Crain's New York Business

ASKED & ANSWERED Freshman assemblyman on the ‘failures of capitalism’

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STAYING PUT BlackRock sticks with the city as other firms depart

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PAGE 3 JANUARY 18, 2021

REAL ESTATE

Governor’s commercialto-residential conversion proposal faces hurdles Cuomo set to propose legislation to repurpose empty hotels, offices

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

Z

oning laws, building codes and even financial considerations could be major obstacles to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to convert Midtown’s empty hotels and offices into apartments, experts say.

Cuomo last week announced he would propose legislation to create a five-year period in which developers and property owners could transform office buildings and hotels into residential units. The proposal emphasizes the city’s shortage of affordable and supportive housing.

Details of the plan have not been shared, but a half dozen experts on land use say there’s a lot to consider when making these changes, given the rent restrictions on development and the focus on affordable housing.

During his announcement, Cuomo promised developers they would have flexibility to undertake these projects, but it was unclear just how much leeway they’ll have.

Stephen Jacobs of architecture firm Stephen B. Jacobs Group has been converting buildings for reuse for more than 50 years. “I’ve never met a building I didn’t know what to do with,” he said.

Jacobs was involved in several projects in the Financial District when it went through its residential renaissance after 9/11. Commercial buildings were transformed into

CORPORATIONS

SHOT IN THE ARM Covid vaccine proves Pfizer can still deliver blockbuster drugs

BY AARON ELSTEIN

A BUCK ENNIS

s 2020 mercifully wound down, Pfizer executive Philip Dormitzer wanted to give his team of 40 research scientists a much-deserved break after they worked around the clock to help develop the first vaccine for Covid-19. But when the new, even more See PFIZER on page 19

NEWSPAPER

VOL. 37, NO. 2

© 2021 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC.

See ZONING on page 18

GOTHAM GIGS

CAPITALIZING ON THE PANDEMIC E-COMMERCE BOOM PAGE 23

INSTANT EXPERT

How New York plans to speed up its vaccine rollout PAGE 7

FROM THE NEWSROOM | FRED P. GABRIEL JR. | PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR

TECHNOLOGY

New York Now to herald city’s comeback

Investors pour billions into local startups

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We hope you had a wonderful holiday season.

The editorial team at Crain’s New York Business is starting 2021 with a long list of resolutions for how we can better serve our audience. With that in mind, we're pleased to announce a new program aimed at promoting the growth and vitality of New York City’s economy.

This wide-ranging editorial initiative is called New York Now. In a nutshell, it will promote and foster confidence in the NEW YORK local business community. Our award-winning NEEDS A journalists will cover the city’s rebound from the pandemic and uncover stories that highlight the CHAMPION. immutable spirit of New Yorkers.

CRAIN’S WILL Critics are already writing New York City’s obituary: People are fleeing. Businesses will never reFILL THAT cover. Opportunity won’t flourish. There’ll be no comeback.

ROLE We believe they’re wrong. Yes, some people are leaving the city, but others are moving in. And those who have decided to stay are adapting to the changing business climate. We’ll highlight their efforts through articles, profiles, videos, webcasts and thought-provoking columns from area business leaders.

We’re also planning four special reports on what’s being done—or could be done—to ensure the city thrives in the years ahead. We’ll provide a platform for those in the business community who are laying the groundwork for building a new New York.

New York needs a champion. As the city’s premier business publication, Crain’s New York Business—and our partners in this yearlong initiative— will fill that role. We hope that we will provide awareness, encouragement and inspiration to all those working on the city’s comeback.

We have created a special home for our New York Now content at CrainsNewYork.com/New-York-Now. In addition, we’re announcing two New York Now summits in 2021. To register for the first one, which will focus on how Covid-19 has reshaped the city’s commercial real estate market, visit CrainsNewYork.com/New-York-Now-Event.

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

WEBCAST CALLOUT

BUCK ENNIS

CRAIN’S BUSINESS FORUM

DANIEL L. DOCTOROFF, FOUNDER AND CEO OF SIDEWALK LABS Daniel L. Doctoroff is the founder and CEO of Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet company that works with cities to build products that address big urban problems. Before launching Sidewalk Labs, he was the CEO and president of financial news and information company Bloomberg LP. From 2002 to 2008, he served as New York City’s deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding.

VIRTUAL EVENT Time: 4 to 5 p.m.

Register at CrainsNewYork.com/ MarchBizForum

BLOOMBERG

years, New York trails far behind Silicon Valley as the second-strongest market for investment. Companies based in California, New York and Massachusetts attracted 74% of all funding.

‘No slowing down’ The report is further evidence that investors have had no qualms about betting on companies in a time most business is conducted remotely. It helps that those investors are still holding lots of money they need to invest—known as dry powder.

Venture capital firms raised a record $1.1 trillion in 2020, according to the report, helped by the big returns from companies going public in the past 12 months.

“There is a huge amount of capital being deployed, and I see no slowing down,” said Albert Wenger,

REAL ESTATE

Rent-regulated tenants more than $1.1B behind on payments: survey

BY EDDIE SMALL

MARCH 3

I

nvestors are betting on a sunny future for New York’s startups, despite the economic downturn.

Venture capital firms pumped $5.6 billion into startups in the metropolitan area during the last three months of 2020, up 35% from the same period in 2019.

Nationally, startup companies landed $130 billion from investors in 2020, up 14% year over year from record totals in 2019, according to CB Insights and PwC. New York companies captured $16.2 billion of that funding, ending 2020 about even with the record-setting year of 2019, according to the report. But the city’s startups wrapped the year with a fourth quarter that was the best for fundraising since the summer of 2018.

Funding for startups dipped at the start of the pandemic, but it has recovered in the past two quarters.

Health care and finance are the two strongest markets for technology companies, the report noted.

Two examples of that trend in New York: Digital banking startup Current raised $131 million in December, and insurer Oscar Health raised $140 million the same month, ahead of a planned initial public offering this year.

As has been the case for many

a managing partner at Union Square Ventures. The investment firm, an early backer of Twitter and Etsy, r e c e n t l y launched a $162 million fund focused on climate investment.

Midtownbased Insight Partners raised $10 billion, the most among New York venture capital firms.

Troubling signs, however, have appeared among early-stage startups. Seed funding and Series A deals—the earlier access to investor money for startups—remained flat in 2020, while megadeals of $100 million and more reached a record total of 318 nationally.

Activity for earlier-stage companies, however, is picking up, said Judith Erwin, CEO of Grasshopper Bank, a Flatiron District–based digital bank that works with startups.

“We saw that people were able to close funding rounds without faceto-face meetings,” Erwin said. “In some cases, VCs were intentionally providing more funding for companies to get them through Covid.

That’s part of why we see fewer rounds but larger ones.” ■

A

lmost 200,000 of the city’s rent-regulated tenants are more than two months behind on rent payments and owe about $1.1 billion in total, according to a survey from the Community Housing Improvement Program.

The amount of residential ten-

rector Jay Martin said.

“These numbers show that renters and housing providers will need more relief,” Martin said, “either from the federal government or through creative strategies on the state level even after this initial allocation of relief.”

The average renter who has fallen behind owes about $6,200, the survey found. The average monthly rent for a stabilized apartment was about $1,400 as of 2018, according to figures from the Rent Guidelines Board. That puts the average tenant about four and a half months behind on payments.

About 5.6% of tenants are more than $15,000 in arrears, meaning they likely have not paid rent in more than 11 months—essentially since the pandemic began.

The CHIP survey also found that the vacancy rate for the city was

THE AVERAGE RENTER WHO HAS FALLEN BEHIND OWES ABOUT $6,200 ants more than two months behind on rent has increased by more than 300% since before the pandemic hit in February, according to the survey. Although the federal stimulus measure enacted at the end of 2020 included $1.3 billion for New York rent relief, the CHIP survey demonstrates that this will not be enough to solve the problem, Executive Di-

11.8% when that rate includes apartments that have not been listed for rent because of a glut of supply or a need for renovations. The most recent Douglas Elliman report on Manhattan rentals found that the borough’s December vacancy rate was about 5.5%, but housing experts have cautioned that, based on landlords not listing all of their empty units, the true vacancy rate could be much higher.

CHIP represents landlords with more than 400,000 units of rent-regulated housing, and the group based its survey on the responses of members who represent about 40,000 units.

The state launched a $100 million rent-relief program last year meant to help tenants who had fallen behind on payments because of the pandemic. But the program was heavily criticized for being inadequate, especially following an October report that showed it had distributed only about $23.2 million to 9,600

households.

The Division of Homes and Community Renewal reopened the program in mid-December and broadened its eligibility requirements in an attempt to get more relief money out the door. The program will run through Feb. 1.

Eviction ban The state enacted a moratorium on evictions at the end of last year.

It banned coronavirus-related evictions and foreclosures until May 1 for tenants and small landlords, provided they submit a “hardship declaration” saying the pandemic had hit them with financial or health problems.

“The government has mandated that owners provide housing without compensation throughout the public health crisis regardless of the renters’ ability to pay,” Martin said. “Our owners have done their part. Now the government must do its part to pay for the cost of housing tens of thousands of people." ■

Vol. 37, No. 2, January 18, 2021—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 2021 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | JANUARY 18, 2021

BLACKROCK’S current headquarters at 55 E. 52nd St.

BlackRock bucks departure trend with plans to stay put The world’s largest asset manager tells staff not to get used to working from home

BLOOMBERG

A

s a growing number of Wall Street firms plan to move their New York employees to cheaper U.S. hubs and even let rainmakers work from faraway homes, BlackRock is planting its feet firmly in Manhattan.

Executives at the world’s largest asset manager have privately urged employees not to get too attached to doing their jobs remotely full-time while it awaits a move to a new office tower in the city, where it’s based. With the pandemic surging across the U.S., the company extended the work-from-home period through this year’s first quarter. But that won’t be the new normal.

“The office will remain our primary work location longer-term,” senior executives in-

cluding Chief Operating Officer Rob Goldstein wrote in one memo sent to staff in November.

“Employees will have increased flexibility to work remotely parttime, but full-time remote work will be done very selectively and with approval.”

Returning to the office on a larger scale will take time, they wrote, and the company is working on making regular Covid-19 testing available to “as many people as practicable.”

BLOOMBERG

BUCK ENNIS

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

GOLDSTEIN

Heading west BlackRock still plans to move its New York staff into 50 Hudson Yards, a new skyscraper on the West Side, in late 2022 or early 2023, a spokesman confirmed. The relocation, first

announced in 2016, came with a lucrative incentive: BlackRock secured $25 million in state tax credits to create hundreds of new jobs and place staff there.

Such commitments to New York, the longtime heart of the U.S. securities and investment industry, would seem commonplace in a normal year. But in recent months a steady stream of financial firms have been sketching out plans for alternate locations.

Goldman Sachs Group has contemplated moving part of its asset-management division to Florida, while Virtu Financial, a high-speed trading firm, is shifting workers to that state too, while downsizing its Manhattan office space by 75%. And invest-

ment banking boutique Moelis & Co. is letting rainmakers move to a city of their choosing.

Sticking to the city BlackRock has about 16,600 employees in cities all over the world. It’s increasing its presence outside New York, including in Atlanta, where it plans to employ about 1,000 by 2024.

The firm, which oversaw about $7.8 trillion as of Sept. 30, has been based in New York since it was founded as a division of Blackstone Group in 1988.

