS

FOR STREET TREES IN PARTICULAR, foresters with the city’s Parks Department survey planting spots to ensure a tree can survive there and that its roots won’t interfere with the spaghetti of underground infrastructure. One of the city’s planting contractors may have to cut out a chunk of sidewalk or have a dead tree stump removed. There are more than 130 types of trees the city uses for curbside planting, and a variety of factors help determine which one to plant. Among the most common new plantings are Thornless Honeylocust, Swamp White Oak and European Hornbeam trees. Parks workers source the trees from local growers and plant them between February and March or September and October.

The job doesn’t end there. The city contractor that planted the tree must conduct regular maintenance on it for two years, for things like replacing missing soil, weed removal and pruning. New trees are pretty easily spotted by the two wooden stakes installed on either side of them for support. Some also come with tags declaring “I’m your new tree” with the name of the tree species and a QR code that the city uses to track contractor maintenance. New Yorkers can also request street trees to be planted for free, by going through the city’s tree service request system or by calling 311.

THE ADAMS ADMINISTRATION HAS MADE noteworthy progress on growing the city’s tree canopy with 17,678 tree plantings along streets and in landscaped parks this past scal year; another 18,000 were planted in the city’s more wild “natural areas” — think forests, wetlands and grasslands, according to city data shared with Crain’s This past scal year marks the third in which the Parks Department has increased the number of trees planted in the city. The more than 35,000 new trees represent the largest tree planting total in the last eight years, and 7,301 of the new trees were planted in heat-vulnerable neighborhoods and parks. But some researchers and parks advocates say that onerous city contracting processes and red tape contribute to higherthan-necessary costs compared to the private sector.

“Contractors know that when it comes to working with the city, it can often be painful to get paid and timeconsuming to deal with the city's own requirements — they price all of those things in,” said Eli Dvorkin, the editorial and policy director for The Center For An Urban Future, a nonpartisan policy organization.

Budget cuts also threaten maintenance work that ensures the city's trees stay healthy in the years ahead. The Parks Department received about $20 million less this budget season than it did the previous year. “They are constantly having to do more with less, and that is a really big challenge,” said Tami LinMoges, the interim New York Cities program director at The Nature Conservancy, which convened and leads the Forest for All NYC coalition.

“The funding is so variable year to year as well, and that really impacts overall operations and longer-term planning because, again, trees are living organisms and you need to plan ahead,” Lin-Moges added.

Several variables go into the price tag for planting a tree, but on the private side, things tend to be a bit cheaper. Brooklyn-based Arborpolitan Tree & Garden Care typically charges clients between $1,200 and $1,600 to plant a street tree, according to Ethan Wood, an arborist with Arborpolitan The company sells maintenance packages that can be as little as $150 or as high as $400 per visit, depending on the type of tree.

Similarly, Bill Logan, the founder and lead arborist at Urban Arborists, says if they’re simply planting a tree in a private citizen’s front yard, they would charge somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000. “We are not the cheapest,” said Logan, “because we not only plant the trees, but we also give people protocol for taking care of them.”

A tree planted this spring in the heat-vulnerable neighborhood of Rockaway, Queens. | BUCK ENNIS

A young pin oak was planted in Park Slope, Brooklyn, in 2023 with a tag encouraging locals to help care for the tree.

| CAROLINE SPIVACK

Eli Dvorkin | BUCK ENNIS

A sign on a sidewalk indicates a new tree will be planted in this tree bed in Queens. The city aims to bring its tree canopy coverage to 30%. | GETTYIMAGES

NYPD watchdog has dropped 700 complaints alleging police of cer misconduct due to budget cuts

By Nick Garber

e watchdog agency that investigates police misconduct has been forced to drop 700 cases against NYPD o cers this year as a result of budget cuts imposed by Mayor Eric Adams.

Weeks after Adams announced cuts last fall, leaders of the Civilian Complaint Review Board said that the sudden funding shortfall would force it to suspend eight different categories of investigations

months vocally opposing the mayor’s funding reductions.

e cut that Adams imposed across most departments in September 2023 would have reduced CCRB’s budget by about $3 million to a total of $25.4 million for the coming year, and city agencies began implementing the reductions soon after the mayor announced them. Rice testi ed in March that the CCRB, which has long been hobbled by limited powers and slim sta ng, actually needed a budget of $38 million “to function as a truly independent police oversight agency.”

“The agency has the resources to provide rst-rate oversight and ensure police accountability to every community across the ve boroughs.”

into police misconduct starting in January 2024 — including claims of o cers making false statements, refusing to provide their names or shield numbers, making threats, using discourteous words or seizing civilians’ property. e latest gure of 700 closed cases in 2024 is according to CCRB’s public complaint database, where it labels each case that was suspended due to budget cuts.

“We do not have enough funds to investigate all the complaints within our jurisdiction,” CCRB Chair Arva Rice testi ed at a March City Council hearing.

Rice resigned as the board’s chair e ective Aug. 15, after spending

In the end, the CCRB’s budget grew slightly, to $27.8 million, under the latest city spending plan passed in June.

Agency spokeswoman Clare Platt suggested Aug. 14 that the hampered oversight will not be permanent.

“In response to a proposed budget cut in September 2023, the CCRB had to strategically allocate resources in order to ensure every investigation continued to be thorough and up to the same standard that New Yorkers deserve,” Platt said in a statement. “ e agency’s budget has since been restored, and we are in the process of hiring and training sta so that we can resume investigating all complaints within the CCRB’s jurisdiction.”

e NYPD’s budget for Fiscal

Year 2025 is $5.8 billion, about the same as last year’s.

e hundreds of complaints that CCRB closed as a result of the budget cuts stem from incidents that date back as far as 2022. In one such case, a Black woman in her 60s accused an o cer of using discourteous language during a 2023 arrest in East Harlem. In another, a white man in his 40s accused a lieutenant of having him forcibly hospitalized after a March 2024 incident in southern Brooklyn.

Adams, a former police captain, has not shown concern about how the CCRB’s work might be impeded by the budget cuts. Earlier this month, when a reporter asked whether the CCRB might now be unable to investigate a claim that a senior police o cial had intimidated a journalist, the mayor asserted that “there is no budget cut in the history of the city that would stop people from determining if a police o cer operates inappropriately.”

“Don’t let anyone tell you that,” Adams said at a press conference. “ ere are always avenues.” e mayor’s o ce, reached for comment, said that cuts to CCRB had been necessary to help close a $7 billion budget gap the city faced

last year due to migrant costs, new labor deals and dwindling federal aid.

Millions in settlements

“Due to our strong scal management we not only closed the gap and stabilized the city’s scal outlook, were able restore funding to CCRB and also increase their annual budget, and have made sure that their authorized sta ng levels exceed the city charter mandate,” City Hall spokeswoman Amaris Cock eld said. “ e agency has the resources to provide rstrate oversight and ensure police accountability to every community across the ve boroughs.”

e CCRB received 2,800 complaints in the rst six months of 2024 that were within its jurisdiction — the most in the rst half of any year since 2012, according to a semiannual report released this month.

