Crain's New York Business by crains-new-york-business

ASKED & ANSWERED Why affordable housing is key to the city’s recovery

TOP COP WEIGHS IN

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NYPD commish answers critics of his department

CRAINSNEWYORK.COM

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SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

HOSPITALITY

FINANCE

MONEY WARS

Restaurants ambivalent on return of indoor dining After six-month ban, restrictions may still be too severe for business

Old Wall Street takes on a Main Street investment adviser and Money Matters radio host

BY GWEN EVERETT

t’s not as big a step as the restaurant industry wanted, and making it work financially could mean taking on more debt. But restaurateurs acknowledge that the start of indoor dining at 25% capacity at the end of September will be a step forward. “I mean hey, it’s better than nothing,” said Huseyin Ozer, owner of restaurants Bodrum and Leyla in the Upper West Side. He quickly added that the leadup to indoor dining took too DATE WHEN long. eateries may “I wish we open doors to were able to customers for open indoor indoor dining dining back in July. But now, it’s September, October,” Ozer OF CAPACITY said. He has laid will be the most off 20 of his 25 any restaurant employees in can serve at one the past few time months, when he was trying to survive with just outdoor dining and takeout. “I mean we’ll take anything, you know. I’m thankful for that, but I think it’s a little too late.” Like many of the restaurateurs who spoke with Crain’s, Ozer is not sure that the revenue he will make operating at the quarter capacity

BY AARON ELSTEIN

n mid-March, with Covid-19 sweeping the globe and stock markets crashing everywhere, radio talk-show host Gary Goldberg reminded listeners, as he had many times before, to keep their head while others were losing theirs. During his nearly 50 years as a financial adviser, he had seen many Wall Street booms and busts, and he assured his anxious audience that the government would step in.

SAVING GRACE

9/30

“This Federal Reserve and this See MONEY on page 18

25%

COURTESY OF GARY GOLDBERG

GOLDBERG claims he was unjustly fired from the firm he founded.

See DINING on page 18

NEWSPAPER

VOL. 36, NO. 30

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OUT OF OFFICE

THE LIST

WHERE TO RING IN HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH PAGE 23

SBA lenders that made most PPP loans PAGE 14

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REAL ESTATE

FINANCE

Taxi bigwig pleads Lawmakers push de Blasio for green-roof tax abatements guilty in Melrose bribery case BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

BY AARON ELSTEIN

BUCK ENNIS

high-profile taxi-fleet owner pleaded guilty last week to conspiring to bribe the former chief executive of Melrose Credit Union. Tony Georgiton, president of Queens Medallion Leasing, entered his plea Wednesday in a telephonic hearing before Magistrate

Judge James Cott of Manhattan federal court. Georgiton faces up to five years in prison. Sentencing is Jan. 11.

Off duty Georgiton borrowed $60 million from Melrose on sweetheart terms approved by his friend, CEO Alan

Kaufman, who has been charged with accepting bribes and is awaiting trial. In return for the money, Georgiton allowed Kaufman to live rentfree in a Jericho, Long Island, house he owned, and he later provided the CEO a loan, which wasn’t paid back, to buy the property. Kaufman arranged for Melrose to spend $2 million for the naming rights to an Astoria ballroom partly owned by Georgiton. Georgiton, whose firm owned more than 500 cabs, was a major client of Melrose, one of the city’s leading taxi-medallion lenders before the institution failed in 2017 and was later liquidated. His attorney, Paul Krieger, didn’t immediately return a request for comment. Kaufman’s lawyer, Nelson Boxer, said his client’s relationship with Georgiton had “no bearing whatsoever” on how he ran Melrose. “Mr. Kaufman looks forward to clearing his good name,” Boxer said. ■

he city’s roofs need to be a whole lot greener, according to state and city politicians. Comptroller Scott Stringer, state Sen. John Liu and Assemblywoman Nily Rozick are calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio to issue an executive order implementing the new Green Roof Tax Abatement program, which will push the construction of green roofs on the city’s 62 square miles of rooftops by tripling tax relief for property owners in areas that lack green space, are prone to intense heat or have overflowing sewers. The program, which was spearheaded by Liu and Rozick, is currently capped at $1 million and will create green jobs while also benefiting low-income communities by absorbing storm water, reducing runoff, preventing sewer overflows and cutting energy use and carbon emissions. Green roofs also keep rooftops 30 degrees to 40 degrees cooler than non-green roofs and can help lower temperatures across entire neighborhoods. “We can’t postpone our climate fight until after the pandemic—we have to use every tool at our dis-

posal right now to take it on,” Stringer said. “Every dollar invested in green roofs reaps double or triple in societal returns and pays major public health and environmental dividends in communities on the front lines of climate change.” The wait shouldn’t be long, according to the mayor’s office. “We are working to implement the Green Roof Tax Abatement

“WE CAN’T POSTPONE OUR CLIMATE FIGHT UNTIL AFTER THE PANDEMIC” rule-making by [November] and are committed to doing so,” said Julia Arredondo, a spokeswoman for de Blasio.

Turf battle Currently, less than 0.1% of buildings across the boroughs have green roofs, and the majority of them are in Manhattan, according to environmental nonprofit The Nature Conservancy. The new abatement would limit subsidies for Midtown roof gardens and divert them to communities in eastern Queens, the South Bronx and central Brooklyn, among others.

TECHNOLOGY

Why Whole Foods is banning customers from its latest Brooklyn shop BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

AMAZON

he new customer-free Whole Foods that Amazon launched in Industry City recently could be the future of grocery delivery—or it could be a small warehouse with clever marketing. That’s the reaction from industry insiders to the Whole Foods “dark store” in Sunset Park. The 25,000-square-foot space has a design similar to that of a small grocery market, but it allows only Whole Foods employees inside to fulfill online orders. Although Amazon temporarily converted some Whole Foods to delivery-only during the pandemic—including the one near Bryant Park—the new Brooklyn location is the first in the city designed specifically as a dark store. Amazon says its online grocery sales tripled last quarter compared to the same period in 2019. The dark store is the latest sign that grocers are adapting their models after struggling during the spring to meet the pandemic-driven surge in

online ordering. “Retailers have had six months now to study what works, and the truth is that having individuals walk around a full grocery store with other people is just not efficient and not going to be as profitable,” said Laura Kennedy, a senior retail analyst at CB Insights. Whole Foods customers had grumbled, even pre-pandemic, that aisles were overcrowded with Amazon-employed shoppers filling online orders. A dark store gives Whole Foods grocery grabbers an optimized place to shop away from browsing customers. These employees could fulfill as many as 10,000 orders each week,

compared with 250 when packing items from a traditional market, according to estimates by David Bishop, who analyzes e-commerce for the consulting firm Brick Meets Click. “That means more capacity to meet a surge in demand,” Bishop said. “And now one store can serve delivery for the whole borough while not becoming disruptive to the shoppers at stores open to the public.”

Small potatoes The dark store is much smaller than Amazon’s typical e-commerce warehouses, which are often 1 million square feet or larger. Photos of the facility released by Amazon show aisles that look more like a wholesale club—such as Costco— than the typical Whole Foods Market. Amazon pledges its drivers will complete deliveries within two hours. Speed is the most important element for online grocery sales to

grow, said Avi Kaner, owner of the Morton Williams grocery chain in Manhattan. While he has considered the dark store concept, the majority of sales at Morton Williams are still in-store despite a spike in online purchases. “The nature of New Yorkers is the need for instant gratification,” Kaner said. “One-day delivery is not enough. It needs to be 30 minutes.” The clearest success of the Whole Foods dark store to this point is in grabbing headlines in national media outlets, which typically don’t care much about the opening of a small warehouse in Brooklyn. “There are a lot of things that Amazon is really good at,” Kennedy noted. “And one of those things is trying out new stuff that gets a lot of attention.” But she said the dark store concept should not be dismissed as merely a marketing tactic. “Amazon needs to figure out how to do groceries,” Kennedy said. “And clearly one of the ways they think can solve this is through dark stores.” ■

The city’s Parks Department maintains more than 200,000 square feet of public green roof space, which includes the 45,000-square-foot green roof at Randall’s Island. To make a rooftop green, it needs a thin layer of vegetation, plus waterproofing, a root barrier, water retention and drainage, a growing medium and plants, according to the department. A simple green roof costs approximately $20 to $25 per square foot, before the subsidy, to install on an existing conventional roof in New York City, according to a paper by Danielle Spiegel-Feld, an environmental law professor at New York University who authored a proposal for the program. The request comes at a time when the city’s budget is in dangerous territory. “While we appreciate the constraints on the city’s finances, we believe the abatement will generate significant economic and social benefit,” said Liu, Rozick and Stringer in a letter to de Blasio, adding that it will create jobs and promote economic recovery. The trio announced the legislation for the program in July 2019 after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed it into law. ■

WEBCAST CALLOUT

SEPT. 24 EXAMINING RACIAL DISPARITIES DURING THE PANDEMIC Crain’s will examine how Covid-19 has disproportionately affected minority communities and businesses from Upper Manhattan to Chinatown to many parts of Queens. The summit will feature the leaders of two chambers of commerce, the head of the city’s Small Business Services agency and a Harlem business owner. They will discuss the coronavirus-related challenges that small businesses have endured and what’s to come. Virtual event Sept. 24, 4 to 5 p.m. CrainsNewYork.com/septnycsummit

Vol. 36, No. 30, September 14, 2020—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for bimonthly in January, July and August and the last issue in December, by Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, PO Box 433279, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9681. For subscriber service: call 877-824-9379; fax 313-446-6777. $3.00 a copy; $129.00 per year. (GST No. 13676-0444-RT) ©Entire contents copyright 2020 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. 2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

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PUBLIC SAFETY SHEA SAYS state and local politicians have not supported the NYPD.

Dermot Shea Commissioner/NYPD INTERVIEW BY JANON FISHER

eing the New York City Police Department commissioner has never been an easy job, but Dermot Shea’s tenure corresponds with a particularly controversial period. Three months after being sworn in as the city’s top cop, Shea was confronted with a national reckoning of racial injustice, civil unrest and the Covid-19 pandemic. He talked about what the department has had to contend with and its effect on the business community. This interview has been edited for clarity.

Violent crime is on the increase, statistics confirm it. Recently a New York City judge and an NYPD rabbi were assaulted on the street. What do you say to business owners who wonder if it’s safe for them in New York?

De Blasio may have to take ax to workforce he helped build BY BRIAN PASCUS

hile Mayor Bill de Blasio has undoubtedly grown the city’s payroll during his six and a half years in office, the Covid-19 pandemic could now force him to lay off many of the people he hired. Under de Blasio, the city budget has increased by $20 billion. The city’s workforce has grown by

33,720, according to figures from the Independent Budget Office. With his fiscal house in ruin because of Covid-19, de Blasio has pledged to cut 22,000 city jobs by Oct. 1 if he does not receive $5 billion in borrowing authority from the state. “A lot of it is civilian positions, but for the most part it’s unclear what the driving force is,” said Maria Doulis, vice president of the Citi-

We’ll get our arms around this. I think that cooler heads will prevail and that there’s going to be policy decisions [that have] to change. Yeah, there’s a lot that people are concerned about now, but this is far from insurmountable. When you look at the business piece of this, I certainly feel for them in terms of everything from businesses closed down [to losing their] customer base. I mean it’s impacting crime, up and down in some ways, [and] it’s certainly

You know people, I think, are on edge. People are scared, and that’s not just business owners. I also think we have to remind ourselves of that phrase, “It’s always darkest [right] before the storm.” We’re in the middle of the storm right now. We are resilient. There are many talented people in New York City.

POLITICS

zens Budget Commission. “How he implements these layoffs will signify where his priorities are.” As the mayor considers these drastic cuts, questions remain as to where the headcount growth came from and which agencies will bear the brunt of the mayor’s layoffs. Before the onset of the pandemic in March, the city’s headcount See PAYROLL on page 17

BUCK ENNIS

IN THE EYE OF THE STORM See SHEA on page 20

JOBS APLENTY The city government head count has increased 13.7% since bottoming out in 2012. 350K

Head count 333,859

325K

300K

275K 2004

2008

2012

2016

2020

SOURCE: Citizens Budget Commission

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ECONOMY

New York’s top tech companies still hiring despite downturn BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

20%

10% BLOOMBERG

ew York City has shed nearly 650,000 private-sector jobs in the past 12 months, but some of its top technology companies have managed to grow their head counts from the start of the year. A Crain’s review of quarterly earnings statements from New York tech firms shows that companies such as Etsy and MongoDB have continued hiring despite the pandemic forcing widespread cutbacks. The employee totals compiled by Crain’s are focused on companies founded and headquartered in New York and do not include tech giants that have secondary offices in the city, such as Amazon, Google and Facebook. There have been more than 4,900 tech workers laid off from 72 New York–based companies since March, according to tracking website layoffs.fyi. Research from Glassdoor, however, indicates that technology hiring overall has yet to slow during the downturn, with New York– based job openings in the field up 30% in August, compared to the same month last year. Overall open

end of 2019. Datadog, the Manhattan cloud-monitorUPTICK in ing company employees that had a huge for database public debut software firm last fall, does MongoDB since not disclose its the end of last year employee count quarterly. A spokesman also declined to provide the total. RISE in the CEO Oliver number of fullPomel told intime employees vestors on an for meal-kit firm earnings call in Blue Apron since August that the the beginning of firm was planthe year ning “aggressive hiring in [research and development] and sales and marketing, and we have not changed our plans during Covid.” The tech company employed 1,400 people at the end of last year. Datadog and MongoDB, both providers of software for other businesses, are helping drive a “huge push in hiring for anything cloud-based or in technical services,” said Rick Dionisio, CEO and president of Ingenium, an industry recruiting company that’s based in

ETSY employed 1,292 workers as of June 30, up 5% from the company’s endof-2019 total. jobs are down 20%, according to Glassdoor’s figures.

