Crain's New York Business

ASKED & ANSWERED Queens senator on the value of universal child care PAGE 6

CRAINSNEWYORK.COM

|

CHASING GIANTS The ‘boring’ mortgage service industry gets a new competitor PAGE 3

MARCH 21, 2022

SMALL BUSINESS

TINY COMPANIES THWART THE CLOSURE TREND Number of businesses with fewer than five staffers is ballooning during the pandemic

BY CARA EISENPRESS

P

retty soon Rebekah Kondrat will have a choice to make: stay small or try to grow.

Retail clients flock to Kondrat’s consultancy, Rekon Retail, for help figuring out how to build brick-and-mortar stores. She takes them from the design concept through choosing contractors and hiring and training staff. She’s got the expertise, after working at a who’s who of retailers, from Apple and Starbucks to Joybird and Warby Parker.

“Having grown up in these great retail backgrounds with a team mentality, it seems natural” to pursue growth, Kondrat said.

NUMBER of On the other hand, she said, she is tempted to hedge restaurants with against another earth-shattering event by staying lean. fewer than five “It is a balance,” she said. employees that The question of what’s next is on the minds of many opened from Q2 proprietors at the city’s newest, smallest businesses, 2019–Q2 2021 formed during the past two years.

The Covid-19 pandemic’s disruptions were notably hard on small businesses, especially those in face-to-face fields such as the arts, entertainment, recreation, restaurants and retail. Between March 2019 and March 2020, a net 13,758 small establishments closed statewide, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. In the city, the number of private-sector businesses decreased by 1% between the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of last year, according to a report by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

BUCK ENNIS

KONDRAT, at a client’s store, may choose to hedge against another earth-shattering event by keeping her company lean.

1,000

See TINY on page 22

POLITICS

Through one-house proposals, Legislature pushes back on governor’s power to pass policy through the state budget

BY MAYA KAUFMAN, ANNE MICHAUD AND EDDIE SMALL

T

he budget proposals from the New York Assembly and Senate—known as onehouse resolutions—pave the way for state budget negotiations to begin in earnest as Albany works toward its new fiscal year,

NEWSPAPER

VOL. 38, NO. 11

P001_CN_20220321.indd 1

beginning April 1.

The Legislature on March 14 pointedly dropped two major policy proposals that were included in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $216.3 billion executive budget in January: alcohol-to-go for restaurants (see page 10) and mayoral control of New York City schools.

With that salvo, the Legislature appears to

© 2022 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC.

be pushing back on the executive’s power to pass new policies within the budget, a practice pioneered by Gov. David Paterson in 2010 and continued under Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The Assembly and Senate budgets go well beyond what Hochul is proposing to spend.

Both houses neglected to include Hochul’s

proposal to bid out the state’s $60 billion Medicaid managed-care program. Both added dedicated rent-relief funding, a base wage for home care workers, health coverage for undocumented immigrants, investment in universal child care and big increases for See BUDGET on page 7

GOTHAM GIG

SHOWING THE MAGIC MATH BRINGS TO THE EQUATION

WOMEN IN

PAGE 23

PAGE 11

Construction, Design

& Architecture

3/18/22 5:35 PM

REAL ESTATE

Seven more hotels try to recover pandemic losses through legal action, but their success is unlikely

A

group of city hotels is throwing a Hail Mary pass in a bid to recover revenue lost during pandemic

closures.

At least seven owners of different hotels recently filed separate lawsuits against Strathmore Insurance and its parent company, Greater New York Mutual Insurance, in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, claiming they were wrongly denied coverage under their policies and are entitled to the money they’ve lost since March 2020.

The inns include the Life Hotel, Hotel Casablanca, the Hotel Giraffe, the Library Hotel, the Hotel Elysee, the Pearl, the Belvedere and the Lucerne.

Each lawsuit claims that “the pandemic had an unprecedented and catastrophic effect on [their] property and business operations, causing millions of dollars in losses.”

The Pearl is claiming no less than $3 million.

The hotels’ attorney, Richard Ellis of Reed Smith, declined to comment.

In December the Hotel Giraffe, owned by Henry Kallan, bounced back on its overdue mortgage payments that, according to data from Trepp, haven’t been made since March 2020.

