Crain's New York Business, November 6, 2023 by crains-new-york-business

CRAINSNEWYORK.COM I NOVEMBER 6, 2023

Meet the inspiring young professionals revitalizing New York City Page 13

Left, Khalia Campbell; center from top, Annaleigh Ashford, Quemuel Arroyo and Mike Bosner; right, Coco Rocha. | BUCK ENNIS

Where mayor’s housing plan could have the most impact Experts say low-density areas may notice more changes if the effort to update New York’s 1961 zoning code succeeds By Eddie Small and Nick Garber

Each day thousands of people in neighborhoods like Astoria, Riverdale and Bay Ridge walk out of their multistory apartment buildings and visit their neighborhood’s main commercial

street, where they do their grocery shopping or laundry in single-story buildings with no residences above the shops. That common sight—singlestory commercial strips surrounded by taller residential buildings—is a result of zoning

rules Mayor Eric Adams’ administration wants to change to create more lively, mixed-use Main Streets. As it stands, developers are often unable to build housing above storefronts in low-density areas due to a combination of size limits, height

caps and parking mandates. “If you go to any other city around the country, where is the first place they found they were able to build mixed-use? It’s on these commercial strips,” said Howard Slatkin, executive director at the Citizens Housing and

Planning Council. “It’s like New York is catching up to the rest of the country in its ability to build apartments over shops.” Rethinking these corridors is just one of many proposals in See HOUSING on Page 51

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CRAIN’S EVENT Business leaders celebrate new members of Crain’s Hall of Fame.

WHO OWNS THE BLOCK West Eighth Street sits on the cusp of change.

CHASING GIANTS Startup dishes discounted lunches to workers.

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11/3/23 4:37 PM

Mount Sinai sets tentative July closure date for Beth Israel campus on 16th Street

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DETAILS Location: 180 Central Park South, NYC CrainsNewYork.com/ pb_whelan

Mount Sinai tentatively plans to close its Beth Israel 16th Street campus on July 12, 2024, according to an internal memo to staff reviewed by Crain’s. Sinai, which is shuttering the campus due to insurmountable financial challenges, submitted a closure plan to the state Department of Health late last month, according to the memo signed by health system CEO Dr. Kenneth Davis and other executives. “Over the past decade, we have invested more than $1 billion into MSBI, and evaluated and reevaluated every possible path forward. But, in the end, this hospital—despite its brilliant, hardworking,

The note emphasizes that the hospital and emergency room will remain open as July approaches and that Beth Israel’s closure will not impact the other facilities on the Beth Israel license, such as its new behavioral health center on the Lower East Side. The New York Eye & Ear Infirmary’s specialty services “will not be affected” by the campus closing, it reads. The execu- The Beth Israel campus at First Avenue and 16th Street | BUCK ENNIS tives also noted that Mount Sinai will nancial losses. Sinai spokeswomoffer unionized employees an Lucia Lee said in September jobs at the same pay else- that the hospital stands to lose anwhere in the system and Si- other $150 million this year on top nai will “make every effort” of the nearly $1 billion in losses it to find new positions for im- has already sustained. Labor and pacted non-union employ- supply costs at the hospital have grown while its inpatient census ees. According to the health system, has dropped and Beth Israel, Lee Mount Sinai plans to close Beth Is- said in September, is running at rael because of unsustainable fi- 20% capacity.

Sinai is shuttering the campus because of insurmountable financial challenges. and loyal staff—simply cannot overcome the realities of modern-day health care,” the memo reads.

Mount Sinai Beth Israel is a 696bed teaching hospital that offers patients an emergency department, cardiology services, a comprehensive psychiatric emergency program, adult and pediatric surgery and inpatient and outpatient programs for New Yorkers with substance use disorders. It remains unclear what the space will be used for.

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2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | November 6, 2023

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CHASING GIANTS

Mary Biggins co-founded MealPal in 2016 after leaving ClassPass, another startup she co-founded. | BUCK ENNIS

Midtown startup dishes discount lunches to office workers

MealPal survived the Covid pandemic despite the fact that it lost 97% of its revenue ‘overnight’ The upstart: MealPal

How to slay the giant

ary Biggins had recently left ClassPass, the startup she When Biggins co-founded ClassPass, the primary aim was co-founded offering access to thousands of indepen- to provide great deals to members—sometimes at the expense dent fitness studios for a flat monthly fee, when she of business partners that didn’t profit on the venture. Before spotted a new opportunity for the business model—the office launching MealPal, she surveyed restaurant owners to learn lunch. what would serve them best. Many said their most profitable The result is MealPal, launched in 2016. Based in Midtown, segment was catering. Preparing the same meal for many dinthe startup offers a subscription for discounted takeout meals. ers requires far less labor than creating a different dish for each Customers buy credits by the month. A 70-credit subscription, customer. for example, costs $89 per month and will purchase about 12 Biggins modified the catering model for MealPal. Restaumeals, with the average meal requiring six to seven rant partners offer just one dish a day to MealPal credits. That works out to roughly $7 per lunch. Unmembers that it can prepare in large quantities— used credits can roll over. MealPal splits the revenue Chipotle, for example, offered a chicken quesadilla on each sale with the restaurant partner. to subscribers on a recent Wednesday. Labor costs The 15-employee company has 800 restaurant partare reduced by roughly two-thirds, so restaurants ners in New York City, including Sweetgreen, Chickcan offer a discounted meal while enjoying a higher fil-A and Dos Toros along with roughly 3,000 partners profit margin. “That’s the key,” says Biggins. “Our around the globe in 16 cities such as Los Angeles, Sinbusiness doesn’t work if it doesn’t work for restaugapore, Toronto and Sydney. While it won’t reveal its rants.” subscriber count, MealPal says it has booked 40 milAnother incentive for restaurants: MealPal guarlion meal reservations since its inception. antees a certain number of orders per day. If the Anne Kadet Diana Attina, a business manager who works out of meals don’t sell, MealPal eats the cost. “That’s how JPMorgan’s Midtown East office, says she started subwe got a lot of restaurants comfortable with the idea scribing to MealPal’s 35-credit plan last year. It covers 5-6 and willing to test it without any risk in the beginning,” she meals a month, which works well because she works at home says. on Fridays and sometimes packs leftovers for lunch. While she The startup focused its New York launch in Flatiron and appreciates the savings—the cost of a typical takeout lunch in Chelsea before expanding north and south. To draw customMidtown Manhattan has shot up to about $15, she observes— ers, it targeted workers in offices in each new neighborhood her main consideration is convenience. through LinkedIn, inviting them to a free food-tasting event There’s often a 25-minute line at many of the city’s most featuring samples from partner restaurants. Guests got a folpopular take-out lunch spots, she says. With MealPal, she can low-up email with a subscription offer. “And then people startselect a pickup time on the app, and her order is typically wait- ed to tell their coworkers about it,” says Biggins. ing at the counter. “It takes two minutes, so I have extra time to MealPal keeps its marketing hyperlocal—handing out flyers walk around or run an errand,” she says. at the escalators at Grand Central Terminal, for instance, is a surefire strategy, says Biggins. The company raised $35 million in venture capital in 2017 The reigning Goliath: DoorDash and grew fast. By 2020 it had expanded to 16 cities around the San Francisco-based DoorDash is the largest food delivery globe and says it was operating profitably. Then the pandemic company in the U.S. Operating in 25 countries, it reported $6.6 hit. “We lost 97% of our revenue overnight,” says Biggins. Biggins and her co-founder had to sideline the corporate billion in revenue last year and made 532 million deliveries in team. Reduced to a crew of 10, they took to fielding customer its most recent quarter.

calls on their own phones. The setback had a silver lining. While half of MealPal’s restaurant partners went out of business during Covid, many strong, high-profile brands that had been reluctant to try something new were now eager to join the platform. “So our product is better than ever,” says Biggins. MealPal also experimented with subscription offers to attract hybrid workers. Its 10-12 meal plan is now the most popular, accounting for 60% of subscribers. The company has also grown its Manhattan market share. “I remember having serious conversations with the team about whether anyone would work in an office again. As drastic as that sounds today, that is what the company was facing at the time,” says Daniel Gulati, former managing director at Comcast Ventures, one of MealPal’s investors. “By right-sizing its operations quickly and adjusting the product portfolio to meet evolving needs of users, MealPal was able to come out of the acute phase of the pandemic a much leaner, fitter company that has the potential to be really large, but also very profitable.” MealPal says it had a profitable 2022 and expects to return a profit again this year. MealPal’s newest initiative: reusable packaging. The recycling program, launched in July, has several hundred Manhattan restaurant partners serving meals in bright red 50-ounce Polypropylene containers that members can return to any participating location. It has been adopted by about half of MealPal’s New York subscribers and has so far resulted in 20,000 meals served in the containers, with a 95% return rate.

The next challenge Having re-established in Manhattan, MealPal has raised additional funding and is regrowing its business in cities such as San Francisco, Seattle and London—focusing on the markets that performed the best pre-Covid. “I feel very lucky and sort of humbled that MealPal was able to survive Covid,” says Biggins. “Every now and then we’ll see tweets, or people will email to say ‘How is MealPal still here?’ And I’m sort of like, ‘I know, it’s crazy, right? We did it!’” Anne Kadet is the creator of Café Anne, a weekly newsletter with a New York City focus. November 6, 2023 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 3

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WHO OWNS THE BLOCK 51 W. EIGHTH ST.

West Eighth Street in Greenwich Village sits on the cusp of change A buyer has purchased one of four properties that the Grundwerg family has owned for decades on a strip in the neighborhood By C. J. Hughes

39 W. EIGHTH ST. In a world ruled by long-term leases, change can come incrementally. Uncle Sam’s Army-Navy Outfitters, which sold pea-green surplus-style military jackets, vacated one of the two retail berths at this site in 2018. But no new tenant seems to have moved in since. Made up of a pair of 1920s buildings—one with 9 stories and the other with 4—that together have 34 apartments, No. 39 also once also offered Da’Vinci, a shoe store that hung on into the 2010s, far longer than most of the block’s footwear vendors. It’s now Mint + Bella, a dental office. MWest Holdings, a California firm that invests in projects that “instill a sense of neighborhood, integrity and create a lasting, tangible value” appears to have purchased the property in 1992 through an affiliate for $975,000, according to a deed, and renovated it in the early 2000s.

52 W. EIGHTH ST. For all the ways West Eighth Street has evolved since its hippie heyday, one major piece of bohemian history endures. It’s still home to Electric Lady Studios, which rock legend Jimi Hendrix developed on the lower levels of this 1920s building just a few months before he died. Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton attended its August 1970 ribbon-cutting, the company says, and David Bowie, Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny have all laid down tracks there since. The Rolling Stones also seem to have ducked into the studio recently to record some of their latest album, “Hackney Diamonds,” which came out in October. For many years the ground level offered the Eighth Street Playhouse, a second-run, 450seat theater known for cult classics like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” before it closed in 1992. In an unusual pairing, medical offices affiliated with Mount Sinai hospital occupy the upper stories today. But the owner since the mid-1980s has been someone associated with a much different milieu, Lawrence Friedland, a billionaire developer known for upscale retail holdings along Madison Avenue.