‘Hiring aggressively’ Brooklyn-based Etsy employed 1,292 as of June 30, up 5% from the company’s end-of-year totals. The pandemic has boosted the online marketplace for crafters, with Etsy’s stock price nearly doubling since March, pushing the company into the S&P 500 this month. Database software company

MongoDB employed 2,169 as of the end of July, up about 20% from the end of 2019. During a call with investors last week, CEO Dev Ittycheria said the Midtown company is “hiring aggressively” after reporting revenues up 40% from the same quarter in 2019. Insurance firm Lemonade used the sugar rush of its initial public offering in June to grow its staff to 371 by the end of that month, up 35% from its reported total at the

Midtown. Outside of Etsy, the picture is more mixed for New York’s tech companies that make consumer products. Blue Apron’s full-time employee head count climbed to 1,783 at the end of June, up about 10% from the start of the year. That’s driven by a rebound for the meal-kit purveyor that started in March, when the pandemic pushed more people to search for food online. But Blue Apron went public in 2017 with about 4,000 employees, so even its heightened recent employee count underlines the extent of the company’s struggles. Casper did not provide an employee total in its most recent quarterly earnings, and it declined to share the total with Crain’s. Before going public in February, the online mattress company disclosed that it employed 597 people full time and 234 part time in its stores. The company cut at least 78 corporate jobs in April, according to layoffs.fyi. Peloton’s shares have soared during the pandemic, and there’s a waiting list for the company’s tech-enabled bikes and treadmills. As of July, Peloton reported a head count of 3,281, up from 2,707 at the end of 2019. ■

REAL ESTATE

Flexible-office firm Knotel owes $6 million in unpaid rent, landlords claim

notel’s landlords aren’t being so flexible about $6 million in back rent that the flexible-office provider owes at nine different locations, according to court documents. The latest property owner to bring legal action against Knotel is Charter Management Group, which owns the building at 6 W. 48th St., where Knotel occupies five floors and owes $870,000 in back rent, according to the lawsuit, filed last week in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. The first lawsuit over rent arrears was filed July 1 by Newmark Holdings and Northwind Group. The companies allege that Knotel owed nearly $741,000 for unpaid rent on

CEO of Brooks Brothers, Claudio del Vecchio, who personally owns Knotel’s space at 11 E. 44th St. He requested the largest payout from Knotel—$3 million in back rent and construction costs. “Knotel is always evaluating and adjusting our portfolio to best meet the needs of our customers, through Covid-19 and beyond, and we have reached positive resolutions with many owners,” spokeswoman Ivy Chiou said. “We take our landlord relationships very seriously and will continue to actively engage with them to achieve good outcomes during these challenging times.”

Going up The Amol Sarva–led workspace company has locations around the world, including Amsterdam, Berlin and Sao Paulo. It has at least 58 outposts in New York City alone, which cover more than 1 million square feet of office space. The company, known as coworking giant WeWork’s chief competitor in alternative office spaces, did well as WeWork began losing ground after a failed IPO and the

“WE TAKE OUR LANDLORD RELATIONSHIPS VERY SERIOUSLY” its footprint at 40 Exchange Place in the Financial District. Since then a number of disputes have made their way to court, including a lawsuit brought by the

BLOOMBERG

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

ouster of its chief executive, Adam Neumann. In August 2019 Knotel achieved unicorn status after a $400 million funding round led by Wafra, a Kuwaiti investment group, gave it a $1 billion valuation. So far the company has raised $560 million across funding rounds, and Sarva is working on closing another, although the company declined to

comment on whether the funding would be used to pay off debts to its landlords.

Coming down? The company had been struggling before the pandemic emptied its spaces. It laid off half its employees in March, and clients working from home have pushed vacancy rates through the roof.

Knotel has nearly 800,000 square feet of space that will be available beginning in October, a 66% increase from the 481,000 available square feet that Crain’s calculated last month. In November 2019 Crain’s reported that Knotel had 260,000 square feet up for grabs. Knotel said previously that it was not considering bankruptcy. ■

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HEALTH CARE

NYU Langone again set to expand emergency dept. at Manhattan flagship

Digital health investment up during pandemic

BY JENNIFER HENDERSON

IN THE FIRST SEVEN MONTHS of this year, 70 digital health companies in the city raised $1.5 billion, surpassing the $1.2 billion raised in all of 2019, according to a report released by New York City Health Business Leaders and AlleyCorp, an early stage venture fund and incubator. The finding comes as telehealth, home care and virtual care have become the norm during the pandemic, the groups said. “Covid has only heightened the need for more efficient health care, different kinds of delivery and more equitable health care,” said Bunny Ellerin, president of NYC Health Business Leaders and director of the health care and pharmaceutical management program at Columbia Business School. “If investors are looking for good companies to place money in, it makes sense in that vein.” Digital pharmacy services made up the largest area of investment, with companies in that space accounting for 25% of the haul. Companies focusing on patient engagement accounted for 22%, followed

fter completing a roughly $6 million expansion earlier this year, NYU Langone Health is planning another upgrade to its emergency department at Tisch Hospital on the East Side. The nearly $2 million project is expected to add a secure holding

be secured for staff access only and to provide direct visual observation of all patients areas, the health system added. It is expected to also house a local medication “safety zone.” Staff would be able to access the secure holding space via an outside corridor. And the space is expected to have multiple controlled access points within it. “At a time when the need for mental health services is increasing and patients are presenting in acute crisis to emergency departments, NYU Langone Health is committed to providing a state-ofthe-art care environment that allows for privacy, security, safety and dignity,” said Dr. Fritz François, chief medical officer and patient safety officer at the health system, and a professor at NYU School of Medicine, in a statement.

“THE NEED FOR MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IS INCREASING” suite designed to better accommodate patients with behavioral health issues, according to a certificate-of-need filing with the state. Plans for the 1,400-square-foot space include five secure holding rooms; one patient lounge space, designed to be used under staff observation; and a nurses station with special retrofitting, NYU Langone said in its filing. The nurses station is designed to

Another addition NYU Langone earlier this year, during the height of the pandemic,

received expedited approval from the state for another expansion of the emergency department at its flagship hospital. That project, which was aimed at better accommodating increasing demand for patient services as well as impact from the pandemic, is already complete. It added a dozen patient treatment stations, including four enclosed rooms, to help address emergency department overcrowding. The stations are located in a 3,600-square-foot former shell space adjacent to the existing emergency department. The 35,000-square-foot Ronald O. Perelman Center for Emergency Services encompasses traditional emergency department space as well as other facilities. Last year NYU Langone clocked more than 88,000 visits to the center, of which 83% were made by city residents. Emergency department visit volume has been growing at a rate of 7% to 8% each year, the health system said in a previous filing. ■

by those specializing in insurance (15%), analytics (13%), provider tools (9%), the social determinants of health (8%) and women’s health (7%). The groups said the more than $100 million invested in the social determinants of health is expected to increase, given the health care disparities that have been magnified by the pandemic. Earlier this year Crain’s reported that a bevy of local health-tech firms were seeing increased inbound interest and business opportunities as a result of the public health crisis. The report found that regulatory and reimbursement changes have cemented the widespread adoption of telehealth and virtual care services, which are expected to be here to stay. The authors concluded that, from both an investor and employer standpoint, mental health and wellness will be key priorities going forward. In addition, they found that consumer health companies are advancing on a large scale. —J.H.

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SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 5

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IN THE MARKETS

Leading PPP lender lucky to land at American Express

Kabbage shifted to processing PPP loans when clients’ revenue dried up

“OUR CUSTOMERS HAVE NO REVENUE BECAUSE THEY ARE CLOSED”

money comes at punishingly high rates. A Kabbage competitor, Manhattan-based On Deck Capital, said in its most annual report that it charged an average annual percentage rate of 45% for its loans. Fintechs typically aren’t regulated by federal banking authorities or subject to state usury laws. Privately held Kabbage hasn’t disclosed how much it charges small businesses for money, but Marsh said its rates are often around 50% and his firm has been busy helping clients refinance into less onerous loans Interest rates at some of these fintechs are high because their losses are steep. OnDeck’s net chargeoff rate was 13.6% last year – and that was before the pandemic struck. In July OnDeck agreed to be acquired for about $90 million, or $1.38 a share, by online lender PETRALIA SAID Kabbage stopped making Enova. OnDeck’s stock, which small-business loans in April. once was as high as $23 a share, was at $4 a share before the panof Covid-19 presented risks only the demic struck. government could manage. “Our customers have no revenue New risks because they are closed,” Kabbage Kabbage was valued at $1.2 bil- co-founder Kathryn Petralia exlion in 2017, when SoftBank invest- plained. The company shifted hard to PPP ed $250 million. The lender stopped making small-business loans in lending, which meant writing esApril, saying the “natural disaster” sentially risk-free loans for a small

commission while the government shouldered any losses. Like many smaller lenders, Kabbage proved more adept at getting desperately needed cash into borrowers hands than many big banks. The lender originated the third-most PPP loans in the the city. That impressed American Express, which for many years has worked to get its cards and services accepted by more small businesses. The financial giant said acquiring Kabbage’s technology and staff would help it do a better job providing small businesses with loans and managing their cash flow. “By bringing together Kabbage’s innovative technology and talented team with our broad distribution capabilities and over 60 years of experience backing small businesses, we can better help our customers successfully emerge from this challenging period and beyond,” said Anne Marrs, president of AmEx’s global commercial services, in a statement. ■

BLOOMBERG

n August small-business lend- loans it used to make. In addition, er Kabbage was acquired by American Express didn’t acquire American Express in what Kabbage’s loan book, much of seemed like the ultimate vali- which had been sold off to Wall dation of the Georgia-based com- Street investors and is likely riven pany, a fintech that helped connect with defaults. Looked at that way, nearly 300,000 small Kabbage was lucky to find businesses around the a buyer at any price, which country to Paycheck Prowasn’t disclosed. Some of tection Program loans, its rivals that sprouted up including 15,000 in New in recent years – comYork. monly known as fintechs “American Express – have also been acquired shares Kabbage’s mission in the past few months. to become an essential Those that haven’t found partner to small busipartners are probably nesses in managing their AARON ELSTEIN doomed unless the forcash flow,” a Kabbage tunes of their small-busispokesman said. “They saw the power and impact of Kab- ness borrowers suddenly improve. “There’s a shakeout underway bage’s solutions for years prior to among fintech lenders,” said Daniel the pandemic and financial crisis.” But this deal wasn’t quite what it Marsh, president of National Develseemed. opment Council, a Manhattan-based nonprofit lender that helps minority-owned enterprises. “That’s very welcome.” Lenders like Kabbage grew fast in the past decade by Kabbage’s borrowers were serving businesses too small to incrushed when the economy locked terest banks. They use algorithms to down, so it had no choice but pivot determine what a borrower can afquickly to making PPP loans, which ford and specialize in producare a lot less profitable than the ing cash quickly. The rub is their

MORE SEE LIST of top PPP lenders in New York. Page 14

REAL ESTATE

Trump’s trade policies hurt Tiffany & Co., one of his biggest commercial tenants

n the 16th century King Henry of Navarre renounced his Protestant religion and accepted Catholicism in order to be crowned king of all France. “Paris is well worth a Mass,” he is said to have said. President Donald Trump now faces a difficult choice of his own concerning the French: Is it worth sticking that nation with additional tariffs if it means jeopardizing his own bottom line? Here’s the situation: Last week came the news that the $16 billion merger between luxury goods giants Tiffany & Co. and LVMH is a dead deal. LVMH was told to put off consummating the transaction until early next year by the French government, which hopes the delay will fend off the Trump administration’s move to raise tariffs on French imports. Tiffany, which has turned unprofitable since the merger was struck last year, couldn’t wait any longer and sued LVMH to force their corporate marriage to proceed.

It happens that Tiffany recently became one of the most important commercial tenants for Trump’s business.

Temporary quarters In January the retailer moved temporarily into a Trump Organization-owned space at 6 E. 57th St., because its flagship store next door is closed for a two-year renovation. The new Tiffany location occupies a 73,000-square-foot space that had been empty since Nike said it would vacate it in late 2017, at least in part because the apparel giant no longer wanted to pay rent to Trump’s company. Tiffany pays the Trump Organization an estimated $9 million in annual rent, according to CoStar. Gucci is the only retail tenant in the city paying more to the Trump Organization, according to publicly available documents. The store pays $18.7 million in rent annually for ground-level space in Trump Tower. A Trump Organization spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a request for comment. Retail’s demise has hit the Trump Organization hard. It was the main

BUCK ENNIS

BY AARON ELSTEIN

reason Forbes cut its most recent estimate of the president's net worth to $2.1 billion from $3.1 billion. Most retailers have left Trump Tower, and the Trump Building’s ground-floor space at 40 Wall St. has been empty since Dean & DeLuca called off plans to open a store. Last year the Trump Organization sued, seeking $16 million in

unpaid rent. The gourmet grocer, which filed for bankruptcy protection this year, said in court filings it owes the Trump Organization $400,000. Tiffany faces big challenges if the merger with LVMH doesn’t happen. Because of a decline in visitors from China and other countries, traffic at its flagship store and other locations has sunk. In the first half

of this year, the retailer swung to a $33 million loss from a $261 million profit. It burned through $13 million in cash, a stark contrast to the $154 million generated a year ago. Its stock price fell 10% in early trading last Wednesday. One reason Tiffany elected to merge with LVMH is its efforts to grow in China were hindered by that country imposing new tariffs on U.S.-made jewelry. Tiffany could be justified in feeling like a target of the administration's, and one way it could fight back would be to withhold rent. (A spokesman had no immediate comment when asked about that.) Forbes reckons Trump has $160 million in cash on hand, so it shouldn’t take long for him to notice if Tiffany stopped paying. Is a wealthy tenant whose exclusive brand is exactly what Trump aspires to worth alienating over a battle about tariffs? As Henry of Navarre found out long ago, sometimes being king involves difficult tradeoffs. That’s true too if you’re a president and a landlord. ■

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SPONSORED CONTENT

Dealing with default: workouts, restructuring, bankruptcy and ligitation

t a time when virtually every sector of the economy is navigating unforeseen challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, commercial borrowers may find themselves unable to continue paying off debts under their current terms. To learn what borrower and lender options are in case of default, Crain’s Content Studio turned to Robert J. Malatak, Esq., CPA, a partner at the law firm of Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP, who has experience in bankruptcy, commercial loan restructuring and workouts, and enforcing judgments against recalcitrant debtors.

