Crain's New York Business

ASKED & ANSWERED What everyone gets wrong about the stock market PAGE 13

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STARTING TO SPROUT The pandemic is giving the vertical-farming industry a boost PAGE 3

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

POLITICS

What a Biden presidency would mean for New York A new administration could see federal funding for infrastructure, bipartisanship and less antagonism from the White House

BY BRIAN PASCUS

A

victory for former Vice President Joe Biden, who led President Donald Trump in electoral votes late last week, has important ramifications for New York City.

An infusion of federal funding, less antagonism from the White House and bipartisan compromise during a Biden administration

could quicken the economic turnaround that the city desperately needs.

“A Biden administration has committed to infrastructure as a stimulus,” said Carlo Scissura, president of the New York Building Congress. “It will be phenomenal for New York.”

“It’s relief for New York taxpayers because there’s a potential for the SALT [state and local tax deduction] to be reversed and because

there will be a major stimulus allocation for cities and states,” said Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City.

With the certification of the presidential election still weeks away, the preliminary votes that have yet to be fully counted in five states appear to point to a Biden victory in the Electoral College. There will be court challenges to any outcome, though, as Trump makes claims of voter fraud.

If elected, Biden, 77, would enter the White House as the oldest occupant to take office.

Together with his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Biden faces a collection of domestic challenges brought on by the pandemic and subsequent economic recession.

More than 230,000 Americans have died this year from Covid-19. Unemployment across the nation reached levels not seen since the Great Depression, though it has declined as more states have eased lockdown restrictions and opened back up.

See ELECTION on page 18

IN THE MARKETS

THE $900 MILLION MISTAKE Citigroup’s latest gaffe is one in a long series of missteps that has diminished this once high-flying bank’s reputation

I

See CITIGROUP on page 19

NEWSPAPER

BLOOMBERG/ISTOCK

AARON ELSTEIN

n mid-August Citigroup made a blunder heard around the world when a clerk mistakenly sent $900 million—100 times more than intended—to a dozen hedge funds. Citi demanded its money back, but some of the funds invoked the finders-keepers defense. At a trial next month, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman will decide what happens to the cash.

Every giant bank does things it regrets sometimes. Goldman Sachs

GOVERNOR SAYS IT’S HIGH TIME TO LEGALIZE POT

PANDEMIC NO MATCH FOR CHELSEA PROJECTS

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OUT OF OFFICE

Where to eat during Black Restaurant Week PAGE 23

© 2020 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC.

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ECONOMY

BY AARON ELSTEIN

O

n Oct. 31 Petrushka Bazin Larsen and her husband opened a new Sugar Hill Creamery in Washington Heights, their ice-cream parlor’s second location.

“There was a line out the door when we opened,” she said. “It’s a bright spot at an uncertain time.”

Sugar Hill survived a lockdown by stepping up deliveries and launch-

can survive the winter. She’s counting on the customers of nearby restaurants to stop by for an icecream cone after dinner.

“They’re going to need support,” she said of her neighbors. “We all need each other.”

The outlook for a second round of financial relief for small business is murky. Supporters of former Vice President Joe Biden said they were counting on him to push through legislation if elected. However, if the GOP maintains control of the Senate, that legislation is in question.

“If the Senate stays Republican, it doesn’t matter much who the president is,” Evercore ISI economist Dennis DeBusschere said last Wednesday morning in a client note. “It will be [a] split Congress either way, which means odds of a $2.5 to $3 trillion stimulus package are lower.”

And yet, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell voiced support

“OUR CLIENTS ARE CREATIVE, RESILIENT AND REALLY SWEATING IT OUT” ing an ice-cream subscription service. A Small Business Administration loan paid for equipment and construction, and Paycheck Protection Program money aided the three-year-old Harlem enterprise.

Bazin Larsen’s chief worry is whether the businesses near hers

for a congressional relief package last week, reversing his former postion on the matter.

Banks that specialize in small businesses were hit hard last Wednesday. Signature Bank’s stock price fell by more than 10%; M&T Bank lost 8%, as did Sterling Bancorp.

The challenges facing small businesses have been masked, at least in part, by the PPP and other government support programs. The SBA paid the principal on its loans for six months, from April through September, but starting last month, borrowers were on the hook again.

Those small businesses are now seeking deferrals for the first time.

Pursuit, a firm serving small businesses that don’t qualify for bank loans, said about 3% of borrowers have asked for deferrals.

Chief Executive Patrick MacKrell said that’s a relatively low figure, all things considered, and a sign that business owners are doing all they can to stay afloat. “A deferral means the borrower isn’t walking away,” MacKrell said. “I’m more con-

BLOOMBERG

Need for financial relief intensifies as small businesses still struggle

cerned about borrowers who don’t care if they default.”

But defaults will become widespread unless the federal government sends help, he said.

“Our clients are creative, resilient and really sweating it out,” he said.

“They are all in.”

HEALTH CARE

Bazin Larsen certainly is. She and her husband now have a payroll of nine workers and spend all their time at their new ice-cream parlor.

“I tell our kids, ‘Bring your toothbrushes. We’re going to be there late,’ ” she said. ■

WEBCAST CALLOUT

City still far from herd immunity, Mount Sinai data shows

A

new study from researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai suggests that the presence of Covid-19 antibodies in the city is around 22%, still a ways off from the level that would indicate herd immunity. One widely communicated threshold for such immunity is 67% of the population.

The data further indicated that more than 1.7 million New Yorkers have been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19, the virus was in the city earlier than March 1, and the infection fatality rate is close to 1%, which is 10 times deadlier than the flu, Mount Sinai said.

it, the percentage of individuals with antibodies could start to reach the level associated with herd immunity or even surpass it, Krammer said. Ideally, that would be above 75% of the population, with an initial focus on vaccinating individuals at high risk of severe outcomes from Covid.

The study was published last week in the journal Nature.

The findings are based on 10,691 plasma samples from patients of Mount Sinai Health System obtained and tested between the weeks ending Feb. 9 and July 5.

Plasma samples examined for the study were from patients seen in emergency departments and from those admitted to the hospital for urgent care, Mount Sinai said.

They were also from patients seen for OB/GYN visits, labor and deliveries, oncology-related visits, hospitalizations due to elective and transplant surgeries, preoperative medical assessments, cardiology office visits and other regular appointments.

Krammer also called attention to the infection fatality rate identified in the study. One takeaway for oth-

“WE CAN’T SAY FOR SURE YET IF EVERYBODY WHO HAS ANTIBODIES IS PROTECTED” “We can’t bank on herd immunity,” said Florian Krammer, professor in vaccinology at the Icahn School of Medicine and corresponding author on the study.

However, once a vaccine is approved and people start receiving

NOV. 9 TO 12 CRAIN’S POWERFUL WOMEN SUMMIT

ISTOCK

BY JENNIFER HENDERSON

er geographic areas is that if they also have the kind of surge the city had in the early days of the pandemic, their health systems could become overwhelmed, resulting in the virus becoming more deadly, he said.

Efforts to prevent that from happening will be especially important through the fall and winter, he said, due to a coincidence with flu season.

Stable levels The antibody test used in the research was developed and launched at Mount Sinai. It is able to detect the presence or absence of antibodies to the virus that caus-

es Covid as well as the level of antibodies an individual has, the health system noted.

The study suggests that antibody levels are stable over time, Krammer said, which is a positive finding. However, he said, “we can't say for sure yet if everybody who has antibodies is protected.”

The study was supported in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, as well as the Midtown-based JPB Foundation, the San Francisco–based Open Philanthropy Project and other donations, Mount Sinai said.

A Mount Sinai spokeswoman could not readily provide the cost of the effort. ■

This weeklong summit will bring together the leading women in New York City’s public and private sectors to discuss the biggest professional and personal challenges facing them today. Leaders will offer tips on investments, mentoring relationships and overcoming the challenges to leadership and success. Keynote presentations and concentrated panel discussions will leave attendees with insight they can apply to their career.

VIRTUAL EVENT Time: 4 to 5 p.m.

CrainsNewYork.com/PowerWS20

CORRECTION ■ Deanna Mulligan has an MBA from Stanford University. This information was misstated in Asked & Answered, published Nov. 2.

Vol. 36, No. 38, November 9, 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 | November 9, 2020

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TECHNOLOGY

GROWING BUSINESS

FAIN, shown here with Bowery’s Crispy Leaf lettuce, says vertical farming is fertile ground.

BUCK ENNIS

The city’s high-tech vertical farmers have been boosted by pandemic demand

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

G

reene Grape Provisions in Fort Greene is full of delicacies.

Aged cheeses, charcuterie and dark chocolates fill the shelves, but what owner Amy Bennett can’t help raving about is her gourmet shop’s basil.

“This is basically always in my fridge,” said Bennett, who has owned the Brooklyn store

for 12 years. “It is so fresh.”

Most basil in U.S. grocery stores comes from Arizona and California, but the basil at Greene Grape is harvested about 2 miles away, inside a shipping container at the former Pfizer building in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

There, the herb is closely monitored by the startup Square Roots, which has been growing herbs, microgreens and arugula out of 10

“PEOPLE GOT A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW THE FRESH-FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN WORKS AND JUST HOW FRAGILE THAT CAN BE”

shipping containers in the parking lot for the past three years, supplying about 100 city stores, all within 5 miles.

The company, founded by Kimball Musk, younger brother of Tesla’s Elon Musk, is among a sprouting vertical-farming industry that has received a boost since Covid-19 See FARM on page 18

POLITICS

High time for recreational pot, Cuomo says

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH AND JENNIFER HENDERSON

N

ew York will soon find itself nearly surrounded by states with legal recreational marijuana, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants in on the action, promising 2021 will be the year that lawmakers in Albany finally sign off on recreational pot.

New Jersey voters overwhelmingly favored a ballot question on Tuesday that authorized the use of

recreational marijuana—setting up a regulatory review process for legalization. With recreational marijuana coming soon to stores across the Hudson River, Cuomo pledged to renew a push for marijuana when the Legislature's new sessions begins in January.

"I think this year it is ripe because the state is going to be desperate for funding," Cuomo said last Thursday in an interview on WAMC radio. "Even with (Vice President Joseph) Biden, and even

with the stimulus, we are still going to need funding."

Cuomo—who years ago called marijuana a gateway drug—included recreational marijuana in his budget proposal at the start of the year, saying it could bring in $300 million in new tax revenue. A Siena College poll in January found 58% of New Yorkers supported legal recreational marijuana.

That plan was derailed, however, when the early outbreak of Covid-19 forced lawmakers to hun-

ker down and pass a more limited budget.

Garden State New Jersey's vote could speed New York along. Cuomo called a conference of Northeast governors last year that pushed for uniform marijuana regulations. Legal weed has been available in Massachusetts for two years, and Vermont has approved recreational use.

Beyond that, New York lawmakers will seek any budget-boosting

mechanism possible as they stare down an estimated $13 billion shortfall.

Still, the economic need does not create an easy path for legalization.

In 2019 Cuomo's marijuana budget bill crashed amid opposition from suburban legislators and questions over who would benefit most from the potential business opportunities.

Progressive lawmakers and civil See POT on page 19

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COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Woolworth condo developer jilted contractor, smeared reputation, suit says

CNY Construction had filed mechanic’s lien in 2019 over unpaid balance

A

Woolworth Building condo developer stiffed its contractor of more than $1 million, then tried to smear the construction company for trying to collect, according to a lawsuit filed Nov. 3 in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

The dispute started after the top 30 floors of the landmarked building in the Financial District were purchased from the Witkoff Group and Cammeby’s International in 2012 by a group of investors led by Alchemy Properties that included Neumann and Joel Schreiber.

Alchemy announced it would convert the space from offices to

contractor filed a mechanic’s lien with the city in November 2019, a month after its work at the property was finished.

In response, the owners threatened to call up CNY’s clients and disparage the contractor’s reputation, citing mismanagement, billing fraud and cost overruns if the company did not accept their settlement and cancel the lien, the lawsuit claims.

Other allegations It is alleged they also called one of CNY’s potential clients, making the aforementioned claims, which cost the contractor potential business. Now the company is saddled with lost profits, increased expenses, legal fees and mitigation costs, according to the lawsuit.

This isn’t the first landmarked building that CNY has worked on. It also was involved in the restoration of the historic Tammany Hall building in Union Square and the renovation of the Brooklyn Historical Society.

The Frank Woolworth-owned structure, completed in 1913, was

THE CONVERSION PROCESS AT THE WOOLWORTH BUILDING WAS A COMPLEX ONE 32 luxury condominiums and hired CNY Construction in 2016 to retrofit the units. The glitch in the plan was that they didn’t pay the contractor what it was owed, according to the lawsuit.

There’s an unpaid balance of $1,082,732 left on the project. The

officially opened by President Woodrow Wilson from the White House, who with the push of a button in Washington, D.C., turned on all of the lights in the building.

The lower part of the building is still owned by Witkoff and Cammeby’s, which operate it as office space. They purchased the entire 58-story building—the tallest in the world, except for the Eiffel Tower, until 1930—for $137.5 million in 1998.

Thanks to its landmark status, the conversion process at the Woolworth Building was a complex one. Witkoff originally planned to do an ambitious condo conversion in 2000, but it faced opposition from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which was concerned about exterior changes.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, initial plans for condo conversion in the building, which is near the World Trade Center, were rejected. The financial crisis thwarted plans to revitalize the upper floors of the building as an exclusive country club-like office, leaving it empty until the Alchemy-led investment group scooped it up five years later.

Alchemy did not respond to a request for comment. ■

BLOOMBERG

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

601W Cos. to buy SL Green’s Hudson Yards office building for nearly $1B: sources

BY EDDIE SMALL

T

he 601W Cos. is in contract to buy SL Green Realty Corp.’s 410 10th Ave. for $952.5 million, according to sources familiar with the deal.

SL Green announced Nov. 4 that it had gone under contract to sell the Hudson Yards office building, which spans 636,000 square feet and counts Amazon and First Republic Bank as its anchor tenants.

The real estate firm declined to comment on the identity of the

The sale should close before the end of the year, and renovations on the property should be finished by the third quarter of next year. SL Green currently owns 70.9% of the building and will retain a 5% interest in it through completion of its redevelopment.

Leased The building is already leased long term, and 601W will likely use the property as a source of cash flow, a person familiar with the deal said.

The firm’s real estate portfolio includes several marquee properties across the country, including the Starrett-Lehigh Building in New York, the Old Post Office in Chicago and the Bank of America Center in San Francisco.

SL Green, which bills itself as the city’s largest office landlord, has weathered a bumpy road since the onset of the pandemic. It celebrated the grand opening of its 1.7 million-square-foot office tower One Vanderbilt in September and signed 33 new deals between July and September, two more than last year, according to its third quarter

buyer, and representatives for 601W, run by Mark Karasick and Harry Skydell, did not respond to requests for comment.

SL Green purchased 410 10th Ave. in 2019 from the Kaufman Organization for about $292 million, according to property records. It was rumored to be seeking a sale of the building for months, with Brookfield Asset Management emerging as a potential buyer at one point.

BLOOMBERG

SL GREEN PURCHASED 410 10TH AVE. IN 2019 FROM THE KAUFMAN ORGANIZATION

financial reports.