The $32.6 million loan went delinquent shortly after the pandemic

forced hotels to shut down, putting the 72-room Midtown South property at risk of foreclosure with its lender, Cantor Fitzgerald, Trepp data show. It’s now current on its payments, according to the data.

Kallan also owns the Casablanca, Library and Elysee hotels.

HOTEL GIRAFFE

Similar claims Citywide, hotels, restaurants and theaters have filed similar claims against insurers throughout the pandemic, but no rulings have been made in favor of any New York hotel.

Mark Browne, chairman of risk management and insurance at St. John’s University, said the majority of U.S. businesses have not been successful in their business-interruption coverage claims.

An October 2020 case brought by the owners of the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn Heights to get more than $9.6 million from Affiliated FM Insurance was struck down in December by a federal judge in Brooklyn.

BD Hotels, whose portfolio includes the Bowery Hotel in the East Village and the Jane on the West Side, filed a complaint against its insurer, Federal Insurance, for denying coverage, prompting a lawsuit against the company from Federal in February 2021.

So far the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th,10th and 11th circuit courts have ruled that Covid-19 restrictions imposed by jurisdictions that haven’t caused physical loss or

COURTESY OF HOTEL GIRAFFE

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

damage do not trigger loss-of-business claims from commercial property insurance policies.

The general argument made by insurers is that the pandemic didn’t cause direct physical damage to the hotels.

But in their complaints, the hotels are claiming that even former Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote in an executive order that “​​the virus physically is causing property loss and damage” because it made surfaces unsafe.

“We all believe that that language was in place to help businesses file claims like this,” said real estate lawyer Michael Pensabene of Rosenberg & Estis.

‘Should get something’ In another case, Assa Properties, which owns the MAve Hotel in the Flatiron District, sued its insurer, Lloyds of London, for $1 million because it was denied coverage after it said the homeless New Yorkers who resided there during the early stag-

es of the pandemic destroyed its furniture.

“Generally speaking, I think these hotels should get something,” Pensabene said. But given the way the courts have ruled in favor of landlords in rent disputes with tenants, it isn’t likely the hotels will recover much of anything, he said.

“They won’t hold insurance carriers responsible,” he added.

An attorney for Greater New York Mutual Insurance declined to comment on the pending litigation. ■

HEALTH CARE

GREGORY RUSS

CONFERENCE CALLOUT

APRIL 6 CRAIN’S POWER BREAKFAST Join Crain’s for its first in a series of Power Breakfasts to network with the city’s top policy makers and business leaders. You’ll hear from Gregory Russ, CEO of the New York City Housing Authority, on what’s next for one of the most important agencies in the city.

NEW YORK ATHLETIC CLUB Time: 8 to 9:30 a.m.

180 Central Park South, ninth floor CrainsNewYork.com/PowerBreakfast

Undercounted nursing home deaths spark scrutiny of data practices under Cuomo

BY MAYA KAUFMAN

S

takeholders are advocating for improvements to the state Department of Health’s data practices after an audit released last Tuesday found that it had understated the number of Covid-related nursing home deaths by at least 4,100 and did not make effective use of data to address nursing home outbreaks.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, whose office conducted the audit, said the Health Department should improve the quality of nursing homes’ data by collaborating more with the industry. That could mean additional training sessions to ensure that home employees properly use reporting tools such as the Nosocomial Outbreak Reporting Application, DiNapoli said.

“The problem has not been an over-regulation of nursing homes.

It’s been an inadequate implemen-

tation of the regulations we already have,” he said.

Necessary info Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for nursing home and long-term-care residents, said the Health Department should more closely monitor staffing levels and other key metrics to spot problems.

The audit found that the department “routinely underreported death counts” in nursing homes. It also found the department doesn’t broadly analyze data collected from multiple sources to detect outbreaks across facilities.

The audit said the department “conformed its presentation to the executive’s narrative, often presenting data in a manner that misled the public,” referring to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, his staff and members of a state interagency task

force, including Dr. Howard Zucker, former state health commissioner.

Zucker, who resigned in September, disputed the characterization.

“The Department of Health under my leadership worked tirelessly and with the highest level of integrity and provided the governor’s office regularly with data,” he said in a statement to Crain’s. “However, the department did not have control over how the governor’s office represented that data to the public.”