50 W. EIGHTH ST. One of several buildings co-owned by Gene Warren and the late Norman Buchbinder, this mixed-use brownstone building in the mid-2000s had an early outpost of the chain Insomnia Cookies, the 20-year-old company that initially sought to locate near college campuses. New York University is a major presence nearby. But despite its sprawling real estate footprint, NYU does not appear to own any buildings on West Eighth Street (although it does own a few on East Eighth). Goods for the Study, an old-fashioned penand-paper-focused stationery store connected with bookseller McNally Jackson, is a tenant today. Norman Buchbinder, who earned a diploma from NYU, bought his first Manhattan building in the 1950s, an apartment house on West 22nd Street in Chelsea, according to his 2007 obituary. But he’s probably most closely associated with this part of the Village, where in 1993 he helped found the Village Alliance, the Eighth Street-centered business improvement district, where the retail vacancy rate has fallen from 24% in 2021 to 11% this year, according to its most recent annual report.

44 W. EIGHTH ST. Investment firm T30 Capital bought this 1950s building, which housed a Goodwill store, a cannabis shop and a T-shirt vendor, from the Grundwerg family in October for $10 million. A development project is expected from T30, which has the same principal, David Schwartz, as Sugar Hill Capital Partners, a development firm behind several projects in Upper Manhattan. (David Schwartz of Slate Property Group is a different developer.) Sugar Hill’s Schwartz, who declined to comment, has run into foreclosure trouble in recent months at two of his sites: 4300 Broadway in Fort George and 121 W. 116th St. in Harlem. T30, meanwhile, counts 212 W. 93rd St., 150 Lexington Ave. and 475 Washington Ave. in Brooklyn among its investments, according to its website.

25 W. EIGHTH ST. The effort that began a decade ago to remake the block as an upscale restaurant row seems to have stuck at this site, which once featured businesses such as nightclubs (the Persian disco Darvish), shoe stores (by the names of Hardy and A.S. Beck) and drug-paraphernalia shops (Pieces of Eight, according to a 1990s police report). Today, eateries line the five-story red brick structure. Two are from chef Dan Kluger: Loring Place, which opened in 2017, and Washington Squares, which has sold pizzas since the pandemic. There’s also Malaysian restaurant Rasa, which has cooked up curried lamb and chicken dishes since 2013. Tzong Yih Jean has owned the 28,000-square-foot, 24-apartment walk-up building since 2006, when he paid $10.4 million for it, records show. The landlord borrowed $4.5 million from Dime Community Bank against the site earlier this year. A two-bedroom apartment there in 2021 rented for $5,000 a month.

30 W. EIGHTH ST. As full of quirks as Greenwich Village itself, this blockthrough site mashes together three buildings, including a structure that likely once served as a stable. Indeed, the street that runs behind the building, the narrow cul-de-sac MacDougal Alley, functioned as a mews, a British term for a collection of carriage houses. The landed gentry of the elegant townhouses along Washington Square Park parked their horses there. No. 30, a 7,000-square-foot spread with eight apartments, is owned by the landlord Buchinder and Warren, which controls many sites on the street, including the pair of buildings to the east, Nos. 26 and 28. In the 1970s, a bookstore occupied No. 30’s retail space, and in the 1990s, a branch of the Haagen-Dazs ice-cream chain called it home. But since 2013, its exposed-brick walls have echoed with the whoosh of steamed milk, courtesy of an outpost of the Portland, Oregon-based coffee chain Stumptown Coffee Roasters, which invested $1 million to build out the saloon-like interior. Peet’s Coffee, a sort of 1960s California version of Stumptown, owns Stumptown, and the German conglomerate JAB Holding Company in turn owns Peet’s.

38 W. EIGHTH ST. Daniel Straus, a health care executive turned developer who previously built a 10-unit luxury condo on East 74th Street, is at work on a long-delayed 41-unit offering at this site at MacDougal Street. In 2012, Straus bought the single-story retail complex that used to stand at No. 38 for $3.8 million. That same year, he also acquired next-door 177 MacDougal, a five-story, five-unit prewar rental building, for $5.7 million, according to the city register. But it wasn’t until 2018 that Straus revealed plans for the site, in the form of a six-story, 41-unit residential complex. No. 177’s exterior, a landmark, will stay as is. But No. 38, demolished in 2020, will get a replacement that looks as if it is actually two separate buildings, one brick and one stone. The development began to climb out of the ground in recent weeks. The new No. 38 will have a gym, roof deck and pet spa, according to city filings, but it’s still not clear if it will offer condos or rentals, although the developer had not filed a condo offering plan with the state as of late October. The Straus Group did not respond to an email. A graduate of the law school at nearby New York University, Straus stepped down from the law school’s board in 2014 amid a controversy involving labor practices at some of his nursing homes. No. 38 is supposed to open next year, according to the website for project architect Morris Adjmi.

BUCK ENNIS, GOOGLE MAPS

f a block’s personality is a function of who owns the most buildings on it, West Eighth Street in Greenwich Village might soon be giving off a whole new vibe. The Grundwerg family, which has owned a clutch of properties there since the mid-20th century, has begun selling its holdings on the strip, a countercultural stronghold turned shoe emporium that has recently made strides toward a restaurant row. But the block has had a hit-or-miss feel for decades, as upscale offerings have squeezed in like heels into new boots among mid-market retailers and empty storefronts. “The block is probably going to get a facelift again,” said Clint Olsen, the managing director with the brokerage JLL who’s in charge of marketing the family’s portfolio, which encompasses four sites on West Eighth Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues plus two uptown properties. “And change is usually good.” Olsen, who has shopped the sites around for much of this year, has already found one taker. Last month, T30 Capital closed on 44 W. Eighth St., a low-slung 1950s retail building that previously housed a Goodwill thrift store. An affiliate of the developer Sugar Hill Capital Partners, T30 paid $10 million for the 11,500-square-foot property, which comes with more than 8,000 square feet of air rights. JLL marketed the site, listed at $11.4 million, as a development opportunity, though the block sits in a landmark district. Yet developer Straus Group did manage to bulldoze a similar building at next-door No. 38 and is building an apartment complex there. Messages left at the New York office of T30, Sugar Hill and the New Jersey office of Stephen Grundwerg were not returned by press time. Other Grundwerg properties up for grabs on West Eighth Street include No. 51, a five-story, 16-unit mixed-use prewar building whose storefront housed a low-key fabric shop for years but that appears to have been vacant since Covid hit. No. 57, a similar property, contains the massage business All Seasons Body Work as its retail tenant. Together they are asking $13.6 million. No. 43, also mixed-use, had a footwear business called Mind Boggler for years, although the pandemic appears to have spelled the end of that shop as well. It’s listed at $7.7 million. Real estate families that still operate portfolios several generations after the initial investments often find themselves rethinking ownership, brokers say. And Saul Grundwerg, who began buying real estate on the street around the time his store Stag Shop was a hip spot for bellbottoms, passed away years ago. “They have not managed these properties day-to-day for a long time,” Olsen said. “But what’s happening is not uncommon. Many families come to a point when they realize that it’s time to sell.”

4 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | November 6, 2023

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Lincoln Restler, 39 Councilman, New York City Council

“ Coco Rocha, 35 Supermodel and founder, Coco Rocha Model Camp

icknamed the Queen of Pose, Coco Rocha started her modeling career in Canada when she was 14 turning 15. Since then she has appeared on more than 100 magazine covers, walked the runway for luxury fashion houses and amassed almost 52 million followers across her social media accounts. But this head-turner is more than just a pretty face. She has used her platform to advocate for the health and safety of young models, including working to get a law on the books in New York state in 2013 requiring those under age 18 to be recognized as child performers. And in 2018 she opened Coco Rocha Model Camp, which teaches new and established models how to be confident as well as how to read their contracts. The four-day camp is $2,695 per student, which includes their local accommodations and meals. So far more than 4,000 models have gone through the program, which takes place every few weeks. “I do really take my job as a big sister or mom to these other models very seriously,” Rocha said. “I want them to know that there’s someone who really cares.” Rocha, a mother of three, is looking toward the future. She runs a global talent agency, Nomad MGMT, with her husband, James Conran. And she invests in and advises tech startups based on ideas she finds interesting, such as Bumo, which focuses on early childhood care and education. But she isn’t abandoning her roots, keeping her eyes on the next phase of fashion. And she wants to leave a legacy as a businesswoman and a role model. “I want people to recognize that I was the model who made a difference, made it easier for the next models of any race, of any background, of any age,” she said. “That’s all I really want is just a better place for these models.”

—TELISHA BRYAN

I do really take my job as a big sister or mom to these other models very seriously.”

ince City Council member Lincoln Restler was elected to represent northern Brooklyn in 2021, he has become something of a liberal foil to moderate Mayor Eric Adams. Restler, who grew up in Brooklyn Heights, will not mince words—and frequently doesn’t—on his criticism of the Adams administration’s policies. He has proposed his own legislative solutions on a number of issues, from street safety to housing to climate measures. “I’ve never shied away from a tough fight,” said Restler. “When someone is not doing their job to the standards that New Yorkers should expect, I feel it is my responsibility to call that out—to call out mismanagement, ethical lapses, and to call out failures to deliver for our communities.” The co-chair of the council’s progressive caucus first rose to prominence as a founder of the New Kings Democrats, a political club dedicated to reforming the Brooklyn Democratic Party. Before running for City Council, Restler held several positions in municipal government, where he helped implement programs such as IDNYC, which provides photo identification to undocumented residents. Apart from his policy kerfuffles with the mayor, Restler says much of his energy in his current role is poured into “solving the problems of the people of the 33rd Council District.” He points to three core priorities: tackling the city’s affordability crisis, working toward pragmatic solutions to climate change, and improving transit and street safety. He also prides himself on helping to realize community benefits long promised to Downtown Brooklyn, such as a new school and parks, as part of a 2004 rezoning that enabled high-rise developments to rise rapidly in the sought-after neighborhood. “We are following through on the promises that were made to our communities,” said Restler. —CAROLINE SPIVACK

38 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | November 6, 2023

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Sonam Velani, 36 Co-founder and managing partner, Streetlife Ventures

hen she was a child, Chicago’s aspirational spirit lured Sonam Velani’s family to emigrate from Mumbai. Velani and her parents were undocumented, so her father initially worked as a busboy at a Popeyes, while her mother took on babysitting gigs. Growing up, Velani experienced life in a basement apartment that often flooded, and in the winter her parents sometimes turned on the stove to heat their home. “These are things that many families in such situations face and are becoming more and more prevalent, especially given climate change,” she said. “For me, it was always, ‘How do I make sure other people don’t live like this?’ And it’s also how I became very fascinated by infrastructure and how the physicality of your neighborhood really shapes your worldview.” After graduating from Harvard University, Velani worked on the infrastructure finance team at Goldman Sachs and then as a sustainable cities and climate change specialist at the World Bank. She joined the de Blasio administration in 2014 as senior adviser to the deputy mayor for housing and economic development, then Alicia Glen, helping implement initiatives to build climate-smart infrastructure and affordable housing, and create quality jobs. One initiative she’s particularly proud of her work on is OneNYC, the city’s sprawling plan to get to net-zero emissions by 2050. The mandates of OneNYC factored into Velani co-founding Streetlife Ventures, a venture studio and investment fund that supports entrepreneurs developing sustainable infrastructure for cities, with Laura Fox, Citi Bike’s former general manager. Streetlife Ventures, which works with climate-tech startups, is helping to connect companies with urban testbeds and deployment sites for their products while they’re in the early stages of research and development to speed up the path toward commercialization. The firm is also in the process of raising a $30 million fund. “I’m all about, how do you take climate solutions out of PDF reports and bring them into the real world?” said —CAROLINE SPIVACK Velani. “And I think Streetlife is a manifestation of that.”