The company has stuck to the city even though the asset-management industry is less concentrated here than other parts of Wall Street: Rivals Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments are based in Valley Forge, Pa., and Boston, respectively. ■ JANUARY 18, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 3

CRAIN’S VOICES

Latest at the Lucerne draws readers’ ire The most recent development in the continuing saga over the homeless being housed at the Lucerne Hotel on the Upper West Side drew a series of comments from readers. An appeals panel ruled that the homeless residents can choose to stay there or relocate to the Radisson Hotel in the Financial District, where the city would prefer they go because of complaints from Upper West Side residents. One reader warned that progressives, who have been advocating for the homeless to stay at the Lucerne, are driving wealthy taxpayers like her out of the city. Others also objected to their presence, although one resident claims complaints about them are overblown. To read the story and other comments, visit CrainsNewYork.com/Lucerne-Hotel.

Just as long as everyone is happy except for the people who create jobs and wealth in NYC, pay all the taxes in NYC, then the progressives will have accomplished their mission. Hostility to wealth causing them to move en masse to Fla, TX, NC, etc., is going to kick these progressives right in the butt when there’s no one left to extort money from and the city crumbles. You all voted for these clowns, AOC, de Blasio, Jessica Ramos, etc., now you get the destruction their ridiculous policies bring. RIP NYC, you are never going to recover as long as this group of progressive overlords controls the political process here. Just closed today on my house in Palm Beach County, will be moved down and out of NYC within 30 days and I take with me my savings, my investments, my wealth, and no more taxes. You lose, I win. So sad, born and raised here and watched the lights go out on Broadway as per the Billy Joel song.”

They should move all the homeless to Gracie Mansion and then maybe to Park Slope, Brooklyn.”

— SeeDubya

You won’t regret it—but will be kicking yourself for not doing it years ago.”

—Edward C. Greenberg

— Maxine the Dream

BLOOMBERG

And once the epidemic ends, are we to believe that the homeless will just up and leave? It seems most likely that they will be there for a long, long time.”

— SailingNewYorkCity

4 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | JANUARY 18, 2021

Let me set you straight on some of this. On the UWS, three unused hotels are being used for homeless men during the pandemic. I live within 10 blocks of all of them and as I walk four miles a day, or ride 10, I pass them daily. Nobody wants this. But, go past the Lucerne on any day where the temperature hits 45 and you’ll see the very nice restaurant there, with about 15 outdoor tables, at capacity or near capacity. With the temperature at 38-40? About one-third to half full. We’ve eaten there three times since outdoor dining began, without any problems. Oh, and the biggest complaints on the streets of my neighborhood? Nobody can find a parking spot. Car owners have gotten into fist fights over spots within 3 blocks from these hotels. That is how abandoned the place is.”

— Paul52

TRANSPORTATION

BY BRIAN PASCUS

charge ride-hail companies—and not their drivers—11 cents per minute when driving without a customer during peak travel hours and 5.5 cents off-peak. It argues that the surcharge would reduce the presence of for-hire vehicles in the taxi zone by 10%. The revenue could add up to $80 million for the city, the report said.

T

he city could add $80 million to its beleaguered budget and reduce gridlock by charging Uber, Lyft and Via for all their empty for-hire vehicles trolling Midtown during rush hour, according to a report released Jan. 12 by City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

The study by transportation and traffic analyst Charles Komanoff also could level the playing field for the troubled yellow taxi industry.

Ride-hail companies such as Uber and Lyft have exacerbated congestion across Manhattan’s main business district and require a new per-minute tax for driving without customers, according to the City Council-endorsed report.

The suggested policy comes following the release of a new report by

Faster travel?

If the idle-driving charge is implemented with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed congestion pricing plan on private cars and trucks, then the travel speeds of cars across the Manhattan Central Business District would jump 20%, and the city would receive $80 million per year in revenue, Komanoff reiterated.

“Stockpiling empty for-hire vehicles in Manhattan is a classic ‘externality’ that gives a slight convenience to Uber and Lyft customers by taking time and efficiency from the public,” Komanoff said.

“The modest empty-vehicle charge proposed in the report is an equitable way to fix this imbalance.”

The punitive idle-driving policy suggested by Komanoff would not apply to yellow taxis, a group of drivers who have been devastated by an abrupt decline in consumer activity during the pandemic, after years of losing market share to an ever-ex-

THE PUNITIVE IDLE-DRIVING POLICY WOULD NOT APPLY TO YELLOW TAXIS Komanoff, who was commissioned by the City Council in 2019 to come up with a way to reduce the stockpile of unoccupied for-hire vehicles in the main taxi zone of Manhattan— one already congested by walking commuters, cyclists, bus lanes and commercial loading zones.

The Komanoff report seeks to

panding for-hire vehicle industry. A rapid decline in the value of yellow taxi medallions—city-issued permits purchased by drivers and taxi owners—changed the fortune of a formerly stable industry, leaving many medallion owners and drivers wallowing in debt and despair.

New documents from the city Taxi and Limousine Commission provided to Crain’s under the Freedom of Information Law demonstrate the extent Uber and Lyft have expanded across New York City at the expense of yellow taxis.

In 2017 alone Uber cars traveled nearly 35 million miles across Midtown’s four transportation zones, including 8.4 million miles of cruising without passengers.

Today there are only 13,587 yellow taxis in the city, but more than 80,000 for-hire vehicles.

The Komanoff plan could be yet another attempt by the City Council to regulate the transportation landscape in Manhattan. It enacted Local Law 149 in August 2018 to rein in the for-hire vehicle industry, a law that Crain’s discovered the TLC failed to fully implement for nearly two years.

Johnson announced his support for the proposal and praised the author of the report.

“As we gear up for the implementation of congestion pricing and continue to fight for safer streets, we need experts like Komanoff to be on the forefront of policy design to ensure the city’s efforts are both

BLOOMBERG

Trolling penalties for Uber and Lyft could add $80M to city budget

effective and enforceable, without burdening drivers struggling to make ends meet,” the council speaker said.

Uber was dismissive in response to the Komanoff report and Johnson’s apparent support for it.

“The City Council already passed this policy nearly two years ago, and it puts the money into drivers’ pockets,” Uber representative Harry Hartfield said, referring to the city’s

wage laws.

Lyft said it supports comprehensive congestion pricing but rejected Komanoff’s approach.

“This particular study is outdated and doesn’t reflect the impact Covid-19 has had on NYC, which is why we encourage the city to better understand how existing rules are impacting New Yorkers before enacting more regulations,” said CJ Macklin, a Lyft spokesperson. ■

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

HSS drops $70M on pair of Upper East Side sites

BY EDDIE SMALL

H

Count on your Construction advisors to help you reach your business goals.

HOSPITAL FOR SPECIAL SURGERY

ospital for Special Surgery has purchased a pair of adjacent sites on the Upper East Side for $70 million, property records show.

The hospital bought 504-506 E. 74th St. for $42 million and 508-510 E. 74th St. for $28 million, both from ABS Partners. HSS will use the buildings for administrative and clinical purposes, said spokeswoman Noelle Carnevale.

Representatives for ABS declined to comment on the sale. The real estate firm has owned 508-510 E. 74th St. since at least 2007, according to property records. It was not clear how long the firm had owned 504506 E. 74th St. The HSS deals are not related to its long-awaited River Building, a 12-story project spanning the FDR Drive between East 71st and East 72nd streets that the hospital has been working on for years. The hospital was lining up financing over the summer to help fund the development, which would expand the

Our top priority is your bottom line.

grassicpas.com/constructionae

hospital with physician offices and inpatient rooms.

New York’s main HSS campus is based near its recent purchases, at 535 E. 70th St. Its other buildings in Manhattan include an integrative care center at 635 Madison Ave. and a sports medicine institute at 610 W. 58th St., and it has locations in

Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and White Plains as well.

ABS owns several properties throughout the city and counts Manhattan office and retail buildings at 915 Broadway, 145 E. 57th St. and 695 Lexington Ave. among its core holdings, according to the firm’s website. ■ JANUARY 18, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 5

IN THE MARKETS

Shake Shack to add 60 restaurants as chains displace devastated independents

BUCK ENNIS

I

ndependent restaurants are dis- the pandemic struck in March, appearing, but at least nobody costing 2,000 jobs. The state compwill lack for burgers and fries. troller’s office estimates 12,000 Last week Shake Shack laid out restaurants and bars in the city plans to open almost twice as many won’t survive the winter.

Their loss could be fast food’s restaurants this year as last.

“We believe there is pent-up de- gain.

Diminished competition and mand for food and experiences,” continued federal assisChief Executive Randy tance to consumers have Garutti said at an investor boosted the pricing power conference. “Adversity is of fast-food operators, a terrible thing to waste.”

Evercore ISI analyst David Shake Shack’s ambiPalmer said in a recent retious expansion plans are port. “Meaningful chicken an indicator of how innovation” could lure in well-financed chains are crowds, he observed, as taking advantage of the McDonald’s and Burger brave new world the panKing try to match offerings demic has unleashed.

AARON ELSTEIN from Chick-fil-A and The burger chain has Popeyes. $175 million in the bank, Casual-dining restaurants could so it can afford to grow even though its financial chief acknowledged see a big surge after the pandemic that the operating environment re- because their customers have mostmains “extremely challenging.” ly kept their jobs and cut back on Sales fell 28% last year at restau- spending.

“Just imagine the piano bar area rants open at least 12 months and sank 49% in the fourth quarter in at Darden’s Seasons 52 at this time Manhattan, where restaurateur next year!” Palmer said, referring to Danny Meyer started the company a brand from the company that with a cart in Madison Square Park owns Olive Garden.

The prospect might disgust New 20 years ago.

Underscoring the difficulties York foodies, but the city was a faced by full-service restaurants, fast-growing market for fast food in Meyer closed Gramercy Tavern and the years before the pandemic as his Union Square Hospitality chains figured out how to make Group’s other establishments when their restaurants fit into tight spac-

es. Operators also decided the obstacles put up by city and state officials—such as forcing them to post calorie counts and pay employees more—were manageable.

Menu expansion The diverging fortunes between Shake Shack and its founder tell the story of restaurants everywhere.

Last year Shake Shack’s stock price jumped by 42%, and it returned $10 million in Paycheck

Protection Program money after a public outcry. The steep decline in sales eased as restaurants reopened and customers accepted online ordering. Meyer reopened his full-service establishments in the summer, then halted on-site dining in November as the coronavirus surged.

There are now 300 Shake Shacks, and Garutti said he plans to open up to 40 company-owned restaurants this year, up from 20 in 2020.

He expects to add up to 20 new franchised locations, or four more than last year, including one at the Vince Lombardi Travel Plaza on the New Jersey Turnpike. Shake Shack shares rose by 9% on the news.

The menu, which contracted during the spring, is expanding again with Korean-inspired chicken offerings, among other items. Even a veggie burger is being tried out.

“We sell a lot of vegetables at Shake Shack,” Garutti said. ■

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

M

oving Madison Square Garden from atop Penn Station could be the key to luring commuters to the city long after the pandemic subsides, the architect behind newly filed plans for the project says.

Renderings proposed by architecture firm Practice for Architecture and Urbanism were approved

by Community Board 5 and include moving MSG a few blocks away to an 8-acre site surrounded by brandnew, supertall skyscrapers. The old

“When the pandemic lifts and most people are vaccinated, the thing that is still with us from a business perspective is that some people would rather work remotely than commute into the city,” he said. “The best kind of vaccine against that is making our commutes better.”