Health Department officials told the auditors that “decisions on how to report death data are made by officials outside those collecting the data,” but they did not identify the decision-makers.

In a written response to the audit, the Health Department said the comptroller’s office conflated the lack of transparency under the Cuomo administration with the department’s development and use of data to detect and control infections. The department said each of its data sources has a distinct use.

Aggregating data across systems would be statistically problematic.

“The department respectfully disagrees with the draft report’s conclusions in its entirety,” it said.

The infection-control audit was part of a series conducted by the comptroller’s office that focused on the Health Department’s oversight of nursing homes. ■

CORRECTION ■ Hermina (Nina) Batson does internal audit and regulatory engagement at Barclays and has volunteered at the Financial Women’s Association for more than a decade. Her current responsibilities were not clearly stated and the number of years she has volunteered was incorrect in her Notable Black Leaders profile, published Feb. 21.

Vol. 38, No. 11, March 21, 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.

For subscriber service: call 877-824-9379; fax 313-446-6777. $140.00 per year. (GST No. 13676-0444-RT) ©Entire contents copyright 2022 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | March 21, 2022

P002_CN_20220321.indd 2

3/18/22 5:25 PM

CHASING GIANTS

BUCK ENNIS

THE VALON MORTGAGE team works with banks and institutional investors to service their home-loan portfolios.

Valon takes on Black Knight to revamp a boring industry Union Square–based startup sees opportunities for growth in the mortgage servicing business

C

hasing Giants is a new, biweekly column profiling budding startups in New York City and their plans to compete with, and potentially overtake, an industry leader.

The reigning Goliath: Black Knight

The mortgage servicing industry includes hundreds of players, big and small. But a large number of them rely on technology provided by Black Knight, a 60-year-old software, data and analytics company that says its platform now serThe upstart: Valon Mortgage vices about 36 million U.S. home loans—roughly half the Only in the world of mortgage service providers could a $6 market.

Thanks to a slew of new regulations following the 2008 fibillion company be considered a startup.

Union Square–based Valon Mortgage, launched in 2019, nancial crisis, meanwhile, the cost of mortgage servicing has has so far snagged a 0.0006% share of the servicing rights for nearly tripled—to an average of $13 per month per loan, acthe nation’s $11 trillion home mortgage pool. But the oppor- cording to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

“The consumer winds up paying for it,” said Karan Kaul, tunity for growth is undeniable, and co-founder Andrew Wang, the company’s chief executive, says the mortgage ser- principal research associate with the Urban Institute, a social and economic policy think tank. vicing industry is ripe for disruption.

The industry gets lousy reviews from consumers.

“Valon” is an invented word that takes inspiration According to J.D. Power, the average net promoter from the Wheel of Time fantasy TV series. The comscore for a mortgage service provider—which indipany’s founders said they chose it because it sounds cates a customer’s propensity to recommend a “robust and safe.” The startup works with banks and company—is 19 on a scale topping out at 100, cominstitutional investors to service their home loan pared with an average score of 43 across all indusportfolios—collecting payments from borrowers, tries. handling their escrow accounts and working with That’s partly due to some structural disadvantagfolks who are behind on payments. es, such as the fact that borrowers can’t choose their “It’s something that requires a lot of security,” said provider and have few opportunities for engageWang, 29, who previously oversaw mortgage loan ANNE KADET ment, said Craig Martin, a J.D. Power managing diportfolios for Soros Fund Management. rector.

Wang said that while working at Soros, he identi“There is no doubt that the industry still has room for imfied mortgage servicing issues ranging from bad customer service and byzantine record-keeping to compliance irregu- provement,” Martin said. larities. He looked for a startup providing a solution. Finding How to slay the giant none, he launched one himself.

“No one else wants to do it,” he said of his mission to overWang noted that 80% of the cost of home-loan servicing haul what might be the world’s most boring industry. “We comes from the labor—employing people to answer calls, redon’t even know if we want to do it sometimes.” ply to emails and work with homeowners who are behind on He is joined by co-founders Eric Chiang, 30, the company’s payments. chief product officer, who came to Valon from Amazon; and Valon’s platform, designed with borrowers in mind, makes Jon Hsu, the 29-year-old chief technology officer, who previ- it easy for people to check their balance, receive alerts, manously worked at cloud communications platform Twilio. age their escrow account and make payments via a mobile

app or web browser.

