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

ASKED & ANSWERED Why the city is important to Google’s business PAGE 15

SMELL TEST Company enlists Covid-sniffing canines to get staff back to office PAGE 3

CRAINSNEWYORK.COM

OCTOBER 18, 2021

CLIMATE CHANGE

A STORM IS BREWING Low-income New Yorkers living in affordable housing face an outsize risk from extreme weather

BY BRIAN PASCUS

AVILA-GOLDMAN, of Gouverneur Gardens: “What scares me the most is we’re going to have to break up our communities and families.”

See CLIMATE on page 19

BUCK ENNIS

ow-income residents are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change, thanks in large part to the city’s decaying stock of affordable housing. The homes are often in flood-prone waterfront areas that once were considered undesirable. More than 1 million people live in floodplains across the city, and that figure is expected to double as sea levels rise, urban planners and environmentalists warn. The New Yorkers most at risk are disproportionately people of color. The conditions pose a significant risk for the New York City economy, with employers facing the prospect of a significant portion of their workforce living in housing vulnerable to superstorms. The city, already known for its high cost of living, can ill afford to lose more affordable units. There are more than 1 million New York workers living in affordable housing now, said Esther Toporovsky, executive vice president of the New York City Housing Partnership, a nonprofit that works as an intermediary between the affordable housing industry and public agencies. “I would say probably a lion’s share of the workforce in New York, to

ADVERTISING

Uber and Lyft target surprising market: Yellow-cab rooftops BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

t seems an uneasy alliance. On the rooftop of some yellow cabs, a digital billboard reads: “Your ad here. Contact ooh@ uber.com.” Yep, the same ride-hailing app that helped upend the market for yellow cabs in the past decade is now in business with taxis. The San Francisco–based company reached a deal

during the spring with the largest medallion fleet-owner groups in New York that will allow Uber to manage advertising for digital screens on up to 3,500 cabs. A thousand screens have now gone live. Uber is not alone in its interest in the market. Rival ride-hailing company Lyft says it is managing more than 1,000 taxi-top digital displays in New York following an acquisition last year of advertising startup Halo. Firefly, a

NEWSPAPER

BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

Architects show love for city’s diversity PAGE 23 VOL. 37, NO. 37

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San Francisco ad startup whose investors include Google, bolstered its New York taxi-top presence with an acquisition earlier this year and says it has rights to 4,000 taxi billboards. The companies are staking their claim as part of a so-called out-of-home advertising market that will attract $7.2 billion in brand spending by the end of year, according to forecasts from media investment company Magna. The market for such digital outdoor

JAMAICA WORRIES IT’S BECOMING A DUMPING GROUND PAGE 6

advertising—which can be geographically targeted and updated in real time—took a hit when Covid-19 kept people home, so the companies are betting on a continued recovery, with more pedestrians out and about and cabs on the streets. “The potential audiences are back, they are spending more time than possibly ever See CABS on page 18

THE LIST

The metropolitan area’s largest law firms PAGE 12

10/15/21 4:21 PM

POLITICS

Inside the Republican Party’s battle to win City Council seats in three competitive races BY BRIAN PASCUS

District 50—Staten Island

One of the oldest names in city politics faces the offspring of the Staten Island GOP machine. Sal Albanese has been a fixture in the Democratic Party since he won a southern Brooklyn council seat in 1983. After serving for 15 years, Albanese ran for mayor three times, losing the Democratic Primary in 1997, 2013 and 2017. After moving to Staten Island to be closer to his family, the 72-year-old Albanese is lacing up his electoral boots again for one final campaign. “I’ve decided to come back into the political arena because I’m pretty disgusted with what’s going on in the city,” Albanese said, refer-

BUCK ENNIS

ho says New York City is a single-party town? The next City Council will be predominantly Democrats, with nearly half the members characterizing themselves as progressives. But three races in different boroughs could turn the Republicans’ way Nov. 2 and keep the 51-member legislative body from falling into near total Democratic Party rule. Here’s a look at the most competitive races for open council seats that could save the Republicans from being cut down to a single chair at City Hall.

encing the crime rate and political dysfunction. His opponent is David Carr, a Republican aide from the Staten Island GOP machine, which emerged under former borough President Guy Molinari and is now led by Councilman Joe Borelli and Minority Leader Steven Matteo. As Matteo’s chief of staff, Carr seeks to replace his term-limited boss and keep the historically conservative borough from splitting with the Democrats. Two wrinkles could upend this race. Carr won his Republican primary in June by only 44 votes, and his victory is still being challenged in court. Then there’s the thirdparty candidacy of George Wonica, a local real estate executive running on the Conservative Party ticket. “Normally I’d say that would hurt

the Republican candidate, but I’m not so sure that’s the case here,” Albanese said of Wonica, though acknowledging that “he’s got name recognition and has been in business here for 30 years.”

District 48—Brooklyn A pro-Trump immigrant from Ukraine aims to knock out a specialeducation teacher and claim a seat vacated by a convicted felon. Inna Vernikov is a 36-year-old divorce lawyer who immigrated to the city when she was 12 years old. She’s been unapologetic in her support of former President Donald Trump and is even more vocal in her stance against vaccine mandates. She’s been endorsed by local GOP Reps. Lee Zeldin and Nicole Malliotakis and is likely to earn support from the large

Russian-speaking population in Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay. “The Democratic Party that is in place today—not the one when I came here in 1996—is really destroying this country and our city,” Vernikov said. “I’m running for office to stand up to the progressive left.” Her opponent, however, could not be mistaken for a progressive. Steven Saperstein is a former Republican who now defines himself as “a common-sense Democrat.” The son of two deaf parents, he holds three graduate degrees and works as a special-education teacher in the city’s public schools. He is a native of Sheepshead Bay and Brighton Beach, where he founded the Shorefront Coalition, a community-improvement group focused on fighting the opioid epidemic and coordinating food deliveries during the pandemic. “It’s very important to be a conservative Democrat,” Saperstein said. “I’m someone who will work with both parties.” Either Saperstein or Vernikov will succeed Chaim Deutsch, the former Democratic councilman who vacated his seat this year and was sentenced to three months in jail for tax fraud.

District 32—Queens In southeast Queens, a 32-year-

REAL ESTATE

old progressive Peace Corps alum faces a Republican district leader and grandmother of three. JoAnn Ariola is chairwoman of the Queens County GOP. With Councilman Eric Ulrich vacating the seat because of term limits, Ariola hopes to keep the district in the hands of her party, which has roughly 140,000 registered voters in Queens. District 32 has flipped between Republican and Democrat since 1993—a trend that gives Ariola hope in holding the seat red. “It proves it’s not about the party; it’s about the person,” she said. “When I decided to run, it wasn’t so much as keeping the seat Republican as it was about giving the district the best possible representation.” Felicia Singh is the Democrat looking to eliminate the GOP from the district entirely. A lifelong resident of Ozone Park, she has spent 10 years teaching English. Singh earned endorsements from moderates such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, but the progressive Working Families Party also endorsed her. If she wins, Singh would be one of three South Asian Americans to join the council next year. “It’s about finally having representation that mirrors the community and the community’s needs,” Singh said. “That’s the No. 1 thing here.” ■

WEBCAST CALLOUT

Construction spending in five boroughs likely to continue trending downward BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

onstruction spending in New York City is being taken for a roller-coaster ride. It is projected to increase this year by 26% from 2020 levels, then dip by $4 billion as of 2023, according to an analysis by the New York Building Congress. Much of the decline in construction investment is because of a retraction in government spend-

expected to drop from 74.2 million square feet this year to 61.3 million by 2023. “Am I concerned about the numbers in this report? Yes,” said Lou Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers’ Association, adding that construction and real estate are responsible for producing 20% of the city’s gross domestic product. The Building Congress predicts more than $60 billion will be spent on projects by the end of this year, but it notes that that’s still $1.4 billion less than was shelled out in 2019. The slowdown in spending growth also can be attributed to the 11 weeks at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic when nonessential construction was shut down, resulting in delays and higher costs to get work done on time. Last year spending fell nearly

“WE HAVE BEEN FORTUNATE BECAUSE CONTRACTORS ARE WORKING OFF A BACKLOG” ing, which is expected to fall by $500 million, and a drop in residential building projects, where 21% fewer units likely will be constructed by 2023. The total amount of floor space built across all types of real estate is

$14 billion from the $62 billion reported in 2019. “We have been fortunate to be where we are today because contractors are working off a backlog,” Coletti said. “We’re coming in at a level that I’m not sure we as an industry thought we would be at,” added Elizabeth Velez, chairwoman of the Building Congress.

Strong point One area that has improved is interior renovations, the report said. “The interior market is surprisingly strong because people are adjusting their workplaces to fit the new environment,” Coletti said. “Offices will look very different.” Overall spending on commercial real estate, including offices, retail, hotels, entertainment and recreation, is apt to dip from $23.7 billion this year to $22.4 billion next year before reaching $25 billion in 2023. For contractors, the report offers hope. Employment in the industry

is at its lowest level since 2014, but the Building Congress predicts the number of jobs will increase 16% by 2023. That would be the third-highest level of employment since 1995, when the data was first collected. “It’s clear that confidence in New York City’s construction and real estate industries remains high, and for good reason,” said Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York. Although LaBarbera’s outlook on the industry is rosier than Coletti’s, both agree that getting the federal government’s infrastructure package passed is key to the city’s economic recovery. The bill calls for investing $110 billion in roads, bridges and other major infrastructure projects. In New York City, public investments are expected to represent between 37% and 39% of all construction spending in the next three years. ■

OCT. 28 CRAIN’S NEW YORK NOW SUMMIT: TOURISM’S COMEBACK Tourism is a critical driver of the city’s economy and was one of the industries most damaged by the pandemic. Almost overnight restaurants, hotels and theaters ground to a halt. For the Crain’s New York Now Summit, we’ll delve into the city’s fledgling visitor comeback and what can be done to recharge tourism.

VIRTUAL EVENT Time: 4 to 5 p.m. CrainsNewYork.com/ OctoberNYNSummit

Vol. 37, No. 37, October 18, 2021—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly,except for a combined issue on 1/4/21 and 1/11/21, 6/28/21 and 7/5/21, 7/12/21 and 7/19/21, 7/26/21 and 8/2/21, 8/9/21 and 8/16/21 and the last issue in December. Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, PO Box 433279, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9681. For subscriber service: call 877-824-9379; fax 313-446-6777. $140.00 per year. (GST No. 13676-0444-RT) ©Entire contents copyright 2021 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

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

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COURTESY PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY

RETURN TO OFFICE

TRANSPORTATION

Port Authority pulls brakes on LaGuardia AirTrain BY BRIAN PASCUS

BUCK ENNIS

he Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has announced it is pausing the LaGuardia AirTrain at Gov. Kathy Hochul’s request as the agency examines alternative mass transit options for the Queens airport. “The agency will work in close consultation with independent experts and stakeholders, and will complete its work as expeditiously as possible, consistent with the need for the review to be thorough and rigorous,” Port Authority officials said in a statement. “During the review, the Port Authority will pause further action with respect to the LaGuardia AirTrain project.”

BARK brought in Buddy and two canine pals from Florida to test the idea that dogs can identify the coronavirus quickly and accurately.

PUPS CHECKING FOR COVID-19 Betting their nose knows, Bark brings in dogs to sniff out coronavirus

BY CARA EISENPRESS

ew York City employees of doggear seller Bark were practically panting at the chance to meet Solo, a 16-week-old male beagle who greeted them in their office building’s lobby for three days in October. Solo’s appearance was not just a nice bonus for a workforce of dog lovers. The pup is in training to detect the virus that causes Covid-19. The company flew him in from Florida along with

two fellow fully trained Covid-sniffing beagles— Noel and Buddy—to test the idea that identifying the coronavirus with dogs can be quicker, more accurate and cuter than a swab test. “There is nothing that matches the ability of the dog’s nose in terms of the ability to be extremely sensitive and selective,” said Kenneth Furton, a forensic chemist who is the provost and executive vice president of Florida International University, where an institute called the Global Forensic and Justice Center created the process for training the dogs. His program has

been pushing limits in the field of canine detection for 20 years—teaching dogs to sniff bombs, drugs, smuggled wildlife, plant pathogens, future seizures in epilepsy patients and now Covid-19. Bark’s leaders are hardly the only group to see promise in four-legged diagnosticians. During the spring, the South Beach Wine & Food Festival employed the dogs, in part because it was not allowed to mandate vaccines and wanted guests See PUPPIES on page 22

Alternative plans Hochul had asked the Port Authority on Oct. 4 to consider different visions for the LGA AirTrain other than the one approved for construction during the summer by the Federal Aviation Administration. The proposed LGA AirTrain is designed as an elevated line in Willets Point, Queens, connecting LaGuardia Airport with the 7 train and the Long Island Rail Road. It promises a 30-minute link between Midtown and the airport. Opponents such as state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris and Sen. Jessica Ramos have questioned the project’s $2.1 billion cost, its proposed route and the impact construction would have on Queens neighborhoods. Local community and environmental groups sued the Port Authority and FAA on Sept. 20, claiming the federal authorities illegally approved the rail project. The Port Authority did not give a timetable for its review of alternative transportation options. ■

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RESIDENTIAL SPOTLIGHT

Recent deals at the storied Dakota could signal the slumbering co-op market might be waking up 2,432 BY C. J. HUGHES

NUMBER of co-op deals in Manhattan in the third quarter, up from 763 in the year-ago quarter.