Meanwhile, the city has paid out $82 million in settlements from lawsuits alleging police misconduct from January through July of this year, according to a tally released Aug. 12 by the Legal Aid Society. at seven-month total is higher than the city’s entire settlement costs for 2018, 2019 and 2020, and put the city on track to rack up $140 million in payouts by the end of 2024 — up from $115 million last year.

Subways to get 500 more guards to curb fare evasion

Caroline Spivack

e MTA is investing $16 million to send another 500 private security guards into the subway with the sole purpose of deterring fare evasion through the system’s emergency exit gates.

Over the next year transit ocials are doubling the number of unarmed guards contracted with Pennsylvania-headquartered Al-

“Enforcing the fare is not free. You have to spend money to make money.”

fare; they may also call police to intervene. It’s up to NYPD o cers, whose presence has also recently increased in the subway, to issue summonses or make arrests.

Transit o cials have positioned the authority’s growing reliance on private security guards as a short-term strategy to capture fare revenue while the agency explores how to modernize all 1,000 entrances into the system’s 472 subway stations. e MTA said it estimates that fare evasion fell between 20% and 30% at 50 initial stations where it deployed the guards in 2022.

e MTA declined to share gures on how much the guards may be saving the agency in fare revenue.

lied Universal to 1,000, bringing the agency’s private security spending to $35 million through 2024 and into next year, according to MTA budget documents.

e guards do not issue summonses or make arrests, said the MTA. Instead they linger near emergency gates at a rotation of stations and verbally discourage would-be evaders of the $2.90

MTA board Chair and Chief Executive Janno Lieber has called the practice of entering the system through unpaid emergency gates the “superhighway of fare evasion.” In 2022, the MTA said subway fare evasion cost the authority $285 million, more than half of which occurred through emergency exits.

“Every time I see some rich person walk in — I’ve said it before —

with an $8 latte in their hand wearing a suit and walk through the gate with their Metrocard in their hand, it burns me, and it should burn every New Yorker who cares about this system,” Lieber said during a May board meeting.

Subway fare evasion

Some 13.6% of subway riders skipped out on the fare in the rst quarter of 2024, according to MTA data. e gure is slightly down from the 14% who beat the fare in the third quarter of 2023 — in what amounts to the highest level of subway fare evasion recorded in ve years of public MTA data.

Danny Pearlstein, the director of policy and communications at the Riders Alliance, said it’s more important than ever for the MTA to bolster fare revenue in the wake of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s inde nite pause on congestion pricing, which would have generated $15 billion toward mass transit upgrades.

e June toll postponement has forced a frenzied reshu ing of the MTA’s nances. As a result, mod-

ern fare gates designed to curb fare evasion, among other investments, may be in jeopardy.

“Enforcing the fare is not free,” said Pearlstein. “You have to spend money to make money.”

Amaris Cock eld, City Hall spokeswoman

Danny Pearlstein, director of policy and communications at the Riders Alliance

The Civilian Complaint Review Board has closed 700 cases of potential police misconduct this year due to budget cuts imposed by Mayor Eric Adams last fall. BLOOMBERG

Two private security guards stand at an emergency exit gate to deter subway riders from skipping the fare. | BUCK ENNIS

RFR facing foreclosure at 475 Fifth Ave. in Midtown

By Eddie Small

e problems are piling up for Aby Rosen’s RFR.

Citibank and JPMorgan Chase have led a lawsuit seeking to foreclose on the developer’s o ce building at 475 Fifth Ave. in Midtown. e suit, led Aug. 15 in Manhattan state Supreme Court, names Rosen himself and his partner, Michael Fuchs, as defendants.

RFR bought 475 Fifth Ave., located right by Bryant Park between East 40th and East 41st streets, for roughly $290 million in May 2022 from Nuveen Real Estate and Norges Bank Investment Management.   at month Citibank and JPMorgan provided the

make its payments on time, according to the lawsuit. e banks are thus exercising their right to foreclose and suing for the entire $180 million balance plus interest, late fees and legal costs, the suit says.

Expects to re nance debt

e building is well occupied, and RFR expects to re nance its debt imminently, according to a representative for the developer. Representatives for Citibank and JPMorgan declined to comment.

CoStar, the commercial real estate database, lists 475 Fifth Ave. as 91.9% leased. e 24-story, 275,000-square-foot tower was built in 1926 and renovated in 2013, and its asking rents range from $88 to $92 per square foot, according to RFR.

RFR’s portfolio includes some of Manhattan’s highest-pro le skyscrapers, such as the Chrysler Building and the Seagram Building.

rm with an $180 million mortgage, which was originally set to mature on June 9, 2023, the suit claims.

RFR and the banks agreed to push the maturity date to Dec. 9, 2023, and then to June 9 of this year, but RFR has still failed to

is is just the latest of several problems facing RFR, whose portfolio includes some of Manhattan’s highest-pro le skyscrapers, such as the Chrysler Building and the Seagram Building — although fellow real estate giant SL Green is rumored to be eyeing a takeover of the latter. e rm has fallen behind on property taxes at 90 Fifth

219 E. 67th St. has also led to foreclose on those properties, e Real Deal recently reported.

RFR did sell 980 Madison Ave. on the Upper East Side to Bloomberg in June for $560 mil-

Ave. near Union Square, sparking Fitch Ratings to downgrade the building, and it is facing foreclosure at 522 Fifth Ave. in Midtown as well. A lender on RFR’s commercial condos at 122 Greenwich Ave. and

lion, providing it with a solidnancial boost. And it is looking to sell 281 Park Ave. South, a Gramercy Park building that played a role in notorious fraudster Anna Delvey’s downfall.

475 Fifth Ave. BUCK ENNIS

Study says MTA should tackle subway air pollution

By Caroline Spivack

e MTA could do more to protect riders and transit workers traveling on the subway from inhaling troublingly high levels of ne-particle air pollution in the system’s underground stations, said a researcher behind a new study examining the air pollution.

e ne particles are largely generated by the friction and grinding of steel train wheels braking against steel rails. e particles can accumulate in tunnels and on tracks, and are back in the limelight following the latest study’s nding of “exceptionally high concentrations” of the air pollution in parts of the system.

MTA o cials disputed the re-

pands on. “ ere’s a lot of tunnels, I understand that, but there’s also ve million people riding those tunnels everyday and it’s a responsibility of the agency that provides the service that it’s safe.”

Train cars have air lters

Ghandehari, who noted that he regularly rides the subway and does not seek to discourage people from utilizing mass transit, said that the MTA should develop a plan to thoroughly clean tunnels and tracks and monitor air quality data.

