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MAY 10, 2021

REAL ESTATE

HFZ could lose control of the XI.

LAWSUITS, LAYOFFS AND LOSSES How HFZ Capital Group went from rescuing flops to becoming one

BY EDDIE SMALL AND NATALIE SACHMECHI

I

n 2009, when the world’s financial system had been shaken to its core and New York’s once-sturdy real estate market was turned on its head, Ziel Feldman was floating on top of it all.

In the downbeat days of the Great Recession, Feldman’s HFZ Capital Group reveled in the crisis.

“When the market crashed, I started seeing opportunity,” Feldman told Crain’s for a 2013 profile.

At that point Feldman and The Related Cos. had recently finished turnest existential crisis, ing around One Madison brought on by the panPark, one of the real esdemic. The company is tate bubble’s most infabesieged with lawsuits mous flops. He had plans THE PRICE of from contractors and into sell about 1,000 luxury the XI, HFZ’s vestors on various projcondo units across Manmost high-profile ects, claiming the develhattan in the next few project currently opment company owes years. His company was in litigation. them millions of dollars. still two years away from It has laid off dozens of what remains its most famous purchase: a site by the High employees, and it is losing control Line at 76 11th Ave. The XI, as the at properties ranging from condos luxury condo project is now called, to storage units.

The city has gone through a decost the company a staggering $870 cade of increasing real estate activimillion in 2015.

These days HFZ could scarcely ty and demand, which has led to an be in a more different position as See LOSSES on page 22 the city looks to emerge from its lat-

BUCK ENNIS

$870M

TECHNOLOGY

Big Apple’s comeback: Startups moving to New York over other high-tech cities Fintech firms are seeking out a mix of Wall Street know-how and tech talent VOL. 37, NO. 18

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

F

or the startup Catch, the desire for a change of scenery came down to San Francisco, Miami or New York.

New York won.

The fintech company was founded in Boston four years ago to help connect independent workers with their benefits, such as health insurance. In a post on Medium shared

© 2021 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC.

NEWSPAPER

SMALL-BIZ SPOTLIGHT

BROOKLYN TOUR COMPANY FINDS NEW LIFE ONLINE PAGE 23

widely among those in New York’s tech scene last Tuesday, Catch CEO and co-founder Kristen Anderson announced the company is moving to the Big Apple.

“It’s time for us to join the com-

munity of record-breaking, bleeding-edge, can’t-believe-it’s-true fintech startups who have made New York City their home,” she wrote.

See MOVING on page 18

THE LIST

The city’s largest real estate financings PAGE 12

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HOSPITALITY

As restrictions relax across the city, a Harlem restaurant adds more to its plate

A

ll the guests who ate at Reverence, a fine-dining restaurant in Harlem, in the first two weeks of its reopening in mid-April had something in common.

“Their dining experience at Reverence is their first indoor experience since the lockdown,” said Russell Jackson, the chef and owner.

The reason? They trusted the staff there “to be meticulous in caring for them and their safety,” Jackson said.

Though Covid-19 cases and fatalities are down dramatically, city businesses such as Reverence say that they will continue to follow their own safety protocol, called Safety First, which is stricter than current regulations, to ensure customers and employees don’t feel nervous about coming to a restaurant.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said recently that New York City could expect to reopen in full by July 1, and last week Gov. Andrew Cuomo sped up the pace for restaurants, announcing that they could accept diners at full occupancy May 19, though barriers would be needed if tables are less than 6 feet apart.

In states across the country, the tempo for reopening is even faster.

Many eliminated mask mandates and business restrictions months

ago and continued to see cases and deaths fall.

That doesn’t shift Jackson’s commitment to the set of rules, which he helped put together. The idea was not just to standardize safety measures in the industry but also to minimize the time and money restaurant owners were spending to adjust to constantly shifting regulations.

“What we got was a convoluted mess of regulation,” Jackson said of the past year. “They were hitting the gas, pulling the reins back—that massive whiplash we all went through.”

Instead of rushing to conform to the latest evidence, he said, “we made the decision to slow ourselves down.”

So Reverence shut its dining room.

Code of conduct Safety First includes a diner code of conduct so that guests know how to act; a Covid pledge, which details the environment that employees can expect to work in; and ventilation guidelines. Affordability was an important premise, given that many restaurants are small businesses that haven’t made their normal revenue in over a year. Jackson said he spent more than $15,000 on updating the restaurant to adhere to the recommendations.

At Reverence, guests stow their

JACKSON

FACEBOOK/REVERENCE NYC

BY CARA EISENPRESS

masks on a little tray and hand over their phones to be sanitized. Tables are set with one sanitized place mat and a special mask to use when waitstaff approaches them. The restaurant is seating 18 people in each of two two-hour seatings, where a set menu costs $149.

In between the seatings, the restaurant does a quick sanitizing.

Jackson bought a medical-grade disinfecting fogger, which Reverence uses once or twice a week. To circulate the air, he runs the kitchen hood and air-purifying units, which can make indoor air turn over as

frequently as outdoor air.

“When restrictions relax, all this becomes more crucial,” said Corby Kummer, executive director of the Food & Society program at the Aspen Institute, who raised the money for and led the creation of the Safety First measures.

The governor seemed to agree that businesses might need to cater to New Yorkers anxious about relaxing restrictions, even once they didn’t have to.

“It’s not about government restrictions anymore,” Cuomo said last week, discussing how baseball

games and Broadway shows would get to 100% capacity. “The main restriction is people’s comfort level.”

At Reverence, catering to the cautious looks like it will be a long play, as diners have been slower to return than Jackson had hoped.

“We see this is going to be a much longer, gradual return to full guest count—possibly not till the end of the year or longer,” he said. “We’re prepared, and regardless of the silliness with the state and city officials bickering, we’re going to stick with our 50% service till the end of the year.” ■

WEBCAST CALLOUT

REAL ESTATE

Rent Guidelines Board considers rent freeze or modest increases

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

T

he Rent Guidelines Board is considering not raising rates on rent-regulated units.

Last week the board cast a preliminary vote that was a blow to landlords who had insisted on rate increases of up to 5% to cover mounting building-related expenses and a partial victory for tenant advocates who said that rents shouldn’t be raised at all during a pandemic. The board is now considering potential rent increases of zero to 2% on one-year leases and 1% to 3% on two-year leases.

The expected change in expenses for buildings with rent-stabilized apartments between April 2020 and March of this year was 2.4%, the RGB reported in a study. But with rising property tax costs and increased spending on cleaning and personal protective equipment, the Real Estate Board of New York felt increases of at least 3.9% for oneyear leases would be more appro-

priate.

“The Rent Guidelines Board must take responsibility for providing rent increases that allow for maintenance of quality housing for millions of New Yorkers, and its final vote should reflect that reality,” said REBNY President James Whelan.

“Failing to do so would only further punish owners under a broken system that places the role of subsidizing housing, regardless of individual tenant need, wholly on the private sector.”

The Rent Stabilization Association, which represents 25,000 landlords of 1 million rent-stabilized units in the city, had called for increases of between 2% and 4% on one-year leases and between 3% and 5% on two-year leases.

“The RGB is ignoring its own research data showing that landlords’ operating costs rose again—property taxes alone increased by 3.9%,” said Joseph Strasburg, the landlord group’s president. The average rent increase from 2002 to 2013 was

3.3%, well below the 5.8% average price index of operating costs, he added.

“The RGB process is not meant to provide rent relief for tenants; that is the government’s role,” Strasburg said. “The RGB is supposed to balance the needs of building owners and tenants, but that’s impossible when they have Mayor Bill de Blasio pulling their strings.”

‘Not enough’ But tenant advocates disagreed and called for even more relief.

“For a lot of people, a rent freeze is not enough,” said tenant lawyer Leah Goodridge. “We want rollbacks. When we go back to folks and tell them, ‘Great news: You have to pay your rent, but it won’t be higher than last year,’ what does that mean for people in a global pandemic who have lost their jobs?”

Kate Ham of the tenant advocacy group Community Service Society said at a recent hearing that rents

should be frozen because the federal and local governments have given enough relief to landlords to alleviate the pain caused by nonpaying tenants.

In April the state approved a budget that includes $2.3 billion in federal aid and $100 million from the state that will go to landlords whose tenants prove financial hardship.

To be eligible for the aid, the landlords must agree to a yearlong eviction moratorium and a rent freeze.

But that aid would help landlords only catch up on rent arrears of the past 12 to 15 months and should have no impact on future rent prices, said Strasburg, adding that tenants financially affected by the pandemic have received far more assistance than landlords.

“For the RGB to even consider another rent freeze is beyond irrational,” he said.

Following a final vote on June 23, the new rent guidelines would be effective from Oct. 1 of this year to Sept. 30 of the next. ■

JOIN US TUESDAY TOP CONTENDERS FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY Crain’s New York Business will host a series of mayoral debates, where candidates will have the opportunity to speak on key issues affecting the city. The first event in the series will feature top contenders in the Democratic primary as they address the economy, health and safety, their vision for New York City, quality-oflife concerns and a variety of other pertinent topics.

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Vol. 37, No. 18, May 10, 2021—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for no issue on 1/4/21 and 12/27/21, and combined issues on 6/28/21, 7/12/21, 7/26/21, and 8/9/21 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.

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2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | May 10, 2021

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REAL ESTATE

BUCK ENNIS

JORDAN heads a team at Douglas Elliman.

MILLION-DOLLAR OPPORTUNITY Kirsten Jordan details her path to becoming the first female broker on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York

INTERVIEW BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

A

fter more than a decade in the business, real estate broker Kirsten Jordan feels like she’s finally made it.

Jordan, 37, was cast as the first female broker on the hit Bravo television series Million Dollar Listing New York. The decision to have her join the show comes after eight seasons with an all-male cast that has included celebrity brokers Ryan Serhant, Frederik Eklund, Steve Gold, Luis Ortiz and Tyler Whitman.

“I don’t know why it took them so long,” she said.

“The network has been trying to cast a woman for many seasons in New York, but in a predominantly male dominated

industry, it has been challenging,” said Shari Levine, executive vice president of Content, NBCU Unscripted.

“UNFORTUNATELY, THERE IS AN ELEMENT OF REAL ESTATE WHERE WOMEN ARE OBJECTIFIED” After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Jordan worked odd jobs in Chicago until she packed up her belongings and moved to Milan, Italy. There, she had a stint as an au

pair and a barista and even sold licenses for artwork that would appear on greeting cards and wrapping paper. But after two years, she grew restless.

“I woke up one day and was like, ‘I'm alone in Italy with the wrong boyfriend, making not enough money, and it’s time to go home,’ ” she recalled.

At 25, Jordan got her real estate license and began working as an assistant for Douglas Elliman broker Sabrina Saltiel in New York. After eight years with the brokerage, she joined the Hudson Advisory team at Compass, then returned to Elliman this year with her own team.