But those leases have gotten shorter and included more concessions compared to last year’s in the wake of the pandemic’s devastating

impact on the city’s office market.

The firm has also seen its stock price fall to $46.46 as of the morning of Nov. 4, down from a 52-week high of $96.39. And its deal to sell

the former Daily News Building to the Chetrit Group for more than $800 million fell apart after Chetrit said it could no longer make the purchase. ■

4 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | November 9, 2020

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POLITICS

Fiscal watchdogs lay out grim picture for the city

S

eparate reports by the state and city fiscal watchdogs paint grim pictures of the economic outlook for the city.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released a report that studied the effects of government borrowing to pay for operations. His data examined the outlook for New York’s economy in the event the city uses the Transitional Finance Authority to borrow $5 billion from the bond markets to pay for operations.

The sudden revenue loss associated with Covid-19 means the city could face a budget gap of $8.5 billion over the next two years, according to the Financial Control Board.

lion for TFA Recovery Bonds issued after 9/11,” he wrote. “More than $420 million of the debt remains outstanding, which is expected to be retired in FY 2023.”

If Albany were to grant Mayor Bill de Blasio the authority to borrow $5 billion, future generations of New York would pay for it.

DiNapoli projects the insurance and debt service associated with the borrowing would “increase carrying costs to more than 13% of city fund revenues.” His office calculates the debt service for the city would increase by $350 million per year at a fixed rate to be paid off by 2050.

What concerns DiNapoli is the money associated with paying off the debt service from this Covid-19-related borrowing could be used for a variety of purposes rather than just funding operating costs.

The biggest risk that stands out in the state comptroller’s report is the optimistic economic assumptions the city has made regarding its recovery. Right now, the city projects it will return to preCovid-19 employment numbers sometime around late 2022 or early 2023.

This assumed recovery takes into

THE CITY COULD FACE A BUDGET GAP OF $8.5 BILLION OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS DiNapoli is not a fan of borrowing.

In his report, he emphasized how deficit financing led New York City into its 1970s fiscal crisis and that nearly two decades later the city is still paying back the $2.5 billion in deficit financing bonds it tapped following 9/11.

“In FY 2020, the city paid $136 mil-

account that there will be no prolonged vacancies in the commercial or residential real estate markets; that workers will return to the office and tourists will flock back to New York; that small businesses will be able to make payroll and pay bills; and— perhaps most importantly—there will not be a rash of mortgage or rent payment delinquencies that create another financial crisis.

Uncertainty “This uncertainty… is a key reason for the city to use caution before tapping borrowed resources to manage its operations, and to be sure to reformulate projections to align with economic activity on the ground,” DiNapoli concluded.

The annual Comprehensive Annual Financial Report by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer looks at a host of other budgetary issues, yet it is no more optimistic about the city’s fiscal fortunes than DiNapoli.

Stringer’s 459-page summary provides an overview of the city’s 2020 fiscal year (which ended June 30), and saw the city’s general fund take in $95 billion in revenue, with a deficit of only $41 million.

But as Stringer’s report notes, Covid-19 capsized the economy. A 20% drop in city employment equivalent to a loss of 910,000 jobs oc-

NY STATE COMPTROLLER OFFICE

BY BRIAN PASCUS

DINAPOLI

curred between February and April.

Manhattan small-business revenue in July fell 40% from its January rate.

“The economy of New York City, which was the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic at its onset, has been hit harder than the rest of the U.S. thus far,” Stringer’s report reads.

“City jobs declined faster than the national average through June.”

Stinger’s report also gives a broad outline of the city’s Byzantine Bureau of Asset Management and Bureau of Public Finance. The former handles the city’s five pension systems; the latter issues bonds to finance the city’s capital program.

At the end of the last fiscal year, the Bureau of Asset Management had

$213 billion under management, which it increased by $5.7 billion last year, a return of 4.4%.

During fiscal year 2020, the city issued $7.61 billion in long-term bonds to fund its capital operations, all while refunding the city’s bonds over that period to generate budgetary savings of $936.5 million (this includes Water Authority bonds).

Ultimately the pandemic, and Congress’ response, will determine the financial picture for the city in the next fiscal year, the comptroller reported. Stringer notes that the state has threatened to reduce local aid by as much as 20% in the event Congress does not pass a fiscal relief package. ■

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Manhattan office vacancies reach 16-year high

BY EDDIE SMALL

M

anhattan’s marquee office market is facing its highest availability rate since 2004 as the fallout from the pandemic continues, according to a report from Colliers.

Colliers found that 12.9% of office space in the borough was available in October, the fifth consecutive month that its availability rate increased. Average asking rents dropped to $76.20 per square foot, down from $77.12 in September and from $79.61 in October 2019.

Subleased space accounted for 23.9% of Manhattan’s total availability, its highest share since 2009.

Leasing activity, however, actually did tick up compared to September, increasing from 1.12 million square feet to 1.76 million square feet. But this was still down dramatically from the 3.89 million square feet leased in October 2019.

Biggest deals Four deals for more than 100,000 square feet drove the borough’s month-over-month increase in leasing activity. They included a roughly 633,000-square-foot renewal from NYU Langone at 1 Park Ave., the second-largest lease that closed this year, Colliers found.

The other leases to top 100,000 square feet were Centric Brands’ renewal of about 212,000 square

feet at 350 Fifth Ave., Noom’s lease of about 113,000 square feet of new space at 5 Manhattan West and Li & Fung’s renewal of 103,500 square feet of space at 350 Fifth Ave. The fifth-largest lease of the year was the Topps Company’s renewal of about 71,000 square feet of space at 1 Whitehall St. Frank Wallach, senior managing director for research at Colliers, noted that four of the five largest leases in October were renewals, meaning they would have a limited impact on helping the city’s office market recover.

“That’s always been an important piece of what drives Manhattan leasing,” he said, “but renewal activity alone does not stem the tide of the large blocks of space, both direct and sublet, that have been returning to the market over the last seven to eight months.”

The report breaks up Manhattan’s office market into Midtown, Midtown South and Downtown.

Midtown South saw the bulk of activity in October with companies leasing 1.22 million square feet of office space, as all four deals for more than 100,000 square feet took place in this submarket.

But even in Midtown South, leasing volume dropped by 16.1% yearover- year, and the availability rate shot up to 12.1%, a record high. Average asking rents dropped to $72.26 per square foot.

Activity in Midtown and Downtown was significantly lower, with companies leasing 320,000 square feet in Midtown and 220,000 square feet Downtown. The largest deal in Midtown was BBC Studios’ renewal of 36,000 square feet at 1120 Sixth Ave. The largest deal Downtown was the Topps Company’s 71,000-square-foot renewal.

Midtown Leasing activity in Midtown dropped 63.4% compared to September, according to the report. Its availability rate hit 13.9%—its highest mark since 2009. The average asking rent dropped 1.2% to $83.82 per square foot.

Leasing volume actually increased 59.3% Downtown compared to September but was still much lower than the 680,000 square feet leased in October 2019.

Availability increased for the fifth month in a row to hit 12.4%, and the average asking rent dropped for the sixth month in a row to hit $63.62 per square foot.

The pandemic has upended New York’s once-thriving office market, largely because of the now widespread practice among companies that allows employees to work from home. A recent survey from the Partnership for New York City found that only 15% of New Yorkers are expected back in their offices by the end of the year. ■

Redefining what you should expect from your accountant. grassicpas.com

November 9, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 5

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COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Wall Street firm Greenhill & Co. relocates to smaller office, saving ‘materially’ on rent

A

rent reduction couldn’t come at a better time for Greenhill & Co., an investment bank struggling with a steep drop in revenue.

The company, which specializes

“The rent cost of our New York headquarters will be materially lower,” Chief Executive Scott Bok said on a conference call last Monday, according to a transcript.

Last year, before the pandemic upended commercial real estate, Greenhill agreed to pay $7.1 million in annual rent for its new office, according to a regulatory filing. The firm wouldn’t say how much it paid yearly for the 105,000 square feet on Park Avenue.

The new office in the former Time Inc. building clocks in at 78,000 square feet and $91 per square foot.

Greenhill needs to save money

GREENHILL’S CAPITAL ADVISORY BUSINESS HAS LOST SIX TOP BANKERS in advising top corporations on mergers and acquisitions, is relocating its headquarters from 300 Park Ave. to a smaller office at 1271 Sixth Ave.

buy a factory, or really anything you have to see in person, it’s much more difficult.”

Headwinds BLOOMBERG

BY AARON ELSTEIN

BOK where possible because the pandemic has been difficult for its business.

“Some deals can be negotiated easily over Zoom, especially if you’re buying a firm in the tech space,” a senior Wall Street executive said. “But if you’re looking to

Corporate merger activity is down 16% this year, according to FactSet Research, a slowdown that could reverberate across the city’s financial sector.

When investment bankers aren’t busy merging companies, they don’t call on lots of lawyers and accountants to help out.

Greenhill last week swung to a third-quarter net loss of $9.4 million from a $14.9 million profit a

year earlier. Revenues sank by 35%, to $56 million. Recently its capital advisory business, which serves restructuring companies, lost six top bankers to a rival.

Bok said the firm has a “robust recruiting pipeline.” But the loss of bankers in a division that generated $50 million in annual revenue represents “significant franchise impairment,” Keefe Bruyette & Woods analyst Michael Brown said last Tuesday in a client note.

“Greenhill is facing a significant revenue headwind,” Brown said.

The firm’s stock price sank by 22% last Tuesday. Its move to save on rent looks wise.

“We’ve taken the opportunity to reduce costs where appropriate and possible,” Bok said on the call, “and we’ll continue to do so.” ■

POLITICS

CORONAVIRUS

Amazon warehouse workers’ Torres, Jones set milestones Covid suit tossed by judge

A

federal judge has dismissed New York warehouse workers’ lawsuit against Amazon, ruling that their allegations about the company’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic should have been brought to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration instead.

The lawsuit, filed in June, accused Amazon of creating a “public nui- COGAN sance” by exacerbating Covid-19 risks, including by maintaining a “culture of workplace fear” in which workers are told to “work at dizzying speeds, even if doing so prevents them from socially distancing, washing their hands and sanitizing their work spaces.”

U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan in Brooklyn ruled Nov. 1 that the federal agency was better situated

“to strike a balance between maintaining some level of operations in conjunction with some level of protective measures,” given courts’ lack of expertise on workplace safety and public health, and the risk that judges around the country would reach conflicting conclusions.

“Court-imposed workplace policies could subject the industry to vastly different, costly regulatory schemes in a time of economic crisis,” he wrote.

Weighing an appeal The workers’ lawyers said they were weighing an appeal of Cogan’s ruling.

The judge’s deference to OSHA “should be very concerning to anyone who cares about the health of American workers, given that OSHA has been virtually AWOL throughout this crisis,” they said in a statement.

“Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our employees, which is why at the onset of the pandemic, we moved quickly to make more than 150 Covid-19-related process changes,” Amazon spokeswoman Lisa Levandowski said in an emailed statement. In legal filings, the company has denied wrongdoing and called the lawsuit an effort to “exploit the pandemic.”

Worker advocates have turned to public nuisance suits in part due to frustration with OSHA, which under President Donald Trump has rebuffed calls to issue binding regulations addressing the pandemic.

Two of the legal nonprofits that brought the Amazon lawsuit, Towards Justice and Public Justice, are separately suing OSHA in a federal court in Pennsylvania, saying the agency has arbitrarily and capriciously failed to address “imminent dangers” to workers at a meatpacking plant in that state.■

in Congress ASSOCIATED PRESS

A

young Bronx Democrat will be among the first openly gay Black members of Congress, voters in New York decided last Tuesday as they cast their final votes in an election held amid a pandemic and a national debate over racial injustice.

New York City Councilman Ritchie Torres, a 32-year-old who identifies as Afro-Latino, won election to a seat representing the South Bronx. He has been a member of the City Council since 2014.

He defeated Republican Patrick Delices in the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano, who is retiring.

The congressional district Torres will represent is one of the poorest in the nation.

“It’s overwhelming,” Torres told the Associated Press shortly after his victory. “I never thought as a poor kid from the Bronx ... that I would embark on a journey that would take me from public housing in the Bronx to the House of Representatives.

“It’s deeply gratifying to be part of a new generation of leadership that is every bit as diverse and dynamic as America itself,” Torres added.

‘Rainbow ceiling’

BLOOMBERG

The other openly gay Black candidate to take a seat in the House was Democrat Mondaire Jones, who won election in the northern suburbs.

Jones, 33, a Harvard-trained lawyer, defeated Republican Maureen McArdle Schulman in the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey.

LGBTQ activists hailed the victo-

WIKI

BLOOMBERG

TORRES

JONES

ries as a double milestone.

“Mondaire and Ritchie have shattered a rainbow ceiling and will bring unique perspectives based on lived experiences never before represented in the U.S. Congress,” said former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, president of the LGBTQ Victory Fund.

Jones said he’ll be proud to represent the district, which includes Rockland County and part of Westchester County, and he called his election and that of Torres a watershed moment in American politics.

“It is a travesty that we don’t have more representation at the highest levels of government, but that is changing with elections like my own and that of Ritchie Torres in New York’s 15th congressional district,” he said.

Jones said he and Torres were friends before they ran for Congress and have kept in touch.

“It’s exciting to have someone else in Congress who understands my experiences,” he said during a video news conference.

Openly gay white people have served in Congress since the 1980s, as well as at least one Black congresswoman who chose not to speak publicly about her sexuality, the late U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan of Texas. ■

6 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | November 9, 2020

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HEALTH CARE

Northwell, Fitbit partner on Covid-detection study

Cuomo questions feds on vaccine IDs

BY SHUAN SIM

BY JENNIFER HENDERSON

G BLOOMBERG

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orthwell Health’s Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and Fitbit have announced they are collaborating on a study to validate Fitbit’s Covid-19 early detection algorithm.

The study is supported by a $2.5 million award from the U.S. Department of Defense through the medical technology enterprise consortium. The award is part of the consortium’s efforts to keep military personnel healthy by detecting the virus before symptoms emerge.

San Francisco-based Fitbit, which manufactures wearable devices focused on tracking health and wellness metrics, had developed an algorithm to detect breathing rate, resting heart rate and other factors. It was originally meant to alert wearers to signs of a flu infection but was later adapted for Covid-19. However, the algorithm was studied only in a retrospective setting earlier this year, and there was a need for a prospective study to validate it in a real-world setting, said Taylor Helgren, vice president

of product and strategy at Fitbit.

Several thousand front-line and custodial Northwell staffers are expected to participate in the study, said Amy McDonough, senior vice president and general manager of Fitbit Health Solutions. Northwell was selected as its research partner because it has a robust testing system in place and has a large network of employees, she added.

Testing Once the study is initiated, enrolled Northwell employees will be given a Fitbit smartwatch. Upon notification of signs of potential ill-

ness, they will be given Covid-19 tests for verification, said Karina Davidson, director at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.

“Beyond the push of vaccines, early detection and wearables are an exciting avenue to further protect the health of the general public,” Davidson said.

McDonough declined to disclose the full cost of the study. Fitbit’s aim is to eventually integrate early illness detection capabilities into its marketed wearables.