‘Very valuable blocks’ Moynihan Train Hall—a $1.6 billion project to reimagine the Amtrak section of Penn Station by Eighth Avenue—was unveiled by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month (see “Moynihan Train Hall gives NYC an instant landmark,” page 12). The options for the rest of the 52-year-old station are limited by MSG’s current placement.

The entire MSG project, which has been talked about for more than a decade, would cost around $3 billion, but adding the skyscrapers around the new arena would help it pay for itself. It has not yet been decided what use the buildings would serve, but Chakrabarti said mixed-use would make the most sense.

THE ENTIRE MSG PROJECT WOULD COST AROUND $3 BILLION site would be redeveloped as a new concourse for Penn Station.

An improved commute through a newly imagined station that people currently dread going through would encourage them to come to work and keep firms from shedding so much office space, PAU architect Vishaan Chakrabarti said.

6 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | JANUARY 18, 2021

The Garden would move to a twoblock site with Sixth Avenue to the east, West 32nd Street to the south, Seventh Avenue to the west and West 34th Street to the north, according to the plans.

“Those are very valuable blocks, and today they have an Old Navy and a Hooters on them,” Chakrabarti said. The Herald Square neighborhood is the last remaining area that still hasn’t seen meaningful redevelopment, he added.

“We have step by step transformed Midtown, and this is the last domino to fall,” he said.

Redevelopment would create more than 6 million square feet of office space, 300,000 square feet of retail, over 600,000 square feet of hotel space and nearly 650,000 square feet of residential, the plans show.

MSG can refuse to move for now, but the City Council voted in 2013 to offer it a 10-year permit so that it could potentially redevelop Penn Station. Once the permit expires in 2023, the council could decide not to renew it, and MSG would not be able to operate.

“There are a lot of carrots and sticks that the government has to incentivize the Garden to move,”

PRACTICE FOR ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM

Madison Square Garden redevelopment could encourage commute to Midtown

Chakrabarti said. If Cuomo gets on board, it could all be done in 10 years, he added.

For a community board to already be OK with a project is in itself a victory, Chakrabarti said.

“It’s not every day when you see a New York City community board support new density. Most of the time, community boards are antidevelopment,” he said.

“Community Board 5 believes that we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to solve the vexing

problems stemming from horrid land-use decisions made in the ’60s,” said Layla Law-Gisco, who chairs the board's land use, housing and zoning committee. “The existing Madison Square Garden special permit expires in 2023, so we, as a community, have a duty to proactively advocate for a permanent solution that will give the Garden a permanent location, while liberating the area above Penn Station to create a 21st-century-worthy train hub.” ■

INSTANT EXPERT

How New York plans to hurry its troubled vaccine rollout

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

THE ISSUE

THE PLAYERS

1

2

I BELIEVE THE NEW FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION WILL SEE THE VACCINE SUPPLY INCREASE, AND WE WILL BE READY FOR THAT INCREASE

WHAT’S NEXT

5

The mayor has resolved that the city will reach 1 million doses administered by the end of January. Getting to that goal will require the right mix of supply from the federal government, coordination among city agencies and private hospitals, and collaboration with the state government.

Cuomo, meanwhile, has promised a “public health corps” is coming: 1,000 New Yorkers hired to coordinate vaccinations, with help from the Northwell Health System and Cornell University. The state also is launching mass distribution sites, including at the Javits Center.

“I understand millions of people want the vaccine today,” Cuomo said during his State of the State address last week. “I believe the new federal administration will see the vaccine supply increase, and we will be ready for that increase.”

President-elect Joseph Biden has indeed pledged a vaccine “blitz,” with a promise of 100 million shots to Americans within his first 100 days in office.

BUCK ENNIS

Pfizer, which has its corporate office in Midtown and a research laboratory north of the city in Rockland County, developed the first approved Covid-19 vaccine in collaboration with BioNtech, a German research company.

Cuomo and the state government set the parameters for the eligibility CHOKSHI and the distribution of that vaccine— with the doses provided by the federal government—throughout the state. De Blasio is responsible for coordinating the delivery of those vaccines, which he has coordinated through the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, led by Dr. Dave Chokshi.

The vaccine rollout has become the latest front in the feud between the governor and the mayor. The mayor pushed the governor at the start of January for the state to expand the pool of eligible people for vaccines, as hundreds of thousands of doses went unused. Cuomo at first insisted all front-line health care workers be vaccinated before any other category—and said the city needed to pick up the pace.

The governor has relented from that stance, opening up vaccines to a group that includes people 65 and older and first responders.

Police officers, transit workers, school employees and grocery workers also are in the 1b phase of the distribution plan.

The state has launched an online questionnaire to help people determine if they are eligible.

The city, meanwhile, has launched an online form to book an appointment, and it has opened more than 20 mass vaccination sites in high schools throughout the five boroughs.

FLICKR

The Covid-19 vaccine smashed records for development speed, with the Pfizer–BioNTech inoculation arriving within a year of the global outbreak. But the rollout of CUOMO DE BLASIO that vaccine—getting shots into arms—has been sluggish in its first month. Roughly 337,518 New Yorkers have been vaccinated as of Jan. 15, about 42% of the doses that the city has received.

The state initially focused its efforts on getting all eligible health care workers vaccinated before moving onto secondary risk groups, an approach that has put Gov. Andrew Cuomo at odds with Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Cuomo agreed to follow new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to offer shots to anyone 65 and older, moving the target for immediate inoculation up to 7 million.

YEAH, BUT

3

SOME BACKGROUND

4

New York is not the only state struggling to put shots in its residents’ arms. Federal officials had hoped to have 20 million people vaccinated by the end of 2020. Ten days into the new year, the total of first shots had yet to reach half that number.

FLICKR

FLICKR

Both city and state are racing against a virus that is accelerating at a dangerous pace.

The percentage of people testing positive is increasing, along with hospitalizations.

Even as the state allows a wider range of people to be vaccinated, supply is limited. Doses are arriving in the state at the rate of about 300,000 per week, meaning some eligible residents could wait up to 14 weeks for their first shot.

JANUARY 18, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 7

chief executive officer K.C. Crain senior executive vice president Chris Crain group publisher Jim Kirk

EDITORIAL

publisher/executive editor

Employers, state must address worker concerns about vaccines

editor Robert Hordt assistant managing editors Telisha Bryan,

Janon Fisher audience & analytics manager

the vaccine because we have no long-term data yet to determine how it will affect an unborn child.

And Black Americans, who make up a large segment of hospital and nursing home staffs, might be wary of being among the first to essentially try the doses after a troubling history of being the subject of medical experiments.

It’s likely that the larger business community will face similar opposition when it becomes eligible for the vaccine.

Guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stipulated that an employer can lawfully exclude a worker who cannot be vaccinated due to disability or religious convictions from the workplace if it cannot provide reasonable accommodation. It gave employers the option of a vaccine mandate, but implementing one comes with legal complications.

As Crain’s recently reported, many firms won’t make vaccination compulsory. Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, said office staff are not known for anti-vaccine sentiments, so firms aren’t concerned about them declining.

WE CAN NO LONGER TAKE THE SUPPOSED POPULARITY OF THE VACCINE FOR GRANTED homes for almost a year as a way to keep not only them but also the staff safe. But now experts say as many as 30% of health workers are expected to refuse the shots.

They are not without valid reasons. Female workers of childbearing age might not want

EDITORIAL

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

Natalie Sachmechi, Shuan Sim executive assistant Devin Cavallo to contact the newsroom:

www.crainsnewyork.com/staff 212.210.0100 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017-4024 BLOOMBERG

F

or months New Yorkers have been awaiting the arrival of the Covid-19 vaccines. They’ve been billed as the key to getting life back to normal. The prospect was so thrilling that hardly anyone seemed to consider that some might not want to take one.

We’ve had access to the vaccines for a few weeks, and we now realize that getting the doses isn’t the no-brainer for some New Yorkers that it was thought to be.

This is troubling because the first phase of the vaccine rollout was earmarked for health care personnel. Americans have been told to stay home and stop the spread so we don’t end up in the hospital, where we could jeopardize the lives of medical workers.

We’ve had to stop visiting our elderly loved ones in nursing

Frederick P. Gabriel Jr.

But previous sentiments might not apply. Covid-19 has changed everything, and not much has been done on the federal level to engender confidence in the fruits of Operation Warp Speed. The Ad Council last week said it has raised $37 million of its $50 million target for its national campaign to overcome vaccine hesitancy. With New York adding groups to the pool of eligible recipients almost daily, we can’t wait for ads to help build trust.

The state should issue its own guidance that clearly outlines which industries and firms should consider a mandate, including operations that require the close proximity of workers or frequent

interaction with the public, such as health care and retail. And businesses should begin reaching out ASAP to employees about where they stand on the issue.

So-called herd immunity begins when 70% to 90% of individuals are vaccinated. It would be a huge blow for a firm to find out only half its staff plans to be vaccinated after plans are already in place to get everyone back to work.

We can no longer take the supposed popularity of the vaccine for granted. Companies and the state must start working to address worker concerns.

Otherwise, the idea of getting back to normal will continue to be a wish and not a reality. ■

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Building services workers deserve vaccination priority

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BY ROBERT FRANCIS

L

ike many Americans, I have become emotional watching the videos of health care heroes receiving Covid-19 vaccinations.

After a long year, we can finally see a glimmer of light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. Because health care workers have been out front in the public health emergency, we are happy these frontline members of the workforce have been afforded early access to the vaccine.

But who should be the next in line to be vaccinated?

If your answer is “essential workers,” I agree. It still raises the question, who precisely fits the description of essential? The term is wide-ranging and vague—perhaps intentionally so. If we are vaccinating a category of people before the general population, we need a

clearer definition of who gets vaccinated now and who waits.

I hope that the lines of delineation are broad enough to include the public, residential and commercial building service workforce, whose members selflessly serve building tenants and residents throughout America daily.

Janitors, security guards, maintenance technicians and front desk concierge personnel should be a part of the next group to be vaccinated.

Teamwork As the pandemic is changing our way of life, our team has shown that teamwork and resiliency can overcome even the most challenging of circumstances. Shutting down is not an option. We need to face the new normal bravely and comprehensively, mitigating risk where possible.

Are we an essential business? Of

course, we are!

I am the CEO of a fourth-generation company that provides services to building owners and managers in 11 states. Each of our 4,300 employees—many on the front lines in these buildings—have performed heroically throughout the pandemic.

I have witnessed firsthand the heroism of these individuals. Pushing them to the back of the vaccination line now would be unjust, especially since they have bravely risked their own health and safety to keep buildings across America going during the health crisis.

Massachusetts got it right when it made a 55-year-old hospital janitorial supervisor the first person in the state to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. Sooner rather than later we must open up the vaccination lanes to these service employees in other work settings. We simply cannot wait.

Not all superheroes wear capes.

Some carry brooms, some secure buildings, some greet guests, and some wear tool belts.

If we are asking these team members to risk exposure to Covid-19, we, as employers, must have their backs. Each employee is someone’s parent, spouse, son or daughter.

Humanity needs to be the priority and the guiding principle.

We encourage our elected leaders and federal regulators to include janitors, maintenance technicians and concierge and security associates as essential workers.