Might Think.” Weil also grew up in the building. “It was all about timing,” said Lauren Muss, the Douglas Elliman agent handling the listing. “The market has started to come back.”

Not a surprise The transactions end a sleepy streak for the Dakota. In fact, the reception has been so somnambulant at the VIP tower—past and current shareholders include film critic Rex Reed, musician Carly Simon, former Jets quarterback Joe Namath and singer Roberta Flack—that some recent sellers appear to have given up. No. 8, a three-bedroom corner unit, for instance, sat on the market from January 2020 to this past July, slicing its price from almost $6.8 million to just under $6 million along the way, before being yanked. Based on citywide trends, the recent bump in action might not be so surprising. In the third quarter, there were 2,432 co-op deals in Manhattan, up from 763 in the year-ago quarter, according to market research from Elliman, and the average price went up to $1.3 million, from $1.2 million, in the same period. ■

#30

#76

#30

BROWN HARRIS STEVENS, DOUGLAS ELLIMAN

hough the sales market started mending this spring, one segment seemed to lag: high-end co-ops. Indeed, some apartments in the city’s most-boldfaced buildings—along Park and Fifth avenues as well as Central Park West—failed to find buyers even as less-rarefied digs were snapped up. But the situation might be easing, if the Dakota, the chateau-style spread on Central Park at 1 West 72nd St., is any indication. In September, No. 30, a two-bedroom with soaring ceilings, original woodwork and a bay window that was last listed at $5 million, went into contract, two years after it first hit the market. Its initial price, in 2019, was $7.5 million, so it required a 33% price chop to trade. John Burger, the agent at Brown Harris Stevens who listed it, had no comment. Similarly, last summer No. 76, a four-bedroom with seven working fireplaces, finally found a buyer after a couple of years of trying. It came on the market in 2019 at $11 million and went into contract in June at $9 million, for an 18% drop, according to StreetEasy. Based on public records, its seller is Alexander Weil, a founder of CHRLX, an advertising-focused animation studio that nabbed an MTV Video Music Award in the 1980s for its work on the Cars’ video for “You

A FEW UNITS at The Dakota have recently sold after sitting on the market for long stretches of time.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Port takes a hit amid global supply chain crunch BY BRIAN PASCUS

or a city surrounded by water, New York can’t seem to find a place for its boats. The region’s largest and busiest port—the Port of New York and New Jersey—is experiencing longer wait times and unusual backups as a national supply chain shortage threatens to bottle up the region’s maritime choke point just as goods are set to arrive for the holidays. The inability to unload imports because of a nationwide shortage of trucking and rail cars, increased cargo volumes coming from Asia and a global decline in available shipping containers has contributed to backlogs at quays in New York and Los Angeles, said Ira Breskin, senior lecturer at the State University of New York Maritime College. Local business owners are taking note. “You can see them lined up,” said Steve Schwartz, director of sales and marketing at Morton Williams Supermarkets. “I see all the ships waiting to go into port in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and that’s all the way out to Long Beach.”

Schwartz lamented the long wait times for imported goods, which affect his company’s bottom line and that of other retailers who depend on strict timetables to meet supply quotas. Roughly 80% of all shipping containers coming into the Port of New York and New Jersey depart by truck and head to markets within a day’s drive, Breskin explained. These goods service the entire East Coast and even bleed into the Midwest, making the Port of New York and New Jersey an important opening for the nation, he noted. “It’s crucial to the New York economy,” Breskin said. “The Port of New York is a relief port, and it's reasonably efficient, given the circumstances. But everything is under strain right now, and the strain is real.” The average dwell time—the amount of time a container remains idle at the port—is typically three to four days, said John Nardi, president of the New York Shipping Association, a group of 3,500 terminal operators at the Port of New York and New Jersey. Ships now wait seven to 10 days to dock their cargo, Nardi

said, as fewer parcels of land open at overburdened terminals. “The entire supply chain is backed up,” Nardi said. “There’s not enough workers in the supply chain to get the goods where they need to go. If you can’t take them off the piers, then the piers get backed up.” The problems at the Port of New York and New Jersey pale in comparison to the bottlenecks experienced at the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere. A record number of container ships, roughly 73, were anchored off the Southern California port in mid-September because of the limits on warehousing at terminals and the lack of trucks and rail cars to transport goods from the docks. Nardi said that 10 ships were anchored off the local port two weeks ago, which he described as an unusually large number. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the port, downplayed the concerns and said there were no labor shortages or shipping backlogs. Container vessels have averaged just 1.3 days at anchor this year, it said.

“Amid a global increase in shipping delays that has significantly impacted some ports, including those on the West Coast, operations at the Port of New York and New Jersey remain strong,” said Tom Topousis, a spokesman for the Port Authority. He added that the port has set cargo volume records for 13 consecutive months. Cargo import volume is up 26% year to date from last year, according to operator data from the Port of New York and New Jersey. Nardi said the increased volume contributes to the bottleneck, and it stems from consumers spending money on household goods, electronics and online shopping rather than on travel or leisure.

Holiday delays Even if the Port Authority remains unconcerned, some economists say the backlogs will snowball into larger problems because of the timing of the supply chain crisis. Breskin noted the import-export industry is seasonal, and the peak shipping season starts Aug. 1 and extends through Thanksgiving because of the annual demand for holiday goods.

Most shipping companies try to export up to 60% of their goods in the final five months of the year, explained Burt Flickinger, managing director at Strategic Resource Group, a retail consultant. The national supply chain crunch could not have come at a worse time for the shipping industry, he said. “It’s a commercial crisis,” Flickinger said. “One-fifth to one-fourth of all goods will miss Christmastime and Hanukkah, and it will possibly be worse in New York.” Flickinger said the shortage of goods would disproportionately hurt the city because it has fewer distribution centers than before the pandemic. With fewer people using public transit, the traffic density in the metropolitan area has grown worse—and that will contribute to slower deliveries, he said. Doomsday predictions aside, Nardi emphasized that his dock workers are doing all they can to stave off the worst of the supply chain crunch. “We’re making a big effort to not bite off more than we can chew,” he said. “There’s been quite a joint effort to keep the port fluid.” ■

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HEALTH CARE

VC funding for health Quest Diagnostics startups helps push city unveils $250 million to record-setting quarter high-tech lab in NJ BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

ew York City technology startups raised a record $13.3 billion in venture capital last quarter, according to a new report from research firm CB Insights, and companies focused on health care landed some of the most valuable deals. The $400 million investment last month into Cityblock Health, a Brooklyn-based provider of tech-driven health services for people on Medicaid, was the fifth-most valuable of the 500 venture deals booked by city startups from July ELLERIN through September, according to the report. Not far behind Cityblock’s deal was a $200 million investment secured the same month by Opentrons, the robotics startup that made its name speeding up New York City’s processing of Covid-19 tests. Both deals were led by SoftBank. Mental health care platform Spring Health, based in Gramercy Park, raised $190 million. Tribeca-based Maven Clinic, a digital health startup focused on women's and family health, raised $110 million in August.

Health care–focused startups in New York raised $2.4 billion last quarter, said Bunny Ellerin, president of New York City Health Business Leaders, an industry group. The organization also released a report last week detailing funding trends for the city’s health and life sciences startups. Investment doubled from the same period last year in the third quarter, Ellerin said.

The female factor A notable trend in the city's health-tech funding is that “women founders—women who are leading companies—are much more in the mix this quarter than I have seen before,” Ellerin said, citing Spring Health’s CEO and co-founder, April Koh; Cityblock’s co-founder and president, Toyin Ajayi; and Maven Clinic’s founder and CEO, Kate Ryder. Startups focused on health care have raised just under $100 billion globally in the first nine months of the year, surpassing last year’s total of $80 billion, according to CB Insights. There are 91 total health care unicorns—private companies valued at $1 billion or more— including Cityblock, Opentrons, Spring Health and Maven Clinic. ■

BY MAYA KAUFMAN

terboro, which it sold for $91.5 million. Some of the equipment from the Teterboro facility was moved to the Clifton lab. In January Quest started gradually relocating operations there from two facilities in Maryland and Pennsylvania, which it repurposed for rapid response testing. The Clifton facility is providing more than 1,100 jobs, the company said.

uest Diagnostics last Tuesday unveiled a $250 million laboratory in Clifton, New Jersey, that promises to increase capacity, accelerate turnaround times for clinical test results and cut the firm’s costs. The 250,000-square-foot facility features automation technology that will enable it to test more than 300,000 samples per day, in- Changing conditions cluding comprehensive metabolic panels, Bob Roggeman, senior director of program blood cell counts and allergy tests. management for Quest ManageAlthough other labs may also aument Systems, said the lab is designed to adapt to changing conditomate testing analyses, Quest’s tions in the industry. The pandemic includes an automation line to would be such a condition, although transport samples throughout the NET REVENUE the project predates it; Covid tests facility to further increase producthe clinical are incompatible with the Clifton tivity, executives said. testing company lab’s automation lines, so they are “The vial comes in and it’s rereported in its being managed manually. ceived, and that’s the last touch second quarter The pandemic proved the need point that vial has received from a for lab operations to be much more human,” said Santiago Galvez, vice president of operations for the east re- flexible and nimble and be able to respond to changes quickly, Roggeman said. gion. Quest reported $2.6 billion in net revenue The new lab has been in the works since 2017. The Secaucus-based clinical testing in its second quarter, which ended June 30, company financed the construction in part up 40% year over year. It will release its through the sale of its former property in Te- third-quarter results Oct. 21. ■

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TRASH & RECYCLING

Queens recycling firm wants to boost capacity but neighbors are looking to keep the odors away

he air around Douglas Avenue in Jamaica used to smell of Wonder Bread because its factory was nearby. Now the aroma is garbage. That’s because 24 hours a day, six days a week, trucks unload hundreds of tons of trash at American Recycling. Owner Chris Hein is looking to invest $30 million to modernize his business. He would rebuild much of the 110,000-square-foot facility and connect to the nearby train tracks so more garbage could be hauled from the city by rail, he said. “We want to take trucks off the road,” Hein said. “We’ll also install solar panels on our rooftops that will power homes in the neighborhood.” But putting more trash on trains means more trucks will be needed to get it to the station. That’s an unpopular idea among Jamaica residents, especially after the city three years ago reduced how many trucks could enter American Recycling and other such facilities. “Wherever there is a truck-rail transfer, that means more trucks coming and going,” said Mary Arnold, executive director of Queens-based Civics United for Railroad Environmental Solutions. The battle in Jamaica speaks to an inconvenient truth: Getting to a greener economy involves difficult decisions. Installing solar panels

and closing coal mines can be easy, but determining how many trucks may visit a recycling station in a poor neighborhood is really hard.