That cuts short-term costs. Long term, it reduces the number of nonperforming loans, which are expensive to handle.

Wang said Valon’s system cuts servicing costs by half, to roughly $6.50 per month per loan.

The added challenge The mortgage service industry has made a lot of progress on the customer service front in recent years, Kaul said: “Lots of servicers have good apps and have created better systems.”

But Valon said there’s a big difference between a legacy platform jiggered with a few bells and whistles and its new platform, which was built from scratch with homeowners in mind.

D.J. Mauch agreed. A partner overseeing investments at 166 2nd Financial Services, the family office of WeWork founder Adam Neumann, Mauch not only participated in Valon’s $50 million Series A funding round, but he also hired the company to service the firm’s own mortgage loan portfolio and is happy with the results.

“Working with mortgage service providers is extremely painful. It dissuades many from investing directly in the asset class,” Mauch said. “The mortgage servicing industry is one that hasn’t been disrupted by technology, and it’s a very large space. Valon is the key disrupter.”

Goliath responds Black Knight declined to comment. But during a recent earnings call, Chairman and CEO Anthony Jabbour declared the company has delivered “new innovations with urgency,” including the ability to provide services with home maintenance and repair information while giving borrowers the option of browsing and selecting insurance policies directly from its platform. ■ Anne Kadet is the creator of Café Anne, a weekly newsletter with a New York City focus. She was previously a city business and trends columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

MARCH 21, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 3

P003_CN_20220321.indd 3

3/18/22 4:53 PM

RESIDENTIAL SPOTLIGHT

PayPal executive spends $8.6 million on SoHo loft The notable social advocate picks up a prewar condo in a building with a significant rock-and-roll legacy

BY C. J. HUGHES

P

ayPal seems to be paying off for its chief executive, who has landed a large loft in SoHo. Daniel Schulman, head of the digital payment platform since 2013, closed last month on a 4,614-square-foot apartment at 30 Crosby St., a condominium converted from a factory two decades ago.

Unit 2B, which has three bedrooms, three baths and a 2,000-square-foot living room with a fireplace, sold for $8.6 million, according to the city register. That’s just a hair below its $8.9 million asking price from May.

$8.9M

LISTING PRICE for No. 2B at 30 Crosby St. The apartment features a library with direct elevator access, a large laundry room and floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Serena Boardman, the Sotheby’s broker who marketed the property, had no comment.

As tech firms go, PayPal has been durable. Co-founded by investor Peter Thiel in 1998, back in the first dot-com boom, the company survived the sector’s collapse before being snapped up by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. In 2015 Schulman spun off PayPal and took it public.

Based on filings, the Silicon Valley firm has had an upand-down year. After hitting an alltime high in the summer of $310 per share in the midst of a pandemic-driven surge in online shopping, the stock price has tumbled back to earth with the pandemic’s ebb, closing March 11 at $96.57, about where it was before Covid-19.

Schulman, a longtime supporter of human-rights causes, has won several honors for his advocacy work, including a 2020 nod from the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights center, which also recognized Colin Kaepernick. ■

A somewhat-rare prewar condominium in a neighborhood of cooperatives, 30 Crosby has a significant rock-and-roll legacy that seems disproportionate to a building with just 13 units. Both Lenny Kravitz and Courtney Love once lived in the seven-story building.

Schulman, who could not be reached for comment, might have been attracted by the unit’s classic SoHo look: old beams, exposed brick walls and an open floor plan.

YOO JEAN HAN SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY

BOTH LENNY KRAVITZ AND COURTNEY LOVE ONCE LIVED IN THE BUILDING

UNIT 2B AT 30 CROSBY ST., a three-bedroom prewar condo, features a fireplace in its 2,000-square-foot living room.