Along with her staff, Jordan has brokered nearly $1 billion See LISTING on page 19 MAY 10, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 3

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IN THE MARKETS

After a long, strange trip Wall Street turns to psychedelic stocks Mental health community is looking at novel ways to treat patients

N

BLOOMBERG

asdaq recently wel- labs because, sadly, there hasn’t comed the listing of been much progress in the past deMindMed, a developer of cade in the field of government-appsychedelic drugs, to proved mental-health treatment. treat mental illness. The Manhat- Depression is the leading cause of tan-based company boasts a mar- disability, and a study published in ket capitalization of $1 billion after JAMA Psychiatry in November retrading for pennies less than 12 ported that nearly 10% of U.S. adults months ago. Truly, interest in the had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder in the prior 12 sector is mushrooming. months. Evidence exists “Institutional and Wall that psychedelics have a Street investors are recogrole in addressing the trenizing that there need to mendous unmet need for be novel approaches” to help. mental-health treatment, Johnson & Johnson seChief Executive James cured approval last year Rahn told Forbes. “If they for a psychedelic drug, are psychedelic mediSpravato, to help with cines, so be it.” treatment-resistant deScientists have tried to channel the power of psy- AARON ELSTEIN pression. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Adminischedelics since before the tration designated it a 1960s, when LSD was tested as a potential mind-control breakthrough therapy. But analysts drug, only to spawn the Grateful at Evercore ISI point to some imDead and a thousand other bands. portant caveats: The treatment's efThe drug also helped at least one fect appears modest, taking the college student to see the wind drug requires repeated trips to a while on a hike one sunny after- doctor’s office, and it’s hard to get noon long ago. (Trust me.) You can reimbursed from insurers.

In April the New England Journal read all about the indelible history of acid, MDMA (aka Ecstasy or Mol- of Medicine published a small, ly) and psilocybin in Heads: A Biog- 59-patient study that showed better response to a psilocybin formulatraphy of Psychedelic America.

The drugs are migrating from ed by Compass Pathways than to clubs and quadrangles to medical Lexapro, a widely prescribed an-

ti-depressive. The study was “the most robust analysis of psilocybin to date,” Evercore analyst Josh Schimmer wrote.

Going public U.K.-based Compass went public during the fall, and its market value is about the same as MindMed’s.

Compass shareholders include Peter Thiel.

Just $2.8 billion worth of approved psychedelics were sold last year, Data Bridge Market Research found, but the group forecasts that figure will grow at a 13% annualized rate and reach $7.6 billion by 2028.

That may prove conservative, considering Oregon and Washington, D.C., already have decriminalized magic mushrooms.

And we know how quickly can-

nabis went mainstream.

By the way, in the JAMA-published study conducted at the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, reseachers had patients listen to music during their psilocybin treatment sessions. They tuned in to Brahms, Vivaldi and Enya.

But, alas, no Grateful Dead. ■

REAL ESTATE

Manhattan, Brooklyn see significant boost in home sales, Douglas Elliman report finds

T

o get a good sense of how much New York’s real estate market ground to a halt in the spring of 2020—and how much activity has increased since then— just look at the latest report on home sales from Douglas Elliman.

Signed contracts for co-ops and condos in Manhattan both increased by more than 2,000% in April compared to April 2020, when the city spent its first full month battered by the Covid-19 pandemic, while signed contracts for oneto three-family homes increased by 850%, according to the report. The story was similar in Brooklyn, where signed contracts for co-ops, condos and one- to three-family homes all shot up by more than 1,500%, the report says.

“The multi-thousand percent increase in activity shows you just how dire conditions were for new contract activity last year at this time,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel and author of the report. “The sales activity right now is ahead of 2019.”

This is the third month in a row

that new signed contracts increased year over year for all three property types in Manhattan and the 10th month in a row that they increased for all types in Brooklyn, according to the report.

CONDOMINIUMS near McCarren Park in Williamsburg

Big gains The sharpest increase across all categories occurred for Manhattan condos, which shot up by almost 2,700% year over year, with 526 signed contracts in April compared with 19 in April 2020. Co-ops weren’t too far behind, with a roughly 2,000% increase—807 sales in April compared with 38 in April 2020—and signed contracts for one- to three-family homes followed, with an 850% increase—19 contracts in April compared with just two in April 2020.

Co-op contracts led the way in Brooklyn, with 168 signed in April compared with nine in April 2020 for a roughly 1,800% increase. The one- to three-family home market saw 145 signed contracts compared with eight last year, for a roughly 1,700% increase, and the condo market saw 326 signed contracts compared with 20 for a

BLOOMBERG

BY EDDIE SMALL

roughly 1,500% increase, according to the report.

Manhattan co-op sales increased the most in the $2 million to $3.99 million price range, with 110 signed contracts in April compared with four in April 2020, a 2,650% increase. The borough’s condo market increased the most in the $500,000 to $999,000 range, with

130 signed contracts in April compared with four in April 2020, for a 3,150% increase.

Price points The most common price point overall for co-ops was between $500,000 and $999,000 at 313 signed contracts. The most common range for condos was between

$2 million and $3.99 million at 147, and the most common range for one- to three-family homes was between $5 million and $9.99 million at nine contracts.

In Brooklyn, co-op sales for less than $500,000 shot up the most, with 45 in April compared with one in April 2020, for a 4,400% increase. Co-ops costing between $500,000 and $999,000 were the most common price point overall, with 87 signed contracts last month.

Condo contracts went up the most in the $2 million to $3.99 million price range, with 42 in April compared with one in April 2020, for a 4,100% increase. The most common price point was between $500,000 and $999,000 at 142 deals.

One- to three-family homes increased the most in the $2 million to $3.99 million range, with 39 contracts in April compared with one in April 2020, for a 3,800% increase.

The most common price point overall was between $1 million and $1.99 million at 58 deals. ■

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CRAIN’S BUSINESS FORUM

Top restaurateurs say challenging summer still ahead, but optimism is growing

T

he restrictions are lifting— but are New Yorkers ready to dine like it’s 2019?

In a panel dubbed NYC’s Restaurant Revival, hosted

by Crain’s New York Business last Wednesday, some of the biggest names on the hospitality scene grappled with how fast demand can return in a city devastated by the pandemic.

“We are all rehabilitating ourselves through this post-Covid issue,” said chef Daniel Boulud, owner of seven city restaurants. “At the restaurant the other day, the buzz was high, and everybody was having fun, and I’m almost scared. Are

city’s Economic Development Corp.

“Soon after 9/11, there were a lot of people who just didn’t want to fly,” Meyer said. “Even with airport metal detectors, some people went right for it, and others took awhile.

You can’t tell people when they should or should not feel safe."

For dining, he added, “Do it once and maybe you’ll be a little bit afraid the first time, but you’ll get the pleasure. Do it a second time, the fear starts to wane and the pleasure of it grows.”

Taking precautions The hourlong conversation included optimism for an industry that has lost hundreds of thousands of local jobs because of the pandemic.

“We are swimming upstream, but the current is a little less strong,” Boulud said.

“I think people are itching to come back,” said Melba Wilson, owner of Melba’s Restaurant and president of the NYC Hospitality Alliance. She noted that restaurant owners in the city are taking temperatures and collecting contact information, a level of caution that’s above other in-person industries.

“I feel restaurants, on the whole, are extremely safe, and we are really looking forward to having people sit down at our tables to dine with us,” Wilson said.

“YOU CAN’T TELL PEOPLE WHEN THEY SHOULD OR SHOULD NOT FEEL SAFE” they having too much fun? Are we doing things safely? We are just not used to it anymore.”

Boulud had to laugh when he said it.

The availability of vaccines has given people more confidence to feel relaxed while in public, he added, even when such feelings seem unfamiliar.

New Yorkers must rebuild the “muscle memory” of going out to eat, said Danny Meyer, founder of Union Square Hospitality Group and the newly named chair of the

THANK YOU Crain’s acknowledges the presenting sponsor of the business forum, United Airlines, as well as our corporate members: Brown & Weinraub, BTEA, Cozen O’Connor, GCA, George Arzt Communications, Greenberg Traurig, Kasirer, Nicholas & Lence Communications and Patrick B. Jenkins & Associates. Without their support, this forum would not have been possible.

Plenty of challenges will remain for the hospitality industry once capacity restrictions are lifted.

Restaurants report having trouble finding workers and say there is too much red tape to cut through from state and city regulations. Many restaurants have fallen behind on rent, and not all landlords are willing to strike a deal.

The largest concern is over the return of tourism. Particularly in Midtown, restaurants will continue to struggle without the millions of out-of-towners who come to attend Broadway shows and walk through Times Square. Domestic travel may bounce back, but what about international?

“I think we are facing a challenging summer,” said Thomas Keller, owner of Per Se and seven other restaurants throughout the U.S. The summer tends to be quiet

BOULUD

KELLER

WILSON

MEYER

most years anyway, he noted, as locals clear out for vacations.

“This year, without them in the city and without international travel, I think we have to really tighten our belts once more,” Keller said.

“You can look toward next fall as the best opportunity to really kickstart opening the city and bringing people back—those that live here and those that visit.”

Local support Meyer said there has never been

HELGE KIRCHBERGER, DEBORAH JONES, JEFF WOJTASEK

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

a better time for New Yorkers to explore their city.

“It will be a lot easier to get a reservation without fighting all the tourists off,” he said. “And it is a great time to feel like you are not only doing something great for yourself but also supporting the economy.”

Join the Crain’s New York Now group on LinkedIn and be part of our yearlong initiative to promote the growth and vitality of the city’s economy. ■

HEALTH CARE

In blow to innovation economy, state cancels stem cell funding

BY MAYA KAUFMAN

T

he state is planning to dissolve a program funding stem cell research, a move that scientists warn will deal a blow to New York’s health and science startup economy.

Lawmakers eliminated the New York State Stem Cell Science program, or NYSTEM, as part of the budget approved last month. The budget bill halts new NYSTEM funding and schedules the program to terminate in 2025, once existing contracts expire.

NYSTEM launched in 2007 and has since devoted an estimated $490 million to stem cell research.

Last year the program opened applications for an additional $50 million in grants—enough for about 70 awards—but never gave out the money, researchers said.

Researchers often use stem cells, which have the power to develop into almost any kind of cell in the body, to better understand diseases and how to treat them. Findings can

lead to the creation of drugs or other health care innovations.

NYSTEM-funded research has spawned multiple startups, including BlueRock Therapeutics, which formed in 2016 to expand on research by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Pharmaceutical firm Bayer bought the company for $600 million in 2019, in a deal that valued BlueRock at about $1 billion.

Researchers working on NYSTEM-funded projects have also used their grants to pivot to studying Covid-19 during the pandemic.

Shift in focus The state Department of Health declined to answer questions about the decision to eliminate NYSTEM, instead referring them to the state budget office.

“The expectation is that this research continues to advance within academic and private research communities rather than the Department of Health, which is focused on its core mission of delivering direct services and achieving

positive health outcomes for all New Yorkers,” Freeman Klopott, a spokesman for the state Division of the Budget, said in a statement.