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I’m all about, how do you take climate solutions out of PDF reports and bring them into the real world?”

Brandon Singer, 37 CEO, Retail by MONA

ike the woman smiling knowingly in the famous portrait of Mona Lisa, Brandon Singer seems to have a secret. Though other brokers may focus solely on traditional vendors, Singer believes the future of retail depends on dramatically rethinking how spaces are used, to the point where they may not seem like actual stores at all. “Business has changed and shifted. The ones that have an omnichannel strategy are the ones who will survive,” Singer said. “So we’re focused on the new age of retailing.” Indeed, the MONA in Retail by MONA is an acronym for “making of a new age,” he pointed out. In fall 2020, as Covid-19 lay waste to the city, few were thinking about it as an opportune time to start a business revolving around in-person interaction, especially in a city where new retail brokerages are rare. But Singer, a 17-year veteran then working for Cushman & Wakefield, teamed with colleague Michael Cody to launch MONA as a lean, two-person operation. “The people at Cushman looked at me as if I were crazy,” he said. An investment in the firm for an undisclosed amount from RFR Holding’s Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs, major commercial landlords for whom the pair had worked—MONA is now marketing RFR’s berths at the Chrysler Building—may have soothed some startup fears. The bold swerve was a smart play. In the past three years, the firm, which now employs 20 agents and four support staff members, has completed more than 110 deals on behalf of an even mix of landlords and tenants for about $900 million. A proud wearer of the disrupter label, Singer has tweaked the conventions of his business along the way. For-lease signs in store windows, for instance, aren’t a jumble of multiple agents’ names but bear only the firm’s. “We figured we would have only one identity for the company,” he said. But there’s nothing offbeat about MONA’s upcoming plans to expand from its current mostly Manhattan market to —C. J. HUGHES the suburbs. “The harder you work,” Singer said, “the luckier you get.”

Annie Evans, 36 Partner, Akin

hen Annie Evans was promoted to partner at the law firm Akin last year, it was the culmination of almost 11 years of hard work building connections and practicing white-collar defense and investigations. Her team represents a variety of institutional clients, financial institutions, hedge funds, public and private companies, and individuals undergoing all sorts of investigations. In one recent case, Evans’ team represented a former trader at JPMorgan who was one of several individuals in a larger sweep over charges of spoofing—a form of market manipulation—at different banks. Evans worked on the case for four years, and although the client was ultimately found guilty, she found the work rewarding. “As a litigator, and particularly in the white-collar practice, so much of what we do is almost prelitigation; it’s very investigative,” she said. “It’s a lot of the behind the scenes and pulling the threads and figuring out what really happened, and then building that back up into the narrative that will be compelling and true and persuasive and favorable for your client.” Evans jokes that she went through a phase in her teenage years when she rejected the idea of becoming a lawyer—as one might if one’s parents and grandparents are lawyers too. But a history teacher set her on a course of learning how to form an argument, defend her view and gather facts to support her side. Within her first year at Akin, and while working pro bono representing women and victims of domestic violence in family court, a unifying theme for her practice emerged. “There was so much more to the lawyering that we were doing,” she said. “There were these soft skills that I was seeing that really spoke to me and the sort of understanding of the psychology of what your clients need.” She cites as examples the idea that a lawyer will pick up the phone whenever a client calls or answer what might seem like silly questions. “It was not the fact that I had gone to law school that made these clients want to trust me—of course, it was relevant that I had the legal experience that they needed,” Evans said. “But I could just sort of be their confidant and somebody they could trust and somebody who was advocating for them.”

Evans’ team represents a variety of clients undergoing all sorts of investigations.

—OLIVIA BENSIMON

VACK

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Quemuel Arroyo, 34

Pro

Chief accessibility officer, Metropolitan Transportation Authority

undamentally, Quemuel Arroyo sees his job as rewriting for whom New York is designed and created. As the first chief accessibility officer for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Arroyo and his team are working to combat systemic underinvestment in accessibility in the subway and throughout the region’s mass transit. “We’re creating a New York City where everybody gets to come out and play,” said Arroyo, “not just those who are fit and able.” That means recognizing that accessibility goes far beyond elevators and ramps. For Arroyo, it’s helping people with low vision, emotional disabilities or language barriers; parents with strollers; riders with bikes or luggage; older New Yorkers; and others better navigate the system. Before joining the MTA in 2021, Arroyo served as global head of community for Charge Enterprises and was the first chief accessibility specialist at the city’s Department of Transportation. In his current role, he helped the authority reach a 2022 landmark settlement that resolved two lawsuits filed by disability rights advocates. Under the terms, the MTA will add elevators and ramps by 2055 to at least 95% of the subway’s more than 350 stations that lack accessible infrastructure. The agreement requires that the MTA dedicate some 15% of each of its multibillion-dollar, five-year capital plans to station accessibility. That figure cannot drop below 8%. Still, Arroyo is no stranger to difficult conversations with straphangers who may still have a years-long wait for projects to improve their quality of life at their local station. “There’s always a healthy tension at my table,” said Arroyo. “We know that we have a long road ahead, and we know how difficult it’s going to be. But we have all the players that I need at the table to be successful.” —CAROLINE SPIVACK

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We’re creating a New York City where everybody gets to come out and play, not just those who are fit and able.”

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Jade Bailey, 38 Director of alternative delivery, New York City Department of Design and Construction

hen Jade Bailey was growing up in south Queens, one of her frequent hangout spots was the Roy Wilkins Recreation Center in Roy Wilkins Park. Now, as director of alternative delivery at the city’s Department of Design and Construction, she will play a major role in building a new rec center for the Jamaica park. “It’s nice to come full circle and see that this neighborhood is getting some attention,” she said. “I remember going there and it being a part of my life as a child, going for after- school services and summer camp and using the pool that they have.” The new rec center is poised to add to Bailey’s impressive track record at DDC, the agency that builds civic facilities for the city, such as libraries and firehouses. She has already managed more than two dozen successful projects valued at up to $250 million. These include the Midtown performing arts venue New York City Center and the Covid-19 Center of Excellence in Queens, a health facility for the entire borough devoted to providing Covid patients with long-term care. She currently oversees nine projects in DDC’s design-build program, which puts the same company in charge of designing and constructing projects in an effort to finish them faster, helping to ensure they are delivered on time, on budget and up to the city’s standards. Bailey worked in the private sector before coming to DDC, and although she does not have an overall preference between private and government work, she does appreciate the faster pace at private companies and hopes the design-build program will bring more of that to the city. “Private work is great. It doesn’t have to contend with some of the bureaucracy and red tape that public work has to contend with, unfortunately, which is why I’m really excited about what I’m doing now,” she said. “The design-build world tries to cut through some of that red tape. That’s exciting.” —EDDIE SMALL

40 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | November 6, 2023

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Michael Bosner, 37

ichael Bosner remembers exactly when he decided he wanted to be a Broadway producer. He was interning at the Muny, a regional theater in his hometown of St. Louis, when Paul Blake, the executive producer, called a meeting that turned Bosner’s “whole world upside down.” It was then he learned of the business behind the scenes. “There were unions, and there were payments and schedules, and all of the things I didn’t know of,” Bosner said. “In that moment, I said, ‘I want to do that.’” After Bosner graduated from the University of Miami with a business degree, Blake asked him to help produce Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. The show grossed more than $270 million and picked up seven Tony Award nominations. With newly minted “keys to the kingdom,” Bosner learned about a country musical called Shucked and decided that if anyone would produce it, it would be him. “Who knew that when they were talking about a song called ‘Corn,’ that this is what it would look like? There it is in front of us. To even say it, I have goosebumps.” At that moment in the interview, a bus plastered with a bright yellow ad for the show cruised by. Bosner confirmed he did not arrange for the drive-by. Shucked has grossed more than $22 million since it opened in April and received nine Tony nominations. Working at the Muny as a college “kid getting coffee and showing people their seats,” Bosner also caught the attention of now-mentor Thomas Schumacher, chief creative officer at Disney Theatrical Group. “Mike is here to usher in a new generation of how we entertain,” Schumacher said. “As a producer, you have to walk out of a room where someone says you can’t afford what you want to do, then walk into a room full of artists and tell them how to make their dreams come alive. It’s about being clever. Mike is perfectly poised to navigate that.” —AMANDA GLODOWSKI

“

Xiaohui (Hui) Lin, 39

I enjoy being part of a company’s life cycle.”

Partner, Simpson Thacher and Bartlett

hile going through Simpson Thacher and Bartlett’s rotation program, Hui Lin found her home in the firm’s capital markets practice, learning about companies’ and brands’ stories and goals, and working alongside C-suite executives to bring those plans to fruition. “The details are fascinating: what their business model is, what differentiates them, their growth strategy and the biggest risks they face. It’s almost like getting a practical MBA,” said Lin. “I enjoy being part of a company’s life cycle, seeing them through the various milestones and all the ups and downs that come with it.” Having joined the firm in 2007, straight out of Columbia Law School, Lin has spent much of the past 16 years advising companies on IPOs, debt offerings, acquisition financing, corporate governance and more. Since she made partner in 2017, Lin has worked on transactions totaling over $240 billion in value. For example, she has advised Dell Technologies in many complex, high-profile transactions, including the financing for its $67 billion acquisition of EMC Corp.—widely reported as the largest-ever tech deal at the time—and subsequent multibillion-dollar refinancings. She also represented Mediterranean restaurant chain Cava in its $318 million IPO. With a closing price that almost doubled Cava’s valuation to nearly $4.9 billion, it was the most successful debut since July 2022 for a company launching in the U.S. She’s also part of the firm’s legal talent development committee and is passionate about mentoring lawyers through all stages of their career. “Hui is a true star because she is a classic five-tool athlete: She’s highly intelligent, very creative and always commercial while also having great judgment and a very high EQ,” said Ken Wallach, co-head of Simpson Thacher’s global capital markets practice. “Clients seek her counsel, and the opposing side always respects her.” —SHELBY ROSENBERG

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Dr. Ted Long, 39 Senior vice president for ambulatory care and population health, New York City Health + Hospitals

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r. Ted Long was driving to his primary care clinic in the Bronx last fall when he first got a call about assisting with the asylum seeker crisis. Migrants were continuing to arrive in New York City, but the Department of Homeless Services was at capacity. Dr. Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of New York City Health + Hospitals, asked Long to help set up immediate and temporary shelter to meet the influx of arrivals. “It started off as, ‘We’re going to put a tent somewhere,’” said Long, senior vice president for ambulatory care and population health at Health + Hospitals, the city’s public health system. Now H+H provides health care and case management to all migrants entering the city. The public hospital system operates 15 humanitarian emergency response and relief centers for more than 22,000 asylum seekers. Health workers provide medical services to migrants but also help them connect with family members or get legal documents, Long said. It’s not the first time Long has led the hospital system through an emergency; he launched New York City’s Test & Treat Corps at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Long oversaw a massive contact-tracing effort, which ultimately reached a third of all city residents. The hospital system also rolled out a program to provide New Yorkers with food, medicine and, in some cases, hotel rooms for quarantine and isolation. Long also oversees one of the nation’s largest federally qualified health centers and is responsible for transforming H+H’s ambulatory care portfolio, which currently sees 5.8 million outpatient visits a year. He said the health system is integral not only to providing medical care, but also to serving New Yorkers during public health emergencies. “What we do for asylum seekers is a function of primary care,” Long said. “We are looking after everything that somebody needs and figuring out how to help them with all the problems they have.”