CRAIN’S: How have the recent shocks to the economy affected commercial borrowers’ ability to make debt payments? ROBERT J. MALATAK, ESQ., CPA: Although certain business sectors have been more impacted than others— for example, retail, hospitality and commercial real estate— given the complexity of the United States economy and interconnectedness of its business sectors, virtually no sector has been entirely unscathed by the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. While certain borrowers were struggling economically prior to the pandemic’s onset and then had their situation exacerbated by the pandemic, other borrowers’ distress can be attributable solely to the pandemic. Either way, many borrowers presently find themselves in breach of certain financial covenants in their loan documents or unable to make their debt payments.

public sources. This reluctance justifiably creates distrust on the lenders’ part and can be an impediment—albeit not necessarily insurmountable— for a workout plan to succeed. If a lender does not trust the borrower’s management and financial statements, it may appropriately believe that it has no choice but to enforce its rights and remedies under the loan documents, at law and in equity, which will be far less attractive than a workout. CRAIN’S: When should a commercial borrower in default consider a workout— negotiating with its lender to try to settle the debt with a reduced balance? Which lenders—and what kinds of loans—are particularly well-suited to that approach? MALATAK: A borrower whose liabilities exceed assets, or who lacks the cash flow to pay debts when they come due, is effectively

The issue is not one of the lender’s willingness to work out a distressed loan, but rather their ability to do so, which is still largely guided by pre-Covid-19 external and internal rules and regulations. CRAIN’S: What’s your advice for a commercial borrower that is currently facing a default or has defaulted? MALATAK: A borrower nearing default or already in default under the terms of a commercial loan should seek the advice of experienced counsel who can competently advise on not only the borrower’s rights and obligations, but also those of the lender. Borrowers and lenders alike are best served when all parties are fully informed. Borrowers are also typically reluctant to notify their lenders of pre-default problems, and too often their lenders learn of problems through the borrowers’ financial statements, or worse,

insolvent. The borrower then has three choices: (1) ignore the problem and wait for the unavoidable lawsuits and/or possible involuntary bankruptcy, (2) attempt to negotiate a workout with the lender or (3) voluntarily file for bankruptcy. A responsible borrower will not ignore the issue but will first meet with trusted and competent advisers—including counsel and accountants—to develop a strategy and then meet with the lender in an attempt to outline a solution before the economic situation becomes overwhelming. The workout options can include, among others, a loan modification, a refinancing of the debt by a third-party lender, the

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borrower’s transfer of the property to the lender by deed in lieu of foreclosure, or a sale of the secured property to a third party. The foregoing approach is better suited when the borrower has only one lender. When multiple lenders are involved, the challenges for a workout grow significantly because they likely have competing interests, and all want access to available cash. Finally, loans that are secured by assets having equity above the amount of the borrower’s present indebtedness or where the company and its owners can pledge additional collateral security, or personal guaranties, are more likely to be worked out. CRAIN’S: How does a commercial borrower looking to restructure decide between negotiating new terms with the current lender and refinancing with a new loan? MALATAK: Whether a borrower decides between a loan modification with the existing lender or a refinancing through a prospective lender will be determined by the strength of the borrower’s relationship with the existing lender and the terms being offered by the existing and prospective lenders. The relationship between a lender and a borrower, like any other business relationship, can be a very amicable and trusted one. If that is the case, and the only negative development was an extraordinary event like Covid-19, the borrower may very well prefer to stay with the existing lender. However, whether it is economically feasible to do so will depend on the borrower’s cash flow and the terms being offered by the existing lender versus the terms being offered by the prospective lender. CRAIN’S: What do commercial borrowers need to understand about their

lenders’ interests when negotiating with them? How does the current publichealth and economic crisis affect a lender’s willingness to work out a troubled loan? MALATAK: A borrower needs to understand that a lender must know whether the lender is fully secured by the assets pledged as collateral and personal guaranties, and whether the borrower’s business is viable or not—and if not, can it be made viable and over what time horizon. As previously mentioned, however, if a borrower has loans with more than one lender, the lenders might have competing interests which should be discernable by understanding the terms of the various loan documents. As for lenders’ present “willingness” to work out a distressed loan, lenders are not desensitized to the impact of Covid-19 and they much prefer having a performing loan in their portfolios than a nonperforming loan. The issue, however, is not one of the lenders’ willingness to work out a distressed loan, but rather their ability to do so, which is still largely guided by pre-Covid-19 external and internal rules and regulations. CRAIN’S: When is bankruptcy, as opposed to a workout plan, the better option for a business facing default on a commercial loan? MALATAK: The issue of whether a company should file for bankruptcy and what kind, such as Chapter 7 or 11 (including Subchapter 5 under Chapter 11), requires a complicated factual and legal analysis that should be undertaken with the advice of competent and experienced advisers. As an aside, Subchapter 5 was created to help small businesses reorganize in a quicker and less costly manner and might well be a good option in today’s

Robert J. Malatak, Esq., CPA, a partner at the law firm of Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP

environment. A company should consider as part of its analysis whether it is able to work out its distressed loan on terms that it honestly believes it can satisfy. If not, the company will likely soon find itself in default of the modified loan and without any additional options for a second workout or a third-party refinancing, particularly if the company’s fortunes have continued to erode and many other creditors are knocking at the door. CRAIN’S: If you are the lender, what’s the best way to enforce a judgment against a recalcitrant borrower and guarantor(s)? MALATAK: A lender that obtained a judgment has many legal rights and remedies to enforce it. However, in order for a lender to take full advantage of these rights and remedies, its counsel must be very familiar with them, as well as the procedural nuances surrounding them. Counsel who is knowledgeable in this area of law will press a lender’s rights and remedies with precision and timeliness because failure to do so may result in: (1) certain lender’s rights and remedies being waived or lost, (2) lender’s judgment lien being subordinated to more aggressive competing creditors and/or (3) available assets being overlooked or fraudulently transferred or encumbered (which only invites further litigation). Finally, a lender with a judgment needs to be patient because if its rights and remedies are executed upon in a precise and timely manner, and if there exist assets against which its judgment can be wholly or partially satisfied, it should eventually be satisfied.

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EDITORIAL

associate publisher Lisa Rudy

Give business the building blocks to bring workers back to the city make their office towers desirable again. Many landlords have embraced the latest ventilation technology. Architects and interior designers say they are busy helping businesses reconfigure their offices to make them safer. Although many workers still may not feel comfortable returning to the office, it’s not just the office that they fear. They are just as afraid of what could happen while traveling to and from their workplace—from taking the subway to work to walking on crowded streets. They also have to make sure they are not distracted by the ever-changing plans about city schools reopening. In order for businesses to persuade workers that it’s safe to return to work, public officials must step up and give businesses the building blocks to restore the confidence they need to get employees back. Lifting the ban on indoor dining as of Sept. 30 was a good first step last week. People who work in the city are used to dining out in restaurants, not only for sustenance but for the opportunity to

THE LIFTING OF THE BAN ON INDOOR DINING WAS A GOOD FIRST STEP LAST WEEK their businesses to survive. A Manhattan office address has spawned fortunes for centuries, and until Covid hit, it seemed like nothing could dim the luster of having one. Developers and business owners have certainly tried to

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ar from the deadly days of early spring, Gotham has turned a corner in the battle against Covid-19. In fact, New York state has reported an infection rate below 1% for more than a month. But a socially distant stroll through Grand Central Terminal or along Midtown’s avenues shows that few workers have actually returned to the city. Developers have told Crain’s that the occupancy rate in their buildings has stubbornly remained in the single digits. They also say employers and workers tell them they don’t feel entirely comfortable returning to the office towers that until six months ago they deemed essential to work in for

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network. In many cases, it’s where deals get done. Having that option, even within the limits outlined by the state, will go a long way toward making workers feel that the city is getting back to normal. But there is much more to be done. A letter sent by business leaders to Mayor Bill de Blasio last week complained of a deteriorating quality of life in the city, including trash piling up and a sharp spike in violent crime. The MTA is also going to have to convince commuters that social distancing and the wearing of masks are going to be strictly enforced on the subway.

City officials should also offer whatever support they can to public schools. Many working parents would love to return to the office. But they can’t without more clarity about whether or when their children will return to school. The city could face another rise in Covid cases in the fall, but public officials can do more in the meantime to help workers start feeling safe about returning to work before there is a widely available vaccine. Without these intermediary steps, the revitalization of New York will take far longer than anyone can imagine. ■

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OP-ED

New York is resilient, but only if it adapts

REPRINTS director, reprints & licensing Lauren Melesio,

212.210.0707, lmelesio@crain.com PRODUCTION

BY MATT HARRIGAN

here has been much debate lately about whether New York City is “dead,” and of course it isn’t. But it is true that, even before Covid-19, we were long overdue for looking at the city with fresh eyes and developing new mechanisms for improving the day-today experience of living and working here. Now, with the meteoric and here-to-stay rise of remote work, wariness toward urban density and the loss of so many traditional drivers of New York’s appeal, the city unquestionably needs to evolve to tip the cost-benefit analysis of city versus suburban or smaller-city living back in New York’s favor. In the past few months, we have observed the success and popularity of the city’s Open Streets and Open Restaurants pilots. These initiatives should be just the beginning of a new vision for improving the quality of day-to-day life for New Yorkers that seeks to include the ingenuity and entrepreneurialism of New Yorkers themselves.

How? Start with approved pilot programs for community-improvement concepts and take it from there based on performance. For example, what if we enabled any residential block, pending agreement from all its property owners, to choose to make only one side of the street legal for parking? The other would be turned into open space for one year. If successful, the change could be made permanent with plantings or benches. Here’s another idea: Create a legal template for residential blocks to voluntarily combine their individual yards into one large communal area with smaller yards for each building. This means mimicking some of the appeal of suburban living, allowing families and children to stretch out a bit more without needing to hoof it to a park. You’ll find neighborhoods dotted around cities such as New Orleans that do this wonderfully. As folks rely more on cars for transit (at least for the near term until all those amazing bikeways are built) and delivery trucks for goods and groceries, congestion is

fast returning to city streets. What if we equipped microbusiness communities with approved pilots to manage curb use and the congestion that often comes with it? Curbside management technology is being piloted in other cities, and it’s an example of where New York’s startup community can be tapped to help lead the way in improving how we use our streets.

Transformative If even just a few blocks piloted concepts like these, the results could be transformative and make the case for others to follow suit. We’ve seen this type of thinking work through our own Urban Tech Hub at Company, which regularly pilots innovative ideas to help strengthen our city. My challenge to the city: Put forward five pilots with guidance by the end of the year, and have communities test them (if they so choose) and form a consensus. Then capitalize on platforms such as Neighborhood Challenge, which is operated by the city’s Small Business Services Department, to share guidelines for and

encourage the submission of additional pilot concepts for approval. Of course, innovative pilots cannot solve all our challenges. Strategies for reviving business, safeguarding our schools, addressing homelessness, pursuing social justice and more are all needed. But I do believe the answers to the challenges of making day-today living in the city’s various communities as enjoyable as possible are in those same communities— let’s draw them out. By creating approved mechanisms for city residents to take it upon themselves to reimagine and improve their community, we can empower our more solutions-oriented residents while offloading some of the burden of driving political consensus for citywide initiatives. New York City is resilient, and it will bounce back from the pandemic—but only if it adapts. It’s about time it did. ■

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Matt Harrigan is the co-founder of Company, the vertical Midtown innovation campus for startups and large enterprises.

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OP-ED

The city will lead the nation’s economic recovery thanks to our cultural riches BY CHARLES FLATEMAN

he public outpouring about New York City’s future is head-spinning: The city is dead or is dying or, on the opposite side of the spectrum, New York will rise again. We tend to believe the latter. The blistering speeches about New York and angry Twitter bots have been largely advanced for political gain, conflating the crime bump, homelessness, an overdue reckoning for racial equity and Covid-19 into an urban Armageddon virtually unrecognizable to residents. Even the most-committed advocates for the city have a hard time tuning it all out. I’m not suggesting our considerable post-pandemic woes aren’t real, because they clearly are. And yet, the facts are this: New York City is still infinitely safer than it was in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s—not to mention irresistible and diverse. Leaders in commercial real estate know this and are encouraging New Yorkers to return to their office buildings. Certainly, they want to collect rents, but they also recognize that office workers help spur the economy. They buy breakfast and lunch. They entertain. They take taxis. Recently they began carefully

visiting museums, as if reconnecting with friends they haven’t seen in ages. Sure, I’m a booster. We all need to be “All in NYC.” But beyond our new slogan, we also have logic on our side. Here’s what I know: The first phase of New York’s recovery will be led by New Yorkers. Why? Because it will be driven by what attracted so many of us to this magical, troubled, gritty, tough, glorious, not-alwayseasy-to-take city in the first place: the arts, culture, five-borough energy and creative ferment that excites residents and visitors alike, particularly when it signals recovery and rebirth.

Creative capital Even if workers don’t return to a full five-day workweek anytime soon, and even if office footprints shrink, what makes New York City unique, as Jerry Seinfeld recently pointed out, is that people still— and always—want to gather in person here. They want to be in a city that boasts cultural riches like nowhere else on the planet. With world-class performing arts, museums, iconic architecture, parks, historic sites and so much more, New York City remains the creative capi-

tal of the country, if not, the world. The city that never sleeps pulsates with energy, even if some of that energy must be channeled through Zoom for a while longer. That’s the reason companies like Facebook, AIG, TikTok and Raymond James are now investing in significant new office space in New York City. I mean, if you were a CEO, would you rather have your team spread all over the country or be together in one of the world’s most vibrant cities, with its unparalleled diversity of cultural riches—from the Studio Museum in Harlem to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, from the surf schools in the Rockaways to our own South Beach on Staten Island, from Chinatown in Flushing, Queens, to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx to Little Odessa in Brighton Beach? The workplace itself may be permanently altered, and it’s logical to imagine that some remote work will continue even after Covid-19. But eventually national and global companies will begin gathering their work teams from around the country and around the world together in person. And the first places that will attract such gatherings are the world-class cities, where culture and creativity live in the municipal

DNA. The city’s arts and cultural institutions are the lifeblood of our creative energy and were a considerable draw to the 66.6 million visitors who came to New York City last year. Those visitors generated $71 billion in economic activity and $7 billion in local tax revenue, and fueled 403,000 jobs in the hospitality and tourism sector. It’s going to be a long time before we can reach those numbers again, but something is better than nothing. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have worked brilliantly to reopen our doors safely. Our baseball teams are playing again. Restaurants are nimbly welcoming customers back to outdoor dining spaces and eager to resume indoor dining. When the theater and musicians return to the stage, we’ll know we’re really on our way. New York City will lead the nation’s recovery for big cities because of our creative riches and our density. When the city-bashing is over, and visitors return, we’ll be here,

BLOOMBERG

Office workers and tourists won’t be able to resist New York’s energy, grit forever

TIMES SQUARE waiting, with open arms, as we’ve always been, ready to welcome the world back. Meanwhile, it’s time for New Yorkers themselves to lead the way—safely, socially distanced and masked—by getting out into our neighborhoods and enjoying what they have to offer, and, at the same time infusing much-needed dollars into our local economy. Because we’ve never stopped being all in for New York City. ■ Charles Flateman is the board chairman of NYC & Company, the official destination marketing organization and convention and visitors bureau for the five boroughs of New York City. He also serves as executive vice president of the Shubert Organization.

OP-ED

Mayor excluding construction workers who need help the most Non-union workers, often minorities, won’t get a crack at city projects

n August 13th, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a community hiring plan for the city that aims to employ construction workers from high poverty areas. We agree that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many individuals need support, especially those who live in impoverished areas. We also agree that construction is a great path to the middle class. However, this community hiring plan only will help those individuals who work for a union by mandating a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) be placed on

only helps union labor and leaves open shop workers in the cold.

