Crain's New York Business

ASKED & ANSWERED Suozzi explains why he’s seeking to unseat Hochul PAGE 6

BEARING FRUIT Brooklyn kombucha maker looks to expand PAGE 3

CRAINSNEWYORK.COM

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JANUARY 31, 2022

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

NOT OUT OF REACH

DAVID JUNKIN

The city needs a lot more affordable housing.

A comprehensive plan could help. PAGE 15

SMALL BUSINESS

The mayor vowed to cut red tape. Here’s where he can start

Street closures, noncritical violations and inspections from multiple agencies are among businesses’ list of gripes

BY CARA EISENPRESS

D

uring Mayor Eric Adams’ first week in office, he announced that he would immediately start making it easier for companies to do business in the city.

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His proclamation came with an executive order giving city agencies three months to identify the 25 violations that result in the greatest number of summonses and fines for businesses.

“We have used our agencies to turn the

© 2022 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC.

American dream into a nightmare,” Adams said. “We’re not going to use this system to fine you to put money in our coffers. We have so many violations on the books that are no longer necessary.”

According to the city’s January 2021 finan-

INSTANT EXPERT

HOW ADAMS CAN MAKE GOOD ON CLIMATE GOALS PAGE 10

cial plan, it projected about $1.1 billion annually in fines and forfeitures during the next five years.

Adams’ examples at the announcement See RED TAPE on page 23

Williamsburg condo a culmination of the area’s luxury vision PAGE 4

1/28/22 5:21 PM

TECHNOLOGY

BUCK ENNIS

State’s online sports-betting surge starts turning heads on Wall Street

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

FRED P. GABRIEL | PUBLISHER

Introducing our new series: Crain’s Forum WE’RE DELIGHTED this week to debut a new monthly series called Crain’s Forum.

This week’s edition, a deep dive into the roots and possible solutions to our city’s affordable housing crisis, starts on page 15.

We’ll do this 11 more times this year, tackling issues ranging from health care to real estate to climate change.

Our goal is to deliver in-depth, data-driven reporting and thought leadership around big economic and public-policy issues that will determine the future of New York. We’re invested, as you are, in fostering a thriving, safe and inclusive community.

In that vein, we invite you to join the conversation on each of our Crain’s Forum topics at CrainsNewYork.com/Forum.

If you’re interested in helping to underwrite this important journalism project, drop me a note at fred.gabriel@ CrainsNewYork.com. ■

N

ew York proved it has strong odds to become an online sports-betting hot spot after punters wagered $603 million in the first eight days of action—numbers that turned some heads among Wall Street analysts.

The share price for DraftKings, one of the four sportsbooks to launch in New York Jan. 8, jumped nearly 17% in morning trading last Wednesday, in response to a positive report from Morgan Stanley. The investment firm raised its guidance for the Boston company, citing the strong early results for betting overall in the Empire State. Morgan Stanley’s report said the early numbers indicate New York could reach a $2 billion revenue online sports gambling market, “well above our prior $600 million 2022 forecast and $1 billion 2025 forecast.”

The betting data, released Jan. 21 by the state Gaming Commission, found that the active sportsbooks collected gaming revenues from those bets of a little less than $50 million—which New York taxes at 51%.

The state’s market opened to four operators this month: BetRivers, Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings and FanDuel. BetMGM and PointsBet have since joined their ranks, and three other books are awaiting approval.

Within its first weekend, New York became the largest online sports gambling market in the country.

Morgan Stanley had projected that New York sportsbooks would collect $300 million in bets during the first full month of online wagering.

The surge of bets and advertising is evi-

dence firms are willing IN SPORTS GAMBLING’S FIRST EIGHT DAYS, NEW YORKERS PLACED to shrug off New York’s MORE THAN $600 MILLION WORTH OF BETS high tax rate for a crack at the most populous Amount of mobile sports wagers handled through Jan. 16, 2022 legal state market. New $257.65M York’s tax rate is more than three times the $200.35M 14.5% levied in New Jersey. $134.42M What helps firms such as DraftKings, the report said, are the $10.63M high promotional costs required to win cusCaesars FanDuel DraftKings Rush Street tomers, making sports Sportsbook Interactive gambling a “concenSOURCE: New York state Gaming Commission trated market that only players of scale can really compete in.”

The New York market launched during Still, DraftKings’ stock has fallen from what is typically the most active sports betnearly $70 per share at its March 2021 peak to ting season. The NFL playoffs are in full $19 as of last Wednesday morning, amid con- swing, and college basketball’s March Madcerns about slipping market share. The firm ness is not far off. The early results also reflect last year proposed and then abandoned generous promotions from the companies to plans to acquire U.K. competitor Entain. establish market share. In a separate report on New York’s gambling market published A huge market Jan. 21, Morgan Stanley noted Caesars That’s partly the reason for Morgan Stan- opened by offering a $3,000 first-time deposit ley’s optimism. The New York results are a match and a $300 free bet.

“Given the high 51% tax rate burden, we reminder that sports betting is likely to be a huge market, the report said, and “with senti- would expect the promotional spending enment at an all-time low on near-term loss vironment to decelerate faster than [in] most concerns, we see now as a good time to invest states, as operators look to avoid continued substantial losses,” the investment bank’s refor the long term.”

Caesars Entertainment, which collected port said.

BetMGM joined the state’s market Jan. 14, the largest share of online bets among New York operators, was up about 3% in Wednes- and PointsBet joined last Tuesday. Wynn Inday morning trading, compared with a de- teractive, Resorts World and BallyBet are waiting for a green light to launch. ■ cline in its share price of 17% year to date.

ECONOMY

City ranks low on employment recovery AREAS DEPENDENT ON TOURISM AND MEETINGS ARE NEAR THE BOTTOM

BY CARA EISENPRESS

N MARCH 3 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN IN NEW YORK LUNCHEON Join Crain’s for an in-person lunch to celebrate the 2021 Most Powerful Women honorees.

Katherine Farley of Lincoln Center, restaurateur Melba Wilson of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, Nancy Hagans of the New York State Nurses Association, Kimberly Godwin of ABC News and MaryAnne Gilmartin of MAG Partners will all take part in discussions during the event.

MANHATTAN MANOR 201 W. 52nd St. Time: Noon to 2:30 p.m.

CrainsNewYork.com/ MPW2022

demic closures.

New York appeared to be picking up the pace of its recovery during the second half of last year. The city’s rate of total payroll job growth was almost double that of the nation’s during the fourth quarter of 2021, with jobs here growing 1.3% compared with 0.7% nationwide, according to an analysis by economist James Parrott.

ISTOCK

CONFERENCE CALLOUT

ew York’s jobs recovery puts the city second from the bottom in a ranking of 75 metropolitan areas and how they have recovered from the Covid-19 economic hit.

Only New Orleans has more ground to cover than the Big Apple, according to an analysis of the latest Current Employer Statistics survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figures are through the end of last year.

The city’s initial pandemic job losses were substantial: While the country’s employment level decreased by 15%, New York’s dropped by 20%.

As of the end of December, the city was still missing 8.8% of its jobs.

Nearby regions were similarly slow to come back, including Long Island, Westchester County, Fairfield County in Connecticut and northern New Jersey—all in the bottom 11.

Sectors slow to recover Several sectors that fueled the city’s prepandemic boom have been especially slow to return: business conventions, the of-

Signs the city will catch up fice sector, leisure tourism and the performing arts.

Some metro areas similarly dependent on tourism, hospitality and meetings also landed near the bottom of the list. Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orlando, Chicago, Boston and Washington were in the bottom third. The total number of jobs in Boston, the most-recovered of that list, is still 4.5% lower than the period preceding March 2020 pan-

There are further signs that the local pace of recovery can help the city catch up. Last month New York was one of only 17 states to have a gain in payroll employment, according to Bruce Bergman, regional economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the New York–New Jersey area.

And in November, New York was one of three states to have an increase in its jobs opening rate, meaning employers were gearing up to hire. ■

Vol. 38, No. 4, January 31, 2022—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for no issue on 1/3/22, 7/4/22, 7/18/22, 8/1/22, 8/15/22, 8/29/22, 11/28/22 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.

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2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | JANUARY 31, 2022

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SMALL- BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

HILL AND DRISOLL’S brand generates 4,000 gallons of kombucha per month.

BUCK ENNIS

FOCAL POINTS

A tasty idea bears fruit Brooklyn-based purveyors of fermented beverage kombucha grab investor and largeretail attention after an initial rollout in yoga and barre studios

BY DIANE HESS

W

hen Amy Driscoll and Chris Hill first met at a party in Williamsburg in July 2016, Driscoll was head of brand engagement at Zico Coconut Water, a division of Coca-Cola. Hill was working at a digital animation studio and making kombucha, a carbonated, fermented tea drink that is popular with health-conscious consumers, in his spare time. He was on the seventh version of a recipe for his brew, which he sold at Little Choc Apothecary, a café in Williamsburg. Believing it had broader commercial viability, he wanted Driscoll, an industry veteran, to try it.

“I expected to hate it,” said Driscoll, who says she had previously been repulsed by kombucha. “But I was blown away.”

A year later Driscoll and Hill launched Bear’s Fruit in the back room of One Girl

Cookies, a bakery in Cobble Hill. Soon after demand for the kombucha was as fizzy as the probiotic drink itself.

Today the business is bursting at the seams of its 2,000-square-foot facility in Industry City, which ships to seven distributors and 31 states. Bear’s Fruit generates 4,000 gallons of kombucha per month, its current capacity limit. A recent $450,000 investment, from Simple Food Ventures and two angel investors, will help expand production.

Wellness focus In the early days Bear’s Fruit implemented a niche marketing strategy. As a small operation in a $1 billion sales category, Driscoll knew it would be difficult to target mainstream distributors or large retailers. Instead, she placed the kombucha in local wellness outlets—yoga, Pilates, barre and meditation studios. The atypical approach was immediately effective.

“It got us attention from investors and our largest customer, Whole Foods, where Bear’s Fruit is the top-selling emerging brand in the Northeast region,” said Driscoll.

To craft the concoctions, Hill oversees a monthlong process of fermenting yeast with tea in 1,000-gallon tanks and then mixing it with real fruit and herbs. The premium label pairs blueberry and lavender, for example.

The company says it is the only brand to use whole, organic, fair-trade ingredients, a labor-intensive effort that is true to its slogan, “hard work bears fruit.”

Although the kombucha market’s sales growth has cooled in the past few years, emerging brands, including Bear’s Fruit, are expected to deliver 40% of the category’s growth near term, said Dan Isleib, managing partner of Apogee Consulting Group.

Looking ahead, Bear’s Fruit this year expects to unveil a second product line—a non-kombucha gut-health beverage. Whole

COMPANY NAME Bear’s Fruit FOUNDED 2017 CO-FOUNDERS Amy Driscoll and Chris Hill EMPLOYEES Four full-time; six part-time 2021 REVENUE “Near seven figures,” Driscoll said PRODUCT MIX Bear’s Fruit currently sells four varieties of kombucha, with plans to roll out additional gut-health food and beverage products this year.

GROWING BUSINESS Bear’s Fruit is in 700 stores. In total, the kombucha maker has raised $1 million from TQ Ventures, Simple Food Ventures, Resolute Venture Partners as well as angel investors.

WEBSITE bearsfruit.com Foods already has committed to sell the forthcoming drink. The company is also planning to do a Series A fundraising round.

Matthew Daly, direct store distribution manager for Harney & Sons, recently placed Bear’s Fruit kombucha in Murray’s Bagels and Hamptons Food Market, among other local stores.

“For Bear’s Fruit to be able to put new products in the refrigerator during the cooler winter months is a fantastic representation of how it’s going to do over time,” Daly said. ■ JANUARY 31, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 3

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WHO OWNS THE BLOCK

215 N. 10TH ST.

Williamsburg condo is a capstone of sorts for an area once flush with development parcels The 31-unit NX features office, retail and condos starting at $930K

BY C. J. HUGHES

A

lmost two decades after New 215 N. 10TH ST. York rezoned hundreds of This gray-toned, 6-story development, NX, has 31 acres in Williamsburg and condos, as well as 45,000 square feet of office space Greenpoint, giving new life across its second and third floors and stores around its to dying industrial areas but also providing rocket fuel for gentrification, base. The developer is Largo, a longtime Williamsburg the ambition of that mid-2000s vision player that also has been involved with marquee Mancan seem crystal-clear. hattan projects including the American Copper luxuIndeed, as luxury apartment buildry residential towers in Murray Hill. At NX, one-bedings have steadily taken over old factorooms—the bulk of the units—start around $930,000; ries and warehouses across the north Compass is handling sales. Largo paid $25 million for side of Williamsburg, it can seem as the corner site in 2018, buying it from Northstar Equithough there are almost no major deties, a firm helmed by investor Abraham Weiss. Condo velopment parcels left. buyers are expected to move in during the spring.

One of the last projects to avail itself of a large lot, then, might be NX, a new 31-unit condominium at 215 N. 10th St. from Largo Investments.

169 N. 10TH ST. NX is a capstone of sorts for Largo, which has ridden the This 7-story, 20-unit rental building was develwave of Williamsburg developoped by a partnership that included Largo and ment since the firm’s founding Great Point Properties, a firm founded in 2011 by in 2009. NX is Largo’s ninth hedge fund executive Darren Anikstein. They paid project in the neighborhood, $3.4 million in 2012, according to public records, and it has sold about half its though Largo exited the partnership after conapartments in two months. struction was complete, Largo co-founder Nicho“We realized very early on las Werner said. Great Point, meanwhile, sold the that this was an incredible midblock, redbrick development in the spring of neighborhood,” said Nicholas 2020, as the pandemic was raging, for nearly $16 Werner, one of the company’s million, records show. In November a one-bedroom co-founders. “We liked its there rented for about $4,600 per month. transportation infrastructure

Packing in a swimming pool, a track and bocce courts at the Greenpoint-Williamsburg border, this park, created in 1906, had become seedy and dangerous by the 1980s, before artists and then real estate speculators began arriving en masse. The 36-acre green space also became a lodestar for development after the 2005 rezoning. Lining Bayard Street on the park’s southern border are several high-rise examples, such as Nos. 20, 30 and 50—glassy condominiums designed by architect Karl Fischer, whose distinctive mash-up style graces other apartment buildings in the neighborhood.

211 N. 11TH ST. This 2-story, yellow-brick commercial structure, which appears to have been home to a textile company, has for the past several years been leased by the Natural Wine Co. An adjacent 5,000-square-foot berth that once held yoga classes—now empty—recently was marketed for $16,000 per month. The building, which was built in 1920, traded in 2008 for $2.6 million.

The buyer was a limited liability company based in Carroll Gardens, records show.

510 DRIGGS AVE. Although Williamsburg’s north side is chockablock with rental projects, developers have added a handful of midsize condominiums as well. This 6-story, 44-unit offering from Northlink Capital is now in sales mode. According to StreetEasy, prices range from $750,000 for a studio, or $1,600 per square foot, to about $4 million for a four-bedroom unit, or $2,100 per square foot. Northlink, which has completed a handful of projects in the city, bought the site for $27.8 million in 2017 from Alliance Private Capital. In 2014 Alliance, which is headed by Mike Kohn, paid $25 million for the property, then a parking lot.

600 UNION AVE. Modestly sized infill buildings were the north side’s bread and butter before the area was rezoned for large apartment complexes. This 4-story, 14-unit, balcony-lined apartment building, known as Union Plaza, opened in 1992.

Contractor Frank Mancini bought the site for $50,000 in 1984, when the parcel was so industrial, it didn’t even have sidewalks, according to public records. Mancini kept a couple of curb cuts, so some tenants can park in front of the building today.