ON REAL ESTATE

Bleak buyers’ market will likely get worse before it gets better thanks to lack of housing inventory

I

n case you haven’t noticed, the losophy. These days, at the pace housing market is insane right deals are being done, they’ll be now. Like, “offer way over the lucky to set foot inside one open asking price five minutes after house that’s still available before seeing a place, pledge to running out of places to name your firstborn after see. the owner and still lose And the supout to a private equity ply-and-demand imbalfirm with some vague but ance in the city itself actuintimidating name like ally isn’t even as bad as it Consolidated Cesium is in the suburbs yet, alInc.” insane. And, at least though that seems on in the New York area, it track to change later this doesn’t look like it’s going year. Condo and co-op to get better for buyers in Manhattan were EDDIE SMALL sales anytime soon. the highest they had been There are several facin at least 32 years in tors behind this, but one of the larg- 2021, and Miller Samuel President est is a simple lack of inventory. and CEO Jonathan Miller has preHousing in the New York area has dicted a supply crunch will hit the always been limited, but prospec- city in the coming months.

In other words, the bad news for tive buyers used to be able to at least tour several places they anyone looking to buy in the city couldn’t afford before returning to right now is that it’s a challenging their dingy studio apartment to sob market, and the worse news is that quietly and regret majoring in phi- it’s probably only going to get more

challenging moving forward. The idea of buyers trying to wait out the housing situation until it gets better is starting to look increasingly untenable unless they are willing to start thinking about that wait in terms of years, not months.

Scarce supply This isn’t a problem for people looking to sell, provided they don’t mind immediately putting all the money they get from their old home toward buying a new home. But for people looking to buy, the state of the market is just the latest and most glaring reminder that New York does not build nearly enough housing and hasn’t been building enough for years.

Because that’s really the only way the situation would quickly and demonstrably improve: with the arrival of a massive influx of new hous-

ing that would give buyers more options, ease up on the bidding wars and at least partially have the market shift back in their favor.

However, this influx is not on the immediate horizon. A report commissioned by the Real Estate Board of New York from earlier this year found that the city would need to

your best options are probably to either settle into your apartment for a lengthy stay or just keep trying before the inventory gets even tighter.

New condo and co-op listings in Manhattan and Brooklyn did still increase year over year in February, indicating that increasing demand for those units hasn’t completely destroyed the city's pipeline yet. But with Covid cases falling and the arrival of the popular spring home shopping season, it’s tough to see those increases lasting for much longer.

Having said that, there is always the chance that a totally unexpected occurrence could upend the market in ways no one is anticipating, but we’d have to be talking about a truly rare event here—like, say, a oncein-a-century pandemic that changes virtually every aspect of life as we know it. You know, something that would never happen. ■

THE IDEA OF TRYING TO WAIT OUT THE SITUATION LOOKS INCREASINGLY UNTENABLE construct 560,000 housing units by 2030 to keep pace with anticipated population and job growth, but there are just 79,500 units in the pipeline.

So if you’re house hunting in New York right now and find yourself stressed out, saddened and exhausted by the constant stream of rejected offers, the hard truth is that

4 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | March 21, 2022

P004_CN_20220321.indd 4

3/18/22 4:07 PM

IN THE MARKETS

Staggered by the crisis happening in Europe, Wall Street braces for more unpleasant surprises YOU CAN BET MORE SHOCKS ARE TO COME BECAUSE RUSSIA IS THREATENING TO DEFAULT ON ITS DEBT AGAIN 1918, is threatening to do so again.

In theory, our banking system was made sufficiently robust after the 2008 catastrophe to withstand whatever happens in Russia. In reality, though, nobody knows for sure. Since the 2008 financial crisis, alternative lenders such as private-equity firms and hedge funds have stepped in where banks wouldn’t or couldn’t tread. Do the “shadow banks” have enough cash now to weather the storm?

More surprising victims are

TRADERS, BROKERS and clerks on the trading floor of the open outcry pit at the London Metal Exchange last month

BLOOMBERG

T

he nickel market reopened notably in 2008, when the U.S. govlast week, despite a tech- ernment decided not to save Lehnology glitch. Time to dig man Bros. after rescuing Bear Steaout the change from your rns six months earlier. The decision sofa cushions, although price con- was considered sound at the time, trols limit how much of it can be and the New York Times editorial page even said it was turned into dimes and “oddly reassuring” to let quarters.

Lehman fail.