Neighborhood blight The roots of the fight date back to 2001, when the city closed its Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island. Commercial-waste haulers that take garbage from restaurants and office buildings began dropping their trash at privately run transfer stations, which are clustered in the poorest parts of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. Residents for years protested that their neighborhoods were literal dumping grounds. In 2018 the city enacted the Waste Equity Law, which cut American Recycling’s capacity by a third. The site now may accept 570 tons of municipal solid waste per day, down from 850 tons. Hein contends the capacity needs to be restored to make his renovation and railroad-expansion project economically viable. His application with the New York City Industrial Development Agency shows he would kick in $2.3 million, borrow $12 million from banks and rely on a combination of public funding and tax credits for the balance. But because American Recycling’s cash flow has shrunk, banks are unwilling to finance the project, he said. During the summer, the City Council considered a bill restoring American Recycling’s capacity. The environmental-activist community

BLOOMBERG

BY AARON ELSTEIN

was aghast. “Once we start amending our environmental justice laws to allow for one or two private industry actors to belatedly try to improve, we completely gut the force and reliability of our laws in the first place,” Caroline Soussloff, attorney at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, testified at a June hearing. Schoolteacher Danielle Hammer pleaded to keep fresh convoys of garbage trucks out of Jamaica. “During the summer, many residents in the neighborhood can’t

open their windows due to the odors coming from the facilities,” she told the council.

garbage isn’t. Restaurants and offices are producing plenty of waste again. Truckers who can’t dump their loads because of American Recycling’s capacity limits must typically drive at least 13 miles to the closest facility. Sometimes, Chief Financial Officer Dominic Susino said, drivers give up and dump their trash under a viaduct or even in a park. “Our idea is to make the cleanest recycling center you’ve ever seen,” Susino said. “The trash is going to go somewhere.” ■

Square one American Recycling says the stink would lessen if it could gain approval to renovate the dump, in operation since 1943. But the project is on ice after the council declined to vote on the bill restoring its permitting capacity. “It’s back to the drawing board,” Hein said. The project is stymied, but the

TECHNOLOGY

City debuts proposed upgrades for LinkNYC kiosks, making them 22 feet taller and adding 5G nodes

ity officials have unveiled a potential new look for 5G-enabled LinkNYC kiosks. The design change—adding 22 feet to the overall height of the structures—is part of a plan to revive the stalled LinkNYC program, which provides free public Wi-Fi and USB charging financed by digital advertising sold on the kiosks’ screens. After the private company operating the project, CityBridge, fell behind by about $60 million in revenue it promised to share with the city, the LinkNYC

the October meeting of the city’s Public Design Commission revealed the new look, which requires commission approval. CityBridge and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, which oversees LinkNYC, plan to present the design formally Oct. 18.

New equipment The proposed design rises to 32 feet, compared with the original 10-foot-high kiosks, with a pole hosting a pen cap–like top that would hold equipment transmitting 5G signals. The digital ad screen would remain the same size, according to the filing, and some of the new kiosks would have only the 5G nodes, without a screen. The new cellular network, 5G, is still in its early stages but is expected to offer speedier download speeds than the current 4G LTE. LinkNYC would join a wider rollout for the network

THE PLAN COULD ENSURE AN EQUITABLE ROLLOUT OF THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY franchise agreement was amended during the spring to add 5G cellular equipment to the structures as an additional revenue source. Documents posted last week for

Upper West Side. In the document, DoITT officials say the 5G plan is the “only path forward to sustain the LinkNYC program and expand into neighborhoods that will most benefit from free, high-speed internet.” CityBridge CEO Nick Colvin said in a statement that the plan “will enable the equitable deployment of the latest wireless technology in previously underserved neighborhoods across New York City.”

LINKNYC structures could look like this one, imagined to the right of an Apple store.

Renegotiation

NYC DOITT

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

that includes adding equipment to buildings, light poles and other street furniture. The 5G nodes on the LinkNYC devices must be placed at a height similar to the tops of street poles, under regulations set by the Federal Communications Commission, as stated in the document

submitted to the design commission by the DoITT. The Public Design Commission last year approved a design for 5G equipment on city light posts, but it barred the plan from three types of poles that have historic significance, including the bishop’s crook–style poles often seen on the

A new LinkNYC kiosk has not been installed since 2018, and fewer than 2,000 of the 7,500 devices the company was contracted to build by 2029 are in place. City officials renegotiated the contract during the spring, agreeing to allow 5G equipment on the devices and lowering the minimum advertising revenue–sharing payments from $750 million over 15 years to $160 million. In exchange, CityBridge must build at least 2,000 kiosks outside Lower Manhattan and Midtown in the next three years. ■

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

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FASHION

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

ent the Runway has joined the procession of New York technology startups going public—filing for an initial public offering that bets customers are ready to get dressed up despite a work-from-home era symbolized by sweatpants. After a tumultuous 18 months that included layoffs and store closures, the Brooklyn-based startup, which rents high-end women’s clothing, recently made public lits plans to debut on the Nasdaq in the coming weeks. The company filed prospectus documents Oct. 3 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Rent the Runway last raised funding a year ago, when it had a reported $750 million valuation, below its $1 billion unicorn value from 2019. Details are still pending on how Rent the Runway will price its shares. In the meantime, here are five things to know about the company ahead of its IPO.

hand clothing, will grow 23%, to $77 billion, by 2025, offering an opportunity for Rent the Runway to capture more sales. The company said it will focus on expanding internationally and adding new flexible plan options following the IPO. The company is also allowing customers to purchase the items they rent.

New York impact Rent the Runway moved to its

headquarters at 10 Jay St. on the Dumbo waterfront in 2019. The lease was for about 80,000 square feet, but the company has subleased down to about 60,000 square feet, according to the filing. The company has 893 full-time employees and 81 part-time staffers, though the filing does not break out where those workers are located. It also has an office in Ireland and distribution facilities in New Jersey

FACEBOOK/RENT THE RUNAWAY

5 things to know about Brooklyn’s Rent the Runway ahead of its IPO and Texas.

Watching Warby Fellow New York technology company Warby Parker, which has a similar online retail focus, received a warm welcome when it went public via direct listing last month. The company’s share price of about $52 last Tuesday afternoon was up around 30% from its starting

price on Sept. 29. That could be a good sign for Rent the Runway’s prospects, as investors are betting on a not-yet-profitable online retailer for its potential to grow. ■

Pandemic punch The Covid-19 pandemic provided a boost to New York startups that offer digital health services, business software and other tech tools, but it took a big bite out of Rent the Runway’s subscriber numbers and revenue. The company closed all five of its U.S. stores and laid off all retail employees in March 2020. (The New York flagship near Union Square has reopened for pickups and drop-offs only.) Annual revenue last year fell 39%, to $157 million, and the number of subscribers tumbled from a peak of 134,000 on Jan. 31, 2020, to a low of 54,000 in July of that year. Its net loss last year was $171 million, compared with $153 million in 2019.

Bouncing back “We couldn’t have foreseen the global pandemic and the resulting fight for our survival,” Chief Executive Jennifer Hyman wrote in the company’s IPO filing. “Today Rent the Runway is emerging stronger.” Indeed, the company’s subscriber count has edged up, if not to prepandemic levels. There were about 98,000 subscribers as of July 31, the company said. It had about $100 million in cash on hand as of Aug. 31, following a debt and equity round of funding raised last year.

The opportunity Founded in 2009 as a pop-up shop at Harvard, Rent the Runway initially focused on offering online clothing rentals of high-end brands for formal events. Eventually it branched out into rentals for work, school and other occasions. Plans range from $89 per month for four items to $199 per month for 16. The company adjusted its offerings last year, nixing an unlimited option. Citing market research, the company said in its IPO filing that the market it most directly targets, secondOCTOBER 18, 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

The next mayor must put preparing for climate change at the top of the agenda expected to double as sea levels rise, according to our story. The New Yorkers most at risk are disproportionately people of color. Weeks after Hurricane Ida, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio released a report detailing how the city intends to prepare and respond to extreme weather. The administration also committed $2.7 billion in new funding to support climate resiliency and storm preparedness. The City Council on Oct. 7 passed a bill that would require the mayor to develop a plan to address the climate by Sept. 30. With de Blasio’s term ending soon, responsibility for the implementation of any plan will fall to his likely successor, Democratic candidate Eric Adams. It’s important that the next mayor put preparing for climate change at the top of his agenda. Retrofitting existing affordable housing to withstand extreme weather and creating new affordable housing outside of flood plains should be central to any plan. To be sure, much is being done on a piecemeal basis. In its sustainability agenda, released last month, the New York City Housing Authority, the city’s largest provider of low-income

EDITORIAL editor-in-chief Cory Schouten,

cory.schouten@crainsnewyork.com assistant managing editor Telisha Bryan deputy digital editor, audience & analytics

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

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opinion@crainsnewyork.com executive assistant Brittany Brown to contact the newsroom:

editors@crainsnewyork.com www.crainsnewyork.com/staff ASSOCIATED PRESS

n the wake of the flooding and deaths brought about by Hurricane Ida last month, it’s time for the mayor to push hard to develop—and implement—a serious plan to combat the threat that climate change poses to the city’s economy and its residents. That plan must prioritize the needs of New York City’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, many of which are inhabited by low-income residents. Many of these residents live in affordable housing in need of upgrades—elevated boilers, backup generators and better electrical systems—to withstand extreme weather events. As Crain’s New York Business reporter Brian Pascus writes in this week’s cover story, climate change poses a serious risk for the New York economy. Dwindling shorelines, extreme heat and catastrophic superstorms all threaten to reduce the supply of affordable housing, forcing some workers to abandon the city. That, in turn, would leave restaurants, hospitals, tourist venues and countless other employers left to deal with a workforce shortage. It’s estimated that more than 1 million people live in floodplains across the city, and that figure is

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Consumers, even those who are food insecure, such as many in Bronx neighborhoods, are simply unaware of the effect waste has on our ability to feed the population. The study found that one-third of respondents made no effort to reduce food waste at home. The biggest barrier to reducing waste is that consumers just don’t know how. What do we do? As I reflected on World Food

director, reprints & licensing Lauren Melesio,

212.210.0707, lmelesio@crain.com PRODUCTION production and pre-press director

Simone Pryce media services manager Nicole Spell

from. A recent survey found significant education gaps when it comes to the problem, with more than 60% of Americans indicating that most waste comes from the restaurants-grocery stores sector and other food services. Households, however, are responsible for the largest portion of all food waste; the nonprofit ReFED estimates that U.S. households waste 76 billion pounds of food per year.

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nearly $1.5 billion initiative to build flood protections along a stretch of land home to 28,000 public housing residents, including Gouverneur Gardens on the Lower East Side. But it is time for leaders in the city, state and federal governments to work together to develop a comprehensive plan to protect the city and its residents. The development and implementation of any plan should also include private enterprise. We all have a significant stake in getting this right. ■

With education, New Yorkers can help eliminate food waste and insecurity n New York state, 3.9 million tons of food end up in the trash every year while 12.8% of residents struggle with food insecurity. An estimated 750,000 New Yorkers live in food deserts such as the Bronx, where just a few weeks ago fruit vendor Diana Hernandez Cruz saw much of her inventory tossed into the garbage. As this is happening, we are faced with this fact: The pandemic has doubled the number of food-insecure people in the world from 135 million to 270 million, according to figures from the World Food Programme. Yet in the United States alone, more than 108 billion pounds of food is wasted each year. Instead of being tossed, this food could be used to feed the hungry. What is the disconnect? A broad lack of awareness exists among consumers about food waste and where most of it stems

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housing, acknowledged climate change as a real and present danger to its portfolio of buildings. The agency estimates that 54,000 residents live in some 250 buildings that are in the 100-year flood plain. By 2050, that number is expected to double, to 106,000 residents in 530 buildings. “NYCHA cannot wait until the next superstorm, or other climate disaster, to start planning,” according to the report. In April de Blasio announced the groundbreaking of the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, a

OP-ED

BY JC DALTO

685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017-4024

Day, on the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal to halve food waste by 2030 and on all that we as an organization do to combat food waste—from consumer and farmer education initiatives to upcycling fruit waste into new, nutritious snacks—that moment in the Bronx involving the fruit vendor that was captured by shocked and angry residents gave me a renewed purpose. Herculean efforts regarding food are underway around the globe, but only if we work together will we succeed for our planet and

our people. From frontline organizations such as City Harvest, among others, to waste reduction apps and the work companies such as ours do, each of us has a role in solving the food-waste problem and eliminating food insecurity for good. We cannot just toss the problem into the trash and hope it goes away. ■

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]

JC Dalto is president of Dole Sunshine Company in the Americas.

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

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OP-ED

Next mayor must act swiftly in first 100 days to ensure climate resilience and social justice

t a pivotal moment for New York City, when climate change is bearing down and longtime social injustices have been laid bare, we are calling for a transformational first 100 days from our next mayor, a time in which to recognize the relevance of New York Harbor to the vitality of the city and to lay a foundation of resilience and equity for all New Yorkers. The city has begun to invest in resilience projects, but there is no strategic approach across our 520 miles of waterfront. Policymakers have relied on a project-based, reactive process that doesn’t prepare us for environmental, physical and social challenges in the years ahead.