229 N. 10TH ST. The Rappaport Sons Bottle Co.—where brewers can pick up glass growlers—has owned this commercial building for decades. Low-slung, industrial and graffiti-tagged, the building is in many ways a window into Williamsburg’s past. The graffiti, which includes a large white bird, is by Icy and Sot, Brooklyn-based brothers who are no strangers to real estate marketing. In 2015, in Manhattan’s East Village, they were part of a group of artists who painted the walls of a row house-turned-condominium, Altes House. Altes’ developer scoured the place before residents moved in but offered photos of the art to buyers as gifts.

250 N. 10TH ST. What a difference a few years can make! This curvywalled, 234-unit rental building, which LCOR developed in 2014, traded the next year for $169 million.

The buyer was Nuveen Real Estate, a subsidiary of TIAA, the financial services giant formed to invest teachers’ pensions. Nuveen turned around and sold the building to TF Cornerstone and others for $138 million, an 18% loss. In a bid to harness the area’s artistic legacy for marketing muscle, LCOR decorated a facade on Roebling Street with a massive mural that resembles graffiti. The sponsored mural—a tribute to the Brooklyn Bridge’s designers—is by Thierry Guetta, who goes by the name Mr. Brainwash.

BINYAN STUDIOS, GOOGLE MAPS

and proximity to Manhattan.”

But the wave has ebbed and flowed. After gleaming residential towers went up along the East River in the wake of the area’s 2005 rezoning, which spanned nearly 200 blocks, the Great Recession interrupted the growth. Developers abandoned condominium projects left and right.

Largo was able to acquire some of those shells. It reworked 349 Metropolitan Ave., a failed condominium, as a 40-unit rental building. Similar reinventions include 50 N. First St. and 111 Kent Ave. “There were a lot of upside-down projects,” Werner said, adding that many enjoyed longterm tax abatements.

At NX, which occupies the site of a longtime motorcycle garage, the average price of the condos— studios to three-bedrooms—is $1.8 million, based on the offering plan. In comparison, the average condo price in the area was almost $1.6 million in the fourth quarter of last year, according to a Serhant report.

Like many buildings on Williamsburg’s north side, which has added apartments at a faster clip than the south side, NX has plenty of amenities including a gym, a shuffleboard court and a landscaped roof deck.

In a rare move, it also has two floors of office space, which might have seemed like a better idea before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Werner seems undeterred, though.

“We like that we are going to hang on to part of this building,” he said, adding, “I’m also not one to regret.”■

MCCARREN PARK

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POLITICS

Manhattan DA apologizes for ‘confusing’ memo suggesting leniency for non-felony crimes

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anhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg walked back his controversial Jan. 3 sentencing memo Monday and said New Yorkers were “understandably” left with the wrong impression that his office would not enforce the city’s laws against certain violent crimes.

Bragg’s mea culpa came during an interview Monday with the Citizens Crime Commission, a nonprofit research group specializing in criminal justice and public safety. Bragg, a former federal prosecutor, made history in November when he was elected as the first Black American to serve as Manhattan district attorney. He also made headlines shortly after taking office on Jan. 1.

In a memo to staff titled “Achiev-

in which a deadly weapon causes serious physical injury, domestic violence felonies, sex offenses … public corruption, rackets or major economic crimes,” the memo stated.

Bragg initially defended his approach, which he said was grounded in his personal experiences.

Police, employers worried The rebukes followed quickly.

The city’s police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, said his policies could put officers’ safety at risk.

During a virtual meeting last week, a group of 75 business leaders—including Deloitte USA CEO Joseph Ucuzogly and Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman—expressed concern that the policies could erode public safety. The meeting was organized by the Partnership for New York City.

Then on Jan. 20, Bragg told a panel at New York University Law School that the policies in his memo merely offered guidelines.

At the same time, a series of violent crimes served to intensify the backlash to Bragg’s sentencing goals.

Two city police officers were fatally shot on Jan. 21.

On Monday, Jan. 24, Bragg went further and and apologized during an interview with the Citizens Crime Commission. He called his memo “unclear” and “legalistic” and said it left many New Yorkers “justifiably concerned” with how

HE INITIALLY DEFENDED HIS APPROACH AS GROUNDED IN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ing Fairness and Safety,” Bragg stated his intention to reduce both incarcerations and pretrial detentions, adding that certain robberies, assaults and weapons-possession cases would not be prosecuted as felonies.

“The office will not seek a carceral sentence other than for homicide or other cases involving the death of a victim, a Class B violent felony

BRAGG

AP PHOTO

BY BRIAN PASCUS

his office will provide public safety.

“The way it was done caused confusion,” he said. “It understandably left the wrong impression of how I will enforce New York’s law.

“I take full responsibility for that confusion caused by the memo.”

Bragg also stated that he was elected to reduce racial disparities in New York City’s criminal justice system, and he repeated his mantra that “safety and fairness are inextricably linked.”

Critics have pounced on Bragg’s desire to achieve lowered incarceration rates at a time when New York City is experiencing a rise in violent crime. The city’s 485 murders last year were the highest total in 10 years, and the number of citywide shooting victims rose in the past

year after increasing by 97% between 2019 and 2020, according to NYPD data.

Horrific attacks—against a commuter at subway station, a teenage employee at an East Harlem Burger King and a baby shot by a stray bullet—have underscored the threat of violent crime to many New Yorkers.

What’s next for crimefighters Nicole Gelinas, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, recently called Bragg “an impediment” to Mayor Eric Adams’ tough-on-crime approach.

Paul DiGiacomo, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, described Bragg’s policies as “reckless and dangerous” in a letter

to Gov. Kathy Hochul.

“I don’t know what his intentions are now,” DiGiacomo said. “The memo is absolutely ineffective to the safety of the public and ineffective to the safety of our members, our detectives and police officers who are on the street every day.”

Bragg’s memo stated, “The office will not prosecute the following charges, unless as part of an accusatory instrument containing at least one felony count” and listed “resisting arrest” and “obstructing governmental administration in the second degree.”

He has acknowledged that his memo produced confusion concerning how he intended to handle armed robberies and violence against police officers. In his remarks, he called both matters serious and said they will be prosecuted as felonies.

Other matters, such as subway fare evasion, will continue to be civil summons issued by the police, he said.

Bragg said he has spoken with leaders from business-improvement districts in Manhattan, who raised concerns about violence at commuter hubs—specifically Grand Central, Penn Station and the 125th Street Metro North stop.

“We’re certainly hearing about a need to focus resources on business, where people are going to be returning and feel safe and where we have lots of people congregating,” he said. “Our part of that, at the DA’s office, is to free up resources.” ■

POLITICS

‘No time to wait’: Adams lays out gun-violence agenda and calls on governor, Legislature to revise bail law

M

ayor Eric Adams last week outlined a comprehensive public safety plan for New York, and he called on Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democrats in Albany to pass legislation to revise the state’s controversial bail reform law of 2019.

trafficking, and a new summer jobs program for youths.

Adams, a former police captain who has been mayor since Jan. 1, released a 15-page report, “The Blueprint to End Gun Violence.” In part, it calls on the state to change detention laws and sentencing guidelines that were altered in the 2019 bail-reform law passed

by Democrats in Albany.

“There is no time to wait. We must act,” Adams said.

“New Yorkers feel as if a sea of violence is engulfing our city. The sea of violence comes from many rivers. We must dam every river that feeds this greater crisis.”

Standing before a row of American flags at City Hall, Adams called gun violence “a public health crisis” and announced his intention to enlist every city agency to promote public safety, including naming an anti-violence coordinator at each

“WE WILL USE EVERY AVAILABLE METHOD TO KEEP OUR PEOPLE SAFE” Following a string of fatal shootings of police officers and residents in different parts of the city, Adams laid out a multiprong approach to combating gun violence: an increased police presence in certain neighborhoods, the return of previously disbanded plainclothes anti-crime units, heightened coordination with state and federal officials to target interstate gun

administrative division. He laid out the rise in gun violence in stark terms, describing some recent shootings in detail, and noted that more than 350 illegal guns have been confiscated already this month, following 6,000 last year.

“We need help,” Adams said.

“We need resources, and we need backup.”

The Iron Pipeline Gun incidents have increased by nearly 24% to 73 this year, compared with the same period last year, according to data from the New York Police Department. Subway assaults and murders are at their highest levels since 1997, NYPD data show.

Much like Hochul, who Sunday announced an interstate task force on illegal guns, Adams blamed the flow of illegal guns into New York City on the so-called Iron Pipeline, the network in Eastern states along the I-95 corridor that fuels gun trafficking.

Adams said the NYPD will work

NYCMAYORSOFFICE/FLICKR

BY BRIAN PASCUS

with state law enforcement to implement spot checks at every entry point into the city, including the Port Authority bus terminal in Midtown, to stop people carrying weapons across state lines from entering the city. He also said his administration will increase information sharing with federal authorities at the Bureau of Alcohol,

Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI. “We know that new guns are arriving by car, by bus and by train every day,” the mayor said. “We will use every available method to keep our people safe.” ■ The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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ASKED & ANSWERED WHO HE IS U.S. representative for New York’s 3rd district

INTERVIEW BY BRIAN PASCUS

L

AGE 59

ong Island Congressman Tom Suozzi has made a name for himself during his five years in Washington, D.C. He is considered by some to be the foremost proponent for removing the cap on state and local tax deductions imposed by former President Donald Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Known on Capitol Hill as “Mr. SALT,” Suozzi is now seeking a new title: governor of New York. Even though they share a political party, the former Nassau County executive and mayor of Glen Cove details why he thinks he is a better choice than the sitting governor.

Why are you running against Gov. Kathy Hochul?

I’m running because I think the state is in a lot of trouble, I think the country is in a lot of trouble, and I think my party is in a lot of trouble. I’m a common-sense Democrat willing to stand up to the far left and willing to fight against the far right to get things done on behalf of the people I serve. You don’t hear Democrats talking about crime and taxes too much, but those are the biggest existential problems we’re facing in the state of New York.

BIRTHPLACE Glen Cove, Long Island RESIDES Glen Cove, Long Island EDUCATION Bachelor’s in accounting, Boston College; J.D., Fordham Law School FAMILY MATTERS Suozzi and his wife, Helene, have three children: Caroline, 26; Joe, 23; and Michael, 18.

PAST LIFE He is a former CPA at Arthur Andersen and a former litigator at Sherman & Sterling. He also clerked for the chief judge of the Eastern District of New York.

BASEBALL FEVER Suozzi is a Mets fan.

His son Joe plays for the Brooklyn Cyclones.

PROBLEM SOLVER He is the vice chairman of the Problem Solver’s Caucus, a group of 29 Democrats and 29 Republicans.

The governor has a 50% approval rating. How will you sway that half of the electorate?

Why exactly do you think Hochul should be replaced?

I know that, based upon my polling, if I tell people my message, then my numbers will go up dramatically and

I simply believe I’m the only candidate in this race who has the executive experience.

her poll numbers will go down dramatically. That’s why I’m holding telephone town halls. We get hundreds of volunteers from those calls, and I’m raising the money.

Let’s talk specifics. You mentioned reducing crime.

What would you do about it, if elected?

The issue of the Manhattan district attorney and the issues related to bail reform need to be addressed. The mayor and I are both saying we need to give judges the authority to take dangerousness and public safety into account when deciding when to remand someone when they’re awaiting trial. The governor is not saying anything.

She’s waiting for the Legislature to lead on this. The governor has the power to remove the district attorney and have the attorney general prosecute crimes they don’t prosecute. If elected, I would convene the New York City district attorneys to talk about uniform standards. You can’t commit a crime in Manhattan and do the same crime in Queens and not get prosecuted. I’d remove the district attorney if they didn’t enforce the law.

What did you learn from your first governor’s race, against Eliot Spitzer in 2006?

I didn’t’ know what I was doing back then. To change things, first, you need [to pinpoint] what you want to change. The second thing you need is guts to stand up to the status quo. The third thing you need is the ability to win. You must understand the politics, the media, the money, the Legislature and the bureaucracy, and how to get your message across, and I didn’t know how to do that in 2006. Now I know how to do that. I have a lot more experience and a lot more relationships. ■

BUCK ENNIS

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IN THE MARKETS

Activist investor’s crusade at Peloton is doomed

For that, Peloton can thank every management team’s best friend: super-voting stock

STOCK PERFORMANCE SUFFERS WHEN ACTIVISTS ARE DISENFRANCHISED

went public last year had super-voting shares, according to the Council of Institutional Investors, a group that represents pension funds and similar large entities managing $4 trillion in assets.

Peloton’s shares with 20 times more votes than other stockholders represented as much power as management teams could grab until 2020, when artificial-intelligence company C3.ai set a new standard with shares that confer 50 times more voting power. BuzzFeed tied that record last year. Since C3.ai went public, its stock price has lost 84%.

BuzzFeed’s is down more than 60%.

That’s probably not a coincidence. Years of data show stock performance clearly suffers when activists such as Carl Icahn and Blackwells Capital are disenfranchised.

During a 10-year stretch that ended in 2016, shares in companies with super-voting stock posted an average annual gain of 5.7%, while

FOLEY

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eloton Interactive has truly best friend: super-voting stock. earned the activist investor Thanks to a class of shares that confers 20 times more voting power, howling on its screen.

The fitness outfit has lost Foley and fellow insiders control 80% of its market value since De- 82% of the stockholder vote even though they own only cember 2020, and man13% of all outstanding agement has careened shares. Neat, huh? from crisis to crisis. Its Peloton didn’t respond stock trades below its to a request for comment.

2019 IPO price, and the Peloton machine’s role in Tech’s embrace a character’s death was the only memorable thing Traditionally superabout the Sex and the City voting stock was used to reboot. ensure companies such So, yes, Blackwells Capas Ford Motor Co. and the AARON ELSTEIN New York Times Co. reital is onto something when it says Peloton CEO mained family-conJohn Foley must go and the compa- trolled. But in the past decade, tech ny should be put on the auction startups have used the governance block. But, alas, the activist’s cru- maneuver to protect their precious founders from ornery shareholders.

Airbnb, Doordash, Lyft, Palantir, Pinterest, Slack, Snap, Square, Warby Parker and Zoom have susade isn’t going to force Foley or per-voting stock. It’s how Faceboard members to take any steps book’s Mark Zuckerberg keeps an iron grip at the company he’d raththey don’t want to take.

For that, Peloton can thank every er you call Meta.

Nearly 1 in 4 companies that entrenched management team’s

those that treated all investors equally rose 8.5%, according to CII’s data.

rus. Management at Blue Apron, the struggling meal-kit company, got invited to a CII conference in March after abolishing super-voting stock.

“Our members would be extremely interested in hearing the full context behind your transition to equal voting rights,” the investor group said. ■

Equal rights The message just might be getting through. Some companies have agreed to retire their super-voting shares and let their management teams face the Greek cho-

ON POLITICS

Real estate donors have amply filled the governor’s coffers. What might they want in return?

There are two areas in particular where the money might make a difference: good-cause eviction and 421-a tate industry, on the defensive for much of that year, did score one decisive win: persuading Democrats in the state Assembly to drop the good-cause eviction provision, which would have given tenants a legal defense against an allegedly arbitrary or retaliatory eviction and would potentially cap rent increases. Under good cause, landlords would have a harder time banishing tenants.

Legal defense on eviction In 2022 progressives and Democratic Socialists in the Legislature are again uniting around the goodcause bill. It is likely to pass the state Senate and face another fight in the Assembly. Hochul has not affirmed her support for the measure, and the real estate industry—particularly landlords, both big and small—will be hoping the governor can water down or veto the bill if it reaches her desk. It will be at this point in the negotiations, probably toward the end of the legislative session in the late spring, where donors will be reminding Hochul of their investment in her. Cuomo was always happy to return a favor.