59% of the system that’s below ground is more vulnerable to trains sweeping ne-particle air pollution into stations.

searchers’ conclusions but said they work regularly to improve air quality in the system; the agency circulates a trio of vacuum trains to suck up debris and particles overnight and also periodically power-washes underground platforms.

But those measures do not go far enough, said Masoud Ghandehari, a professor in NYU Tandon’s Civil and Urban Engineering Department.

“I think at this point we have shown that there’s a concern that needs to be met,” Ghandehari said in an interview, referring to similar research by colleagues at NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine which he said the new study ex-

e city’s underground subway stations are not equipped with air lters or monitors, said MTA spokesman Mike Cortez. e MTA operates, he said, three vacuum trains, made up of two or three cars each, that move through the system’s more than 600 miles of subway tracks sucking up debris and metal dust. Two of those trains are in motion seven days each week, and the third operates ve days per week. e trains operate in the overnight hours between 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., each covers a section of the system, with the trio of trains sweeping through the entire system each night, according to Cortez.

“While it’s not going to immaculately clean the dust, it gets sucked up with the debris,” Cortez said.

e MTA notes that 41% of the system is above ground where outdoor air circulation mitigates air pollutants. e other 59% of the system that’s below ground, however, is more vulnerable to trains sweeping the air particles into stations, said Ghandehari.

MTA mobile washing crews power wash platform surfaces in nightly batches. All 472 subway

stations receive at least one deep clean every 45 to 60 days, said Cortez. Some stations receive more than one in that period.

While station air may be laced with pollutants, the air inside cars is another story. All subway train cars are equipped with high-end air lters — put in place amid the Covid-19 pandemic — that refresh the air every 3 to 4 minutes, said MTA Communications Director Tim Minton.

e MTA is far from the only transit agency grappling with underground pollution. Several of the world’s busiest transit systems have taken steps to address the problem. e London Under-

ground is experimenting with crews that descend on the tunnels and tracks while the system is shuttered overnight, which isn’t feasible for New York’s 24/7 subway system; Barcelona has explored new station designs; and e Seoul Metropolitan Subway has installed more than 800 air quality sensors to monitor data in real time.

Lower on the list

Addressing the issue comes down to a willingness of transit ofcials to experiment and invest the dollars necessary to support those innovations to monitor and

enhance the system’s air quality.

e MTA, however, has a laundry list of investments — accessibility upgrades, new rail cars, system expansion and so on — that tend to land higher on the list, said Andrew Rein, president of scal watchdog the Citizens Budget Commission and a former executive deputy commissioner with the city’s health department.

“ e issue for the MTA always is that there are so many di erent investments they can make, and it’s prioritizing those investments and guring out the costs and bene ts of all of them,” said Rein. “We have to invest in transit, I just don’t know where this ts into that.”

Long Island City industrial building’s $14M conversion to manufacturing ‘hub’ scores tax break from city

Nick Garber

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration will o er tax breaks to help two private developers convert a vacant Long Island City industrial building into a “hub” for light manufacturers like clothesmakers and technology incubators, ocials announced Aug. 14.

e city’s Economic Development Corp. and Industrial Development Agency will provide about $3.5 million in tax breaks toward the $14.2 million renovation of the building at 44-01 11th St., being undertaken by the Vorea Group and Mega Development.

Known as the Metropolitan Building, the century-old, four-story brick building in Hunters Point spans 45,000 square feet and was rst used as an electrical parts factory. Although it has lately been advertised as a wedding venue — boasting exposed brick and wood beams — the city says the struc-

ture is vacant and in disrepair.

Under the developers’ plans, the building, which is zoned for manufacturing, will be renovated into a mixed-use facility suitable for uses like small-scale production and artist workshops. e renovation is already underway and will be completed by mid2025, according to EDC.

In line with broader plan

e developers are nancing the entire project; the city is lending support by exempting some of the building’s property taxes for 25 years, exempting sales taxes and deferring its mortgage recording tax, an EDC spokeswoman said.

e work will mostly focus on subdividing the building’s large oor plates into smaller units, while keeping historic features like its gridded windows and timber-frame structures. e renova-

tion will also add accessibility xes and sustainability-oriented building systems.

In statements, city o cials said the project is in line with the administration’s broader plan to re-

zone a large swath of Long Island City — including the site of the Metropolitan Building — which would increase density and allow for some 14,000 new homes. e rezoning will start a formal review later this year and face a City Council vote in late 2025.

“ e renovation of Long Island City’s Metropolitan Building o ers a unique opportunity to transform under-utilized space into a mixed-use hub for both industrial and creative work,” EDC president and CEO Andrew Kimball said in a statement.

Jared Lewis, senior development manager at Queens-based Vorea, said the project would foster “a community of innovation and collaboration.”

Subway riders wait to board a 5 train entering the Fulton Street station. | BLOOMBERG

Mega Development and the Vorea Group will lead the $14 million renovation of the Metropolitan Building in Long Island City. | COSTAR

Trump Palace condominium board accuses Whole Foods, Five Below of ‘reckless’ construction

By Julianne Cuba

e condo board at Trump Palace is taking its ground- oor retail tenants to court over what the board claims is the “reckless disregard” with which they have been doing construction at the Upper East Side building and the “substantial and ongoing damage” they have allegedly caused.

Residents of the 283-unit condominium at 200 E. 69th St. are seeking a temporary restraining order and at least $1.5 million in

In a blistering lawsuit led in Manhattan Supreme Court this month, attorney Deborah Riegel of Manhattan-based law rm Rosenberg & Estis argued that her client — Trump Palace’s board of managers and its property management company, Orsid New York — as well as the building’s more than 400 residents have been put in harm’s way as a result of the defendants’ supposed recklessness.

e work Regency has been doing to facilitate the imminent opening of both Whole Foods and Five Below has caused myriad issues, according to the suit.

The board of managers is seeking a temporary restraining order and suing the retail tenants and Regency Centers for at least $1.5 million in damages.

damages from national retail company Regency Centers — which owns the commercial unit at the base of the 55-story luxury tower — and its two tenants, Whole Foods Market and discount retailer Five Below. A Food Emporium occupied the space until last year.

Last month, for example, Orsid account executive Steve La osca took umbrage with a “Now Hiring” sign that had been hung outside Five Below, asking Regency in an email to take it down, according to court papers.

And a week before that, amid ongoing construction, the defendants allegedly caused a gas leak in the building, between East 68th

and East 69th streets, forcing its gas service to be shut down, according to court documents.

Riegel told Crain’s Aug. 13 that her client had rst attempted to mitigate the situation out of court.

‘Careless and dismissive’

“My client has tried very hard to work with them, but they have been careless and dismissive of some very basic requests — putting people in jeopardy,” said Riegel, who added that the board is not looking to kick out the tenants.

Whole Foods announced with much fanfare in March that it was opening what it’s calling a onestop Whole Foods Market Daily Shop in roughly 9,000 square feet of space at the Regency-owned unit, which has an alternate address listed as 1175 ird Ave. And news of Pennsylvania-based Five Below opening in the same building in about 13,000 square feet of space followed in June. e terms of both of their lease agreements are unclear.