Union bias A PLA is a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement that forces contractors to hire most of their workforce from union halls. What many people may not know is that in New York City, 65% or more of the construction workforce isn’t in a union. That rate will vary from trade to trade with some trades having north of 75% of the workforce considered non-union. So why then would the mayor voluntarily discriminate against his own citizens? A PLA won't help individuals that live in these specified economically hurt areas. Historically these are people who have been largely ignored and deprived of the opportunity to get into the middle class. Construction does provide them with that opportunity. However, the impact of the mayor’s PLA will be staggering. We reviewed turnstile data from

THIS COMMUNITY HIRING PLAN ONLY WILL HELP THOSE ... WHO WORK FOR A UNION certain city projects. If the mayor really wants to help people, then he should support all construction workers, regardless of affiliation rather than promoting a policy that

BLOOMBERG

BY TANNER SCHMIDT

open shop construction projects across the city. We found that out of the 14,000 workers on those projects, over 90% are Black or Latino and almost all of them live in the five boroughs. What this data show is that a PLA on city projects will ban these workers from being able to work on and reap the economic benefits of these projects simply because they choose not to be in a union or have already been rejected

by a union. We’ve seen community hiring programs before and what we find is at the end very few of the workers will get enough hours to become vested in a union. We’ve seen it happen time after time in other cities across New York and the country. They get just close enough to the work hour requirements and suddenly the work dries up or they get sent to the bench never to be re-

called. We don't want to see the same thing happen in New York City that has happened elsewhere. This pandemic has hit everyone hard, union or not, and therefore the mayor needs to support initiatives that help both sides of the debate. Instead he supports the side that funded his campaign. It shouldn’t have taken a pandemic and economic hardships for the mayor to act. The mayor and all other elected officials need to help all people regardless of labor affiliation. Construction is a path to the middle class regardless if you work for a union or if you are an open shop worker. We keep hearing talk about equality and opportunity for all. We couldn’t agree more. It’s time the mayor and all of New York’s elected body support fair and open competition on all taxpayer-funded projects. ■ Tanner Schmidt is a program assistant in the Government Affairs and Communication Department at the Associated Builders and Contractors' Empire State Chapter.

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ASKED & ANSWERED

SCOTT SHORT

RiseBoro Community Partnerships

The shutdown also created a crisis for the homeless, whom the city has housed in vacant hotels to avoid overcrowding in shelters. Is that a long-term solution?

DOSSIER WHO HE IS CEO of RiseBoro Community Partnership

INTERVIEW BY SUZANNAH CAVANAUGH

n his 18 years at RiseBoro Community Partnerships, Scott Short has helped grow the nonprofit from a Brooklyn-based senior center into a citywide community-service organization. Under his direction as CEO, a role he has held since 2017, RiseBoro addresses inequities in housing, education, health and homelessness. When the pandemic hit, the organization retooled its programming to ensure clients—some of the city’s most at-risk populations—received the resources they needed to make it through. How did the shutdown affect vulnerable populations?

We had thousands of senior citizens show up to our senior centers to get access to food and services, to socialize with friends, to stay socially connected and to exercise and recreate within the centers. Those lifelines were cut off from those clients basically in a day’s notice. So we had to quickly pivot to figure out how to continue to provide essential services so they could successfully shelter in place at home.

What did RiseBoro do?

We already had a robust Meals on Wheels delivery program and did about 1,400 meals daily. Almost overnight we amped that up to over 2,000 to accommodate the senior center clients who needed

RICI P D R Y BI EPT. 17 L R EA ILL S T

AGE 42 GREW UP Oakland, Calif. RESIDES Park Slope, Brooklyn EDUCATION Bachelor’s in political science and government, Brown University FAMILY MAN He is married and has two daughters. CAREER CHANGE Short transitioned from a position in publishing at Condé Nast to a role at the nonprofit 18 years ago after deciding he wanted to use his career to help people overcome the challenges of poverty. SOMM SKILLS Short began learning to make wine in a Bushwick butcher shop in 2002. Now he grows grapes in Mahopac in Putnam County, crafting hybrid blends unique to the upstate climate.

that service. And we also began to roll out remote programming in the areas of socialization, exercise, nutrition and support services for accessing benefits. All the things seniors would typically do inside the walls of a center now needed to be pushed to a remote platform.

I do applaud the city for recognizing the issue early. I think the challenge becomes that that’s not a sustainable housing model because it’s very expensive. So some of the solutions we’re looking at include the permanent conversion of hotels to homeless housing because hotels in many parts of the city can be acquired for about half of what it would cost to build new.

Will the city’s 20% cut to nonprofit budgets mean cuts to services that could help in the recovery?

I think in times of economic recoveries, such as after Sept. 11, such as the financial crisis of 2008 to 2009, the city has really engineered its recovery by increasing investment in affordable housing. It’s such an effective job creator, and it delivers a really needed public good in the form of permanent housing for low-income individuals and families. RiseBoro does have a significant number of projects in the pipeline for development that will be slowed down or possibly even abandoned if the capital funds are not restored.

As a member of the mayor’s advisory council on nonprofits, what initiative do you believe did the most for social services?

I felt most passionate about being able to deliver incentive pay to our frontline workers, who continue to show up every day throughout the pandemic and put their own lives on the line for the benefit of vulnerable populations. ■

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CORONAVIRUS ALERT COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Dear Wall Street, your boss wants you back in the office Employers are starting to suggest it may be time to return to work BLOOMBERG

tion rates there dropped to near zero, the thinking on how to staff offices shifted.

Challenges ahead

GOLDMAN SACHS headquarters awaits return of employees. BLOOMBERG

p and down the new virtual Wall Street, the question has started to creep in: When will the bosses order us back to our real offices? Almost six months after the coronavirus pandemic emptied towers and trading floors in New York and beyond, JPMorgan Chase & Co. executives have discussed compelling people to come back into the city and other places where Covid-19 has subsided, according to people familiar with the matter. The bank already asked some new analysts to report into offices in New York and London to get up to speed in person after online classroom training. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. sent a staff memo last week saying that it was planning on bringing employees back on a rotational basis. It has also advised recruits to station themselves near its offices should they be called in. And Blackstone Group Inc. has encouraged investment professionals to return. Now that the Labor Day holiday has come and gone, many who

worse, ready to volunteer. Some privately say they’re still worried about leaving their homes and that as long as the decision is up to them they’ll wait until there’s a vaccine before coming back. Many lack options for childcare or are reluctant to brave buses, subways and trains -- concerned that venturing out could expose them or vulnerable loved ones to a virus that’s killed more than 189,000 Americans. T h e n there are those who are eager to rush in, whether to catch a break after months of confinement with families or to impress the bosses. That can fuel anxiety in others. At Goldman Sachs, where in-office staffing at its headquarters has hovered around 10% to 20% across divisions, one member of the rank and file wished the firm would just tell everyone if and when they should return. One worry is that brown nosers may go get face-time with the top brass, making those who stay away look weak or lazy. A staffer in JPMorgan’s wealth-management business working from an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side said he was relieved when his manager told him their team probably won’t have to return until next year. He thinks he’d be comfortable working at the office; it’s getting there that scares him. He dreads the subway. Colleagues in sales and trading don’t have the same excuse: JPMorgan has been reimbursing Uber and taxi rides to the office for traders below the managing-director level so they don’t have to share public transportation. Some of the more senior traders have been walking or driving to work. And in investment banking, the firm has asked that 50% of its dealmakers be

“AT THE END OF THE DAY WE ALL KNOW WE ARE MORE EFFECTIVE IN PERSON THAN ON ZOOM” were given the option of working from home are itching to learn what comes next. Memos are being parsed for clues to bosses’ preferences. Are references to safety measures at the office or to the fatigue of working from home meant as reassurances or as a nudge to repopulate Midtown towers? Take, for example, a recent missive from top executives at Jefferies Financial Group Inc.: “We probably all feel that too much WFH is simply too much, as we all miss each other and at the end of the day, we all know we are more effective in person than on Zoom,” Chief Executive Officer Richard Handler and President Brian Friedman wrote. They later caveated that “no person at Jefferies should feel an ounce of pressure to return to our offices.”

No pressure In fact, almost every bank says employees are under no pressure to come back. Yet this is Wall Street, where competitive juices flow and paranoia looms large over catching deals, scoring bonuses and winning promotions. Quiet conversations about what’s next are ubiquitous, though few people are willing to talk openly about the subject for fear of sounding too reluctant or,

in the office on a given workday, up from 25% previously, according to a person familiar with the matter. Executives have their own reasons for making the commute, including the message it sends to subordinates. An executive at Citigroup Inc. plans to start working from one of the bank’s outposts, but only in the mornings. He sees it as a chance to signal to colleagues that, eventually, life will return to normal. At another financial-services firm, a manager said he plans to take Zoom calls from his Manhattan office to apply subtle pressure on subordinates. A senior banker at Goldman Sachs worried competitors could get an edge if their dealmakers return first. The president of Tradeweb Markets, Billy Hult, said his chats with peers across the street often touch on those tensions. “Shakespeare’s written a lot of plays that center around envy,” Hult said. “That’s going to be a key force behind everyone’s decision.” He finally returned to his office two weeks ago to find notes from March 16 still on his desk. There’s an irony in all of this: Goldman Sachs and rivals have argued for years they’re really tech companies now. But the mounting anxiety among bankers about needing to get back to the office is revealing their traditional ways, valuing face-to-face meetings and training. Goldman’s senior leaders have made it clear they believe in an apprentice culture and that the firm can thrive only when people are present. CEO David Solomon has set the tone, coming into the office throughout. The virus is still a real risk, but sometime between April, when television screens showed refrigerated morgue trucks around New York, and late summer, when infec-

For the rank and file, banks have reconfigured their floors to comply with social distancing guidelines. Still, New York’s density presents more intractable challenges. After the commute, there’s the elevators. And while firms can learn lessons from their offices in countries that have done a better job managing the pandemic, some of their experiences abroad are hardly reassuring. In Sydney, where August means winter, JPMorgan recently had to send home a whole floor of workers after someone tested positive for the virus. It’s no wonder that the industry is so fractured over how to proceed. A few days before Labor Day, Wells Fargo & Co. told its workforce -- the largest in U.S. banking -- that it

plans to keep most staff working from home through at least Nov. 1. JPMorgan executives will be watching closely in the coming weeks to gauge whether infection levels worsen as more people return. If things go well, invitations to return voluntarily may become mandates, said the person who asked not to be identified. Even under that more extreme scenario, the bank doesn’t anticipate its New York buildings will exceed 50% capacity for the foreseeable future. Perhaps, the post-Labor Day period will turn out to be a chance for employees to demonstrate their commitment without really having to stick with it. A mid-level worker at JPMorgan plans to cycle in and out of the office to hang out with co-workers for a while, before what she sees as an inevitable rebound in infections by Thanksgiving. ■

Grassi Consulting: Because running your business is never a straight path. grassicpas.com/consulting

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 11

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9/10/20 4:28 PM

WHO OWNS THE BLOCK

A brash move on a classic corner

522 FIFTH AVE

Rosen gambles on Midtown’s recovery with a sweeping renovation BY C. J. HUGHES

ith the economy reeling from Covid-19 and the investment sales market at a standstill, RFR Holding, a company that likes splashy plays, has completed another one. In August, the company plunked down $350 million for 522 Fifth Ave., a 23-story limestone office building in Midtown at West 44th Street, which is lined with Ivy League clubs and classic hotels. RFR, founded by Aby Rosen, also controls Midtown’s Chrysler and Seagram buildings. It plans a sweeping renovation of the 575,000 square feet of office space at 522 Fifth, with the goal of fashioning a headquarters for a single tenant. Rosen seems to be betting that historic Midtown, which had been losing tenants through the years to hipper enclaves on the West Side, might have staying power. “You’ve got to wonder about all those tenants that jumped ship to go over to places like Hudson Yards. What will happen to them now?” said Gerry Thies, a broker at Redwood Property Group who is marketing space at 34 W. 44th St. “But our location, convenience-wise,” with several subway lines and Grand Central Terminal, “is pretty awesome,” he said.

27 W. 44TH ST. New York’s chapter of the Harvard Club, one of several alumni institutions on the block—the Penn Club is across the street—dates to 1894, when McKim, Mead and White designed the red-brick structure. Several additions followed, including a $30 million glass-and-limestone wing in 2003. The wing, which replaced a stable-turned-office-building, was financed in part by the sale of a John Singer Sargent painting. The clubhouse can be rented out for non-Harvard events.

19 W. 44TH ST. This 18-story office tower, the Berkeley Building, is named for the Berkeley-Lyceum Theater, which was razed at the site in 1916. The building, home to publishing companies in the mid-20th century, today houses financial and tech firms, such as Vereit, a real estate investment trust; Grain Management, a private-equity firm; and Alteryx, a software company that signed a full-floor lease in February, just before the pandemic hit. Savanna, a New York landlord, bought the 304,000-square-foot address from Deka Immobilien GmbH, a German company, for $195 million in 2017 before undertaking a two-year, $25 million upgrade of the lobby, bathrooms and elevators. Savanna did not return a call.

15 W. 44TH ST. As Chinese companies bullishly snapped up New York real estate in the past decade, this ornately detailed 12-story structure, built in 1914, was purchased by the Sino-American Cultural Center, a limited liability company. It paid $68 million in an all-cash deal, according to public records; the purchase included a narrow adjacent vacant lot. The center, represented by the Zhonghao law firm, a China-based practice, is something of a mystery: It doesn’t even have a website. (It’s a distinct entity, not to be confused with the Sino-American Culture and Arts Foundation, a downtown group.) Previous owners of the site had planned a hotel. But since 2018, no building permits have been filed.

1120 SIXTH AVE. The Hippodrome Center, which sweeps across the entire block in this 1952 building, added a green-tinted curtain wall and other modern finishes in 2006. The 21-story office building, owned by New Jersey-based Edison Properties since 1978, was the site of the Hippodrome Theater from 1905 to 1939. Its 5,200 seats once qualified the theater as the largest in the world. Perry Ellis International, the menswear company, is a major tenant.

Bleak market 44 W. 44TH ST.

522 FIFTH AVE.

After several dingy decades and then a revitalizing $40 million renovation, the 13-story limestone Royalton hotel reopened in 1988 as a nightlife hot spot. Ian Schrager of Studio 54 fame was a principal in the project; Phillipe Starck led the redesign. The partnership of Rockpoint Group and Highgate Holdings snapped up the 168-room property from FelCor Lodging Trust for $53 million in 2017. The building, which went up in 1897, is shuttered until at least Sept. 30 because of the pandemic.

JPMorgan Chase sold this 23-story office tower in 2005 for $165 million to Stellar Management and the Rockpoint Group, which sold it (when it finally included the land beneath it) to Broadway Partners for $420 million a year later. Morgan Stanley took control of it in 2007 and carved up the building into a 10-unit commercial condo a year later. A team led by Ashkenazy Acquisitions picked up its spacious ground-floor retail berth for $165 million in 2014. RFR Holding bought the nine upstairs office units for $350 million during the summer. RFR, a fan of trophy properties, is an owner of 12 Manhattan office buildings, including 190 Bowery, a former bank that was photographer Jay Maisel’s longtime home.

28 W. 44TH ST. The 22-story, 370,000-square-foot Club Row Building was the home of The New Yorker for many years. PF Properties purchased the 1919 structure from SL Green Realty Corp. for $161 million in 2011. A $9 million renovation followed, including many eco-friendly features, such as motion-sensor lights. Prudential Real Estate Investors was a co-owner until 2015. The building is considered Class B because it has more tenants and lower rents than a trophy office tower.