The real estate lobby is also seek-

AP PHOTO

I

n her latest fundraising haul, hustle—she replaced Cuomo, who Kathy Hochul likely has resigned in disgrace, less than six cemented herself as governor months ago—as well as the sheer of New York for a long time. She clout a scandal-free incumbent can shattered records, banking almost possess. Her fundraising success, in $22 million since July. In politics, fact, forced Letitia James and Bill de money talks, and in Albany—with Blasio out of the gubernatorial race.

Few can stand against the its incredibly lax camonslaught. paign-finance laws—it Not surprisingly, big might matter even more. real estate money has Hochul hardly bothbeen pumped into Hoered with small donors. chul’s coffers. So far she Like Andrew Cuomo and has offered several olive his predecessors, she branches to progressives, didn’t have to, rushing including a reform of pastraight to the state’s powrole laws and new funding er elite. At least 10 donors for rental assistance, but funneled $69,700 each— ROSS BARKAN soon the millionaire and the maximum amount— billionaire donors in the to her campaign. They included real estate billionaire Jane state who drove so much of CuoGoldman and the Haugland family, mo’s approach to housing and dewhose Long Island–based con- velopment will demand a return on struction company contracts with their investment. There are two arthe Port Authority and the Metro- eas in particular where their money might make a difference: goodpolitan Transportation Authority.

There are famous heavy hitters cause eviction and the future of among Hochul’s donor list, includ- 421-a.

In 2019 left-leaning Democrats in ing entertainer Jerry Seinfeld and Steve Cohen, the hedge fund bil- the state Legislature and tenant advocates helped pass a series of bills lionaire and Mets owner.

The new governor’s fundraising that significantly beefed up New prowess is a testament to her York state’s tenant laws. The real es-

ing action on 421-a, the long-running tax break developers receive for including a modest amount of affordable housing in their projects.

Detractors on the left say the program, a relic of the fiscal crisis era of the 1970s, should be abolished. Developers, though, have long argued New York’s high construction and land costs mean some sort of handout is required.

Hochul, in her executive budget, pitched a new program, called

485-w. It would offer developers two options in order to qualify for a tax break if they’re building rental apartments, and it would demand some more affordable housing. For the real estate industry, 485-w would be a relative win; progressives want it changed or dumped.

City Comptroller Brad Lander criticized a tax break in 485-w for outer-borough condominium development that, in his view, won’t create apartments with rents in reach for most New York households.

Developers and landlords do not have the same priorities. Major developers sympathize with landlords but are less concerned with policy that would make it harder to evict tenants. Landlords are laserfocused on halting the good-cause idea and aren’t always thinking about decades-long tax abatements. But their combined might, and copious campaign cash, could sway Hochul.

In a few months, we will see just how far their money travels in today’s Albany. ■ Ross Barkan is an author and journalist from New York City.

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

EDITORIAL

publisher/executive editor

Elected leaders are stepping up on crime, gun violence—and it’s time Mayor Eric Adams also has called for immediate action to remove guns, and he has added police officers to city streets.

Adams is asking the courts and state Legislature for help. As a former NYPD captain, and as a Black man who grew up in the city, Adams is in the best position of any mayor in decades to speak to crime and the need for fair policing. Albany should listen.

Finally, there is the new Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg. Also a Black man who grew up in New York City, Bragg, like Adams, has described the overreach of street officers that sometimes made him feel like he was in occupied territory.

Elected in November, Bragg began his tenure this month by issuing a memo directing his Manhattan prosecutors to downgrade burglary, armed robbery and drug dealing from felonies to misdemeanors.

He wrote that he did not want to hand out jail sentences for criminals unless they were deemed guilty of a serious crime or were repeat offenders. Qualityof-life crimes such as prostitution,

HOCHUL IS FOCUSING ON A TASK FORCE TO EXAMINE THE PIPELINE OF ILLEGAL GUNS Jason Rivera, 22, and Wilbert Mora, 27—when they responded to a report of domestic violence in Harlem on Jan. 21. The murders have given Hochul’s measures new momentum.

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here were announcements from all corners last week that state leaders are focused on reducing crime and the illegal guns that fuel it. This is the most important priority for this moment, when a series of horrific shooting deaths has shocked the city.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has extended the state of emergency on gun violence begun by her predecessor, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in July.

Much of the Cuomo-era funding, aimed toward youth jobs, was never used. Hochul is focusing, instead, on a task force to examine the pipeline of illegal guns and how states can cooperate.

An illegal gun from Baltimore is believed to have been used in the shooting of two NYPD officers—

Frederick P. Gabriel Jr.

turnstile jumping, weapons possession (of non-firearms) and marijuana possession wouldn't be prosecuted at all.

In the wake of backlash to the memo—including from the new police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, who said Bragg’s policies risk officers’ safety—Bragg has apologized for “confusion” he may have caused. His apology sounds a little like that old bureaucratic blame dodge “mistakes were made.”

Bragg has repeatedly said he was elected to reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system. We can certainly hope his administration will move the city in the direction of fairness.

However, implementing that noble objective while securing safe streets will be difficult and complicated, and it will take a defter touch than Bragg has so far demonstrated.

He should take his cue from Adams and Hochul: Safety first. ■

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OP-ED

Ana Jimenez, ajimenez@crainsnewyork.com

Hochul’s plan to transform Penn Station must move forward to help Long Islanders

senior manager of events Michelle Cast,

michelle.cast@crainsnewyork.com REPRINTS director, reprints & licensing Lauren Melesio,

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

BY MATTHEW COHEN

G

ov. Kathy Hochul has done right by Long Islanders with the reimagining of Penn Station. Her proposed project could deliver us a modern, efficient transit hub that would improve our commutes and our economic outlook.

Since the Long Island Association’s beginnings in 1926, the organization has advocated for policies and programs that create jobs, improve the business climate in our region and enhance access to and from New York City.

We’ve enthusiastically supported all the recent improvements to the Long Island Rail Road as well as the completion of Moynihan Train Hall, an architectural and symbolic triumph.

But that is not enough. We need to do more.

A recent poll found 86% of the region’s residents support the plan to reconstruct Penn Station.

We need to fix the rest of Penn Station together with the surrounding area and intermodal transit connections to match Moynihan Train Hall’s bold transformation and better serve Long Island commuters.

Infamous commute Long Island has had a rough go of it during the Covid-19 pandemic. And even in more normal times, our commute is the stuff of national infamy. What can take hours by car—sitting in bumperto-bumper traffic on the notorious Long Island Expressway—isn’t much less of a headache via the LIRR. Once you do finally arrive in Manhattan, you’re greeted by Penn Station and its low ceilings, poor lighting, congested corridors and dilapidated surroundings.

We support the plan to deliver Moynihan Train Hall–style improvements to the rest of Penn Station and make it a modern hub.

Moynihan set the stage. The second act is happening now with the LIRR concourse reconstruction, which aims to widen corridors, heighten ceilings, add helpful directional signs and bring in much-needed natural light.

The third and final act is the most important: completing the plan and making Penn and the entire district a holistic transit hub.

We need to improve the subway networks, fix confusing exits and entrances, replace lost signage and rebuild failing infrastructure so that when commuters get off the LIRR, they are able to quickly and safely head to work.

Vibrant changes The governor’s proposal envisions three new grand station entrances, eight new subway entrances, dozens of new escalators and elevators, and improvements to increase ADA accessibility, create wider platforms and passageways, and

increase passenger capacity to combat overcrowding.

The proposal also would invest in the surrounding district by transforming sidewalks and streetscapes with additional retail and significant public-realm improvements. It would create a vibrant district to befit the modernized Penn Station.

Long Islanders will again return to offices and old commuting habits with more frequency in the coming months. After two of our state’s most challenging years, we have to show New Yorkers that we’re back and the city is even better than when they left it.

Long Island and New York City are interconnected. When one of our economies thrives, the other reciprocates. That’s why the plan to transform Penn Station must move forward. ■ Matthew Cohen is president and CEO of the Long Island Association.

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8 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | JANUARY 31, 2022

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OP-ED

The state should move toward its climate goals sensibly in order to ensure energy reliability

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he Empire State has one of the nation’s most aggressive plans to combat climate change: the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which requires that 70% of our electricity be generated from renewables by 2030 and 100% be zero-emission by 2040.

As New York continues to pursue twin paths of economic growth and clean energy, winter is a stark reminder of why reliability is such a crucial element in the conversa-

gins are thinning to concerning levels in 2023. … We have to move carefully with the grid in transition in order to maintain reliability and avoid the kind of problems we’ve seen in other parts of the U.S.”

Keeping the power on Virtually any significant departure from current forecasts for electricity demand or the generation mix that supplies it could result in reliability problems. A simple delay in construction of a large-scale renewable-energy project throws a wrench into the works. No business is going to feel comfortable setting up shop here—or expanding existing operations—if access to sufficient power can’t be guaranteed.

In short, the NYISO has issued a clear wakeup call: If we do not learn from the mistakes of others, we may be doomed to repeat them.

The tenuous nature of the transition from fossil fuels to renewables has exposed risk. In the case of the grid, that risk comes in the form of tighter margins. Combined with increasingly frequent extremeweather events—and the fact New

WE CANNOT OVERHAUL A CENTURY-OLD SYSTEM OVERNIGHT tion. Climate-induced strains on the power grid are clearly not only a problem during heat waves and late-summer hurricanes, as demonstrated by recent events that strained power grids elsewhere, such as last year’s crisis in Texas.

As a new report from the New York Independent System Operator notes, the state’s “reliability mar-

York does not fully have either the clean-energy generation capability or the transmission infrastructure needed to accommodate a swifter shift toward CLCPA goals—the state is walking a fine line between success and the energy crises seen elsewhere in the nation.

We cannot overhaul a century-old system overnight. If we rush the process, we risk negatively impacting both our economic goals and the vulnerable communities that are disproportionately affected when the power goes out.

Crisis management Although the climate crisis demands an immediate response, absolutist approaches such as a proposed moratorium on natural gas–powered facilities and the rejection of proposals to repower fossil-fuel plants to be cleaner and more efficient might do more harm than good in the short term.

The majority of renewable alternatives are still in the development pipeline, as are the battery-storage

GETTY IMAGES

BY HEATHER BRICCETTI

investments necessary to ensure reliability due to the intermittent nature of wind- and solar-generated power.

In the absence of immediately available renewable alternatives, and as electricity demand continues to increase, the state must move

toward its climate goals in a sensible way that preserves economic viability and protects residents and businesses alike.

Heather Briccetti is president and CEO of the Business Council of New York State.

BY DAVID PAZ

O

nce the U.S. epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic, New York—and its tourism industry—was on the rebound until the omicron variant arrived. Now the city’s recovering tourism and hospitality sectors are again in jeopardy, as travelers change their plans.

The city’s hotel industry—which lost tens of thousands of good-paying jobs during the height of the pandemic—isn’t projected to make a full recovery until 2025.

Citywide, more than 200 hotels

in severance—effectively unemployment—to furloughed workers.

It’s money that the hotels simply don’t have. As a result, many owners might be forced to make the impossible decision one hotel owner was faced with recently, when he sold the Excelsior hotel to a developer who plans to convert the Upper West Side gem into a residential building.

Tax burden

Now a new report prepared for the Hotel Association of New York City shows that New York hotels experience a property tax burden that is double that of other major markets.

AT SOME HOTELS, In 2019 taxes represented 9.4% of revenue; in 2020, TAXES DUE HAVE FAR that share ballooned to more than 30% on average.

EXCEEDED REVENUES At some hotels, taxes due far exceeded revenues closed either indefinitely or per- during the height of the panmanently through the economic demic. On top of that dispropordownturn. Only 100 have resumed tionate burden, property tax debt interest accrues at an annual rate operating.

The struggling industry was dealt of 18% on late payments.

The hotel industry—which another blow when Mayor Bill de Blasio in October enacted the has paid out an unprecedented “severance law,” which requires half-billion dollars in unemployhotels shuttered by the pandemic ment and benefits to furloughed to pay out millions of dollars more workers during the pandemic, in

addition to the federal unemployment and enhanced unemployment benefits the workers received from the state—will continue to suffer if it’s made the target of bad policy to deliver cheap headlines.

A prime example is the severance law. It was rushed through in an undemocratic process, despite concerns raised by hotels over what the bill would mean for workers long term by punishing the industry in a city with an unemployment rate more than double the national average.

It’s not just hotels and the recovery of the tourism industry at stake when hotels are unfairly targeted. Before the pandemic, the hotel industry employed more than 50,000 New Yorkers—mostly immigrants and people of color— and raised $3.2 billion per year in

GETTY IMAGES

New York’s hotel industry is being targeted unfairly with the severance law, tax penalties

city tax revenue. The industry also added $22 billion annually to our economy. When hotels lose, so do our workers.

Government action

Although business is returning with tourism picking up, it won’t be enough to get the industry back on its feet. If we’re ever going to recover, we need help from the

government—or at least a reversal of its undue burdens. The city must suspend the late-payment penalty for hotels, and we need the mayor and City Council to step up and revoke the severance law. ■ David Paz is president of Omnia Group, a design, development and building firm that owns the Sister City hotel.

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.

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INSTANT EXPERT

How the mayor can make good on climate-focused promises

BY BRANDON SANCHEZ

THE ISSUE

1

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The Adams administration is certain to play a central role in steering the city’s climate initiatives and trying to meet its goals. The Mayor’s Office of Climate Resiliency and Office of Climate and Sustainability are tasked with aligning New York’s climate action with the 2015 Paris agreement by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% before 2050. Some plans, such as Local Law 97, are operating on deadlines as close as 2024.

GETTYIMAGES

THE PLAYERS

Though national measures to address the climate crisis have lagged, New York has forged ahead over the last several years, voting on bills aimed at decarbonization. The City Council last month passed a bill banning natural-gas hookups in new buildings. And at the very end of the year, the outgoing de Blasio administration released a climate resiliency plan for Lower Manhattan.

Asked about the new city government’s priorities, several experts and stakeholders said they’d like to see Mayor Eric Adams follow through on his climate-related campaign promises.

THE IDEAS WHAT’S NEXT

5

A number of existing laws need attention.

Foremost among them is Local Law 97, which requires large buildings to meet new emissions standards.

“There’s been no regulations yet [that have] come out of that,” said Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters. “We want to make sure that program works. We want to make sure it’s done smartly. And if there are any issues, we want to make sure they’re addressed. Regulations could handle a lot of that, and we haven’t seen that come out of the Buildings Department yet.”

Tighe said she supports more bike lanes, and she emphasized that increased funding for parks—especially in low-income communities—would provide beneficial shade.

“We want to make sure we’re getting more trees but in particular in those communities that are underserved with green spaces,” she said. “Parks are a big part of how we’re going to help with resiliency—in absorbing stormwater, in protecting our shorelines, and so we need to make sure we’re making those investments and protecting communities that are at risk.”

EXPERTS HOPE THE ADAMS ADMINISTRATION WILL FOCUS ON RENEWABLE ENERGY OPTIONS

3

“Mayor Adams [should] follow through on his campaign promise to open 25% of NYC streetscapes to pedestrians and bicycles by 2025,” said Gernot Wagner, clinical associate professor of environmental studies and public service at New York University. “That would mean a major shift in the right direction. It also complements other mayoral initiatives nicely, like raising sidewalks at intersections, beginning with those now most dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists.”