The state appears to have shifted its focus to the life sciences, which often entails commercializing scientific research. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a $650 million life sciences initiative in 2016. More recently, a Partnership Fund for New York City report named the life science industry as key to the city’s economic recovery.

Jonathan Teyan, chief operating officer at the Associated Medical Schools of New York, a consortium of the state’s 17 public and private medical schools, said New York should follow in the footsteps of states like California and Massachusetts, which have found success investing in the entire research pipeline, from the basics to the later stages, aimed at turning those findings into new companies and drugs.

“This really should be part of the conversation about building back our economy,” he said. ■

Our top priority is your bottom line.

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MAY 10, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 5

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TECHNOLOGY

Software developers, rejoice: These jobs are on the rise in New York’s tech takeover

S

oftware is eating the New York City job market.

In the Covid-19 economy, the technology industry has remained a rare bright spot for the city, with homegrown companies Etsy and Peloton recording huge growth in 2020 and tech giants Google, Facebook and Amazon committing to local expansions. A new report from the Center for an Urban Future offers a look at what types of jobs these companies are trying to fill in New York.

There were 67,000 technology job postings in the city between April and November 2020, outpacing all other industry categories, the report said. The software developer was king, representing nearly a third of all local listings.

Using data from job-tracking firm Burning Glass Technologies, the report found: • About 21,000 openings for software developer–engineer roles, which pay an average of $106,000 in New York.

• Around 4,000 job openings for information technology project managers. Average local salary:

$111,000.

• About 3,000 network engineer roles. Average local salary: $110,000.

• About 2,700 web developer jobs. Average local salary: $99,000.

• About 2,600 cybersecurity analyst roles. Average local salary: $105,000.

‘Limitless’ need Hiring has slowed slightly for tech jobs, the report found, but fared much better than overall employment in the city, which is down by about 600,000 jobs since the start of the pandemic.

Software developers usually specialize in programming either the back end of computer applications or the front end that consumers use. Separate from the Center for an Urban Future report, the career pages for top companies show similar demand for such roles.

Amazon has 2,000 full-time jobs listed as available in the New York metropolitan area, with 780 of them in software development roles, the largest single category. Google has about 750 software-related development jobs in New York, of about 1,500 listings.

“Software engineering is always

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BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

going to be the biggest nut to crack for us,” Brendan Collins, a campus outreach manager for Google in New York, said in the report. “The need for [computer science] and engineering majors is virtually limitless.”

Engineers specializing in developing machine learning software are most in demand in New York, based on 2020 wage growth, according to a report published in

February by Hired, a job listings company. Hired found that experience creating software through the Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services platforms is most likely to land a candidate an interview, along with the skills Redux and React, two types of Javascript libraries.

Skills development The six-figure salaries for the jobs listed in the Center for an Urban

Future study are not out of place for the industry. About 40% of all roles paying $100,000 or more that were listed in the city involved tech skills, according to the report. A recent Crain’s analysis found the median pay at city technology companies outpaced that of Wall Street firms.

A computer science or engineering degree may be the most direct path to a good-paying tech job— but not the only one, the Center for an Urban Future said. It found that 10% of technology postings required digital skills but not necessarily a four-year college degree.

Nonprofits and workforce development centers should expand the number of programs they offer for technology jobs to keep up with how the city economy is shifting, the group said.

“More of the city’s workforce organizations will need to ramp up their capacity to help job seekers develop digital skills,” the report concluded. “Doing so will require a more integrated system of skills-­ building providers that can support adult learners with the academic remediation and basic digital literacy needed to gain entry to in-depth career training programs.” ■

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REAL ESTATE

Landmarks Preservation Commission approves controversial Seaport tower

BY EDDIE SMALL

250 Water St. at multiple hearings, and the contentious project has attracted a strong amount of community opposition throughout its continuing approval process.

“Our community is stunned by the [Landmarks Preservation Commission’s] decision today,” said Grace Lee, co-founder of Children First. She is a mother and longtime Lower Manhattan resident. “The proposed tower at 250 Water St. is not only completely out of scale and inappropriate for the Historic Seaport District; its protracted construction will have a serious negative impact on the health and safety of the over 800 students attending school across the street, like my 3-year-old daughter.”

The approved tower will span about 540,000 square feet and stand 25 stories and 324 feet tall at its highest point. It will include 270 residential units, split between 200 market-rate condos and 70 affordable apartments. The project is projected to cost about $850 million overall.

Howard Hughes had previously hoped for the tower to span 757,000 square feet and stand 38 stories and 470 feet tall at its highest point.

The project also would have included 360 residential units, split between 260 condos and 100 af-

T

he Landmarks Preservation Commission has approved a controversial tower in Manhattan’s South Street Seaport district in a 6-2 vote last Tuesday, clearing the way for the Howard Hughes Corp. to move forward with its plans for 250 Water St. “We appreciate the [commission’s] thoughtful feedback and are gratified that the commissioners have deemed our 250 Water St. pro-

A RENDERING OF 250 WATER ST.

posal appropriate for the Seaport Historic District,” Saul Scherl, president of Howard Hughes’ New York tristate region, said in a statement.

“We worked hard to produce a design that is responsive to the commission’s comments and preserves the project’s crucial benefits: deeply affordable housing in one of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods and meaningful funding for the South Street Seaport Museum, the heart of the historic district.”

Community opposition The commission had declined to vote on the developer’s plans for

THE HOWARD HUGHES CORPORATION/SOM

“THIS PROPOSAL WILL CONTRIBUTE TO THE VITALITY OF THE DISTRICT”

fordable apartments.

Moving forward The next step for the tower will be to go through the city’s land-use review process, which the Howard Hughes Corp. plans to start later in May. The process is required so the tower can get a special permit for its height and setback as well as an

air-rights transfer from the Tin Building and Pier 17 sites, which the company controls via a longterm ground lease.

The project will include a financial commitment to the South Street Seaport Museum, but the amount has not been determined yet. It is expected to be hashed out during the land-use review.

“Today, despite innumerable setbacks … we feel hope for our bright future,” said Capt. Jonathan Boulware, president and CEO of the South Street Seaport Museum.

“By providing the museum with reliable, recurring revenue, this proposal will benefit historic preservation and contribute to the vitality of the district.” ■

MARIJUANA

Midtown cannabis company buys Long Island site for $42.5 million

C

olumbia Care is buying a 34acre site on eastern Long Island to grow marijuana, it announced last week.

The Midtown-based company, which sells medical marijuana in the state, will pay $42.5 million for the site, with $15 million in cash and the remainder in stock. The location includes 740,000 square feet of operational greenhouse space. It is now used to grow ornamental flowers and industrial hemp.

The cultivation site will supplement Columbia Care’s existing facility in Rochester. It will produce newly approved cannabis forms to boost supply as the firm enters the state’s adult-use, recreational marijuana market, legalized this year.

New York’s medical marijuana program, instituted in 2014, has more than 149,000 certified patients, according to the state De-

BLOOMBERG

BY MAYA KAUFMAN

partment of Health.

Columbia Care, founded in 2012, operates 114 dispensaries and manufacturing facilities in 11 states and Washington, D.C. It has four New York locations. The company reported nearly $198 million in combined revenue in 2020, a 151% increase, and has projected $500 million to $530 million in combined revenue for 2021.

Columbia Care CEO Nicholas Vita said some estimates project that New York’s cannabis market will exceed $5 billion by 2025 and create more than 75,000 jobs. ■ May 10, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 7

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

EDITORIAL

publisher/executive editor

Reopening New York doesn’t mean city will be back to normal

editor Robert Hordt assistant managing editors Telisha Bryan,

Janon Fisher deputy digital editor, audience & analytics

reopen the city are warranted.

Fueling this trend are the growing number of Americans who have gotten vaccinated. But as the rate of vaccination slows, cities and states will have to dig in to keep pushing people to line up for the shots. With many states seeing full vaccination rates in the 35%-40% range, there is still work to be done to reach the 70% mark for so-called herd immunity.

Vaccination hesitancy is real.

Case in point: The city Police Department said last week that only 35% of its officers and support staff have received at least one Covid-19 shot compared with 55% of all New Yorkers. There are other pockets of resistance in the city as well, and officials need to keep hammering home the message that vaccination is vital for New York’s recovery.

The longer the wait until herd immunity, the greater the chance that stronger variants will spring up to jeopardize the progress that's been made.

Even with rising vaccination rates, though, city officials will have to be vigilant. The archipelago nation of Seychelles in the Indian Ocean off East Africa, the country with the highest vaccination

MUCH REMAINS TO BE DONE TO GET NEW YORK CITY BACK ON TRACK reminders that Covid-19 is a formidable enemy, one that is able to mutate into variants that can quickly accelerate transmission of the dreaded virus.

Yes, the plunging coronavirus rates in much of the country—including New York—is a good sign, and the steps officials are taking to

EDITORIAL

Jennifer Samuels associate editor Lizeth Beltran art director Carolyn McClain photographer Buck Ennis data editor Amanda Glodowski senior reporters Cara Eisenpress,

Aaron Elstein, Eddie Small reporters Ryan Deffenbaugh, Maya Kaufman,

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 ADVERTISING BLOOMBERG

G

ov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio may have already popped open the Champagne, declaring that New York City will be fully reopened for business either later this month (Cuomo) or by July 1 (de Blasio), but it would be foolish of these officials to take a victory lap. In addition to making sure the pandemic doesn’t surge again, there is still much to do to before New York can get back to normal.

Even as Cuomo, de Blasio and other state and municipal officials around the country relax rules on restaurants, bars and entertainment venues, India and other countries are serving as grim

Frederick P. Gabriel Jr.

tourist hot spots, Times Square among them. In addition, many businesses are struggling to decide when and how to bring their workers back to the city.

Declaring that New York is reopening and will be back to normal soon sounds nice, but unless the quality of life in the city improves, those are just hollow words. City and state leaders need to get to work to make sure reality reflects their rosy pronouncements. ■

rate in the world at 62%, is experiencing a Covid surge and has reintroduced curbs on businesses and social life.

Apart from the matter of public health, much remains to be done to get New York City back on track.

The rising rate of crime (up 30% overall in April), amplified by continuing reports of subway assaults, will hamper efforts to persuade tourists to return to the city. Crime and homelessness especially need to be addressed in

www.crainsnewyork.com/advertise account executives Kelly Maier,

Courtney McCombs, Christine Rozmanich, Laura Warren people on the move manager Debora Stein,

dstein@crain.com CUSTOM CONTENT senior manager, custom content

Sophia Juarez, sophia.juarez@crainsnewyork.com EVENTS

www.crainsnewyork.com/events events and marketing manager

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

Ana Jimenez, ajimenez@crainsnewyork REPRINTS director, reprints & licensing Lauren Melesio,

Primary care doctors are important advocates for vaccination

212.210.0707, lmelesio@crain.com

BY DR. DAVE CHOKSHI

A

s a primary care doctor, earning my patients’ trust is the most important part of my work. Often earning trust happens by guiding patients through a fog of uncertainty about a health issue and accompanying them through both the difficult and the happy moments.