Calls to action These are specific actions we are calling for in the next mayor’s first 100 days. Expedite the forthcoming Climate Adaptation Roadmap, an initiative being developed by the Mayor’s Office of Climate Resiliency. It was recently passed by the City Council, which will consider multiple climate hazards and will prioritize short-, medium- and long-term

•

adaptation measures, with attention to vulnerable neighborhoods. Empower New Yorkers with tools to create resilience in their own communities. Commit resources to the city Department of Environmental Protection and the Office of Emergency Management to ensure that floodwaters will never again kill New Yorkers in their homes. Expand drain capacity, starting with upgrading stormwater sewers and building retention tanks in areas with limited drainage systems. Commit to new green infrastructure, such as rain gardens and permeable surfaces, that absorb excess water. Develop a more robust emergency communications plan, and launch efforts to advise New Yorkers about flood-insurance requirements and rates that are changing. Incentivize resilience retrofits for commercial and residential buildings along with innovations in climate design to match the city’s successful energy retrofit programs. This sound policy makes buildings climate-proof, it provides new green construction jobs, and it showcases the city’s excellence in resilient architecture. Adopt the Wetlands Management Framework, an important plan for the protection of the city’s

•

remaining wetlands. Start by transferring 93 acres of publicly owned property to the city's Parks Department and acquire 50 more acres of privately owned land to be managed as wetlands. Capitalize on the city’s harbor geography by recognizing the importance of the shipping industry and the working waterfront. The city’s maritime connections are rich, but this is often not well understood in the halls of government or among the public. All of our imported goods come through local ports. The nascent offshore wind industry, forecast to catalyze economic benefits and new jobs, is dependent on ports. Transitioning to electrification at the city’s maritime terminals will decrease emissions in the region. We have set a high bar for the next mayor’s first 100 days. But a safe, healthy, equitable city is the right of every New Yorker, and if recent storms and dire projections are any indication, we have a long way to go to get this right. A fair and just city will be based on an econo-

•

BLOOMBERG

BY PAMELA PETTYJOHN AND CHRIS WARD

my of investment and growth and the democratic means of distributing that wealth. ■ Pamela Pettyjohn is president of the Coney Island Beautification Project and a member of the Waterfront Alliance Board of Trustees. Chris

Ward is a consultant, former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, former commissioner of the city Department of Environmental Protection and chairman of the Waterfront Alliance's board of trustees.

OP-ED

BY JESSICA LAPPIN

ew York is the most resilient city in the world, and those in the age of Covid-19 who are writing off Lower Manhattan have a short memory. The tragedy of 9/11? We rebuilt. The 2008 economic collapse? Residential growth helped to transform what had been solely a financial community. Pandemic? Of course there are challenges. But the area is already a magnet for the creative class and ready to grow. It is drawing those who know that downtown they’ll find the connection, dynamism

economic desert. Each institution became a neighborhood anchor, seeing stores and restaurants flourish around them, creating a sense of place and community, and providing a magnetic draw for visitors.

A new center of gravity When the World Trade Center Performing Arts Center opens in 2023, a new center of gravity will be established in New York’s cultural world. The PAC will add immeasurably to the depth of cultural life downtown, and it will spur the emergence of more commercial and artistic enterprises. Already, Calderón Ruiz, a cutting-edge gallery featuring Latinx artists, has opened near the South Street Seaport. And Hall des Lumières, an immersive digital art space based on the successful one in Paris, is coming to Chambers Street. The area is home to nationally renowned institutions such as the South Street Seaport Museum, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of Jewish Her-

THE AREA IS HOME TO NATIONALLY RENOWNED INSTITUTIONS and opportunity that cities are all about. Cultural industries are unique in their capacity to generate ideas and root communities. There was a time before BAM became the landmark it is now and when the area around The Public Theater was a relative

itage and dozens of other cultural and educational organizations, as well as the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Pace University. As in Lower Manhattan, a citywide recovery from the pandemic will be tied to culture and the arts— whether it’s Broadway’s comeback, the return of live concerts or the reopening of museums and exhibition spaces. Where cultural institutions flourish, creatives and the businesses that serve them follow. New media, technology, advertising and service industries flock to areas where culture is being made and where artists and audiences congregate. Lower Manhattan is already being transformed by that movement and is poised to reap even more benefits of the dynamic in the years ahead.

Reimagine what is possible Prepandemic, a comptroller’s report stated that $1 out of every $8 of economic activity in the city could be traced directly or indirectly to the creative sector. It’s time that we support this valuable asset—making the city more affordable for creative-sector workers to live and

BLOOMBERG

Cultural and arts organizations can energize Lower Manhattan’s recovery from the pandemic

work, supporting capital initiatives in arts institutions, increasing arts/ creative education in our schools and backing legislation that protects freelancers. With a changeover coming in January of many City Council seats, of the Manhattan borough president and of the mayoral administration, we have a generational opportunity to make lasting

investments in our cultural community and reimagine what is possible. Lower Manhattan has been marked by successive eras of trade, finance and technological growth. It’s time to build on that by adding a new wave of cultural industry to our rich and layered history. ■ Jessica Lappin is president of the Alliance for Downtown New York.

Write us: Crain’s welcomes submissions to its opinion pages. Send letters to letters@CrainsNewYork.com. Send op-eds of 500 words or fewer to opinion@CrainsNewYork.com. Please include the writer’s name, company, address and telephone number. Crain’s reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity. OCTOBER 18, 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

FINANCIAL SERVICES

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PUBLIC RELATIONS

TECHNOLOGY

EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants

Autism Speaks

Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County

FINN Partners

TransPerfect

Global independent marketing and communications firm FINN Partners has hired Steven DeLuca as Senior Partner, Business Development & Marketing. In this role, DeLuca will work to expand the firm’s client base in the travel & consumer lifestyle categories. Formerly President & CMO of HL Group, DeLuca led premium accounts including Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Tonight and NetJets. Prior to that, he served as SVP Publisher of Departures, American Express Platinum Card’s upscale publication.

TransPerfect, the world’s largest provider of language and technology solutions, announces the hiring of Edgar VargasCastañeda as Vice President of Growth Strategies & Business Optimization. Vargas-Castañeda brings nearly a decade of experience supporting largescale transaction strategy to TransPerfect. As the new VP of Growth Strategies at TransPerfect, Edgar looks to deploy the skills and techniques at his disposal to identify untapped potential as well as prepare the company to scale.

Dan Nieves, MBA will handle relationship development and enhancement of EPIC’s rapidly growing private client business segment. He joins EPIC after 11-years with Pure, where he had extensive underwriting and leadership experience. After leading the northeast underwriting team, he most recently was responsible for underwriting and designing large accounts. Dan’s expertise will definitely enhance EPIC’s overall client offerings and he is well known as a key partner to EPIC’s regional private client teams.

Keith Wargo has joined Autism Speaks as President & CEO. He will focus on providing an array of services and solutions to best support the millions of people impacted by autism. Keith joins the organization after a long and successful career in finance on Wall Street. He is also an owner of Monarch Cypress, an amenity manufacturer and supplier, where one of the company’s missions is to employ autistic individuals. He and his wife, Anne, are parents to two adult children one of whom is autistic.

Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County welcomes Anthony Montalto, partner at global engineering firm JBB, as chair of its board of directors. “I am honored to serve as the new chair of the Habitat NYC and Westchester board. We plan to continue to build on the past success of this amazing organization and our past chair, Doug Morse. We will continue to advocate for and support our communities in New York City and Westchester by building and preserving affordable housing.”

TRANSPORTATION FINANCIAL / TECHNOLOGY

DailyPay DailyPay welcomes Jane Levine as Chief Compliance Officer. Jane previously served as Chief Global Compliance Officer and Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs at NYSE-listed Sotheby’s where she was a member of the Executive Management Committee. Prior to Sotheby’s, Jane spent 10 years as Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) with the Southern District of New York. Jane was a Presidential Appointee under President Obama to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee.

Wheels Up

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New York City Habitat for Humanity

Westchester County Habitat for Humanity

BairesDev

Diana Reyna is the inaugural Chair of New York City Habitat for Humanity, a new subsidiary of Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County. “I look forward to working with our government officials and community leaders City-wide on a renewed commitment to affordable homeownership opportunities and to building more than 175 new homes in the next five years.” The former City Council Member and Deputy Brooklyn Borough President will oversee operations and real estate opportunities.

Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County welcomes Peter Murray as inaugural chair of its new subsidiary Westchester County Habitat for Humanity. “As a long-time Westchester resident and long-time supporter of Habitat NYC and Westchester, this new board position is a true honor,” said Murray. “I look forward to working in my home county, steering the organization as it begins to break ground on projects from Yonkers to Peekskill, serving my hardworking neighbors along the way.”

Bob Leibholz is joining BairesDev, a leading technology solutions company, as SVP of Business Development. Leibholz will be responsible for creating key growth initiatives, including expanding the proactive commercial development discipline. He has more than 20 years of proven experience creating, building, and executing go-to-market strategies, developing sales and channel organizations, guiding international expansion, and spearheading growth initiatives. Visit bairesdev.com to learn more.

Vinayak Hegde has been appointed President of Wheels Up (NYSE:UP), the leading brand in private aviation. Hegde has spent over two decades leading the technology, marketing, and product development sectors within world-class organizations, including Amazon and Airbnb. In his new role, he will focus on developing and implementing a seamless and holistic approach to the customer, from sales to the management of our Members’ and customers’ experience and loyalty.

ANNOUNCE

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Dentons

Joseph Guagliardo, a seasoned tech transactions lawyer with business experience in the software industry, has joined Dentons as a partner in the Venture Technology and Emerging Growth Companies practice, resident in the Meatpacking office. Joe has extensive experience counseling both emerging growth and more mature companies on a wide range of technology and intellectual property-related commercial transactions.

David Kornblau has joined Dentons in New York, as a partner in the Litigation and Dispute Resolution and White Collar and Government Investigations practices. A leading Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission enforcement lawyer, David defends clients in sensitive and complex regulatory investigations, internal investigations and securities litigation.

INDUSTRY ACHIEVERS ADVANCING THEIR CAREERS Recognize them in Crain’s

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

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REAL ESTATE

BY EDDIE SMALL

ctivity in Brooklyn’s luxury residential market has declined after increasing for several weeks in a row. Long Island City’s luxury residential market has slowed down as well. Brooklyn saw 26 contracts for luxury homes signed two weeks ago, for a total of about $88.3 million, down from 29 properties for about $93.5 million the week before, according to the latest report from Compass. The properties were split among 15 condos, 10 houses and one co-op, and the median asking price was about $2.6 million. Compass defines Brooklyn’s luxury market as all properties priced at $2 mil-

Compass report. The most expensive unit to go under contract two weeks ago was a four-bedroom, three-bathroom condo unit at 50 Bridge Park Drive, known as Quay Tower, in Brooklyn Heights; it sold for roughly $10.7 million. The unit spans 4,544 square feet and includes a private highspeed elevator and floor-to-ceiling windows. The second-priciest unit was a townhouse at 226 Lincoln Place in Park Slope; it went for about $6.8 million. The brownstone spans about 5,000 square feet with six bedrooms and four bathrooms, along with four private outdoor spaces, including a roof deck. Other notable Brooklyn deals that week included a townhouse at 148 Baltic St. in Cobble Hill that went for about $6.3 million and a condo at 1 John St. in Dumbo that went for $4.5 million. The sole luxury co-op deal during the week in question was for a unit at 41 Eastern Pkwy. in Prospect Heights, which sold for $2.3 million.