Wagner commended the recent SoHo/NoHo rezoning and said that by creating more housing in dense, transit-rich neighborhoods, where residents will choose public transit over cars, the city could dent the national carbon footprint.

Thomas Abdallah, deputy vice president and chief environmental engineer for New York City Transit, said he hopes the administration will focus on renewable energy, including wind, solar and battery-storage options.

“The government can also help continue to stimulate the use of electric vehicles,” Abdallah said, “by mandating city agency fleets convert to all electric fleets—police, fire, sanitation, etc.—and help create the necessary infrastructure required to move toward more electric vehicles.”

4

New York’s climate actions come as the federal government plots its own path forward. President Joe Biden announced recently that he would divide his Build Back Better package into two smaller chunks, one of which could be dedicated to climate-crisis spending.

“I think we would be able to get support for the $500-plus billion for energy and the environment,” the president said. The timeline for such legislation is uncertain, however.

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SPONSORED CONTENT FOR CRAIN'S NEW YORK BUSINESS | S1

WITH TAX LEGISLATION IN FLUX, STAYING ON TOP OF NEW DEVELOPMENTS WILL BE KEY IN 2022

W

hether it comes to inflation adjustments, pass-through entity taxes, or estate and gift tax rules, tax law is in transition. Both individual taxpayers and owners of businesses will need to keep a keen eye on the headlines as they make tax planning decisions—and discuss the latest developments with their accountants—to stay on top of their obligations and avoid overpayments.

That’s not to mention the impact IRS understaffing could have on tax filings. The IRS is facing a large backlog of paper filings from 2021, including a reported 6.2 million unprocessed tax forms.

Beginning in the summer, it will require taxpayers wishing to access certain tools and applications to provide a selfie to a third-party company to verify their identity.

Still unknown is the impact of groups such as Patriotic Millionaires, whose members are millionaires and billionaires from around the world. In an open letter timed to coincide with the originally planned opening of the World Economic Forum, the group called for permanent wealth taxes on the rich to address income inequality. Among the 102 signers were Disney heiress Abigail Disney and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, an early investor in Amazon.

“As millionaires, we know that the current tax system is not fair,” the group wrote. “Most of us can say that, while the world has gone through an immense amount of suffering in the last two years, we have actually seen our wealth rise during the pandemic, yet few if any of us can honestly say we pay our fair share of taxes.”

For insight into some of the most important developments on the fast-changing tax landscape, Crain’s Content Studio spoke with Joe Bublé, partner at Citrin Cooperman Advisors LLC; Stan Barsky, leader of the National Tax Group at Eisner Amper; and Pamela A. Mosiello, managing director at CBIZ Marks Paneth.

STANLEY BARSKY

JOE BUBLÉ

PAMELA A. MOSIELLO, CPA, MSA

Principal Eisner Amper 347.735.4724 stanley.barsky@eisneramper.com

Partner Citrin Cooperman Advisors LLC 212.697.1000 jbublé @citrincooperman.com

Managing Director CBIZ Marks Paneth 212.201.2213 pamela.mosiello@cbiz.com

CRAIN’S: What are the key tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2022 that business owners need to consider?

individuals filing separately, and $170,050 for all others. The phasein range amount is $440,100 for married couples filing jointly, $220,050 for married individuals filing separately, and $220,050 for all others.

for businesses that use the cash method of accounting. The gross receipts test also applies to several other business provisions.

JOE BUBLÉ: The qualified business income deduction threshold and phase-in amounts have been increased for 2022 as follows: The threshold amount is now $340,100 for married couples filing jointly, $170,050 for married

Average annual gross receipts can’t exceed an average of $27 million for the three-year period ending with the 2022 tax year under an increased threshold

For taxable years beginning in 2022, the threshold amount for excess business losses has been increased. A taxpayer’s excess business loss is the amount over $270,000 ($540,000 for joint returns).

Changing Tax Laws. Shifting Markets.

Evolving Priorities.

From our workplace to how we do business, the status quo has been forever changed. And now potential tax laws and regulations are on the horizon.

Let EisnerAmper’s tax professionals be your guide, transforming your tax strategy to meet the challenges and greet the opportunities of a new day.

Moving Forward. Together.

Learn how the latest tax law changes may impact your business at EisnerAmper.com/TAXLAW

Here are some of the highlights: CRAIN’S: How will inflation impact personal income taxes?

JOE BUBLÉ: Inflation is often referred to as a hidden tax. As inflation increases, it causes the average taxpayer’s income to grow in tandem until taxpayers are moved into a higher tax bracket with no adjustment to their spending power. Consequently, more than 60 code sections provide for annual inflation

P011_013_CN_20220131.indd 11

adjustments in an attempt to prevent this. The IRS recently announced the adjustments for 2022, which include increased federal income tax brackets, standard deductions, 401(k) limits, lifetime estate and gift tax exemptions, and annual gift exclusions. To the extent that these adjustments lag behind the actual inflation rate and other code sections that are not inflation-adjusted, the inflation tax is a reality.

1/27/22 3:19 PM

S2 | SPONSORED CONTENT FOR CRAIN'S NEW YORK BUSINESS

WITH TAX LEGISLATION IN FLUX, STAYING ON TOP OF NEW DEVELOPMENTS WILL BE KEY IN 2022 CRAIN’S: What are the new tax reporting requirements for cryptocurrency?

STAN BARSKY: Under the 2021 Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act, certain provisions of the Internal Revenue Code 1986, as amended, were revised to address digital assets. Specifically, Sections 6045 (addressing certain tax returns and statements required to be filed by brokers) and 6050I (addressing the reporting of certain cash transactions) were expanded to apply to digital assets such as cryptocurrency. The application to digital assets is scheduled for returns required to be filed, and statements required to be furnished, after Dec. 31, 2023.

PAMELA MOSIELLO: With the cryptocurrency market rising in intense popularity among investors in the past 10 years, it was only a matter of time before the IRS would take measures to ensure tax reporting compliance. Some upcoming crypto reporting may be treated similarly to traditional reporting, including using Form 1099B (Proceeds from Broker), since it is used among traditional brokers. Also, digital assets valued over $10,000 will be considered as “cash” received. This must be

reported, which will disclose identifying information on the transaction including who sent the “cash.” Although these reporting requirements will not officially come into play until 2023, it does not relieve you of your obligations to report cryptocurrency gainslosses in 2021 and 2022.

JOE BUBLÉ: For 2021, the IRS is asking for specific reporting of the sale, exchange or other disposition of all virtual currency assets, including receipts of additional amounts resulting from mining or hard forks. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act further expands such reporting by requiring brokers to document transactions in digital currency beginning in 2023. Businesses must also disclose the receipt of payments in digital assets over $10,000 starting in 2023.

CRAIN’S: How does the lack of broad changes to the estate and gift tax rules affect planning discussions with clients now and in the future?

PAMELA MOSIELLO: With President Joe Biden’s tax proposal stalled in the Senate, clients should still be proactive in estate-

YEAR-ROUND

STRATEGIES TO MAKE THE TAX LAWS WORK FOR YOU.

gift planning in 2022, even during a time of uncertainty. They should focus on reviewing current estate plans and related legal documents for accuracy as well as fine-

— PAMELA MOSIELLO tuning lifetime gifting strategies.

Remember, even if Congress takes no action, the expanded lifetime exemption amounts are still scheduled to be reduced in half in 2026. With that in mind, the IRS has already released the updated annual gift exclusion of $16,000 as well as the lifetime exemption amount of $12.06 million for 2022 (both adjusted for inflation).

The time to plan is now to take advantage of the opportunities while they are still available.

JOE BUBLÉ: Estate planning and business succession planning should always be addressed to assist clients in helping them achieve their goals and objectives. The lack of largescale changes provides additional time and opportunity, resulting in a “call to action” to continue or

Citrin Cooperman advises closely-held and public companies, all domestic, private, and internationally based, on their tax strategies. Our tax professionals work with their clients to tailor a plan that strategically minimizes tax obligations, counts: improving their bottom line.

Tax Partner and Firm Tax Leader joeb@citrincooperman.com

"Citrin Cooperman" is the brand under which Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP, a licensed independent CPA firm, and Citrin Cooperman Advisors LLC serve clients’ business needs. The two firms operate as separate legal entities in an alternative practice structure. Citrin Cooperman is an independent member of Moore North America, which is itself a regional member of Moore Global Network Limited (MGNL).

citrincooperman.com

P011_013_CN_20220131.indd 12

STAN BARSKY: Business owners need to recognize the sheer volume and complexity of the various rules that could be relevant to maximizing the

“WITH PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN’S TAX PROPOSAL STALLED IN THE SENATE, CLIENTS SHOULD STILL BE PROACTIVE IN ESTATE-GIFT PLANNING IN 2022, EVEN DURING A TIME OF UNCERTAINTY.”

allowing business owners to focus on what

Joe Bublé

begin the planning process. A good starting point would be to review the client’s current plan to see if it still fits the client’s needs.

CRAIN’S: Based on recent developments, the Build Back Better Act legislation appears to be at risk. What impact does this have on closely held businesses?

STAN BARSKY: One of the more impactful provisions in the Build Back Better Act, in the context of closely held businesses, is the proposal to drastically reduce the federal income tax benefits associated with qualified smallbusiness stock under Section 1202.

If enacted, the revision would increase the amount of gain subject to tax in connection with the sale of equity interests in certain C corporations. A reduction in Section 1202 tax benefits could make the C corporation structure less appealing to founders of new closely held businesses and could cause owners of existing C corporations to analyze the potential benefits of electing S status.

JOE BUBLÉ: This may be a sigh of relief for those still trying to navigate the multiple tax law changes since late 2017, which has created uncertainty and confusion for many closely held business owners. With all of the tax proposals being discussed, people have spent an inordinate amount of time analyzing tax changes that have not been passed.

CRAIN’S: What state and local tax developments should business owners be aware of concerning the federal income tax deductions available for state and local taxes paid by pass-through entities?

intended federal income tax benefits associated with the passthrough entity tax elections. This includes both substantive rules that affect the amount of the state tax liability of the entity as well as procedural requirements to make the election and pay the taxes to the state. The analysis becomes particularly complex if the entity does business in more than one state or has owners who are residents of different states.

The best approach is to confer with your tax advisers and make sure that they are considering the optimal approach for the entity and the owners.

PAMELA MOSIELLO: The passthrough entity tax was ultimately the state’s response to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s provision capping the state and local tax deduction at $10,000. PTET allows individual owners to take the entity-level state and local tax as a business deduction on the federal tax return, circumventing the $10,000 SALT cap. In 2022 business owners should be aware of the potential for double taxation on nonresident partnersshareholders of pass-through entities. Importantly, not all states recognize entity-level tax as a tax paid by the individual for resident income tax credit purposes. This may result in higher tax rates on the SALT level. It is important to measure these potential pitfalls to decide whether electing into the PTET makes sense.

JOE BUBLÉ: Business owners should watch out for changes to the PTET landscape. States that previously enacted such a tax regime are considering legislative changes (for example, New

“AS INFLATION INCREASES, IT CAUSES THE AVERAGE TAXPAYER’S INCOME TO GROW IN TANDEM UNTIL TAXPAYERS ARE MOVED INTO A HIGHER TAX BRACKET WITH NO ADJUSTMENT TO THEIR SPENDING POWER.” — JOE BUBLÉ

1/28/22 11:16 AM

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Jersey), while we are hoping for revisions to the laws or further guidance on troublesome issues in other states (for example, California). In addition, a number of states have PTET effective dates starting in 2022 and there is a possibility of more states coming on board in the future. This is not a static environment; therefore, it should be closely monitored.

CRAIN’S: With the proliferation of PassThrough Entity Taxes, are there any caveats to be aware of where a taxpayer may not want to be subject to the PTET of certain states?

STAN BARSKY: IRS Notice 2020-75 has raised many questions that will hopefully be addressed in future guidance. In the meantime, owners of pass-through entities should carefully consider the impact of any state election to avail

STAN BARSKY: There have been several detailed tax legislative proposals recently, potentially impacting a wide range of important tax rules, such as income tax rates, international tax provisions, new corporate minimum taxes, new taxes on stock buybacks, limitation of the tax benefits available in connection with qualified small-business stock, certain restrictions on the individual retirement accounts and others. The multitude of the various tax proposals—coupled with uncertainty about which, if any, will be enacted—means that it is very important to keep monitoring the legislative proposals as they continue to develop. Staying on top of the latest proposals (and working closely with your tax adviser) is a must if you want to analyze their potential impact on your business and personal tax planning.

“BUSINESS OWNERS NEED TO RECOGNIZE THE SHEER VOLUME AND COMPLEXITY OF THE VARIOUS RULES THAT COULD BE RELEVANT TO MAXIMIZING THE INTENDED FEDERAL INCOME TAX BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH THE PASS-THROUGH ENTITY TAX ELECTIONS.” — STAN BARSKY themselves of the benefits of the notice. For example, some states subject all the income allocated to a resident owner to the tax, while other states subject only that portion of the income that is sourced to the state. Not only could that have a big impact on cash flow, but also the federal income tax treatment of any subsequent refund or credit is uncertain under current guidance.

PAMELA MOSIELLO: It is important to bear in mind that every state operates based on its versions of legislation and may have different views on PTE tax taken as an out-of-state credit. For instance, the state of Virginia has recently ruled that resident individuals are not entitled to take the outof-state entity level PTE taxes as a credit on state resident tax returns.

Depending on the total impact, this creates a scenario in which electing into the PTE tax may not make sense, since electing in will result in a loss of tax credits and higher tax rates on the Virginia resident individual income tax level.

CRAIN’S: With all of the uncertainty surrounding tax proposals that may or may not be enacted, what should people be doing?

P011_013_CN_20220131.indd 13

PAMELA MOSIELLO: Regardless of the uncertainty surrounding the tax proposals, certain tax planning moves will always make sense. Roth IRA conversions are a good move at this time since it is safe to say that tax rates are not expected to decrease in the foreseeable future. Deferring state tax payments into 2022 may be another good strategy since there is a potential for the SALT cap to increase, leaving room for more deductibility of those taxes as an itemized deduction. Bunching charitable contributions would also serve as a good planning move, especially if anticipating a large upswing in 2022 income. The key is to always be proactive in your tax planning, even in times of pending tax legislation CRAIN’S: How have you seen the pandemic and working from home affect the IRS’s ability to process returns and correspondence that is still sent through the Postal Service?

PAMELA MOSIELLO: The pandemic and its impact on

ABOUT THE PANELISTS STANLEY BARSKY is the Leader of the firm’s National Tax Group.

Stan has extensive experience advising clients on federal income tax issues relating to mergers and acquisitions, and structuring inbound and outbound investments. Stan also regularly advises clients on tax issues relating to consolidated returns, bankruptcies, accounting methods, deductibility of expenditures, tax treaty planning, tax equalization, repatriation of earnings, tax residency and pre-immigration tax planning, qualified small business stock, subchapter S rules, partnership tax rules, the rules impacting cannabis businesses, and other areas. In addition, he represents clients in tax audits. Stan presents on various tax issues, including domestic and international tax planning and compliance.

JOE BUBLÉ, a partner in the firm’s New York City office, leads Citrin Cooperman’s tax practice. He concentrates on strategic tax planning, mergers and acquisitions and sophisticated tax research for businesses and individuals. He is involved in all aspects of his clients’ tax and financial planning, from the acquisition, operation, and disposition of businesses, to individual income and estate tax planning. Joe has extensive experience with the taxation of partnerships, limited liability companies, C corporations, S corporations, and high net worth individuals. He speaks extensively on tax and strategic planning matters, and is frequently quoted in the media on tax issues.