The company reported revenue of $1.4 billion for 2019 and sold 16 million devices that year. ■

ov. Andrew Cuomo issued a letter Nov. 2 calling on the federal government to provide more clarity as to why it is requiring states to provide identification numbers of individuals who wish to receive a Covid-19 vaccine once available.

Cuomo is also asking the federal government to affirmatively state that no personal information will be used for non-public-health-related purposes or provided to any non-public health agency, such as the Department of Homeland Security or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The letter comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked all states to sign a data-use agreement that requires their health departments to share with the federal government personal information—including name, address, date of birth, ethnicity, race, sex and identification numbers—for every person who receives a Covid-19 vaccine.

“While I understand data will play an integral role in the successful administration of a Covid-19 vaccine—

including scheduling appointments, providing second dose reminders and ensuring reimbursements are accurate—in order to ensure confidence in the program, several concerns must be addressed,” Cuomo wrote in the letter sent to President Donald Trump, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield and Alex Azar, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Concerns Cuomo wrote that the federal government must tell states exactly why the data is necessary, what it will be used for and how it will be safeguarded. He added that he is concerned the data could be used by non-health-related agencies to further anti-immigrant policies.

“As we’ve already explained to Gov. Cuomo, such information would only be used to support the unprecedented private-public partnership continuing to harness the full power of the federal government, private sector, military and scientific community to combat the coronavirus and save lives,” said White House spokesman Michael Bars in a statement in response to Cuomo’s letter. ■

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November 9, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 7

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president K.C. Crain senior executive vice president Chris Crain group publisher Mary Kramer

EDITORIAL

publisher/executive editor

Election results may bear fruit for New York tan Transportation Authority, into making unpopular fiscal decisions such as cuts to vital services and mass layoffs. It certainly would have stalled the city’s recovery, which is already expected to be measured in years and not months.

Nothing is guaranteed next year under a Biden presidency, but there is reason to hope that bailout money may be on the way.

For one, he is a fellow Democrat and a friend of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The fact that the state’s senior senator, Chuck Schumer, is the Senate minority leader doesn’t hurt either. And then there is former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who pumped $100 million into Biden’s campaign just in Florida.

Bloomberg doesn’t need to be paid back, but the city he once ran could use some love.

At the same time, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has softened his position on aid to states and cities like New York.

Until now Republican senators— and McConnell in particular—had thumbed their noses at New York, claiming that U.S. taxpayers shouldn’t have to bail out cities and states that have not been able to manage their finances responsibly.

THERE IS REASON TO HOPE THAT BAILOUT MONEY MAY BE ON THE WAY tive budgets, which have been ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although they didn’t get everything they wanted, they are in better shape now than a few weeks ago. The combination of another Trump presidency and a Republican-controlled Senate likely would have doomed the city and the state, as well as the Metropoli-

associate publisher Lisa Rudy EDITORIAL editor Robert Hordt assistant managing editors Telisha Bryan,

Janon Fisher audience & analytics manager

Gabriella Iannetta associate editor Lizeth Beltran data editor Gerald Schifman art director Carolyn McClain photographer Buck Ennis senior reporters Aaron Elstein, Eddie Small reporters Ryan Deffenbaugh,

Jennifer Henderson, Brian Pascus, Natalie Sachmechi, Shuan Sim executive assistant Devin Cavallo to contact the newsroom:

www.crainsnewyork.com/staff 212.210.0100 BLOOMBERG

I

n this most unusual election, votes were still being tallied late last week, but most analysts acknowledged that former Vice President Joseph Biden was on track to become the next president of the United States.

The House will remain in control of Democrats, but it looks like we may have to wait until January for runoff elections in Georgia to find out which party will control the Senate.

Even if the GOP holds on to the Senate, the election results bode well for New York. City and state officials went into the election hoping for a Democratic sweep of both the presidency and the Senate because they are hoping for billions in bailout money for their respec-

Frederick P. Gabriel Jr.

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www.crainsnewyork.com/advertise senior account managers Roland Espinosa,

But just last week, after the election, McConnell, who Biden served with in the U.S. Senate, said the first priority for Congress when it returns to Washington should be to pass another Covid relief bill.

And he said aid to state and local governments could be a part of such legislation. Of course, he will have to convince his fellow Republicans that this is a good idea.

What can city and state officials do in the meantime? Plenty. If they are smart, they will take steps now to show they are getting their fiscal houses in order, whether that takes the form of salary freezes, reduc-

tions in workforce through attrition or early retirement programs. In fact, they should probably proceed as if they are not getting a cent from D.C. This way, they can prove to some of the more recalcitrant GOP senators that they are helping themselves and thus deserve help from the federal government.

New York was at the epicenter of the pandemic, and it is still at the epicenter of the recession. We should not have to beg for federal help, but officials must do everything they can to ensure that funds are forthcoming. The future of the city and the state are at stake. ■

Stuart Smilowitz, Tori Weil people on the move manager Debora Stein,

dstein@crain.com CUSTOM CONTENT director of custom content

Patty Oppenheimer, 212.210.0711, poppenheimer@crainsnewyork.com senior manager, custom content

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www.crainsnewyork.com/events events and marketing manager

Michelle Sustar, mstustar@crain.com manager of conferences & events

Ana Jimenez, ajimenez@crainsnewyork

OP-ED

REPRINTS

Cuomo’s Medicaid drug carve-out will hurt poor people, cost more

BY ERIC LINZER, ROSE DUHAN AND WENDY STARK

A

s New York grapples with a $14 billion budget deficit that continues to grow amid the pandemic, the last thing the state should do is add to the problem. Yet that is exactly what would happen if a plan to shift the Medicaid pharmacy benefit out of managed care moves forward.

Adopted as part of this year’s state budget, the proposal was projected to save the state $125 million in the upcoming fiscal year, but it actually will add significant costs to the Medicaid program. Further, it will decrease the quality of care for the state’s most vulnerable patients and have a devastating impact on community health centers, hospitals and other safety-net providers.

That’s why a broad coalition of organizations representing hospitals, health centers, clinics, community-based organizations, patient advocates and health plans

opposes carving out the pharmacy benefit.

According to a new analysis, the cost of the carve-out in the upcoming fiscal year would be $279 million higher than currently forecast, resulting in $154 million in additional costs if the policy is implemented. During the next five years, carving out the drug benefit would increase costs for the Medicaid program by $1.5 billion.

Limited access In addition to failing to generate savings for the state, the carve-out would limit access to care and decimate the resources safety-net providers rely on to fund critical programs. For example, removing the pharmacy benefit from managed care would eliminate the ability for community health centers and safety-net hospitals to purchase prescription drugs at a deep discount from pharmaceutical manufacturers under the federal 340B drug pricing program.

Those discounts enable providers to stretch scarce federal resources that help to subsidize highcost drugs for uninsured individuals and assist provider efforts to ensure adherence to care for individuals with substance use disorders, HIV/ AIDS viral suppression or other chronic and acute issues that require ongoing support. It also allows them to offer counseling, housing, food and other assistance to support the state’s most underserved populations. Given the impact the pandemic has had on communities of color and low-income individuals, this would be the worst possible time to make such a significant policy change.

If the change is allowed to stand, it is estimated that New York’s health centers will lose more than $100 million per year and hospitals serving low-income and indigent populations will lose more than $87 million next year as a result. At a time when the entire health care system is projecting significant

losses and experiencing the financial strain of the pandemic, the carve-out would exacerbate challenges that the delivery system and front-line workers are facing.

It is not often that hospitals, health centers, clinics, community-based organizations, patient advocates and health plans agree. But on carving the Medicaid pharmacy benefit out of managed care, the consensus across the industry is clear. It will hurt patients and devastate the delivery system while failing to reduce costs for the state or rein in the prices drug companies charge. The governor should reverse the policy proposal. ■ Eric Linzer is president and CEO of the New York Health Plan Association. Rose Duhan is president and CEO of the Community Health Care Association of New York State.

Wendy Stark, executive director of Callen-Lorde, runs its community health center.

director, reprints & licensing Lauren Melesio,

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Entire contents ©copyright 2020 Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. ©CityBusiness is a registered trademark of MCP Inc., used under license agreement.

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8 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | NOVEMBER 9, 2020

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OP-ED

BY ELISHA PIERRE AND SULMA ARZU-BROWN

cessities. People who work on platforms such as Uber, Lyft and Instacart, among others, are doing the work we continue to need done, but they are not guaranteed many of the protections and benefits of traditional employees.

This needs to change, and it starts with updating outdated labor laws that make the independence, which so many workers need, incompatible with protections and benefits.

For too long this debate has been marked by extremes on both sides.

One side tries to force gig workers into employment to guarantee benefits, but it loses independence. The other side maintains gig workers’ flexibility, but it is unable to provide the benefits and protections gig workers deserve.

J

ohnny Marrero’s father was let go from his job in April. With Covid-19 raging in New York and across the country, nearly 2 million New Yorkers suddenly found themselves out of work, struggling to make rent and put food on the table. Many of those New Yorkers are people of color.

Together, Johnny and his father turned to one of the few kinds of work that was bringing people in, not kicking them out: gig work.

Soon after, Johnny and his father were essential workers, delivering food to homebound students and senior citizens through DoorDash.

For the past several months, gig work has offered economic opportunity to those suddenly in need. It also has offered them the flexibility to set their own schedule, ensuring that they can be home when their family needs them. This is particularly true for people of color, who are overrepresented among gig workers.

As New York’s economy begins to recover, essential workers continue to do the critical work of helping keep the city moving by delivering food, prescriptions and other ne-

A new model In New York we have an opportunity to do better. After two false starts, Albany finally may take a serious look at the gig economy. We don’t have to settle for the war that was waged in California or the inaction of Washington. With a bit of creative thinking and collaboration, New York can lead the nation toward a new model of labor laws that pairs economic security with

flexibility.

Instead of imposing an antiquated employment model that would extinguish flexibility, Albany should devise a new approach for app-based workers that reflects their needs. It should provide all workers with insurance for on-thejob injuries and ensure they have access to a safety net if they lose work. It should protect them from discrimination and create a pool of money they can access for benefits that are important to them and their families, based on how much they choose to work.

It is time to create a “third way” that protects independence and provides for new worker protections and benefits by making this the law.

We recognize and applaud the companies that already are providing some of these protections for the workers on their platforms.

These companies have created valuable work opportunities for so many people when traditional employment suddenly became unavailable and, in many cases, they have done their best to provide the equipment and other support to keep workers safe during the pandemic.

But we need an absolute guaran-

BLOOMBERG

Gig worker reform must pair economic security with flexibility

tee that all of the essential workers who use these platforms have access to the benefits they deserve and the flexibility they demand.

Only strong policy with the force of law can do that.

The economy is still struggling, and the health risks that essential workers faced in March and April are still present. We must continue to fight for them and make progress without taking a single step backward. The combination of econom-

ic opportunity and flexibility has been absolutely invaluable to Johnny Marrero, his family and so many others.

Let’s fight—and get this right— for them. ■ Elisha Pierre is the director of operations at the Haitian American Caucus. Sulma Arzu-Brown is the director of operations at the New York City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Businesses have not properly addressed drug abuse and addiction

Failed green-buildings plan In your article “Council aims to expand building emissions

time to get this right. The city and the council must get serious fast about helping building owners who need help to make the improvements that will truly make a difference.

JAMES WHELAN President, Real Estate Board of New York

Creative outdoors

ISTOCK

I WOULD LIKE TO PUBLICLY STATE MY DEEP APPRECIATION to Crain’s for taking the initiative to address the drug misuse and overdose death epidemic in many of its articles.

(Eleven thus far this year).

The more stellar organizations, such as Crain’s, that take ownership of the drug misuse epidemic, the greater the probability of gaining control over an emerging culture of recreational drug use.

New York state has some of the most focused elected officials in the nation in confronting drug misuse. We have not yet been able to dedicate our country’s vast resources to embracing the plague on the level of commitment displayed by the Covid-19 actions.

The business community has lagged far behind in openly acknowledging the No. 1 public health problem and taking high-profile actions.

I hope the laudable steps taken

by Crain’s mark a milestone and a model for our culture’s willingness to overcome the deadly stigma that prevents committed engagement.

LUKE NASTA CEO of Camelot of Staten Island Inc.

standards over real estate's objections” (Oct. 28), a spokesperson for Councilman Costa Constantinides questions the Real Estate Board of New York’s concerns with the councilman’s bill to mandate that rent-regulated buildings also now meet strict emissions rules. Specifically, he claims that we have changed our tune because we asked for more buildings to be covered by the law in the past.

His statement is as misleading as the legislation.

Yes, REBNY supports meaningful reductions in buildings’ carbon emissions. In fact, the building owners we represent have made significant investments to do just that across millions of square feet of properties citywide. Our concern, however, is with the city’s and the

council’s own lack of commitment to this critical issue.

Neither the council nor the city did any research whatsoever to determine whether these building owners and tenants, who are under even more stress dealing with Covid-19, could actually comply with this law. And neither the council nor the city has ponied up promised resources to help cash-strapped building owners make these environmental improvements. The owners can’t afford to and will simply pay fines instead.

The legislation is not a plan to reduce carbon emissions; it is a press release—and it comes after the de Blasio administration has failed to carry out its own mandates on this issue. New Yorkers and our environment deserve better, and we are running out of

With respect to the article “Hudson Square residential market softens during pandemic” (Oct. 5): Hudson Square and other business and residential districts across New York City will certainly get a boost as retail continues to return, as one of the interviewees suggests. But reviving neighborhoods will take more than just boosting retail. It will require us to address all aspects of the public realm—the street life—to make it feel safer, more navigable and accessible.

In Hudson Square, we’re making progress. Through creative and careful planning, we have reconfigured existing spaces such as Freeman Plaza and Spring Street Park to facilitate socially distant lounging to encourage people to come out and walk in the neighborhood. When the city created the Open Restaurants program, which allows outdoor dining, we used our $500,000 recovery fund

made up by reallocating operating funds to quickly create colorful temporary curbside dining spaces, called parklets, to make these new public spaces more inviting and welcoming.

The same creative energy must be applied to all our public spaces: streets, sidewalks and open spaces.

But to do that, City Hall must appoint one person or agency in charge of leading the effort to revive public spaces. Right now, the bureaucracy is too fractured.

Too many agencies have jurisdiction, and often there are competing or contradictory policies. It’s imperative for a successful and speedy recovery that we have one person or agency that has the power to convene all involved agencies—from Small Business Services to Sanitation, Transportation, Parks, Buildings and more— and have them work together to create plans, make decisions and promulgate policies that are clear and workable for businesses, landlords and business-improvement districts.

Our neighborhoods—including Hudson Square—are coming back.

But to boost the effort, the city must do more to help.

ELLEN BAER President, Hudson Square BID

Write us: Crain’s welcomes submissions to its opinion pages. Send letters to letters@CrainsNewYork.com. Send op-eds of 500 words or fewer to opinion@CrainsNewYork.com.

Please include the writer’s name, company, address and telephone number. Crain’s reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity.

November 9, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 9

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11/5/20 11:10 AM

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Commercial broker’s startup aims to bring industry to the cloud

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

W

hen he was working as a commercial broker three years ago, Joseph Richter would blast out emails to tens of thousands of people in the industry to gather up interest in a listing.

He would be lucky to hear back from even three of those contacts.