BROOKLYN’S 26 HIGH-END CONTRACTS WAS DOWN FROM 29 THE PREVIOUS WEEK lion or higher. The properties spent an average of 280 days on the market, and they went under contract with an average discount of 1%, according to the

BUCK ENNIS

Brooklyn, Long Island City luxury residential sales slow down after showing signs of improvement

Meanwhile, in Queens Two weeks ago Long Island City saw five luxury residential deals for a total of about $6.8 million, down from seven deals for a total of about $10.2 million the week before, according to the latest Compass report, which defines the neighborhood’s luxury market as all

properties priced at $1 million or higher. All five deals were for condos. The properties spent an average of 106 days on the market and typically did not go under contract at a discount. The most expensive condo unit was in Skyline Tower at 3 Court Square, which went under contract

for about $1.7 million. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit spans 975 square feet. The second-priciest deal was for a condo in Murano at 5-19 Borden Ave. that went for about $1.5 million. The unit also has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and it spans about 1,300 square feet. ■

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1 THE LIST LARGEST LAW FIRMS Ranked by number of New York–area lawyers 2021 LAWYER BREAKDOWN, BY PRACTICE AREA 2021 LAWYER BREAKDOWN

RANK

FIRM/ ADDRESS; PHONE/ WEBSITE/ SENIOR PARTNER(S) IN NEW YORK 1

NY-AREA LAWYERS 2021/ 2020

N RT

PAP

S ASA

IA OC

E MM

E /S

U EC

RIT

IES P./

N BE

ITS AL

O PR

R PE

TY Y LO

E O L CY E N AR MP M /C TU SE PT AT /E CO EC TIO HC UN KING RU OR L R . T O L P K L O C GA C E I R N N A E B T T A E X I N LLITI BBANK EEXEC. LLA & E CCO & S OFC BBA & C HHC IINTEL

R RE

AX TTAX

T OOTHER

✔

3,212 2,921

✔

1,079 1,036

E AL

E R HE

FIRMWIDE LAWYERS 2021/ 2020

Kirkland & Ellis LLP 601 Lexington Ave.; 212-446-4800 kirkland.com Sandra Goldstein

801 719

298

503

n/d ✔

✔

Davis Polk & Wardwell 450 Lexington Ave.; 212-450-4000 davispolk.com Neil Barr

786 770

119

584

83 ✔

✔

Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP 1285 Sixth Ave.; 212-373-3000 paulweiss.com Brad Karp

763 828

138

533

92 ✔

✔

943 972

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Affiliates 1 Manhattan West; 212-735-3000 skadden.com Eric Friedman

668 699

119

455

78 ✔

✔

1,694 1,752

Latham & Watkins LLP 1271 Sixth Ave.; 212-906-1200 lw.com Marc Jaffe

635 573

143

461

31 ✔

✔

3,275 3,107

Sullivan & Cromwell 125 Broad St.; 212-558-4000 sullcrom.com Joseph Shenker

611 661

115

429

67 ✔

✔

929 977

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett 2 425 Lexington Ave.; 212-455-2000 stblaw.com William Dougherty

584 541

n/d

n/d ✔

✔

n/d n/d

Weil, Gotshal & Manges 767 Fifth Ave.; 212-310-8000 weil.com Barry Wolf

568 654

131

374

63 ✔

✔

1,131 1,236

Debevoise & Plimpton 2 919 Third Ave.; 212-909-6000 debevoise.com Michael Blair

545 513

n/d

n/d ✔

✔

n/d n/d

Willkie Farr & Gallagher 787 Seventh Ave.; 212-728-8000 willkie.com Thomas Cerabino Matthew Feldman

530 494

151

342

37 ✔

✔

1,006 871

Cravath, Swaine & Moore 825 Eighth Ave.; 212-474-1000 cravath.com Faiza Saeed

518 573

418

6 ✔

✔

549 599

White & Case 1221 Sixth Ave.; 212-819-8200 whitecase.com Elena Millerman Hugh Verrier

497 530

139

335

23 ✔

✔

2,567 2,420

Ropes & Gray 1211 Sixth Ave.; 212-596-9000 ropesgray.com Eva Carman

474 463

351

29 ✔

✔

1,530 1,581

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP 1 New York Plaza; 212-859-8000 friedfrank.com David Greenwald

467 406

113

310

44 ✔

✔

659 573

Sidley Austin 787 Seventh Ave.; 212-839-5300 sidley.com Samir Gandhi

424 475

143

225

43 ✔

✔

1,929 2,076

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton 1 Liberty Plaza; 212-225-2000 clearygottlieb.com Michael Gerstenzang

423 526

n/d

n/d ✔

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1,050 1,220

Milbank 2

419 411

n/d

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389 409

113

246

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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milbank.com Scott Edelman

Gibson, Dunn P012_P013_CN_20211018.indd 12

& Crutcher LLP 200 Park Ave.; 212-351-4000 gibsondunn.com

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White & Case 1221 Sixth Ave.; 212-819-8200 whitecase.com Elena Millerman Hugh Verrier

497 530

139

335

23 ✔

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Ropes & Gray 1211 Sixth Ave.; 212-596-9000 ropesgray.com Eva Carman

474 463

351

29 ✔

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1,530 1,581

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP 1 New York Plaza; 212-859-8000 friedfrank.com David Greenwald

467 406

113

310

44 ✔

✔

659 573

Sidley Austin 787 Seventh Ave.; 212-839-5300 sidley.com Samir Gandhi

424 475

143

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✔

1,929 2,076

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton 1FIRM/ Liberty Plaza; 212-225-2000 ADDRESS; PHONE/ clearygottlieb.com WEBSITE/ Michael Gerstenzang SENIOR PARTNER(S) IN NEW YORK 1

423 NY-AREA 526

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2021 LAWYER BREAKDOWN LAWYERS 2021/ 2020

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2021 LAWYER BREAKDOWN, BY PRACTICE AREA

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FIRMWIDE 1,220 LAWYERS 2021/ 2020

Milbank Kirkland 2& Ellis LLP 55 Hudson Yards; 212-530-5000 601 Lexington Ave.; 212-446-4800 milbank.com kirkland.com Scott Edelman Sandra Goldstein

419 801 411 719

n/d 298

n/d 503

n/d ✔

✔

n/d 3,212 n/d 2,921

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP Davis Polk & Wardwell 200 Lexington Park Ave.; Ave.; 212-351-4000 450 212-450-4000 gibsondunn.com davispolk.com Andrew Neil BarrLance Mylan Denerstein Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP 2 Proskauer 1285 Sixth Rose Ave.; LLP 212-373-3000 11 Times Square; 212-969-3000 paulweiss.com proskauer.com Brad Karp Steven Ellis

389 786 409 770

113 119

246 584

30 ✔ 83

✔

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763 364 828 400

138 133

533 211

92 ✔ 20 ✔

✔ ✔

943 734 972 792

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Schulte AffiliatesRoth & Zabel 919 Third Ave.; 212-756-2000 1 Manhattan West; 212-735-3000 srz.com skadden.com David Efron Eric Friedman Marc Elovitz Latham & Watkins LLP Arnold & Porter 1271 Sixth Ave.; 212-906-1200 250 W. lw.com 55th St.; 212-836-8000 arnoldporter.com Marc Jaffe Arthur Brown

668 314 699 328

119 66

455 189

78 ✔ 59 ✔

✔ ✔

✔

✔ ✔

1,694 359 1,752 372

635 310 573 308

143 87

461 181

31 ✔ 42 ✔

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3,275 977 3,107 1,003

Sullivan & Cromwell Kramer Levin & Frankel 125 Broad St.;Naftalis 212-558-4000 1177 Sixth Ave.; 212-715-9100 sullcrom.com kramerlevin.com Joseph Shenker Paul Schoeman Howard Spilko Simpson Thacher & Bartlett 2 425 212-455-2000 CahillLexington Gordon Ave.; & Reindel LLP stblaw.com 32 Old Slip; 212-701-3000 William Dougherty cahill.com

611 293 661 319

115 92

429 157

67 ✔ 44 ✔

✔ ✔

929 369 977 393

584 541 290

n/d

188

n/d ✔ 38 ✔

✔ ✔

n/d n/d 319 326

131

374

✔ ✔

✔

168

63 ✔ 31 ✔

✔

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✔

n/d n/d 2,251 2,226

✔

1,006 871

✔

725 848

✔

549 599 1,028 1,023

William Hartnett Weil, Gotshal & Manges 767 Fifth Lipton Ave.; 212-310-8000 Wachtell Rosen & Katz weil.com 51 W. 52nd St.; 212-403-1000 Barry Wolf wlrk.com

309 568 654 290 275

Edward Herlihy 2 545 n/d n/d n/d ✔ Debevoise ✔ ✔ Daniel Neff & Plimpton 919 Third Ave.; 212-909-6000 513 debevoise.com Greenberg Traurig 285 136 116 33 ✔ ✔ ✔ Michael 200 ParkBlair Ave.; 212-801-9200 300 gtlaw.com Ejim Achi Willkie Farr & Gallagher 530 151 342 37 ✔ ✔ ✔ ScottSeventh Bornstein 787 Ave.; 212-728-8000 494 willkie.com Shearman & Sterling 279 78 165 36 ✔ ✔ ✔ Thomas Cerabino 599 Lexington Ave.; 212-848-4000 345 Matthew Feldman shearman.com David Beveridge Cravath, Swaine & Moore 518 94 418 6 ✔ ✔ ✔ 825 Eighth Ave.; 212-474-1000 573 cravath.com Paul Hastings 271 77 161 33 ✔ ✔ ✔ Faiza Saeed 200 Park Ave.; 212-318-6000 258 paulhastings.com Seth Zachary White & Case 497 139 335 23 ✔ ✔ ✔ 1221 Sixth Ave.; 212-819-8200 530 whitecase.com Morgan, Lewis & Bockius 257 90 145 22 ✔ ✔ ✔ Elena Millerman 101 Park Ave.; 212-309-6000 264 Hugh Verrier morganlewis.com Kate Weinstein Ropes & Gray 474 77 351 29 ✔ ✔ ✔ Ben Indek 1211 Sixth Ave.; 212-596-9000 463 ropesgray.com DLA Piper 254 n/d n/d n/d ✔ ✔ ✔ Eva Carman 1251 Sixth Ave.; 212-335-4500 219 dlapiper.com Richard Hans Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP Fried, Frank, 467 113 310 44 ✔ ✔ ✔ 1 New York Plaza; 212-859-8000 406 friedfrank.com Clifford Chance U.S. 250 62 119 20 ✔ ✔ ✔ David 31 W. Greenwald 52nd St.; 212-878-8000 216 cliffordchance.com Evan SidleyCohen Austin 424 143 225 43 ✔ ✔ ✔ 787 Seventh Ave.; 212-839-5300 475 sidley.com Samir Gandhi New York area includes New York City and Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties in New York and Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Union counties in

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2,567 2,420 1,925 2,002 1,530 1,581 4,650 4,516 659 573 3,473 3,557 1,929 2,076

New Jersey. Crain's New York Business uses staff research, extensive surveys and the most current references available to produce its lists, but there is no guarantee that the listings are complete. To qualify for this list, firms must have an office in the New York area. If lawyers practice in more than one area in the breakdown by practice area, they are counted once under predominant n/d-Not disclosed. 1--May indicate managingn/d partner or other Current-year lawyer Clearytheir Gottlieb Steen &area. Hamilton 423 n/d title. 2--n/d 1,050 ✔ ✔ totals are✔counts from ✔ the firm's ✔ website.✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

1 Liberty Plaza; 212-225-2000 clearygottlieb.com Michael Gerstenzang

Milbank 2 55 Hudson Yards; 212-530-5000 milbank.com Scott Edelman

Gibson, Dunn P012_P013_CN_20211018.indd 13

& Crutcher LLP 200 Park Ave.; 212-351-4000 gibsondunn.com

526

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ASKED & ANSWERED

TORRENCE BOONE Google

DOSSIER

INTERVIEW BY EDDIE SMALL

WHO HE IS Vice president of global client partnerships and New York site co-lead, Google

oogle gave Manhattan’s office market a massive jolt in September, when it announced it would buy St. John’s Terminal in Hudson Square for $2.1 billion. The purchase marked another high-profile addition to the tech giant’s New York real estate portfolio, which includes Chelsea Market, 111 Eighth Ave. and the Milk Building on West 15th Street. Torrence Boone, vice president of global client partnerships at Google, said the deal is part of plans to grow the company’s presence in New York, which has become an essential base for large tech companies. It also represents a major vote of confidence in the local office market even as it struggles to recover from the pandemic.

AGE 52

Why did Google decide to buy St. John’s Terminal during such a tough time for the city’s office market?

WAY WITH WORDS The aspiring novelist is working on a love story set in Provincetown, Mass. He describes getting to interview acclaimed writer Toni Morrison about eight years ago for a fireside chat at Google as “one of the most magical moments” of his life.

We have 12,000 people working here—which makes New York our largest office outside of the Bay Area. We believe it’s critical to continue to invest in New York because our success is reliant on New York’s energy, creativity and world-class talent. The purchase will allow us to continue to increase our head count in New York, and we’re counting on many more thousands over the coming years.

How does Google feel about remote work now?

We’ve extended the voluntary work-from-home period

GREW UP Baltimore RESIDES NoMad EDUCATION Bachelor’s in economics, Stanford University; master’s in business administration, Harvard Business School LOVE STORY Boone is married to artist Ted Chapin. “We’ve been together for 33 years and married officially in 2004, when it became legal in Massachusetts,” he said. SNOWSTORM Boone is a big fan of snowboarding and prefers going out West for it, where he can enjoy the larger mountains. Two of his favorite spots are Big Sky in Montana and Mammoth Mountain in California.

until Jan. 10, but across the world, we’ve already given people the

option to work from the office. We’ve long believed in the importance of bringing people together to collaborate. That will remain just as important to our future as it has been to our past.

Why does New York appeal to the tech industry?

We just find in our recruiting efforts that New York is incredibly popular as a destination for talent. Silicon Valley is still incredibly important, but what we’re finding is that we absolutely have to expand our presence to other important tech hubs. New York is really growing in influence in this sector. The area is a magnet for top talent, and that’s what organizations need in order to continue to innovate.