This is the time to broaden, not limit, the definition. ■ Robert A. Francis is president and CEO of Planned Companies, a New York-area firm that provides janitorial, security, front desk/ concierge and maintenance services in Manhattan, Brooklyn and elsewhere in the country.

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8 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | JANUARY 18, 2021

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1/15/21 3:39 PM

OP-ED

Cloud computing can help New York shift focus from infrastructure to services

A

t the outset of the pandemic, the sudden influx of unemployment claims overwhelmed the Department of Labor’s online application process, highlighting the need for New York to modernize its digital infrastructure.

Increased reliance on virtual services underscores the need for the state to think more strategically about cybersecurity too, a fact reaffirmed by recent data breaches at multiple federal agencies.

In response to the unemployment system’s shortcomings, Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched the public-private Covid-19 Technology

the historic surge in unemployment claims.

To support government officials as they modernize and secure aging information technology infrastructure, Internet Association, which represents the world’s leading internet companies, has launched the State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Information Technology Advancing Reform Achievements map, an interactive report that evaluates localities in three categories: cloud-first initiatives, digital service innovation and cybersecurity efforts.

New York joined 10 other states in scoring an eight out of 21. According to the analysis, the state could use improvement in cybersecurity posture, IT infrastructure and modernization.

In fact, New York scored zero in two data-security categories. The state lacks a designated cybersecurity budget and a statewide cybersecurity strategy. Anyone with government experience knows the importance of dedicated funding as well as a forward-looking strategic plan.

While resources dedicated to addressing data breaches are essential, cybersecurity is constantly

NEW YORK SCORED ZERO IN TWO DATASECURITY CATEGORIES SWAT Team. This collaboration led to a more reliable unemployment benefits application system.

New York was not the only state to falter. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy in April sought volunteers experienced in an antiquated programming language to help handle

evolving, so educating staff and the public is necessary for success in this area. That success requires a plan not only to secure existing data but also to protect against future threats. The security considerations of this year and beyond are going to look different from those of the past.

Modernization In addition to enhancing the state’s cybersecurity posture, the infrastructure provided to state employees that delivers public services needs to be modernized.

As I testified before the New York City Council, commercial cloud adoption is integral to modernization. It helps reduce procurement costs, improves efficiency and enhances security.

The data centers where public sector data is housed by IA member companies are more secure than Fort Knox. Advanced biometric technology limits entry, and facilities are designed to withstand the most intense natural disasters.

Embracing commercial cloud computing allows public officials and employees to focus less on maintaining infrastructure and more on providing critical government services. For these reasons, there should be a statewide cloud-

BLOOMBERG

BY OMID GHAFFARI-TABRIZI

first statute.

As the Covid-19 crisis continues to increase reliance on internet platforms, New York’s government must do everything it can to provide its residents and civil servants with the modern infrastructure necessary to deliver digital services.

This also means that elected officials must promote public-facing tech policies that support the needs

of their constituents.

Lawmakers would be wise to follow a dual path and champion policies that promote access to online platforms and expand efforts to modernize and reinforce the Empire State’s digital infrastructure. ■

and may include some amount of production activities in connection with associated research.

Now, with life sciences having a moment, the city should update the zoning resolution to facilitate development of life sciences facilities.

Updates could include use classifications that focus on performance standards rather than specific uses and that incorporate safety standards used by the life science industry itself. Industry experts should help craft these changes.

The city should take every opportunity to work with industries in strong position to do business here for the long term as we work to recover from the pandemic. Right now there are few better ways to do that than by making it easier for life sciences developers to invest in the city’s future. ■

Omid Ghaffari-Tabrizi is the Internet Association’s director of cloud policy.

OP-ED

Zoning rules need updating to benefit city research labs

L

ife sciences has emerged as one of real estate’s rare bright spots during the pandemic.

Continued investment in the sector, from West Harlem to Long Island City, has benefited from city and state support.

But a key to maximizing the industry’s potential is to make life sciences development less cumbersome. That begins with updating the zoning that governs it.

The list of permitted uses contained in the zoning resolution has barely changed in the past 60 years.

In some cases, uses are almost comically outdated: Use Group 7 lists “trade embalmers” as a per-

sities may be classified as community facility uses. Commercial life sciences laboratories are classified as either research or medical laboratories, or as offices with accessory laboratories, with the classification dependent on the types of activities planned and whether the space can satisfy building code requirements.

Lines between these use categories are not clear.

It’s easy to see how murky this can get for developers deciding whether to pursue a project. Use Group 17 laboratories are a manufacturing use, allowed only in manufacturing zoning districts (except by special permit). This use category allows the most intensive laboratories, with hazardous chemicals and production or manufacturing activities.

But Use Group 9 laboratories are a commercial use, defined as laboratories “not involving any danger of fire or explosion … or other objectionable effects,” and they are permitted in most commercial zoning districts. They traditionally included laboratories performing a medical function, such as blood testing.

But should a laboratory be considered to have “objectionable effects” if it complies with state and

LIFE SCIENCES HAS EMERGED AS ONE OF REAL ESTATE’S RARE BRIGHT SPOTS mitted use, and Use Group 9 includes typewriter repair shops.

These antiquated categories often generate confusion when considering whether a relatively new use, such as life sciences, is allowed.

Currently life sciences may be classified in several use groups.

Laboratories in hospitals or univer-

federal safety standards? And should production activities be considered manufacturing if they are small in scale and used to create drug samples for clinical trial use?

As-of-right tools The first effort to eliminate the lines between these categories came in 1990. To facilitate the development of Columbia University’s Audubon Research Park, the city created a special permit allowing research laboratories in certain commercial zoning districts. East River Science Park at Bellevue Hospital employed the mechanism in 2001. But that special permit is only available in limited areas, and a special-permit process is lengthy and uncertain.

In an evolving city with a broad swath of areas ripe for life sciences development, there need to be asof-right tools for developing these facilities.

Our firm assisted with one such project in 2015 by confirming that a life sciences laboratory could be classified as a Use Group 9 medical laboratory and therefore situated in a Midtown office building. In 2016 the de Blasio administration formalized this approach by issuing a memorandum confirming that certain research labs could be classified as Use Group 9 laboratories

BLOOMBERG

BY ELISE WAGNER AND PATRICK SULLIVAN

Elise Wagner and Patrick Sullivan are partner and special counsel, respectively, in Kramer Levin’s land-use department.

JANUARY 18, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 9

ASKED & ANSWERED New York state Assembly INTERVIEW BY BRIAN PASCUS

A

s only the third Muslim to serve in the state Assembly—and the first South Asian man elected to any office in New York City—Zohran Mamdani is ready to make an impact. The 29-year-old is riding high after knocking off a 10-year incumbent to win a seat representing the 36th district, which includes Astoria and northwestern Queens. A former foreclosure prevention counselor, Mamdani is also an avowed socialist who emigrated from Uganda in 1998. As he takes office, he plans on using his life experiences to help correct what he calls “the myriad failures of capitalism.”

Has your life prepared you to work in the Assembly?

My experience of 9/11 is one I share with many New Yorkers. My teacher let me know something happened that morning and I might be bullied because of it. It’s being pulled into a double room in JFK airport and asked if I attended a terrorist training camp and if I planned on attacking this country. These are experiences that haven’t been represented in the Assembly.

How has your career prepared you?

Prior to running for office, I worked as a foreclosure housing prevention counselor in Jackson Heights and Richmond Hill, where I worked with predominantly Black

critical because they speak to ways specific communities have been targeted and alienated.

WHO HE IS Assemblyman, 36th district

How should our economic system change?

RESIDES Astoria

Our economic system is built on leaving people behind.

I’m a socialist. I make no bones about it. It’s about not having the market be the sole distributor of dignity.

Housing, health care, child care, internet—we’ve seen that these are not luxury items during this pandemic. It’s about having all these things guaranteed by the state.

EDUCATION Bachelor’s in Africana studies from Bowdoin College

What led you to socialism and away from capitalism?

AGE 29 BORN Kampala, Uganda GREW UP Kampala, Cape Town and New York City

TEAM PLAYER Mamdani counts working on Khader ElYateem’s 2017 run for City Council as a defining experience in his life.

GOOD READ Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid is Mamdani’s favorite book.

WISE WORDS He lives by the Franz Fanon quote: “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it.”

GIVING BACK Mamdani strives to treat everyone with kindness on a day-to-day level. But he feels such acts are “no match for the structural cruelty of our society.” So as a legislator, he wants to ensure that dignity for all is built into the law.

I don’t have a moment when I can look back and say everything changed. Over the course of my life, I’ve seen how capitalism is the cause of the structural failures I’ve lived through. Millennials’ lives have been punctured by immense societal failures—the 2008 recession and what we’re living through right now. We cannot separate these policies and failures from the Iraq war, the Afghan war, the War on Terror at large.

What drew you to the Democratic Socialists of America?

I don’t think my politics have changed that radically over time. I do think my identification as a socialist is very much a product of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign. I realized the key about making an impact is organizing.

What do you want to legislate on?

I ran on three critical issues: housing, justice and energy. If you believe in these, then next year the number one fight will be about revenue. To make these things happen, we need a recovery not funded on the working class but on raising taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers. ■

and brown homeowners. A sudden job loss or health care emergency would change their entire housing situation. It was my job to try to help put their life back together. These specific instances are

2021

EXECUTIVES

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BUCK ENNIS

ZOHRAN MAMDANI

DOSSIER

WHO OWNS THE BLOCK

PANDEMIC PIVOT IN BROOKLYN HEIGHTS

67 LIVINGSTON ST.

High-rise suspends sales and is now renting out units

BY C. J. HUGHES

F

57 LIVINGSTON ST.

131 CLINTON ST. In 1967 the Packer Collegiate Institute, a private school offering pre-kindergarten to 12thgrade instruction, snapped up this neo-Gothic church and its adjacent parish house, formerly known as St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, in a bid to expand its campus. James Renwick Jr., who designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, was the church’s architect. Plans to renovate the house of worship did not come to fruition until 2003, when the 1869 edifice, which has landmark protection, undertook a $23 million redevelopment. Today, across six levels, the church contains 13 classrooms and four science labs for middle-school students.

This elegant Greek Revival structure is part of Packer Collegiate Institute’s compact campus. The building, similar in appearance to other townhouses on the block, in the late 1880s was home to Dr. Alonzo Crittenden, Packer’s first president. A century later, it was known as the Garden House; the school’s youngest students gathered there. In 2019, a year after relocating preschoolers to a new building at 100 Clinton St., Packer announced a major expansion of No. 57, growing it to 20,000 square feet from 7,500. Although some neighbors opposed the plan, which would tack on a wing and add five classrooms, a roof deck and a cafe, the city approved it the same year.

The expansion is expected to be completed in 2022.

59 LIVINGSTON ST. This property, a red-brick 42-unit rental building completed in 1917, appears to have been in the same hands since World War II. Its landlord is Maxtor Realty of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, whose portfolio extends to other states. No. 59, an elevator building that does not have retail space, is worth $9.6 million, according to city tax records. A one-bedroom in December was priced at $2,950 per month, although as a concession in the weakened rental market, the landlords were offering to pay one month’s rent on a 12-month lease and cover any broker fee.

38 LIVINGSTON ST. This 6-story brick elevator building, built in 1914, is called the Colonial, a nod, perhaps, to the Colonial roots of the street, which is named for Philip Livingston, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who had a local estate.