Nickel trading had Then markets immedibeen closed for a week for ately crashed everywhere. two reasons. First, Russia AIG collapsed and, to the is a major supplier. Secsurprise of just about evond, the London Metal eryone, so did monExchange is Hong Kong– ey-market funds holding owned, and a major cus$4 trillion because a fund tomer in China suffered that owned Lehman debt big losses when nickel AARON ELSTEIN “broke the buck.” suddenly became more Average savers were exvaluable than an old posed to losses on an investment American buffalo coin.

Financial markets have reacted considered absolutely safe until to the Ukraine invasion in some Uncle Sam stepped in. A few weeks predictable ways. The price of oil later, taxpayers bailed out the fiand wheat soared, and stocks have nancial system. gotten slammed. There have been surprises too. Did anyone guess ev- Nobody knows er-neutral Switzerland would join That walk down memory lane is the sanctions imposed on Russia? a reminder that nobody ever knows And then there’s the nickel mar- what will happen when the finanket. cial system is dealt a genuine surTectonic shifts have a way of un- prise. You can bet more shocks are leashing market mayhem. We’ve to come because Russia, which deseen this sort of thing before, most faulted on its debt in 1998 and

emerging: Wall Street traders. Revenue from moving around stocks, bonds, currencies and everything else is expected to fall by 20% this quarter. Normally, trading desks love a volatile market.

“Bad vol” is how analysts at Keefe Bruyette & Woods describe the situation.

Amid so much uncertainty this much is clear: You want the “vol” to be good. ■

ON POLITICS

For Midtown, a relative ghost town, this is a moment that demands New Deal–style energy

W

hat will Mayor Eric expensive office space.

Both Adams and Gov. Kathy HoAdams do about the future of Midtown? chul need to bow to that reality.

One fruitful debate that is already It’s one of the key questions that hangs over New taking place in Albany is how to York, two years after the Covid-19 convert offices and hotels into housing. Reimagining Midtown the pandemic first devastated the city. way the downtown corriOn one hand, we’ve dor around the World come a long way. Bars Trade Center was reand restaurants are bevamped after 9/11 is the ginning to fill up again, best way forward. The and the idea of another pandemic hasn’t hobbled lockdown, with cases fallthe Manhattan economy ing, seems less and less below Canal Street as likely. The city boasts a badly because there is so high vaccination rate. much housing now in the Hospitals, after weatherFinancial District and Triing the omicron surge, ROSS BARKAN beca. Mixed-use neighseem prepared to handle borhoods safeguard the rest of this pandemic.

On the other hand, the city has against such devastation.

Conversion, of course, is easier clearly not recovered, with its stubbornly high unemployment rate said than done. Adams and Hochul and with mass transit ridership no- both must announce a far more agwhere near what it was in 2019. gressive plan—and dedicate a lot Tourists have yet to return in great more city and state funding—to numbers. Remote work has made a convert empty or underutilized horelative ghost town out of Midtown. tels to affordable housing.

It is a challenge that extends beAt some point, tourists will return— there’s real hope for the summer— yond Midtown. Mobilizing around but many workers might never go it as a public priority is essential, back to the office. Companies can especially since so much inertia operate efficiently and make plenty tends to settle around large projects of money without shelling out for in New York.

Hochul and the Legislature should dedicate far more state funding for conversions of hotels and office buildings. Developers cry poverty too often, but this a moment that demands New Deal–style energy, with the government taking a lead role in revitalizing the housing sector, which is facing a severe shortage.

Undoubtedly, zoning and other logistics will make things difficult.

But New York state, with the budget of a small nation, can pave the way if Hochul decides she will make the transition her legacy.

Accelerate conversions Another question is how to address the 2017 Midtown East rezoning. Some buildings could convert without going through the ULURP process, the land use review procedure that requires the City Council’s sign-off. Other conversions will need City Council, which will stifle developers’ eagerness.

The Adams administration should begin working with the council on a proposal to revisit Midtown East and accelerate the schedule of office conversions while permitting more residential development in a corridor that

could use it.

The Real Estate Board of New York wants public incentives to spur office conversions. Progressives might scoff at the idea—the real estate industry is inordinately rich and powerful—but they should view such a demand as a chance for the city and the state to assert themselves in the next phase of development.