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—AMANDA D’AMBROSIO

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A meeting at a theater in his hometown made Bosner want to be a Broadway producer.

Producer, Bosner Productions

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What we do for asylum seekers is a function of primary care.”

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Melissa Mash, 39

Co-

Chief executive officer and co-founder, Dagne Dover

Dagne Dover was born out of the desire to create performanceoriented bags at a “friendly” luxury price point.

elissa Mash has always been a bag person—“ever since high school.” “Something that had an understated design, where the designs always spoke for themselves, was always really important for me,” she said. But in 2009, when she was helping Coach establish its first location in the European Union, she felt there weren’t enough modern and functional options at a price point she could afford. Dagne Dover, the accessory brand she co-founded in 2013, was born out of the desire to create performance-oriented bags at a “friendly” luxury price point. “Functionality is not always a super-sexy word,” Mash said, “but for us, it’s really about smart organization, and we incorporate that into everything we do.” The functionality aspect goes beyond just the bags’ design. After working in retail for years, Mash and her co-founders, Deepa Gandhi and Jessy Dover, were also interested in promoting policies and a workplace culture that they didn’t necessarily experience in previous corporate settings. For example, the company offers a generous PTO and work-from-anywhere policy and provides three months of fully paid parental leave, with an additional three months of part-time scheduling with full pay to ease the transition for new moms and dads. As CEO, Mash oversees the brand’s retail partnerships with wholesale partners including Nordstrom, Equinox, Babylist and ShopBop. She’s also in charge of company culture and does a lot of work speaking and writing on behalf of the brand. In a decade of business, Mash said, Dagne Dover has sold over 1 million bags in different styles, sizes and materials—neoprene being the most popular. A fanny pack−type bag goes for $95, while a large tote is around $360. The word “dagne” means “dawn” in Norwegian, a nod to the brand’s aim to bring to light a bag not yet seen in the market: one with a detachable key leash, a laptop sleeve that’s flush to one side and a beverage holder that keeps drinks upright, among other features. “All these tiny details are the reason why customers are attracted to us and why customers come back to us,” Mash said. —OLIVIA BENSIMON

Victor DeStefano, 38 President, Empire BlueCross BlueShield

ictor DeStefano started thinking about health care costs long before he became president at Empire BlueCross BlueShield. Early in his career, DeStefano took a sales job at UnitedHealth, where he worked with employers to renew their insurance plans. Executives frequently told him that their companies couldn’t afford higher premiums year after year—pushing many to cut back on staff or other necessary expenses. “That sparked a really thirst- quenching question in my head of, why are the premiums that high?” DeStefano said. “Why is health care so expensive?” That question has been motivating him for more than a decade. He began pursuing a master’s degree in health policy and management from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in 2013, aiming to better understand the drivers of health care costs. He oversaw the individual exchange program in New York and New Jersey during the rollout of the Affordable Care Act in 2013. Later, he became the executive director of Medicare Advantage in the downstate region, where he worked with hospitals to implement value-based payment models centered around preventive care. DeStefano joined Empire BlueCross BlueShield in 2019 and was selected to serve as interim president in June. In October he became president. In the role, he oversees more than 3.5 million New Yorkers in commercial programs. He is passionate about using digital health tools to better serve New York’s diverse workforce. In 2019 Empire’s parent company launched Sydney, an app that uses artificial intelligence to connect patients to care. Since it launched, around 700,000 New Yorkers have downloaded it, DeStefano said. Howard Margolies, a mentor to DeStefano, said that the president is more than prepared for his role. “He’s one of the rare people in the health insurance industry who want to make a difference,” Margolies said. “He’s a student of health care.” —AMANDA D’AMBROSIO

42 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | November 6, 2023

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Stephanie Grayson, 33 Co-founder and co-CEO, Cambio AI

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hile completing her bachelor’s in government economics at Harvard, Stephanie Grayson became fascinated by how the public sector could leverage its influence to promote socially responsible business practices. As a commercial real estate investor for Goldman Sachs and KKR, that ethos propelled Grayson to search for opportunities to make the large portfolios she managed more environmentally sustainable. “Real estate drives 40% of global emissions, so driving scalable support for the world’s largest portfolios is critical to combating climate change,” said Grayson. She quickly realized how difficult that task was, however, as she struggled to align stakeholders and grappled with the “hugely undigitized” nature of the industry. Taking those challenges head-on, Grayson pivoted from investing into entrepreneurship, launching tech startup Cambio AI in 2021 alongside co-founder Leia de Guzman. Using AI and input from data scientists, Cambio ingests live data to automate buildings’ carbon footprint measurements and plots a path to decarbonization compliance, looping in landlords, tenants, investors, engineers and regulatory specialists to coordinate those changes faster. Grayson says Cambio has created action plans for thousands of buildings, targeting energy savings of 10% to 30% for large-scale organizations including the General Services Administration and Twilio. The company has received investments from startup accelerator Y Combinator, which selected just 2% of 19,000 applicants for its cohort, and venture capital firm Fifth Wall. It has raised several million dollars so far, with plans for additional rounds, Grayson said. Grayson, a first generation Cuban American, and her co-founder, a Filipina immigrant, advocate for diverse female leadership to be represented in the push for real estate to be a solution to climate change after decades of having been part of the problem. “Diversity is coming to the industry, and we’re proud to be a part of that,” said Grayson. “It’s so important that future generations see people who look like us driving disruption in this space.” —SHELBY ROSENBERG

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I want us to center on people’s humanity.”

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Grayson pivoted into entrepreneurship, co-founding tech startup Cambio AI in 2021.

Nabiha Syed, 38 CEO, The Markup

abiha Syed vividly remembers sitting at the family computer as a child, armed with AOL 30-day trial CDs, marveling as the online world challenged everything she knew. Syed loved the internet so much that she became a media lawyer to defend it. For several years she advised outlets including The Guardian and BuzzFeed on whether to publish hacked and leaked materials, oversaw access litigation around police disciplinary records and privatized services, and counseled two former presidents on free speech issues. She joined the founding team of The Markup ahead of its launch in 2020. The investigative journalism startup’s mission of exploring how powerful actors use technology to reshape society for better or for worse resonated with her. To foster transparency and trust in an era of media skepticism, The Markup makes all of its reported data open source. It also creates free digital tools such as Blacklight, a privacy inspector that identifies data trackers on websites, to help people engage with technology more mindfully. In her three years as CEO, Syed has challenged her reporters to consider one question. “How do you capture people’s attention and motivate them to change the future without miring them in despair?” she asks them to consider. “In journalism, it’s easy to tell stories in a voyeuristic, agency-depleting way, but I want us to center on people’s humanity.” Syed contributes occasional articles of her own, but her priority is giving The Markup’s reporters the resources and support to boldly speak truth to power. So far the team’s work has been cited in more than 20 congressional investigations and has inspired 35 class-action lawsuits. “My job is to clear all blockers out of the way so [they] just fearlessly pursue the truth,” she said. “When I think of my role, it’s to say, ‘OK, that’s a beautiful spark. Let’s turn that into a flame.’” —SHELBY ROSENBERG

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Ephraim J. Pierre, 37 Partner, Seyfarth Shaw

hen Ephraim Pierre was a teenager, he helped his mother, an immigrant from Haiti, study for her U.S. citizenship test. Their shared study of the law lit a spark. “While I’m sitting here taking history, she’s learning about American history. So we’re sort of teaching each other,” he said. “By virtue of that, I gained a true appreciation for this country and a lot of the processes and law behind it.” His interest grew during college, when he read a book about the Brown v. Board of Education decision that outlawed school segregation. “It was inspiring to me,” he said. “To dismantle that regime of segregation, it took years of work and several different cases and plaintiffs raising their hands to say, ‘This is wrong.’” Now, Pierre is an accomplished employment lawyer. He started at his firm, Seyfarth Shaw, as a summer associate in 2011 and made partner in January 2022. Pierre represents companies dealing with everything from harassment claims to government investigations. Most end in settlements, but he is proud of the cases in which he’s managed to fully vindicate his clients before a fact-finder. In his work, Pierre sees the need to understand both his client and the person lodging a complaint. “Employment law really gives me that full-throated look at humanity,” he said, “in a way that you don’t get in other forms of litigation.” Pierre also finds fulfillment as a board member for Legal Outreach, a Queens nonprofit that enrolls Black and brown students in a law-based curriculum to prepare them for higher education. “It’s a great experience to see kids 13, 14 years old essentially get up and argue many of the cases that I do,” he said. “Even more important than that is seeing their development, how much they pour themselves into the work.” —NICK GARBER

Pierre sees the need to understand both his client and the person lodging a complaint.

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Dire Dev

Melanie Dascenzo, 39 Senior director of operational finance, White Plains Hospital

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ince Melanie Dascenzo joined White Plains Hospital’s financial team, the facility has grown from bringing in $400 million in patient services revenue in 2014 to about $1.3 billion annually. Her supervisor and mentor, Mark Mercurio, partially attributes that growth to Dascenzo’s confidence, knack for financial analytics and support for leadership as they make decisions. Dascenzo collaborates across departments and uses data to analyze how White Plains Hospital can allocate its resources, which can be challenging at a time when many institutions’ resources are scarce. “We really utilize data to help inform decisions about how the hospital is running, help provide the senior leadership team with key information as they are making decisions,” Dascenzo said, “[and] help them decide

Laitsas points out that MMA’s 650 million fans make it the most popular sport behind soccer and basketball.