The 28-unit building, which has a livein superintendent but no doorman, is a co-op, in an area thick with them. Condos, though, are rare. In December a two-bedroom, whose last listed price was $1.25 million, was in contract.

75 LIVINGSTON ST.

67 LIVINGSTON ST. This narrow 29-story tower, built in 1967, was owned for decades by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, otherwise known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious group. Glory Capital purchased it for about $19 million in 2007. Plans to turn the property into an office building never materialized, and the 92-unit structure continued to be used as a dorm for students from New York University and the now-defunct Art Institute of New York City. Silverback paid $28.6 million for the property in 2017 and redeveloped it, enlarging its residential spaces so that there is now mostly just one apartment per floor. No. 67, just outside the historic district that covers most of low-slung Brooklyn Heights, offers a view of Manhattan’s skyline from many floors.

68 LIVINGSTON ST. This property, a rental building with 25 one- and two-bedroom units, also known as 76 Court St., was sold in 2012 by Dimitrios Kaloidis, the late philanthropist and restaurant owner. The buyer, who purchased the property for $10 million, was United American Land, a development firm whose co-principal is Albert Laboz. United added two stories to the roof of the red-brick prewar structure, which is not within Brooklyn Heights’s main historic district. A one-bedroom there was listed during the fall for $2,785 a month, according to StreetEasy.

This 105-unit, 32-story residential building, which went co-op in 1981, was the former headquarters of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. The highrise, whose chamfered setbacks are a distinctive sight, was not included in the historic district created in 1965 to protect Brooklyn Heights, which was the first landmark district in New York City.

But in 2011 a smaller three-block designation along Court Street did apply to this art deco tower, which was developed by Jacob Adelman and designed by Abraham Simberg, although the co-op board at No. 75 opposed the move. The most recent apartment to sell in the doorman building, in November, was a one-bedroom with a home office, beamed ceilings and two exposures, for $1.7 million. When it hit the market in July, the asking price was $50,000 higher.

BUCK ENNIS, GOOGLE MAPS

or some condo developers, 2020 was the equivalent of a one-two punch.

One: Buyers for luxury apartments were scarce. Two: Restrictions used to stop the spread of the coronavirus, such as the months-long bans on in-person showings and construction activity, resulted in costly delays.

Some builders, squeezed by the market and their lenders, are taking the dramatic steps of converting their condos into rentals to salvage their projects.

“It was not an easy decision,” said Josh Schuster, the managing principal of Silverback Development, which has made a rental of a 22-unit high-rise in Brooklyn Heights. “But you need to look at the math.”

For the condo, a 29-story converted college dorm at 67 Livingston St., the numbers weren’t exactly glowing pre-pandemic, when buyers were reluctant to take a chance on a development under construction, Schuster said. Indeed, the project, which was approved to begin marketing in 2018 and cycled through two sales teams, signed just four contracts and received only three other offers before the pandemic struck.

Once Covid-19 emerged, buyers expected deep discounts of up to 30% on apartments that began at $2.5 million, and that was after factoring in price reductions and concessions such as paying for closing costs, Schuster said. A $68.6 million sellout was expected.

Switching uses isn’t always a snap.

Investors drawn to condo developments for their relatively quick returns usually aren’t interested in rentals’ spread-out revenue streams.

But some relief for 4-year-old Silverback came from its lining up of $47 million in condo-inventory financing from First Republic Bank, which allows the developer to pay off an existing higher-interest construction loan from Melody.

Since the marketing of the two- to four-bedroom units began in the summer, 21 of 22 units have leased for rents between $7,000 and $18,000 per month, said Silverback, which returned the deposits of the earlier buyers.

The building’s rents seem robust.

Brooklyn Heights’ median rent last year was $2,800, according to StreetEasy.com, although that price represented a plunge of 23% in a year.

The median sale price, meanwhile, is $1.09 million, which actually is an uptick from 2019, according to PropertyShark's data. In fact, Brooklyn Heights was one of just a few Brooklyn areas where prices actually increased last year. But sales activity plummeted 20%, PropertyShark found.

Schuster said 67 Livingston will gradually begin selling units again, and predicted the market would be much stronger than it is now.

“Were going to come back roaring,” he said. ■

JANUARY 18, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 11

TRANSPORTATION

Moynihan Train Hall gives NYC an instant landmark PHOTOGRAPHS BY BUCK ENNIS

12 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | JANUARY 18, 2021

Mo Sta str

Moynihan Train Hall has received mostly good reviews since it opened earlier this month. The $1.6 billion annex to Penn Station provides access to Amtrak, the Long Island Rail Road and the New York City subway. The 255,000-square-foot structure features a majestic atrium with a glass roof, a 320-seat waiting area, retail space and art work.

JANUARY 18, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 13

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1/14/21 3:22 PM

POLITICS

Brooklyn Dem leader Bichotte aims to avoid ‘circular firing squad’

BY BRIAN PASCUS

A

BICHOTTE

BUCK ENNIS

s New York Democrats look to select new candidates for mayor and the City Council this year, no borough will play as large a role in deciding the future of the party as Brooklyn.

With 1.2 million registered voters and 42 district leaders among 21 Assembly districts, Kings County is one of the largest constituencies of Democrats in the U.S. Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, the 48-year-old chairwoman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, now finds herself navigating this massive landscape of differing voting blocs and ideologies as she attempts to unite an increasingly fractured party.

“First of all, my goal as the party chair is to continue to unify the party,” she said. “We should not be engaging in a circular firing squad.”

For Bichotte—a Haitian American daughter of immigrants who was first elected to the Assembly in 2014—the challenges that come as being the first woman of color to lead the party in Brooklyn are augmented by divisions among Democrats themselves—with moderates seeking to push back on the growing influence of democratic socialists and other far-left groups.

“Brooklyn’s not only diverse in terms of its ethnic-racial makeup, its demographics, but it’s diverse in terms of its political philosophies,” said Jay Jacobs, chairman of the state Democratic Party.

Both Jacobs and longtime Brooklyn residents, among them Tom Garry, counsel to the state Democratic Party, emphasize that the diversity of Brooklyn’s Democratic base contributes to an unruly and, at times, unmanageable caucus for Bichotte to corral.

That diversity includes the Orthodox Jewish community in Williamsburg and Crown Heights; progressives in Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope; Russian and Polish

Democrats, a far-left coalition within the party opposed to moderates. A Dec. 2 party meeting over Zoom devolved into shouting and screaming. Fellow Assemblywoman Diana Richardson called on Bichotte to resign as chairwoman on Dec. 16.

“Some of the criticisms I’ve received would not have been applied to my predecessors. Racism and sexism are real, and Black women in particular are always tested,” she said. “Because of my background, I am always fighting for equity and engagement. That brings along challenges and criticism.”

Bichotte experienced defeat in two court cases last month. Judge Edgar Walker issued a decision that the Brooklyn Democratic Party illegally filled 2,400 vacant positions without input from members from county committees.

In addition, Walker ruled the party violated election law by failing to hold a county organization meeting during the pandemic.

Bichotte said that as a party leader and a future lawyer, she accepts the court’s ruling. After making acceptable changes, she said, she held a virtual meeting.

“Thanks to our third-party CPAs and forensic accounting firm, we overcame complex logistical challenges and upheld a fair election for one of the largest Democratic county parties in the nation,” Bichotte said.

“WE’RE TIRED, WE’RE UPSET, AND WE WANT CHANGE TO HAPPEN OVERNIGHT. IT CAN’T” Americans in Coney Island; and Latinos, West Indians and Black Americans of different backgrounds across varying neighborhoods.

“It’s not an easy task in terms of navigating all the different communities there and all the different factions,” Garry said. “You run the gamut of conservative, Republican-type areas in the borough to incredibly progressive parts in brownstone Brooklyn and downtown.”

Challenges and criticism One year into the job as the Brooklyn party chair, Bichotte has had to face attacks by New Kings

1.2M

and, unfortunately, Other political experts there are people that will were less focused on the attack and scream and motivations behind the NUMBER shout and don’t lift a fincriticisms of Bichotte. of Brooklyn ger to keep the DemoThey emphasized the residents who cratic Party whole and frustrating nature of her are registered as sustainable,” she said. job together with her AsDemocrats sembly duties.

‘Playing with fire’ “Being a county leader is a thankless job that’s One element that frequently like herding could threaten the cats,” said Evan Stavisky, a strength of the DemoAMOUNT of the Democratic consultant cratic Party in Brooklyn city’s revenue who explained how the is its relationship with that comes from desires of independently the business communiproperty taxes. elected districts officials ty. With Covid-19 reLandlords are expected to mix with the needs of strictions devastating default on the varying neighborhood the New York economy taxes without rent constituencies to create a and creating the worst collections. confusing policy platform unemployment crisis in for Bichotte to manage the nation, some Demoand, ultimately, promote. cratic constituents are Bichotte acknowledged the diffi- looking for relief from local officulties of her position. cials, especially in the form of rent “We’re tired, we’re upset, and we relief. want change to happen overnight, To this end, Bichotte said she and it can’t,” she said. “There’s in- supports comprehensive measures frastructure that needs to be fixed, to protect tenants. built, and money to be raised.”

“I believe in the eviction moratoShe added: “All the raising of rium. I believe in foreclosure premoney is on me, quite frankly.” vention,” she said. “I believe in putWhile not seeking to blame her ting a stop on everything until we predecessors, Bichotte said she in- get our stimulus package.” herited an organization with an But for members of the business empty treasury and zero social me- community, especially the real esdia presence. In 2020 the party tate sector, hearing this policy preraised only a half million dollars scription from the Brooklyn party under Bichotte, money that goes chair is cause for alarm. toward paying staff and social me“Continuing these ill-fated mordia vendors who promote the par- atoriums indefinitely on the hopes ty’s message. of stimulus that may never come is “I asked that the county commit- playing with fire—because when tee members be involved in fund- the freezes and moratoriums are raising and small-dollar donations finally lifted, the affordable-hous-

50%

ing infrastructure will collapse like a house of cards,” said Joe Strausburg, president of the Rent Stabilization Association.

Bichotte’s policy would leave the city in an economic quagmire, Strausburg said, because, without expected rent revenue, landlords will default on their property taxes—which account for nearly 50% of the city’s revenue.

Although the party draws strength from the small-business community, especially among minorities, Bichotte faces skepticism and concerns from voters who are aware of the growing divisions made by the Democratic Socialists of America and the New Kings Democrats.

“I’m very supportive of the Brooklyn Democratic Party,” said Tiecha Merritt, a small-business owner in Bedford Stuyvesant who emphasized that she has concerns about the far-left organizations such as the DSA. “I don’t know what this group is about, but they are coming out of nowhere, and they are pushing our grassroots leaders out.”

Ultimately, how Bichotte handles these divisions among Brooklyn Democrats in the coming months will go a long way in deciding how the party makes out in this year’s elections.

“She has a very difficult job, but she’s been committed to a transparent effort to give everybody a voice at the table,” Garry said. “And the problem with a voice at the table is sometimes people scream and it gets loud.” ■

JANUARY 18, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 15

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

T

he word is out. Victoria’s Secret lost its bid to stiff SL Green, the landlord at its massive Herald Square store, of millions in rent payments, according to a decision made Jan. 7 by a justice in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

The lingerie brand filed a controversial lawsuit against SL Green in May in which it asked a judge to rescind its lease at 2 Herald Square, claiming it should not have to pay

pandemic has not voided lease contracts, as many retailers have claimed in lawsuits of their own or in responses to their landlords’ lawsuits for back rent.