The great building of the 20th century happened when the city, state and federal governments poured enormous amounts of money into housing and infrastructure. Public and subsidized housing came about because the public sector got serious about making it happen. Adams and Hochul can’t dither as developers complain; instead, they should set the terms of engagement while marshaling public resources to usher in a new era of housing.

We will never need as much office space again. Computing power is strong enough to allow some segment of the white-collar workforce to stay home. The commercial real estate industry will soon face a reckoning.

The transition doesn’t have to be painful if the city and state decide a

housing revolution is in our future and dedicate adequate resources to get us there.

Quick takes ● New Yorkers should stop discriminating against Russian-owned businesses. Putin’s horrific invasion has nothing to do with Russian Americans trying to make a living here. ● Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president, wants to somehow seize the assets of Russian oligarchs in New York. But why should only Russian billionaires who hide their money here suffer? Either Levine should go all the way, taking on all billionaires, or abandon the idea altogether. ● The Working Families Party is running a serious candidate for lieutenant governor against Brian Benjamin: nonprofit leader Ana María Archila, an activist who rose to fame in 2018 confronting Jeff Flake over his vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Keep an eye on Archila, who might be able to mount a serious campaign. ■

Ross Barkan is an author and journalist in New York City.

MARCH 21, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 5

P005_CN_20220321.indd 5

3/18/22 3:51 PM

ASKED & ANSWERED

INTERVIEW BY BRIAN PASCUS

S

tate Sen. Jessica Ramos, who represents parts of Queens, has made herself a chief antagonist of some of New York’s largest interests since assuming office in January 2019. She’s been at the forefront of the cause to raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires and helped scuttle the Port Authority’s $2.1 billion AirTrain proposal for LaGuardia Airport. The mother of two boys told Crain’s why she thinks universal child care is important and why big corporations need more competition.

What are your top budget priorities right now?

I’m really fighting for universal child care. I largely see it as a triple workforce bill. Daycare providers are being paid uncompetitive wages, and I’m proposing we lift that to [a minimum salary of] $45,000. It’s a workforce bill for parents, getting women back to work and hopefully opening a few small businesses. Then, of course, there’s the investment in our children and developing them into functioning kids, getting them ready to go to school and making sure they are confident and have the socioemotional intelligence to carry on.

Is there any particular part of that proposed legislation that you’re focused on?

It’s important to do away with the work requirement.

You must already be working to be eligible for the work assistance [in the bill]. But what happens when you need

WHO SHE IS New York state senator representing the 13th District, which includes Corona, Jackson Heights and other parts of Queens

Are you satisfied with where tax increases on the wealthy are today?

AGE 36

I am not. The top businesses in New York have made a killing during the pandemic.

We’re talking about the same financial firms we’ve bailed out time and time again. I’ve also carried the mark-to-market tax bill that is a tax on unrealized capital gains. The way that wealth is accrued now is through greater appreciation of these assets, which keeps money out of circulation in our communities and perpetuates poverty.

EDUCATION Ramos majored in international business at Hofstra University but left a year early to work in the New York City Council.

GREW UP Astoria RESIDES Jackson Heights LABOR OF LOVE She has been chair of the Senate’s labor committee throughout her tenure as a senator.

The committee has focused on issues such as the plight of taxi medallion owners and equal pay for women.

Aren’t you worried about the wealthy leaving the state? They provide so much tax revenue.

I’m worried about all the working-class families that have had to leave this state. They followed all the rules, they saved their money, and they were ready to buy a house. But they couldn’t afford one in New York state, so they went to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida. I’m worried about them.

FAVORITE BOOK Ramos loves The Mediocre Man by José Ingenieros. “It left a deep impression on me at a critical time in my life.

I’ve since vowed to strive to be ‘the idealist,’ someone who contributes my ideals and principles to social evolution.”

If you had a magic wand, what policy would you implement tomorrow?

to take a child with you to a job interview? So that one has always been a puzzle to me.

I would focus on trust-busting. That’s one of the roots of the evils today. Amazon is too big, for example. It doesn’t allow for competition, and it’s not allowing people of color to create generational wealth in this country. ■

The LaGuardia AirTrain was sent back to the drawing board. What type of project do you want to see instead?