Adam Laitsas, 38

Executive vice president, Professional Fighters League

ports has shaped Adam Laitsas’ life from the get-go. Playing basketball at age 4 allowed a shy child to come out of his shell. And hoops helped him build confidence as a high-schooler. His team’s only loss in their 30-1 season came at the hands of budding superstar LeBron James. The game also was a reason Laitsas came to New York, to attend college at St. John’s, whose team he walked on to as a shooting guard. Years later, after detours on Wall Street and at Adidas and Nike and a stop at Harvard for an MBA, MSG hired Laitsas to handle brand strategy for the New York Knicks. But if his first few decades were about basketball, Laitsas is more about mixed martial arts today. Last spring the eight-year-old Professional Fighters League hired him to help expand the cage-match-hosting sport into the Middle East and Northern Africa. “I was drawn by the chance to build something,” said Laitsas, who manages a team of 10 in New York and is currently hiring the operating staff that will be based in the region, while also overseeing the makeup of the new league’s roster. And he hopes to replicate the new league globally down the road. After all, Laitsas points out, mixed martial arts’ 650 million fans make it the most popular sport behind soccer and basketball. And some investors have noticed. In August a fund tied to Saudi Arabia’s government became a minority partner in PFL after investing $100 million. Thirty-two fighters will start throwing punches in Saudi Arabia in April. And the new league, expecting up to 5,000 fans per event, could help push PFL’s revenue past $1 billion, Laitsas said. He’s in the process of securing $50 million to $100 million in sponsorship deals. When not traveling, he is home in Brooklyn with his wife, who is an oncology nurse, and their puppy. But athletics never seem far off. He rises before dawn five days a week to work out. “I love being able to outline my day before the noise starts,” Laitsas said. “You can get a lot done before 9 a.m.” —C. J. HUGHES

Dascenzo said her strategy is driven by her belief in the hospital’s mission. what the strategic direction of the hospital is going to be.” Her strategy, Dascenzo said, is driven by her belief in the hospital’s mission. That connection pushed her to leave a media career to work in hospital administration, beginning at what was then called NYU Langone Medical Center before moving to White Plains. She said she enjoys helping frontline staff serve the community, though she is not directly involved with patient care. Mercurio noted that Dascenzo’s strengths were on display during the pandemic, a stressful point for the hospital and its finance department. “We didn’t know at that time where our next dollars were coming from when the government shut down all our services,” he said. “But Melanie was right there. She took things and ran with [them] and worked directly with senior leadership to provide and manage our way through that period.” —JACQUELINE NEBER

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Tiana Liriano, 33

Director of real estate and property management, Greater Jamaica Development Corp.

iana Liriano believes leasing commercial space below market rate can go a long way toward alleviating affordability issues in the city. In her role as the director of real estate and property management at the Greater Jamaica Development Corp., Liriano leads a team of nine and oversees a portfolio of 175,000 square feet of commercial space. Her primary objective, to provide below-market-rate sites for local firms, contributes to the creation of a more affordable environment by lowering costs for small businesses, she said. Liriano is overseeing the redevelopment of the parking garage at 90-15 Parsons Blvd. in Jamaica into a property that will include 500 residential units and commercial space. She also oversaw the launch of a coworking location at 89-14 Parsons Blvd. known as Greater Nexus. She studied public policy at SUNY Albany, where she says her eyes were opened to the shortfalls of state and federal housing policy. After she completed an internship in Bangalore, India, in late 2012, she returned to the city and joined real estate development nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners. “Having safe and stable housing at an affordable price really does have an effect on your wellbeing,” she said. “They are the building blocks for a better life, so I wanted to focus on how to help.” Liriano’s interest in development, housing and policy led her to the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, the development nonprofit the Community Builders and the MTA before she joined the Greater Jamaica Development Corp. She started at the organization as a senior project manager in November 2021 before being promoted to director of real estate and property management six months later. “We want to help the members of the community around us grow and start their businesses,” Liriano said. “Similar to affordable housing, if you have an affordable place where you can run your business, you can put more of your money toward helping build that business.” —MARIO MARROQUIN

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Hilary Leichter, 38 Author, “Terrace Story” and “Temporary”

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ilary Leichter’s second novel, “Terrace Story,” is about a family that lives in a cramped apartment. One night they discover a spacious terrace hidden in their closet. Eventually they figure out that the terrace appears only when their friend Stephanie is visiting. Leichter calls it “an investigation into things that are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside, like the ways that we fail to completely see the full picture of another person sitting in front of us.” She is on a book tour this fall after the August publication of “Terrace Story,” and she has playfully made the book itself more spacious. A short story, “Alcove,” is tucked inside the back jacket cover of 250 copies. “It’s like my little Willy Wonka golden ticket,” she said, “except you don’t get a chocolate factory. You just get a short story.” Fifteen thousand copies were printed for the book’s first run, and as of press time, almost half had already been sold. Now a writing teacher and an undergraduate creative writing adviser for fiction at Columbia University, Leichter first started as a performer. Growing up in New Jersey, she spent her extracurricular time participating in the theater. She moved to New York after college and had a one-woman cabaret show. At the same time, she became drawn toward writing. She entered Columbia’s MFA program in 2009 and published “Temporary” in March 2020. It’s a story about a young woman working temp jobs and ruminating about permanence. The novel was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Prize. “I think her work resonates because she speaks to the social dislocation and uncertainty and surreality of this often disturbing era,” said Samuel P. Lipsyte, one of her professors. Leichter received a $3,000 advance for “Temporary,” and her next two books were sold in a “significant deal,” in the lingo of book publishing, at auction. A member of Leichter’s writing group, Diane Cook, said her friend is both brilliant and an everywoman. “She turns the indignities of everyday life into fairy tales accessible to anyone,” Cook said.

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Liriano’s primary objective is to provide affordable space to run a small business.

—ANNE MICHAUD

Kevin Kelly, 36 Executive managing director, Cushman & Wakefield

s a geography major at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Kevin Kelly studied data science and geographic information systems. An internship at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health showed him how to use both disciplines to track infectious diseases. Now he uses his knowledge to help companies figure out the best places to put their offices. Kelly switched coasts and started working at real estate firm KLG Advisors in New York in 2010. In his current role as an executive director at real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, where he began working in 2022, Kelly assists businesses in making decisions related to workforce relocation and talent retention. This involves managing a team of 10 data scientists, management consultants, brokers and financial experts to analyze geographic data and provide insights to help organizations find the perfect balance between remote and in-office work amid the ongoing shift to a hybrid environment. “The interaction and the learning that occur in the physical space are not going anywhere,” Kelly said of in-office work. So, he says, the ability to quantify and study what workers want out of the office “is really more important today than it was before.” Kelly has helped relocate and expand a workforce comprising approximately 50,000 employees across the country. His data-driven approach, he says, provides more objectivity and ultimately translates into enhanced productivity and employee satisfaction. As companies continue to adapt to the new normal, Kelly envisions a future where employees feel more motivated and excited about their organization’s direction. “Office space can help [employee culture] flourish,” he said. “It can facilitate interaction and innovation. And from a location perspective, it can encourage after-work activities and collaboration between employees even outside the confines of a traditional office.” —MARIO MARROQUIN

Kelly assists businesses in making decisions related to workforce relocation and talent retention.

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Edi

Khalia Campbell, 30 Company member, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

eople search for inspiration in all sorts of places. Khalia Campbell found it on a city bus. The South Bronx native remembers seeing members of the renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater ride to work and vowed one day she’d travel with them. She joined the company in 2018. “It felt familiar,” she said. Dance has been a part of her since before she was born. She started kicking whenever her father, a Prince fan and DJ, played music next to her pregnant mother. He died in an accident when she was 1. Her mother, a Fairway supermarket manager, cultivated her daughter’s talent, and by age 3, Campbell was on the church dance team. At 4, she led classes when the teacher didn’t show up on time. Doors started opening when she landed at LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts. There was Dance Theatre of Harlem, a tour of Taiwan with the musical version of Aida, The Wiz at Central Park SummerStage and a stint with Ailey’s junior company, among other roles. She just completed a European tour with Ailey, and a monthlong run at City Center is next. The Washington Post called her work “statuesque and lyrical.” About the only thing she regrets is bypassing college at age 18 to dance professionally. She got wait-listed and didn’t want to wait. But now she’s only one semester short of her degree and keen to learn the business side of the performing arts so she can bring the stories in her mind to the stage and provide opportunities for newcomers. In her spare time, her workout music is gospel, and she volunteers at her Midtown church to help others learn how dance can get them in touch with God. “My purpose in life is to uplift people,” she said. —AARON ELSTEIN

“

My purpose in life is to uplift people.”

Brian Harwitt, 30 Partner, CoVenture

n many ways, Brian Harwitt began his journey into the world of credit financing when he sought his bachelor’s degree in applied economics and management at Cornell University. That’s where the Los Angeles native met Ali Hamed, and the two bonded over entrepreneurship and venture investing. “He was getting CoVenture started while we were in college,” Harwitt said. “I would help him put together presentations on very interesting industries that were potential investment areas.” In 2014 Hamed launched CoVenture, which specializes in providing credit and credit-oriented investments for early and late-stage companies in mainly the consumer fintech sector and the creator economy. Harwitt joined the company as a senior associate in 2016, after he worked as an analyst at Guggenheim Securities. He became a partner in 2021. He oversees a team of 12 and has sourced or structured over 20 trans-

“

Harwitt is a board game enthusiast who won New York’s Settlers of Catan title last year. actions since he joined the company. CoVenture has deployed approximately $1.7 billion since its inception and is looking to raise its profile in the market despite the state of the tech sector, Harwitt said. Since 2022 tech companies have found fewer funding sources, and at the same time, firms have sought financing that allows them to preserve their equity. Harwitt says this provides his team with opportunities to creatively structure deals. “In a zero-interest-rate environment, you had a lot of larger asset management coming into our space because they saw that there was an opportunity to earn reasonable yields,” Harwitt said. “Now that there are larger deals and higher interest rates, we’ve seen a lot of those larger asset managers go back to the deals they usually do. And that creates a little bit more space for us.” Outside of leading CoVenture’s credit business, Harwitt is also a board game enthusiast. Last year he won New York’s Settlers of Catan championship and competed in the Settlers of Catan national championship. —MARIO MARROQUIN

46 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | November 6, 2023

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Eli Dvorkin, 37 Editorial and policy director, Center for an Urban Future

li Dvorkin found out about the Center for an Urban Future while working as co-director of Bushwick’s Silent Barn, an arts organization that helped put together thousands of concerts for young musicians in the city. A researcher from the center was compiling a report on New York’s creative economy and found the work Silent Barn was doing interesting. “I thought, How fascinating that there’s a think tank here in New York City that’s ever heard of Silent Barn, a DIY venue in Bushwick,” Dvorkin said. That researcher later followed up with Dvorkin to let him know the center was hiring. He jumped at the opportunity to join the organization, where he now works as the editorial and policy director, overseeing work on the center’s publications. Dvorkin wanted to work there because of its impact on the city. One report he cited focused on expanding entrepreneurship opportunities for public housing residents, which sparked policy proposals at the City Council and a $1 million donation from a private foundation to launch a startup competition within months, he said. “It’s not always such a quick turnaround from report to recommendation to reality,” he said, “but that was one example I was really thrilled about.” The center also recommended launching a program that would help New Yorkers with some college credits return to the City University of New York and finish their degree. The city funded this idea, and more than 17,000 New Yorkers have been able to re-enroll in CUNY because of it, according to Dvorkin, who has worked at the center since 2016. “The thing that you spend all this time and energy crafting, interviewing, researching, analyzing data and crafting the language for isn’t just going to sit on some shelf somewhere, unread in somebody’s inbox,” he said. “If you do it right, it can actually change people’s lives.”

—EDDIE SMALL

“

the ator y he m

Sabrina Lippman, 38

We seek to be a role model for other developers in the greening of our assets.”