As the city’s doctor, I aim to bring that clinical experience and that approach, rooted in relationships, to our campaign to vaccinate New Yorkers.

Now more than ever we need our nurses, pharmacists, therapists, doulas and doctors to reach out to patients and speak to them about the safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines. No one is better positioned to communicate with patients, loved ones and their community than health care providers. No one is better positioned to answer questions with empathy and to share the scientific facts

about the vaccine.

Any clinician will tell you that building trust with patients happens gradually—and often in unexpected ways.

I think about two of my patients at Bellevue Hospital, a couple who reminded me of my own aging immigrant parents. The husband had multiple chronic illnesses, including emphysema and diabetes, and was in a vicious cycle of shortness of breath leading to poor blood-sugar control leading to hospitalizations for both.

Our primary care team focused on his breathing first, which eventually allowed him to get back to being more physically active and brought his diabetes under better control. We saw him like clockwork every two to three months.

Bedside manner Showing up at his bedside when he was hospitalized, finally getting him some relief from his symptoms and—not least—demonstrat-

AP PHOTO

OP-ED

ing reliability with his insurance paperwork all helped me forge trust not just with him, but also with his wife.

She was more skeptical of medical care, but she felt our concern for her husband. So it felt like a major victory when she signed up for a checkup with me--and more so when we discovered some health issues that we could treat early.

That steady building of trust— accompanying our patients, as with my patient and her husband, through thick and thin—is the heart of patient care. That trust is

why I recently reached out to thousands of local providers, asking them to make “vaccine talks” with their patients as routine as washing our hands or measuring blood pressure. Patients are waiting to hear from the voices that they already know.

The city, including the Health Department, will do its part. We’ve gathered resources for those conversations at nyc.gov/VaccineTalks. The city’s vaccine hotline 877-VAX-4NYC now includes an option (just press "2") to swiftly help clinicians make an appointment for patients.

I urge all of my fellow clinicians and healers to communicate with your patients right now about vaccination. Listen to their concerns about the Covid-19 vaccine, answer questions and share the facts.

Together, we can save lives and prevent further suffering. ■

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Entire contents ©copyright 2021 Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. ©CityBusiness is a registered trademark of MCP Inc., used under license agreement.

CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. chairman Keith E. Crain vice chairman Mary Kay Crain chief executive officer K.C. Crain senior executive vice president Chris Crain secretary Lexie Crain Armstrong editor-in-chief emeritus Rance Crain chief financial officer Robert Recchia founder G.D. Crain Jr. [1885-1973] chairman Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. [1911-1996]

Dr. Dave Chokshi is the New York City health commissioner.

8 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MAY 10, 2021

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OP-ED

Danskammer plant upgrade is a necessary transition to alternative energy

BY LISA SORIN

A

s New York looks to advance toward a clean energy economy, it is important that the state consider ways to ensure a seamless transition from traditional fossil fuel-based energy production to a future run by renewables such as solar and wind farms.

While many say we should eliminate all fossil fuels, I’m here to tell you: Environmentally and economically, for a smooth transition to take place, it will be important for New York to support the repower-

sions and lowering energy bills are to residents of my area. The upgrade is an immediate improvement in all of these areas and supports our state on its path to a clean energy economy.

Power trip Danskammer Energy plans to retire its old and aging equipment and repower the facility with stateof-the-art technology. This project will significantly reduce the facility’s environmental footprint, and the plant will even be fitted with turbines capable of running on 100% green hydrogen in the coming years.

According to the New York Independent System Operator, as New York continues to transition toward renewables, the state will need new, quick-start power plants—such as an upgraded power plant—that are capable of filling in the gaps of wind and solar energy production at a moment’s notice. An upgraded Danskammer will be able to run when wind and solar energy sources are unable to send power to the grid, serving as an “on call” energy source, which is

THE $50-MILLION-PLUS SAVINGS IS A WIN FOR THE REGIONAL ECONOMY ing of the Danskammer Energy Center.

It and similar projects can upgrade and clean up our existing energy infrastructure.

As the president of the New Bronx Chamber of Commerce, I know firsthand how important immediately cleaning our air, reducing regional greenhouse gas emis-

critical for maintaining the grid’s reliability.

This project will also make it possible to stop relying on older, dirtier facilities and out-of-state coal plants to provide our power. The result will be a dramatic reduction of regional greenhouse emissions, including carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. One study found that Danskammer’s upgrade would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 333,000 tons annually-the equivalent of taking 70,000 cars off the road every year.

During these challenging economic times for New Yorkers throughout the region, it’s important to consider the impact this project would have on the energy bills of businesses and residents. The savings is a win for the regional economy. New Yorkers will save more than $50 million on electric bills annually with an upgraded Danskammer.

On top of that, the plant will support more than 450 construction jobs, and hundreds of businesses

and vendors will benefit economically from the construction phase. It should also be noted that not a single taxpayer dollar will be used to fund this project, ensuring zero financial risk to New York taxpayers.

Electric bill As someone who in her day-today job sees how energy costs directly affect businesses and consumers, I support the upgrade. This is a critical time for our state as it lays out its goals for transitioning toward a clean energy economy.

With that in mind, it is imperative that New York not put all its eggs in one basket when it comes to our energy infrastructure. By upgrading Danskammer, New York will be able to keep electric rates low, improve regional air quality and support hundreds of local jobs. This project is an economic slam dunk.

Why would anyone say no to a project that cleans up the air, creates jobs and lowers energy bills? ■ Lisa Sorin is president of the New Bronx Chamber of Commerce.

OP-ED

BY ROBERT BONANZA AND MARVIN MAYFIELD

P

resident Joe Biden’s massive infrastructure plan is rightly garnering headlines. Biden wants to rebuild America through big public investments that will create many thousands of good-paying union jobs and help drive an economic boom after Covid-19.

From decaying roads to creaky bridges, much of our country needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Biden’s plan is smart and popular, but to be effective, it must boost all communities, especially low-income communities of color ravaged by economic and racial injustice.

The White House has focused on “creating good-quality jobs,” with an emphasis on helping workers of color who have been historically

They need the barriers to meaningful, higher-wage employment removed. That means ending the employment discrimination and exploitation that Black and brown Americans so often face after getting released from behind bars.

Mass incarceration has effectively put millions of Americans in a caste system in which they are perpetually stuck in low-wage jobs, if they can find work at all.

Clean slate Our state government should take action now to ensure that 2.3 million New Yorkers with criminal histories can build back better.

The solution? Give them a clean state.

A crucial immediate step is passage of Clean Slate legislation that was recently introduced in Albany.

The bill would automatically expunge the conviction records of people who successfully completed their sentences. New Yorkers eligible for expungement would include those who are no longer in jail, on parole or probation; those not on the sex offender registry; and those not facing a subsequent conviction or pending charge in the state.

Creating this clean slate is a direct way to ensure New Yorkers with criminal records can access fair employment opportunities. Be-

MASS INCARCERATION HAS INCREASED THE WEALTH AND INCOME DIVIDE excluded from economic opportunity. The Biden administration even specifically mentioned “training for formerly incarcerated individuals.”

These are steps in the right direction. But individuals with criminal records need more than training to be able to compete for and obtain the infrastructure jobs of the future.

cause of systemic racism in policing and prosecution, these New Yorkers are disproportionately Black and brown.

For the 2.3 million people in our state with conviction records, the impact of employment discrimination and on-the-job exploitation is devastating. Studies have shown that those with felony convictions can lose nearly $500,000 in lifetime earnings. Barriers to employment can cause economic and housing insecurity, which increase the likelihood of someone returning to jail.

The opportunities for the formerly incarcerated to reenter the economy and improve their lives are severely constrained.

People on parole must “seek and maintain employment” to remain free. That dynamic sets them up for mistreatment and abuse in the few industries, construction among them, where they can find employment. If they complain about working conditions or try to organize to improve the quality of their jobs, they risk being sent back to jail.

Cheap labor The problem is so bad in New York City construction that some unregulated, unlicensed employment firms even specialize in selling the cheap labor of formerly incarcerated workers, paying them a

BLOOMBERG

It’s time to expunge records of New York’s ex-cons

fraction of the standard prevailing union rate. These firms call themselves “body shops”—because they sell the labor of Black and brown New Yorkers to contractors and developers who want to build as cheaply as possible.

From New York City to Syracuse, Buffalo and Rochester, the Biden infrastructure plan will boost demand for construction workers.

Nobody should be left out of this massive economic stimulus after Covid-19. Across our state and the nation, building back better should mean building a better and fairer economy in which real reentry is the new normal—an economy in which New Yorkers who have been affected by the criminal legal system can pursue fulfilling, long-term

careers in union construction and other fields that will benefit from massive new federal investment.

Mass incarceration has increased the wealth and income divide, condemning millions of people to lowwage jobs. To advance racial and economic justice, decarceration must be paired with efforts to create a clean slate and real reentry for formerly incarcerated people.

New York should lead the way forward. ■ Marvin Mayfield is the lead statewide organizer at the Center for Community Alternatives.

Robert Bonanza is the business manager of the Mason Tenders District Council of Greater New York and Long Island.

May 10, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 9

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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

HEALTH CARE

HEALTH CARE

Anchin, Block & Anchin

Aprio LLP

MGO LLP

COPE Health Solutions

Vesta Healthcare

Peter Motsch, CPA, MBA, has joined Anchin as a Director and Co-Leader of the firm’s growing Client Accounting Advisory Services (CAS) Group.

Peter has more than a decade of experience and has led financial reporting and accounting services projects, most recently as the practice leader of an Outsourced Accounting Services Group. Peter will advise Anchin’s clients on financial reporting and technical accounting for complex transactions, guiding these businesses through challenging circumstances.

Richard Schriefer has joined Aprio Wealth Management as a partner. Schriefer provides personalized guidance to clients across the Northeast from the Aprio New York office (formerly Tarlow & Co). Schriefer brings 20+ years of asset management experience to Aprio and holds Life and Health Insurance Registrations in 35+ states.

He is a Settlement Planning Expert, providing guidance and management controls to safeguard plaintiff jury awards in personal injury, wrongful death and malpractice cases.

MGO LLP is delighted to announce a new addition to its leadership team, Shaji Varghese.

As an Assurance Partner, Varghese will serve as a leader in MGO’s New York City office. He has more than 25 years of experience providing auditing services to both public and private companies in a variety of industries, including technology, life sciences, and financial services. He excels at developing, maintaining, and strengthening client relationships and previously was an Audit Partner for a top 6 firm.

Jerry Frank, MD has joined COPE Health Solutions and Analytics for Risk Contracting as a Principal for the fast growing, value based payment (VBP) and population health management (PHM) advisory and product firms. Dr. Frank will share his deep expertise in VBP and PHM with health systems, physician groups and health plans. Dr. Frank has served as CMO and in other senior roles at payers and providers including EmblemHealth, UnitedHealthcare, Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center and others.