PAMELA A. MOSIELLO, CPA, MSA, is a Managing Director at CBIZ Marks Paneth with over 20 years of experience in public accounting. Ms. Mosiello specializes in individual tax planning, preparation and consulting services to high-net-worth individuals, trusts and estates, private foundations and closely held businesses. She also advises clients with complex tax reporting requirements, including those with financial assets held in foreign trusts, institutions and other entities. Her other areas of practice include taxation for hedge fund managers, the media and entertainment industry and those with complex investment structures as well as family office and business management clients. Prior to joining CBIZ Marks Paneth, Ms. Mosiello was a tax professional at a Big Four accounting firm.

the world was an unprecedented event. Its impact on the IRS was no different. In March 2020 the IRS closed its processing and service facilities for weeks. Once

reopened, its facilities operated at limited capacity for the health and safety of its employees. As a result, there has been a tremendous backlog of paper-filed tax returns

and correspondence. Many tax returns remain backlogged at the IRS facilities due to the IRS’s inability to process balance-due, paper-filed returns promptly.

Stronger Together.

We are pleased to announce that Marks Paneth LLP has joined CBIZ & MHM – together, one of the nation’s Top Ten accounting providers.

While our name has changed, our personal approach to serving our clients has not.

cbiz.com | mhmcpa.com

Effective January 2022 MHM (Mayer Hoffman McCann P.C.) is an independent CPA firm that provides audit, review and attest services, and works closely with CBIZ, a business consulting, tax and financial services provider. CBIZ and MHM are members of Kreston International Limited, a global network of independent accounting firms. © Copyright 2022. CBIZ, Inc. and Mayer Hoffman McCann P.C. All rights reserved.

1/27/22 3:19 PM

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

CONSTRUCTION

CONSULTING ENGINEERING

LAW

REAL ESTATE

TECHNOLOGY

Cauldwell Wingate

Goldman Copeland

Vinson & Elkins LLP

Parsons Corporation

Cauldwell Wingate is pleased to announce the promotion of Christopher Norris to the position of Vice President of Commercial Construction. In this new role, Mr. Norris will lead the Commercial Construction Division for the firm, with market share spanning Interiors, Health Care, Life Sciences, Infrastructure, Amenities, Institutional, Retail & Adaptive Reuse. Responsibilities to include client advocacy, team building, support & oversite, and maintenance & expansion of operational excellence.

Vinod Palal has been named a principal of Goldman Copeland, where he serves as senior electrical engineer managing multi-disciplinary design projects throughout the Greater New York City tri-state area. A professional engineer, Vinod has over 20 years’ experience in electrical systems design. Since joining Goldman Copeland in 2016, he has been responsible for electrical and fire alarm design as well as management of a wide range of projects in commercial, institutional, and cultural facilities.

CONSTRUCTION

FINANCIAL / TECHNOLOGY

Schimenti Construction Company

Percent

David Berkery and Niels Jensen have joined Vinson & Elkins in New York as coleaders of the firm’s new Aviation Finance Berkery practice. The duo advise financial institutions, investment banks, airlines, aircraft leasing companies and private investors Jensen on all aspects of the acquisition, leasing, financing and trading of aircraft.

David focuses on asset-backed securitizations, airline and aircraft lessor restructurings, secured and unsecured lending, aircraft portfolio sales and M&A. He is tri-qualified to practice in NY, England & Wales and Ireland.

Niels handles corporate debt and asset-backed financing transactions, restructurings, portfolio trading and JVs, many of which have been recognized among the sector’s most innovative transactions.

The Community Preservation Corporation

Oliver Holland, a seasoned leader in the construction industry, joins Schimenti as Senior Director, Project Management.

He will be responsible for overseeing Schimenti’s project delivery across several key sectors, including Retail, Hospitality, and Commercial Real Estate. Oliver will provide our clients technology focused and cost-effective solutions, bringing with him a relentless drive to providing industry leading outcomes in safety, quality and customer service.

Percent appoints Michael Kendrot as Managing Director, Head of Capital Markets to lead the creation & structuring of innovative credit products for its institutional platform.

With 28+ yrs. experience, he has held senior roles at leading banks, including Credit Agricole Securities & ABN AMRO. His leadership, experience & deep understanding of the debt capital markets is crucial as Percent expands its presence in the industry. Michael will report to the company’s President, Prath Reddy, CFA.

INDUSTRY ACHIEVERS ADVANCING THEIR CAREERS Recognize them in Crain’s

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

CRAINSNEWYORK.COM/PEOPLEMOVES

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Citrin Cooperman Barry Massarsky and Nari Matsuura have joined Citrin Cooperman, one of the nation’s largest professional services Massarsky firms, as partners and co-leaders of the firm’s Music Economics and Valuation Services Practice. Widely known for their work in the music industry Matsuura serving the valuation interests of music publishing and recording label firms, they provide strategic counsel to owners of music copyrights, as well as valuation, litigation economics, and performance income review.m “Citrin Cooperman” is the brand under which Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP, a licensed independent CPA firm, and Citrin Cooperman Advisors LLC serve clients’ business needs. The two firms operate as separate legal entities in an alternative practice structure.

Sadie McKeown has been promoted to President of The Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), having previously served as the company’s Executive Vice President. She will lead the implementation of CPC’s strategic growth plan and the expansion of its impact through its lending, equity, and impact investing activities, and will oversee its numerous initiatives.

McKeown is a recognized leader in the industry and an expert in affordable housing, community development and sustainable housing.

Parsons Corporation (NYSE: PSN) has named Peter Torrellas president of the connected communities business unit. Torrellas brings more than two decades of experience leading digital transformation across infrastructure markets.

He most recently served as managing partner and vice president of the Digital Cities and Infrastructure Practice at Siemens Advanta, the digital transformation consultancy and professional services arm of Siemens AG.

REAL ESTATE

TRANSPORTATION

REZI

JFK Millenium Partners, Vantage Airport Group

Tom Smith has joined REZI, the first iRenter and one of the fasted growing PropTechs, as Chief Revenue Officer. A 25-year veteran of accelerating successful real estate businesses, Smith will apply his sales and finance expertise to new business creation, and customer and partnership revenue growth to elevate REZI to the next level.

An experienced real estate investor, Smith was also the Co-Founder of Truss Holdings where he helped transform the commercial leasing market through technology.

S H A R E

Y O U R

Helena Williams has been appointed Project Executive and Chief Executive Officer of the Vantage-led team selected by PANYNJ to lead the redevelopment of a world-class, multi-billion-dollar Terminal 6 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. In her role, Ms. Williams will be responsible for the advancement of the Terminal 6 redevelopment project, from ground-breaking to operations commencement. Most recently, Ms. Williams served as Chief Deputy County Executive for Nassau County.

C O M PA N Y ’ S

J O U R N E Y

Feature your latest milestones, launches, partnerships, awards and more in Crain’s

For more information, contact Debora Stein at dstein@crain.com or submit directly to

CRAINSNEWYORK.COM/COTM

14 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | JANUARY 31, 2022

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1/26/22 1:24 PM

BUCK ENNIS DAVID JUNKIN

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

FAILURE TO PLAN New York lacks a comprehensive development strategy that requires shared sacrifice for community benefit. Having one could help ease a crisis-level shortage of affordable housing

BY MATTHEW FLAMM The local community board joined the fight along with preservationists, tenants advocates, neighborhood coalitions, the Sierra Club and good-government groups including the Municipal Art Society.

There were echoes of the early 1960s, when urban activist Jane Jacobs stopped a plan by Robert Moses, the so-called Master Builder, to run a new Lower Manhattan Expressway through SoHo and Washington Square Park.

The recent struggle has left bitter feelings, but they too are in the New York tradition, dating at least to the Civil War. The city has stumbled between rampant growth and well-intended regulation one century after the other—without ever quite succeeding in giving communities a sense of control over their destiny.

Recent disputes over rezoning, somewhat paradoxically, have amplified calls for a comprehensive citywide plan. A framework implemented by reforming the New York City Charter, supporters say, could better define the city’s needs while giving communities more clout with City Hall.

If neighborhood scuffles are more intense and frequent now, it could be because the housing shortage is so great. The city will need to build 560,000 resiJAMES ESTRIN/NYT/REDUX

M

ichele Varian, a designer married to a musician, has run her homegoods business out of the couple’s rent-stabilized SoHo loft through two decades of gentrification. She has her share of horror stories, starting in 2013 after she and her husband refused buyout offers from a new landlord.

There were the weekends without heat during a record-cold winter and the time a worker in a hazmat suit popped through the couple’s rickety living room floor while doing asbestos abatement below them.

Those low points coincided with the building’s transformation into luxury housing—with units priced at $12,000 per month—from lofts filled with artists. Varian VARIAN and her husband, alt-rock songwriter Brad Roberts, are the building’s last rent-stabilized tenants and pay in the range of $3,000 per month.

Now Varian has new worries. In the long tradition of New York development battles, she and other SoHo and NoHo residents spent the past year in a failed effort to block zoning changes they say threaten the historic character of their neighborhood and the future of their homes. They believe the rezoning could lead to redevelopment that eliminates existing rent-stabilized housing.

See FAILURE on page 16

The task at hand

L

ET’S START with two things we all can agree on. New York City is a lively and appealing place to live and work, a global metropolis rich in people, culture and commerce. It’s also a city that has come up woefully short at providing its residents with housing that’s affordable and livable.

From there, the discourse gets convoluted and divisive. How can we do better as a community at providing housing? That’s the big question we’re tackling this week, in the first installment of our monthly Crain’s Forum series. Our mission is to shine light on big economic and public policy issues that are shaping the future of New York City.

For our cover story, veteran reporter Matthew Flamm spent months looking at zoning and development decisions, past and present, to understand how we arrived at this predicament. A recurring theme emerged around a critical amenity the city lacks: a comprehensive development plan.

Meanwhile, reporters Natalie Sachmechi and Eddie Small explain what’s next for the controversial tax break that has long propelled affordable housing development, and Cara Eisenpress aims to demystify the qualification requirements to live in such housing. Plus, community leaders weigh in with their own proposed solutions.

We’re eager to hear your thoughts. Please add your two cents as we continue the conversation at CrainsNewYork.com/forum.

— Cory Schouten, Editor-in-Chief

INSIDE LUIS CARIDAD: It’s time to pivot away from developer incentives to build affordable housing.

PAGE 19

AARON CARR: There’s no need to choose between tenant protection and abundant housing.

PAGE 19

JOSEPH GEIGER: 421-a’s replacement should include a logical definition of “affordable.”

PAGE 20

BASHA GERHARDS: Coordinate public policy to facilitate more residential conversions.

PAGE 20 JANUARY 31, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 15

P015_P017_CN_20220131.indd 15

1/27/22 3:30 PM

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FROM PAGE 15

dential units by 2030 to keep up with expected population and job growth, according to a recent report commissioned by the Real Estate Board of New York. A small fraction of that number is in the pipeline.

But like SoHo itself, opponents of the rezoning found the fight over development has changed. Activists, policymakers, academics and elected officials, all of whom once might have opposed zoning changes that encourage big projects, sided this time with the developers who will benefit.

It might be hard these days to know which side Jane Jacobs would be on.

Life-changing The SoHo/NoHo Neighborhood Plan, following a rezoning of Gowanus, marked the de Blasio administration’s shift toward the reimagining of upscale, majority-white neighborhoods after five years of rezoning one low-income neighborhood after another.

Those plans led to displacement pressures in East New York—the first neighborhood the de Blasio administration rezoned—where struggling homeowners say they now contend with higher property taxes and a plague of house-flippers.

Whatever the shortcomings of the city’s rezoning plans, there’s no question affordable housing changes lives.

Just ask Felicia Brown, an employee of the city’s Department of Social Services, who moved into the Linwood Park Apartments in East New York in August 2020.

Construction of the 10-story, 100% affordable building, which opened that May, was made possible by the 2016 neighborhood rezoning, which increased height allowances.

“I would drive past this building all the time, saying ‘I hope they call me, I hope they call me,’” Brown recalled. “I had been applying for [affordable housing] lotteries for, like, the past six years. For a long time, there weren’t any affordable housing units coming up in this neighborhood.”

Brown pays less than a thousand dollars per month in rent, about 30% of her income, for the two-bedroom apartment she shares with her two teenage sons. Before she was chosen through the lottery, the three of them had spent years “doubled up” with ex-

tended family, she said, inside the home her boys’ grandfather owns about seven blocks away.

Rents for a standard two-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood, she said, run about double what she’s paying now—well beyond her means.

Shared responsibility One argument for rezoning SoHo was that upscale neighborhoods also need to do their part in the affordable housing crisis, that the area’s wealth of transit choices and proximity to jobs should be shared by more New Yorkers.

“If we continue the way it is right now, there is no possibility for any additional socioeconomic diversity in this neighborhood,” said Van Tran, associate professor of sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center, who specializes in social inequality. “Even if you were to create just 100 units of affordable housing, it is an opening for a conversation about what type of community we want.”

The SoHo/NoHo plan, approved by the City Council in December, covers 56 blocks, from Astor Place to Canal Street, and will allow construction of market-rate residential towers up to 205 feet tall—with almost double the floor area than under the previous zoning—along the historic Broadway corridor where Varian lives.

According to former Mayor Bill de Blasio, the plan could fuel construction of up to 3,500 housing units during the next decade, including 900 affordable ones as part of his Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program.

Housing advocates and the Department of City Planning say the rezoning will be good for the neighborhoods, not just for the low- to middle-income residents who qualify for the affordable units. In a move benefiting property owners and local merchants, the rezoning also allows retail uses in SoHo and NoHo for the first time without a special permit or zoning variance.

“I don’t think the rezoning is going to add to the pressures in SoHo,” said Chris Walters, land-use policy coordinator at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development. “It’s going to actually make the neighborhood more accessible.”

Among the opponents, the Municipal Art Society saw a lack of protections for the neighborhood’s historic character and not enough evidence that more affordable units would be gained than lost.

SOHO REZONING “Opportunity areas” are where the city estimates 3,500 new housing units will be added, 900 of which will be affordable.

MAP: DATAWRAPPER, BUCK ENNIS

BROADWAY ●

N ●

SOURCE: Department of City Planning

“That was the question we kept asking and felt we never got a real answer to,” said Elizabeth Goldstein, the society’s president.

WAY BEHIND

Déjà vu

NUMBER OF affordable units New York needs to add by 2030 to keep up with population and job growth

560K

New York’s rich history of housing battles goes back at least as far as the draft riots of 1863. They were partly about forced conscription into the Union Army but also about “the intolerable condition of the city’s poor,” according to A History of Housing in New York City by Richard Plunz. Packed together in tenements that lacked air, light and sanitation, working-class New Yorkers had perished by the thousands in cholera epidemics.

Hard-fought reforms gave tenements indoor plumbing in 1879. By 1901, each unit was required to have its own toilet; previously, one water closet could serve 20.

In 1916 the city’s Board of Estimate passed the nation’s first zoning resolution, which eased congestion by limiting building heights and setting boundaries for commercial, residential and industrial development. But New York wouldn’t have an agency in charge of zoning until 1936, according to a chronology compiled by the Municipal Art Society as part of a 64-page report detailing the shape a comprehensive citywide plan could take.

“Certainly, as we look back over the de Blasio rezonings, there’s no question there is less trust in the process than when they started,” Goldstein said. For trust to be established, “it is essential that communities get what they need out of a citywide plan and that the city’s needs get mapped out.

It’s about trying to establish as much as possible a consensus about what they should be.”

The Department of City Planning has preferred to rely on the existing city-zoning framework to respond to local and citywide needs. And one school of thought maintains that the less oversight there is, the better off the city will be.