Senior vice president, New York City Economic Development Corp.

oses first drew Sabrina Lippman to Hunts Point in the Bronx. As a child, she and her father would trek at dawn from their Queens home to the city’s produce market there to buy bunches of the flowers to sell at the family’s gas stations in Jackson Heights and Maspeth. “He made a killing on the roses,” said Lippman, who also enjoyed a side hustle near the pumps washing windows. Today, as an executive helping manage the vast 64 million-square-foot portfolio of city-owned real estate, Lippman is back in the Bronx but with more than just blossoms on her mind. She’s a key player in the $650 million redevelopment of that same fruit and vegetable market, a 1 millionsquare-foot facility supplying a quarter of New York’s produce that’s showing its age after 56 years. To modernize the facility and make it more eco-friendly, the market will add charging stations so the diesel trucks blamed for polluting the surrounding low-income area can give way to cleaner electric vehicles. To support the project, Lippman, who manages 40 of the EDC’s 550 workers, secured a hefty $395 million in public subsidies from city, state and federal sources. An as-yet-unnamed developer will kick in $255 million. “We seek to be a role model for other developers in the greening of our assets,” she said. “We need to walk the walk and talk the talk.” The project won’t break ground until at least 2025. It’s true, development moved more quickly at previous jobs Lippman held in the private sector, such as with mall landlord Simon Property Group. But instead of shareholders, Lippman now answers to friends and family, including those who regularly gather around her table for homemade Latino dishes. (A specialty is the soupy, plantain-based mofongo.) “We really see ourselves as representing all New Yorkers,” she said, “and not just a subset.” —C. J. HUGHES

ans-

Ahmed Tigani, 39

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First deputy commissioner and chief diversity officer, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development

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Dvorkin wanted to work at the Center for an Urban Future because of its impact on the city.

hmed Tigani became interested in government because he was helped by the government. He was raised in a single-parent household and credits the social safety net with letting him focus on school and contribute to his community. “My mom raised my sister and me,” he said. “Government connected and touched our family in a very real way at a very early part of our lives.” Tigani now works as first deputy commissioner and chief diversity officer at the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where he aims to make sure the government continues to help families as much as it helped his. He has focused on projects including reversing attrition at the agency and establishing the city’s emergency housing voucher program, which aims to help people who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. The city has distributed 7,788 of these vouchers since 2021—2,050 through HPD—and 91.3% have been used to find permanent housing. Tigani came to HPD after working at the Department of Buildings and holding positions in the mayor’s office and the Manhattan borough president’s office. While at City Hall, he helped spearhead multiple neighborhood rezonings meant to increase housing in areas such as Inwood and East Harlem, but he acknowledged that a lack of supply remains a major housing issue, one that all New Yorkers should care about. “We’re not yet at the level of community dialogue where the consensus sees all of this as our shared responsibility,” he said. “We still need to do more to get the word out that every neighborhood needs to be part of the housing solution.” Tigani himself already feels plenty of ownership around this issue. “I honestly feel like I have an obligation to give back to the city,” he said. “This community has given my family and me so much that I have an obligation to pay that forward.” —EDDIE SMALL

November 6, 2023 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 47

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95-year-old landlord ups the ante in fight with Hochul over Penn Station project, which would raze two of his buildings By Aaron Elstein

Before Vornado Realty Trust can build 10 supertall towers around Penn Station and Gov. Kathy Hochul can use some of the proceeds to rebuild the dismal rail hub, they’ll need to reckon with a combative Midtown landlord old enough to remember the original, beautiful station. Arnold Gumowitz, 95, filed suit last year to block the neighborhood redevelopment plan that would demolish two buildings he owns near Penn Station. He al-

Notice to appeal dismissal Now Gumowitz’s firm, AAG Management, has filed a notice to appeal a September state court decision dismissing his suit. The judge who heard the case ruled she was in no position to second-guess the state and allowed the Penn redevelopment plan to proceed. Gumowitz’s attorney, Richard Emery, said an appeal is necessary because the lower court ruling effectively gives state authorities “carte blanche.” “The judge’s ruling opens the door to any state agency doing whatever it wants without review. The state doesn’t need to show anything beyond some vague plan. No financial underpinnings are necessary, no explanation of the plan’s ability to serve the public interest,” Emery said. “That can’t be the law.”

Redevelopment of his site “would require a negotiated, mutual agreement on a transfer of property rights.” — Matthew Gorton, spokesman for Hochul administration’s economic development arm leged that the Hochul administration acted arbitrarily and capriciously by failing to show how much money Vornado was estimated to make from developing 18 million square feet of mostly commercial space, essentially creating

versary in Gumowitz, who is continuing the court fight after community nonprofits that had filed a parallel action dropped out after the ruling. He did not return multiple calls.

another Hudson Yards. Nor did the state disclose what sort of tax incentives were offered or how much money would go to rebuilding the nation’s largest commuter hub.

‘I just want to be left alone’

Arnold Gumowitz | BFA

Matthew Gorton, a spokesperson for the Hochul administration’s economic development arm, Empire State Development, said redevelopment of Gumowitz’s site “would require a negotiated, mutual agreement on a transfer of property rights. Any contrary assertion exists only on the pages of his attorney’s ill-informed appeal.”

He added: “For too long New Yorkers have endured the horror movie that is present-day Penn Station. Under Governor Hochul, the state is finally prioritizing the public interest and putting the needs of commuters first by accelerating its long-overdue reconstruction.” The state faces a determined ad-

His holdings include a 19-story building at 421 Seventh Ave., near Penn Station, where Gumowitz keeps an office on the top two floors. The space includes a dance floor where he used to tango with his wife, Anne, who passed away in 2017. City records show they co-signed documents to acquire the building for $800,000 in 1979, 16 years after the original Penn Station was torn down and Madison Square Garden built on top. Gumowitz’s firm owns or manages 600 apartments, according to its website, mainly in the East Village, Hell’s Kitchen, and Upper West Side. “I am not looking to get something,” Gumowitz told NY1 last year. “All I want is to be left alone and stay with my property. Others have some agenda. I don’t. I just want to be left alone.”

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THE CONVERSATION

SOMOS Community Care doctor on chain pharmacy closings and underserved areas

ew York’s local pharmacy landscape has shifted as the state moves forward with its Medicaid pharmacy benefit transition and reviews potential pharmacy benefit manager regulations. Things are also changing for national chain pharmacies with stores in the city: Large chains such as Rite Aid and Walgreens have announced future closure plans that could impact New York, and local health care experts have seen some stores shutter. For Dr. Juan Tapia Mendoza, a pediatrician at SOMOS Community Care, these chain closure trends represent another complication for the patients he cares for who come from underserved communities. Tapia Mendoza, who has been a community pediatrician for about 30 years in West Harlem, spoke with Crain’s about how national location closures impact neighborhoods, the benefits of patients using local pharmacies and potential solutions for moving forward. | Interview by Jacqueline Neber

Dr. Juan Tapia Mendoza | REDUX/NEW YORK TIMES

Right now we have a big shortage of even basic antibiotics like amoxicillin, which is like our daily bread and butter as pediatricians. I prescribed amoxicillin last [month] and the patient went to a chain pharmacy. She lived in Brooklyn, and she called me from 145th [Street saying] “Dr. Tapia, the pharmacy’s closed, what do I do now?” She went to another pharmacy associated with the chain and they did not have her records. Even though they’re a chain, one record is not transferred to the other. So I had to call a pharmacy in Brooklyn that knew her, a local pharmacist, and she went out one day without treatment because of this. [Patients] are not notified that

“Moving forward I think that we should not forget the role that local pharmacies play in our communities.” — Dr. Juan Tapia Mendoza do not get the personal attention that they receive from the local pharmacies. Sometimes it’s very difficult to communicate [to get] advice and treatment options. What can happen when the national pharmacy stores close?

Casino landlord buys 38 bowling alleys By Aaron Elstein

Have you seen an uptick in big national retail pharmacies closing in the areas that you serve? In the past year two, three of the big pharmaceutical chains have closed in my area. I have sites at 135th and 207th Streets in Upper Manhattan and 10 blocks away, one of the biggest pharmacies closed. [On Dyckman Street] another big chain closed, and also on 178th Street and Broadway. These three chains came into our neighborhood perhaps 10 years ago. How did national chains moving in impact local pharmacies? This affected the local pharmacies, which have been our partners for years, because [they] are part of the medical home network. [They are] where the patients go to get their medicines, the supplies that are not covered by insurance companies, because they’re given vouchers to get wellness supplies. The local pharmacists employ people from the neighborhood that know the community, they know their language, they know their culture. These are small businesses that keep our people working. Many times though, insurance companies are partnered with the big drugstores and they tell the patients, “You can only get your medicine from so-and-so,” and this is particularly harmful to our communities because we have a lot of immigrants, a lot of Blacks and Latinos that don’t trust the system to begin with. And many times when they go [to big pharmacy chains] they

A Manhattan bowling alley | BLOOMBERG

the pharmacy is going to close down. A lot of our patients change their phone number every month. So sometimes it’s even difficult for the pharmacy to contact them. What can be done moving forward if more national chain locations close? Moving forward I think that we should not forget the role that local pharmacies play in our communities. [Additionally] I think what can be done is what SOMOS has been doing since its inception. Primary care physicians provide 80% of the health care with 20% of the budget and [are] the reason why hospitalization rates have gone down. Complications from diabetes, strokes, heart attacks [decrease when] patients have access to a primary care physician. If you call our answering service,

I will personally reply, or one of our doctors, and he can look at your medical history and he can avoid you going to the emergency room just because your child has a 104-degree fever. Nine out of 10 times we can keep that patient at home during the weekend and save thousands of dollars to the health care system. Large pharmacy chains should know that when they’re serving a community that has a lack of health literacy and has immigrants, undocumented people, people that have a lowcost health insurance that does not cover a lot of the expensive medicines. . . .If you’re going to stay here, partner with the local primary care physicians. Because we’re the ones that keep the people out of the hospital. Hospitals are for people with acute, life-threatening illnesses.