Vesta Healthcare, a 24/7 clinical provider group and digital health platform, dedicated to supporting high needs members at home and their caregivers, named David Kleinhanzl as its General Manager, Northeast where he will oversee the organization’s network of payers and homecare agencies. With over 20 years of leadership experience in Managed Care health plans including at Senior Whole Health of New York and Longevity Health Plan, David brings a wealth of industry expertise to Vesta.

INDUSTRY ACHIEVERS ADVANCING THEIR CAREERS Recognize them in Crain’s

For listing opportunities, contact Debora Stein at dstein@crain.com or submit directly to

CRAINSNEWYORK.COM/PEOPLEMOVES

10 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MAY 10, 2021

ASKED & ANSWERED New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene INTERVIEW BY MAYA KAUFMAN

S

ince September, Dr. Torian Easterling has served as the city Department of Health’s first deputy commissioner and chief equity officer. His job combating systemic health inequities has meant working to boost Covid-19 vaccine access and trust among communities of color, which have disproportionately low vaccination rates. Going forward, Easterling says, businesses and community groups will need to play a role in furthering public health efforts.

Why are we hearing the term “health equity” so often during the pandemic?

It’s become increasingly clear that everyone doesn’t have the same starting position. There are a number of policies that have existed for decades that have led to structural and systemic disinvestment and underinvestment in neighborhoods, which absolutely relates to poor health outcomes. This is an opportunity to really redress those impacts on communities.

They can accelerate them. We know that those individuals who are fully vaccinated can relax a bit on their prevention methods, because we know they have a level of protection that not only protects themselves but others in the community. This is really a messaging tool to say, “We can get there. We can spend Fourth of July together with family and friends. But we want you to be vaccinated.”

WHO HE IS First deputy commissioner and chief equity officer, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene AGE 39 BORN Essex County, N.J. RESIDES Ocean Hill/Brownsville, Brooklyn

How should New Yorkers protect themselves as they go back to the office?

And what should employers do to keep people safe?

EDUCATION Bachelor’s in biology, Morehouse College; doctor of medicine, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School; master’s in public health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Get vaccinated. I cannot emphasize that enough.

Employers have a role in making sure that their employees know where they can get vaccinated, making sure they are providing face masks and hand sanitizer. There has been a tremendous impact on our mental health during this pandemic, so companies should figure out a way in which they can really support individuals coming back.

EQUITY ADVOCATE Easterling helped launch the Department of Health’s Brownsville Neighborhood Health Action Center to reduce health disparities among residents of the Brooklyn neighborhood.

What will health care look like post-pandemic?

BRAVE RESPONSE He has served on several public health disaster response teams, including for Hurricane Jeanne in Gonaïves, Haiti, in 2004 and for the earthquake that affected the island nation in 2010.

There’s a lot of opportunity for us to think about our surveillance system so that we are better prepared to not only identify emergencies but also to tailor our approaches. Not just thinking about government or health care systems, but thinking about our community partners who are collecting information within neighborhoods, delivering needed services.

These are your community-based organizations, your faith-based organizations, mutual aid societies. We’ve heard about barbershops and beauty salons stepping up. There’s a role for businesses and organizations to take in helping to deliver public health services. ■

What hurdles remain in the vaccination effort?

Certainly supply. We want to get to a place where we can offer a preference. Do they prefer Johnson & Johnson or one of the mRNA vaccines? Access is really important as well, paying close attention to neighborhoods that have been disproportionately impacted. We’ve had a number of town halls just focused on providers. How do you help

answer questions from your patients?

How can you talk to their family members? What resources do you need so you’re able to vaccinate not only your patients but anyone who comes into your office?

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THE LIST LARGEST REAL ESTATE FINANCINGS City properties ranked by loan amount in 2020 LOAN AMOUNT (IN MILLIONS)

ADDRESS/ NEIGHBORHOOD

TRANSACTION TYPE

DATE

OWNER(S)/BUYER(S)

LENDER(S)

8/13

Brookfield AM/QIA

Commercial mortgage-backed securities1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

401 9th Ave. (One Manhattan West)

$1,500 Refinance

1114 Sixth Ave. (The Grace Building)

$883 Refinance

11/5

Brookfield Property REIT/ Swig Company

Commercial mortgage-backed securities2

1 Water St. (One New York Plaza)

$835 Refinance

12/9

AEW/ Brookfield Property REIT

Commercial mortgage-backed securities3

410 10th Ave. (460 West 34th Street)

$600 Refinance

8/18

SL Green/ Kaufman Organization

Goldman Sachs

1 Court Square

$580 Refinance

1/4

Savanna/ Waterbridge Capital

Apollo Global RE

410 10th Ave.

$565 Sale

12/18

601W Companies

Commercial mortgage-backed securities4

711 5th Ave.

$545 Refinance

3/6

SHVO/Bilgili Holding

Commercial mortgage-backed securities5

120 Broadway (Equitable Building)

$510 Refinance

3/13

UBS/Silverstein Properties

UBS

220 E 42nd St. (Daily News Building)

$510 Refinance

6/18

SL Green

Aareal Bank

11 Penn Plaza

$500 Refinance

10/15

Vornado

Citigroup

1411 Broadway (World Apparel Center)

$450 Refinance

2/28

CDPQ/Swig Company

Bank of China

1250 Broadway

$443 Refinance

8/25

Global Holdings

HSBC

1334 York Ave. (Sotheby’s HQ)

$424 Refinance

9/29

Sotheby’s

Commercial mortgage-backed securities6

498 7th Ave.

$400 Refinance

5/1

JP Morgan/ George Comfort & Sons

MetLife

742-754 5th Ave.

$400 Refinance

3/20

Madison Capital/ Sara E Goodman

NYSCRF

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

505 W 37th St.

$374 Refinance

5/28

TF Cornerstone

New York State

100 Park Ave.

$360 Refinance

12/23

SL GreenPGIM Real Estate

Aareal Bank

416-420 Kent Ave.

$358 Refinance

10/30

Spitzer Enterprises

Commercial mortgage-backed securities7

138 E 50th St. (The Centrale)

$350 Refinance

2/20

Ceruzzi Properties/Immovate Projektenwicklungs GmbH

Meritz Financial Group

43-22 Queens St. (Eagle Lofts)

$350 Refinance

3/18

Rockrose Development

Wells Fargo

3301 Foster Ave. (Flatbush Gardens)

$329 Refinance

5/8

Clipper Realty

NY Community Bank

605 3rd Ave.

$309 Refinance

11/20

JP Morgan/Fisher Brothers

Morgan Stanley

575 5th Ave.

$301 Refinance

8/12

Beacon Capital Partners

TPG RE Finance Trust

4707 30th Place (The Factory Building)

$300 Refinance

10/9

Atlas Capital Group/Invesco Real Estate

Commercial mortgage-backed securities8

731 Lexington Ave.

$300 Refinance

9/14

Alexander’s

JP Morgan

222 E 44th St. (The Summit)

$289 Refinance

10/9

BLDG Management

Freddie Mac

265-275 Cherry St. (Lands End II)

$281 Sale

12/28

Related Companies

Fannie Mae

10 E 29th St. (Instrata Nomad)

$250 Sale

2/19

Global Holdings

Wells Fargo

745 5th Ave.

$250 Refinance

9/2

Paramount Group (REIT)

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank Ag

990 6th Ave. (The Vogue)

$240 Refinance

2/27

Vanbarton Group

Blackstone

20-10 Seagirt Blvd. (Wavecrest Gardens)

$236 Refinance

12/2

Goldfarb Properties

NY Community Bank

111 E 48th St.

$230 Refinance

3/31

Al Mirqab Projects Group/IHG

National Bank of Kuwait

33 34 35

522 5th Ave.

$224 Sale

8/27

RFR Realty

Credit Suisse

1180 Sixth Ave.

$221 Refinance

1/27

Northwood Investors

Mesa West Capital

10 E 53rd St.

$220 Refinance

2/7

SL Green/ CPP Investment Board

Wells Fargo

Hell’s Kitchen Midtown

Financial District Hell’s Kitchen

Long Island City Hell's Kitchen Midtown

Financial District Turtle Bay Midtown Midtown Midtown

Lenox Hill Midtown

(Bergdorf Goodman Building) Midtown Hell’s Kitchen Murray Hill

Williamsburg Turtle Bay

Long Island City Flatbush

Murray Hill Midtown

Long Island City Midtown East Turtle Bay

Lower East Side NoMad

Midtown East Midtown

Rockaway

(InterContinental New York Barclay) Midtown East Midtown East Midtown

Midtown East

SOURCE: Real Capital Analytics with additional research from Amanda Glodowski.†Properties may have additional mezzanine debt that is not counted here. Data includes acquisition and refinancing transaction and excludes construction debt and leased fee/land only. 1- Originated by Deutsche Bank and Barclays. 2- Originated by JP Morgan and Bank of America. 3- Originated by Wells Fargo. 4- Originated by JP Morgan.

5- Originated by Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. 6- Originated by Barclays. 7- Originated by Citigroup. 8- Originated by Credit Suisse.

WANT MORE OF CRAIN’S EXCLUSIVE DATA? VISIT CRAINSNEWYORK.COM/LISTS.

THE TOP FOUR

401 9th Ave. (One Manhattan West) LOAN AMOUNT $1.5 billion

1114 Sixth Ave. (The Grace Building) LOAN AMOUNT $883 million

1 Water St. (One New York Plaza) LOAN AMOUNT $835 million

410 10th Ave. (460 West 34th Street) LOAN AMOUNT $600 million

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BUCK ENNIS

RANK

12 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | May 10, 2021

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REAL ESTATE

Small landlords sue over constitutionality of state’s eviction moratorium

S

mall property owners in the city are challenging the constitutionality of the state’s current ban on foreclosures and evictions, which they called “downright unconscionable” in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan last Thursday.

The Rent Stabilization Association, which represents more than 25,000 landlords of rent-stabilized apartments, as well as a handful of individual owners, is seeking to block state authorities from imple-

city’s landlords. “[The moratorium law] has trampled on their constitutional rights, denied owners any benefit from their property and freed tenants from any consequence for refusing to pay their rent, giving them carte blanche to overstay the expiration of their leases—even if their nonpayment or lease expiration began before the pandemic,” said the complaint.

The lawsuit was filed a day after a federal judge ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national eviction moratorium through June was not legally justifiable and should be vacated.

Joe Strasburg, the RSA’s president, called the state’s extension “unwarranted and excessive government overreach” and an “unnecessary blanket moratorium” that disregards already existing tenant protections.

The law is also unconstitutional because it forces landlords to disseminate the document in violation of their first amendment rights, gives them no way to challenge or verify whether a tenant has truly

A JUDGE LAST WEEK STRUCK DOWN A NATIONAL EVICTION SUSPENSION menting and enforcing the moratorium and to declare it unconstitutional.

The Covid-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020 was originally set to expire in April, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a four-month extension, through Aug. 31, on Wednesday in a major blow to the

faced financial hardship and bars them from trying to remedy a situation where their tenants aren’t paying rent, the lawsuit said.