“New York needs less planning and more building,” said Kenneth Jackson, professor emeritus of history at Columbia University and editor of The Encyclopedia of New York City. “The reason apartment prices are so high is because we make it difficult for anybody to build apartments.”

Some of the shift toward greater grassroots engagement—and attempts to rein in City Hall—can be traced to Jacobs and her battle with Moses. Her successes helped turn public opinion against the top-down planning of the vast public projects that were central to the era of urban renewal.

But Jacobs’ approach required a leader as charismatic and media-savvy as she was.

Bronx residents were unable to stop Moses from putting the Cross Bronx Expressway through their neighborhoods. And protests couldn’t protect the mostly Black and Puerto Rican neighborhood known as San Juan Hill, the section of Manhattan that inspired West Side Story. Moses ultimately uprooted 7,000 families and leveled 18 city blocks there in a “slum clearance” project that made room for Lincoln Center.

“Washington Square Park was an easier battle,” said Plunz, a professor of architecture at Columbia and director of its Urban Design Lab. “Those roads weren’t even needed, and the media was on the side of people like Jane Jacobs.”

Even so, times were changing. The civil rights movement brought demands for

BUCK ENNIS

FAILURE

CITY EMPLOYEE Felicia Brown and her sons finally landed an affordable apartment in East New York after six years of trying.

greater community control. The controversial demolition of the original Penn Station renewed calls for preservation and led to the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965.

The mid-1970s brought the creation of the uniform land-use review procedure— meant to democratize land-use decisions— and community boards to provide an advisory role in the ULURP process.

But the community boards suffered from a lack of funding, political power and, for many neighborhoods with few resources, planning expertise.

“Community boards have little power, only a megaphone,” Plunz said. “They tend to be dismissed by the real power brokers.”

Developers in control Experts cite an array of reasons New York continues to make so little progress with its critical shortage of affordable housing. In Germany and Scandinavia, Plunz said, there is more government investment in low- and middle-income housing than there is anywhere in the United States.

Some European cities have the advantage of owning land—which gives them leverage in negotiations with developers.

“In Amsterdam, historically, the city Planning Department could issue requests for proposals that instruct developers about what should be built rather than kind of lean into the wind of what developers are already thinking,” said Sharon Zukin, a professor emerita of sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center and the author of multiple books about New York, including The Innovation Complex. “I’m hard-pressed to see what kind of planning government agencies in New York actually do that is not in coordination with what real estate developers want.”

But when New York’s government has played a bigger role in planning, it hasn’t always worked out. Plunz cites the apartment buildings lost when the city decided to rebuild parts of the burned-down South Bronx with one- and two-family homes, hoping they’d create more stable neighborhoods—and that more housing wouldn’t be needed. New York’s population fell by near-

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AFFORDABLE HOUSING could have a mix of occupancy types or sections lacking required light or air.

And converting such a unit to standard residential would trigger a $100-per-squarefoot fee—one more reason to consider office use.

“The difficulty with the rezoning is that, instead of protecting the people who live in SoHo, it creates a situation of uncertainty for them,” Paulsen said.

A City Planning spokesman responded that the Landmarks Preservation Commission has in the past approved large projects it deemed “appropriate” in historic districts, and the expense of bringing buildings up to code has not stopped residential conversions elsewhere in the city.

He expects “significant amounts” of housing to be built outside the historic districts—and inside them on underutilized sites such as parking lots.

Seeds of a citywide plan

ly a million people in the 1970s, and some officials mistakenly believed the decline would be permanent.

Meanwhile, massive projects that Moses rammed through neighborhoods soured the public on the government’s role for generations.

One critic of the SoHo rezoning, Thomas Angotti, a professor emeritus of urban policy and planning at Hunter College, sees the city effectively finishing what Moses began.

Moses, New York’s most powerful unelected official for decades, was determined to develop Lower Manhattan neighborhoods he considered insufficiently dense, even if working-class apartment buildings were in the way.

“Chinatown, the Lower East Side and parts of SoHo are among the last remaining affordable neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan,” Angotti said. He credits the preservation of those neighborhoods to the defeat of the Lower Manhattan Expressway and says the current plan will “eat away” at existing affordable housing. He sees Chinatown, with its large stock of regulated, low-cost housing adjacent to the rezoned area, as particularly vulnerable.

“The reality is that entire communities can be displaced when rezoning jacks up land and house values,” Angotti said. “Those remnants of the working-class community that once dominated [the area] will be gone.”

The Department of City Planning said it sees little chance of “significant” displacement east of the rezoned area. It says most low-income renters are in protected housing, and changes to the real estate market would not be enough to affect unprotected units. New affordable apartments in SoHo/ NoHo—formerly zoned for industrial use— could slow increases in rents.

But Sherida Paulsen, a partner at PKSB Architects and a onetime chairwoman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, said she sees stumbling blocks to the city’s affordable housing goals in the way the rezoning has been written.

An architect with a long track record of

renovation work in the district, Paulsen studied the proposal for the SoHo Broadway Initiative, a neighborhood group. She said she doubts there will be any projects big enough to meaningfully add to affordable housing inside the historic district, where, she believes, the Landmarks Preservation Commission would block projects out of scale with their neighbors.

She also said the rezoning might push some building owners toward office use.

Conversions to offices cost less than residential ones and don’t require the improvements needed to bring SoHo/NoHo’s industrial buildings into compliance with current residential building codes.

Although the rezoning gives residential construction a much bigger size allowance than commercial construction, she said, owners of smaller buildings won’t make use of it, given the costs of residential compliance and the complications of adding stories to old structures.

Paulsen even sees a potential for legal

The threat of residential demolition is the stuff of nightmares for Varian. She runs her design business out of her 1,600-squarefoot loft, working with printers and other artisans to make the fabrics, pillows, lighting and wallpapers that she sells at her eponymous shop, which relocated to Brooklyn from SoHo in 2019.

The loft’s relatively modest rent has helped her stay in business, she said, despite challenges she has faced in the past two years as a small, independent retailer.

“I am very concerned that with this ‘upzoning,’ the city is hastening the demise of what made SoHo an economic driver,” Varian said. “You could come here and find things you couldn’t find anywhere else.

That’s becoming less and less the case.”

It could be years before it’s clear what the SoHo/NoHo rezoning achieves. But it already might have added momentum to plans to rezone other affluent, majoritywhite neighborhoods for greater density and affordable housing.

Moses Gates, vice president of housing and neighborhood planning at the Regional Plan Association, has drawn up a list of five affluent New York City neighborhoods he considers ripe for rezoning: Riverdale in the Bronx, the Meatpacking District and Far West Village in Manhattan, Midwood in Brooklyn, Forest Hills North in Queens and Grasmere on Staten Island.

“You might actually find a little bit of local support in some of these areas for more housing,” he said, “especially in neighborhoods with single-family housing.

If you go to Forest Hills North, they’re already tearing down the old, smaller houses and building McMansions. The McMansions could be apartment buildings pretty easily.”

He added that in any neighborhood, rezoning would be “pretty contentious.”

That’s where a comprehensive plan could make a difference, Gates said: by giving communities a sense of what the needs are across the city and what each neighborhood is being asked to contribute.

It’s an ambitious goal. The Municipal Art Society says New York can improve on the comprehensive plan former City Council Speaker Corey Johnson tried and failed to get approved in 2020. The group has looked at other cities including London, Los Angeles and Vancouver to see how they have put comprehensive plans in place.

“The argument that New York is too big and complicated for a comprehensive plan is understandable,” Goldstein said. “But it’s not justifiable given the other big, complex cities that have done this.” ■

“I’M HARD-PRESSED TO SEE WHAT KIND OF PLANNING GOVERNMENT AGENCIES ACTUALLY DO THAT’S NOT IN COORDINATION WITH DEVELOPERS” demolition of residential lofts as part of the conversion to offices. Owners would have to maintain only the landmarked facades.

Prior to the rezoning, the onetime manufacturing district had allowed residential occupancy only through exceptions such as the “joint live-work quarters for artists” designation, which legalized loft living for artists who moved into the neighborhood in the 1960s and ’70s.

Some buildings might just maintain their current artists’ lofts—there are more than 1,600 of them in SoHo and NoHo. But Paulsen said the rezoning has not laid out a clear road map for those who want to convert JLWQA units to a general residential designation, especially in buildings that

Set aside the debate over NIMBY vs. YIMBY

BY MATTHEW FLAMM

N

obody wants to be accused of NIMBYism, a term associated with small-mindedness and, in some cases, bigotry. YIMBYs, on the other hand, are proud to be seen welcoming developers to their neck of the woods, or anyone else’s.

It’s complicated For the uninitiated, those acronyms stand for “Not in my back yard” and “Yes in my back yard.”

But development battle lines often are more complicated than they appear. Author and activist Jane Jacobs was dealing with her neighborhood when she blocked the destruction of Washington Square Park, but she also was tackling wider, urban-renewal issues.

Now the old terms make even less sense. Housing researcher Leo Goldberg, author of the influential “Game of Zones” paper about rezoning issues in New York, says a third category has emerged: groups—including community organizers, tenant advocates and anti-gentrification activists—that are no friends of developers but that will at times support development depending on how much affordable housing it brings.

Got that?

Even then, the lines aren’t clear. Some advocates have insisted on projects with 100% affordable housing, while others pushed for enough to offset the displacement pressures that come with an increase in property values.

“Does it change the equation if it’s 20% affordable?” Goldberg said. “How about 40%? These are the debates people have been having in New York.”

Sometimes it’s simple Rezonings that spur affordable housing development in affluent, majority-white neighborhoods—also known as “high-opportunity areas”—can bring advocates into alignment with the YIMBY camp, according to Goldberg.

“That’s the one area of agreement,” he said. “Being able to live in a place with access to good schools, jobs and reliable public transportation. That’s unimpeachable as a policy goal.” ■

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AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Defining ‘affordable’ The median family income in the city was about $72,264 in 2019, according to the five-year American Community Survey average. The one-year estimate is higher, $78,113, thanks to an increasing minimum wage.

However, the city doesn’t use either figure to calculate affordability. Instead, it determines affordable rates from area median income, or AMI, calculated at $107,400 for last year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That rings up 37% to 48% higher than the city’s median family income, depending on whether you look at the one-year or five-year average. The number is skewed at the high end by the extraordinary wealth of a small percentage of New York earners.

The city then uses the AMI to pair households—of certain income levels and family sizes—with apartments.

Who qualifies “Extremely low-income” is the designation for a household that earns between 0 and 30% of AMI, “very low-income” is 31% to 50% of AMI, “low-income” is 51% to 80%, “moderate-income” is 81% to 120%, and “middle-income” is 120% to 165% of AMI—that $107,400 number.

The city then makes a determination about how much rent households of different sizes and different incomes can afford. For a single person with extremely low income, it is a studio at $419 per month; for a low-income family of four, a two-bedroom unit for $1,974; and for a five-person, moderate-income family, a $3,608 three-bedroom.

The Housing New York plan Looking at communities where de Blasio-era developments have gone up, there were 194,481 housing units created, according to city data about the Housing New York plan.

Of that total, 30,885 (12%) were in the extremely low-income bucket and 58,799 (24%) in the very low-income group. The remainder—more than 100,000—were for those who make between 51% and 165% of the AMI, or $59,650 to $196,845 for a family of four, according to city data. ■

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI AND EDDIE SMALL

BOROUGH BREAKDOWN

he controversial 421-a program, which uses tax abatements to entice developers to construct affordable housing, will die in its current form June 15. What comes next is very much up for debate.

An outline of a proposed revamp of the program was released earlier this month as part of the state budget proposal. The retooled program would be similar to the current version but eliminate eligibility for higher earners, permanently subject all affordable units to rent stabilization and extend the length of tax benefits for co-ops and condos, among other changes.

The real estate community overall has expressed pleasure that Gov. Kathy Hochul appears committed to replacing the expiring program. Developers maintain that if they don’t have a sufficient financial incentive to construct below-market-rate units, they won’t build them. Still others hope the program will be disbanded altogether and won’t be renewed in any form.

Of the more than 9,000 affordable units built since 2016, 73% are in Brooklyn and Manhattan

T

Number of affordable units

Bronx 1,160

Queens 1,339

Brooklyn 4,489 Staten Island 9

History lesson When the 421-a tax-incentive program was created in 1971, its purpose was to promote the production of housing. Since then it has been amended several times SOURCE: Department of Housing Preservation and Development to mandate that builders include affordable housing units in developments in order to qualify for a rebate.

The tax break ceased for 11 months in 2016, when affordable for families earning between 40% and 90% city and state officials couldn’t agree on its implemen- of the area median income. She’s also calling for buildtation, but a deal between unions, developers and ings with 30 or more units to keep their affordable apartments permanently affordable, rather then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo revived it. It was than for just the 35-year period they’re reofficially renewed in 2017. quired to maintain now.

The latest rollout of the program has sparked the creation of 9,071 affordable units The path forward in the city, according to data from the Department of Housing Preservation and DeEli Weiss, principal at Joy Construction, velopment. Since 2010 nearly half of all resisaid Hochul’s proposed changes to the proMAXIMUM dential units built in the city were created via gram were good news, as amending 421-a HOUSEHOLD the program. seemed to be a much better solution than letINCOME for a But if all the buildings receiving 421-a exting it expire entirely. family of four emptions in fiscal year 2021 had paid taxes at “I think, given the overall difficulty of [the to qualify for a non-incentivized rate, the city could have city] right now, not making any major changaffordable collected $1.7 billion in additional revenue, es to policies that could inhibit housing prohousing City Comptroller Brad Lander has said. duction is an intelligent move,” he said.

Developers across the board have stressed Lander, however, suggests eliminating the the need to continue some type of affordable program and instead focusing on reducing housing tax break—whether Hochul’s verthe tax disparity between condominiums sion or a different one—arguing that without and apartment buildings to encourage develAFFORDABLE one, there will be fewer affordable housing opers to build rental housing.

UNITS created in the city under projects and higher rents.

“One problem is that our current tax code 421-a since “You can’t have it both ways. If we paid full gives new condos much more favorable tax 2017 taxes, you’d have developers need to—or be treatment than new rentals,” he said. “As a retempted to—bump up rents to help offset sult, if you’re a rental developer, it’s harder to that tax,” said Aaron Koffman, managing be competitive and buy property for develprincipal at Hudson Cos. opment.”

Another often-cited issue with the 421-a program as The city has an array of affordable housing programs it stands now is the income-eligibility level. Companies that offer tax breaks, subsidies and capital, he added, can include units that are affordable for households and those are the programs that provide rents at $700, earning as much as 130% of the area median income— $800 and $1,100 per month. which is $155,090 for a family of four—under the curJudith Goldiner, who heads the Legal Aid Society’s rent program. civil law reform unit, said she also would prefer to see At the Astor LIC, a rental building in Long Island City 421-a expire altogether, in part because the program is where a portion of the units are affordable at 130% of more beneficial to people selling vacant land than to the AMI, the monthly rent for a two-bedroom apart- people who need an affordable place to live. ment is $3,100. At 111 Varick in Tribeca, the building “We have tried and tried and tried to modify it, to offered three one-bedrooms with a monthly rent of change it, to do different things to make it better, and all $2,689 for incomes at 130% of the AMI. of those efforts, frankly, have failed,” Goldiner said.

“Everyone knows that is not affordable housing,” “We don’t see a way around just eliminating the proLander said. gram and using the money that you save to create truly Under Hochul’s proposal, rental apartments must be affordable housing.” ■

ISTOCK

W

hen Bill de Blasio swept into office on “a tale of two cities,” he promised to build and maintain 300,000 affordable units in New York by 2026.