Midtown-based Vici Properties, which owns the real estate occupied by 10 major Las Vegas casinos, is lacing up some rented shoes and branching into bowling. The real estate investment trust last month acquired 38 bowling alleys from Bowlero Corp. for $433 million, which it will lease back at an initial rent of $31.6 million a year. Bowlero owns more than 300 bowling alleys nationwide, including one in the former New York Times newsroom near Times Square, although an investor presentation showed that’s not part of the 1.6 million-square-foot portfolio acquired by Vici. “We played offense selectively,” CEO Ed Pitoniak said on a conference call Oct. 26 to discuss the firm’s third-quarter results. In addition to bulking up its 125 million-square-foot portfolio, Vici raised its dividend by 8% last quarter, a stark contrast to most REITs that are conserving capital, and remains on the hunt for additional acquisitions in sectors including family entertainment, sports and wellness. Thanks to a 64% jump in visitors to Las Vegas through August, adjusted funds from operations at Vici properties rose by 11% last quarter, and the firm raised its forecast for the rest of the year. Vici has a low public profile, but the S&P 500 company owns some of the most famous real estate anywhere. Its crown jewel is the land underneath Caesars Palace, MGM Grand, the Venetian and seven other Las Vegas casinos. Other tenants include the MGM-owned Empire City racino in Yonkers, and the firm is a lender to the Chelsea Piers recreation complex. One hundred percent of its owned space is occupied. Pitoniak said he was attracted to bowling because the sector is “remarkably unconsolidated,” and additional acquisitions are possible. Bowlero has introduced better food, beverage and amusement offerings in bowling alleys so customers spend more money. The sport has been popular long before Bowling Green was laid out in Lower Manhattan in 1733. Pitoniak said bowling speaks to something deep in “ancient human urges” to knock down pins and avoid falling into the gutter. “People tend to get pretty excited when they strike targets,’ he said. NOVEMBER 6, 2023 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 49

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11/3/23 1:40 PM

State lawmakers publicly urge Hochul to stop support of Adams’ right-to-shelter mandate rollback effort By Nick Garber

Dozens of state lawmakers are publicly urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to stop supporting Mayor Eric Adams’ push to roll back the city’s right-to-shelter mandate, saying the legal effort could result in thousands more people sleeping on the streets. The letter, released Oct. 26, was co-signed by 47 Democratic state senators and Assembly members, ranging from left-wing critics of the mayor and the governor to influential committee chairs such as state Sens. Liz Krueger and Brian

mally endorsed the city’s efforts in court papers last month, urging a Manhattan judge to allow Adams’ proposal to let the mandate be suspended in emergencies when it lacks the resources to provide a bed for every single adult who needs one. The city is relitigating the mandate as the ongoing migrant crisis has strained its ability to provide shelter and forced it to spend billions of dollars in an effort to meet the surge and comply with the rule. But state lawmakers say that move, if successful, would “put countless vulnerable people at risk of grave harm” and permanently change the city. “We’ll see more homelessness,” said state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal of Manhattan, one of the signatories. “The doom spiral that has enveloped some metropolitan areas like San Francisco could be on our doorstep if we don’t provide those who need assistance with shelter.” The governor’s position on right-to-shelter is important, because the mandate flows from the state constitution. The 1980s court

The letter, released Oct. 26, was co-signed by 47 Democratic state senators and Assembly members. Kavanagh. It was organized by the Coalition for the Homeless, one of the organizations opposing the Adams administration as it seeks to persuade a judge to limit aspects of the decades-old court order. Hochul’s administration for-

case that gave rise to the rule has been interpreted to apply only to the city, although the present debate has prompted some advocates to call for expanding the mandate across New York state.

Widening the mandate Krueger, who represents Manhattan’s East Side, said in an interview that she supports the idea of widening the mandate. She also called on Hochul to take other steps not mentioned in the Oct. 26 letter, such as requiring upstate towns to accept migrants in need of shelter—something that Adams has demanded frequently. The city and the Legal Aid Society, which is seeking to uphold right-to-shelter, have now entered mediation in an effort to resolve the case. Krueger noted that the city’s desired rollback would not be limited to the migrant crisis and does not distinguish between new arrivals and longtime New York City residents who are seeking shelter. “I believe his policy analysis on this is very wrong,” she said. Beyond its court requests, Adams’ administration has already

State lawmakers want Gov. Kathy Hochul to stop supporting Mayor Eric Adams’ push to persuade a judge to limit the decades-old right-to-shelter mandate. GOVERNORKATHYHOCHUL/FLICKR

narrowed the mandate in other respects, such as by placing limits on how long migrants can stay in a shelter before being forced to reapply. In their letter, the state lawmakers alluded to their own role in alleviating the crisis, saying they would push for housing policies in next year’s legislative session that

would increase affordable housing construction, add tenant protections and fund rental assistance. Efforts at large-scale housing reform collapsed completely in Albany last year, after lawmakers balked at the mandates in Hochul’s ambitious agenda and a last-minute compromise effort came up short.

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HOUSING From Page 1

Adams’ latest effort to boost housing production in the city, known formally as the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity. Many of the constraints Adams is trying to undo date back to the city’s 1961 zoning code, which was produced in an era of urban decline and car-centric planning and is now criticized by experts for largely closing the door on future growth. Prior mayors’ attempts to enact

any areas off the hook,” he said. “We don’t have to build a 40-unit tower in a low-density district, but we should have policies that work to make sure somebody can build a four-unit building. All of these marginal additions to supply are going to help.”

In low-density areas

In general, the City of Yes plan would encourage less-dense parts of the city to contribute more housing. The commercial strip proposal should allow for additional 2- to 4-story apartment buildings along outer-borough thoroughfares such as Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, Church Avenue in Kensington and Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, while a provision focused on building more housing near large-scale zoning changes have transit would allow 3- to 5-story often faltered, in part due to oppo- apartment buildings to be con- Targeting the whole city for housing growth is not only a tactic to avoid NIMBY backlash, said Howard Slatkin, executive director at the sition from low-rise and low-in- structed in neighborhoods like Citizens Housing and Planning Council. “It’s also a substantive housing strategy.” | BUCK ENNIS come communities afraid of ma- Bensonhurst, Kew Gardens and jor development. Anticipating that parts of the eastern Bronx. A pro- showing an unmitigated appetite want to relinquish your ability to estate attorney at Kramer Levin. “In the lower-density districts, if pushback, the Adams administra- posal to allow accessory dwelling for more housing construction. An shape how something will shape everything they want to do haption is selling its plan with an em- units—small apartments built in affordable project proposed for your district?” Adams all but dared council pens, I think there’s significant pophasis on sharing the workload to backyards or converted garages— Far Rockaway earlier this year was build “a little more housing in ev- of up to 800 square feet is also like- nearly scrapped amid opposition members to oppose his proposals tential,” he said. “Maybe not in ery neighborhood” rather than ly to have its most visible impact in from the local councilwoman until at a September press conference terms of the number of units, but in terms of changes to the way pour thousands of new units into the more suburpeople look at these districts, how one. The planned changes are thus ban parts of the they operate.” spread across almost every area city. Although such and zoning designation the city neighborhoods has to offer. In high-density areas Still, the less dense parts of New cover 44.7% of York may notice more of an influx land across the New York’s high-density neighthan high-density areas, accord- five boroughs, borhoods, already heavily built up, ing to multiple housing policy ex- they are home to would hardly be reshaped by Adperts. Even if they do not add a ton just 28.4% of the ams’ proposals. But some streetsof housing in terms of raw num- population, and capes could eventually look differbers, the plan could feel more im- their rate of perent. new pactful there given that they have mitting One notable reform would let from historically built less. Lawmakers housing developers construct buildings from these low-rise areas could in 2010 to 2020 was that are 20% bigger than would turn become the biggest political much lower than Under the mayor’s proposals, an apartment building in a high-density area could be built bigger if it includes otherwise be allowed by zoning, obstacle when Adams tries to push the rate for the affordable housing. | DEPARTMENT OF CITY PLANNING so long as they include some afthe package through the City city overall, acfordable housing. The administraCouncil next year, as adding more cording to a 2022 Furman Center a last-minute deal emerged to add announcing the changes, pointing tion has not yet settled on its defor affordable to the city’s severe housing short- sired affordability levels for that housing to such neighborhoods report. The only low-density areas opportunities age. “If there are those who say bonus, which would apply across that would have met the 3% growth homeownership to the project. has generally been a tough sell. “Even if you’re a council mem- they would rather have a place to all of Manhattan and much of But if the city really wants to target proposed by Gov. Kathy Hoconfront its housing shortage, all chul earlier this year in her scuttled ber who might be inclined to sup- park a car and not park a family in northern and central Brooklyn. of its neighborhoods will need to housing package were Jamaica/ port this,” said Corey Bearak, a an apartment,” he said, “then they Another proposal would replay a role, said Matthew Murphy, Hollis and Rockaway/Broad Chan- member of a Queens community need to explain that to their con- move longstanding height caps executive director of the NYU Fur- nel, all in southeast Queens, the board encompassing low-density stituencies.” that apply only to a handful of Some neighborhoods already wealthy neighborhoods in Manneighborhoods including Belleroreport says. man Center. And even those areas are not se and Rosedale, “do you really embody the kind of mixed uses hattan and Brooklyn. Four blocks “The city’s proposal is to not let and medium densities the city near Gramercy Park, for example, wants to see more of. Casey Berko- would lose their limited height vitz, a spokesman for the Depart- district designation that caps ment of City Planning, pointed to buildings at 50 feet tall, although thriving commercial streets in the area would still be governed by Jackson Heights or the apartment underlying zoning that limits buildings nestled beside homes in height to around 65 feet. Similar Bay Ridge. specific limits would be scrapped But it has been a long time in Cobble Hill and on the Upper since there was a serious and suc- East Side. cessful effort to change zoning Although low-density neighborrules in low-density neighborhoods might ultimately look the hoods, Slatkin noted. The de Bla- most different, in other words, sio administration had pushed to high-density neighborhoods are allow affordable housing projects part of the plan as well. And tarfor seniors to stand up to 65 feet geting the whole city for more tall in such neighborhoods as housing should not just be viewed part of its major zoning reform as a political strategy to limit the push, but even this seemingly backlash from NIMBY forces, Slatmodest change was watered kin pointed out. down after going through the City “It’s also a substantive housing Council. strategy,” he said. “When everyone And though the changes under is producing some housing, you Adams’ proposal can seem simi- don’t get the kind of overheated larly arcane, their impact will still market conditions and distortions be felt even if they aren’t meant to or disruptive effects on individual result in skyscrapers popping up neighborhoods the same way. It citywide, said Paul Selver, a real has a stabilizing effect.” Accessory dwelling units could be built in detached garages like this one under Adams’ proposals. | BUCK ENNIS

The planned changes are spread across almost every area and zoning designation the city has to offer.

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PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES Notice of Formation of GARANCE - DOULA SERVICES LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/23/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to THE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, 11 STUYVESANT OVAL, APT 4E NEW YORK, NY 10009 regd.agent upon whom and at which process may be served. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of SHERMAN TIGER LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/26/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/12/23. 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: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of SANDY 350 DE SPE LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/25/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/15/23. 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. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of PALISADE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, LP Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/17/23. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/08/23. NYS fictitious name: PALISADE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, 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 Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State, 820 N. French St., 10th Fl., Wilmington, DE 19801. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of OUCHA, LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 9/19/23. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against to ; 101 West 24th Street Apt 21A, NY, NY 10011. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of XPRESS SERVICE SYSTEMS, LLC Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 9/25/2023. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against to 2266 Fifth Avenue, Unit #584, NY, NY 10037. Purpose: any lawful act

Notice of Formation of Nicol Furniture, LLC Arts of Org filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 8/4/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 64 E. 111 St. Unit 609, NY, NY 10029. Purpose: any lawful act

Notice of Formation of BOUNDLESS IMAGINATIONS, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/11/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 400 E. 90th St., 12D, NY, NY 10128. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Film production.

MATTHEW EVAN ROTH, Ph.D., PSYCHOLOGY, PLLC filed Arts. of Org. with the Sect'y of State of NY (SSNY) on 8/18/2023. Office: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Matthew Evan Roth, Ph.D, 315 Gates Ave, Apt 1B, Brooklyn, NY 11216. Purpose: Psychology.