Financial hardship When it was passed in December, the moratorium law imposed a blanket stay on nearly all eviction proceedings until at least May 1 if tenants declared financial hardship.

According to the law, renters who have lost income, are unable to pay increased costs or are unable to move without significant risk to their health or the health of a family member can protect themselves against eviction by submitting a hardship declaration form, which the landlord groups claim is too vague.

The form asks renters to check one of two boxes: one indicating that the renter is facing financial hardship and can’t pay rent or another indicating that it’s too dangerous to move because of the risk of Covid-19 exposure.

Nearly 30,000 residential hardship forms had been submitted in pending cases in New York City as of April. More than 5,800 forms had

BUCK ENNIS

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

been filed proactively by tenants, to prevent a case from commencing against them.

One of the plaintiffs in the case, Betty Cohen, is a retiree who owns a co-op unit in Brooklyn. The rent from the unit is her primary source of income, but her tenant owes more than $21,000 in rent arrears, the complaint said.

Mudan Shi and Feng Zhou, a couple who own a Staten Island home that they rent out, are owed

$57,600 in back rent and are now financially strapped, according to the suit.

“Prolonging the continuance of a provision of [the moratorium law] that no longer has rationale or justification, particularly with the state preparing to distribute the $2.4 billion in federal rent-relief funds for tenants in rent arrears, further encourages tenants to take advantage of the moratorium,” Strasburg said. ■

CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS 2021

IN HEALTH CARE

Nominations are now open for Crain’s New York Business 2021 Notable in Health Care.

This is a special print and digital editorial feature within Crain’s July 12 issue that will recognize men and women in the health care sector. Nominees must be currently serving in a C-suite or senior level administrative or clinical role and demonstrating a willingness to share expertise with others in the field. We are welcoming nominations to help us determine those recognized in this feature.

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TOURISM

COMPTROLLER REPORT REVEALS COVID’S SCAR ON NYC TOURISM

BY AMANDA GLODOWSKI

Despite Mayor Bill de Blasio’s call for a July 1 reopening, it will take years for New York’s tourism industry to fully recover from Covid-19’s impact, according to a new report. Released by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office, the report offers a comprehensive view of the pandemic’s effect on one of the city’s most crucial industries. The city has lost $1.2 billion from tourist spending, and the industry won’t recover until 2024, the report concludes.

A BOOMING INDUSTRY Prior to Covid-19, the city was experiencing record growth in tourism for both domestic and international visitors. The industry generated billions of dollars for the city while supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs for New Yorkers.

7.20% TOURISM share of private sector jobs

4.50%

ISTOCK

TOURISM share of private sector wages

ISTOCK

AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE NYC ECONOMY

COVID'S RECKONING The number of tourists plunged to 22.3 million due to the pandemic’s travel restrictions. The 67% decrease caused a 10-year period of record growth to screech to a halt. Tourism levels are not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024.

PLUMMETING PROGRESS Number of visitors (in millions) over time 80

72

70

DECLINE in the city’s tax collection for FY 2021 that is attributed to tourism, a 59% share of total tax collections.

60

3X

AS MANY tourists visited NYC in 2019 as in 1991

377K

$47B

AMOUNT of money generated by the tourism industry in 2019

JOBS supported indirectly by tourism in 2019

$1B

50 40 30 20

’15 ’16

’17

’18

’19

’20

’21* ’22* ’23* ’24* ’25*

*projected

SOURCE: Comptroller's report, NYC & Company; Office of the State Comptroller analysis

THE SUPPLY OF HOTEL ROOMS had increased by 20% from 2015 to 2020, and at the end of 2019, NYC hotel occupancy was at 89.6%, the highest in the nation.

The hotel industry, which represents 18.4% of employment in the tourism industry, lost nearly half (46%) of its jobs in 2020.

A SLEW OF EMPTY ROOMS Hotel room supply vs. occupancy rates Hotel Rooms (in thousands)

106.5

112.5

116.5

100%

Occupancy Rate (%)

118.9

122.9

127.8

75%

50% 44%

BLOOMBERG

25%

0 2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

SOURCE: State comptroller's report, NYC & Company; Office of the State Comptroller analysis, Department of City Planning Report

RIPPLES TO A VULNERABLE WORKFORCE The industry supports a higher share of workers who are:

66% ISTOCK

MINORITIES

45%

IMMIGRANTS

60%

WITHOUT a bachelor’s degree

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2019 1-year survey; Office of the State Comptroller analysis

14 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | May 10, 2021

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REAL ESTATE

BY EDDIE SMALL

O

pponents of the SoHo rezoning have lost their bid to place a temporary restraining order on the process in their legal battle against it.

Judge Arthur Engoron, who previously ruled in favor of the City Council in its fight against four major towers planned for Lower Manhattan, declined to issue the order for the SoHo rezoning process in the lawsuit the SoHo Alliance and

attorney Jason Zakai, who represents the community groups, said in response to the judge’s decision on the temporary restraining order. “The city represented to the court earlier today that DCP will not be certifying its SoHo/NoHo application today as planned. Presumably, this was the basis for the court’s order.”

In-person hearings Engoron wrote that he was denying the request for a temporary restraining order because there was “no showing of immediate and irreparable harm.”

The suit argues that the city should not be able to move ahead with its effort to rezone SoHo without holding in-person hearings as opposed to virtual hearings.

The argument is extremely similar to the one a pair of community groups made in their recent case against the Gowanus rezoning, and Zakai represented the community groups in that suit too.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that most capacity re-

“NEW YORKERS WILL HAVE MONTHS TO MAKE THEIR VOICES HEARD” the Broadway Residents Coalition filed against the city. This should allow the process to proceed even as the lawsuit makes its way through the court system.

The Department of City Planning, however, for now has pulled the plug on certifying its application for the SoHo rezoning.

“The facts are still developing,”

strictions across the state will end May 19 will also likely impact the lawsuit “and may change DCP’s plans for holding virtual-­ only public hearings” during the rezoning process, Zakai added.

Law Department spokeswoman Kim Joyce defended the city’s plan for SoHo and the amount of public input it would include.

“Our plan will expand housing, promote equity, support arts and culture, and cut through unnecessary and outdated burdens on small business,” she said. “During the public review process, New Yorkers will have months to continue to be involved and make their voices heard on this proposal for a fairer, more affordable SoHo and NoHo.” The community groups did get a temporary restraining order placed on the Gowanus rezoning in that case, but Judge Katherine Levine

BLOOMBERG

Judge declines to issue temporary restraining order in SoHo rezoning case

lifted it in mid-April, clearing the way for the rezoning to move forward as long as the city and community groups submitted a plan for a hybrid virtual and outdoor hearing.

Affordable units The SoHo rezoning would bring up to 3,200 new housing units—including 800 affordable ones—to

the area and provide local businesses and cultural organizations with greater flexibility, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration.

“We are finalizing a few small matters related to the application,” Department of City Planning spokesman Joe Marvilli said, “and look forward to beginning public review in the near future.” ■

IN-DEPTH COVERAGE OF THE CITY’S REBOUND PARTNERS:

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MAYORAL DEBATES

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TRANSPORTATION

Port Authority struggles with waste and mismanagement, DiNapoli audit finds

T

he Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has failed to collect $8.3 million in rent and utilities, according to a recent audit by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli that highlighted a series of inefficiencies that cost the agency and taxpayers millions.

Between January 2014 and November 2019, the Port Authority lapsed in collecting millions from four leases at the World Trade Center, couldn’t prove that it was maximizing advertising revenue at its airports because of poor record keeping and unnecessarily paid out

Center, even though the building was not fully occupied, according to the audit.

“The Port Authority has a responsibility to maximize revenue from the properties entrusted to it,” DiNapoli said. “Unfortunately, my office’s latest audit found millions owed and money spent on renting space without checking whether its own vacant properties could be used instead. We are in a time of strained budgets, and the Port Authority needs to tighten up its oversight of the money owed to it.”

Pushback The taxpayer-­funded transportation agency, which oversees 45 million square feet of airports, buildings, warehouses and other property in New York and New Jersey, pushed back against the report’s claims, saying they reflected “misunderstandings and inaccuracies” and that its conclusions were “misplaced.”

Most of the uncollected money at the World Trade Center is part of a $6.6 million dispute over the utility

“THE PORT AUTHORITY NEEDS TO TIGHTEN UP ITS OVERSIGHT” more than $1 million in property taxes near LaGuardia Airport, the report found.

The agency also spent $15.9 million to lease and use seven spaces within a half-mile of 1 World Trade

bills of an unidentified cultural institution at the 9/11 memorial, the Port Authority said.

Some of the money owed was from a tenant that did not pay the full amount when its lease was terminated early at 1 World Trade, which is managed by the Durst Organization. Durst agreed to the discount because the officeholder had already built out space.

As for the advertising revenue across its five airports, the Port Authority “conducted regular meetings on strategies to optimize revenues and advertising scope,” it said in a letter to DiNapoli’s office.

Still, the comptroller asked for more oversight and transparency involving the contracts the Port Authority has with its vendors, “where it failed to maintain independent records and did not even have a complete listing of the locations where advertising was occurring,” the report said.

At LaGuardia, the agency leased a garage as part of the ongoing redevelopment of the airport, the report said, and paid more than $1 million in real property taxes from Sept. 1, 2016, to Dec. 12, 2019. Instead, it should have applied for an

exemption based on the property’s use and the Port Authority’s status as a government entity, the report said.

It’s not practical for the agency to get a tax exemption for rented property, the Port Authority responded.

The landlord would have to apply for a partial tax exemption, then pass that on to the agency through the lease, which is more complicated than it’s worth for landlords, the agency said.

Detailed records For the additional $15.9 million of leased office space, which the Port Authority claimed it needed for the planning and development of the World Trade Center campus, DiNapoli’s office recommended that the agency keep detailed records on why it decided it was more

DINAPOLI

BUCK ENNIS

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

beneficial to lease outside space than to use its own.

Separately, the report found, the Port Authority ought to have charged a private air shipping business for property taxes at Newark Airport, but it did not. The Port Authority disputed that as well.

The comptroller’s office stuck by its findings.

“There is no misunderstanding,” it said in the report. “We based our conclusions on a thorough review of the records.” ■

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HEALTH CARE

Hospital, nursing home staffing requirements approved by state Legislature nursing homes, the agency can evaluate worker shortages, and homes cannot be fined until after April 1.

The requirements for hospitals and nursing homes had previously been bundled into one bill dictating specific ratios, but lawmakers uncoupled them in April to allow hospitals to establish their own staffing plans rather than require set ratios.

Advocates said increased staffing levels will improve the quality of care for patients and nursing home residents. New York has more than 300,000 registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and certified nurse aides, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“We are doing the right thing not only for nurses across New York state but also for the patients that we care so dearly about,” Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, who sponsored the nursing home staffing bill in the lower house, said in a press conference Tuesday. Gunther represents parts of Orange and Sullivan counties.

The bill’s supporters credited the pandemic for giving the legislation momentum after more than a decade of it languishing in the Legislature. Nurses said the crisis laid

S

tate lawmakers last Tuesday passed a pair of bills that would set minimum nurseto-patient staffing levels at hospitals and nursing homes, pending the governor’s signature.