What made owning St. John’s Terminal more attractive than continuing to lease it? We love the Hudson Square area. St. John’s Terminal is a fascinating building, so this is a continuation of our focus on really interesting, large spaces. Also, by developing St. John’s Terminal, it will better link the Hudson Square neighborhood to the waterfront, so we anticipate that there will be even more economic activity that comes to the area.

Tech firms have a reputation for their swanky offices. Will that change post-pandemic?

We recognize that the pandemic has represented a seismic shift in the way corporations think about things. I don’t think anyone knows how all of this is going to unfold, so we have to have an open mindset and experiment. ■

#501F3A

CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS 2021

WOMEN IN LAW

WOMEN IN LAW Honor Notable Women in Law in New York City! Nominations are now open! Recognize women who are serving as role models and mentors to other women attorneys, promoting inclusive practices in the workplace, and who are serving in a senior level at their law firm. This is a special print and digital editorial feature within Crain’s December 20 issue.

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

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TECHNOLOGY

$13 billion in three months: City’s tech startups are raising money at a record pace, report finds

ew York startups keep breaking records. Investors infused young technology firms based in the New York metropolitan area with a record $13.3 billion in venture capital from July through September, according to a report from CB Insights , topping the record-setting $11.6 billion for the first quarter of the year. New York startups have raised $36 billion in the first nine months of the year, compared with $40 billion combined in 2019 and 2020. “You’ve got a lot of companies getting funded, getting funded faster and with larger check sizes,” said Adam Dinow, a partner in the New York office for the law firm Cooley who has advised billion-dollar startups, such as the delivery service Gopuff and data-privacy company BigID. The companies have been helped by the pandemic, which boosted demand for consumer and workplace technologies; low-interest rates that have pushed more institutional dollars into venture capital firms; and a strong market for ini-

tial public offerings that provide returns on those investments. The top deal in the last quarter, by value, was a $1.5 billion investment round in July for Midtown-based Articulate, a creator of online learning courses for companies. Among the top five was Brooklyn startup CityBlock Health, which raised $400 million from SoftBank for its business using technology to deliver primary care to people covered by Medicaid.

entrepreneurial companies that are now public and will remain independent and growing in NYC.”

What to watch

BLOOMBERG

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

Dry powder The large investment numbers are helped by what is often called dry powder: money held by venture firms to bet on up-and-coming companies. Roughly $74 billion from pension funds, endowments, family offices and insurance companies, among others, went to venture funds in the first half of the year, according to figures from the National Venture Capital Association. “You have historically large amounts of capital coming into the system due to the number and size of venture funds that have been raised, so you have an excess of supply that is driving this,” said

BE WHERE

Nnamdi Okike, co-founder and managing partner of 645 Ventures, which in October 2020 raised a $160 million fund to invest in early-stage technology companies. “These funds are putting that money to work, and this is driving larger round sizes,” Okike added.

New York boost U.S. startups raised $72 billion total last quarter, up 90% year over year. New York’s venture funding, meanwhile, grew 166%. California’s Silicon Valley led all regions with

$27.1 billion in startup investment, representing 107% growth from the same third-quarter period in 2020. The funding has helped drive more than a dozen initial public offerings for city technology companies already this year. Fred Wilson, leader of Union Square Ventures and one of the city’s best-known technology investors, wrote a recent blog post on New York’s "tech resurgence." The recent IPO of Warby Parker, he said, shows the city “is now home to a growing number of large

It remains to be seen how venture dollars will flow beyond technology companies and into the local economy. The money could go toward new hires or office leases. “There is a little bit of new office leasing, but not the pace of 18 or 24 months ago and not what you would expect the pace to be, given this level of investment,” Cooley’s Dinow said. Dinow said most firms he works with are focusing their spending on new hires and acquisitions. New York had 19,000 tech-related job postings in September, according to figures from industry group CompTIA, the most of any region. Still, there are some positive signs for the real estate industry. Demand for New York office space from companies less than a decade old grew by 514% during the pandemic, according to a new report from real estate firm Newmark. The firm attributed the growth in demand to technology companies expanding their offices. ■

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10/14/21 1:45 PM

HEALTH CARE

Home health agencies report seeing mixed results following state vaccination deadline

ct. 7 was the deadline for home health aides to have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. By the next day their agencies reported a mix of results, with some largely compliant and others facing staff shortages. The deadline covered personnel working at state-regulated facilities including adult care facilities, home health agencies, long-term-care programs, AIDS home-care programs, hospices and diagnostic and treatment centers. The overall mandate had a Sept. 27 deadline for staff working in hospitals and nursing homes, and a Nov. 1 one for individuals working at psychiatric or specialty hospitals in the Office of Mental Health or Office for People with Developmental Disabilities networks. “For some agencies, the impact had been very significant,” said Al

dataset he received the next day from an organization noted a range of 10% to 38% for unvaccinated aides across its provider agencies, from New York City to Buffalo. Another report from nine organizations said collectively they would have to let go 900 aides, he said. For agencies experiencing such heavy hits, the disruption to patient care could be big, Cardillo said. One agency reported nearly a fifth of its staff, or about 500 workers, were unvaccinated, and under the mandate, their services would be lost to patients, he said. “If each of these aides cared for two or three patients, the loss of these workers alone could represent about 1,800 patients affected by the mandate for this organization,” he added.

Weathering the storm In and around the city, organizations appeared to be largely unscathed. At NYC Health + Hospitals/Community Care—the public health system’s home health agency, which serves almost 11,500 patients—there were not any disruptions, a spokesman said. Although agencyspecific vaccination numbers were not available, the health system had achieved a 94% vaccination rate, and staffing contingency plans had been implemented ahead of the mandate, he said.

“WHEN YOU LOSE THE WORKFORCE, THEY’RE NOT COMING BACK” Cardillo, president and CEO of the Home Care Association of New York State, which represents more than 400 organizations. Early reports showed varying hits to staffing levels, Cardillo said. One

BLOOMBERG

BY SHUAN SIM AND MAYA KAUFMAN

Similarly, at MJHS Health System, a provider of hospice and home care in Brooklyn, and RiverSpring Living in the Bronx, an assisted living and home care provider, vaccine compliance had been robust. At the former, 98% of its 359 hospice employees and 96% of its 128 home care worker had been vaccinated by the deadline, Chief Executive Alexander Balko said. At RiverSpring, 96% of the 475 home care workers were compliant, said Deborah Messina, senior vice president of operations. At Kips Bay–based ArchCare, which runs nursing homes, assisted living facilities and home health programs, 23 of some 528 health aides had been let go, said Scott

LaRue, president and CEO. Prior to the deadline, there had been 144 aides who had indicated reluctance to the vaccine, he said. Some agencies were still waiting for data to come in. For Visiting Nurse Services of New York, the expectation is that up to 300 workers—about 4% of staff—would become ineligible to work, a spokeswoman said.

Second chances Agency leadership said they were hopeful for staff to come around regarding vaccinations. Messina said that those at RiverSpring who remained noncompliant would be given two weeks’ furlough, followed by dismissal thereafter.

Even for agencies with high vaccination rates, the impact to patients is palpable, Cardillo said. A downstate agency emailed him that it had met the mandate with 96% compliance but let 175 aides go, he said. “That’s still a lot of patients who might need someone new to take over, and these tend to be fragile patients with medically complex needs,” he said. “That’s still a disruption even if someone else covers." The state had reached out to the association, offering supplemental staffing resources such as emergency medical workers and students, Cardillo said. “While that might help hospitals or nursing homes following a natural disaster, that’s not really how home care works,” he said. The industry requires statecredentialed workers who have been specialized in the work, he added, and staffing had already been scarce prepandemic. All told, Balko of MJHS said he believed the mandate was the right approach, despite its potential to disrupt staffing. Cardillo, however, lamented that the state hadn’t come up with a different plan for those who remained noncompliant, such as a longer grace period before termination. “Unloading, suspending or firing those unvaccinated all at once is an absurdity,” he said. “When you lose the workforce, they're not coming back.” ■

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Younger firms are driving office leasing in the city

he share of young firms leasing office space in the city has skyrocketed, driving down the average age of businesses that are signing deals—to 27 years old from 29 in 2019—according to data from Newmark. Demand for space from tenants that have been in business for less than 10 years has grown by 514% during the Covid-19 pandemic, compared with 226% in 2019, with some of them leasing 10 times more space than they occupied in 2019, the report said.

companies such as Alloy, DailyPay and Freshly, which have all grown by more than 1,000%, and Affirm, Cash App, Fubo TV and Remarkable Foods, which quadrupled their offices. Noom signed a sublease for 113,000 square feet at Brookfield’s 5 Manhattan West last fall.

Relatively bulletproof The expansions are thanks to rapid growth and hiring among the young businesses, which have resisted much of the pandemic’s damage to the city’s economy. “Their business has done quite well over the last year,” Falk said. “They started at an opportune time to look at real estate and move to a better building or get better terms or flexibility.” They’re responsible for pushing the office market out of 15 months of negative absorption, when more space was given up than was leased. In Midtown South, where most of the young companies are, that figure turned positive during the third

“THEY STARTED AT AN OPPORTUNE TIME TO LOOK AT REAL ESTATE” “I kept coming across companies I’ve never heard of going from 20,000 square feet to 60,000 square feet,” said David Falk, tristate region president of Newmark. “It wasn’t just the Googles and Facebooks of the world.” Those deals were driven by tech

BLOOMBERG

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

quarter, with net absorption of nearly 433,000 square feet. The overall number of tenants in the technology, advertising, marketing and information spaces looking for new offices grew from 107 in 2019 to 132 as of last month. Companies including Cash App, Remarkable Foods, Splice and Twitch have grown out of cowork-

ing spaces and expanded into their own offices. TikTok was previously operating out of a WeWork at 1460 Broadway but relocated to a 232,000-square-foot, seven-floor office at the Durst Organization’s 151 W. 42nd St. during the spring. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 31% of emerging tenants’ leases, however, were sub-

leases, compared with 24% of deals signed by emerging tech firms. They were able to scoop up office space in newer Class A buildings for a discounted price. “These tenants can now get better buildings at reasonable prices with flexible terms,” Falk said. “Aesthetics are becoming more important to them.” ■

OCTOBER 18, 2021 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 17

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FROM PAGE 1

before because we have been holed up for so long, and that’s what makes this medium so valuable right now,” said Jonathan Gudai, CEO of Las Vegas–based Adomni, an out-of-home online marketplace that partnered with Uber for sales on its effort. The companies, particularly Firefly and Uber, have focused advertising initiatives on ride-app vehicles in other markets. But ride-app advertising is banned in New York, so they are striking deals to adorn yellow cabs instead.

Uber OOH The deal reached in March between Uber and the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade represents about a quarter of all taxis, according to a press release in March. Uber, through a spokesman, declined to comment further on the deal. Michael Woloz, a spokesman for the MTBOT, said the partnership might seem like an unusual dynamic, but the deal was a straightforward business one. Uber had a good product, he said, and it is “incumbent on MTBOT to get the best possible rates for any additional revenue it can generate.” Woloz declined to share the exact value of the deal. That a company was willing to invest in the taxis, he said, by bringing

the screens to cabs represented a rare bright spot for an industry crushed by Covid-19. The Uber-managed digital screens are internet-enabled and can quickly shift from campaign to campaign, based on performance and target geographic areas, with competitors Halo and Firefly pitching similar offers. Brands buying out-of-home ads are charged fees starting between $3.30 and $8.65 per thousand impressions, on average, according to figures from the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, an industry group. Impressions are measured using anonymized cellular data that estimates how many people saw a given ad. Uber said its network, called Uber OOH, which stands for out of home, receives 70 million impressions each month.