520 FIFTH AVE. This high-traffic corner site—a hole in the ground for eight years—has a tortured history. RFR Holding owned its three narrow prewar office buildings with souvenir shops for years, before selling them in 2012 to Thor Equities Group, which promptly demolished them. Thor sold the undeveloped site for $275 million a few years later to Ceruzzi Properties, a New York firm, and SMI USA, from Shanghai, which planned a 71-story condo. But as the condo market soured, the developers fell behind on their loan, and lender Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies began courting other investors. The developer Madison Equities was a suitor, according to news reports, although Mack ultimately sold the debt to Rabina Properties for a discounted $205 million. The city issued a stop-work order there in June after contractors walked off the job. Rabina didn’t return calls.

BUCK ENNIS, GOOGLE MAPS

RFR’s purchase may not totally reflect current realities. It went into contract in March, just before the pandemic slammed the city. But the deal, which included $224 million in financing from Column Financial, a division of Credit Suisse Group bank, is notable in a bleak market. Investment sales overall plummeted 77% in the second quarter versus the year-ago quarter, according to figures from Avison Young, the commercial real estate firm. Among the few similar deals in Midtown during the summer was JPMorgan Chase's $115 million purchase of 410 Madison Ave. from the Bank of China, although it too was in contract for months. The 522 Fifth Ave. building, designed by McKim, Mead and White, was constructed in 1896. It was stripped down in a 1961 renovation. Morgan Stanley has owned it since 2007. The bank paid $468 million before converting the tower into a 10-unit commercial condo. RFR now controls nine of the 10 units, which will be occupied by the current tenant, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, until at least 2023. A renovation of terraces and air systems will follow. Companies are “making sure their employees have the space, amenities and systems to be productive, safe and healthy,” Rosen said. “This headquarters opportunity will deliver on those goals.”■

12 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

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9/10/20 5:12 PM

TECHNOLOGY

HEALTH CARE

Sprinklr valued at $2.7 billion with latest private-equity funding

Zocdoc’s ex-CEO suing to regain job

prinklr, a New York Citybased technology company focused on customer service software, has raised $200 million from private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, which will take a minority stake at a $2.7 billion valuation. Hellman & Friedman is investing an additional $300 million to buy out some existing investors, bringing its total bet on Sprinklr to $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because it was private. The company also secured an additional $150 million in convertible notes from alternative asset manager Sixth Street Partners, according to a statement.

Going public The valuation is up from the $1.8 billion value it had when it last raised funding in 2016. Sprinklr is now looking to go public as soon as 2021, founder and

$1.8B

cial intelligence to conChief Executive Officer vert unstructured data Ragy Thomas said in an into insights that compainterview. SPRINKLR’S nies can act on. “We could go late next valuation when Sprinklr has benefited year,” Thomas said, addit last raised from global businesses ing that there’s still unfunding in looking to speed up their certainty in the markets 2016. transition to digital platfrom Covid-19 that could forms because of the affect the timing. coronavirus pandemic. The company, whose It partnered with the World competitors include Sprout Social Inc., is now cash-flow positive, Health Organization this year to Thomas added. It’s on track to gen- power the group’s Covid-19 dasherate roughly $400 million in annu- board, as well as with several U.S. al recurring revenue this year, one states to use social media as an early warning system to identify panof the people said. Started in 2009, Sprinklr said it demic hot spots and inform decihas 1,850 employees in more than sions related to reopening businesses. 150 countries. Hellman & Friedman’s earlier inIts software is used to analyze social media to determine customer vestments in customer service sentiment. It also lets brands com- technology include call center softmunicate with consumers on plat- ware maker Genesys Telecommuforms such as Twitter and Face- nications Laboratories Inc. Tarim Wasim, a Hellman & book messenger. Sprinklr’s customers include McDonald’s Friedman partner, said in a stateCorp., Microsoft Corp., L’Oreal and ment that his firm spoke to more than 100 Sprinklr customers before Verizon Communications Inc. Thomas said Sprinklr uses artifi- making the investment. ■

yrus Massoumi, a cofounder and former CEO of online doctor-appointment booking platform Zocdoc, is suing his fellow cofounders and an executive for fraud and conspiracy to oust him. Massoumi brought action against cofounders Oliver Kharraz (currently Zocdoc’s CEO), Nikhil Ganju, and Chief Business Officer Netta Samroengraja on allegations that they plotted to steal control of the company from him. The lawsuit, filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court, alleges that the defendants misled Massoumi by dissuading him from attending a board of directors meeting in November 2015 where a coup happened, and as a result, he lost his position as CEO and chairman of Zocdoc’s board. The SoHo-based company was founded in 2007, and Massoumi was CEO for eight years before being replaced by Kharraz in 2015. Massoumi claimed in court documents that he helped Zocdoc achieve $71 million in revenue during his tenure, achieved 120% year-on-year revenue growth and grew the company’s

BUCK ENNIS

BLOOMBERG NEWS

BY SHUAN SIM

KHARRAZ

MASSOUMI

valuation to $1.8 billion. The suit also alleges that the defendants advanced themselves while leading the company to financial decline, prompting to 14 key executives leaving the company. “The claims in this lawsuit are without merit, and we will not comment further on this pending litigation at this time,” said a Zocdoc spokesperson. Massoumi also claimed financial loss in the value of his Zocdoc shares and is looking for monetary relief for damages, being reinstated as CEO and having the defendants declared to have committed fraud. Massoumi’s legal team declined to speak on record, citing the ongoing lawsuit, but referred to the submitted complaint as providing a clear explanation of Massoumi’s position. ■

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SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 13

P013_CN_20200914.indd 13

9/10/20 5:15 PM

THE LIST TOP SBA LENDERS Ranked by number of Paycheck Protection Program loans given to city companies and organizations

RANK

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

LENDER/ HEADQUARTERS

PHONE NUMBER/ WEBSITE

TOTAL NUMBER OF PPP LOANS

NUMBER OF PPP LOANS FOR $150,000 OR LESS

JPMorgan Chase Bank 270 Park Ave. New York, NY 10172

877-242-7372 chase.com

38,114

31,779

5,547

788

Cross River Bank 400 Kelby St. Fort Lee, NJ 07024

201-808-7000 crossriver.com

15,680

15,168

456

Kabbage 925B Peachtree St. NE Atlanta, GA 30309

888-986-8263 kabbage.com

15,193

15,027

155

TD Bank 1701 Route 70 East Cherry Hill, NJ 08034

888-751-9000 tdbank.com

12,239

10,758

1,289

192

Bank of America 100 N. Tryon St. Charlotte, NC 28255

704-386-5681 bankofamerica.com

10,386

9,122

1,096

168

Citibank 388 Greenwich St. New York, NY 10013

800-374-9700 citi.com

9,529

8,132

1,215

182

Celtic Bank Corp. 268 S. State St. Salt Lake City, UT 84111

801-363-6500 celticbank.com

8,162

7,897

254

WebBank 215 S. State St. Salt Lake City, UT 84111

844-994-2265 webbank.com

4,631

4,525

104

Signature Bank 565 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10017

866-744-5463 signatureny.com

3,542

2,058

1,211

273

Customers Bank 701 Reading Ave. West Reading, PA 19611

866-476-2265 customersbank.com

2,958

2,723

209

Capital One Bank 1680 Capital One Drive McLean, VA 22102

877-383-4802 capitalone.com

2,716

2,350

315

HSBC Bank USA 452 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10018

800-975-4722 us.hsbc.com

2,091

1,496

486

109

Santander Bank 75 State St. Boston, MA 02109

877-768-2265 santanderbank.com

1,486

1,315

145

Dime Community Bank 300 Cadman Plaza West Brooklyn, NY 11201

800-321-3463 dime.com

1,395

1,167

193

Valley National Bank 1455 Valley Road Wayne, NJ 07470

800-522-4100 valley.com

1,308

991

237

Pursuit 2 50 Beaver St. Albany, NY 12207

866-466-9232 nybdc.com

1,304

1,098

176

Wells Fargo Bank 420 Montgomery St. San Francisco, CA 94104

800-869-3557 wellsfargo.com

1,300

1,187

City National Bank 555 S. Flower St. Los Angeles, CA 90071

800-773-7100 cnb.com

1,214

881

280

Sterling National Bank 400 Rella Blvd. Montebello, NY 10901

855-274-2800 snb.com

1,195

878

255

Newtek Small Business Finance Inc. 1981 Marcus Ave. Lake Success, NY 11042

855-763-9835 newtekone.com

1,193

974

171

MBE Capital Partners 1 Bridge Plaza Fort Lee, NJ 07024

212-629-5400 mbecp.com

1,123

1,111

First Republic Bank 111 Pine St. San Francisco, CA 94111

888-408-0288 firstrepublic.com

1,046

780

231

Manufacturers and Traders Trust Co. 1 M&T Plaza Buffalo, NY 14203

800-724-2440 mtb.com

1,009

636

283

Northfield Bank

833-301-6325 enorthfield.com

940

807

118

888-354-0822 readycapital.com

871

765

102

Main St. 14 | CRAIN’S NEW 581 YORK BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

NUMBER OF PPP LOANS FOR $150,000–$1 MILLION 1

NUMBER OF PPP LOANS FOR MORE THAN $1 MILLION

Woodbridge, NJ 07095

Readycap Lending 1251 Sixth Ave. P014_P015_CN_20200914.indd 14 New York, NY 10020

9/10/20 5:16 PM

11 11 22 22 22 22 212 22 232 242 252 262 373 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2

RAN

FOR ION

788

192

168

182

273

109

18 18 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 124 25 225 26 326 27 427 28 528 29 629 30 730 8 9 10 JOIN US VIRTUALLY AS WE CELEBRATE THE 2020 INDUCTEES 11 12 13 14 Wednesday, October 28 | 4 p.m. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 5 p.m. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 RESERVE YOUR COMPLIMENTARY SEAT TODAY: CrainsNewyork.com/VirtualHOF 22 23 24 25 RANK

555Angeles, S. FlowerCA St.90071 Los Los Angeles, CA 90071 Sterling National Bank Sterling 400 RellaNational Blvd. Bank 400 Rella Blvd. Montebello, NY 10901 Montebello, NY 10901 Newtek Small Business Finance Inc. Newtek SmallAve. Business Finance Inc. 1981 Marcus 1981 Marcus Ave. Lake Success, NY 11042 Lake Success, NY 11042 MBE Capital Partners MBE Capital 1 Bridge PlazaPartners 1 Bridge Fort Lee, Plaza NJ 07024 Fort Lee, NJ 07024 First Republic Bank First Pine Republic 111 St. Bank 111 Francisco, Pine St. CA 94111 San San Francisco, CA 94111 Manufacturers and Traders Trust Co. Manufacturers 1 M&T Plaza and Traders Trust Co. 1LENDER/ M&T Plaza Buffalo, NY 14203 HEADQUARTERS Buffalo, NY 14203 Northfield Bank JPMorgan Chase Northfield Bank Bank 581 Main St. 270 581 Park MainAve. St.NJ 07095 Woodbridge, New York, NY NJ 10172 Woodbridge, 07095 Readycap Lending Cross RiverLending Bank Readycap 1251 Sixth Ave. 400 St. 1251Kelby SixthNY Ave. New York, 10020 Fort New Lee, York,NJ NY07024 10020 Popular Bank Kabbage Popular 85 BroadBank St. 925B Peachtree St. NE 85 Broad St. New York, NY 10004 Atlanta, New York,GANY30309 10004 Ponce Bank TD Bank Ponce Bank 2244 Westchester Ave. 1701 70 East 2244 Route Westchester Ave. Bronx, NY 10462 Cherry Hill,10462 NJ 08034 Bronx, NY Fundbox Inc. Bank of America Fundbox Inc. 300 Montgomery St. 100 N. Tryon St.CASt. 300 Francisco, Montgomery San 94104 Charlotte, NC 28255 San Francisco, CA 94104 American Express National Bank Citibank American 4315 2700Express West National Bank 388 Greenwich St.84184 4315Lake 2700 West Salt City, UT New York, City, NY 10013 Salt Lake UT 84184 Intuit Financing Inc. Celtic Bank Ave. Corp.Inc. Intuit Coast Financing 2700 268 State St.CA 94043 2700S.Coast Ave. Mountain View, Salt Lake City, Mountain View,UTCA84111 94043

cnb.com

WebBank

855-274-2800 855-274-2800 snb.com snb.com

1,195 1,195

878 878

255 255

62 62

855-763-9835 855-763-9835 newtekone.com newtekone.com

1,193 1,193

974 974

171 171

48 48

212-629-5400 212-629-5400 mbecp.com mbecp.com

1,123 1,123

1,111 1,111

8 8

4 4

888-408-0288 888-408-0288 firstrepublic.com firstrepublic.com

1,046 1,046

780 780

231 231

35 35

800-724-2440 800-724-2440 mtb.com PHONE NUMBER/ mtb.com

1,009 1,009

636 636

283 283

90 90

TOTAL NUMBER OF PPP LOANS

NUMBER OF PPP LOANS FOR $150,000 OR LESS

833-301-6325 877-242-7372 833-301-6325 enorthfield.com chase.com enorthfield.com

940 38,114 940

807 31,779 807

118 5,547 118

15 788 15

888-354-0822 201-808-7000 888-354-0822 readycapital.com crossriver.com readycapital.com

871 15,680 871

765 15,168 765

102 456 102

4 56 4

800-377-0800 888-986-8263 800-377-0800 popularbank.com kabbage.com popularbank.com

843 15,193 843

707 15,027 707

115 155 115

21 11 21

718-931-9000 888-751-9000 718-931-9000 poncebank.com tdbank.com poncebank.com

773 12,239 773

721 10,758 721

41 1,289 41

11 192 11

855-572-7707 704-386-5681 855-572-7707 fundbox.com bankofamerica.com fundbox.com

724 10,386 724

709 9,122 709

13 1,096 13

2 168 2

800-446-6307 800-374-9700 800-446-6307 americanexpress.com citi.com americanexpress.com

650 9,529 650

552 8,132 552

94 1,215 94

4 182 4

800-446-8848 801-363-6500 800-446-8848 quickbooks.intuit.com celticbank.com quickbooks.intuit.com

609 8,162 609

595 7,897 595

13 254 13

1 11 1

844-994-2265

4,631

4,525

104

1,211

273

WEBSITE

NUMBER OF PPP LOANS FOR $150,000â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$1 MILLION 1

NUMBER OF PPP LOANS FOR MORE THAN $1 MILLION

Â Â? S. State St. Â webbank.com Â?Â?Â?Â

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Signature Bank 565 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10017

866-744-5463 3,542 2,058 WANT MORE OF CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S EXCLUSIVE DATA? VISIT CRAINSNEWYORK.COM/LISTS. signatureny.com