‘Cannot be exploited’ “The court’s ruling dismissing Victoria’s Secret’s lawsuit makes clear that the pandemic cannot be exploited by large national retailers to avoid their contractual rent obligations,” said Stephen Meister, a lawyer for SL Green. “We will continue to work with Victoria’s Secret to collect what is owed and bring this matter to an amicable close.”

The lingerie brand’s lawyer did not respond to calls for comment.

In June the landlord filed a counterclaim against the retailer to collect $25 million in back rent, future rent, interest and legal fees. A preliminary conference for those claims will be held Feb. 9.

“It is indisputable that New York City’s business landscape has been shattered, and is forever altered,” said Victoria’s Secret’s original complaint.

THE RETAILER HAD BEEN STRUGGLING SINCE BEFORE THE PANDEMIC HIT nearly $1 million a month because of the circumstances prompted by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Justice Andrew Borrok disagreed, granting summary judgment to SL Green and dismissing Victoria’s Secret’s lawsuit altogether after nearly eight months of arguments.

The decision upheld the landlord community’s assertion that the

While the brand’s Herald Square location has been closed since March, its other stores and retailers around it have been open for months, Howard Koh, another of SL Green’s lawyers, said in an affidavit.

Just to prove how business in the district had resumed, Koh made his way to the Macy’s across the street to purchase Kiehl’s beard oil, bought a pair of socks at the nearby H&M and traveled to a Victoria’s Secret in Harlem, where he bought a bottle of its “Seduction” fragrance, court papers show.

“There can be no genuine dispute that Covid-19 currently prevents [Victoria’s Secret] from operating its lingerie store at [Herald Square],” he said in the affidavit.

The retailer had been struggling since before the pandemic hit. In May it announced it would close about 250 locations around the

BLOOMBERG

Judge dismisses Victoria’s Secret’s lawsuit against SL Green

country, plus more this year and in 2022, because of declining sales.

The outlook for Victoria’s Secret’s parent company, L Brands, became increasingly positive after it got a boost from stronger-than-anticipated holiday sales. Its share prices have risen 400% since they dropped

60% in March.

In May another of L Brands’ companies, Bath and Body Works, sued SL Green to get out of its lease at 304 Park Ave. South. SL Green is seeking damages of $1 million for back and future rent there. No ruling has been made in the matter. ■

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COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Novotel Times Square shuts down permanently

T

he Novotel New York Times Square has permanently closed its doors to visitors after the hotel’s owner, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, canceled its management contract, city records show.

The hotel temporarily shuttered in March after the pandemic caused a statewide shutdown that devastated the hotel industry and led to the furlough of more than 140 of its employees. Days before Christmas, all 225 of Novotel’s employees at the building were laid off.

Millennium & Copthorne, led

by Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng, will keep the building

million cash deal in 2014 from a partnership affiliated with Apollo Global Management LLC and Chartres Lodging Group, property records show.

It was already being operated

by French hospitality group Accor S.A., which owns the Novotel brand, when Kwek took over the property. Accor constructed the building in 1984 and owned it until 2012, when Accor sold it to the Apollo and Chartres partnership.

Pandemic’s effects The Novotel New York Times Square is hardly the first hotel to succumb to the effects of the pandemic. Several Manhattan inns, including the Hilton Times Square, the AKA Wall Street, the historic Roosevelt Hotel and the W Hotel downtown, have called it quits.

Others, such as the Gallivant Hotel and the Mark Hotel, had been on thin ice with lenders pushing to foreclose on the properties. A judge

IT COULD TAKE AT LEAST FIVE MORE YEARS FOR THE HOTEL INDUSTRY TO REBOUND at 226 W. 52nd St. closed to the public.

Kwek’s company purchased the 34-story, 480-key hotel in a $266

blocked the Mark Hotel’s lenders from foreclosing on its debts this past summer.

In the city, nearly $4 billion in mortgages is backed by hotels and combined commercial mortgage-backed securities. At least 80% of the inns behind those loans are showing signs of distress, the Financial Times reported, citing data from analytics firm Trepp.

The Holiday Inn in the Financial District and the Standard Highline Hotel are both at least 90 days past due on their mortgages, according to Trepp data.

Occupancy rates for the week ending Jan 2., which culminated what is usually a tourist-heavy New Year’s Eve, were a measly 44%, hospitality analytics firm STR found. The figures were nearly double that during the same period last year.

Even with a vaccine being doled out, it could take at least five more years for the hotel industry to return to normal, experts say.

Representatives for Novotel and Millennium & Copthorne did not respond to requests for comment. ■

ALAMY

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

2021 Events New York’s top industry thought-leaders, influencers and rising stars join Crain’s for stimulating fireside chats, panel discussions and honoree celebrations.

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FROM PAGE 1

apartment towers, including a conversion at 70 Pine St., which was once a 66-story office building.

Businesses had cleared out in the aftermath of the attack, and falling property prices had developers swooping in to repurpose buildings.

There are some blueprints the city can follow, thanks to that period, said Alice Jump, a partner at Reavis Page Jump.

Even so, when making a conversion as drastic as offices into apartments, developers need to be mindful of light and air and whether there are enough windows and rear-yard requirements, which are different for commercial and residential properties.

Zoning guidelines, which dictate what types of buildings can be constructed in certain areas of the city, will be a factor in determining whether offices and hotels can be

“It’s not rocket science to say that implementing a program to convert additional nonresidential space to residential use will require coordinated changes in state and city law,” said Paul Selver, co-chair of the land-use practice at Kramer Levin.

Hotels would be much better suited for these changes, Jacobs said, thanks to their single rooms and floor plates. Developers already are looking at taking distressed hotels and converting them into different uses as the industry continues suffering.

Economic viability Focusing on affordable and supportive housing throws another consideration into the mix: economic viability.

“The state and city will have to resolve the tension between … ensuring that there are sufficient economic incentives for developers to lay out risk capital and security for banks to lend,” Selver said.

Without tax breaks or subsidies from the state, which doesn’t have much to give right now, developers are on the fence about whether this type of conversion would make financial sense, Jump said.

Her clients are skeptical at this stage about converting large, expensive commercial properties into low-income housing. Regulations on residential properties and

“THE STATE’S ROLE IN DEVELOPING NEW HOUSING IN MIDTOWN IS VERY SMART” transformed. Such conversions are impossible under current laws for hotels in manufacturing districts, for example.

CUOMO

GOVERNONRANDREWCUOMO/FLICKR

ZONING

tenant-protection laws also are a cause for economic concern, she said.

The conversions won’t happen without significant public investment, said Brenda Rosen, chief executive of affordable-housing developer Breaking Ground.

“You’re talking about buying out large hotels that owners are not trying to take a giant loss on, and the nonprofit sector itself doesn’t have the money to purchase them,” she said.

Cuomo must decide the extent to

which the new apartments will be affordable, which could become a point of contention between city and state officials.

“Since housing is needed at all economic levels—except luxury apartments—it would seem to make sense to allow for market-rate use as well,” said Robin Kramer, a lawyer at Duval & Stachenfeld.

‘Sorely needed’ Still, a focus on affordable and supportive homes is a great decision on Cuomo’s part, Rosen said.

“It’s sorely needed, and the state’s role in developing new housing in the Midtown area is very smart,” she said. Her firm has been focused on converting hotels, including the Times Square Hotel and the former Prince George Hotel, into homes for low-income and homeless New Yorkers.

These developments cost money, she said, but are much cheaper and faster than ground-up construction.

“It’s really an opportunity,” she said. ■

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PFIZER FROM PAGE 1

contagious variant of the virus emerged in the U.K., Dormitzer summoned his team back to the lab in Pearl River, 30 miles northwest of the city.

“I had every good intention,” said Dormitzer, chief scientific officer for viral vaccines. “This is not a good time for work-life balance,” he added.

Maybe not, but it sure is a good time for Manhattan-based Pfizer.

The biggest company in the nation’s pharmaceutical industry has become the closest thing to a superhero that the private sector has ever produced. This year 1.3 billion doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed with German partner BioNTech are expected to be administered globally.

Big things The vaccine represents a serious jolt of revenue for Pfizer, which invested $2 billion in development without government assistance.

Moreover, it demonstrates that the massive company that introduced the world to the joys of Viagra 23 years ago is still capable of inventing big things. For civic leaders, Pfizer’s Covid breakthrough demonstrates that the world’s capital of finance, the arts and media is now a leader in medicine.

“New York has been building itself into a center for life sciences for years,” said Kathryn Wylde, chief executive of the Partnership for New

lio vaccine was made, years before Dr. Jonas Salk’s. A former Pfizer president co-owned the Brooklyn Dodgers, and his death kicked off a power struggle that ended with Walter O’Malley in charge of the baseball team. Pfizer’s decision in the 1970s to remain headquartered in the city was a surprising show of confidence in New York at the time.

Pfizer’s modern era began in 1972, when Edmund Pratt became chief executive officer and turned what had been a large manufacturer into a research-based drug developer. Pratt refused to relocate Pfizer to suburbia when corporations like General Electric were fleeing New York. He got an award in 1978 from the Regional Plan Association for his determination to stay put. (Pfizer plans to move its headquarters from the quirky Midtown tower it’s occupied since 1961 to Hudson Yards after the pandemic.)

“Ed Pratt was one of a handful of CEOs, like David Rockefeller at Chase and Walter Wriston at Citibank, who recommitted to the city after its fiscal crisis,” Wylde said.

Pratt and his successors turned Pfizer into a global conglomerate with a spree of acquisitions. After the 2009 purchase of Wyeth, the company topped out at nearly $70 billion in annual revenue. But by 2015 revenues had fallen by $20 billion because it was unable to produce enough new, big-selling drugs to offset the loss of Lipitor and other blockbusters when they lost patent protection. Wall Street concluded Pfizer was too big to grow, and for years the company was stuck in “purgatory,” Bernstein Research analyst Ronnie Gal said.

“When you ‘are’ the market, outperformance is hard to come by,” Gal observed in a report last year.

Management tried to regain the lost mojo by selling less profitable divisions, such as generic drugs, and invested approximately $8 billion annually in research and development. The Covid-19 vaccine is just the first fruit of those labors, analysts say.

The Pearl River lab was instrumental in its development. Researchers there ran clinical trials in multiple countries, which involved testing 170,000 nasal swabs from 44,000 participants. It also provided manufacturing muscle.

Developing a vaccine during the lockdown was challenging. Half of the 800 employees at the Pearl River

BJORNSON (left) AND DORMITZER helped lead Pfizer’s vaccine efforts.

Bjornson consults with a colleague (bottom, right), and Dormitzer talks to his team (bottom, left) at Pfizer’s Pearl River lab.

York City. “The vaccine is tangible evidence the effort is paying off.”

To check Pfizer’s vital statistics is to visit the land of giants. The company has $50 billion in annual revenue and employs 88,000. Listing all its subsidiaries takes up 11 pages of its annual report. The company rents space in 453 locations. Its foundations dispense $1 billion worth of drugs and distribute about $30 million a year to humanitarian causes. Its list of matching employee grants is 170 pages long.