“Or you’d cold-call 30 or 60 people, and the conversion rate would be abysmal,” Richter said. “I thought, There has to be a better way to do this.”

Richter and his brother, Jake Richter, last week launched Kayo­ Cloud, which they hope will offer a

closure agreements and commission contracts, are signed online. The software includes artificial intelligence to suggest the most likely buyers for a property based on recent transactions, the stated focus of individual investors and the like.

“We believe that there is a massive market of untapped agents who are ready to be doing their own commercial deals,” Richter said.

‘Stuck in its ways’ The firm is backed in part through an angel investment of an undisclosed amount by developer Eli Weiss, principal of Joy Construction.

“Real estate as a whole [was] stuck in its ways for a very long time,” Weiss said. “Only in the past five years have some closings even been done by email instead of in person.”

While top international brokerages, such as CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield, have advanced technology, much of the commercial industry is still an old-fashioned business outside of the big-money

more precise and digitized option to sell commercial properties.

The software automates tasks such as creating an offering memorandum and scheduling showings. All documents, even nondis-

BLOOMBERG

MUCH OF THE COMMERCIAL INDUSTRY IS STILL AN OLD-FASHIONED BUSINESS

deals. The pandemic has forced those parts of the industry to work remotely for the first time, opening an opportunity for KayoCloud, Weiss said.

KayoCloud has been recruiting brokers in the past few weeks to

subscribe to the software for $49 per month. It has 15 agents so far.

The company could follow in the footsteps of EXP Realty, a cloudbased residential brokerage that has more than 30,000 agents, none of whom work from a brick-and-

mortar office.

To date, the most significant effort to buy and sell commercial real estate online, an auction site called Ten-X, was purchased by CoStar for $190 million earlier this year. ■

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SPONSORED CONTENT

Your not-for-profit reimagined Not-for-profit organizations are no strangers to adversity and challenges in managing their operations while continuing to serve the public.

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All entities, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, have had to become creative and reexamine their operations to best position themselves to survive and thrive.

The severity of the pandemic has been a rude awakening, but recessions and natural disasters, among other global events, have often challenged the status quo for not-for-profit organizations and driven them to reevaluate and, at times, reinvent themselves. While adapting to changing times and reimagining organizations for the future may seem like a daunting task, it brings opportunities to make improvements, develop strategies for ensuring long-term sustainability, and recalibrate to what many believe will be a new normal.

In times of crisis, the public is often reminded of the critical role that not-for-profits play in the local and global community. Many not-for-profits have implemented short-term strategies to keep operations running while anticipating a return to normalcy. Unfortunately, the sobering reality for many in these changing times comes down to this: Longer-term decisions and strategies are crucial for organizations to thrive and continue serving the public.

Citrin Cooperman’s dedicated Not-For-Profit Practice forms trusted business advisor relationships with nonprofit organizations to further their mission and drive creative audit, tax and consulting solutions tailored to their unique needs.

Some critical considerations in assessing your strategic planning as your not-for-profit reimagines its place in the world: Mission and program A well-defined mission and related programmatic messaging are always important to a not-for-profit. They allow it to engage its sponsors, donors and constituents. In times of crisis, letting key stakeholders know how the organization and, more important, the people and communities it serves have been affected demonstrates confidence. The ability to reaffirm a commitment to mission and program during a crisis is even more critical to getting and keeping the support and trust of donors and constituents.

Development and fundraising Successful fundraising begins by having an open and transparent relationship with donors. In difficult times, the ability to ask donors to redesignate certain restricted funds to serve immediate needs is often a strategy employed by development. To do so, however, requires outreach and donor correspondence to be up-todate, timely and reflective of the challenges the not-for-profit is encountering. Fundraising personnel must understand the environment from which it is soliciting, especially during crises. It is important to exercise sensitivity in seeking donations.

Appeals must be mindful of the local and geographical hardships, and they must emphasize the not-for-profit’s need to deliver on its mission during and after the pandemic.

Board engagement and leadership The pandemic has reemphasized the importance of maintaining a close relationship between governing boards and executive management. Greater engagement is required of board members in working collaboratively with management, leveraging fundraising relationships, addressing financial and legal matters, and liaising with community leaders.

Reinvigorating this partnership can result in new strategies and directions and aid in calming the fears and pressures of employees and those within their respective communities. Boards and executive management should seek to build on this solid foundation and encourage participation and dialogue to strengthen governance.

Financial and strategic management The nationwide lockdowns and remote-work mandates associated with the pandemic forced many not-for-profit organizations to make difficult financial decisions. Donor contributions and conference and gala revenues, among other revenue sources, likely were either significantly reduced or became nonexistent. To survive, many not-for-profits implemented cost-cutting measures, such as programmatic reductions and staffing and overhead reductions. The transition from survival-and-crisis mode to

15 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | October 5, 2020

recovery and growth will be different for each organization.

Simply relying on traditional revenue-generating events may not necessarily yield the same anticipated results, because the landscape most surely has changed. Abandoning completely what has worked, however, would be extreme. In the face of mandates for social distancing and phased approaches for reopening, adaption is critical to position your organization for success.

As the not-for-profit reimagines itself, the establishment of a robust and flexible strategic plan will play a critical role in advancing its priorities and mission. A strategic plan will help in the exchange of ideas between management and the board on the organization’s direction. It also will help define measurable goals, approved priorities and a commitment to the continued growth of the organization.

Most important, the plan will be a valuable tool that should be revisited periodically and adjusted, as necessary, to reflect the changing environment the organization operates within.

Information technology A remote workforce will be the new normal for some time. It is imperative that not-for-profit organizations equip employees with the technology and training needed to maximize their productivity and the organization’s overall safety.

Talk to your employees about compliance and develop policies to address this new normal. Cost considerations should be factored in: Who pays for security and device upgrades? And for how long?

It is critical that solutions are in place to provide patching, monitoring and support to employees while they work remotely. With the surge of criminal activity accompanying the pandemic, combined with the many distractions associated with a work-from-home environment, regular cybersecurity awareness training should be a priority. Security content, particularly guidance related to social engineering attacks, should be revised to reflect the latest Covid-19-era risks to a remote workforce, so end users know how to identify and avoid these threats.

A penetration of the not-forprofit’s network could result in a loss of donor confidence and cause irreparable reputational damage. Now, more than ever, an organization needs to be proactive, and not reactive, toward IT security and infrastructure.

Future reimagined Reimagining your organization is not a simple task, especially in

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Eusanio, CPA Partner and Not-For-Profit Practice Leader jeusanio@citrincooperman.com

difficult times. Taking the necessary time to reflect on new initiatives and outcomes that resulted from this pandemic can aid in making your organization better in its operations and its outcomes. While this may seem overwhelming, it is a necessary step for positioning your organization not only to thrive, but also to focus on what counts: your mission. ■

Preparation, planning and strong leadership are more crucial than ever. They make the difference between success and failure. Tomorrow’s business world will be anything but normal. Every business needs a comprehensive playbook to navigate today’s changes and transition into tomorrow’s reimagined normal.

WHO OWNS THE BLOCK

215–225 W. 28TH ST.

A gritty stretch gives high hopes Chelsea strip could hold clues for health of Manhattan development

BY C. J. HUGHES

I

t’s tucked away, low-key, and a bit rough. But West 28th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues in Chelsea may hold clues about the mid-pandemic state of development.

The industrial stretch is the site of a 261 W. 28TH ST. handful of major projects, both resiThe Onyx Chelsea, an 11-story, 52-unit dential and commercial, that appears black-hued condo developed in 2007 to be going full steam ahead even as

by Bronfman Hayes Real Estate Partothers tap the brakes. ners, was among the first high-end new “These seem like tougher times than the last recession,” said Jana Angelakis, buildings in this part of Chelsea. Apartwho is trying to sell her two-bedroom, ments have wine coolers, washers and two-and-a-half-bath condo at 261 W. dryers. Among the units currently on the 28th St. Since listing the unit last winmarket is a three-bedroom, two-and-ater, Angelakis has cut its price four half-bath penthouse at $3.5 million. It’s times, to $1.7 million from $1.8 million, been on the market with Nest Seekers while also offering it as a rental at International since March. $6,250 per month. “But it’s exciting to see what’s happening on this block.”

Of all the new developments, the one with the most immediate risk, perhaps, is the Maverick, an 87unit, 20-story condo at 215 W. 28th St. Sales begin at 253 W. 28TH ST. year’s end, which will test the area’s luxury appetite.

A five-story co-op, this former stable in a oneThough officials have time furrier district, has a colorful history. In yet to approve prices for 1973, Travelers’ Garage, a parking facility the project, which is from in the building, collapsed, crushing several developer HAP Investcars. In the early 1990s it was home to the ments, they should averBallroom, a concert hall. Residents through age $2,400 per square foot, the decades have included Nitin Vadukul, a or starting at $1.2 million photographer known for striking images of for one-bedrooms. hip-hop stars. He died in 2018; his former In comparison, new wife, Marianna, sold their three-bedroom forone-bedrooms in Chelsea mer home for $4.4 million. The ground-level now list for an average of tenant is ADI, a security company. $2.1 million, according to

In 2018, L&L MAG, a partnership of MaryAnne Gilmartin, a former Forest City Ratner executive, and L&L Holding Company, paid $120 million for a 99-year ground lease here to Edison Properties, a New Jersey–based developer known for its parking facilities. For years the site held a block-through parking lot and a stable-turned-parking garage. But in 2019, L&L and Gilmartin parted ways. Her new firm, MAG Partners, appears to be developing the project alone. A buff-brick office building is planned; it’s set to open in late 2022. Madison Realty Capital, a private-equity firm that has become a prolific condo lender, has chipped in $173 million.

229 W. 28TH ST. Once home to lithographers and later, nightclubs, this 12-story gray-brick pre-war structure, the Caxton Building, has fetched some owners hefty returns through the years. AEW Partners, a large Boston-based investment manager, snapped up the 160,000-square-foot property in 2006 for about $36 million, then unloaded it in 2014 for $82 million, according to city records. The buyer was Lexin Capital, a New York–based landlord that owns the office tower at 551 Madison Ave. and properties in Arizona and Florida. Tenants at the building include the Epoch Times, a media company connected to the Falun Gong movement. Three spaces were for rent in October, including the entire 12,800-square-foot penthouse floor.

333 SEVENTH AVE. The campus of the Fashion Institute of Technology, a school for budding designers, occupies one entire block and half of another but is perhaps best known for its Brutalist-style concrete portion on Seventh, the Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center. Developed in phases between 1958 and 2001, the campus is relatively low-slung, meaning many residents will enjoy downtown views above the sixth floor.

322 SEVENTH AVE. Called 28&7, this 11-story office building with large windows and black terracotta trim has replaced Mustang Sally’s, a popular bar for crowds en route to games at nearby Madison Square Garden. The development team of GDSNY, a TriBeCa-based firm, and Klovern, a Sweden-based office developer, paid $36 million for the site in 2018 and do not appear to have so far borrowed any money to pay for the project, according to city records. The building will offer showers and locker rooms for those biking to work.

BUCK ENNIS, GOOGLE MAPS

StreetEasy.com, with one-bedrooms averaging $1.3 million.

“Time has worked against me” with the project, which missed the peak condo market 215–225 W. 28TH ST. of 2016, said Eran Polack, HAP’s chief executive officer.

The Maverick, a 20-story side-by-side rental-condo developThe Maverick also features a ment from HAP Investments (in its first major condo project), 112-unit rental portion, with an will begin sales and leasing this winter after a circuitous path. entrance at No. 225, that was Conceived initially as a condo in 2013, two years after the inconceived as a hedge against a dustrial block was rezoned to allow for more apartments, HAP softening condo market even initially intended to cantilever over some holdout buildings. before coronavirus hit; it will But when those tenement-style structures came up for sale begin leasing this winter. Both a few years later, HAP snapped them up and tacked them on the condo and rental will share to its site, though the moves elongated the timeline. Daiwa a pool, saunas and a roof deck.

House, a Japanese real estate giant, provided $238 million Other projects are right bein construction funds for a project with $145 million in land hind it, like 28&7, a boutique costs. “I believe in Manhattan,” said Eran Polack, a HAP princi11-story office building from pal. “I don’t think people will want to work from home forever.”

GDSNY at 322 Seventh Ave., which will open in 2021.

Whether the work-from-home trend impacts its leasing remains to be seen, brokers say.

And this month, ground-breaking occurs at 241 W. 28th St., a 479-unit rental planned from MAG Partners.

This fall, MAG turned not to a conventional bank for financing but a private equity firm, Madison Realty Capital, which lent $173 million.

“As major tech companies continue to sign big leases within walking distance,” MaryAnne Gilmartin, MAG’s founder, said, “We expect to see very strong long-term demand.” ■

241 W. 28TH ST.

12 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | November 9, 2020

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ASKED & ANSWERED WHO HE IS Chief investment strategist, Blackstone Group

INTERVIEW BY AARON ELSTEIN

J

AGE 48

oseph Zidle is chief investment strategist at Blackstone Group, the world’s leading alternative asset-management firm. His market commentary is closely followed by investors everywhere. He recently spoke to Crain’s about how New Yorkers should prepare for retirement and what everyone keeps getting wrong about the state of the market.

You expect the stock market won’t perform well for many years. Why?

Some powerful trends that lifted stocks over the past 10 years have played out. Interest rates fell steadily, which enabled companies to refinance debt and lower costs for years. I don’t think rates are going any lower. Corporate taxes fell around the world, and they aren’t going any lower. Costs fell due to trade with Asia, and we’re past peak globalization. The S&P 500 rose by 17% per annum from March 1, 2009, to Feb. 15 of this year. That’s well above historic norms, and I think we’re in for a challenged environment for a long time when it comes to stocks.

If stocks aren’t attractive, are bonds the way to go?

The old formula of putting 60% of your money in stocks and 40% in bonds isn’t going to provide people with the returns they expect or need. Traditional fixed income provides very little return, and I see investors taking a lot of risk. A high-yield bond recently came to market with a coupon of under 3%. Two years ago a safe U.S. Treasury bond yielded that same amount.

GREW UP Hookset, N.H. RESIDES Chatham, N.J. EDUCATION Bachelor’s in economics and history, Emory University PAST LIFE Before joining Blackstone, Zidle was an investment strategist at Richard Bernstein Advisors and Merrill Lynch. He also served in the U.S. Army’s intelligence division. In 2010 he was a Crain’s 40 Under 40 honoree.

AMERICAN BEAUTY Before going to Wall Street, Zidle liked to follow the Grateful Dead around the country. To pay for his travels, he sold band-themed boxer shorts in parking lots before shows for $10. His favorite Dead recording was from Nov. 9–11, 1973, at the Winterland in San Francisco. Savvy Deadheads would agree.

Those aren’t available to most people, though.

I agree. This is a complicated problem.

What’s your outlook for commercial real estate?

A lot of retail space will be reimagined. How much?

The U.S. has about 50 square feet of retail space per capita, compared to 16 in Canada and about 8 in Europe.

How about offices and your outlook for the city?

This is not the end of New York. I’m of the view we’re better off working together than apart. I think people want to come back to offices as soon as they feel it’s safe. I know that’s how I feel. But we might live in a more distanced world than we’re used to for a long time.