Ad ban Uber launched its advertising business in February 2020, focused outside New York. At the time, Firefly was growing quickly by signing up U.S. drivers for Uber and Lyft to host advertising on their cars, typically paying them a few hundred dollars per month. New York is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a more complicated market for companies entering the taxi ad business. The placements are banned on for-hire vehicles such as those routed by Uber and Lyft. Yellow cabs have displayed ads on their rooftops going back to

BUCK ENNIS

CABS

1975, with at least 9,000 rooftop ads out of nearly 14,000 taxi medallions. But the ads have long been a point of contention for drivers, said Bhairavi Desai, president of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. At a time when struggling drivers are protesting at City Hall to obtain greater debt relief, the billboards could represent a much-needed revenue source. But there is rarely clarity, Desai said, for drivers who don’t own their medallion on what the advertisements are worth or who is selling them. Uber and Lyft drivers were able to host ads on their cars in New York for a short time starting in 2018, mostly through Firefly, before the Taxi and Limousine Commission reinstated a ban on such advertising in August 2019. City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, chair of the transportation committee, has proposed a bill that would negate the TLC policy. But the legislation has stalled since a

tense hearing in January 2020, in which yellow-cab industry representatives told the council that ads from Uber drivers could saturate the market. The TLC has justified the ban as a way to prevent New Yorkers from seeing a barrage of ads, citing a similar state ban on floating digital marketing boats in 2019. An industry task force launched in the fall of 2020 by the council is expected to release a report this year that, among other issues, will consider whether to allow advertising on for-hire vehicles. In the meantime, Uber OOH, Lyft’s Halo and Firefly have been striking deals with taxi fleets or individual medallion owners. “They’re putting their toe in the water, and this allows them to be ready” should the rules change, said Matthew Daus, a former chairman of the TLC and now a partner at Windels Marx. Firefly, which has raised $53 million in venture capital during its eight years in business, in June announced its acquisition of Curb Taxi Media, which it said would allow the company access to more than 10,000 car ad screens across 11 U.S. cities. The company partners

with management companies as well as individual medallion owners, said CEO Kaan Gunay, who added in an email that there is “a massive demand for advertising right now in street-level digital media.”

Foot traffic The market for out-of-home advertising as a whole is relatively small. It captures less than 3% of all ad spending, Magna said, with the dominant online search market garnering one-third of all advertising dollars. But Magna projects spending on OOH marketing will grow 10% next year. Brands are keeping a close eye on foot traffic and other mobility data as they consider buying OOH ads, Gudai said. The number of daily trips by taxi cabs cratered from about 200,000 daily in February 2020 to fewer than 8,000 in April of that year, according to TLC data analyzed by data scientist Todd Schneider. But there are signs of a slow recovery, with daily taxi trips climbing to just under 90,000 as of this past August. Brands are increasingly seeing taxi tops as a “great frequency play,” said Brian Rappaport, CEO of Quan Media Group, an out-of-home-focused agency in Midtown. “If you walk around New York City, you see taxi tops everywhere,” Rappaport said. “If you are a brand looking to get awareness in New York and want to be seen, taxicabs are a good place to look.” ■

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some degree, lives in market-dictated affordable housing and regulated affordable housing,” Toporovsky said. “That is the number one way to ensure productivity, and I think it’s huge if [workers are] impacted by climate change and they can’t necessarily be in their units.” For people living in vulnerable buildings, the climate crisis is not just an economic concern but an existential one. “What scares me the most is we’re going to have to break up our communities and families,” said Frank Avila-Goldman, vice president of the co-op board at Gouverneur Gardens, a six-building Mitchell-Lama cooperative on the Lower East Side that was built in the early 1960s and sits by the East River. “Where can people go if they don’t have flood protection? What neighborhood will make room for us?” For a city with 520 miles of coastline, two interconnected problems are at work, said Robert Freudenberg, vice president of energy and the environment at the Regional Plan Association, an urban planning research group: The city’s aging stock of affordable units needs to be retrofitted to withstand extreme weather events—elevating boilers, building backup generators and placing electric equipment on roofs—and something must be done either to relocate the thousands of low-income residents living in flood-prone areas or to upgrade their homes. “Affordable housing and the climate crisis are on a collision course,” Freudenberg said. “Climate change and its impact finds people living in conditions that aren’t up to quality or up to code.”

Leaking walls

BUCK ENNIS

An average rainstorm is not a cause for concern for most New Yorkers, but it disrupts the lives of others. “When it rains, to this day it pours in my apartment,” said Nilsa Owens, a six-decade resident of the Jacob Riis Houses in the East Village, a 13-building public housing complex built in 1949. “The walls bubble up because of the moisture. The ceiling leaks every time it rains. The whole complex is like that.” Rainwater flowed into Owens’ apartment when Tropical Storm Ida hit New York last month, and she said maintenance work done seven years ago to seal the bricks

CHANGING WEATHER

hasn’t made much of a difference. The main work done to improve the Jacob Riis AMOUNT the New York City houses has Housing Authority been dedicathas invested ed to floodwain storm-surge ter protection guards and on the ground reinforced floor, said Owexteriors ens, who can see drilling and digging outside her INCHES sea apartment, levels may rise by where she has midcentury lived for 38 years. Crews are at the complex to perform a two-part, $130 million renovation. They’re repairing damage from Superstorm Sandy and installing resiliency measures such as building backup generators and replacing electrical equipment and sump pumps, according to the New York City Housing Authority, which manages the complex. “They just destroyed the whole complex. It looks like a war zone,” said Owens, a 66-year-old retired secretary who lives in a three-bedroom unit with three grandchildren. “It’s tiring to see your development look like World War III.” When Superstorm Sandy hit New York in October 2012, the city’s affordable housing stock absorbed a chunk of the damage. Almost 20% of the city’s 178,000 public housing units were damaged by Sandy, according to figures from the NYU Furman Center, a research lab on housing and urban policy. Nearly 80,000 low-income residents were left without heat or electricity because of the flooding, including Nancy Ortiz, a third-generation resident of the Vladeck Houses on the Lower East Side, a collection of 20 public housing buildings completed in 1940. “Sandy is our reminder every time a storm is coming,” said Ortiz, 63, who lives in a three-bedroom unit with her daughter, son and two grandchildren. Ortiz, who is retired, had been her building’s resident association president for 18 years. In that role she mediated tenant disputes and lobbied the city for more funding on capital projects. “We still get flooded,” she said, “which is why we’ve fought so hard for flood protection.” Ortiz said the Vladeck Houses did not receive any flood protection

$2.3B 6-12

GOUVERNEUR GARDENS residents either can invest in their properties or transition out.

JACOB RIIS HOUSES: “They just destroyed the whole complex,” one resident says.

or upgrades after Sandy, though the city is expected to begin work this year on an East River flood-protection barrier from Montgomery Street, near her apartment, up to East 14th Street.

‘A slow-moving disaster’ More than 1.3 million people live in or are adjacent to New York’s floodplain, the area most likely to flood based on historical data, according to Rebuild by Design, an environmental and urban planning nonprofit. The distance of the floodplain from sea level and the annual risk vary depending on location. The Rockaways beaches in Queens, for instance, face a heightened risk of flooding because of their location along the ocean, the Regional Plan Association said. “This is a slow-moving disaster

Sandy regular occurrences in the coming decades. When the remnants of Hurricane Ida pounded New York in September with record rainfall, it caused up to $24 billion in property damage across the Northeast and contributed to the drowning deaths of 11 people in Queens and two in Brooklyn. Videos of outer-borough streets left completely underwater revealed the extent of the crisis in those neighborhoods. “We are the living wall,” Ortiz said. “We are the barrier to everybody behind us.”

Particularly vulnerable Many of those most at risk live in government-subsidized affordable housing, such as Mitchell-Lama cooperatives, where residents own shares, and the public housing communities overseen by the New York City Housing Authority. A Rebuild by Design report last October estimated that half the residents living in the city’s floodplain are people of color. More than 55,000 rent-regulated affordable housing units are in the floodplain, according to the City Planning Commission. That figure excludes 178,000 NYCHA units. The areas most susceptible to flooding include Red Hook, Far Rockaway and the Lower East Side—each with thousands of affordable units. The communities were built along the coast in the mid-20th century, when the land was inexpensive and the industrial waterfront was considered an undesirable location to live. “For most of human history, the waterfront was not where you built housing. The waterfront was where you put your nasty stuff : infrastructure and shipping,” said Eddie Bautista, executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy group. “It wasn’t considered prime real estate until deep in the 20th century.” Residents now living in affordable developments face an ugly choice, said Moses Gates, vice president for housing and urban plan-

“WE ARE THE LIVING WALL. WE ARE THE BARRIER TO EVERYBODY BEHIND US” that is picking up a lot of speed in a city like New York,” said Amy Chester, managing director at Rebuild by Design. She added that the number of New Yorkers living in the floodplain is expected to rise to 2 million by the end of the century. There are major inequalities at work when it comes to flood risk. Of those 1.3 million people living in a floodplain, more than half are considered low-income, according to Rebuild by Design, meaning they have a median income of less than $75,120 for a family of three. One-third of New York City residents living in rental units in highrisk flood zones earn less than $25,000 per year, according to a 2013 Rand study. The poverty threshold for a two-adult family with two children is $26,246, according to 2020 federal data. The threat of climate change is no longer merely a theory. Sea levels are expected to rise by 6 to 12 inches by midcentury, according to a recent U.N. report. The resulting atmospheric changes are likely to make events such as Superstorm

BUCK ENNIS

CLIMATE

ning at the RPA, and so do the city and state agencies that manage their buildings. “You either have to make significant investments to harden properties to make them resilient or you have to transition out,” Gates said. “And you have lots of residents who don’t have comparable housing options. There aren’t many opportunities to buy the same unit for the same amount of money.” Avila-Goldman, 44, said that an ominous alternative is already being whispered by his neighbors at Gouverneur Gardens. “The words you hear are ‘managed retreat’ or ‘housing mobility,’ ” he said. “We have residents who have been here 60 years, and no one expected the possibility they would have to uproot you.”

Pricey solutions Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has launched multiple initiatives to address climate change. NYCHA has invested almost $2.3 billion toward climate resiliency upgrades such as building groundfloor storm-surge guards and reinforced exteriors. NYCHA has moved heating systems, power lines and generators away from lower floors and basements. Properties in Coney Island and Gravesend, Brooklyn, and in Far Rockaway completed nearly $300 million in upgrades and renovations last year. The de Blasio administration also has begun constructing the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, a roughly $1.5 billion initiative to build flood protections along a stretch of land that’s home to 28,000 public housing residents, including those in Gouverneur Gardens. Avila-Goldman has been watching construction on the resiliency project, which is expected to include a floodwall at Pier 42, near his home. He breathes easier knowing others are paying attention. “All I can say is, ‘Thank God,’ ” said Avila-Goldman, who manages intellectual property rights for an artist’s estate. “I’m very grateful the city is doing this for us, because we have nowhere else to go. This is one of the things that can protect our neighborhood in the decades to come.” ■

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

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PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES Notice of Qualification of CSC ENTITY SERVICES, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/27/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/14/98. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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Notice of Qualification of CSC GP, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/06/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/06/06. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 55 E. 52nd St., 34th Fl., NY, NY 10055. DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Invitation to Prequalify and to Bid Rehabilitation and Flood Mitigation of the New York Aquarium, Brooklyn, NY Turner Construction Company, an EEO Employer, is currently soliciting bids for the Rehabilitation and Flood Mitigation of the New York Aquarium from subcontractors and vendors for the following bid packages: BP #62A Fuel Supply for Temporary Boiler (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) Only bids responsive to the entire scope of work will be considered and, to be sucFHVVIXO ELGGHUV PXVW EH SUHTXDOLÀHG E\ 7XUQHU &HUWLÀHG M/WBE and Small Business &)5 SDUW FRPSDQLHV DUH HQFRXUDJHG WR VXEPLW In order to receive the bid packages, potential bidders must submit a complete 6XEFRQWUDFWRU 9HQGRU 3UHTXDOLÀFDWLRQ 6WDWHPHQW 3ULRU SUHTXDOLÀFDWLRQ VXEPLVVLRQV that remain current will be considered as previously submitted or may be updated DW WKLV WLPH $OO ELGGHUV PXVW SUHTXDOLI\ E\ WKH ELG GHDGOLQH October 12, 2021 and VXEPLVVLRQ RI D SUHTXDOLÀFDWLRQ VWDWHPHQW QRW ODWHU WKDQ October 8, 2021 is strongly HQFRXUDJHG $OO ELGGHUV PXVW KDYH DQ DFFHSWDEOH (05 DQG ZLOO EH VXEMHFW WR JRYHUQPHQW UHJXODWLRQV VXFK DV &)5 DQG )HGHUDO ([HFXWLYH 2UGHU 6XFFHVVIXO ELGGHUV ZLOO EH UHTXLUHG WR XVH /&3 7UDFNHU FRPSOLDQFH YHULÀFDWLRQ VRIWZDUH 1RWH WKDW ZKLOH WKLV LV D 1HZ <RUN &LW\ SUHYDLOLQJ ZDJH SURMHFW XQLRQ DIÀOLDWLRQ LV QRW required for BP#62A. To obtain further information about contracting opportunities and/or the SUHTXDOLÀFDWLRQ SDFNDJH DQG ELG VROLFLWDWLRQ SDFNDJH V SOHDVH FRQWDFW 0DWW +DLQHV PKDLQHV#WFFR FRP RU 7KH GDWH IRU WKH YLUWXDO SXEOLF RSHQLQJ DW WKH 7XUQHU &RQVWUXFWLRQ &RPSDQ\ RIÀFH ORFDWHG DW +XGVRQ 6WUHHW 1HZ <RUN 1HZ <RUN LV October 28th, 2021 at 1:30 pm. Link: 3OHDVH MRLQ P\ PHHWLQJ IURP \RXU FRPSXWHU WDEOHW RU VPDUWSKRQH KWWSV JOREDO JRWRPHHWLQJ FRP MRLQ

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a license number 1338845 for a restaurant wine license has been applied for by Solnushka Inc. d/b/a Cassava House to sell wine, beer and cider at retail in a restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 2270 First Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10035 for on premises consumption.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a license number 1337933 for an on premises license has been applied for by Thai Tompkins Inc. d/b/a Hub Thai to sell liquor, wine, beer and cider at retail in a restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 50 Avenue A New York, N.Y. 10009 for on premises consumption.