Jack deVilliers, Regency’s managing director of the Northeast, declined to comment on pending litigation but said the community

is thrilled about the project and that both Whole Foods and Five Below will be “exceptional additions to the neighborhood.”

Attorney Stephen Lasser of Manhattan-based Lasser Law

Group, who is representing Regency, did not respond to a request for comment. And neither Amazon-owned Whole Foods nor Five Below responded to requests for comment.

1175 Third Ave. BUCK ENNIS

LARGEST PHYSICIAN GROUPS IN THE NEW YORK AREA CRAIN’S LIST

Regional SVP of New York/Monte ore Faculty Practice Group; AndrewRacine, System SVP, chief medical of cer; MatthewMcDonough, VP, Monte ore Medical

MichaelPrilutsky,

,physiciangroupsmustbebasedintheNewYorkarea.Thisincludesthe veboroughsofNewYorkCityalongwithNassau,Suffolkand WestchestercountiesinNewYorkandBergen,Essex,HudsonandUnioncountiesinNewJersey. Crain'sNewYorkBusiness usesstaffresearch,extensivesurveysandthemostcurrentreferences availabletoproduceitslists,butthereisnoguaranteethattheselistingsarecomplete.N/A-Notavailable. 1. Figurefromcompanywebsite. 2. PreviouslylistedasSummitCityMD. 3. Includes guresfor CareMount Medical, ProHealth New York, Riverside Medical and Crystal Run Healthcare Partners.

CBS parent Paramount prepares to nix 469 Midtown jobs as part of national cuts

By C. J. Hughes

Midtown will soon lose a few more media jobs.

Paramount Global plans on cutting about 6% of its workforce in the city, or 469 of 7,576 positions, as part of a national e ort to save $500 million, according to a new layo ling.

e news-and-entertainment powerhouse, which has been prepping for a merger with the movie studio Skydance even as media tycoon Edgar Bronfman swooped in with a rival bid for Paramount last week, will begin eliminating the nonunion jobs Nov. 11 and complete the process Feb. 14, says the ling, which was dated Aug. 13 and appeared in the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Noti cation database Aug. 19.

WARN notices are required in the event of large-scale layo s to give a heads-up to employees.

ough the job cuts are set to oc-

building, which also features studios for the show CBS Mornings and the cable network MTV; both CBS and MTV are subsidiaries of Paramount.

Though the job cuts are set to occur at six different sites, the bulk of them, or 436, will be at 1515 Broadway.

cur at six di erent sites, the bulk of them, or 436, will be at 1515 Broadway, the Times Square tower that houses Paramount’s East Coast ofces. SL Green Realty Corp. and the Allianz Group own the 54-story

e rest of the terminations will be concentrated in Paramount-owned production facilities on West 57th Street between 10th and 11th avenues, where CBS programs have been taped for decades. e

CBS Broadcasting Center, a red-brick former industrial site that has produced talk shows from Martha Stewart, Tyra Banks and John Oliver, occupies much of the block.

But a non-Paramount-owned

site on the block, the high-rise 555 W. 57th St., which SL Green controls, will also experience job cuts, shedding 15 positions, according to the ling.

Last year Paramount announced it was looking to sell the CBS Broadcasting Center, which includes a nearly 500,000-squarefoot structure at 530 W. 57th St., in order to “invest in and reimagine a new facility that will support teams that are central to our success today and in the future,” said Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks in a statement then.

But it’s unclear if the current round of layo s is related to the planned relocation. Amy Dow, the Paramount executive handling the job cuts, according to the

WARN ling, did not return a call for comment by press time.

Paramount’s New York hires may have avoided the worst of the layo s. Earlier this month the publicly-traded company, which is controlled by parent National Amusements, said the amount of sta it would trim across the U.S. would be 15%.

And the downsizing comes amid a shakeup at CBS. In July CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell announced that she would step down from her position after November’s elections and become a correspondent instead. O’Donnell’s program regularly nishes in third place in terms of viewers, behind equivalent shows from ABC and NBC.

Skydance, the upstart studio behind the smash ick Top Gun: Maverick that’s backed by software giant Oracle, announced in July that it would buy out longtime owner Shari Redstone’s majority stake in National Amusements.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison said he would contribute $6 billion to the $8 billion deal.

But the proposed takeover allowed for rival bidders to step forward within six weeks. And on Aug. 19, just days before that window was to close, Bronfman, the executive chairman of FuboTV and heir to the Seagram liquor fortune, submitted a $4.3 billion o er, which though lower because it's structured di erently is still considered competitive.

City government will study its 15,000 properties for housing opportunities

By Nick Garber

Mayor Eric Adams is directing city agencies to pore over their property holdings in hopes of nding sites that could accommodate new housing — a search that will encompass thousands of lots around the ve boroughs.

In an executive order issued Aug. 21, the mayor created a task force with representatives from departments like Parks, Sanitation, Transportation, Police and Fire to review land that they own and control, “to identify potential sites for housing development.” Quasi-independent agencies like the Economic Development Corp., Education Department, the three library systems and the New York City Housing Authority will also be consulted, the order says. It is the city’s latest e ort to chip away at a housing shortage estimated to number hundreds of thousands of units, which has pushed rents to record highs and resulted in a vacancy rate of just 1.4%. About 14,700 sites are owned by city agencies or public authorities like NYCHA, according to a list kept by the City Planning department.

ose properties range from sanitation garages to parking lots to at least 2,300 vacant lots, according to the database. A Sanitation Department spokesman said that agency has about 160 properties, including transfer stations and a tiny former break facility for sanitation workers in Tribeca.

“If there’s any land within the city’s control that has even the remotest potential to develop affordable housing, our administration will take action,” Adams said in a statement. e administration hopes to identify the sites that could accommodate housing by the start of next year.

Publicly owned land

Other city o cials have pointed to publicly owned land as an obvious opportunity for new development, especially given that the government could allow for more a ordable housing since it lacks the pro t motive of a private developer. Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president, spotlighted several city-owned sites when he released a list last year of 171 lots across the borough that he deemed suitable for new housing.

By Eddie Small

Rybak Development has landed $52 million in constructionnancing for a luxury condo project it is planning in Midtown East. e company, based on Coney Island, purchased 660 Lexington Ave., also addressed as 133 E. 55th St., in late 2021 for roughly $24.4 million and is planning an 18-story, 31-unit luxury condo development at the site. e project currently stands 12 stories tall and will include 2,460 square feet of retail space and 1,272 square feet of ground- oor community facility space as well.

A joint venture of Rybak and Gravesend-based BK Developers secured the funding from Manhattan-based lender Emerald Creek Capital, according to an announcement from JLL. A team at the brokerage led by Robert Tonnessen and Aaron Niedermayer represented Rybak and BK in the deal, which was rst reported by the Commercial Observer “ is is the construction loan that's going to help us get to the nish line,” said Rybak founder and principal Sergey Rybak.