Apart from its immense size, Pfizer is woven deeply into the city’s history. The Pearl River lab is where 650 of Pfizer’s 750 viral-vaccine scientists work and where the first po-

BUCK ENNIS

“WHEN YOU ‘ARE’ THE MARKET, OUTPERFORMANCE IS HARD TO COME BY”

campus were ordered to work from home, and the company provided free lunch to keep staffers from mingling or driving off-site. Groceries were delivered to keep employees away from supermarkets. But the gym was closed, the shuttle to the city was suspended, and work-anniversary parties were reduced to a quick walk through a pizza line.

“It wasn’t ideal for anyone,” said Steve Bjornson, Pfizer’s chief oper-

ating officer for vaccine research and development.

To lift morale, a movie screen was put up in the parking lot so employees and their families could spend an evening watching Back to the Future from their cars.

A reintroduction Since 1907 there’s been a lab on the site, which used to be a horse farm, but no Pfizer sign can be seen from the road.

PFIZER BEGAN AS A FACTORY in Williamsburg, founded by a German chemist and his cousin in 1849, around the time a Brooklyn neighbor expressed his admiration for the city’s many workshops and foundries.

“Mark the spirit of invention everywhere, thy rapid patents,” Walt Whitman wrote. “See, from their chimneys how the tall flame-fires stream.”

The company relocated to Manhattan in 1868 and went public in 1942, two years before it learned how to mass-produce penicillin.

At that time its president, John Smith, owned a 25% stake in the Brooklyn Dodgers. But after Smith died in 1950, ownership passed to his wife’s lawyer and fellow 25% shareholder, Walter O’Malley.

Seeking complete control of the team, O’Malley aimed to buy out another 25% owner, Branch Rickey. Rickey, who integrated baseball

with Jackie Robinson, drove a hard bargain and persuaded develO’MALLEY oper William Zeckendorf to bid $1 million for the stake he had paid just $350,000 for seven years earlier. An outraged O’Malley had no choice but to match the offer and pay Zeckendorf $50,000 to walk away.

The lofty sale price “lifted the tax figure for the settlement of the Smith estate,” Dodgers broadcaster Red Barber recalled in 1988. After the 1957 season, O’Malley moved the team to Los Angeles.

— A.E.

NEWSCOM

DID PFIZER EXEC’S HEIRS SEND THE DODGERS TO LOS ANGELES?

“I’d like it to be more visible,” Bjornson said. “Especially today.”

He may get his wish because Pfizer is busy reintroducing itself to the public. This month its corporate logo was changed for the first time in 70 years: A two-tone double helix spiral replaced the blue oval pill design. The change reflects a “shift from commerce to science,” Pfizer said.

The company should get a $12 billion bump—a 25% increase—in revenue this year from the vaccine, CFRA analyst Sel Hardy said.

Yet its stock price has risen by only 8% since the vaccine was shown to be effective Nov. 9. That reflects how slowly it is being administered, Hardy said, and questions remain as to how often people will need it.

Hesitancy could be a factor as Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline, among others, are developing vaccines, another analyst said.

Still, Hardy expects Pfizer’s heavy investment in research and development to pay off for years to come.

“It’s a better play than before,” she said.

Then again, financial metrics aren’t always paramount. With the vaccine, Pfizer has earned something money can’t buy: gratitude. ■

JANUARY 18, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 19

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NOTICE OF FORMATION OF GY HONG KONG, LLC. Articles of Organization were filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 11/20/2020.

Office Location: New York County.

SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/her is 36 West 47th Street, W03, New York, NY 10036. The principal business address of the LLC is 36 West 47th Street, W03, New York, NY 10036. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF MOVING BODIES FORWARD, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/27/20. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/her is: United States Corporation Agents, Inc., 7014 13th Ave, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 78717.

The principal business address of the is 315 E86th Street #16DE, New York, NY, 10028.

Notice of Formation of DLS HR Solutions LLC. Arts of Org filed with secy . of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/6/20.

Office location: BX County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 1740 Mulford Ave, Apt 19H, Bronx, NY 10461. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of ILLUMINATE FM LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/03/20.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/ 19/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 205 Hudson St., 7th Fl., NY, NY 10013. DE addr. of LLC: c /o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of ROUND SHRUB PRODUCTIONS, LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/30/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/19/20. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Paracorp Incorporated, 2804 Gateway Oaks Dr., Ste. 100, Sacramento, CA 95833. Address to be maintained in DE: 2140 South Dupont Hwy., Camden, DE 19934. Arts of Org. filed with the Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities.

David Sable, LLC, Arts of Org. filed SSNY 2/10/20. Office: NY Co. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process may be served & mail to David Sable, 201 West 70th St., 11HI, NY, NY 10023. General Purpose.

S H A R E

Y O U R

Notice of Formation of MS RESIDENCE LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/23/20. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: Philip J. Michaels, c/o Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, 1301 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of SJV 1 Sheepshead Bay OpCo LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/30/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/24/20. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.

DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Healthcare.

Notice of Formation of SIGNATURE SP 3, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/19/20. 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 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NY PRINCIPAL LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 09/25/2020. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: Ed Gitlin, 33 West 60th Street Ste 2-1, NY, NY 10023. Reg Agent: Ed Gitlin, 33 West 60th Street Ste 2-1, NY, NY 10023.

Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose

Notice of Formation of OMAHA FALLS II LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/07/20. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to Robert Milam, 150 Charles St., Unit M3, NY, NY 10014. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of MERIDIAN BRANDS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/24/20. 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 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of Bardock Sales, LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 9/ 23/20. Office Location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 300 E 34th St, 35H, NY, NY 10016. R/A: US Corp Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Ave, #202, BK, NY 11228. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of REVANTAGE RISK SERVICES, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/25/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/14/20. Princ. office of LLC: 233 S. Wacker Dr., Ste. 4700, Chicago, IL 60606. 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., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

C O M P A N Y ’ S

Notice of Qualification of PULSE ANALYTICS, LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/ 16/20. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/ 13/09. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: One Pennsylvania Plaza, Ste. 2505, NY, NY 11901. Address to be maintained in DE: c/o Business Filings Incorporated, 108 West 13th St., Wilmington, DE 19801. 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.

J O U R N E Y

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JANUARY 18, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 21

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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Advertising Section To place your listing, visit www.crainsnewyork.com/people-on-the-move or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com

ACCOUNTING

ACCOUNTING

ACCOUNTING

FINANCIAL / TECHNOLOGY

NONPROFIT

Frankel Loughran Starr & Vallone LLP

Frankel Loughran Starr & Vallone LLP

Frankel Loughran Starr & Vallone LLP

Alloy

New York Edge

Frankel Loughran Starr & Vallone LLP is pleased to announce the promotion of Adam Fisher, Esq., CPA to Partner effective January 1. Adam has 13 years of experience providing tax advisory and compliance services to private-equity funds, investment entities, real estate companies, and insurance companies. Previously, Adam worked at PwC in the Banking, Capital Markets, and Insurance practice. He received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Binghamton University and a law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Adam is a CPA licensed in New York and admitted to the bar in New York State and the State of New Jersey. He is a member of the AICPA.

Frankel Loughran Starr & Vallone LLP is pleased to announce the promotion of Mary Elizabeth Tarter, CPA, MBA to Partner effective January 1. She is responsible for the office in West Palm Beach, which opened in 2018. With over 25 years of experience in public accounting, Mary Beth focuses on the high net worth areas of individual, fiduciary, private foundations, and gift and estate. She services and advises her clients in tax compliance, income tax and estate planning and works with many international clients related to US tax compliance and cross-border tax planning.

Mary Beth received her BBA in Accounting from Adelphi University and earned her MBA from University of Phoenix. She holds CPA licenses in New York and Florida.

Frankel Loughran Starr & Vallone LLP is pleased to announce the promotion of Robert Altieri, CPA, MST to Partner effective January 1. Rob has over 12 years of experience providing tax advisory and compliance services to asset management firms, privatelyowned businesses and high-net worth individuals. Previously, Rob worked at Centerbridge Partners, LP and Deloitte Tax LLP. He received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from James Madison University, a master’s in taxation from SUNYOld Westbury, and is a CPA licensed in NY.

Alloy, the identity operating system for the financial services industry, today announced Charley Ma has been appointed GM of Fintech, where he will be focused on deepening the platform’s fintech offerings and go-to-market strategy. Ma joins Alloy from Ramp, where he was head of growth and helped launch the first corporate card built for savings. Prior to Ramp, he was the first business hire at Plaid, where he led fintech sales prior to Visa’s $5.3B acquisition.

For more info, visit alloy.co.

New York Edge, New York City’s largest provider of on-site afterschool programs, has appointed Niesha Foster, Vice President, Product Access, Global Health & Patient Access at Pfizer, to the organization’s Board of Directors. In her position with Pfizer, Ms. Foster is focused on addressing patient affordability and advancing health equity in diverse communities. As a member of the Board, she will work with New York Edge leadership to strengthen programs and deepen its impact across the city.

Latham & Watkins ARCHITECTURE

Dattner Architects

ACCOUNTING

ACCOUNTING

Frankel Loughran Starr & Vallone LLP

Frankel Loughran Starr & Vallone LLP

Frankel Loughran Starr & Vallone LLP is pleased to announce the promotion of Erik Gary, CPA, MS to Partner effective January 1. Erik has over 21 years of experience working closely with clients in the private equity, hedge fund, real estate and venture capital industries. Erik provides a variety of tax compliance, planning, and advisory services, including estate and retirement planning, wealth preservation, compensatory stock issuance alternatives and Federal and State tax efficiency strategies.

He has been instrumental in developing and implementing trust, estate, and intra-family gifting plans for his clients and their families. Erik is a CPA who received both his M.S. and B.S. in Accounting from St. John’s University.

Frankel Loughran Starr & Vallone LLP is pleased to announce the promotion of Gregg Martorella, CPA to Partner effective January 1.

Gregg has over twenty years of experience providing tax and advisory services to middle market businesses, multi-state entities, investment partnerships and high net worth individuals.

Gregg advises his clients on business formation and tax structuring, federal, state and local corporate and partnership tax matters, cross-border transactions, global tax planning strategies, estate, gift and trust planning, wealth management and family office services.

Gregg received a B.S. degree from Fordham University. His professional affiliations include the AICPA and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA).

PROMOTE. Why not?

CRAINSNEWYORK.COM I OCTOBER 26, 2020 I

CRAINSNEWYORK.COM I SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 I

ASKED & ANSWERED

experts in tax regulation, audit, estate administration, forensic accounting, Few qualities are more vital to the health of any business than financial organizational transformation, advisory services, fundraising and business equilibrium and organizational efficiency. structure. They represent an extraordinary group of professionals from Rarely has the value of both been more strongly felt than in recent firms of varying size and renown. months. From stress-tested balance sheets to fast-changing regulations, 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. particular. The nominations submitted by individuals and firms in the New Standing tall within this chaotic breach are the foot soldiers of profesexperts in tax regulation, audit, estate administration, forensic accounting, Few qualities are more vital to the health of any business than financial 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. counting and consulting notables was chosen for her career achievements In selecting the 86 honorees for this year’s list of Notable Women in structure. They represent an extraordinary group of professionals from Rarely has the value of both been more strongly felt than in recent and involvement in industry and community organizations—and at times Accounting and Consulting, Crain’s sought to spotlight the accomplished firms of varying size and renown. months. From stress-tested balance sheets to fast-changing regulations, 28, 2020 I her effortsCRAINSNEWYORK.COM to help New York reboundI SEPTEMBER from the coronavirus. metropolitan area professionals and problem-solvers who keep businessTo 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. cohort keep the gears of business whirling. skilled at resourceful innovation and disruptive thinking. These women are The nominations by individuals andadministration, firms in the New Standing tall within this chaoticare breach the soldiers profesexperts insubmitted tax regulation, audit, estate forensic accounting, Few qualities moreare vital tofoot the health ofof any 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 innovation and disruptive thinking.