Notice of Formation of TWELVE BAR, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/14/21. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 930 High St., Fairfield, CT 06824. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of 204 FORSYTH HOLDINGS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/16/23. Office location: NY County. 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, regd. agent upon whom and at which process may be served. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of KIERAN ANDREW BOTH, ATTORNEY AT LAW PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/06/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 225 BROADWAY, SUITE 2018, NEW YORK, NY 10007-3739. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of Limited Liability Company. Name: DD ECF West 48 JV LLC (“LLC”). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of the State of New York (“SSNY”) on July 24, 2023. NY office location: New York County. The SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The SSNY shall mail a copy of any process to The Limited Liability Company, 7 Penn Plaza, Suite 600, New York, NY 10001. Purpose/character of LLC is to engage in any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of MHR CONSULTING SERVICES LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/28/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 39 Fifth Ave., Apt. 4C, NY, NY 10003. 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

POSITION AVAILABLE Notice of Qualification of ZENDABLE CARDS, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/29/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/26/23. 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 Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Banana Bean Productions LLC filed Arts. of Org. with the Sect'y of State of NY (SSNY) on 9/14/2023. Office: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: The LLC, 10 Liberty St, Apt 27G, NY, NY 10005. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of RGNMCA PORT JERVIS I, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/26/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/25/23. 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. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

I THINK IN SPACES LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 1/6/23. Office: BRONX County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 4440 Baychester Ave., 1st Floor, Bronx, NY 10466 Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of SOUTH STREET 68J, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/22/23. 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, 33 W. Main St., Holmdel, NJ 07733. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of SUTTON GROWTH ADVISORS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/12/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 20 Sutton Pl S, Apt. 20C, NY, NY 10022. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Andrew J. Byrne at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity

Notice of Formation of WISNIEWSKI PSYCHOLOGY SERVICES, PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/26/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of PLLC: 2900 E. Overlook Rd., Cleveland Heights, OH 44118. SSNY designated as agent of PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o C T Corporation System, 28 Liberty St., NY, NY 10005. Purpose: Psychology

Notice of Formation of KINDERBROOK HOME LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/11/23. Office: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of TRESS XPRESS LLC Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/30/2023. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against to 2266 Fifth Avenue, Unit #584, NY, NY 10037. Purpose: any lawful act.

SHE SHED PRODUCTIONS, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 06/05/23. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, c/o Chapman Consulting, 770 Lexington Avenue, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10065. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Associate (The Carlyle Group Employee Co., LLC – New York, NY); Mult. pos. avail. Responsible for using proprietary tools and custom software, prep and analyze a variety of reports showing thorough understanding of purpose of the report, depicting performance, risk, build-up, investmt pace, and exposure of priv equity portfolio. Prepare customized, client-specific reports on portfolio movements, commitments, transactions, and expenses that utilize separate modelling procedures. Salary range $120,000 to $170,000/yr. F/T. Apply w/ resume to HR3@carlyle.com. Ref. Job ID: 6682379

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES Notice of Qualification of EGMF GP LP Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/16/23. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/11/14. Princ. office of LP: 230 Park Ave., 8th Fl., NY, NY 10169. NYS fictitious name: EGMF GP 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 Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State, State of DE, Dept. of State, Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of Limited Liability Company. Name: West 48 Owner LLC (“LLC”). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of the State of New York (“SSNY”) on July 24, 2023. NY office location: New York County. The SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The SSNY shall mail a copy of any process to The Limited Liability Company, 7 Penn Plaza, Suite 600, New York, NY 10001. Purpose/character of LLC is to engage in any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of MUZINICH DIRECT LENDING ADVISER, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/28/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/06/23. Princ. office of LLC: 450 Park Ave., NY, NY 10022. 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 the State of DE, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity

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Second Ave. subway extension gets $3.4B in federal funds By Caroline Spivack

The Biden administration has agreed to fund roughly half of the projected $6.6 billion price tag to expand the Second Avenue Subway into Harlem, according to elected officials. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Adriano Espaillat announced last month that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is poised to receive $3.4 billion in anticipated federal dollars to extend the Q line a mile and a half with three new stations: 106th Street and 116th Street each along Second Avenue and at 125th Street and Lexington Avenue. “It’s historic, not only for the amount of money but for the fact

way access 71% of the neighborhood’s residents commute to work on mass transit — greater than the citywide average of 56%, U.S. Census data show. The MTA estimates the extension will allow the line to serve 100,000 additional riders each day.

‘Done deal’ The forthcoming grant agreement from the Federal Transit Administration is among the largest awarded in the history of its Capital Investment Grant program. Schumer, a relentless booster of federal dollars for the region’s transit infrastructure, has served as a critical partner to the authority on Capitol Hill in securing billions toward major projects. “I pushed very hard for mass transit,” said Schumer. “There wasn’t enough funding to do these major projects, but now there’s ample funding and it’s not only for the Second Avenue Subway, it’s also for Penn Station, it’s also for Gateway, [it was] also for East Side Access.” Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief executive Janno Lieber said Oct. 25 that the authority has “not received formal notification” that the funding agreement has

The forthcoming FTA grant agreement is among the largest awarded in the history of the agency’s Capital Investment Grant Program. that it’s going towards a public transit project serving neighborhoods that have been neglected for years,” Schumer said during a press briefing on the project funds. In spite of Harlem’s limited sub-

Passengers at a station on the Second Avenue subway line | BUCK ENNIS

been awarded and that he’s “not prepared to engage in welcoming and celebrating.” The funding agreement is expected to be formally signed by an FTA regional director on Nov. 22, said Schumer. “They already told us it is happening. They are signing it as a formality. It is a done deal,” Schumer added. Transit officials say construction of the long-anticipated project

could begin as soon as this year. The MTA has already moved to seize east side properties needed for construction.

Timeline Gov. Kathy Hochul and the MTA this summer called for bids for the first of the project’s contracts, worth up to $100 million to relocate underground utilities. Once shovels hit the ground,

transit officials expect construction to wrap in seven to eight years. Straphangers, of course, may be justifiably skeptical of that timeline given the decades-long drag of the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway. The Upper East Side line was originally envisioned in 1929 and became a political football before construction at last began in 2007 and was completed in 2017 at a cost of more than $4.6 billion.

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HALL OF FAME EVENT

Business leaders gather to honor inductees The new inductees to the Crain’s Hall of Fame were honored at a luncheon on Thursday, Oct. 26, at the Midtown Loft & Terrace. The event, sponsored by Empire BlueCross BlueShield, was attended by business leaders such as former deputy mayor and Crain’s publisher Alair Townsend, restaurateur Melba Wilson, political consultant George Arzt, CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City Vijay Dandapani and former Lincoln Center chair Katherine Farley. This year marked the 10th Photography by Buck Ennis anniversary of the Crain’s Hall of Fame.

Past Hall of Fame honorees Alair Townsend, left, former deputy mayor, and Katherine Farley, member of the board, Lincoln Center. With them is George Arzt, president of George Arzt Communications Inc.

CrainsNewYork.com President and CEO KC Crain Group publisher Jim Kirk (312) 397-5503 or jkirk@crain.com Publisher/executive editor Frederick P. Gabriel Jr. Editor-in-chief Cory Schouten, cory.schouten@crainsnewyork.com Managing editor Telisha Bryan Assistant managing editors Anne Michaud, Amanda Glodowski Director of audience and engagement Elizabeth Couch Audience engagement editor Jennifer Samuels Digital editor Taylor Nakagawa Opinion editor Jan Parr opinion@crainsnewyork.com Creative director Thomas J. Linden Associate creative director Karen Freese Zane Digital design editor Jason McGregor Art directors Kayla Byler, Carolyn McClain, Joanna Metzger Senior digital news designer Stephanie Swearngin Photographer Buck Ennis Notables coordinator Ashley Maahs SENIOR REPORTERS Aaron Elstein, C.J. Hughes, Eddie Small REPORTERS Amanda D’Ambrosio, Nick Garber, Mario Marroquin, Jacqueline Neber, Caroline Spivack CONTACT THE NEWSROOM editors@crainsnewyork.com www.crainsnewyork.com/staff

Honorees Ken Raske, Jonelle Procope, Michael Pugh and Quenia Abreu attend the 10th annual Hall of Fame event.

Past Hall of Fame honoree Vijay Dandapani, left, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City, with Crain’s Fred P. Gabriel and Susan Jacobs.

ADVERTISING www.crainsnewyork.com/advertise Senior vice president of sales Susan Jacobs (312) 649-5492 or susan.jacobs@crain.com Sales director Laura Lubrano laura.lubrano@crainsnewyork.com Account executives Miriam Dreese, Paul Mauriello, Philip Redgate People on the move manager Debora Stein Classified sales Suzanne Janik, (313) 446-0455 or sjanik@crain.com Sales assistant Ryan Call Inside sales Isabel Foster CRAIN’S CONTENT STUDIO www.crainsnewyork.com/custom Senior director of Crain’s Content Studio Kristin Bull, (313) 446-1608 or kbull@crain.com Crain’s Content Studio manager Sophia Juarez EVENTS www.crainsnewyork.com/events Senior manager of events Michelle Cast Manager of conferences & events Ana Jimenez PRODUCTION Vice president, product Kevin Skaggs Product manager Tim Simpson Production and pre-press director Simone Pryce Media services managers Chris Bard, Nicole Spell CUSTOMER SERVICE customerservice@crainsnewyork.com or (877) 824-9379 Director, reprints & licensing Lauren Melesio, (212) 210-0707 or lmelesio@crain.com

Crain’s New York Business is published by Crain Communications Inc.

Michael Pugh receiving his Hall of Fame award from Crain’s New York Business senior reporter Aaron Elstein.

Ken Raske receives his award from Crain’s New York Business assistant managing editor Amanda Glodowski.

Victor DeStefano, president of Empire BlueCross BlueShield, presenting Quenia Abreu with her award.

Chairman Keith E. Crain Vice chairman Mary Kay Crain President and CEO KC Crain Senior executive VP Chris Crain Chief Financial Officer Robert Recchia G.D. Crain Jr. Founder (1885-1973) Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. Chairman (1911-1996) Editorial & Business Offices 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017 (212) 210-0100 Vol. 39, No. 39 Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for no issue on 1/2/23, 7/3/23, 7/17/23, 7/31/23, 8/14/23, 8/28/23 and the last issue in December by Crain Communications Inc. at 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017-4024. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. © Entire contents copyright 2023 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial content in any manner without permission is prohibited. ©CityBusiness is a registered trademark of MCP Inc., used under license agreement. Subscriptions: Print+Digital $140/yr. For subscriber service call 877-824-9379. (GST No. 13676-0444-RT)

Crain’s New York Business Editor-in-Chief Cory Schouten presenting Jonelle Procope with her award.

Karen Phillips (left, guest of honoree Jonelle Procope), past Hall of Fame honoree Melba Wilson, Jonelle Procope, Judith Byrd (guest of Procope), Yolanda Ferrell-Brown of Ferrell Brown Design and Daisey Holmes, member of the Board of Directors, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Postmaster: Send address changes to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit, MI 48207-2732.

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