Sales start in late 2025

Two private developers received nancing this year to build a 158-unit a ordable development on a site at 10th Avenue and West 48th Street in Hell’s Kitchen that is owned by the Department of Environmental Protection. And the city in June inaugurated a fully a ordable, 14-story building in Inwood that was constructed atop a public library branch.

Adams’ new task force will be chaired by Maria Torres-Springer, the deputy mayor overseeing housing.

Adams’ City of Yes plan that would relax zoning rules to accommodate some 100,000 new homes is currently under review by the City Planning Commission, and will face a City Council vote this fall.

e developers hope to start sales at the project during the fourth quarter of 2025 and nish work on it during the rst quarter of 2026, Rybak said. Prior plans indicated the project would include a restaurant and health care facility, but Rybak said this is no longer the case, and he is still unsure what will go in the retail and community facility spaces. e project will also feature amenities such as a spa and a tness center. Rybak was founded in 2007 and is an extremely active developer in the city with a portfolio of about 20 projects. ese include a 10-story development at 502 E. 81st St. on the Upper East Side with nine residential units and an 11-story development at 218 Madison Ave. near the Morgan Library in Midtown South with between 24 and 28 residential units.

Broadway, Times Square | BUCK ENNIS

660 Lexington Ave. | BUCK ENNIS

This vacant lot at 560 West 52nd St. in Manhattan is one of thousands of such sites around New York that are owned by city agencies — in this case, the Housing Preservation and Development department. | BUCK ENNIS

governor’s o ce, and Hochul has yet to follow through on a suggestion that she might open up the process to proposals from private developers instead of leaving the plan in the hands of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which would rely on public funding. Meanwhile, Hochul’s lastminute suspension of congestion pricing, the funds from which could be funneled toward the upgrade, and a failed rst attempt at winning federal aid have deepened questions about the project’s nancial viability.

State Sen. Liz Krueger noted that work has been ongoing, albeit more behind the scenes than last summer’s public announcements. She pointed to recent progress on repairs and renovations to the underground parts of the station that connect with subway exits, such as raising the ceiling height and addressing re safety issues.

“Everybody likes to focus on the grandeur that’s possible with the ground level,” Krueger said. “What’s crucial is that they’re moving forward with the underground part of it.”

But others who cheered last year’s talk now say they are worried.

“It feels like our chance to do something truly grand is slipping away,” said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. “I don’t want to wait yet another decade for transformation.”

Changes at ASTM

State leaders have clamored for years to renovate Penn Station, the nation’s busiest rail hub, where some 600,000 daily commuters navigate a warren of corridors buried below Madison Square Garden. Besides improving the passenger experience, o cials say, the renovation is also necessary to reduce crowding and improve safety. ( ese changes are separate from the longer-term plan to expand Penn’s rail capacity by building new platforms, which might require bulldozing a nearby city block.)

e ASTM plan, the only signicant idea put forward by a private developer, generated lots of buzz last year thanks to a mix of aggres-

sive lobbying and clever designs.

e rm’s $6 billion proposal shared the state’s vision of a grand train hall but notably di ered by proposing to purchase and demolish the eater at Madison Square Garden to make way for an Eighth Avenue entrance to Penn.

And unlike the state plan, which would rely on public funding, ASTM wanted to pay for its project through a public-private partnership in which the developer would put up the money and then be repaid by the government.

But ASTM’s momentum seems to have stalled since then, and the company itself has gone through changes in recent months. Patrick Foye, a former MTA chief who lent the plan credibility as ASTM’s CEO, departed the company at the end of 2023 and now works for an investment rm, according to his LinkedIn pro le. (Foye did not respond to a request for comment.)

As a result of other internal changes, New York-based construction rm Halmar International is now leading the Penn project, a person familiar with the organization said. e company is a subsidiary of ASTM and is run by CEO Chris Larsen, a major donor in local politics.

Peter Cipriano, a former federal transportation o cial who has spearheaded the Penn proposal as Halmar’s executive vice president, said in a statement that the company remains ready to act. Howev-

er, doing so would require Hochul to open up a process for developers to submit proposals — something she appeared to hint at last year, when she said the state would be “open now to any architect, any design rm, any engineer, to allow them the opportunity to compete for a position.”

“As soon as a process for selecting a master developer kicks o , we will be ready to respond,” Cipriano told Crain’s

But the ASTM-Halmar plan has been hindered by hostility from the MTA, which could stand to lose some authority over the renovation if a private developer entered the picture. MTA o cials disparaged the ASTM plan last year as a waste of money and a giveaway to Madison Square Garden — and emails obtained by Crain’s through a public records request shed more light on the tensions among the developer, the transit agency and Hochul’s o ce.

Janno Lieber publicly criticized the ASTM plan as a bailout for the Garden, Weinraub called Lieber’s comments “outrageous, especially in light of the fact that we have never, ever had an opportunity to present our plan to him, you or the Governor.”

“It feels like our chance to do something truly grand is slipping away. I don’t want to wait yet another decade for transformation.”

Mark

Levine, Manhattan borough president

“You want details? Put out a real RFP for a master developer,” Weinraub continued in his missive to Keogh. “For Janno to shit on us and MSG takes away any opportunity for a fair competition even if there was one put forward.”

In March 2023, hours after details of the ASTM proposal were leaked in a New York Times article, Jamie Torres-Springer, the president of MTA Construction & Development, asked ASTM executives if they would “care to share” their design package with the MTA before a meeting scheduled for the next day.

“It just seemed to me if you were sharing it with the NY Times and many other stakeholders that I have hear[d] from that it would be appropriate to share it with the MTA,” he wrote in an email.

Cipriano forwarded the exchange to Nivardo Lopez, Hochul’s former deputy secretary for transportation, and called Torres-Springer’s complaints “a bit silly.”

“Obviously the [Executive] Chamber is in receipt of our deck and he will see and receive it tomorrow after declining many opportunities for meetings,” Cipriano wrote.

Months later David Weinraub, a top Albany lobbyist who was hired by ASTM to promote its bid, vented his own frustrations to Karen Keough, Hochul’s personal secretary, who is known to have the governor’s ear. In a June 28 email that came a day after MTA CEO

on project development, Sean Fitzpatrick, deputy chief of sta at MTA Construction & Development, told Crain’s. e state’s design plan has been led by the architect FXCollaborative and engineering rm WSP USA. e MTA would not provide an update to Crain’s about the overall status of the design. In July 2023 Torres-Springer told the City Council that the state would have its design 30% done within a year, at which point Penn Station’s three railroads would decide how to hire a builder.

Congestion pricing factor

Virtually all theorizing about Penn Station’s future was scrambled in June, when the governor abruptly halted the congestion pricing program that was supposed to serve as a linchpin for the MTA’s future nances. e rami cations of that are still being felt, but it seems all but certain to further complicate the already fraught process of trying to improve the station.