What have people gotten wrong about the market?

The market underestimates how long the Federal Reserve will keep rates really low. Bond yields have risen, which means the market thinks rates will come up because inflation will creep in. I don’t think inflation is coming back significantly. The population is aging, and that keeps a lid on inflation because older people’s consumption habits change. I think the Fed will keep interest rates low for a long time.

Are parts of the market undervalued?

So what are people saving for retirement to do?

This is a real challenge, and it will become more so because the U.S. population is aging. I would look to things like private real estate, private credit, master limited partnerships.

So much of the stock market’s growth has been concentrated in a handful of tech names. I would look at other sectors and invest in the one or two companies with the best balance sheets. The K-shaped recovery we’re seeing means the market doesn’t think we’ve turned the corner yet when it comes to the recession. ■

BUCK ENNIS

JOSEPH ZIDLE Blackstone Group

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November 9, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 13

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FINANCE

BLOOMBERG

K

en Griffin was facing a calamity.

As Covid-19 roiled the economy in March, equities tanked and bond markets went haywire. Hedge funds run by Griffin’s Citadel were taking losses as the computer models that guide some of their decisions struggled to comprehend the pandemic.

For Griffin, it was also a chance to profit from some of the biggest opportunities in his 30-year career.

His traders went to work scouring beaten-down credit markets, snapping up finance-company debt and taking advantage of wild fluctuations globally.

“It was a macro trader’s dream,” Griffin, 52, said during an event last month for the Robin Hood Foundation, a New York–based nonprofit. Citadel wanted to put money to work “when people are panicking,” he said.

Like many hedge funds, Griffin’s

those opportunities. His firm’s flagship fund reversed the losses in March and has since kept going.

His Wellington fund was up more than 20% through October, and assets at the hedge fund business have swelled to $35 billion. About $6 billion of that belongs to Griffin.

That would make a remarkable year for any investor, but it’s not even the biggest contributor to Griffin’s fortune.

Emergency facilities About the same time that the hedge funds went on the offensive, Citadel Securities—a separate trading part of Griffin’s empire run

by Peng Zhao—largely left its Chicago and New York offices and set up shop at emergency facilities in Connecticut and the Four Seasons Palm Beach in Florida, building a temporary trading floor to keep going during the pandemic.

The business, which makes markets in equities, options, fixed income, commodities and currencies, became one of the biggest beneficiaries in global finance as trading soared.

Profit margins rose to 67% in the first half of 2020, a 10% gain compared with the same period last year. It also got a boost from trading on apps like Robinhood Markets, an area where Citadel dominates.

Trading revenues exceeded $3.8 billion in the first six months of the year.

Those dual arms of Griffin’s business fueled an almost $5 billion increase in his fortune in 2020 to more than $20 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The majority comes from Griffin’s estimated 85% stake in Citadel Securities, which is worth $11.2 billion.

A Citadel spokesman declined

HE’S GIVEN SIGNIFICANT SUMS TO CHARITY, DONATING $40 MILLION FOR COVID-19 RELIEF firm suffered drops during those harrowing days in March and, like many rivals, also benefited from unprecedented moves by the Federal Reserve and the promise of a $2 trillion stimulus package from Congress. Paul Tudor Jones, who interviewed Griffin at the event, described the Fed’s actions as “so incredible and breathtaking, you almost couldn’t even believe it at the time.” So much so, even the legendary hedge fund manager said he didn’t take advantage as much as he should have.

Griffin, who started trading convertible bonds from his Harvard University dorm room, did ride

to comment on Griffin’s wealth, the firm’s performance or its valuation.

Griffin’s concern now is the impact rapid growth in monetary supply and massive deficits will have on not just the dollar but fiat currencies generally. Citadel held a sizable gold position in recent months for the first time in a while, he told Jones at the Robin Hood event. Griffin suggested investors focus on assets that perform in an inflationary scenario: precious metals, some energy products and real estate.

Citadel’s funds don’t invest in real estate in a “meaningful way,” Griffin said. He certainly does.

This year he purchased Calvin Klein’s oceanfront estate in the Hamptons for $84 million. He’s spent more than $600 million on trophy properties in London, New York, Palm Beach and Miami since the beginning of 2019. This includes $238 million for a Manhattan penthouse that was already in contract.

Most will be developed into homes for Griffin’s family, and many are in locations near existing or planned Citadel offices, according to a person with knowledge of his holdings.

He’s also the owner of a worldclass art collection. Bloomberg reported in June that he bought a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting for $100 million that will be hung at the Art Institute of Chicago. His works, which include Andy Warhol’s Orange Marilyn and Jackson Pollock’s Number 17A, are worth more than $1 billion, according to Bloomberg estimates.

Unlike many other billionaires, Griffin doesn’t have a family office, and real estate and art are his biggest investments outside of Cita-

BLOOMBERG

Griffin’s macro ‘dream’ propels net worth to $20 billion

del, the person said.

He’s given significant sums to charity, donating $40 million for Covid-19 relief this year and more than $1 billion to philanthropic causes during his career.

Political spending Griffin has also spent big on politics, giving $46 million to Republicans this cycle, making him the fourth-biggest individual GOP donor for the period, according to opensecrets.org.

Recently he was particularly incensed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s campaign to move the state to a graduated-rate income tax system and the impact it would have had on the region.

In an email to Citadel employees, Griffin described his fellow billionaire as a “shameless master of personal tax avoidance” and declared that other places, including Florida and Texas, have made compelling cases for businesses like

Citadel to leave Illinois. Griffin spent $54 million as of Oct. 25 opposing the tax change, saying that “economic hardship” caused by the state’s taxes and failure to reduce spending had already led to residents leaving.

At the Robin Hood event, Griffin wouldn’t be drawn into discussing who he thought would win the election. But he said its impact on markets would be determined by the size of a Democratic takeover of the Senate, with a “blue tidal wave” presenting a problem.

“You’ll see debates like D.C. for statehood, Puerto Rico for statehood. You’ll see some incredibly progressive economic proposals,” he said. “I think that’s actually really negative for assets.”

Alternatively, he said if Democrats won just a narrow majority, he saw centrists as “fortunately being in a very powerful position,” where taxes would increase but not in a “crippling” manner. ■

Fed cuts Main Street loan minimum by 60% BLOOMBERG

T

he Federal Reserve sharply reduced the minimum loan size in its Main Street Lending Program, potentially opening the emergency facilities to more U.S. businesses at a time when Congress remains deadlocked on additional aid.

By lowering the minimum loan size to $100,000 from $250,000, the Fed on Oct. 31 was responding to widespread calls to make Main Street easier to access for small businesses battling to survive the pandemic.

Fewer than 400 loans have been made since the program went operational in July, for a total of $3.7 billion, a fraction of the total $600 billion potentially available.

The Fed also changed the fee structure so that banks will get paid

more for facilitating loans under $250,000. Businesses that received under $2 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans will now be eligible for the Fed’s program. All five members of the Board of Governors voted to approve these changes.

“This is a major victory in our push to give small businesses the tools they need to get through the pandemic,” Donna Shalala, a congresswoman from Florida and member of the Cares Act Congressional Oversight Commission, said in a statement. “This is a great first step, but there’s definitely more work to be done. We’re going to keep pressing for more oversight and accountability.”

The Fed’s announcement came at the end of a tumultuous week in the markets and the global economy as virus cases surged in parts of the U.S.

and Europe, darkening the outlook for the pace of the recovery. Congress and the White House were unable to pass further stimulus measures ahead of the U.S. presidential election, leaving businesses and unemployed Americans without added support as the country fights another wave of infections.

Failed talks The adjustments to the Main Street program follow months of talks between Congress and the White House that ultimately failed to deliver more fiscal stimulus.

Lawmakers, business owners and industry groups have called for changes such as reducing the minimum loan size and further incentives for banks to provide support for small businesses.

Chair Jerome Powell has argued

that businesses may need grants, not loans, to get through the lengthy pandemic. But the PPP, whose loans turned into grants if companies used a certain amount of the funds for payroll retention, expired in August. The Fed is legally allowed only to loan money.

Although the program changes may come at a clutch time for businesses with few options right now, the demand for small loans has so far been limited. Only 14% of Main Street lending done through the end of September was for loans under $1 million.

In a September hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, Powell pointed to the limited appetite for such small borrowing.

He added that an entirely new program might be required for loans under $100,000, which often require

personal guarantees.

In order to encourage banks to make loans under $250,000, the Fed got rid of the 100 basis-point transaction fee—which lenders will still pay to the central bank on larger loans— raised the loan-origination fee that lenders charge borrowers and increased the servicing expense that the Fed pays to banks. Other program provisions, including banks’ retention of 5% of each loan that they sell to the Fed, remain unchanged.

Businesses can exclude PPP debt under $2 million, as long as it’s expected to be forgiven under the SBA’s payroll provisions, from calculations of their eligibility to apply for a Main Street loan.

The Main Street program is set to expire Dec. 31. It’s backed by $75 billion in taxpayer money authorized

by Congress in the Cares Act. ■

14 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | November 9, 2020

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COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

BY EDDIE SMALL

P

lanet Hollywood owes Vornado Realty Trust about $5.5 million in unpaid bills, and the famed restaurant chain’s money problems date back to months before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, according to a lawsuit filed Oct. 29 in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Vornado, which filed the lawsuit through an LLC, argues that Planet Hollywood has spent years failing to pay for its “prime Times Square location” at 1540 Broadway, thus forcing the real estate firm to end its lease.

The firm and the restaurant chain agreed to a 10-year lease at the Broadway location in 2012, giving the restaurant about 32,000 square feet inside the building. The lease is not one-sided and was “negotiated by sophisticated parties,” Vornado said in the suit.

The real estate firm has tried to work with Planet Hollywood on its finances multiple times over the years, but its issues dating back to December 2018 have only gotten worse, the lawsuit claims.

Vornado has made attempts to

collect payment, it said, notifying the restaurant on July 30, 2019, that it owed about $1.7 million under the lease. Although Planet Hollywood did not dispute the figure, it paid Vornado just $250,000, according to the suit. Vornado then sought a summary judgment in October 2019 that would award it the remaining balance with interest and possession of the building, but Planet Hollywood never responded to the petition.

Missed deadlines Money woes for the restaurant continued through last year and this year, according to the suit.

Planet Hollywood continued to drastically underpay its bills to Vornado through the end of last year, and then it stopped paying its rent altogether once the pandemic hit the city in March, court documents say. Vornado sent Planet Hollywood a pair of default notices in May and July, but the restaurant did not meet either deadline to pay its bills, the suit says.

The firm notified Planet Hollywood its lease would end Aug. 26, but the restaurant is still in possession of its Times Square location,

the lawsuit notes. Vornado has tried to find a replacement tenant but has not been able to do so.

Planet Hollywood owes Vornado about $5.5 million overall, and the firm is suing the restaurant for breach of contract.

Representatives for Planet Hollywood did not respond to a Crain’s request for comment. Vornado declined to comment on the case.

Vornado has sued multiple tenants over unpaid rent since the pandemic began, including the eatery Dig at 11 Penn Plaza for about $87,000 and the retailer U.S. Polo Assn., also at 1540 Broadway, for $1.2 million. The landlord’s rent collections have gained strength for the third quarter, ticking up to 82% from retail tenants, but the company owes nearly $10 billion to lenders, and any reduction in cash flows could spell trouble.

Restaurants’ revenue streams in the city have run thin, as they were allowed to open only for takeout and delivery services at the onset of the pandemic. An outdoor-dining plan, which began June 22, has offered restaurants a lifeline, but it has not been able to compensate for the overall economic damage

ALAMY

Vornado slaps Planet Hollywood with $5.5M lawsuit over unpaid bills

inflicted by Covid-19. Restaurants resumed indoor service Sept. 30 but with strict restrictions and at a maximum 25% capacity.

Despite rent-collection woes, Vornado has experienced some bright spots amid the pandemic. It

finalized a 730,000-square-foot lease with Facebook at the Farley Building by Penn Station in August, and units at its Billionaires Row condominium at 220 Central Park South have continued to sell at a steady pace. ■

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11/5/20 5:47 PM

CORONAVIRUS

“RENTERS NEED A BAILOUT. THERE’S NO GETTING AROUND THAT” State Sen. Brian Kavanagh and Assembly members Linda Rosenthal and Harvey Epstein expressed concerns about the number of applicants who have been rejected for the program.

“I think it’s breathtaking how many denials there were,” Rosen-

WIKI

ROSENTHAL

EPSTEIN

for the rent-relief program as the pandemic continues to take its toll,” HCR Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas said in a statement.

HCR had distributed about $12 million in funding to roughly 6,000 applicants as of mid-October, Crain’s previously reported. The agency disputed those numbers at the time but did not provide its own figures.

The agency will continue to distribute the money allocated to the program as long as it continues to find eligible applicants.

The city has received about 86% of the rent-relief funds HCR has distributed so far, according to the report. Queens received the most, with about $6.3 million, followed

by Brooklyn, with around $5.6 million. The Bronx received roughly $3.9 million, Manhattan received about $3.8 million, and Staten Island received about $324,000. The

average amount of rent relief ranged from about $2,300 in the Bronx and Staten Island to about $2,600 in Queens.

Outside of the city, Westchester received the most relief, with about $760,000, while 10 other counties— Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chenango, Delaware, Essex, Franklin, Lewis, Schoharie, Schuyler and Wyoming—have not received any money under the program.

HCR distributed the most money in October, about $11.3 million. It distributed roughly $9 million in September and $3 million in August. The agency has provided rent relief to 2,292 Hispanic households, 2,029 white households, 1,490 Black households and 1,352 Asian households, while about 2,100 were categorized as undefined, according to the report.

To qualify for the program, tenants must have lost money because of the pandemic, spend more than 30% of their monthly income on rent and earn less than 80% of the area’s median income. HCR has distributed about $9 million to about 3,800 tenants earning between 30% and 50% of the area’s median income, $8 million to 3,400 families earning between 50% and 80% of the area’s median income, and $6 million to 2,300 families earning up

to 30% of the area’s median income.

Poor reviews Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the report.

Jay Martin, executive director of the Community Housing Improvement Program, said he was disappointed with the distribution numbers so far, although he acknowledged that HCR was doing its best to get the money out.

“Renters need a bailout. There’s no getting around that, and certainly canceling rent isn’t a viable alternative,” he said. “We do hope that the program is accelerated and that the state does work to get the money out the door more quickly.”

Housing advocates have criticized the program for months as a feeble and insignificant attempt to help tenants struggling with rent.

Aaron Carr, executive director of the Housing Rights Initiative, did not let up on those criticisms in the wake of the report.

“With over a million jobs lost and hundreds of thousands of people at risk of eviction, the Covid Rent-Relief Program is wholly insufficient and inadequate,” he said. “It is not so much a drop in the bucket as it is a drop of a drop of a drop in the bucket.” ■

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16 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | November 9, 2020

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BUCK ENNIS

M

ore than half of New Yorkers, or 61%, who applied to the state’s Covid-19 rent-relief program have been rejected for aid.

The Division of Homes and Community Renewal, the agency that administers the program, denied more than 57,000 applicants for not meeting the requirements laid out by the program, according to a report by the agency.