One bill requires hospitals to establish committees of health care workers and administrators by Jan. 1 to determine appropriate staffing ratios. Plans would be due by July 1 and available publicly on the state Department of Health’s website.

Hospitals have to implement them

by Jan. 1, 2023.

The other requires nursing homes to have enough nurses and aides to provide residents with at

“CHRONIC UNDERSTAFFING MADE OUR SYSTEM ILLPREPARED FOR COVID-19” least 3.5 hours of care a day, starting Jan. 1.

‘The right thing’ The bills empower the state Department of Health to fine hospitals and nursing homes that violate staffing guidelines, with exceptions for emergencies or other extraordinary circumstances. In the case of

bare the inadequacy of current staffing levels: Covid-19 patients overwhelmed facilities, which then leaned on outside staffing agencies to fill gaps.

“Chronic understaffing at New York hospitals and nursing homes made our health care system ill-prepared for Covid-19,” said Nancy Hagans, a nurse at Maimonides Medical Center and treasurer for the New York State Nurses Association, which backed both bills.

With more nurses, Hagans said, “we could've saved more lives.”

‘Simplistic’ solution?

The most fervent opposition to the bills came from the nursing home industry. Its representatives called its legislation “infeasible” and “simplistic,” citing a lack of state funding and a shortage of workers.

About 55% of New York nursing homes would have failed to meet the requirements of the bill aimed at it last year, according to an analysis by LeadingAge New York, which represents over 400 nonprofit and public long-term-care providers.

The rate was even higher among for-profit nursing homes.

The 2021-2022 state budget, approved in April, devotes $64 million to increasing nurse staffing in nurs-

ISTOCK

BY MAYA KAUFMAN

ing homes.

But Stephen Hanse, president and CEO of the New York State Health Facilities Association, which represents more than 325 longterm-care facilities, said the bill could cost the nursing home industry as much as $500 million per year. LeadingAge projected the bill would saddle nursing homes with more than $260 million in additional costs each year.

Hanse said facilities are already underfunded. Providing aroundthe-clock care at a nursing home costs about $266 per resident per day, but the state’s Medicaid pro-

MOVING

gram pays about $211, he said.

“Staffing is a highly complex issue that is comprised of multiple clinical variables that are unique to each nursing home and its resident population,” Hanse said in a statement. “The simplistic staffing ratios in this legislation do not in and of themselves improve the quality of care.”

Bronx Sen. Gustavo Rivera, who chairs the health committee and sponsored both staffing bills, said he disagrees with the industry’s math.

“If we need more, we'll go and get it,” he said. ■

“WE’LL BE CLOSE WITH THE PEOPLE WE WANT TO BE WORKING WITH”

FROM PAGE 1

founded in 2017.

“Part of it is that we want to be where insurance companies are placed,” Huckleberry CEO Bryan O’Connell told Crain’s. “Historically there is very little of that on the West Coast. It’s New York and the Midwest.”

New York also places the company closer to the reinsurers that backstop its products.

Checkout.com, a British-based online payments company, said it will launch a New York office “once the pandemic alleviates,” part of a new $450 million investment round that valued the company at $15 billion. The company is looking to fill about 20 jobs in New York.

Rubbing elbows

Local focus

After a 14-month remote work interlude, similar plans are emerging among fintech firms weighing a return to the office.

Catch’s Anderson found the Bay Area too singularly focused around technology, and didn’t see many similar financial companies in Miami’s growing startup scene compared with New York’s, she told Crain’s.

Catch’s team is hoping to rub el-

Anderson said Catch’s employees may remain in Boston if they wish, but new hires will work out of New York. “[The meeting was] on Zoom, of course, so it [was] kind of tough, but we laid it out [to employees] like, ‘Here is our thinking. We are moving to New York,’ ” Anderson said.

“We had one employee unmute right away to be like ‘That is so awesome!’ ” ■

ISTOCK

Its hometown of Boston, she wrote, did not have enough companies with a similar fintech focus, making it difficult to find the talent required for its expansion plans.

The startup is still in an early stage—it has 10 job openings listed in New York—and certainly won’t heal the city’s ailing office market on its own. But the move, paired with other recently revealed plans from startups, indicates that a prepandemic trend could be resuming in New York.

A Bloomberg article in late 2019 proclaimed California fintech startups, such as Stripe and Affirm, were “invading” New York, seeking its mix of Wall Street know-how and coding talent. Curve, a fintech payments company from the United Kingdom, announced its plans for a new Brooklyn office a little more than a month later.

bows with rising New York fintechs, such as Robinhood competitor Public.com, insurance marketplace PolicyGenius, corporate credit card unicorn Ramp and investment firm YieldStreet.

“As things are really starting back up again, we want the opportunity to get into the center of that,” An-

derson said. “We’ll be close with the people we want to be working with and have top talent available.”

The company will split an office space in Midtown with one of its investors after the move during the summer before seeking its own office space later this year, Anderson said.

Huckleberry, which sells business insurance online and has about 40 employees, is considering a coworking space in either Lower Manhattan or Brooklyn by the end of the summer.

The company is launching its New York venture from San Francisco, where the company was

18 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | May 10, 2021

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FROM PAGE 3

in sales for celebrities, business executives and social media influencers. In the following ingterview, she talks to Crain’s about her new gig as a TV personality and her goal to serve as a role model for other women in real estate.

Why did you agree to go on the show?

I was at a pivotal point in my career where I’d been in this business for 12 years. I’d always been behind the scenes because I’d always been on someone else’s team, and I was a little bit disappointed in myself

why I decided to do it.

Did the opportunity to be the first woman on the show affect your decision?

Absolutely. It never crossed my mind that there would ever be a moment where I would feel stupid that I was the first woman or feel that I wasn’t going to be able to measure up to the other cast members. And that’s because I know all of them.

It’s surprising that despite so many successful women in the real estate industry, only men have been in the spotlight on the show.

I agree. And I don’t know why it took them so long. But I can’t speak to that, because I’ve never been part of the casting process until now. I always felt that there were more men in the world of development and commercial real estate. And I always felt fortunate that there are so many women in residential, and there are a lot of great relationships I have with women in the residential space.

“I’VE BEEN DOING THIS LONG ENOUGH THAT IT MAKES SENSE TO BE A LEADER” that I hadn’t done more. When the opportunity of Million Dollar Listing came to me, it was this moment where I felt like, Wow, this is maybe the reason I was supposed to be in this business for all this time, so that then I can inspire other women who feel like they’re slogging through it and sticking it out. And they don’t really know when something great can happen.

And maybe this is a once-in-a-lifetime, super-rare opportunity that can change your life. And that’s

What do you think has been your biggest failure in your career?

My biggest professional failure was probably waiting this long to start my own team and go out on my own. It was something that I didn’t

realize would feel so right once I did it, and I’ve only had my own team for three months. I have no idea what I was thinking before. This is what I was supposed to do: actually have a team and actually be able to pick the people I work with one by one. And I’ve been doing this long enough that it makes sense to be a leader.

Do you ever experience impostor syndrome, as many other professional women do?

I think if you don’t have any impostor syndrome, you’re lying to yourself.

It’s more what you do with your insecurity about being at the table that is the most important part. I try to channel that into being really warm and really genuine and just trying to be gregarious and entertaining and just be a positive part of who I’m around. I can tell you, it’s big to all of a sudden be part of the cast and be brought into the fold. And it’s extremely intimidating sometimes. But then I look around, and I’m like, Well, they did pick me. So I guess I just

CONNECT WITH

JORDAN appearing in a scene on the show BRAVO

LISTING

need to enjoy it.

What do you think of other real estate shows that portray women negatively, and how do you think your experience will be different?

Unfortunately, there is an element of real estate where women are kind of objectified and not thought of as really being brokers; they’re just kind of thought of as attractive women. You’re kind of in the way of the transaction, which is the opposite of what I’d like to portray

on the show. I hope to be somebody who people actually look at on the show and say, “I would like to work with her.” But not just that; I want them to say, “I'd love to emulate her in business. I’d love to think about business the way that she does. I’d love to carry myself the way that she does. And I’d like to be no-nonsense the way that she is.” And that’s how I’m hoping that people view my character. ■ Million Dollar Listing airs Thursday nights on Bravo.

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The New York City Educational Construction Fund (“ECF”) is seeking proposals from organizations that are capable of providing real estate development advisory services for the redevelopment of select underutilized properties within the portfolio of the New York City Department of Education. A copy of the Request for Proposal (RFP) for Real Estate Advisory Services may be obtained from ECF by contacting the Fund at cwong@nycsca.org. Responses to the RFP must be received at ECF’s offices by 12 noon, May 14, 2021.

New York City Educational Construction Fund 30-30 Thomson Avenue, 6th Floor Long Island City, New York 11101 (718) 472-8285 cwong@nycsca.org

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FROM PAGE 1

overbuilding problem exacerbated by the pandemic, said professor Patrice Derrington, director of the Real Estate Development Program at Columbia University. This has sparked particularly big issues for companies with tenuous capitalization and personal relationships.

“There are two things that real estate is based on,” Derrington said.

“One: capital. Huge amounts of it has to be available, has to have constrained risks and obligations. And then the second thing is the personal networks. And in this case, you see a good example of where both of those key factors in the survival of real estate entities are questionable.”

The future of the beleaguered company is unclear. Multiple real estate sources said they would not be surprised if HFZ declared bankruptcy or lost control of the XI. But even now, not everyone is ready to count out the company—or Feldman.

“I would never take a bet against Ziel Feldman,” said Meridian Capital Group’s David Schechtman.

“He’s smart. He knows real estate.

He also is a talented attorney, and he just gets it. Obviously, values have fallen, and he’s taken a hit, but don’t count him out.”

Good cop, bad cop HFZ filed a notice on Dec. 30 that it would lay off 31 employees, but the company’s most notable departure occurred just weeks earlier, when Managing Partner Nir Meir left the firm. The reason for Meir’s departure was unclear at the time, but an explosive lawsuit filed in April alleged he had embezzled millions of dollars from the company for personal use.

Feldman also accused his partner of stealing the company’s Southampton beach house by forging documents and of living in the house rent-free. When HFZ’s storage company, Scanio Moving, came after the firm for nonpayment and threatened to sell off everything in its storage units, Feldman didn’t hesitate in the lawsuit to call into question Meir’s accounting practices, alleging he had let the storage rents go unpaid.

Feldman also claimed in court papers that Meir had forged his signature on loan guaranty documents without his knowledge, which HFZ is now contesting the validity of.

Meir had instructed his partner’s assistant, Anna Jaszczuk, to sign his name on several loan papers over the summer while Feldman was away at his Bridgehampton home, according to an affidavit filed with the court, and she complied without confirming with Feldman.

“Mr. Meir maintained an aggressive and imposing presence in HFZ’s office,” Jaszczuk said. “Employees knew better than to contradict or question his directives if they valued their jobs.”