Multiple state lawmakers and transit advocates said they expect that the governor’s abrupt aboutface on congestion pricing will further delay any meaningful action at the station, given that it has already forced the MTA to reevaluate every other major project in its capital budget.

But at least publicly, the agency has signaled no changes. At a July meeting Torres-Springer said Penn renovations may still be a key part of the agency’s upcoming capital plan for 2025 through 2029 — if the new bid for federal funding is successful.

A year later some public o cials still think highly of the ASTMHalmar plan, although Krueger indicated the developer had exaggerated the sense of urgency around its proposal. She said ASTM felt it was in its best interests to build up momentum, so that is what the rm tried to do.

“Look, I like their design plan. It’s pretty,” Krueger said. “But I’m not sure ‘pretty’ is the ultimate target of what we need to do.”

Grant troubles

e MTA has had its own bumpy ride when it comes to progress on Penn Station. In June 2023, when Hochul announced she would “decouple” the renovation from the plan to build o ce towers around it, her o ce explained that it would make up for the loss of funding by applying for a federal grant to advance design work.

But that $100 million grant request was rejected by the Federal Railroad Administration later that year, a setback that the MTA said little about at the time. In July 2024 the MTA applied again for a grant — this time, a $96.7 million request in which the federal government would cover 75% of the cost. e latest application re ected the progress on design that had been made and also expanded

“We are still looking at and working hard on the future of Penn Station,” he said. “Provided that that funding comes through, we’ll be moving that Penn Station modernization project forward in the next plan.”

But Hochul’s reversal on congestion pricing also may have shattered trust in the governor among transit advocates and Manhattan politicians who had supported the toll. Her willingness to back away from one politically di cult transportation project might not bode well for Penn Station, some say.

Matthew Gorton, a spokesman for the state’s construction arm, Empire State Development, said in a statement that Hochul “remains committed to her vision for a new and improved Penn Station, anchored by thousands of new homes, seamless access to transit, and major improvements to the surrounding streets and sidewalks.”

Oddly enough, some people sympathetic to the ASTM-Halmar project believe the congestion pricing pause works in the developer’s favor. With the state short on cash, o oading the project to a private company may seem more appealing.

“One of the bene ts of a [public-private] process,” said Tom Wright, president of the Regional Plan Association, “is it doesn’t rely on large capital dollars from public entities.”

Caroline Spivack contributed reporting.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s suspension of congestion pricing and the MTA’s failed rst attempt at winning federal funding have deepened questions about the nancial viability of a state-led renovation of Penn Station. BUCK ENNIS

Gov. Kathy Hochul gathered Manhattan of cials at Penn Station in June 2023 and vowed quick progress on a renovation, even as the state “decoupled” the plan from a related idea to permit new of ce towers on surrounding blocks. | OFFICE OF GOV. KATHY HOCHUL

City forests, in particular, help keep the city cool, sop up ood waters and capture planet-warming carbon. Deferred maintenance within these natural areas, unlike picking up trash or cleaning bathrooms, can be “very hard, if not impossible, to reverse,” said Sarah Charlop-Powers, executive director of the Natural Areas Conservancy, an environmental nonpro t. “What we’re seeing in the data is that our forests are really at a tipping point,” said Charlop-Powers. Much of the city’s mature forests, she said, have understories that are becoming overwhelmed by invasive plants and vines. “And so we’re really looking at a system that is in a passable condition today, but is on the precipice of really rapid decline.”

Additional funding sources

City o cials did not clarify the total number of sta ers that make up the Natural Resources Group and whether the reduced positions are full-time or part-time roles. Mayoral spokeswoman Liz Garcia said the parks department’s current forest management employees will continue to focus on tending to the city’s natural resources and “we will look into additional funding sources as needed.” She added that the city is

exploring grant funding to fund some or all of the positions in question.

In previous scal years these positions were funded one year at a time as part of budget negotiations, said parks department spokesman Judd Faulkner. e salary range for the roles is roughly between $47,400 ($65,800 with bene ts) and $67,900 ($102,500 with bene ts), according to Faulkner.

Park sta ers who oversee the city’s natural areas manage invasive species, care for trees when they’re damaged by storms and sow seedlings and plants, among

other things. As Charlop-Powers puts it, the work is essentially “removing obstacles to natural regeneration.”

e Adams administration tucked the natural areas sta reductions into the $618 million expense budget city o cials allocated to the parks department for FY2025. e sum amounts to roughly $20 million less than the agency received the previous scal year, even after the Adams administration restored some cuts it initially oated to the agency’s budget.

Parks department o cials have told greenspace advocates that

they estimate the natural area sta cuts may reduce the acreage the team can manage down to 500 acres for FY2025, according to a source briefed on the reductions.

e agency managed some 750 acres of natural areas in FY2024, and said it does not yet have a projection for FY2025, said Faulkner.

New Yorkers who frequent the city’s trails could especially feel the impact. In the Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park, the city’s third largest park, there are more than 600 acres of natural areas. Sta with the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, a nonpro t group that helps care for the greenspace, says that

more frequent, intense storms has meant more man hours are needed to clear fallen debris and ensure trails are safe, especially ahead of races that draw hundreds to the park’s trails.

“As climate change happens we get more severe storms, and with budget cuts we get less sta ,” said Christina Taylor, deputy director of the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance. “It’s really de ating because our trails, and our natural areas as a whole, are going to be in much worse shape, and it’s getting really challenging to maintain them.”

Essential trail work can be overwhelming for the city and the alliance’s six full-time and two parttime workers, she said. at’s why the alliance regularly draws on its network of roughly 2,000 local volunteers to help care for Van Cortlandt Park’s natural areas. Not all of the city’s greenspaces, however, have nonpro t partners that can be relied on to make up sta gaps.

Since the city funding to support the natural areas positions tend to be approved each year, it puts the roles in limbo from year to year, and that can make it tricky for the agency to plan ahead and retain sta , said Adam Ganser, the executive director of New Yorkers For Parks, a nonpro t that advocates for the city’s parks.

“It’s such a short-sighted process where so many of these positions are not guaranteed,” said Ganser.