The rent-relief program was open for applicants from July 16 through Aug. 6, and HCR received about 94,000 applications during that time, the report said.

thal said, calling the number of denials “outrageous.”

“That means 57,000 households are in crisis right now,” she said.

KAVANAGH Kavanagh said he would be open to changing the legislation to make it easier for at least some of the rejected applicants to qualify for rent relief.

“I think we do need to revisit those criteria and perhaps make ... the eligibility for this program broader,” he said.

Applicants who think the state rejected them in error may appeal.

The state's $100 million program has distributed roughly $23.2 million to about 9,600 households in its first few months, according to the report. The agency said it has roughly $16.8 million worth of pending payments to distribute to about 5,400 more households.

“We are proud to have delivered much-needed relief to thousands of New Yorkers in line with parameters established by the Legislature

NYSENATE.COM

BY EDDIE SMALL

NYASSEMBLY.GOV

61% of rent-relief program applicants rejected

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FARM

compared with about $700 million this year.

Two of the largest East Coast vertical farms, by venture dollars, Bowery and AeroFarms—which has raised $250 million from investors—have focused farming outside of the city, in New Jersey.

Upward Farms, which uses aquaponics and vertical farming to raise both striped bass and leafy greens in a closed ecosystem, raised $15 million from venture investors to build a new farming facility and research center in Greenpoint.

“Organic produce has grown 20% year over year and is actually exceeding the growth for produce at large, so the demand is clear and present,” CEO and co-founder Jason Green said. “There is a tremendous opportunity to expand food production in the city, but you will have to think about things like zoning and energy costs.”

A City Council bill that passed in

February required the mayor’s office to develop a 10-year food plan, including ideas to boost urban farming in the five boroughs. After Covid-19 threatened the city’s food supply at the start of the pandemic, a report from the de Blasio administration in April pledged to scale up regional food production.

As much as vertical farms capture the imagination, the operations represent a tiny fraction of the city’s overall food supply—focused almost solely on leafy greens. The profit margins are low, and the cost of energy, land and labor are high. Investors are betting, however, that advanced robotics and artificial intelligence can bring costs down while a push for a more localized food supply boosts demand.

“It would be an absolute dream to turn vacant warehouses into elaborate vertical farms that feed the city,” said Charles Platkin, executive director of the Hunter College Food Policy Center. “But the reality

is that we are just not there yet.”

Given its focus on pricier produce, farming in controlled environments “is unlikely to offer a panacea for social problems or an unqualified urban agricultural revolution,” concluded a 2019 report

by Wylie Goodman and Jennifer Minner of Cornell University’s Land Use Policy Center.

Henry Gordon Smith, founder and CEO of Agritecture, a consulting firm in Brooklyn, said New York could encourage urban farming as a whole by developing an agriculture zoning district. While farming is allowed in almost all commercial, residential and industrial zones, having parts of the city dedicated to farming could allow developers to jump through fewer hoops.

“These are farms that can maximize the limited space in the city and produce a good amount of jobs for that space as well, similar to factories,” Gordon Smith said. “And these are typically jobs that align well with food-service jobs, the kind that may have been lost because of Covid.”

There is evidence that agricultural businesses can thrive in the city.

Gotham Greens has seen its sales double year over year, driven by the pandemic, said Viraj Puri, the company’s co-founder and CEO. The company launched its first greenhouse in 2011, on the roof of Whole Foods in Greenpoint, and now operates eight urban greenhouse farms, with two more in the city and the rest in Chicago; Denver; Providence, R.I.; and Baltimore.

A decade ago “people thought we were crazy,” Puri said. “Now there are half a dozen companies here, at least, and all this capital coming in.”

The greenhouse method differs slightly from vertical farming by relying on the sun for energy. But each method—whether using AI, aquaponics or greenhouses—is ultimately after the same end: growing food near where people live using a fraction of the land and water.

“It feels very much like the internet in the mid-’90s,” said Peggs of Square Roots. “There are a few of us crazy enough to know this thing is inevitable, and we are trying to figure out how to make that happen.” ■

ceive billions in federal aid or deficit financing authority from Albany.

The layoffs never materialized, but the threat of cuts remained.

Special projects unique to New York could now get pushed over the finish line thanks to a Biden administration. Both the Amtrak Gateway tunnel beneath the Hudson River and the approval of congestion pricing by the Department of Transportation have languished under Trump.

“It will mean Gateway gets built, Second Avenue subway continues and the JFK and LaGuardia airport renovations get finished,” Scissura said. “So many things will happen, and we’re very excited about it.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo will also stand to benefit from a Biden presidency, as the two have known each other for years and worked closely on a handful of infrastructure projects when Biden served as vice president under Barack Obama.

Cuomo could join the administration or exert some influence on

the presidency from Albany.

“It gives New York a lot more alliance with the nexus points of the incoming administration,” said Bruce Gyory, a Democratic political consultant at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. “New Yorkers tend to get high positions in Democratic administrations.”

There is also talk that Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York’s 8th Congressional District in Queens could emerge as a moderate candidate for speaker of the House, as many Democrats are disappointed with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership following Election Day losses.

Which party will lead the U.S. Senate has yet to be determined. At press time, it looked as though the Georgia Senate races would be decided in a January runoff. If Democrats ultimately prevail, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer would become majority leader and immediately hold the lever of power to help his home state.

Not everyone is rejoicing at the

prospect of Democratic domination, however.

“You’re going to see increased taxes, especially if there are majorities in the Congress,” said Sen. Robb Ortt, Republican minority leader in the New York Senate. “I don’t know if you’re going to see a tangible benefit.”

Biden’s victory would be a huge relief for budget hawks in New York, such as Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who have advised against granting the $5 billion in borrowing authority to the city. It’s not clear yet how big a relief package new Democratic leadership could put together, but some amount of the $12 billion in relief the MTA has requested to continue operations into next year will most certainly be included in any multitrillion-dollar effort.

“I think that the U.S. may develop a supportive urban policy along the lines of what we had in the 1970s that recognizes the economic importance of cities to the national economy,” Wylde said. ■

FROM PAGE 3

ELECTION FROM PAGE 1

The killing of George Floyd this past summer ignited long-simmering racial tensions that threaten the social fabric of many American cities. Though Biden has yet to say how he will solve all the country’s problems, it’s clear New York, which faces a $9 billion budget deficit and a transportation system on the brink of collapse, will gain much from his presidency.

“A Democratic administration … will help in terms of getting the necessary funding to support the deficits in New York created by the virus,” said Jeffrey Levine, chairman of Douglaston Development. “Having a Democratic president will help blue states get back on their feet.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, signaled last week that he is open to a stimulus package passing before the end of the year and, in a turnaround,

STEMS AND SEEDS: Square Roots’ hydroponic farm BUCK ENNIS

stressed the food system. Bennett’s story shows why. When panic buying surged in March and grocery shelves emptied, Greene Grape kept stocked with meats from just outside the city and greens from Square Roots, along with Gotham Greens and Brooklyn Grange, both rooftop farms.

“There wasn’t an interruption for us because we are not removed from our supply chain like you are if you are getting food from across the country,” Bennett said.

Billions of dollars in venture capital have poured into companies to build urban vertical farms, in which crops are grown in stacked indoor systems using artificial light and a fraction of the water that traditional farming requires. Most operations are hydroponic, meaning they don’t need soil, and they do not require pesticides.

Beyond the Covid-19 demand, the industry has been helped by less expensive and more efficient LED lighting and advancements in robotics and sensors from a decade ago, when the term “vertical farming” was popularized. LED lights, sensors and custom software allow a company such as Square Roots to “re-create the exact environment for the best basil in the world, the kind we all like on our pizza, from Genoa, Italy,” said Tobias Peggs, the company’s CEO and co-founder.

The industry, already well established in parts of Europe and Asia, is still in its infancy in the U.S. Long term, proponents say, the ability to grow food anywhere positions vertical farming as part of the answer to climate change and a growing population focused in cities.

“Covid-19 was a clear accelerant of existing behavior,” said Irving Fain, CEO of Bowery Farming, which has two large indoor-farming warehouses in Kearny, N.J. “People got a clear understanding of how the fresh-food supply chain works and just how fragile that can be.”

Bowery, which is headquartered in Chelsea, has raised $173 million to build a system of indoor vertical

farms that it says is among the largest and most sophisticated in the nation. The company relies on sensors, robotics and artificial intelligence to optimize the growing conditions of its kale, lettuce, cilantro and microgreens. Its business has grown rapidly since March, expanding from supplying 100 stores in January to 650 as of October, including Whole Foods and Foragers in Chelsea.

“ORGANIC PRODUCE HAS GROWN 20% YEAR OVER YEAR, SO THE DEMAND IS CLEAR” “Most of our food is coming from thousands of miles away,” Fain said.

“For New York, we are 10 miles away.”

Vertical farms such as Bowery’s could soon fill more salad bowls.

Research firm IDTechEx forecasts that sales of vertically farmed goods in the United States will rise to more than $1.5 billion by 2030, said he would sign off on aid for cities hit hard by the pandemic, like New York.

“I think what helps the restaurant industry is anything that gets bipartisanship going,” said Jeffrey Bank, CEO of Alicart Restaurant Group.

“Clearly, Congress and the president couldn’t make a deal, and everyone knows there needs to be more stimulus.”

Bank said he is hopeful a Biden administration would be able to pass the Restaurants Act, a $120 billion federal grant that has bipartisan support in both houses of Congress.

Stimulus pledge Biden has pledged to provide billions in stimulus money to states, municipalities and small businesses desperate for federal relief. New York City has been playing a game of chicken with its public workers for months, with Mayor Bill de Blasio saying he would lay off 22,000 city employees Oct. 1 if he didn’t re-

Budding prospects

18 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | NOVEMBER 9, 2020

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CITIGROUP FROM PAGE 1

last month pleaded guilty to wrongdoing by its Malaysian subsidiary and agreed to pay more than $5 billion in penalties. It was perhaps the costliest episode for a New York bank since the 2012 saga of JPMorgan Chase and the London Whale, a tale of $6 billion in trading losses and woe.

But Citi has more egg on its face than anyone, in part because people still remember when it was banking’s big kahuna. Also, its mishaps have been colorful and consequential, starting with CEO-in-waiting Jamie Dimon getting sacked after a fight on a dance floor, the “kid pro quo” brouhaha of 2002, the double-barreled bailout of 2008, the $400 million loss in Mexico in 2014 and now the $900 million oops.

“The story of Citi is a story of how not to manage a business,” said Dick Bove, a banking analyst at Odeon Capital who has followed the company for 50 years.

Citi’s market value has slipped to $90 billion, less than a third of JPMorgan Chase’s. Its stock trades for half the company’s net worth. The bank recently named its sixth chief executive in 20 years, Jane Fraser, who will become the first woman to lead a major U.S. bank when she takes over in February.

There’s plenty for her to do. Citi is a wounded brand in the U.S., where regulators last month accused it of “significant ongoing deficiencies”—chronic failures in risk management that cause the bank to repeatedly step onto rakes.

“Sometimes I wonder why this company exists at all,” Bove said.

Citi would not make Fraser available for an interview, but in a statement it said it had made “tremendous progress” toward becoming a strong and stable institution since the financial crisis. Net income has doubled in the past eight years, and revenue has grown by 3% during this pandemic year.

“Our foundation is sound, stable and secure,” the bank said. “We have made strengthening our risk and control environment a strategic priority, and we have significant remediation projects underway that will make us more competitive and help us serve our clients in the best possible way.”

Financial Valhalla Through the 1990s Citi was the best name in banking. It was the

POT

FROM PAGE 3

rights advocates feared that minority communities—victims of decades of racially biased marijuana arrests—would be left out of business opportunities while established operators in the medical-marijuana business reaped the profits.

Cuomo alluded to those concerns last Thursday. "The question becomes about money, the distribution and the power . . . who gets the licenses and the money," he said.

The New York City Cannabis Industry Association, a group

MARKET CAPS (All figures are in billions) $500

Citigroup

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

$400

$300

$200

$100

0

Jan. 1997

SOURCE: S&P Global Market Intelligence

only U.S. lender with branches all over the world, and its slogan, “The Citi never sleeps,” hit just the right note.

“JPMorgan guys were the best dressed, the people at Manufacturers Hanover were the friendliest, and the guys at Citi won because they had the best ideas,” said Charles Wendel, a Citi banker in the late 1970s.

“They were gods,” said Tom Brown, CEO of Second Curve Capital, a firm that invests in financial institutions.

This financial Valhalla was overseen by Walter Wriston. He succeeded a Rockefeller as CEO in 1967 and on his first day shocked colleagues by wearing a striped shirt instead of a white one. He led Citi and the rest of American bank-

finance and insurance roll-up. The deal qualifies as one of the worst business combinations ever.

One month after the megamerger closed, Citi bludgeoned itself in the foot when the board fired its president, Dimon. Dimon, frustrated by a massive firm where three division heads reported to two CEOs, was shown the door after he disrupted a corporate retreat by shouting, “Don’t you ever turn your back on me when I’m talking” at a senior executive who insulted a friend’s wife on the dance floor.

Two years later the knives came out for co-CEO Reed, who reportedly spent all night riding the subway after getting shoved aside.

Still, at the dawn of the millennium, Citi’s $240 billion market value quadrupled JPMorgan’s, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

With about 25,000 workers, it was New York’s largest private employer.

The powerful firm flexed its muscle in memorable ways, such as when its widely followed telecommunications analyst, Jack Grubman, upgraded his rating on AT&T shares so that Weill, an AT&T board member, would help get his children into the prestigious 92nd Street Y nursery school. It was the original “kid pro quo.”

Meanwhile, Dimon dusted himself off and in 2005 was named CEO of JPMorgan Chase. He began laying the foundation to eat Citi’s lunch by prioritizing lending to small and midsize companies because he knew some would evolve into big clients. One former JPMorgan banker recalled making the

“THE STORY OF CITI IS A STORY OF HOW NOT TO MANAGE A BUSINESS” ing into the modern age, pressing regulators to ease off on Depression-era constraints and freeing lenders to reap great profits.

Wriston promised investors 15% returns. One way he did that was by moving Citi’s credit card operation to South Dakota in 1981 after the state eliminated caps on interest rates and fees. Citi also made big loans in Latin America on the mistaken assumption sovereign borrowers would never default.

Wriston was succeeded in 1984

by John Reed, who is remembered for his defining and dreadful decision in 1998 to merge with Travelers Group, Sandy Weill’s consumer launched at the start of this year, hopes to bring together everyone from publicly traded medical-marijuana corporations to underground dealers to create an equitable marketplace.

While there is much to sort out, "Covid has given a financial incentive to find revenue through taxation and entrepreneurship opportunities for people in the industry," said David Holland, a lawyer, the group's cofounder and a longtime advocate for the legalization of cannabis.

Amber Littlejohn, a senior policy adviser to the Minority Cannabis Business Association, said New York must ensure capital is available for startup costs at marijuana

ventures. The costs can reach $200,000 in some states.

"This needs to be set up in a way that is not inaccessible to small business and small minority businesses," Littlejohn said. "We have seen across the country that the communities most impacted by war on drugs are the communities that have also been most impacted

by Covid-19."

Buzzkill Opposition to legalization exists among medical practitioners, including the Medical Society of the State of New York.