Late last month he prided himself on his accomplishment: 200,000 units were here, and 100,000 were in the pipeline.

But there’s a drawback to the apparent success story.

That is, what’s affordable? The complicated answer can help determine whether New York actually became more accessible to residents in the lowest income tiers and if incentive programs for developers can mitigate the city’s housing problems.

The proportion of units within the city’s definition of affordable does not match up to the picture of need in the city. The city counts 40% of its population as in or near poverty, defined in 2019 as having an income level of less than $52,566 for a family of four.

There were 1.35 million renter households in that category, according to figures in a 2018 report from the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at NYU. For this group, the de Blasio administration created just 89,684 units.

The 421-a program, a controversial tax break for developers, is set to expire this summer, and reviews are mixed on the best next steps

Ma n 2,0hattan 74

BY CARA EISENPRESS

The city’s most contentious affordable housing program could be getting a makeover ISTOCK

City’s use of income statistics skews ‘affordable’ range

KEY STATS

$155K 9,071

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AFFORDABLE HOUSING OP-ED

NO HOUSING LOTTERY CAN WORK WHEN THE FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE IS A LACK OF AFFORDABLE UNITS

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Lower East Side) is something we do nearly every day: informing someone in dire need of housing that there is little we can do to help.

There are precious few affordable units available in New York City, and most of them are far too expensive. The city’s focus on providing incentives to private developers to build affordable housing keeps coming up short, both in terms of quantity and affordability. It also comes at a significant cost, even beyond taxpayer dollars.

LUIS CARIDAD It’s time for the city to pivot to other approaches.

In 2020 the city relaunched Housing Connect, its affordable housing lottery portal, making it easier to navigate and better able to process the enormous number of applications, which crashed the website before. But the fundamental problem—a dearth of affordable housing, especially for verylow-income New Yorkers—remains.

In early January, two-thirds of the open lotteries on Housing Connect required an income of at least $50,000. For the senior citizens who come to our office—who typically earn less than $14,000 per year—there were no open lotteries at all. There usually aren’t.

However these, and similar, apartments were available: a three-bedroom with a rent of $3,580, requiring a family of four to earn $126,686 to $196,845; a studio for $2,490 that requires a single-person income of $85,372 to $108,680.

Relying on incentives for private developers hasn’t worked because building affordable housing is not why they’re in business. As a result, developers often make sure to qualify for incentive programs and build as little affordable housing as required, using the broadest definition of “affordable” allowed. The few resulting units might not be “market rate,” but they’re often not affordable either.

What’s more, even when affordable units are accessible to low-income New Yorkers, they might come at a steep cost to their neighbors. The luxury buildings that contain the units often fuel further luxury development and encourage nearby landlords to increase rents in both legal and illegal ways, pushing long-term residents out in a process known as secondary displacement. In this way, affordable units can become Trojan horses for the vicious cycle of gentrification and displacement.

We know that pattern too well: When several years ago Extell built a luxury megatower in the Two Bridges area of the Lower East Side, a cycle of gentrification and displacement was set in motion.

The developers, who benefited from three city and state incentive programs, built the requisite affordable housing. However, the lowest annual income required to qualify was $34,355, even though the surrounding area’s median income was $21,457.

Recently, Extell described its tower as having “pioneered a new era of luxury on the Lower East Side waterfront.” Local residents wouldn’t disagree. There are four luxury megatowers planned for the neighborhood’s waterfront, right next to the Extell tower—which could spell the end of Two Bridges as a TWO BRIDGES RENDERING low- and moderateincome multiracial neighborhood.

Or not.

The city, through its zoning, decides what gets built.

Community-led rezoning efforts— such as the one GOLES is co-leading in Two Bridges with local tenants, partner organizations and the community board— allow for responsible development while ensuring that local residents have an opportunity to access truly affordable housing.

The city should prioritize community-led rezonings and other strategies, including providing greater support to nonprofit developers and community land trusts. Doing so would help ensure that when a building goes up, new residents are welcomed alongside, not in place of, those who’ve called the neighborhood home for decades. ■ Luis Caridad is assistant director of GOLES, a neighborhood housing and preservation organization.

BLOOMBERG

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DANCHI PUBLIC HOUSING, TOKYO

OP-ED

WE DON’T NEED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN ROBUST TENANT PROTECTIONS AND ABUNDANT AFFORDABLE HOUSING FALSE CHOICES ARE WHERE good ideas and good policies go to die. On the topic of housing, there’s no false choice that irks me more than whether New York state should have abundant housing or robust tenant protections. The answer, as made clear in many places around the world, is not to do one or the other: It’s to do both.

There is an excellent good-cause eviction bill in the New York Legislature now, introduced by Sen. Julia Salazar and Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter. The bill would prohibit steep rent increases, provide automatic AARON CARR lease renewals in most cases and stop evictions without good cause.

Opponents have launched a full-blown assault against the bill, claiming it would disincentivize the construction of housing and thus exacerbate New York’s housing shortage.

If those opponents are serious about fixing the housing shortage, they will drop their opposition to tenant protections and lend their support to housing creation.

Assemblyman Harvey Epstein and Sen. Pete Harckham have introduced a bill that would legalize accessory dwelling units. Legislation

by Sen. Brad Hoylman would legalize multifamily buildings in single-unitzone neighborhoods. Both are worthy ideas.

In Japan good-cause rules protect tenants from rent spikes and unjust evictions. Have Japan’s tenant protections lead to a housing shortage there? To the contrary: Tokyo is the housing development capital of the world. It produces more housing than the entire state of California, which has almost three times more people.

Switzerland has national rent control and builds twice as much housing per capita as the United States.

Montreal, which also has rent control, has built an ample supply of low-rise housing, achieving housing prices that are on average about 30% lower than comparable cities.

New Jersey has had good-cause eviction protections for 50 years and is now experiencing its largest construction boom since the mid-1980s.

Opponents might try to dismiss those examples, claiming that if we just had abundant housing in New York, there would be no need for tenant protections.

But if housing supply were enough, why has Houston been second in the country in eviction filings during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite building more housing than almost any other U.S. city?

And why, in 2016, did Austin, Texas have an eviction rate four times higher than San Francisco’s, despite building three times more housing from 2005 to 2017 and having a weaker job market?

There are many reasons, but a lack of tenant protections is undoubtedly a major one.

Housing supply is not an unimportant consideration. In fact, it’s crucial.

It’s why Houston and Austin have significantly lower rent burdens than most other large cities, for example. But it’s important to go beyond supply by enacting robust tenant protections.

If New York state were to pass good-cause protections alongside legalizing accessory dwelling units and multifamily housing in the most exclusionary-zoned neighborhoods, the end result would be more housing supply, not less.

The choice between tenant protections and housing supply is a farce. ■ Aaron Carr is founder and executive director of the Housing Rights Initiative, a watchdog group.

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AFFORDABLE HOUSING OP-ED

OP-ED

REPLACEMENT HOUSING PROGRAM MUST REDEFINE ‘AFFORDABLE’ TO HELP LOW-INCOME NEW YORKERS FIVE YEARS AGO, the 421-a tax abatement meant to incentivize affordable housing development was renewed and christened with a new name: Affordable New York.

Despite the program's $1.7 billion annual price tag, New York City remains as unaffordable as ever and the homeless crisis has reached the highest level since the Great Depression. To put it simply, 421-a has been a failure.

With Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recent announcement that she intends to end the 421-a program, the state Legislature has a real opportunity to create a better way forward. If that's JOSEPH GEIGER done correctly, New York can show the country how to solve a housing crisis while creating a larger and stronger middle class for generations to come.

First, we need to build housing that low-income and at-risk New Yorkers can afford. To do that, lawmakers must redefine what exactly “affordable housing” means. It is mind-boggling that 421-a subsidizes housing for those earning six-figure incomes while there are nearly 50,000 homeless New Yorkers. If we are using our taxpayer dollars to incentivize affordable housing, then it is our responsibility to make sure we aren’t making the problem worse.

Next, we must end the race to the bottom for wages that has run rampant in the construction industry. All too often projects receiving 421-a tax abatements offer low-wage, dead-end jobs with no benefits. Having public money subsidize bad jobs in an industry where much more is possible is not opportunity, it's exploitation.

The fix is simple: Require workers to be paid a prevailing wage. This standard would guarantee all workers on any given construction site will be paid wages and benefits they can actually live on. It’s already the law for those who maintain and service buildings in the 421-a program after they have been built. If 421-a is removed, we must ensure that we apply those standards to all working New Yorkers.

It won’t surprise anyone that the leader of the Carpenters union is advocating prevailing wage requirements, but this provision won’t guarantee that our members work on every job site. What it will guarantee is that every worker who does will be able to afford their rent, have health care and retire with dignity. Workers won’t be robbed of the pay and benefits they deserve, employers who cheat can be held accountable, and taxpayer dollars will be invested in truly affordable housing and good jobs for working people in our city.

Third, whatever system replaces 421-a needs transparency. The best forensic investigator would struggle to ascertain the current program’s effectiveness.

Want to know how many jobs were created when a residential skyscraper goes up and how much workers are paid? Which companies benefited the most or what is done to enforce stabilized rents? Good luck.

We do know that at least 1,500 landlords are alleged to have cheated on keeping 421-a subsidized apartments affordable and rent stabilized, according to the Housing Rights Initiative, and they’ve faced no consequences.

However we move forward, there must be stronger tenant protections and prevailing wage requirements attached to the construction and operation of any building constructed with taxpayer money. New York City can no longer be in the business of subsidizing poverty wages and unaffordable rents.

Now it's time to get to work. ■ Joseph Geiger is executive secretary-treasurer of the New York City District Council of Carpenters.

CONVERTING UNDERUTILIZED commercial space into housing is a concept that has garnered much interest during the past two years—and for good reason. As we saw in Lower Manhattan in the years after 9/11, adding residents to predominantly office districts can create dynamic, live-work-play neighborhoods that strengthen the office market and local retail and create more opportunities for new housing adjacent to transit and jobs.

Unfortunately, no progress has been made toward BASHA getting a new large-scale conversions program GERHARDS underway in New York City in the past two years. That’s because a key ingredient has been missing: cooperation and coordination for critical policy changes at the state and city levels.

The encouraging news now is that both Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams have made it clear that they want to move forward with a program for conversions that actually delivers results.

Here’s a five-step approach to how state and city officials can help make it happen: ● Give the city full control over its zoning. Making changes to the state’s multiple-dwelling law this year, including adjustments to the 12 FAR (floor-area ratio) cap, can help move this plan forward. Additionally, residential and commercial zoning have different standards for light and air and open space, and commercial buildings have a much higher built density. The differences need to be resolved thoughtfully. The appropriate geographies for this effort should be based on rational criteria such as access to jobs and transit. ● Embrace the fact that it’s not yet clear exactly how much space can or should be converted. Plans often rely on the information at the present moment. But we’re still in a pandemic, and we don’t know the long-term impacts to office usage. What we do know is that we have sustainability goals and housing needs to meet, and conversions are proven to help meet those public policy priorities. ● Think about the big picture. Vibrant mixed-use neighborhoods need schools, child care facilities, recreation space, and health care options as much as they need housing, retail and offices to thrive. A conversions program should not preclude the other uses. ● Ensure that the private sector and the public sector work together.

The collaboration should include a wide array of state and city agencies.

This will be necessary to address the city’s housing needs, including for affordable housing. ● Create a financial-incentive program to make the math work. The new program should align with the zoning changes, help maximize affordability among the resulting housing stock and align with best practices for environmentally sustainable development.

Changing the multiple-dwelling law might not sound splashy, but it’s the type of grounded, practical action that can jump-start much more exciting conversations.

I’m looking forward to seeing where the discussion goes and what the city and state, and the public and private sectors, can achieve when we work together. ■ Basha Gerhards is senior vice president of planning at the Real Estate Board of New York.

ONE WALL STREET

BUCK ENNIS

BUCK ENNIS

WE NEED A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO ACCELERATE RESIDENTIAL CONVERSIONS

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Notice of Qualification of J26 LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/02/21.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/26/20. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o.

Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.

DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of ORANGEBURG MANOR DEVELOPER, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/19/21. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of 400 CAPITAL ASSET BASED ONSHORE TERM FUND III L.P. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/30/21.

Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/18/21. Princ. office of LP: 510 Madison Ave., 17th Fl., NY, NY 10022. 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., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of CPG CSA PRESERVATION PARTNERS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/08/21.

Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 116 E. 27th St., 11th Fl., 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.

Shawmut Design and Construction on behalf of our client is currently soliciting sealed bids for furnish and installation of security related enhancements(eg cameras, access control, alarms,etc). The selection criteria will be based on knowledge of surveillance and security, adherence to projected work schedule, prior experience, references, and cost.

Only bids responsive to the entire scope will be considered and to be successful the bidders must be pre-qualified by Shawmut Design and Construction. Certified MWBE and Small businesses are encouraged to submit.

Potential bidders can procure instructions to bidders, bid documents, specifications, project schedule and pre-qualification paperwork by contacting us at pdoni@shawmut.com Bids will be accepted until Friday, February 4th 2022 at 5pm.

The bid submission details will be included in the instructions to bidders.

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES

CLO Structurer (Citadel Americas Services LLC – New York, NY); Mult.

Pos. Avail. Build, maintain, & enhance models for assigned coverage universe & produce & update writeups on focus names & situations. F/T. Reqs a Bach degree (or foreign equiv) in Fin, Econ, Applied Math, Physics, Engin, CS, or a rel quant field & 2 yrs of exp in job offered or in a fin markets position, particularly as a CLO Structurer. Edu, training, or exp must include: cover’g multiple credits in a fast-paced environment requir’g efficient eval of opportunities in response to news & market changes; model’g techniques for corporate capital structures & derivative pric’g (options, credit derivatives), risk measurement/mngmnt, & performance attribution techniques; &, risk & payoff profiles across range of instruments, includ’g corps, converts, CDS, equity, & options. To apply please submit resume by email to citadelrecruitment@citadel.com and reference JobID: 5768302.

Trader (Citadel Americas Services LLC – New York, NY); Mult. Pos. Avail. Monitor & analyze incom’g market info, econ news & trad’g activity to manage portfolio risk, identify investment opps & make trad’g decisions. F/T. Reqs a Bach degree (or foreign equiv) in Fin, Econ, Math, Engin, CS, Physics, or a rel quant field. Edu, train’g, or exp must include the follow’g: work’g in a datadriven quant trad’g environment; fin & stat modelling includ’g time-series analysis; work’g in fin markets with derivative pric’g; programm’g & script’g languages includ’g Python, R, C++, or sim; statistical tools includ’g R, Matlab, or sim; &, analyz’g large data sets & other informational input to inform investment or trad’g decisions. To apply please submit resume by email to citadelrecruitment@citadel.com and reference JobID: 5944702.

CLASSIFIEDS

Contact Claudia Hippel at 312-659-0076 or email: claudia.hippel@crain.com INVITATION TO BID 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 #055 – Cleaning/Laborer (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) BP #048 – Misc. Metal & ailing (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) BP #043 –Carpentry Including Temp Shed & MW (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) BP #0 4 – Spray on Fireproofing (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) BP #04 – Paint (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) BP #054 – Pre Construction Surveying

eport/Pictures (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required)

BP #05 – Surveying (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) BP #045 – Masonry (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) Only bids responsive to the entire scope of work will be considered and, to be successful, bidders must be prequalified by Turner. Certified M/WBE and Small Business (13 CFR part 121) companies are encouraged to submit.