Customers Bank 701 Reading Ave. West Reading, PA 19611

866-476-2265 customersbank.com

2,958

2,723

209

Capital One Bank 1680 Capital One Drive McLean, VA 22102

877-383-4802 capitalone.com

2,716

2,350

315

HSBC Bank USA 452 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10018

800-975-4722 us.hsbc.com

2,091

1,496

486

109

Santander Bank 75 State St. Boston, MA 02109

877-768-2265 santanderbank.com

1,486

1,315

145

Dime Community Bank 300 Cadman Plaza West Brooklyn, NY 11201

800-321-3463 dime.com

1,395

1,167

193

800-522-4100 valley.com

1,308

991

237

1,098

176

1,187

Valley National Bank 1455 Valley Road 07470 Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;sWayne, HallNJof Fame

highlights the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top leaders who have shaped one 866-466-9232 1,304 represent a of the most important commercial capitals of the world. They 50 Beaver St. nybdc.com breadth of industries and wield influence across sectors from real estate to Albany, NY 12207 health care to cultural institutions. Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s invites you to join us in our annuWells Fargo Bank 800-869-3557 1,300 al celebratory event honoring thiswellsfargo.com yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hall of Fame inductees. 420 Montgomery St. Pursuit 2

San Francisco, CA 94104

City National Bank 555 S. Flower St. Los Angeles, CA 90071

800-773-7100 cnb.com

1,214

881

280

Sterling National Bank 400 Rella Blvd. Montebello, NY 10901

855-274-2800 snb.com

1,195

878

255

Newtek Small Business Finance Inc. 1981 Marcus Ave. Lake Success, NY 11042

855-763-9835 newtekone.com

1,193

974

171

1,111

780

231

Dr. Steven Katherine G. Farley MBECorwin Capital Partners President and CEO Chair 1 Bridge Plaza New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Presbyterian Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Fort Lee, NJ 07024

James Gorman 212-629-5400 Chairman and CEO mbecp.com Morgan Stanley

Marcus Samuelsson 1,123 Chef and founder

Red Rooster and Samuelsson Restaurant Group

First Republic Bank 111 Pine St. San Francisco, CA 94111

888-408-0288 firstrepublic.com

1,046

Manufacturers and Traders Trust Co. 1 M&T Plaza Buffalo, NY 14203

800-724-2440 mtb.com

1,009

Northfield Bank 581 Main St. Woodbridge, NJ 07095

833-301-6325 enorthfield.com

940

888-354-0822 readycapital.com

871

Readycap Lending 1251 Sixth Ave. P014_P015_CN_20200914.indd 15 New York, NY 10020

Jerry I. Speyer Chairman Tishman Speyer

636 Questions: crainsevents@crainsnewyork.com 283 90 Event Sponsorship Opportunities: Lisa Rudy â&#x20AC;˘ lrudy@crain.com 807

118

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 | CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 15

765

102

9/10/20 5:16 PM

REAL ESTATE

Royalton Hotel sells at a loss for the second time in a decade The property went for $14 million less than it cost in 2017 BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

he Royalton Hotel in Midtown has been sold at a loss for the second time in nearly a decade, according to city property records. Real estate private-equity firm Rockpoint Group sold the property at 44 W. 44th St. to MCR Development, the country’s fifth-largest hotel owner and operator, for $41 million—down $14 million from the cost of the property in 2017.

property was short-lived. Six years earlier, FelCor purchased the property for $88 million from the Morgan Hotel Group, which was owned by hotelier Ian Schrager. Morgan used the proceeds from the sale to pay off its debts on the property.

Revamp The 168-room inn underwent a massive $20 million renovation in 2007; the hotel’s lobby, bar and dining areas were revamped, and several guest rooms were converted into penthouses. Rockpoint’s other properties in the city include Soho House, 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza and other multifamily properties. MCR also owns three hotels in the city, aside from its newest acquisition: the High Line Hotel, the New Yorker Hotel and Ink 48. The pandemic’s effects on the city’s tourism industry have squeezed hotels to their limits. Dangerously low occupancy rates during the height of the pandemic

Rockpoint and MCR did not respond to requests for comment. In 2017 Texas-based Rockpoint, in a joint venture with Highgate, purchased the Midtown hotel for $55 million from hotel REIT FelCor Lodging Trust. Rockpoint secured a $36 million mortgage to seal the deal, although its reign over the

BUCK ENNIS

THE INN UNDERWENT A MASSIVE $20 MILLION RENOVATION IN 2007

left many hotels closed, workers furloughed and mortgages delinquent. The Hotel Association of New York City doesn’t expect the industry to regain its momentum

for several years. Nearly $1.5 billion in mortgage-backed loans have gone unpaid in Greater New York, Crain’s reported, although some hotels

have begun to reopen as the summer comes to a close. The Royalton is closed to guests but expects to open its doors Sept. 30, according to its website. ■

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PAYROLL FROM PAGE 3

reached 326,192, an all-time high. Its lowest post-recession number came in December 2011, when the headcount totaled 288,891, according to an Independent Budget Office analysis. In this period no agency saw greater growth than the Department of Education. From fiscal 2014 the department's staff increased by nearly 13,000 civilian and pedagogical workers, which mainly include teachers, a report produced by the Citizens Budget Commission found. “A big part of that was the implementation of universal pre-K in the city. There was a real policy reason for that increase,” Doulis explained. The Education Department hired more teachers to instruct children ages 3-5 while adding thousands of special-education teachers. Other agencies that saw thousands of workers added into their hiring rolls since 2014 include the Department of Correction, which increased by 1,727 workers—or 17%—from its 2014 totals; the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which increased by 1,425—or 26%; the Department of Sanitation, which increased by 1,168—or 13%; and Children’s Services, which increased by 1,225 workers— or 21%. The Police Department added nearly 3,000 men and women to its rolls, with 2,021 of those coming from uniformed officers.

“Agencies have been allowed to hire at will instead of really thinking about how to reshuffle their personnel and have existing employees take on more or different jobs,” Doulis said. Even the mayor’s own staff has grown while under his watch. By September 2016, the mayor had 1,020 people in his office, with many of them coming from an enhanced communications and policy team. By 2019 that number reached 1,230, according to an IBO analysis. "Headcount growth over this administration reflects an increase in the level of quality services New Yorkers need and expect, and has propelled our students to success," said Julia Arredondo, a spokesperson for the mayor.

Labor intensive services Some economic experts agree. In fact, up until 2018 the ratio of the city's full-time equivalent headcount had declined in proportion to total private sector employment, said James A. Parrott, an economist at the New School's Center for New York City Affairs. "City services are very labor intensive, so they grew as employment and population grew up until 2018," Parrott said, citing Trump administration 2018 immigration policies that reduced population in New York as the reason for using that year as a cutoff. Parrott also took aim at the notion that de Blasio simply hired however he saw fit by pointing out

that universal pre-K ba- EXPANDED UNIVERSE sically added another Seven city agencies added at least 1,000 workers to their ranks between fiscal years 2014 grade to the city's school and 2019. They were led by the Department of Education, which increased staff 9.2% followsystem, that the City ing the de Blasio administration's universal pre-K initiative. Council voted for a 1,300-officer increase in 15K Head count growth Police Department 12,340 headcount in 2015, that 12K a bigger population required more personnel at the Department of 9K Parks and Department of Sanitation, and that 6K the Department of Correction increased staff 2,921 to improve conditions 3K 1,840 1,727 1,425 1,225 1,168 for inmates at Rikers Island. 0 EDUCATION POLICE FIRE CORRECTION HEALTH AND CHILDREN’S SANITATION Even the growth of SERVICES MENTAL the city's headcount unHYGIENE der de Blasio—which SOURCE: Citizens Budget Commission Parrott pegs at 29,000— pales in comparison to the increase workers, de Blasio would effective- the Empire Center for Public Policy. The mayor has already anthe city saw under Mayor Ed Koch, ly be returning the city to Septemwho added 52,000 city workers be- ber 2015 hiring levels, the IBO con- nounced he would work with labor to find $1 billion in savings in the cluded. tween 1980 and 1989. None of the budget experts fiscal 2021 budget, a claim that In the event de Blasio’s request for $5 billion in borrowing authority Crain’s spoke with could definitely some experts think could imply a $1 is rejected, the city will see a con- say where the expected reductions billion layoff if labor proves unwilltraction in municipal government will come from. Some said that cer- ing to negotiate. “This claim of $1 billion in savings tain agencies, such as police and not seen in more than a decade. Following the 2008 recession, education, could be shielded, while is kind of thin air,” said McMahon, Mayor Michael Bloomberg de- others noted that de Blasio could who added he views the $1 billion creased the city municipal staff by choose to do an across-the-board as assumed savings from headcount 23,319 over a three-and-a-half-year reduction based on a percentage or reduction, which would equal period from July 2008 to December certain number of heads per agen- roughly $45,000 in savings per 2011, the IBO found. Since then the cy. The experts emphasized that worker if 22,000 were cut. “The mayor says 'I want labor savcity workforce has added 38,219 where he chooses to cut jobs will be ings,' but there is zero history of lajobs, with 90% of that growth com- a matter of personal preference. “The distribution of those reduc- bor unions offering labor savings,” ing during the de Blasio administrations will reflect his priorities,” said McMahon said. “You have to take it tion, beginning in 2014. By reducing city staff by 22,000 E.J. McMahon, research director at from them.” ■

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 17

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MONEY

Bronx-born Goldberg was a waiter, an art-school model and a rent collector. FROM PAGE 1 But six years ago, Goldberg, then country will do whatever they can to 74, decided it was time to sell his support the world economy,” he business, which had $750 million said. “There are things that can and under management. Bruderman Brothers, a Wall Street firm with a will be done.” By month’s end, President Don- long history of its own, agreed to ald Trump had signed a massive pay him $13 million and keep him economic-relief package into law. on the job. A match made in heaven? No. Listeners who heeded Goldberg’s “It was,” Goldberg said, “one of advice not only avoided immense losses but benefited as the stock the biggest mistakes of my life.” Matthew Bruderman, the compamarket hit new highs. Goldberg’s show, Money Matters, ny’s chief executive, and Goldberg has been a mainstay of New York ra- don’t agree on anything except that dio since 1984, appearing on WABC, they’re furious with each other. WOR and other stations. He an- Their deal has devolved into an epic Wall Street brawl for money and control. In court papers, Goldberg claims Bruderman, his brother, James, and their firm owe him $5.5 million and GOLDBERG have failed to pay and Bruderman rent on the Rockin happier land County office times owned by Goldberg. Goldberg has unearthed evidence that indicates he isn’t the only one “GARY IS STRINGING claiming he’s been ed. M&T Bank TOGETHER UNRELATED FACTS stiff sued Bruderman in March for being TO MAKE ME LOOK BAD” eight months late on $8.4 million in swers people’s financial questions, loans. A Mamaroneck shipyard such as whether oil-stock dividends sued Bruderman, accusing him of are at risk (Yes!), and should they not paying for $500,000 worth of restop contributing to their 401(k) pairs to his yacht, the M/Y Indepenplan (No!). He interviews A-list dence. In court papers, Goldberg guests such as former Labor Secre- said Bruderman was four months tary Robert Reich, Hollywood mo- behind on the rent for his Midtown gul Jeffrey Katzenberg and Gold- office penthouse. The IRS has man Sachs strategist Peter served him a $1.9 million lien. Bruderman, 48, said he thinks Oppenheimer. The radio show also helped Gold- Goldberg is bent on smearing him berg build a significant money- after getting fired. He said Goldberg’s claims have management firm, Gary Goldberg Financial Services, where his radio no merit. Goldberg was terminated listeners made up about 40% of ac- for violating company policy by counts. “Real money management stealing customer data and submitfor real people” is his slogan. Before ting unsubstantiated expense remaking it in finance and media, the ports, Bruderman said.

Bruderman added that became his firm’s headhe has paid off some of his quarters. The mansion is M&T loans and is negotion the cover of his “how I ating with the bank to pay did it” book, How Badly off the balance. He said he Do You Want It? fell behind on his East “I wish a book like this 53rd Street office rent behad been around when I AMOUNT cause of the pandemic started my business 38 Goldberg was but is negotiating with years ago,” Suzanne to receive for landlord SL Green, which Somers, an actress, entrehis moneywouldn’t comment. The preneur and guest on management firm litigation over yacht reGoldberg’s show, said in pairs was decided in his a back-cover blurb. The favor to the tune of $1.6 cover also included testimillion, he said. He added monials from Steve AMOUNT that he expects to reach a Forbes and Joe Piscopo. Goldberg claims favorable resolution soon Bruderman prefers to he is still owed on the tax lien, which he stay out of the limelight. as part of his described as a routine Until recently no photos firm’s sale matter concerning one of of him were available onthe nearly 50 companies line. He is president of he owns. four family foundations “Gary is stringing together unre- based in Oyster Bay, Long Island, lated facts to make me look bad,” and sits on the nonprofit North Bruderman said. Shore Land Alliance’s board, according to 2018 tax filings. His Culture clash? grandfather was a partner at Brown The fight between the two men Brothers Harriman who worked gets to the essential mystery of all closely with Prescott Bush, father of corporate mergers. They invariably President George H.W. Bush. “I have five generations in me,” look compelling on paper, but success or failure generally depends on said Bruderman, who traces his people working together. “Cultural Wall Street pedigree to 1879. Although Goldberg and Bruderdifferences” have afflicted many a corporate marriage, including Am- man are opposites, they found each azon’s acquisition of Whole Foods other in 2014. Bruderman was investing his as well as Chrysler years ago pairing up with the owner of Mer- family’s money and wanted to manage other people’s. He didn’t know cedes-Benz. “Culture is about shared systems, Goldberg or listen to him on the air. beliefs, behaviors. That’s much But he thought Goldberg’s moneymore complex than looking at fi- management firm, raised on the ranancial statements,” said Danielle dio, could evolve into a nationwide Feinblum, a principal at Deloitte business. Bruderman agreed to reConsulting not involved in the tain Goldberg for five years and pay Goldberg–Bruderman dispute. him a roughly 40% commission on “Culture has historically been a soft the revenue he generated, accordword that executives have a hard ing to court documents. The partners celebrated their new relationtime getting their heads around.” They both work on Wall Street, ship over dinner at the Union but Ginsberg and Bruderman ap- League Club, where Bruderman was a member. (Bruderman said he proached it from different origins. Goldberg started his money- sponsored Goldberg for club memmanagement firm with $5,000 in bership, but he didn’t get in.) They managed to work together 1972 and built it up by talking to shoppers in a New City, N.Y., super- until all hell broke loose last year. According to a lawsuit filed in market parking lot. In 1984, when the radio show started, he bought a state court, Goldberg was on pace to mansion in Montebello, N.Y., which record $10 million in revenue for

DINING

light at the end of the tunnel, and that’s all we need,” he said. “It is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Restaurants are really struggling quite a bit. But I think it at least gives us a path to normalcy.” It also provides the security of a date for the commencement of indoor dining after months of uncertainty. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s announcement ended a prolonged battle between the industry and public officials. While indoor dining opened in the rest of the state, Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio insisted that the city was different: The potential for rapid spread simply made the practice too risky. Public health officials generally agreed. Meanwhile the industry cried out hypocrisy, with the city’s top trade group threatening legal action for the first time in its history, and more than 300 restaurants signing on to a lawsuit against the governor. Di Pietro was part of a group of restaurants that quietly met with Cuomo days before the governor made the indoor dining announce-

FROM PAGE 1

maximum the state set will be enough to keep him afloat. When restaurants reopen at the end of the month, it will be under a number of restrictions: They will have to collect information for test and tracing purposes from at least one member of each table; they will have to take temperatures at the door; and many will have to upgrade their ventilation systems to meet pandemic safety standards. “Normally, in order to break even a restaurant has to be at 75% capacity,” said Melba Wilson, owner of Melba’s in Harlem and president of the New York City Hospitality Alliance. Restaurants operate on slim margins and need to be at 100% capacity to make a go of things, she said. “Our livelihoods depend on us being open, while we recognize that this is a step in the right direction,” she added. But caution is key when the city embarks on a major reopening

move like indoor dining, said Troy Tassier, a professor of economics at Fordham University who specializes in epidemiology. He pointed out that the city is already embarking on the behemoth challenge of in-person learning this month. “The good thing about Sept. 30 and 25% is that it allows the education system to start a week ahead of in-person dining and it reopens restaurants slowly,” he said. “We’re turning the faucet slowly so that we can see the effects before we lose control of the situation.”