Theseare women aresoldiers particular.

The nominations tall within this chaotic breach the foot of keep professional service firms, led by accountants and management consultants.

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.

Read their biographies and learn how the members ers er rrss of this th s remarkab remarkable remarkable 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 and Media and Technology echnology Northeast B Business usin ness Lead Leader der million profit-and-lossManaging statementDirector for clients inCommunications, 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 positions she’s of 3,000 professionals. Peterson is charged with managing a $750 y held the multinational professional company has been a board adviser to at Fairygodboss, an online platformservices that million profit-and-loss statement for clients in the Accenture since joining the firm in 2000. In her current role as seeks to elevate women 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 unnecessary providers are aligned with that g goal because they y care. The p g y benefit from it if they can reduce avoidable care. Consider Covid-19 to be like a war. there In war times, times the model has b been a lifesaver because th ere is this artificial utilization, have lost so much depression epression pre p of u utilization util tillizati lization ion, and ion, an and th that’s why y the providers p money—their m o oney—their ne ey revenue enue has dri dried up. But because we have h tthese hese risk k contracts, contract th surplus that is there, that’s what has gone out the door the do 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 to us as a M to Medicaid di id plan pla l are e cuts to hospitals.” hospitals ”

services?

What happens Wh appens ppens pens when patients again begin be seeking seek services serv ? been encouraging We e do see utilization attion n coming back, back k a k, and we we have ha bee encouraging our members me em mbers to get ge needed d care care e because because whether people have put a lot of stuff off. We have e to o see e whet wh w her the bounce back is gigantic or it just ust brings b briings things things back utilization to a steady state state. If w we go back k tto a more normal norm nor utili zation pattern, pattern then the e regular regul gular lar incentives es s off trying ttrr yiiin ng ng tto o align care, around nd go good ood preventive ventive ve care and avoiding unn unneces u unnecessary c ca re re, e, they t just kick in in. pandemic?

How How w ca can an a n the tth he e city cit ity ty safely sa s saf bounce back from the pandem mic? c? on the public health measures and Conti Co Continu Continue ontinu ontin on inue nue e doubling d doubli do dou ou ubli b g down d s already already eady in place: wearing masks, social distancing d diisttan ancing nc singular learning hand hand han nd n d sanitation sanitation. sanitati sanitatio an nitta ion. W We ek know what to do. But I think a sing gular ar focus on getting the schools open for full ul le learnin g should should s hould ould to top t the tth he list of wh he what hat we we a are r aimin aiming ai g for. for fo We W shoul d measure our success against that goal. goa As As an an employer, employer, I can tell you u that th hatt we will il ill ll nott b be able bl to t get get ffully fu back back to o work until the thousands of employees with wiith h school-age school -age sch children can get their kids back into school. It’s of course courrse better for all children and particularly critical crriti itiica cal al for f poorer to hinge children. The city’s city s economic recovery is going goi hinge on on how quickly and how well we can get that th ha at done done so that that of the city who has watched us parents can resume their normal lives too. As A a longtime longtim me resident re s recover reco over from ov Sandy, I believe in the city’s recession, ecession, cession, ession, ssion, ss on, n, 9/11 and a dH Hu Hurricane Hurric Hurrican ricane ca Sandy Sa Sand San citty’s ability to bounce back against the odds. odd ds s. But But this about solution. time ime me is is going oing i test testt all lll of of us, and an a d we w should sh s be sober ab out tthe need for everyone to contribute to the t so Whatt challenges ll ng face f the th broader broade b d r in iinsurance industry? ? expectations Balancing ncing the needs and ex expectation expectati xpectatio atiio on of consumers who w wh ho need need and deserve good health care coverage, cove cov vera age, ge expandexpand however we can doing ing ng access ccess cc cess howeve ho ow can n and a doin d do ng it within an increasingly incre ea asingly constrained economic environment. environmentt. This environmen This is is is dire at the same time as especially ecially true rue e with Medicaid, Medicaid aid where wher w wh re tthe state’s budgett situation itu s people’s peo peop op ple e’s s needs million are increasing. ncreasing. creasing ng. Given that Healthfirst Healthfi firs rs has over 1 millio n Medicaid M Me edicaid members, the potential impact of of the the state’s budget gett is especially g specially p y concerning concerning. concern cerning rn ning For Fo or me, m our priority has has to be enabling as many people as possible possib po ble e to to have full full challenge access ss to high-quality gh-quality care, and nd d it’s it s going g to be a cha lle enge to figure out how to do that in this economic eco econ no n o omic m environenvironmindful of the hurt being ment. t Insurers t.

Ins rers ers rs also need ne d to ob be mindf mind nd bein ng experienced by so much of the providerr delivery d de eliivery v ve system. system. relies strong doctors, The value off our o products produ relie rre eli s on on having ha docto ors,, hospitals and community resources. s. Balancing Ba B Bala ala anc cing all of challenge. this his in n a financially fi viable way is going g goi goin to be a challe nge e. ■ Reprinted with permission R permisssiion from fr Crain’s in’s New York Business.

Business. © 2020 Crain rain Communications Com mmunications Inc. All Al rights riigh reserved. re rese erv rve ed.

Further duplication without permission is prohibited. prohibi prohi ite ed. #NB20080 #NB20080

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

LAW

Gia Mainiero AIA, LEED AP B+C, Assoc. DBIA has been promoted to Principal at Dattner Architects.

Passionate about public architecture, Gia was a core member for the Manhattan Districts 1/2/5 Garage and Spring Street Salt Shed, and is committed to creating inspiring, sustainable infrastructure for future generations. As Principal, Gia will lead the design and management of infrastructure, transportation, and designbuild projects and continue her mentorship role within the office.

Justin Elliott has joined Latham & Watkins LLP in New York as a partner in the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group. He advises public and privately held clients in a wide range of commercial real estate transactions, including financings; joint ventures; acquisitions and dispositions of interests in real property and debt; workouts and restructurings; mergers; leasing; and development. He was previously a partner at Kirkland & Ellis and received his JD from Fordham University School of Law.

TECHNOLOGY

GK Digital Ventures After two decades working with some of the biggest names in tech and entertainment, Greg Kahn has launched GK Digital Ventures (GKDV), an advisory firm driving business through innovation, partnerships and high-impact events. GKDV supports clients through investor strategies, marketplace development, enhancing executive experiences through industry marketing, as well as assessment and strategy implementation for emerging media, data and technology solutions. Learn more at gkdigitalventures.com.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

LAW

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

DailyPay

Ulmer & Berne LLP

Transit Wireless

Preeti Krishnan has been promoted to the newly created position of Vice President, Strategic Business Operations for DailyPay, the gold standard on-demand pay platform.

Preeti will play a pivotal role in the continued meteoric rise of the industry-leading financial technology solutions company by leading DailyPay’s newlycreated Strategic Business Operations team. This new internal group will be dedicated to further developing DailyPay’s strategy through acute focus on operational objectives.

Ulmer is pleased to announce the addition of Counsel Anastasia Tonello to its New York office where she joins the firm’s distinguished Immigration Law Group. A leader in the field of immigration law and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Tonello represents clients in all areas of U.S. immigration, visa, citizenship, and consular law, and provides cutting-edge counsel to individuals and corporations.

She earned her law degree from Notre Dame Law School.

Transit Wireless, a BAI Communications and leading 5G wireless infrastructure company, announced that Kristin Steiner has joined the company as head of strategic partnerships and sales. In her senior leadership role, she will drive the sales strategy to facilitate the company’s growing 5G infrastructure buildouts and expand its public-private partnerships across transit and large commercial venues nationwide.

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

22 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | JANUARY 18, 2021

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GOTHAM GIGS

BUCK ENNIS

ROSENBLATT has helped 1stdibs raise $253 million in venture capital.

DAVID ROSENBLATT HOMETOWN Washington, D.C. LIVES Upper East Side EDUCATION Bachelor’s in East Asian studies, Yale University; MBA, Stanford University GLOBAL VIEW Rosenblatt started his professional career in the finance industry, including working in Hong Kong.

BUILDING BLOCK Google stopped using the DoubleClick name on its ad products in 2018, but its legacy lives on.

“DoubleClick proved not just that it is possible to build a billiondollar New York tech company,” Rosenblatt said, “but it also trained a generation of people that powered startups in New York.” Former executives went on to found firms including Gilt Groupe and MongoDB. IN THE PAST When asked about the antitrust scrutiny on Google and its ad business, Rosenblatt said only that he’s been out of that field for 10 years.

Adding luxury to online shopping Ex-DoubleClick chief helps high-end site capitalize on Covid e-commerce

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

D

oubleClick helped put the city’s tech scene on the map and became the backbone of Google’s lucrative online advertising business after the search giant bought the startup for $3 billion in 2007.

Guiding that megadeal was David Rosenblatt, who led DoubleClick from 2004 up through the merger.

He would later join the boards of Twitter and IAC. With that resume, it raised eyebrows when Rosenblatt became CEO in 2011 of 1stdibs, an “obscure online marketplace known among antique dealers and interior designers,” as put then by All Things D. He describes the decision differently. As Amazon was eating up the market for books and other consumer goods, luxury products were slowly migrating to e-commerce.

Rosenblatt, who started his career in finance, believed every market

would eventually embrace online sales—even those for thousand-dollar necklaces.

“This was an opportunity to lead a company that was reinventing an entire industry,” he said.

The executive has spent the past nine years growing 1stdibs, expanding its focus from antiques to a range of luxury items, including fine art—raising $253 million from venture capital investors along the way.

The firm has shifted from a listings platform that connects buyers and sellers—essentially an online bulletin board—to a marketplace that hosts transactions and directs shipping—insuring each item and collecting a commission of up to 15%.

The effort positioned 1stdibs for the Covid-era economy, which Rosenblatt said “has accelerated the transition to e-commerce by 10 years.”

Online shopping for luxury goods doubled its share of the global market, to 23% of all sales, in 2020, worth $59 billion, according to re-

search firm Bain & Co. Sales have climbed 30% since May, with the fastest growth in its art category. It hosted 10 orders of works valued more than $100,000 between March and September, including two by Andy Warhol.

“We are a company at the intersection of two of the fastest-growing movements in the market right now,” Rosenblatt said, “a shift toward digital and people’s desire to improve their home.”

The site employs about 300 people, mainly in its 42,000-square-foot office in the East Village. Rosenblatt expects that number to grow as demand for online goods continues.

With vaccines starting to roll out, however, the big spenders 1stdibs caters to could go back to traveling and shopping on Madison Avenue later this year. Will they keep buying high-end items online?

“I think so,” Rosenblatt said. “The world has never become less digital.” ■

“WE ARE A COMPANY AT THE INTERSECTION OF A SHIFT TOWARD DIGITAL AND PEOPLE’S DESIRE TO IMPROVE THEIR HOME”

JANUARY 18, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 23

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