New Yorkers exercise on a trail in the Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park one sunny weekday. BUCK ENNIS

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Notice of Qualification of ESRT 9294 NORTH 6TH STREET, L.L.C. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/26/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/11/24. Princ. office of LLC: 111 W. 33rd St., NY, NY 10120. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

QUILLIAN, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/20/24. Office location: Bronx County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to; 135 W. 225TH ST, APT 5F, Bronx, NY 10463 Purpose: Any lawful activity

Notice of Qualification of FOUR LION CAPITAL, LP Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/22/24. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/09/24. NYS fictitious name: FOUR LION CAPITAL, L.P. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the Partnership, 575 5th Ave., 15th Fl., NY, NY 10017. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of DE, Dept. of State, Div. of Corps., John Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of AMBER 72 LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/25/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/27/17. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Jeffrey W. Bullock, Secy. of State , DE Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of RADIATE CAPITAL, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/19/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/27/22. Princ. office of LLC: 3 Columbus Circle, 24th Fl., NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

The text of the legal notice is as follows: Fable & Harmony Studio, LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 7/3/24. Office in NY Co. SSNY desig. agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to 131 7th Ave PMB 102, NY NY 10011. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of CHIP MEDIA LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/17/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 435 Hudson St., NY, NY 10014. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of VICTORYFIEDLER ACQUISITION, LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/24/24. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation RMMAP LLC. Arts of Org Filed 7/3/24. Office: NY Co. SSNY designated as agent for process & shall mail to: 222 W. 77th ST. #324228, NY, NY 10024. Registered Agent: United States Corporation Agents, Inc., 7014 13th Ave , Ste 202, Bklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful actvity.

Notice of Formation of MOMOHEALTH LLC Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/13/24. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against PLLC to 1466 1st Ave, 3A, NY, NY, US 10075. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice Of Formation of DIALMA Logistics LLC. Arts. of Org. filed w/SS of NY on 7/1/24, Office location: Bronx County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail a copy of process to principal business address: 600 Concord Ave 1J, Bronx, NY 10455. Purpose: For any lawful act

Notice of Formation of ZACHARY COLIN DREW LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/26/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to 15 E. 30th St Apt 31E, NY, NY 10016. Purpose: Any lawful activity

Notice of Formation of KOPRULU DESIGN LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/27/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to 244 Madison Ave #1105, NY, NY 10016. Purpose: Any lawful activity

Notice of Formation of PHILIP R. WEISSMAN, PLLC .Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/4/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to; 625 West 57th ST, # 2309 New York, NY 10019. Purpose: Any lawful activity

Notice of Qualification of MATRIX HOLDINGS II DE L.P. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/24/24. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/18/24. Princ. office of LP: c/o The Blackstone Group Inc., 345 Park Ave., NY, NY 10154. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the Partnership at the princ. office of the LP. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19809. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, Jeffrey W. Bullock, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of CONSTRAFOR IRIDIUM LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/17/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/13/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity

Notice of Qualification of FOUR LION CAPITAL GP, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/16/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/09/24. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Four Lion Capital, LP, 575 5th Ave., 15th Fl., NY, NY 10017. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of DE, Dept. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Pest control has become a popular extract of Mayor Eric Adams’ focus on quality of life, raising far less ire than his policies on public safety and homelessness. Last year, Adams appointed the city’s rst “rat czar” to much fanfare and allocated $3.5 million to curb pestilent rodents in Harlem.

While he views his work as crucial, Bajwa has kept a lower prole.

“I won’t consider myself a mosquito czar, but de nitely we are trying to protect public health,” he said.

On the rise

Mosquito-borne illnesses are on the rise in the United States and globally. Mosquitoes carrying dengue fever and chikungunya have spread geographically with rising temperatures, according to the World Health Organization, and this year global dengue cases surged to historic levels.

e species carrying those diseases are not adapted to New York’s climate, but Bajwa is concerned that changes in the environment and in the virus itself could make West Nile more prevalent. at may have already happened in 2022, when the number of reported cases more than doubled — a level nearly as high as in

1999, before the city began controlling mosquito populations. West Nile virus begins in birds and is transmitted to mosquitos that bite them. Year after year, rates in New York City rise and fall on a predictable basis as the birds that carry the virus gain immunity throughout their lifetime. But in 2022, the birds’ immunity appeared to vanish, Bajwa said.

He believes the city may have seen the rst signs of a new strain the birds had never encountered before, one that could survive and multiply at lower temperatures.

CLASSIFIEDS

Notice of Formation of KALUMIPROP LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/31/24. Office location: NY County. United States Corporation Agents, Inc., designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful activity

Notice of Formation of LEGACY NATIONAL TITLE AGENCY, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/13/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of TENFORTY CENTRAL LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/13/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 590 Madison Ave., 6th Fl., NY, NY 10022.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of QUILCHENA PARK LEGAL LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on4/19/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to 219 E. 2nd Street Apt 5B, NY, NY 10009. Purpose: Any lawful activity

Notice of Qualification of VerisFi, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/14/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/17/22. Princ. office of LLC: 222 Lakeview Ave., Ste. 800, W. Palm Beach, FL 33401. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Of ce budget

e o ce’s spending seems to be tied to immunity in the birds, too. Starting each year with a baseline budget of close to $3.5 million for mosquito work, the vector lab typically spends an additional $600,000 dollars by the end of the scal year, according to budget documents provided by the scal watchdog Citizens Budget Commission. In recent years, when West Nile cases spike, the spending adjustment has doubled to $1 million or more.

In response to the 2022 uptick,

CL VISTA HOLDINGS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 8/02/24. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to; 1293 Broadway, NY, NY 10001, USA Purpose: Any lawful activity

Notice of Qualification of AMP CAPITAL VENTURES, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/08/24. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/01/24. Princ. office of LLC: 90 Park Ave., NY, NY 10016. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity

the city increased its larvicidal spraying, Bajwa said. His o ce even tested a di erent pesticide but it didn’t make much di erence.

When the Zika virus hit the scene in 2016, the Health Department pivoted to new pesticides that would control new vector species.

“Everything is data-driven,” he said.

In scal year 2019, after years of outside contracting, the Health Department bought its own helicopter for around $4 million, according to spokeswoman Shari Logan, in order to save money.

e city still hires out a pilot from Cutchogue-based North Fork Helicopters, whose last contract was worth roughly $1 million over six years, plus around $400,000 for storage and maintenance, according to records kept by the city comptroller.

If he had the budget, Bajwa said he would look beyond spraying to what is known in medical entomology as “source reduction,” eliminating the breeding grounds themselves. at would require draining

wetlands and major ood remediation, work that has confounded the city’s Department of Environmental Protection. Some of the worst breeding grounds are the city’s 150,000 storm gutters; Bajwa’s o ce treats each one three times a year but he said even more could be needed as hot-weather periods grow. It would take 30 years to upgrade the most oodprone drains at DEP’s current funding level for that work, roughly $1 billion per year, Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala testi ed in the City Council earlier this year.

Agricultural pilot David Carman said the ying is more technical than what most pilots deal with because of the intricacy of the maneuvering required.

“Keeps you sharp, keeps you on top of it,” he said at the launch site. at day in August, Carman dropped roughly 12.5 pounds per acre. While Bajwa said the pesticide, Vectobac — a granular concentrate of bacteria found in soil — is not toxic, the city does not use it in residential areas and he encourages his sta to wear a mask. For adult mosquitos in residential areas, a teaspoon of a more potent concoction can treat more than an acre.