"Our concerns are that the public health effects of cannabis will likely outweigh any revenues the

promised attendees the colossus built by Weill and Reed would be dismantled.

“When it comes to what has to be done, it is doable,” he said. “It can $295.5 be done.”

The board lost patience, and in 2012 Pandit was suddenly replaced

by Michael Corbat, a Citi lifer who aimed to stabilize and streamline the bank. Financial metrics improved, such as return on tangible equity, but Citi’s stock price continued to lag, and a loan-fraud case in Mexico led to a $400 million loss.

Today the shrunken Citi is New $104.9 York’s 10th-largest private employOct. 2020 er, according to Crain’s research.

The bank mostly stayed out of the headlines until August’s $900 million blunder.

In court papers Citi explained first loan to clothing designer Mi- that the money accidentally went out because a clerk “did not manuchael Kors.

“When they were ready for their ally select the correct system opIPO and other sexy stuff, JPMorgan tions and, unfortunately, the mangot the call,” said the executive, who ual checks of that selection also requested anonymity when speak- failed to detect the mistake.” Citi ing about a competitor. “Citi was an attributed the error to the nature of modern finance, where zillions of incomplete platform.”

There was another hole in Citi’s transactions take place every day.

“The velocity and complexity of platform: money.

Because it didn’t have a lot of U.S. such transactions means that hubranches with deposits to man and technological provide low-cost funding, errors do occur at times,” Citi financed operations the bank said in a court with cash raised in the filing. markets.

Whatever Judge Fur“When the music stops, man makes of that arguin terms of liquidity, ment, regulators aren’t things will be complicatimpressed, and last CITIGROUP’S loss from an month they fined Citi ed. But as long as the mualleged fraud $400 million. The Federal sic is playing, you’ve got at its Mexican Reserve said the bank to get up and dance,” subsidiary in came up short in risk ­Weill’s lawyer and succes2014 management and intersor, Chuck Prince, famously said in 2007. nal controls, while the “We’re still dancing.”

Office of the Comptroller Citi had to be bailed out of the Currency cited NUMBER twice by taxpayers when “longstanding failure” to of workers the music stopped. Its address previously cited employed by market value fell below issues. Citi has said it’s Citigroup in New JPMorgan’s in January committed to fixing its York in 2000 2008, and at that year’s problems. annual meeting, security Bove, the longtime anguards stopped visitors to alyst, reckons it will take examine their briefcases and purs- up to five years to fix the bank. Fortunately, Citi’s brand remains strong es for fruit.

“They’re afraid people will throw overseas, while rivals like Credit it,” a guard explained as he confis- ­Suisse, Deutsche Bank and HSBC are struggling. Stateside, Wells Fargo cated an orange. is in even more hot water with reguDark times lators than Citi. All this may give FraCiti’s stock sank to less than a ser time to change the narrative dollar a share. Things got so bleak around this traumatized institution. that Chairman Richard Parsons of“She knows how to assess a probfered to buy flowers for someone lem, apply a solution and how to who said unexpectedly nice things execute,” Bove said. “I’m hopeful about management at the 2009 an- she understands what needs to be nual meeting. CEO Vikram Pandit done.” ■

CITI’S NUMBERS

$400M 25K

state secures by legalizing recreational marijuana," said Dr. Bonnie Litvack, president of the physicians' group.

Marijuana advertising designed to appeal to children or near schools would be banned under the proposed Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, which is the Legislature's answer to Cuomo's legalization efforts. The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Liz Krueger, representing Manhattan, includes funding for a small-business incubator in the marijuana industry and would prioritize licensing to people from communities most affected by the war on drugs.

Krueger bemoaned that "one more of our neighbors [New Jersey]

is moving ahead of us toward legalization, and toward reaping the benefits in terms of jobs, tax revenue and social justice."

"This is a competition New York should have won," she said, "but now we are being left behind."

The ballot question that New Jersey voters approved calls for a 6.6% tax on marijuana sales, which will be limited to those 21 and older.

Municipalities can tack on a 2% local tax.

The edict from voters for marijuana does not rule out a lengthy legislative review, however. Massachusetts voters approved marijuana by a ballot vote in 2016, but it didn't reach stores until November 2018. ■

November 9, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 19

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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

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Few qualities are more vital to the health of any business than financial experts in tax regulation, audit, estate administration, forensic accounting, organizational transformation, advisory services, fundraising and business equilibrium and organizational efficiency.

Rarely has the value of both been more strongly felt than in recent structure. They represent an extraordinary group of professionals from months. From stress-tested balance sheets to fast-changing regulations, firms of varying size and renown.

CRAINSNEWYORK.COM I SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 I To find these honorees, Crain’s consulted with trusted sources in the and reconfigured supply chains to “new normal” working arrangements, business world in general and in the accounting and consulting realms in the Covid-19 pandemic has challenged even the strongest of businesses.

Standing tall within this chaotic breach are the foot soldiers of profes- particular. The nominations submitted by individuals and firms in the New Few qualities are more vital to the health of any business than financial experts in tax regulation, audit, estate administration, forensic accounting, York metropolitan area were rigorously vetted. Ultimately, each of the acsional service firms, led by accountants and management consultants. organizational transformation, advisory services, fundraising and business equilibrium and organizational efficiency.

In selecting the 86 honorees for this year’s list of Notable Women in counting and consulting notables was chosen for her career achievements Rarely has the value of both been more strongly felt than in recent structure. They represent an extraordinary group of professionals from Accounting and Consulting, Crain’s sought to spotlight the accomplished and involvement in industry and community organizations—and at times and renown. months. From stress-tested balance sheets to fast-changing regulations, firms of varyingI size 28, 2020 I to help New York rebound SEPTEMBER from the coronavirus. metropolitan area professionals and problem-solvers who keep business- her effortsCRAINSNEWYORK.COM To find these honorees, Crain’s consulted with trusted sources in the and reconfigured supply chains to “new normal” working arrangements, Read their biographies and learn how the members of this remarkable es churning. The talented individuals presented here are a diverse group, business world in general and in the accounting and consulting realms in the Covid-19 pandemic has challenged even the strongest of businesses. skilled at resourceful innovation and disruptive thinking. These women are cohort keep the gears of business whirling.

The nominations by individuals andadministration, firms in the New Standing tall within thisqualities chaoticare breach soldiersofofany profesexperts insubmitted tax regulation, audit, estate forensic accounting, Few moreare vitalthetofoot the health businessparticular. than financial York metropolitan organizational area were rigorously vetted. Ultimately, each of the acsional service firms, led by accountants and management transformation, advisory services, fundraising and business equilibrium and organizational efficiency.consultants. counting and consulting notables chosenan forextraordinary her career achievements In selecting the 86 honorees for this list been of Notable structure.

They was represent group of professionals from Rarely has the valueyear’s of both more Women stronglyinfelt than in recent andregulations, involvement infirms industry and community organizations—and at times Accounting and Consulting, Crain’s sought to spotlight the accomplished of varying size and renown. months. From stress-tested balance sheets to fast-changing efforts to help New from theCrain’s coronavirus. metropolitan area and professionals andsupply problem-solvers businessTo York find rebound these honorees, consulted with trusted sources in the reconfigured chains to who “newkeep normal” working her arrangements, Read their biographies learn how theand members this remarkable es churning. The talented individuals presented here are aeven diverse group, of businesses. businessand world in general in the of accounting and consulting realms in the Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the strongest cohort the gears of business whirling. submitted by individuals and firms in the New skilled at resourcefulStanding innovationtalland disruptive thinking.

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In selecting the 86 honorees for this year’s list of Notable Women in Accounting and Consulting, Crain’s sought to spotlight the accomplished metropolitan area professionals and problem-solvers who keep businesses churning. The talented individuals presented here are a diverse group, skilled at resourceful innovation and disruptive thinking. These women are

LAURA PETERSON

York metropolitan area were rigorously vetted. Ultimately, each of the accounting and consulting notables was chosen for her career achievements and involvement in industry and community organizations—and at times her efforts to help New York rebound from the coronavirus. rs of thiss rre remarkable eemarkab markable Read their biographies and learn how the members cohort keep the gears of business whirling.

Managing Director and Communications, Media and Technology Northeast Business Leader Accenture

LAURA PETERSON

Laura Peterson’s résumé lists a whopping 10 positions she’s held at the multinational professional services company Managing Director and Communications, Media and Technology Northeast Business Leader Accenture since joining the firm in 2000. In her current role as Accenture the Northeast business lead for communications, media and technology, the enterprising ladder climber presides over a team Laura Peterson’s résumé lists a whopping 10 positions she’s of 3,000 professionals. Peterson is charged with managing a $750 held at the multinational professional services company andinCommunications, Media and Technology echnology Northeast B Business usin nes ss Lead Leader der er million profit-and-lossManaging statementDirector for clients the Accenture since joining the firm in 2000. In her current role as aforementioned sectors as well as the high tech sector. Peterson Accenture the Northeast business lead for communications, media and works with key business leaders among more than 40 clients and technology, the enterprising ladder climber presides over a team Laura Peterson’sstructure. résumé lists a whopping within Accenture’s global management Since 2017, she 10 positionss she’s of 3,000 professionals. Peterson is charged with managing a $750 held the multinational professional companyy has been a board adviser to at Fairygodboss, an online platformservices that million profit-and-loss statement for clients in the since joining the firm in 2000. In her current role as seeks to elevate womenAccenture in the workplace. aforementioned sectors as well as the high tech sector. Peterson a and the Northeast business lead for communications, media works with key business leaders among more than 40 clients and ver a team technology, the enterprising ladder climber presides over Reprinted with permission from Crain’s New York Business. © 2020 Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

Further duplication without permission is prohibited. #NB20073 Since 2017, she within Accenture’s global management structure. ng a $750 of 3,000 professionals. Peterson is charged with managing has been a board adviser to Fairygodboss, an online platform that million profit-and-loss statement for clients in the seeks to elevate women in the workplace. aforementioned sectors as well as the high tech sector. Peterson ients and works with key business leaders among more than 40 clients Reprinted with permission from Crain’s New York Business. © 2020 Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. within Accenture’s global Further management duplication without permission structure. is prohibited. #NB20073Since 2017, she atform that has been a board adviser to Fairygodboss, an online platform seeks to elevate women in the workplace.

LAURA PETERSON

PAT WANG Healthfirst

P

INTERVIEW BY JENNIFER HENDERSON

at Wang, president and CEO of Healthfirst, a nonprofit insurer formed by a group of health care systems, had been working to advance value-based care long before the pandemic. The concept involves paying hospitals and physicians based on their patients’ outcomes rather than on the volume of services they provide. Now, as health care providers face unprecedented financial strain due to the Covid-19 crisis, Wang says such payment arrangements are more critical than ever. Not only do they improve the quality of care for patients—including the 1.5 million plan members Healthfirst serves throughout the city, Long Island and surrounding areas—but they also generate fiscal benefit for the facilities, practices and health centers that serve them.

How does Healthfirst contribute to value-based care?

What you understand as profit in another health insurance company’s balance sheet at Healthfirst is contractually-driven surplus that goes back to the delivery system. Eighty percent of the premiums we get for medical services flows through value-based payment arrangements, which means that providers benefit when there is a surplus in the premium. If less money is spent on fee-for-service claims, the surplus is part of the contractually-obligated payment stream.

What has that meant during the pandemic?

For April through June, we are distributing $250 million in those surpluses [about double that of the same period last year], and we’ve expedited the calculation and reconciliation of those amounts to get them out the door faster because the delivery system really needs it.

Why are value-based payments vital now and in normal times?

In the best of times, we have always been trying to push for this model because it aligns the incentives around trying to keep people healthy and avoiding g unnecessaryy care. The p providers are aligned with that ggoal because theyy benefit from it if they can reduce avoidable care. Consider Covid-19 to be like a war.

In war times, times the model has been a lifesaver aver because tth ere is this artificial artific there depression depression pression p sion of utilization, uti u utilization tilization lization tion a tion, an and nd th that that’s ha s whyy the p providers have lost so much m oney—their ne ey h these risk skk contracts, contracts money—their revenue has dried up. But because we have these the surplus that is there, that’s what has gone out the do the door to them.

DOSSIER WHO SHE IS President and CEO, Healthfirst AGE 66 BORN Jersey City RESIDES Manhattan EDUCATION Bachelor’s in history and East Asian studies, Princeton University; J.D., New York University School of Law FAMILY MATTERS Wang is married and has one son who lives in Brooklyn.

GLOBAL TIES She has lived in Croatia, Taiwan as well as China, where she had more than 20 first cousins.

FLARE FOR FOOD Wang has become reacquainted with the joy of cooking as a result of the pandemic.

EYE ON MEDICAID About three-quarters of Healthfirst’s members are Medicaid beneficiaries. The insurer’s initial response to the crisis included having its care managers make sure members had medicine and durable medical equipment to stay at home safely.

BUDGET CUTS Wang says the magnitude of the state’s Medicaid cuts—instituted to pare back on spending growth—is devastating. “Cuts t us as a M to Medicaid di id pla plan l are rre cuts to hospitals” hospitals. p ”

What happens appens pens en when patientss again begin b seeking seek services serv ? services?

W do We d see utilization tili til ation ti n coming i b back, kk,, a and d we e have been enc ouraging our members mem m mbers b g needed care ca are because b bec ec ecause encouraging to get people have putt a lot of stuff off. We have to os se see ee whet h the her th bounce b b i ti or it just j stt b bri brrin ngs things tth hings back whether backk iis gigantic brings to a steady dy state. state. If we go back to a more normal utilization utilization n pattern, attern, tern, then the t regular r s of of trying trr yin ng to to align incentives around nd good od d preve preventive entive ive ca care and avoiding unnecessary unn ca ccare, are re, e, th they hey just kick in in.

How H Ho ow c ow ca can an n the tth he city city safely sa bounce back from the pandem mic mic c? pandemic?

Continue Continue on ontin nt nue ntinue nue doubling doublin doub dou oubling oub bling l ng g down do on the public health measures s already already in place: wearing masks, social distancing diis stanc ta an ncing and hand h an a nd nd sanitation. sanit s sanitation an nitttatio a on. on n. We W know what to do. But I think a singular sing gular focus on getting the schools open for orr ffull ull le earning learning sh should hould top the th he e list of what hat we a are aiming aimi for. for fo We shoul ld m easure our success against that goal. As As an employer, should measure I can n tell you that att we e will ill not ot be e able to get g fully full ffu ba ck tto ow ork until the thousands of employees with wit w th school-age school-age back work children can get their kids back into school. It’s of course cours se better for all children and particularly critical crritticcal for poorer children. The he city hinge on on how quickly and how well we can get ge that th ha at done d do one so that that city’s economic recovery is going to hinge parents can resume their normal lives too. too As A a longtime longtim me resident re s recover recover from of the city who has watched us recession, ecession, ession, ss sion, s ion,, 9/11 1 and a Hurricane Hurri an Hurrica ne San Sandy Sa San I believe in the city’s cityy’s ability to bounce back against the odds. odd ds s. But But this Sandy, time me e is s going ingg test t t all a of us, us and a we w should s sh be sober ab boutt the th need for everyone to contribute to the tth he solution. solution. about Whatt challenges llenges nges face the t broader broad in bro insurance industry y? ? industry?