“It got heated because there were obviously significant disagreements,” said Larry Hutcher, Meir’s lawyer. “When things started to go bad, they started going after each other. It’s human nature.”

Hutcher denied all the claims HFZ has brought against his client

and said none of the firm’s issues were Meir’s fault. HFZ actually owes Meir a “significant amount of money,” but their issues could be resolved amicably soon enough, he said.

HFZ denies owing money to Meir.

Before their relationship imploded, Feldman and Meir had enjoyed a symbiotic connection. Feldman was the charismatic one, while Meir aggressively got things done, multiple real estate sources said.

“Nir raised most of the capital,” Hutcher said. “He did most of the heavy lifting.”

One source familiar with the former partners called Feldman a Machiavelli.

“He was so charming that people just went along with it,” the source said.

Crain’s experienced this dynamic firsthand in July, when reporting on a $100 million lien Omnibuild Construction filed against HFZ for alleged unpaid work the firm did on the XI. Meir and his representatives repeatedly insisted that the lien had been dismissed and offered to put a reporter on the phone with Omnibuild Principal John Mingione to confirm this. The reporter got a call from a restricted number soon after, and a person identifying himself as Mingione said that Omnibuild had discharged its lien against HFZ. The reporter then reached out to Paul Foschi, Omnibuild’s president, about the call, but Foschi said not only that Omnibuild’s lien was still active but that Mingione had never called the reporter, which Mingione himself confirmed soon after by phone and email.

Crain’s ultimately published the article, and the case remains unresolved and on file in state Supreme Court. HFZ says it fired Omnibuild on the XI because the construction firm wasn’t fulfilling its obligations.

Meir later told Crain’s he had absolutely nothing to do with the falsified phone call.

“I’ve been nothing but straightforward with you,” he said. “I want to have a good rapport.”

More legal matters HFZ is facing lawsuits at several of its projects, including the XI, the Bryant and a group of Upper East Side properties. Its legal issues are most pronounced at the XI, where multiple companies have accused

the status of the project, but the lawyer said Meir is having discussions with creditors about various HFZ developments.

“He’s working his butt off to get these various creditors’ claims resolved,” he said, adding that Meir had already paid out more than $10 million to achieve this goal.

Hutcher blamed the pandemic for the company’s financial problems, noting that the entire real estate industry is struggling. If HFZ is facing more lawsuits than other developers, it is because the firm was more active than others, he said.

The company has developed a restructuring plan with its creditors and investors, Feldman said. “[They] have agreed to … negotiate, implement and oversee that plan that involves the recapitalization and completion of HFZ’s projects,” he said.

“Tell me what other companies are doing the amount of development or projects they have. They were out there very actively, and all it takes is one project to tip the scales,” Hutcher said, referring to the XI. “And that’s basically what happened.”

FELDMAN (left) If a takeover of the XI does and Meir were occur, it would not be the only once known for property HFZ has lost. CIM turning around Group, a real estate investfailed projects. ment firm based in California, recently took over four of the firm’s condo properties through foreclosure: the Astor on a combination of the firm paying the Upper West Side, 88 and 90 Lex- too much for projects, borrowing ington Ave. in NoMad and 301 W. too aggressively and letting big egos 53rd St. in Hell’s Kitchen. preclude any possibility of failure— Feldman had bought them in what one broker dubbed Icarus syn2013 when they were rental build- drome. ings, then converted them into lux“They all fly too close to the sun, ury condos. He lost control of them and they don’t think they’re going when an $89.5 million piece of the to get burned. It’s plain and simple. debt on the properties was sold at They taste success, and they want an auction that CIM Group, the more of it,” said the broker, who original lender, won. asked not to be named for fear of reBut just because HFZ is no longer criminations. “At some point, it bein control of the condos doesn’t comes less about money and more mean its legal issues are done. CIM about the deal. You see this time Group is suing Feldman for nearly and again in every cycle.” $50 million as the guarantor on the Filing for bankruptcy protection loans, demanding that he still pay would seem to be a reasonable opthem back the money. Attorneys for tion for a company facing the types CIM Group did not of issues HFZ is dealing with, and respond to a request multiple real estate sources said for comment. they would not be surprised if the HFZ also recently developer took that step. lost control of a But attorney Douglas Pick, who 34-story Midtown specializes in real estate bankruptoffice tower it was cies, stressed that this was not aldeveloping with ways the best option for a firm in Marble Collegiate Church. The proj- HFZ’s situation. The bankruptcy ect’s lender, the Vanbarton Group, process alone can cost a company foreclosed on a $90.9 million mez- millions of dollars, and it could be zanine loan and took over the de- better for the firm to work with velopment. W Financial REIT, the its lenders on a case-by-case basis, lender on HFZ’s properties at 150- he said. Doing so, he said, would 154 E. 79th St., 1131 Lexington Ave. necessitate a great deal of financial and 1135 Lexington Ave., is attempt- transparency, however. ing to foreclose on those buildings “It’s got to be a situation which, in as well. this environment, you open your HFZ purchased the East 79th books, and in opening your books, Street properties for almost $50 mil- you start working with the lenders lion in late February 2020—just a on each project,” Pick said, “meanfew months before the deluge of ing, if you’re going to put it up for lawsuits started. sale, reach out to the lender and work with them mutually.”

Endgame The amount of entities HFZ had Several sources summarized the set up for specific properties in its root of HFZ’s financial problems as portfolio further complicates mak-

“WHEN THINGS STARTED TO GO BAD, THEY STARTED GOING AFTER EACH OTHER” the developer of skipping out on millions of dollars in bills and payments.

“This is what they do,” said one source. “They just don’t pay anybody, and they’ve been getting away with it all this time.

“I stopped working with them over 15 years ago,” the source added. “Life is too short to work with people like that.”

A letter the company sent to its subcontractors on the XI in December indicated that Zeckendorf Development and Suffolk Construction were in talks to take over the project, but HFZ has denied that such talks are occurring.

Hutcher declined to comment on

PATRICK MCMULLAN

LOSSES

ing predictions about the ultimate fate of the firm, said Derrington, the Columbia professor.

“Even though we think of it as a company with employees, HFZ’s source of income and support for it is tied up in various corporate entities—single-purpose vehicles that belong to the assets,” Derrington said.

HFZ has no plans to declare bankruptcy as a firm, said HFZ attorney Joe Moldovan. “Not only is it unnecessary; it is not in the best interest of the investors and creditors,” he said.

Feldman is no stranger to financial troubles, and he has bounced back from them before. But the situation grows worse and more complicated for the firm each day. More lawsuits have been filed against HFZ recently.

HFZ has long enjoyed a reputation for extravagance, said one developer who has worked with the company and asked not to be named because the firms have common relationships in the industry. He boiled down the developer’s problems to three major issues: overpaying for projects and construction, taking on too many projects at once and not diversifying beyond condos.

“Eventually, the music stopped in the condo market, and they needed more money, and once you need more money, the first people you go back to are your banks and investors,” he said. “Most people start asking questions, and if you can’t answer the questions, you start to hide. Eventually, that only infuriates people more, and then the lawsuits start.” ■

22 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MAY 10, 2021

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SMALL- BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

ISTOCK, BUCK ENNIS

VANDENBOSCH says the Turnstile Tours team digs into historical archives to unearth unknown facts.

FOCAL POINTS

Brooklyn tour company finds new life online Virtual programming helps Turnstile Tours showcase its expertise and hold on to some business

BY BRIAN PASCUS

W

hen the Covid-19 pandemic threatened to shut down their Brooklyn tour guide business— Turnstile Tours—husbandand-wife team Cindy VandenBosch and Andrew Gustafson had to reinvent their nine-year-old company on the fly.

Founded in 2012, Turnstile Tours’ unofficial motto is “We share stories of how New York City works.” By taking customers behind the scenes of different aspects of city life, especially in Brooklyn, the company aims to highlight the work of ordinary New Yorkers.

The company’s mission is to improve residents’ knowledge of what’s going on in the area and showcase “the people who keep the city running,” as VandenBosch explained it.

Although Turnstile specializes in highlighting the history of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Brooklyn Army Terminal, it also offers tours related to public markets, street vendors (with generous food samples) and urban ecology as well as a history and landscape walk through nearby Prospect Park.

VandenBosch said the company’s employees enjoy digging into historical archives and then elevating stories that previously might not have been uncovered or shared. The Brooklyn Historical Society has been a longtime partner in this work.

When Covid-19 made in-person tours out of the question—with 1,500 reservations having to be canceled or refunded—VandenBosch and Gustufson leaned on two pillars to keep their seven-person company afloat: a pivot to using technology to take their services online and their vast library of historical facts about New York.

“Our employees have this body of knowledge that they’ve been building of New York.

There’s so much content that doesn’t make it

“IF WE HAD NOT DONE VIRTUAL PROGRAMS, WE WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BRIDGE THE GAP” on a tour because it’s site specific,” VandenBosch said. “Our idea was, what can we show people and share with them in this virtual space?”

Located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the company began holding virtual programs in March 2020. Turnstile offered online interviews, lectures, walking tours and cooking and art demonstrations. The company conducted one program per day during the first 100 days of the pandemic and created a

monthly membership program to offset the decline in in-person business and its delay in receiving Paycheck Protection Program funding.

“We really reached out to lots of different partners we worked with in the past,” Gustafson said, adding that the company looked to offer as much variety in its virtual presentations as possible. “We try to make them interactive.”

The changes, though necessary, didn’t come without a 50% revenue hit, however: The company went from $200,000 in revenue in 2019 to $100,000 in 2020.

The next phase Looking ahead to the summer and beyond, VandenBosch and her husband believe that by facing the challenges of Covid-19, they found a sustainable model to grow their business into the future.

The couple wants to continue the company’s virtual programming because it allows Turnstile Tours to connect with an audience outside of New York. It also creates a library of video content that the company has never had before.

Since the fall VandenBosch and Gustafson have noticed a surge in New Yorkers looking for activities to do outside and trying to reconnect with the city they love. In October the company began offering in-person tours

NAME Turnstile Tours FOUNDED 2012 COMPANY LEADERSHIP Cindy VandenBosch, president; Andrew Gustafson, vice president NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES Seven TOUR OFFERINGS The Brooklyn Navy Yard, Walking Waterfront, Essex Market, food carts, Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Army Terminal

BY THE NUMBERS Prepandemic, the company did 471 tours per year.

Now it hosts one or two in-person tours per week. It has conducted 254 virtual tours since March 2020.

REVENUE $200,000 in 2019; $100,000 in 2020 GROWTH STRATEGY Turnstile plans to focus on outdoor tours and virtual programs as well as expand its membership program and partnerships.

WEBSITE turnstiletours.com again, starting with walks through Prospect Park.

But the creation of virtual programming should sustain the shop if business slows down again.

“If we had not done virtual programs, we wouldn’t have been able to bridge the gap,” VandenBosch said. “The question is, how do we harness all we learned and all the unique challenges we faced this year into whatever this next phase will be?” ■ MAY 10, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 23

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