In order to receive the bid packages, potential bidders either (1) must initiate the prequalification process by submitting a Subcontractor/Vendor Prequalification Statement to Turner, or (2) must be prequalified based on a prior submission to Turner. (Note: Prior prequalification submissions that remain current will be considered as previously submitted or may be updated at this time.) All bidders must be prequalified by the bid deadline: February 7th, 2022 and initial submission of a prequalification statement not later than February 7th, 2022 is strongly encouraged. All bidders must have an acceptable EMR, and will be subject to government regulations such as 44 CFR and Federal Executive Order 11246. Successful bidders will be required to use LCP Tracker compliance verification software. Note that while this is a New York City prevailing wage project, union affiliation is not required for BP #055, #048, #043, #0 4, #04 , #054, #05 and #045. For BP#055 – nion 79 labor force is required.

A Webcast about the above Bid Package/s will be held on anuary 13, 2021. Attendance is optional for all; the Webcast is designed to assist potential M/WBE subcontractors/vendors.

Link: Please join this meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone. https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-

join/19%3ameeting_NWFmNDViZmQtNzNkZi00M2ZhLWIzYjAtMDdhMTM2ZDQ5YTMy%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2220e27 700-b670-4553-a27c-d8e2583b3289%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2281be9e3a-0656-4e94-9245-fa214eb20ab2%22%7d

To obtain further information about contracting opportunities and/or the prequalification package and bid solicitation package/s, please contact Dolores Wooden, DWooden@tcco.com 201-954-9092.

The date for the virtual public opening at the Turner Construction Company office located at 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York, is February 8th, 2022 1PM. Link: Please join this opening meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetupjoin/19%3ameeting_YzUxYzI4YWEtM YwYy00M M1LTg5ZWEtNTkwZDUwNTQ4Yjhj%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2220e2770 0-b670-4553-a27c-d8e2583b3289%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22732a90ce-24b7-42eb-bf78-d638e2a629ac%22%7d

INVITATION TO BID

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 #057– Existing Conditions Scan to BIM Services (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) BP #053 – Security/Fire Watch Services (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) BP #058 – Temporary Sanitary Facilities (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required)

Notice of Qualification of CITY WINERY GRAND CENTRAL, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/13/21.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/08/21. Princ. office of LLC: 25 11th Ave., NY, NY 10013. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

EM Analyst (Citadel Americas Services LLC – New York, NY); Mult.

Pos. Avail. Build, maintain, & enhance fin models for assigned coverage universe & produce & update writeups on focus names & situations. F/T. Reqs a Bach degree (or foreign equiv) in Fin, Econ, Applied Math, Physics, Engin, CS or a rel quant field. Edu, train’g, or exp must include the follow’g: work’g in a fin markets position as a fundamental res analyst cover’g Emerg’g Markets Debt; risk & payoff profiles of corps, converts, CDS, equity, or options; &, cover’g multiple credits in a fast-paced environment requir’g efficient eval of opps in response to news & market changes. To apply please submit resume by email to citadelrecruitment@citadel.com and reference JobID: 5853337.

BP #047 – Tile Flooring (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) BP #049 – Mirrors & Glazing (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) Only bids responsive to the entire scope of work will be considered and, to be successful, bidders must be prequalified by Turner. Certified M/WBE and Small Business (13 CFR part 121) companies are encouraged to submit.

In order to receive the bid packages, potential bidders either (1) must initiate the prequalification process by submitting a Subcontractor/Vendor Prequalification Statement to Turner, or (2) must be prequalified based on a prior submission to Turner. (Note: Prior prequalification submissions that remain current will be considered as previously submitted or may be updated at this time.) All bidders must be prequalified by the bid deadline: March 7th, 2022 and initial submission of a prequalification statement not later than March 7th, 2022 is strongly encouraged. All bidders must have an acceptable EMR, and will be subject to government regulations such as 44 CFR and Federal Executive Order 11246.

Successful bidders will be required to use LCP Tracker compliance verification software. Note that while this is a New York City prevailing wage project, union affiliation is not required for BP #057, #053, #058, #0447 or #049.

A Webcast about the above Bid Package/s will be held on February 11, 2022. Attendance is optional for all; the Webcast is designed to assist potential M/WBE subcontractors/vendors.

Link: Please join this meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetupjoin/19%3ameeting_NDJmNmIxYjktODNiOC00NjZjLTllZDMtZjhhMDdjNDUwNmM5%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3 a%2220e27700-b670-4553-a27c-d8e2583b3289%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22732a90ce-24b7-42eb-bf78-d638e2a629ac%22%7d

To obtain further information about contracting opportunities and/or the prequalification package and bid solicitation package/s, please contact Dolores Wooden, lspangel@tcco.com 646-842-1659.

The date for the virtual public opening at the Turner Construction Company office located at 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York, is March 8th, 2022 9 AM Link: Please join this opening meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetupjoin/19%3ameeting_MDI0Mzk3MWUtYmE0Mi00Y2MxLTg0ZmQtYWIyYWMyNjgwZjli%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b %22Tid%22%3a%2220e27700-b670-4553-a27c-d8e2583b3289%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22732a90ce-24b7-42ebbf78-d638e2a629ac%22%7d

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES Suki Ichiro Japanese LLC, Arts of Org filed with SSNY on 11/01/21. Off Loc: New York County, SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: The LLC, 1694 Second Ave, New York, NY 10128 Purpose: to engage in any lawful act.

Notice of formation of Konisan (NY), LLC, file with SOS of NY on 12/13/21. Loc in NY County, designed as agent upon whom process may be served SSNY, shall mail process to 600 Mamaroneck Ave #400, Harrison, NY 10528. Purpose: any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF ANNA WEISS, P.L.L.C. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/7/19. Office: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process against PLLC to 200 Rector Pl 12B, NY, NY 10280.

Purpose: Any lawful act.

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Notice of Qualification of THUZIO, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/18/21.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/12/11. Princ. office of LLC: 114 W. 26th St., 5th Fl., NY, NY 10001.

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 of DE, Dept. of State, Div. of Corps., John Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of Limited Liability Company. Name: Nathan Galinsky Apartments Preservation LLC (“LLC”). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of the State of New York (“SSNY”) on December 6, 2021. NY office location: New York County. The SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The SSNY shall mail a copy of any process to Nathan Galinsky Apartments Preservation LLC, 641 Lexington Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10022.

Purpose/character of LLC is to engage in any lawful act or activity.

Notice of formation of Limited Liability Company. Name: Nathan Galinsky Apartments Preservation Management LLC (“LLC”). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of the State of New York (“SSNY”) on December 6, 2021. NY office location: New York County. The SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The SSNY shall mail a copy of any process to Nathan Galinsky Apartments Preservation Management LLC, 641 Lexington Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10022. Purpose/character of LLC is to engage in any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of CAPE GRAVITY, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/19/21. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Brian Orlando, 350 Bleecker St., Apt. 6X, NY, NY 10014, regd. agent upon whom and at which process may be served. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of RADIO RESTAURANT, LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/27/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/02/21.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Youngwoo & Associates, LLC, 545 W. 25th St., 8th Fl., NY, NY 10001. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of 400 CAPITAL JSIF IV GP LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/30/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/11/21.

Princ. office of LLC: 510 Madison Ave., 17th Fl., NY, NY 10022.

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 of the State of DE, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

ESRT MV Swap Victory Owner, L.L.C. Authority filed SSNY 11/29/21. Office: NY Co. LLC formed DE 9/28/21. Exists in DE: c/o Corporation Service Company, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. SSNY designated agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served & mail to: c/o Corporation Service Company, 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Cert of Formation Filed: Jeffrey W. Bullock, DE Secy. of State, Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901. General Purpose.

Notice of Formation of PAULA ZIRINSKY LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/24/21. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of LLC: 315 Riverside Dr., #9A, NY, NY 10025. 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 YONKERS PORTFOLIO MEMBER LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/22/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/13/21. Princ. office of LLC: 116 E. 27th St., 11th Fl., NY, NY 10016. 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., Wilimington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Real estate owner.

Notice of Application for Authority of FLLC: Tinicum Venture Partners I GP LLC Application for Authority of FLLC filed with SSNY: 12/10/2021. The jurisdiction of the co. is DE, it was formed on 11/22/2021. Office location in NYS, NY County is 800 3rd Ave. 40th flr, NY, NY 10022. SSNY desig. as agent of the FLLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY can mail process to c/o Tin. Enter. Inc. 990 Stewart Ave, Ste 580, Garden City, NY 11530.

The address of the principal office of the Co. in DE is 1209 ORANGE STREET, WILMINGTON, DE 19801. Name & address of the auth. officer in DE where a copy of the Articles of Organization of the FLLC is filed at SOS JEFFREY W. BULLOCK, 401 FEDERAL STREET, STE 4 DOVER, DE 19901. Purpose of company is any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of DERBY BLISS 68, LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/14/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/24/21. Princ. office of LLC: 41 Madison Ave., 40th Fl., NY, NY 10010. 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, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Investing.

ESRT Victory Owner, L.L.C. Authority filed SSNY 11/29/21.

Office: NY Co. LLC formed DE 9/28/21. Exists in DE: c/o Corporation Service Company, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. SSNY designated agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served & mail to: c/o Corporation Service Company, 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Cert of Formation Filed: Jeffrey W. Bullock, DE Secy. of State, Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901. General Purpose.

Notice of Formation of Food & Courage, LLC. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/10/21.

Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 1136 1st ave apt 5 NY, NY 10065. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Rachel R. Bieber at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Off The Rip LLC Arts. of org. filed with NY Secy. of State (SSNY) on 9/16/20. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail process to:105 West 125th Street #1048 NY, NY 10027. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of Limited Liability Company name: Walker 89, LLC Art. Of Org. Filed Sec. of State of NY 05/19/2016. Off. Loc.: Richmond Co. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to The LLC, 209 Granite Ave Staten Island NY. Purpose: Any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of Gomez Personal Custom Prints LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/10/21. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 429 Orchard St, Englewood, NJ 07631. R/A: NY Registered Agent LLC, 90 State St, Ste 700, Ofc 40, Albany, NY 12207.

Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of formation of Limited Liability Company name: Walker 5, LLC Art. Of Org. Filed Sec. of State of NY 06/07/2017. Off. Loc.: Richmond Co. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to The LLC, 209 Granite Ave Staten Island NY. Purpose: Any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of CLAMPETT PHYSICAL THERAPY (NY), PLLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/06/21. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: C T Corporation System, 28 Liberty St., NY, NY 10005. Purpose: to practice the profession of Physical Therapy.

ESRT MV Swap Chesapeake Owner, L.L.C. Authority filed SSNY 11/29/21. Office: NY Co. LLC formed DE 9/28/21. Exists in DE: c/o Corporation Service Company, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. SSNY designated agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served & mail to: c/o Corporation Service Company, 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Cert of Formation Filed: Jeffrey W. Bullock, DE Secy. of State, Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901. General Purpose.

Notice of Qualification of Fulton RE Holdings LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/14/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/01/21. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Ilyse Dolgenas, Esq., Withers Bergman LLP, 430 Park Ave., 10th Fl., NY, NY 10022. Address to be maintained in DE: 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 Qualification of Impactive Solutions, LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/14/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Georgia (GA) on 02/09/18. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Registered Agent Solutions, Inc., 99 Washington Ave. Ste. 1008, Albany, NY 12260. Principal office address: 301 E Lamar St #6, McKinney, TX 75069. Arts of Org. filed with the Secy. of State, State of GA Secy. of State Corporate Division, 313 West Tower, 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr., Atlanta, GA 30334-1530. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of formation of Limited Liability Company. Name: Nathan Galinsky Apartments Development LLC (“LLC”). Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of the State of New York (“SSNY”) on December 6, 2021. NY office location: New York County. The SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The SSNY shall mail a copy of any process to Nathan Galinsky Apartments Development LLC, 641 Lexington Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10022.

Purpose/character of LLC is to engage in any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of 83LEONIS LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/07/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/29/21.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Ajaypal Singh Banga, 875 5th Ave., Apt. 19A, NY, NY 10065. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

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

Notice of Qualification of ESNY BEACON LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/05/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Florida (FL) on 08/29/19. Princ. office and FL addr. of LLC is: 900 5th Ave. South, Ste. 202, Naples, FL 34102. 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. Cert. of Form. filed with FL Secy. of State, 500 S. Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32399. Purpose: Investments for profit of a general nature, including real estate, land, closely held business entities, and any other lawful business activity allowed by law.

Notice of Qualification of DOUP PARTNERS LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/13/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/17/21.

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, 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of KINOKO LOGISTICS, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/02/21. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/04/14.

Princ. office of LLC: 100 Ave. of the Americas, 16th Fl., NY, NY 10013. 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 DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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FROM PAGE 1

touched on some typical pains, such as long waits for a certificate of occupancy from the Department of Buildings or for a date when National Grid would turn on the gas.

When asked, however, businesses interviewed by Crain’s were most vociferous about a different regulation: the Key to NYC mandate, which requires that almost all indoor venues check proof of Covid-19 vaccination for all guests ages 5 and older. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio created the mandate by executive order, and Adams has allowed it to continue.

“It is just horrible,” said Dave Pesso, owner of the Hummus and Pita Co. “You always want to keep people safe, but it shouldn’t be up to us to be the bad guy.”

“There should be a better way to manage it,” said Alejandro Nava, owner of restaurants on Staten Island and in Queens and Nassau County. He added that parties are

94%

friends’ vaccination cards.

The vaccine COMPLIANCE mandate is not rate for the Key one of the strips to NYC program, of red tape that which requires Adams is likely that most to remove. indoor venues “Key to NYC check proof of rules were put vaccination for in place to proguests 5 and tect workers older and patrons by encouraging more New Yorkers to get vacciNUMBER of fullynated,” a city vaccinated New spokespers on Yorkers, according said. “With a to the city 94% compliance rate and more than 6 million New Yorkers fully vaccinated, it’s clear the policy has been—and continues to be—a success.”

6M

The worst of the rest The new vaccination-proof rule is certainly not the only complaint businesses have had. A cross-section of regulations have irked city businesses.

For Jamaal Bouidra, owner of Astoria Boutique, the worst infractions on the part of the city were street closures.

“They set up a street fair, and we can’t do business,” Bouidra said.

“I FEEL LIKE I AM A CRIMINAL WHEN I AM TRYING TO MAKE A LIVING” rarer since the mandate, because hosts don’t want to book space and then be responsible for checking

BLOOMBERG

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“Then we’re stuck with no traffic, no customers, nothing.”

Rob Bookman, a partner at law firm Pesetsky & Bookman, said the top violations he saw in his restaurant-focused practice tended to be general and noncritical.

“It’s violations for having a puddle on the floor in front of the dishwasher,” Bookman said. “Or, on a hot summer day, the kitchen staff taking a drink of water from an unsealed container.”

One notorious incident, he said, related to a sidewalk café rule, which determines that a barrier between an eating area and the side-

walk should be no taller than 30 inches. Many restaurants use plants as barriers, he noted.

“They’d put in plants in April, but

by August, the plants grew,” he said.

“The violations were that the plants grew.”

Persistent inspections In addition to fines, which can add up to tens of thousands of dollars annually, numerous inspections from an alphabet soup of agencies can leave business owners feeling as though they are constantly at the mercy of the city.

“I feel like I am a criminal when I

am trying to make a living,” Nava said. “It’s like harassment.”

The new administration hopes that lightening up on the rules that create the highest number of summonses will at least generate goodwill in the small-business community, Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer said Jan. 4 at a news conference about the executive order.

“This is changing fundamentally the city’s relationship with small businesses,” Torres-Springer said.

“Changing the culture of agencies so that we work harder for small businesses.” ■

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