B l ncing Balancing i the h needs ds and d expectation ex expe expectat xpectatio i w wh ho need need and deserve good health care coverage, covve cove erag ge, expandexpand expectations of consumers who ing ng g access ccess however we can an and an a doing d doi oi it within an increasingly incre ea asingly ngly constrained economic environment. environment environme t. This This s is especially specially ecially true e with wit Medicaid, Medicaid Medicaid, where whe wh the state’s budge et situation situation tu s people’s peop plle s needs n budget is dire at the same time as are increasing. creasing. Given that Healthfirst He Healthfirs Healthfirs st has over 1 million million Medicaid Med edicaid members, the potential impact off the the state’s budget is especially concerning concerning. co erning. ni Fo or me, m our priority has has to to be enabling as many people as possible possib po ble ble to o have full full For access cess ess to high-quality hi h li care, e, and d it’ it’s i s ggoing to be a cha lllenge to figure out how to do that in this economic eco e o on nom omic environenvironchallenge ment. t. Insurers ers also need to b mind mindf nd of the hurt being bein ng experienced xperienced by so much of the provider provide delivery d de ellivery ivvve e system. system. be mi mindful The value of our ou produ products re relies elies ie on o having ha docto ors, hospitals and community resources.. Balancing Ba ala alanc an ncing all of strong doctors, tthis his s in a financially viab way is go ggoing oing to be a challenge. challeng ge. ■ viable way Reprinted with permission R permiisssio on ffrom Crain’s ain’s New Ne York Business Business.. © 2020 Crain rain Communications Com mmunications mu Inc. A All lll rights rrig s reserved. re resserrvved. urther duplication without permission is prohibited. prohib proh bitted d. #NB20080 #N NB20080 Further

Why not?

For more information contact: Lauren Melesio Director, Reprints & Licensing lmelesio@crain.com • (212) 210-0707

Reprinted with permission from Crain’s New York Business. © 2020 Crain Communications mmunications Inc. All rights reserved. veed. d. #NB20073 Further duplication without permission is prohibited.

20 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | NOVEMBER 9, 2020

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PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES NOTICE OF FORMATION of limited liability company (LLC). Name: JE T’AIME FORD, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 09/09/2020. Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to: JAMIE FORD. 175 W. 87th ST., APT. 19H, NEW YORK, NY 10024. Purpose: shoe company.

Notice of Formation of ROCKAWAY ASSOCIATES, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/15/20. 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.

ALLAY THERAPY LCSW, PLLC, a Prof.

LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 09/10/2020. 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, 421 8th Avenue, #192, NY, NY 10116. Purpose: To Practice The Profession Of Licensed Clinical Social Work.

Notice of Formation of ELMWOOD SQUARE HOUSING DEVELOPER, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/21/20. 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 122072543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF Law Office of Alexandra Bonacarti. Articles of Organization filed with the SSNY on 7/27/20. Office location: New York County.SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The address to which SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the PLLC served upon hi m/her is: One Liberty Plaza, 23rd Floor, New York, NY 10006. The principal business address of the PLLC is: One Liberty Plaza, 23rd Floor, New York, NY 10006. Purpose:any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of Title Clearing & Escrow, LLC, Fictitious Name: Title Clearing & Escrow Agency, LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/25/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/06/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Registered Agent Solutions, Inc., 99 Washington Ave., Ste. 1008, Albany, NY 12260. Address to be maintained in DE: 9 E. Loockerman St., Ste. 311, Dover, DE 19901. 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 ELMWOOD SQUARE HOUSING GP, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/21/20. 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 12207-2543.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

WEALTH PLANNING ADVISORS, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 1 0/19/2020. Office loc: NY County.

SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Alexander J. Mele, 555 West 23rd Street Apt. N6M, NY, NY 10011. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

31 TMH Realty LLC. Appl. for Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/09/20. Off. loc.: NY Co. Orig. juris.: DE. SSNY des. as agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, c/o Allison Young, 31 West 89th Street, New York, NY 10024. Purpose: General.

SHERRY HSIEH LLC. Arts of Org filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 9/29/20. Office in NY County.

SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail process to 13 W 13th St Apt 2EN, New York, NY 10011. Purpose: any lawful activity

Highlands Investments LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the Secretary of State ("SSNY") on 4/8/20. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon it is: 385 1st ave, Apt 4B, New York, NY, 10010. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of SCHICKLER KAYE LLP Cert. of Reg. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/25/20. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLP: One Rockefeller Plaza, 11th Fl., NY, NY 10020.

SSNY designated as agent of LLP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLP at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Profession of law.

Notice of Formation of HC HOLDCO III LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/30/20. 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 Timothy P. Terry, 667 Madison Ave., 24th Fl., NY, NY 10065. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of UNDERBITE DENTAL BRANDS LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/25/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/22/20. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 230 W. 41st St., Second Fl., NY, NY 10036. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of DE, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of ELMWOOD SQUARE HOUSING CLASS B, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/21/20. 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 122072543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

BALTIC CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, LLC. Art. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 10/01/20. 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 C T Corporation System, 28 Liberty St New York, NY 10005. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Oath Holdings Inc. has multiple openings in New York, NY (various levels/ types):

Notice of Qualification of CALIBRANT WOODLAND I, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/13/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/24/20. Princ. office of LLC: 125 W. 55th St., NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c /o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.

DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

To apply, mail resume to Oath, Attn: Jillian Johnson, 701 1st Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94089. Refer job title & number.

Notice of Formation of EVENFEEL LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/27/20. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 3587 Hammock St., Las Vegas, NV 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to U.S. Corp. Agents, Inc., 7014 13th Ave., Ste. 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of CALIBRANT TE DEVELOPMENT, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/13/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/24/20. Princ. office of LLC: 125 W. 55th St., NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/ o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

• Global Agency Director. Build Oath Annual and Quarterly Strategic Plan for assigned agencies, incl analysis of revenue. Ref. Job # SKDA6611.

Oath Holdings Inc. has multiple openings in New York, NY (various levels/ types):

• Business Intelligence Analyst. Devel-

op strategic analysis for key operational initiatives while managing data, deep GLYH DQDO\VLV UHFRPPHQGDWLRQ GHY·W & presentation to executive audience.

Ref. Job #SADA7121.

To apply, mail resume to Oath, Attn: Jillian Johnson, 701 1st Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94089. Refer job title & number.

Urban Compass, Inc. has a position in New York, NY. *Senior Backend Engineer [COMP-NY20-AZME] – Develop & maintain application for powering

search features across Compass real estate tools; develop APIs/Services using Java 8; maintain systems on Amazon Web Services; monitor & enhance performance systems; &

tune Elasticsearch queries. Mail to: M. Quinn, 90 Fifth Ave Fl 3, New York NY

10011& note Job ID#

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES Elam Professional Industrial Cleaning Services LLC. filed with SSNY on 09/16/2020. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent for process and shall mail copy to: 300 West 145 Street, #6T, New York, NY 10039. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

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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 is hereby given that a license, number ("Pending") for beer, cider, and wine has been applied for by the undersigned* to sell beer, cider and wine at retail in a restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 64 Second Avenue, New York, NY for on premises consumption. *The Bronx Brewery, LLC Brick by Brick Consulting NYC LLC. Art of Org. filed with the SSNY on 09/16/2020 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, United States Corporation Agents, INC. 7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202 Brooklyn, NY 112 28.Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

POEH LLC, Art. of Org. filed with SSNY 9-28-20. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC for service of process. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process to c/o Dentons US LLP, 1221 6th Ave., NY, NY 10020, Attn: Brian Raftery. Purpose: Any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of CNYM RISK MANAGEMENT, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/27/20. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Michael Feldman, 254 W. 31st. St., 6th Fl., NY, NY 10001. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of REDA 104 LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/18/20.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/11/20. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (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, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification for Public Sphere LLC. Authority filed with the Sec’y of State of New York (SSNY) on 3/4/20. Office loc: NY County. LLC formed in NJ on 5/1/19. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and mailed to: The LLC, PO Box 1144, Hoboken, NJ 07030. LLC filed with NJ Dept of Treasury, 225 W State Street, Trenton, NJ 08625. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of KW Media Partners, LLC. Arts of Org filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/16/20. Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 5 W 37th St., Ste. 501, NY, NY 10018. Princ. Bus. Addr: 248 E. 31st St., Unit 4B, NY, NY 10016. Purpose: Any lawful act.

S H A R E

Y O U R

Notice of formation of RokoPack LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 09/08/2020. Location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent for service of process on LLC. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: RokoPack LLC 210 east 15th Street 5L NY, NY 10003 Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of WVA Service LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on September 21, 2020. Office: BX County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 1015 Morris Park Ave, Bronx, NY 10462. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of FEDLAND, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/29/20. 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 HC HOLDCO IV LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/30/20. 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 Timothy P. Terry, 667 Madison Ave., 24th Fl., NY, NY 10065. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY (LLC) The name of the LLC is: JACKSON TERRACE PRESERVATION, LLC Articles of Organization were filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) office on October 7, 2020. The County in which the Office is to be located: New York County, NY. The SSNY is designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC: 200 VESEY STREET, 24TH FLOOR, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10281. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of The Law Office of Kaitlin Rolston, PLLC. The Articles of Organization field with the Secretary of State of New York (“SSNY”) on September 10, 2020 in 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 against the PLLC served upon it is 43 West 43rd Street, Suite 275, New York, NY 10036. The principal place of business for the PLLC is 43 West 43rd Street, Suite 275, New York, NY 10036.

Notice of Formation of MOB Builders LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/21/20. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 4610 Crane St, #401, Long Island City, NY 11101. Purpose: any lawful act

C O M P A N Y ’ S

Notice of Formation of XAVIER DEVAUGHN LLC. Arts of Org filed with SoS of New York (SSNY) on 6/23/20. Office location: NY County.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to: 33W 19th St., 4th Fl, NY, NY 10011. R/A: US Corp Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Ave, #202, BK, NY 11228. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of CALIBRANT WOODLAND II, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/13/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/24/20. Princ. office of LLC: 125 W. 55th St., NY, NY 10019.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c /o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.

DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of HC HOLDCO V LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/30/20. 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 Timothy P. Terry, 667 Madison Ave., 24th Fl., NY, NY 10065. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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OUT OF OFFICE BLACK NILE LOCATION 592 Nostrand Ave., Crown Heights HOURS FOR TAKEOUT AND DELIVERY 3 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 3 to 11 p.m. Friday; noon to 11 p.m.

Saturday; noon to 8 p.m. Sunday WEBSITE blacknilerestaurant.com SIGNATURE DISHES Seafood loaded fries: Shrimp, jumbo lump crab meat, lemon butter, Cajun cheese sauce, hand-cut fries and green onions ($17) Crab cornbread ($12) Fried or grilled whiting over grits ($11) BLACK NILE

Jumbo crab cake sandwich ($17)

BLACK NILE

Bundt cakes: Rotating flavors include Louisiana crunch, lemon raspberry and maple-glazed banana nut ($7 each)

Soul food with a global spin

Black Nile is one of many eateries participating in Black Restaurant Week

A

t Black Nile, orders of fried whiting or chicken tenders can come with sauces including hot honey, peach jalapeño and pineapple jerk.

The variety exemplifies the work of Black Niles’ chef and co-owner, Fanerra Dupree, who grew up in Brooklyn and whose family comes from the South.

“A lot of my traditional soul food dishes taste a little different,” she said.

After graduating from culinary school, where she learned French cuisine, Dupree worked with a Moroccan chef in Charlotte, N.C., then

opened a Turkish lounge in Virginia.

“I’m comfortable playing with spices,” she said.

Her husband and co-owner, who helped develop the menu, has a similar background, though he grew up in the Bronx. The restaurant’s offerings pay homage to the West Indian and Latino restaurants nearby.

Black Nile, which opened in Crown Heights in 2016, saw its business plummet during the early weeks of the pandemic shutdown. To cope, it had to lay off most of its staff. Dupree and her husband did all the cooking for takeout orders themselves. “We

couldn’t afford to close,” she said.

Dupree has started using the dining room space to concoct baked goods, which she comes in early to create.

Her new bakery, Sweet Mahogany, sells out of its treats almost every day.

To entice patrons to come in, Black Nile is participating in Black Restaurant Week, which starts Nov. 13. The celebration, which began in Houston, Texas, in 2016, is meant to help Black-owned food businesses market themselves through an online directory and events. For a week, Blackowned restaurants in the tristate area will offer a special $10 menu, and

diners can win prizes for checking out participating establishments.

Although many cities have long had restaurant weeks, the model usually centers around high-end eateries, with them offering more accessible deals for lunch and dinner.

Because many Black-owned restaurants are counter-service or takeout only, Black Restaurant Week takes into account the “casual style in our community,” said Falayn Ferrell, a co-founder of the event. “We wanted to create a platform for them to showcase who our restaurants are.”

Nationwide, 450 businesses are participating, up from 260 last year.

For Dupree, New Yorkers’ commitment to supporting Black entrepreneurs has made a difference already.

“About three to four weeks after the situation with George Floyd, we were blessed to be able to bring employees back,” she said. “It was a sweet and sour moment.”

— Cara Eisenpress

OTHER EATERIES PARTICIPATING IN BLACK RESTAURANT WEEK

CRÈME AND COCOA CREMERY 3 to 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday At this shop in Brooklyn, homemade ice cream in flavors including Island Gal (fresh ginger and coconut) and soursop (guanabana) and sorbets such as tamarind and mango

CRÈME AND COCOA CREMERY

celebrate the owners’ Caribbean background. Vegan pints are also available, and everything can be picked up or delivered.

1067 Nostrand Ave., Prospect-

HARLEM SHAKE 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday This Harlem mainstay offers burgers, hot dogs, fries and milkshakes, all available again for delivery, takeout or outdoor dining. The restaurant has committed to hiring employees who live in Harlem, and nearly two-thirds of the staff does.

100 W. 124th St., Harlem VINATERIA 4 to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday The Mediterranean menu at Vinateria ranges from antipasti such as the croque monsieur

and Spanish tortilla at brunch to warming bowls of steamed mussels and mafalde with short rib ragu at dinner. A daily happy hour at the wraparound patio features $1 oysters.

2211 Frederick Douglass Blvd., Harlem VOILÀ AFRIQUE Noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday This Midtown spot, which opened in early March, serves cuisine that’s rooted in West and East Africa but also inspired by the African diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean.

When ordering, customers pick a starchy base, such as boiled or fried yam, ugali (a porridge made from cornmeal), cassava or rice (there’s white or jollof

VOILÀ AFRIQUE

Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn

CRÈME AND COCOA CREMERY

BROOKLYN BESO RESTAURANT & BAR 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily This spot has both indoor and outdoor seating, plus delivery. The food, Caribbean- and Latin-inspired, includes wings with guava barbecue or soy ginger flavoring, lobster rolls and chicken served with rice and beans and sweet plantains.

370 Lewis Ave., Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn

VOILÀ AFRIQUE

rice as well as rice and beans), then a sauce and a protein such as beef or oxtail stew, fried tilapia, egusi (a collard greens mixture) or peanut butter stew, among others. The menu breaks out dishes that are vegan, such as the peanut butter stew, or halal.

844 Second Ave., Midtown East

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