Dine and dash To make a quarter capacity work, eateries will have to encourage diners to eat earlier and later — instead of pushing for the 7-to-8 p.m. time slot — and ask customers to sit for shorter periods so that they can turn over tables faster, said Luca Di Pietro, owner of the restaurant group Tarallucci e Vino, which has five locations in Manhattan. With those measures, Di Pietro said, he could see making half of his typical revenue. “I start seeing a small sliver of

DEAL GONE BAD

$13M

$5.5M

ment. In those meetings, the governor seemed receptive to the industry’s struggles, Di Pietro said. "He wanted to reopen. He was feeling our pain, I think," Di Pietro said. "I think that he understood that we needed a path.” But not all in the industry are so quick to give New York officials credit. The lawsuit against the governor is continuing, said James Mermigis, the attorney who filed on behalf of the plaintiffs. He insists that holding city restaurants to 25% capacity is discriminatory, because the rest of the state is operating at 50%. Henry Rinehart, who formerly ran the iconic Henry’s on the Upper West Side and now runs the culinary cycling tour company Foodie Fondo, said the decision was mired by a lack of transparency and sluggishness. “I think the underlying problem here is that yes, everyone’s surprised because the decision-making lacks transparency. And the biggest problem for any business is the lack of clarity,” he said. “All of that uncertainty costs money. So I

2019 when he got fired, allegedly because Bruderman was short of cash and couldn’t afford to pay him. “How can you manage other people’s money if you can’t manage your own?” Goldberg asked. Bruderman said Goldberg was fired for cause and contended he was not pressed for funds. Four days after suing his partner, Goldberg was barred from his office at his Montebello mansion because Bruderman had the locks changed. He was locked out, Bruderman explained, because Goldberg no longer worked at Gary Goldberg Financial Services. It has been rebranded 1879 Advisors. Bruderman then secured a restraining order that barred Goldberg from taking his clients with him or talking to them. “Gary built a wonderful legacy,” Bruderman said. “I wish he could enjoy it instead of starting these baseless fights.”

Ready for battle Goldberg is not backing down. He found work at another firm and has filed three lawsuits and an arbitration claim against Bruderman, plus an arbitration claim against investment bank Bentley Associates for brokering the sale to Bruderman. (Bentley said it hasn’t been served.) Bruderman has fired back by suing Goldberg. Last month brudermantruth.com emerged, laying out Goldberg’s complaints, though he wouldn't say if he’s paying for the website. Meanwhile, Goldberg’s weekly radio show goes on. There, he can do what he has always done: chat with pundits about Wall Street for an audience of Main Street people. He doesn’t mention the war against the family that took over the business he built with his listening audience. “I sold to people who were born into privilege while my parents had a few thousand dollars,” he said. “Matt Bruderman said he’d settle for 50 cents on the dollar. I said, ‘You picked the wrong guy.’ I’m fighting.” ■ think the announcement is great, now there’s a plan. I think 25% is clearly not sustainable without other changes.”

Blue light special Meanwhile implementing new restrictions could be another struggle for some restaurants, particularly Black- and Hispanic-owned ones that are already getting squeezed, said Wilson, the hospitality group's president. “Some restaurants have been closed for six months, which means there’s no income coming in. It’s definitely an added expense,” Wilson said. “And when I think of Black- and Hispanic-owned businesses, we often don’t have the reserves.” She added that air ventilation systems in particular could be a challenge. Ozer said the same—he’s already started looking into investing in blue lights to clean air, an essential upgrade to comply with the governor's guidelines. Asked how he planned to pay for it, he chuckled nervously: “Credit cards.” ■

18 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

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FROM PAGE 3

impacting business in the same way.

Do you think the Police Department and you specifically are being supported by state and local politicians?

No, I don’t. In terms of George Floyd and the discussions that it introduced, I think people recognize historic racism and injustice, and law enforcement is certainly a part of that. But I think it went way beyond law enforcement, in my opinion. And I think many people who think about it will agree. It was about [economic] opportunity, it was about health care, it was about schools. It was about much more than law enforcement. There was a time when not only was there not support, but that it seemed like we were on an island and even our good

that the overwhelming majority of people are sick of it. They want to get past yelling and screaming and get to solutions. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice puts out statistics on its website. I would ask you to go look in 2018. There are graphs that show New York City is the least incarcerated major city in the world. But there is this narrative out there that there’s continued over-incarceration, mass incarceration in New York City, and it’s simply false. We had driven incarceration and summonses down. Some people would say too far. But we had gotten to a pretty good place that had allowed us to introduce neighborhood policing.

Part of those successes in crime suppression was the NYPD’s Anti-Crime Unit, but it was your choice to disband that. Do you have any regrets over doing that?

You know, it came out to roughly 600 to 800 “PEOPLE WERE SCARED TO cops citywide. Tremendous SAY [THAT] THEY SUPPORT cops. They didn’t THE POLICE” disappear. Some of them went to the detective friends disappeared. I think squad, some of them went to people were scared to say [that] do investigative work and are they support the police. I’ve had still working on violence. Some people tell me that. And I think of them stayed exactly where

they are; the difference is they put a uniform on. They’re still making gun arrests.

As an offshoot to the George Floyd protests in the city, there was looting on Fordham Road in the Bronx and in Midtown and SoHo. Some business owners complained that the police were not doing enough, saying some were standing by letting it happen. What do you say to those business owners?

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BUCK ENNIS

SHEA

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BUSINESSES have often been vandalized during recent street protests.

When you look at that week-and-a-half period, we had those three bad nights of looting, a little bit in the Bronx, obviously. Most of it was centered in Midtown Manhattan. I wish no looting took place. When you look around the country and the burnt-down buildings and things, in some ways, we’re faring better. When I look back on all those protests, and certainly the injuries to officers and things of that nature, I would put right up there the looting that, to this day, annoys me that it spread as it did. Could we have done better? I think we could always do better. I can tell you that hundreds of arrests were made for burglary. So, you can absolutely not say

that the officers were not doing anything. They were responding to the crisis in front of them. They were catching people coming out of those stores. You had people starting the looting to incite. I would call them outside provocateurs. And then there were also people taking advantage of a situation from within the city, and a little of both.

I’ve always been fascinated with the NYPD tradition of the smoker. If you have a grievance within the department, you challenge a co-worker or a supervisor to a boxing match.

Who would you challenge?

No comment, (laughs) but a very good question. A lot of money raised by those smokers goes right back into the community to work with kids from the inner community and gyms, teaching them how to box, mentoring them in school. It’s just another thing that people don’t realize—the amount of work that is done every day by cops on duty and off duty, sometimes reaching into their own pocket, teaching and coaching kids that they have no relationship with because they want to make a difference. ■

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Magna Hospitality buys Midtown hotel for $115M BY EDDIE SMALL

company linked to Magna Hospitality Group has purchased Ashford Hospitality Trust’s Embassy Suites by Hilton hotel in Midtown for about $115 million, according to property records. Ashford filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August saying it had sold the 310-room hotel at 60 W. 37th St. in order to meet its debts on the property. The Dallas-based hospitality company no longer has any obliga-

like a record number of visitors coming to New York City and increasing demand for hotel rooms.

New environment The environment that Ashford sold the hotel in could scarcely be more different for New York’s hospitality industry, which has taken a massive hit during the pandemic. The sector lost about 85% of its revenue between late March and late May, and revenue is expected to stay around 50% of 2019 levels through the rest of the year. The Wall Street Journal reported in April that the subsidiaries of Monty Bennett’s Ashford Hospitality Trust had received the most money from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program out of more than 100 public company disclosures it reviewed—about $30 million. The firm and other lodging companies affiliated with Bennett said they would return the PPP money following pressure over whether the companies should have received the funds. Crain Communications received money from the PPP as well. ■

THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY HAS TAKEN A MASSIVE HIT DURING THE PANDEMIC tions to lenders at the hotel in the wake of the sale, it said in the filing. Representatives for Ashford and Magna did not respond to requests for comment. Ashford announced in January that it had purchased the hotel for $195 million with a $145 million mortgage. The firm touted the purchase as its first direct hotel investment in Manhattan and described the timing as ideal, citing factors

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PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES Notice of formation of FLATIRON DENTAL, PLLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 4/30/20. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against PLLC to 44 W 24TH ST. APT 22B, NEW YORK, NY 10010. Purpose: any lawful act. Notice of formation of Limited Liability Company. Name: Joy Twin Parks Developers LLC (â&#x20AC;&#x153;LLCâ&#x20AC;?). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of the State of New York (â&#x20AC;&#x153;SSNYâ&#x20AC;?) on May 15, 2019. 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 Joy Twin Parks Developers LLC, 40 Fulton St., Fl. 21, New York, NY 10038. Purpose/character of LLC is to engage in any lawful act or activity. Notice of Formation of FRIENDSHIP SC PRESERVATION GP, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/31/20. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 60 Columbus Circle, 19th Fl., NY, NY 10023. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Qualification of 5703 Hudson Yards, LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/ 02/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/ 08/20. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 2532 Dupont Dr., Irvine, CA 92612. Address to be maintained in DE: GKL Registered Agents of DE, Inc., 3500 S DuPont Hwy., Dover, DE 19901. Arts of Org. filed with the DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St. #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities. Notice of formation of Limited Liability Company. Name: Joy Twin Parks Managers LLC (â&#x20AC;&#x153;LLCâ&#x20AC;?). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of the State of New York (â&#x20AC;&#x153;SSNYâ&#x20AC;?) on May 15, 2019. 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 Joy Twin Parks Managers LLC, 40 Fulton St., Fl. 21, New York, NY 10038. Purpose/character of LLC is to engage in any lawful act or activity. Notice of Qualification of EIGHTEEN LLC, FICTITIOUS NAME: 18 CONSULTING LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/21/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/04/20. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Eighteen LLC, 94 Grand St., Fl. Three, NY, NY 10013. Address to be maintained in DE: c/o Corporation Service Company, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts of Org. filed with the Secy. of State, Division of Corporations, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LIMITED PARTNERSHIP (LP) The name of the LP is: RIVERVIEW APARTMENTS REDEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P. Certificate of Limited Partnership was filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) office on: 05-22-2020. The county in which the Office is to be located: NEW YORK COUNTY. The SSNY is designated as agent of the LP upon whom process against it may be served. The address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LP is: 200 Vesey Street, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10281. The name and address of the General Partner is: HVPG RIVERVIEW GP, LLC, 200 Vesey Street, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10281. Purpose: any lawful activity. 11 HOYT STREET 29L, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 06/25/20. 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, 1270 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 1808, New York, NY 10020. Purpose: Any lawful purpose. IL FIORISTA MANAGER LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 07/ 29/2020. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Pryor Cashman LLP, Richard S. Frazer, Esq., 7 Times Square, NY, NY 10036. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose. Notice of Qualification of Intergate. Manhattan Office 31 LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/12/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/02/20. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: C T Corporation System, c/o Intergate.Manhattan Office 31 LLC, 28 Liberty St., NY, NY 10005. Address to be maintained in DE: C T Corporation System, 1209 N Orange St, Wilmington, DE 19801. Arts of Org. filed with the DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St, #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities. Entity Name EZ-Build, LLC with fictitious name EZB NYC, LLC. filed with SSNY on 08/06/2020. Office: Albany County. SSNY designated as agent for process & shall mail copy to: 347 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1402-183, New York, NY 10016. Purpose: Any lawful. CARLEIGHâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SWEET TREATS, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 0 6/17/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Johniece D. Erby, 502 West 177th St., Apt. 2D, NY, NY 10033. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose. NOTICE OF FORMATION of NYCHA Harlem River PACT LLC. Art. of Org. filed with NY Secy. of State (SSNY) on 6/ 8/20. 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 NY City Housing Authority, Gen. Counsel, Law Dept., 90 Church St. NY, NY 10007. Purpose: All lawful purposes.

Notice of Formation of NEWBERRY SC PRESERVATION, L.P. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/03/20. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LP: 60 Columbus Circle, 19th Fl., NY, NY 10023. Latest date on which the LP may dissolve is 12/31/2119. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Qualification of IKEGUCHI HOLDINGS LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/20/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/31/16. Princ. office of LLC: 109 Greene St., Apt. 4A, NY, NY 10012. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, Attn: Edward Ikeguchi at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 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 AIG FUND GP HOLDINGS, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/02/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/01/20. 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 Secy. of State of DE, Div. of Corps., The John G. Townsend Bldg., PO Box 898, Dover, DE 19903. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Qualification of NEWHOUSE REAL ESTATE PARTNERS LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/31/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/04/06. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, P.O. Box 448, Syosset, NY 11791. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 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 Formation of VW On The Shelf, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/ 25/20. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: the Company, c/o John Massoni, Van Wagner Group, LLC, 800 Third Ave., NY, NY 10022. Purpose: any lawful activities. COLOR BY LAISAM BOWEN LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 03/ 02/2020. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Laisam Bowen, 30-62 12th Street Apt 2R, Astoria, NY 11102. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

POSITIONS AVAILABLE KENNETH STILES ADVISORY, PLLC, a Prof. LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 07/14/2020. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 111 N. Gardner Ave., Charlotte, NC 28216. Purpose: To Practice The Profession Of Legal Services & Consulting Services. Notice of Formation of 1559 Boone Avenue L.P. Certificate filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 8/ 12/20. Duration: 8/31/2180. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 1559 Boone Avenue L.P. c/o The Bridge, Inc., 290 Lenox Ave., 3rd Fl., NY, NY 10027. N ame/address of each genl. ptr. available from SSNY. Purpose: any lawful activities. Notice of Qualification of STONEBRIAR JL IRONDEQUOIT 1252, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/28/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/26/19. 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. Notice of Qualification of APQ 933 BROADWAY NY, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/23/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/20/20. 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. Notice of Qualification of LONG ARC CAPITAL LP Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/24/20. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/15/16. Princ. office of LP: 250 W. 55th St., 25th Fl., NY, NY 10019. NYS fictitious name: LONG ARC, 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 DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of CAMBODIA VET PROGRAM, LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/15/20. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 153 E 106th St, Apt 4E, New York, NY 10029. Purpose: any lawful act.