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES Notice of Qualification of Mami Pi, LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/09/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/03/21. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Steve Bills, 16633 Ventura Blvd., Ste. 815, Encino, CA 91436. Address to be maintained in DE: 1013 Centre Rd., Ste. 403S, Wilmington, DE 19805. Arts of Org. filed with the Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities. Notice of Qualification of Brilliant Earth, LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/14/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/29/12. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 26 O’Farrell St, 10th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94108. Address to be maintained in DE: 3500 S DuPont Hwy., Dover, DE 19901. Arts of Org. filed with the Secy. of State, 401 Federal St #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities. Notice of Qualification of CityRock Venture Partners II, L.P. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/04/21. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/16/21. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES Notice of Formation of DEAD OUTLAW, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/30/21. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: c/o Significant Others Inc., 118 W. 22nd St., 7th Fl., NY, NY 10011. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of CPG ERIE MANAGER LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/01/21. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 419 Park Ave. S., Ste. 401, NY, NY 10016. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: Real estate investment. Notice of Formation of Limited Liability Company (LLC). NAME: ROOXY LLC - Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 08/23/2021. Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: The LLC, 98 E BROADWAY STE 309, NEW YORK NY 10002. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Qualification of SCALE 959 STERLING LENDER LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/09/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/08/21. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o National Registered Agents, Inc., 28 Liberty St., NY, NY 10005, also the registered agent upon whom process may be served. Address to be maintained in DE: c/o National Registered Agents, Inc., 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Arts of Org. filed with the DE Secy. of State, Division of Corporations, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. Ste. 4 Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of 50TH & 5TH LIC JV LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/27/21. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 11 Park Pl., Ste. 1705, NY, NY 10007. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of 130 7TH AVE HOLDING LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/15/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/15/17. Princ. office of LLC: 152 W. 57th St., 60th Fl., NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Qualification of STORMFIELD CAPITAL FUNDING I, LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/08/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Connecticut (CT) on 06/01/15. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 200 Pequot Ave., Southport, CT 06890, also the address to be maintained in CT. Arts of Org. filed with the Secy. of State, 165 Capitol Ave., Ste. 1000, Hartford, CT 06106. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of FRANK ROMOFF PARTNERS LLCArts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/02/21. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 77 Charlton St., Ste. 10E, NY, NY 10014. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Lawrence Spielman, SKP, LLP, 1675 Broadway, 20th Fl., NY, NY 10019. Purpose: Investment rental property.

Notice of Qualification of ASTER AND HONEY, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/24/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/23/21. Princ. office of LLC: 300 E. 56th St., Apt. 28C, NY, NY 10022. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

AR INNOVATIONS INTL. LLC. App. for Auth. filed with the SSNY on 09/ 03/21. Originally filed with Secreatary of State of Delaware on 11/16/2017. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 245 East 63rd Street, Suite 319, New York, NY 10065. Purpose: Any lawful purpose. NOTICE OF FORMATION OF A1traininggroup LLC. Art. of Org. filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/08/2021. Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to the LLC at 485 first ave apt 3B, New York, New York 10016. Purpose: any lawful act or activity. Notice of Formation of SIZZLES & BERNS, LLC. Arts of Org. filed with Sec’y of State of NY (SSNY) on 8/9/21. Office Loc: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 471 Central Park West, 5D. New York, NY 10025. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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FROM PAGE 3

and hosts to feel comfortable, said Lee Schrager, creator of the festival. Covid-sniffing dogs also have screened fans at a Black Keys concert in Oxford, Miss. Miami International Airport is a month into a screening program for its employees, and schools in California and Georgia have announced their own trials. So far Bark seems to be the first company in the city to request that the university’s canine companions help get office life back to normal. While employment among the city’s office workers is down just 5.9% since the pandemic began, attendance at the city’s offices is still less than a third of what it was in early 2020. This has caused vacancies to rise while rents and the market value of the city’s office stock have dropped dramatically, according to a recent report by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

A safety measure Bark has kept its six-floor office building on Canal Street in Chinatown even though many of its employees are still working remotely. Adoptions of puppies boomed across the country during the pandemic, helping boost sales of the firm’s subscription dog boxes, dog food and dog toothbrushes. Employment grew to 715. But despite being vaccinated,

plenty of employees remain worried about the transmission of the virus in group settings. “Though I feel comfortable myself, with my son, it’s a different scenario,” said Stacie Grissom, Bark’s director of content and communication, who arranged for the dogs’ visit. Grissom contacted the program director in Florida. For three days last week, two trained beagles and the in-training puppy waited in the lobby to meet arriving office workers. If the pilot is successful, Grissom said, the company will bring the dogs back for special events rather than as daily bouncers. In the past, the company opened up its office to the public for meet-ups such as Yappy Hours and Valentine’s Day parties attended by dozens of French bulldogs, she said. “We’re not comfortable doing those until there is a larger safety measure in place,” Grissom said. Such events were instrumental for creating community internally and building the brand externally, she said. Dogs are good for vetting crowds because they work fast—much more quickly than even a rapid test, Furton said. “With a dog, it’s literally instantaneous,” he said. “They sniff and then they sit immediately.” At Bark, any worker identified as potentially infected will be sent home, Grissom said, and could then take a more traditional test to con-

BEAGLES CHECK Bark’s workers for Covid-19 at the company.

BUCK ENNIS

PUPPIES

firm a dog’s finding. Neither Furton nor Bark would share how much the Bark pilot or other engagements cost, because the program is still being tested and contracts vary widely. Florida International University recently helped the avocado industry by teaching dogs to sniff out laurel wilt, a threat to avocado trees. Once dogs are trained in identifying one scent, teaching them to identify the coronavirus takes just a few weeks. The four dogs in the original Covid-19 study achieved above 96% accuracy, which surprised Furton. The university’s role now is to certify dogs once they have completed training; just a handful have the stamp of approval so far. Its contract

department helps connect end users such as Bark to one of the vendors who have the certified dogs; there are three of these so far, all in Florida, including BioScent, which deployed Noel, Buddy and Solo.

Satisfied clients Early clients are satisfied, Furton said. At Miami’s airport, one employee was accurately sniffed out, said Greg Chin, its communications director. Positive cases are sent home with pay. Furton said the dogs help to ensure that employees don’t skip out on testing out of fear of taking too much time off. Covid-sniffing dogs can’t solve every coronavirus-related problem, in part because they need to oper-

Commercial Real Estate’s Post-Covid Outlook

ate at a central location, unlike a university, where students and staff cross paths in many spaces. Screening tourists at airports is also tricky; positive cases could result in canceled plans and divided groups. The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment about whether it is considering having either its current canines or newly certified dogs sniff for Covid-19. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey did not have an answer to the question. In addition to calming the fears of some employees, Bark is simply trying to entice work-from-home staff back to their desks with a more clued-in perk than free lunch. The same goes for the rest of the city, wrote DiNapoli, which should do its best to “help workers feel comfortable in returning to the Central Business District” by making sure streets are safe, public spaces feel alive again and commuting is relatively seamless. Otherwise, there could be continued fallout for the city’s tax revenue and overall economic outlook, he said. At Bark, part of the comfort and fun of being in the office comes from employees being able to bring in their own pets too. “We have closer relationships at Bark because of our dogs,” Grissom explained. “I’m on the content team; I don’t usually talk to the finance team. But because I know Kevin’s dog, Greta, we now have a relationship.” ■

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SMALL- BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

MN ARCHITECTS’ Harper, Garnett and Sriratana are redesigning Del Posto for its reopening.

FOCAL POINTS FOUNDED 2015

Building on the city’s diverse perspectives

FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES 18 PARTNERS Jonathan Garnett, Steven Harper, Preeti Sriratana

Architecture firm MN wins clients by translating an inclusive mission into unique spaces BY CARA EISENPRESS

t Saga, a two-month-old restaurant on the 63rd floor of a Financial District tower, the obvious design move was to orient the dining room toward the expansive view. But as the architects from MN, a growing downtown firm that designed the project, listened to the chef and the building’s investor, they got a different impression. “It was about making a residential space in the sky,” said architect Jonathan Garnett, one of MN’s partners and its creative director. From there came a challenge: how to make a restaurant 1,000 feet in the air feel homey. “All of a sudden,” Garnett said, “we were using carpeting—pink carpeting, which is out of style. There were curtains and a green velvet sofa.” The design helped Saga immediately land on various lists of hot new restaurants, with one reviewer describing a visit as “a dinner party you want to attend.” The plaudits are welcome at MN, whose founding mission is to welcome and celebrate New York City’s diversity, both in terms of ethnicity and vision, and prioritize inclusion among its staff when it comes to race, gender, background and experience. “I’m always excited that you see people clamor to get into the restaurants,” said MN

partner Preeti Sriratana. “But people don’t realize that these spaces were designed by this team, that they are projects by a Black creative director.” Garnett is from Oakland, Calif. Sriratana, who oversees client relations, is a child of Thai immigrants who grew up in rural Illinois. Together with operating director Steven Harper, who is white and originally from North Carolina, they run one of the few award-winning American architecture firms co-led by people of color in an industry where just 2% of U.S. architects are Black, according to the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. The three partners started the firm after connecting over their shared love of the city for its ability to make all kinds of people feel welcome. At MN, of the 18 full-time employees, across levels of seniority, half are people of color, and separately half are women. Company policy emphasizes kindness. Late nights are rare, and despite the contingencies and emergencies innate to construction projects, the average workweek is between 40 and 45 hours. The partners did not make layoffs during the pandemic. MN was founded in 2015, and it already has a list of well-regarded restaurants in its portfolio. In addition to Saga, there is Crown Shy, Cote and its bar Undercote, and Nami Nori. MN built Crye Precision’s space at the Brook-

lyn Navy Yard and will do the revamp of an iconic venue it cannot disclose yet. When Del Posto, a former Mario Batali restaurant, opens under new leadership, its design also will be by MN. The firm’s hospitality practice began in 2014, just before its official launch, when art dealer Larry Gagosian and famous sushi chef Masa Takayama opened restaurant Kappo Masa. Since then clients say that the firm’s designs have actual business results. At Shuko, a Japanese restaurant near Union Square, the private dining room was not usually booked. After MN’s renovation, groups began reserving it twice a night, it says.

Eyes on growth For its clients, MN plays the role of translator. Businesses explain their aspirations, and the architects make the thousands of design decisions that can deliver that vision. To keep getting work with clients at the top of their fields, however, MN has to prioritize budget and operations so projects come in on time and in line with expected expenses. The firm said it has worked at a range of price points and can deliver a luxury experience even for a more modest project. “Sometimes you have to be excited about drywall and paint,” said Harper, referring to less-pricey finishes. The firm has set its sights on growth. After

NUMBER OF CURRENT PROJECTS 18 PROJECTED GROWTH The company says it is on track to break $10 million in revenue in the next several quarters. INSPIRATION A photograph of the Rock Steady Break Dance Crew performing at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center “represents what we love about New York City,” Sriratana said, “how people from different backgrounds gather in public spaces.” RESIDENTIAL REQS Sriratana said the firm occasionally will say yes to a residential project. But even more than with commercial buildings, the fit has to be right. “It’s so personal and requires a lot of hand-holding.”

adding a new hire around once a quarter since launching, it has accelerated the pace, bringing on five new full-time employees in the past quarter alone. Its space in the Woolworth Building can fit 50 workers; it hopes eventually to have more than 100, who will design locations that meet the company’s values and keep in mind one straightforward truth about hospitality design work: “It [should be] just a pleasure to simply have a drink,” Sriratana said. ■

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