Bajwa does not relish his role as executioner. He said he wouldn't kill any bug if it was not harmful to humans. "Like butter ies. Who would want to kill butter ies? Nobody.”

Bajwa speaks to pilot David Carman prior to a mosquito-spraying ight. BUCK ENNIS

Christie’s extends Rockefeller Center lease for 25 years

By Nick Garber

Christie’s auction house is extending its sizeable lease at Rockefeller Center for another 25 years, landlord Tishman Speyer announced Aug. 20. It’s a signi cant win for an older o ce complex whose peers have struggled to retain tenants.

Christie’s American headquarters at 20 Rockefeller Plaza spans nearly 400,000 square feet and includes public galleries, salerooms, warehouses and corporate o ce space. e company moved to Rockefeller Center in 1997 on a 30-year lease.

e cost of the renewal was not disclosed, but Tishman Speyer said it validates its decision to invest millions of dollars into a redevelopment of the Rockefeller Center campus, which is slated to wrap up around the end of this year.

Improvements

e improvements have included restoring the complex’s Channel Gardens and skating rink to its original state by opening up below-ground passageways that surround the plaza. e landlord has invited in a cohort of new, Gen Z-friendly retail tenants like the jeweler Catbird, bookstore

McNally Jackson, and menswear shop Todd Snyder.

“Rockefeller Center and Christie’s are both quintessentially New York,” Tishman Speyer CEO Rob

Speyer said in a statement. “Christie’s decision to build on their 25year history here further validates the success of our reimagination of the Center.”

Bonnie Brennan, the president of Christie’s Americas, called its Rockefeller Center space “unmatched” and said the renewal would ensure “our entire sta is

“Rockefeller Center and Christie’s are both quintessentially New York. Christie’s decision to build on their 25-year history here further validates the success of our reimagination of the Center.”

Rob Speyer, Tishman Speyer CEO

available in one place.” Christie’s was represented in the lease negotiations by CBRE and Fried Frank, while Tishman Speyer was represented by an inhouse team. e transaction is a counterpoint to the otherwise glum news about slumping demand for older o ce buildings. In a recent sign of hope, however, Manhattan ofce leases in July reached 3.9 million square feet — an increase both month over month and year over year — while the availability rate fell to 17.6%, the steepest monthly drop since September 2022.

Christie’s, which arrived at Rockefeller Center in 1997, is now signing a 25-year renewal for its American headquarters at the Midtown complex. BUCK ENNIS

Ellen’s Stardust Diner owner offers a portal to the past with pop soundtrack

Ellen Hart’s bet to have waiters serve the restaurant’s patrons while singing gives the Times Square eatery the sheen of Broadway

For Ellen Hart, nostalgia is presented through show tunes with a side of fries.

Hart is the owner of Ellen’s Stardust Diner, a 1950s-themed eatery in Times Square where patrons order burgers and shakes as waiters burst into tunes from the American songbook while standing on banquettes above them. rough the years, that singing sta , known as Stardusters, has turned the restaurant on Broadway into as much of a destination for fans of musicals as some of the large stages nearby.

ough the act may be decadeslong, it does not appear to be getting old. On a recent afternoon, a line stretched from the Stardust’s front door halfway down West 51st Street. e 200-seat space at 1650 Broadway can pack in up to 3,500 customers a day — a truly hot ticket in town.

If the fans are hardy, Stardust’s gurehead is, too. Hart, 83, still shows up for work several times a week and even sometimes grabs a microphone for standards such as “Getting to Know You” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s e King and I. But the diner’s soundtrack isn’t stuck in the Eisenhower era. More-modern ditties belted out by Stardusters while they stand under a disco ball and sometimes amid falling confetti include “Grease,” Cher’s “Believe” and Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best,” with generous helpings of Taylor Swift as well.

“ is is food and a show at a decent price,” said Hart, who also owns jazz and blues club e Iridium downstairs. “We don’t always know what the magic ingredient will be, but it always seems to work out very well.”

A native of Queens, Hart moved to the Nyack, Long Island, area in the 1950s to raise a family but also managed to enjoy some turns in the limelight along the way. ere were singing gigs at bungalow colonies in Rockland County; a local regional theater cast her as Linda Loman in Death of a Salesman. And the 1980s found her regularly performing the “Star-Spangled Banner” at Madison Square Garden before Knicks and Rangers games. She also hiked up the stairs of the 102-story Empire State Building to support multiple myeloma at the age of 72.

But there were dissonant notes along the way, like the 2010 death of husband Irving Sturm, who was also her longtime business partner. In 1970 the couple founded Ellen’s Cafe, a co ee shop near City Hall frequented by politicos, who nibbled on sandwiches such as the Fabulous Fiorello, as in 1930s Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. But a condo conversion of their Chambers Street building forced Hart and Sturm to close there in 2001.

At the time the couple also owned their rst Stardust, on Sixth Avenue in Midtown, a sort of dry run for the

By | C. J. Hughes

current version. e premier location did not o er any singing wait sta , but it did sport ’50s decor, inspired by a trip to a retro-style restaurant in Southern California.

In 1995 Hart and Sturm relocated the Stardust westward, to the present address at the heart of the Great White Way. An early karaoke session that prompted a dining room sing-along informed the current business model.

Some of the couple-dozen Stardusters, who must audition for the job as if it were a stage show, occasionally move on to bigger audiences. Former waiter Marla Mindelle, for instance, scored a lead role in the musical Titanique — an accomplishment that her former employer honored by slapping her name on a banana oat.

Perhaps the diner’s biggest challenge came during Covid; a pandemic marked by breath-borne pathogens wasn’t exactly a great t for a place where strangers sing near plates of food.

“We had to close for a year and a half, lost a lot of revenue, and there was a point where we didn’t know if we would ever open again,” said Hart, who added healthier options to her menu afterward, including quinoa bowls, though burgers and beer remain crowd favorites. “We interpreted the old with the new,” she said, a description that could also easily apply to Hart’s career.

Age 83

Grew up Jamaica, Queens Resides Lincoln Square, Manhattan Education Jamaica High School

Early nod In 1959, during her senior year of high school, Hart was named Miss Subway as part of the long-running beauty pageant of the same name, meaning her picture was plastered across trains in the spring of that year. In April of this year, 12 surviving Miss Subways reunited at the Stardust. Still learning Hart meets with a singing coach for two weeks each month. “As you get older, your vocal cords get stiffer. But you can always improve.”

Inspiration One of her role models is cabaret chanteuse Marilyn Maye, 96. “She’s still performing after all these years.”

Upstairs/downstairs The diner expands into the basement performance space Iridium during holidays to handle a surge in tourists. Fifties-themed weddings are on tap soon for The Iridium as well.

CONTACT THE NEWSROOM editors@crainsnewyork.com www.crainsnewyork.com/staff

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Ellen Hart

Ellen Hart (center) is the owner of Ellen’s Stardust Diner in Times Square. | BUCK ENNIS