Data Scientist (ThreatMetrix, Inc., New York, NY). Work as part of the customer engagement team to support ODUJH EDQNLQJ Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLDO LQVXUDQFH customers in their deployment of fraud LGHQWLW\ VROXWLRQV (PSOR\HH UHSRUWV WR 7KUHDW0HWUL[ ,QF RIĂ&#x20AC;FH LQ 1HZ <RUN 1< but may telecommute from any location within the U.S. Apply w/resume to: Adi 2]HJRYLF 5(/; *URXS $OGHUPDQ 'ULYH $OSKDUHWWD *$ 1R UHOR DYDLO 1R UG SDUW\ UHVSRQVHV (2(

Principal-Predictive Prescriptive Analytics needed by Verizon in New York, NY. Develop analytical processes designed to deliver high quality insights to enable the business to improve how marketing investments impact business results. To apply, mail resume to Promila Chaudhari, Verizon, 1 Verizon Way, VC54N071B, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920. Refer to job code CWYANX-L.

Quantitative Research Analyst (Citadel Americas LLC â&#x20AC;&#x201C; New York, NY) Analyze & slv cmplx mkt probs WKUX XVH RI WHFK PDWK VWDW PGOÂˇJ FRPS V\VW ) 7 5HTV 0VWUÂˇV GHJ RU IUJQ HTY LQ 6WDW &RPS6FL (QJ 0DWK 3K\VFV 2SV 5VUFK RU UHO TXDQW Ă G \U H[S LQ MRE RIIUG RU FQGFWÂˇJ GDWD intnsv invstmnt-rel rsrch & analysis. ,Q OLHX RI 0VWUÂˇV GHJ LQ VWDWG Ă G \U H[S DV VWDWG ZLOO DFFSW %DFKÂˇV GHJ LQ VWDWG Ă G \UV H[S LQ MRE RIIUG RU FRQGFWÂˇJ GDWD LQWQVY LQYVWPQW UHO UVUFK & analysis. Must have 1 yr exp in the Ă OZÂˇJ DGY PDWK VWDW PGOÂˇJ WHFKQTV incl time-series analysis, cross-sctnl DQDO\VLV 6WDWVWFO 0DFKQ /UQÂˇJ 1WUO /DQJ 3URFVVÂˇJ SWWUQ UHFJQWQ RU VPOU SURJUPÂˇJ Z & & -DYD RU 3\WKRQ REM RUQWG SURJUPÂˇJ GVJQ VWDWFO SFNJV LQFO 5 0DWODE RU VPOU 1R64/ GDWDEDVHV LQFO 0RQJR'% RU VPOU FDSWO PNWV DVVHW SULFÂˇJ WUDGDEOH Ă&#x20AC;QFO LQVWUPQWV LQFO VHFUWV GHUYWYV DQDO\]ÂˇJ OUJ amnts of data & cmplx syst on a daily EDVLV ([S PD\ EH JDLQG FRQFUUQWO\ 5HVXPHV &LWDGHO $PHULFDV //& $WWQ (5 /( 6 'HDUERUQ 6W QG )O &KLFDJR ,/ -RE ,'

Urban Compass, Inc. has a position in New York, NY. *Senior Software

Engineer [COMP-NY20-CICD] â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

Create server side distributed software technology to improve people platform systems by utilizing AWS; build front-

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a Test Driven Development Framework for new development approaches. Mail to: M. Quinn, 90 Fifth Ave Fl 3, New York NY 10011& note Job ID#

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 | CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 21

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Advertising Section

CLASSIFIEDS

To place a classified ad, Call 212-210-0189 or Email: jbarbieri@crainsnewyork.com PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES

NOTICE OF FORMATION of O’Neil Enterprises, LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. Of State of NY (SSNY) on 6/23/20. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 455 Central Park W, Apt 7D, New York, NY 10025. Purpose: any lawful act. Notice of Formation of D & B/Ebrani LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 1/29/20. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 19 Drury Lane, Great Neck, NY 11023. Prin. bus. addr: 50 W 47th St, NY, NY 10036. Purpose: any lawful act. Notice of Formation of Selected by Elisa, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/07/20. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 9100 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 1000W, Beverly Hills, CA 90212, Attn: Corey Barash, CPA. Purpose: any lawful activities. Notice of Qualification of NEW YORK CITY PROPERTY FUND II (C) LP Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/23/20. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/19/19. Princ. office of LP: 730 Third Ave., NY, NY 10017. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the Partnership at the princ. office of the LP. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State, 410 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of TOIV CONDO LLC. Art. of Org. filed with the Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 4/ 16/2020. Off. Loc.: NY County. SSNY has been desig. as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy to is: 28 Liberty, New York, NY 10005. Reg. Agent: National Registered Agents, Inc., 28 Liberty, New York, NY 10005. Purpose: Any lawful act Notice of Formation of TWJ Ventures LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 8/17/2020. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process the LLC served upon him/her is: JoAnne Kao. The principal business address of the LLC is: 305 Columbus Ave., #51 NY, NY 10023. Purpose: any lawful act or activity Notice of Formation of Luxury Next Season. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/21/2020. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of proceed against LLC to 17 East 89th Street, New York, NY 10128. Purpose: any lawful act. Notice of Qualification of Bioenergy Devco, LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/15/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/08/18. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 1001 Avenue of the Americas, Ste. 1224, NY, NY 10018. Address to be maintained in DE: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts of Org. filed with the DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities.

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION of KYNECT HOLDINGS, LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/ 23/2020. Office loc: NY County. LLC formed in TX on 2/7/05. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served & mailed to: CT Corp. System, 28 Liberty St., NY, NY 10005. Principal business address: 14675 Dallas Parkway #150, Dallas, TX 75254. Cert. of LLC filed with Secy. of State of TX loc: PO Box 13697, Austin, TX 78711. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Formation of Baked to Order LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) On 5/4/2020. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom Process may be served and Shall mail copy of process Against LLC to 620 W 143 St, #9C, NY, NY 10031. R/A:US Corp Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Ave, #202, BK, NY 11228. Purpose: any lawful Act Notice of Formation of JVR ART ADVISORY, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/23/20. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 156 E. 79th St., #6A, NY, NY 10075. 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: Art advisory. Notice of Formation of PRINCETON LONGEVITY MEDICAL OF NEW YORK, P.L.L.C. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/22/20. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of PLLC: One World Trade Center, NY, NY 10007. SSNY designated as agent of PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to David T. Harmon, Esq., Norris McLaughlin, P.A., 7 Times Sq., 21st Fl., NY, NY 100366524. Purpose: Provision of medical services.

Notice of Qualification of PETRIDES & CO. LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/03/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/05/14. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o George Petrides, 900 Park Ave., Apt. 21A, NY, NY 10021. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Trust Co., 1209 N. Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity. SOMERSTONE CAPITAL LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 06/22/20. 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, 480 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of EDWARDS PEARL BEACH LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/24/20. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 420 E. 64th St., Apt. W3D, NY, NY 10065. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, c/o Richard W. Stone II at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of MEDICAL WELLNESS PRACTICE, PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/23/20. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of PLLC: 133 E. 58th St., NY, NY 10022. SSNY designated as agent of PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, P.O. Box 103, Hillsdale, NJ 07642. Purpose: Medicine.

Notice of Formation of MINH HOLDINGS II, LLCArts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/04/20. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Any lawful activity. NOTICE OF FORMATION OF BEDNERS ACCOUNTING AND TAXES LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/ 27/2020. Office Location: NEW YORK County. The principal business address of the LLC is 17 STATE ST 40TH FLOOR, NY, NY, 10004. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION of Distinguished Prize Indemnity LLC. Fic. Name: Distinguished Prize Indemnity Services LLC. Application for Authority filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 6/22/2020. Office location: New York County. LLC formed in DE on 9/19/2017. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served & mailed to: Harker & Associates, PLLC, 6 Clement Avenue., Stga Spgs., NY 12866. Principal business address of the LLC is: 1180 Avenue of the Americas, 16th Floor, NY, NY 10004. DE address of LLC is: 1201 N. Orange Street, Suite 710, Wilmington, DE 19801. Certificate of LLC filed with Secy. of State of DE located at: 401 Federal St #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

IVHB VENTURES LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 08/17/2020. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Jennifer Baez, 145 Seaman Ave Apt 1A, NY, NY 10034. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

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OUT OF OFFICE

10 spots to ring in Hispanic Heritage Month Where to order Central and South American, as well as Caribbean, cuisine

BY CARA EISENPRESS

FOR ALL THINGS GOOD

ispanic Heritage Month begins Sept. 15—independence day in five Central and South American countries and a few days before independence day in Mexico and Chile. The month, which ends Oct. 15, commemorates Americans who hail from Hispanic countries, and in New York, about a third of the population is Latino. Myriad Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Venezuelan and Peruvian restaurants dot the boroughs, in addition to eateries with Latin-inspired cuisine, so there’s a wealth of places to show support for a dynamic part of the city’s cultural identity.

FOR ALL THINGS GOOD

ATLA 5 to 10 p.m. daily Atla is the casual offshoot of the upscale Cosme (currently closed), which is itself the New York outpost of a well-known Mexico City restaurant. Atla is open every day for outdoor seating and serves dishes including striped bass ceviche, guacamole and a lobster burrito. The cheese quesadilla features Oaxacan cheese in a homemade tortilla, the shrimp tacos come with guacamole and crispy cheese, and the duck carnitas that helped make Cosme famous are on the menu too. Reservations are accepted only for groups of four to eight. Delivery and pickup are also available, and frozen margaritas can be ordered to go. 372 Lafayette St., NoHo BORRACHITO 2 to 11 p.m. daily Before the pandemic, two-year-old Borrachito existed behind The Garret East, a bar. With that closed for the moment, Borrachito moved to take over the front space, expanding into the street for outdoor seating. The menu is mainly tacos with unusual fillings, such as El Gringo Con Bone Marrow (consisting of rib eye, bone marrow, smoked cheddar, sour cream and lettuce), the Gobernador Shrimp (shrimp, melted cheese, roasted peppers and onions) and the Wild Mix Mushroom (mushrooms, chipotle and queso fresco). Much of the cooking is inspired by the chef’s family recipes from Guadalajara, Mexico, where he was born.

GUADALUPE INN 3 to 10 p.m. Thursday; 1 to 10 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday Billed as a Mexican supper club, Guadalupe Inn once hosted frequent performances. On the menu, is ceviche de coliflor, charred cauliflower served with ceviche. Meatier options include tacos al carnitas (with braised pork) and pollo a la brasa, which comes with corn tortillas and two salsas. There are flan and churros for dessert. Happy hour is from 5 to 8 p.m., and brunch is available some weekends. 1 Knickerbocker Ave., Bushwick

GUADALUPE INN

ATLA

CACHAPAS Y MAS 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily The menu of Venezuelan street food at Cachapas y Mas includes cachapas (corn pancakes), arepas (corn cakes)and yoyos (sandwiches in which sweet plantains stand in for bread). All come with choices of fillings including Venezuelan cheese, shredded chicken, roast pork and grilled steak. 678 Seneca Ave., Ridgewood, Queens; 107 Dyckman St., Inwood; 120 Franklin St., Greenpoint, Brooklyn

GUADALUPE INN

FLORIDITA Open 24 hours Floridita’s two uptown locations serve a mix of Cuban and Dominican cuisine, such as Cubano and steak sandwiches, burgers, mofongo (fried and mashed plantains) and soups. At breakfast, there

calling before they come. 169 E. 106th St., East Harlem

are eggs that come topped with mashed plantains, cassava, guineo (pickled green bananas), fries or taro. 4162 Broadway, Washington Heights; 3856 10th Ave., Inwood FOR ALL THINGS GOOD 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday For All Things Good serves simple Mexican food with a focus on the quality of corn and the manner in which it’s processed into masa (dough) and tortillas. The menu then showcases the masa in offerings including tetelas, triangular masa pockets stuffed with cheese or fillings like salsa verde or hibiscus flower; quesadillas with Oaxacan cheese or squash blossoms; and breakfast dishes such as chilaquiles. 343 Franklin Ave., Bedford-Stuyvesant TACO MIX FONTENOVA Call for hours Taco Mix is a group of taquerias started in East Harlem by a native of Puebla, Mexico, that is now run by the founder and his children. The newest location, Taco Mix FonteNova, has seats in the front on the sidewalk and in a garden in the back. The menu includes taco varieties available at the other Taco Mix locations, but there is a wider variety of entrees at FonteNova. 216 W. 242nd St., Bronx LA FONDA BORICUA 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily for takeout; outdoor dining on weekends A longtime go-to in East Harlem, La Fonda recently reopened for outdoor seating, where diners can order Puerto Rican standards such as chuletas (fried pork chops), pernil (roast pork), mofongo (fried and mashed plantains), rellenos (stuffed peppers) and tostones (fried plantains) served with homemade garlic mojito as well as the Puerto Rican beer Medalla. La Fonda is also hosting ticketed outdoor performances, such as Flamenco Night. The restaurant asks diners to confirm that there is seating by

PARKLIFE TAQUERIA

The restaurant plans to offer lunch, delivery and longer hours soon. 206 Ave. A, Alphabet City

PARKLIFE TAQUERIA PARKLIFE TAQUERIA 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 5 p.m. to midnight Friday; 2 p.m. to midnight Saturday; 2 to 9 p.m. Sunday At Parklife, a 4,000-square-foot indoor-outdoor venue and bar, the Parklife Taqueria serves food inspired not just by Mexico but also by Persia and Texas. Taco fillings include crispy octopus with aji amarillo (yellow chili peppers) and Veracruz crisps, poached halibut with mole and pineapple, and huitalcocho (Mexican truffles) with taro and Persian pickles. Customers also can order chips with loaded queso, and there are churros, Texas-style candied pecans and Persian fruit leather for dessert. 636 DeGraw St., Gowanus, Brooklyn PIO PIO 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily Pio Pio, specializing in Peruvian chicken served with creamy and spicy sauce, began in 1994 in Rego Park before expanding across the city. Other Peruvian specialties on the menu include papas a la huancaína (cold potatoes with sauce), ceviche, rice and beans, maduros, avocado salad and tostones. Not all locations have outdoor seating, but takeout and delivery orders can be placed online on Pio Pio’s website. 62-30 Woodhaven Blvd., Rego Park, Queens; 84-02 Northern Blvd., Jackson Heights, Queens; 210 E. 34th St., Kips Bay; 702 Amsterdam Ave., Upper West Side; 1746 First Ave., Upper East Side; 604 10th Ave., Hells Kitchen; 282 Kings Highway, Gravesend, Brooklyn; 264 Cypress Ave., Mott Haven, Bronx

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 23

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