COURTNEY HARVIER

JESSICA RAMOS New York state Senate

It’s my district, and I’ve always agreed with the crux of the issue: We do need better access to LaGuardia.

All that I have ever asked is that the community that surrounds the airport be included. It’s been forgotten and has been a transportation desert for quite a while.

DOSSIER

2022

LGBTQ LEADERS Crain’s New York Business’s 2022 Notable LGBTQ Leaders list recognizes individuals’ recent career accomplishments across industries, in addition to their significant contributions to advancing equality within the workplace or their community.

NOMINATE NOW! Deadline is April 29 Nominate at CrainsNewYork.com/NotableLGBTQ

6 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MARCH 21, 2022

P006_CN_20220321.indd 6

3/18/22 3:47 PM

FROM PAGE 1

SUNY and CUNY. The Senate called for a temporary suspension of the state’s gas tax.

Measures that don’t make it into the final state budget could be proposed as separate bills before the Legislature breaks in June. However, exclusion from the budget makes those initiatives far less likely to pass.

Rent-relief boost The state’s rent-relief program would get a sorely needed boost under the budget proposals.

The emergency rental assistance program, which has effectively been out of money since November, would receive roughly $1.3 billion in additional support under the Assembly’s proposal. The landlord rental assistance program would receive an additional $400 million.

“Small landlords and tenants continue to be overwhelmed by Covid-related debts and unmet needs,” said Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal. “Allocating $1.25 billion in the Assembly’s one-house budget toward the ERAP program is not just the right thing to do; it is without a doubt necessary to ensure that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers do not continue to struggle to make ends meet.”

The state Senate budget proposal would restore $1.6 billion to the emergency rental assistance program using federal funds. If the federal dollars do not come through, its proposal designates up to $1 billion in state funds for the program

$1B

“It is my understanding that the imAMOUNT the provements state Senate that the execuproposes to tive hoped to provide for gain from the financially procurement distressed process could or safety-net be effectuated hospitals in its through existbudget ing contracting provisions,” Rivera said, “and I believe that is AMOUNT the the approach Assembly would that should be provide for such taken at this facilities time.”

Insurance industry groups applauded the Legislature’s omission of the procurement, which would have whittled down the number of Medicaid managed-care plans operating in the state to no more than five per region.

In a statement last Monday, the New York State Conference of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans called the procurement an “ill-conceived proposal to force all Medicaid managed-care plans to reapply through a lengthy and costly procurement process.” The New York Health Plan Association, which represents 29 managed-care plans in the state, argued it would restrict choice.

The procurement’s supporters say a competitive bidding process would promote accountability and innovation by managed-care organizations and increase Medicaid members’ access to care. To continue operating, all current and previously authorized managed-care plans would have to submit bids and be selected by the state through the RFP, which would include an evaluation of their past performance.

In other proposals, the Legislature is looking to build on the governor's $10 billion health care investment in fiscal 2023 with the addition of funding to raise the wages of home care workers and expand health coverage to undocumented immigrants.

In their one-house plans, both chambers called for a base wage for home care workers. It would be set at 150% of their region’s minimum wage and a regional minimum hourly base reimbursement rate for the providers that employ them.

The proposal has been a major priority for 1199SEIU, a union that represents 325,000 health care workers statewide. The Assembly would require the new base wage to kick in as of Oct. 1, though the Senate sets a Jan. 1 start date.

Both houses also added $345 million to expand the state-funded essential plan to cover low-income, undocumented immigrants, who cannot enroll in insurance because of their immigration status. An estimated 154,000 immigrants would be eligible.

Other significant amendments include: ● Both chambers rejected Hochul’s proposal to transfer oversight of health-related professions from the state Education Department to the Department of Health.

HOCHUL

$750M

GETTY IMAGES

BUDGET

● The Senate expanded eligibility for Hochul's proposed $3,000 bonus for health care workers to include essential workers in security, food and environmental services, while the Assembly limited eligibility to employees of state-owned facilities. ● The Senate one-house budget

LIMITED-TIME

RATE PROMOTION

BRIDGE TO HOME LOANS

MEASURES NOT INCLUDED IN THE FINAL BUDGET COULD BECOME SEPARATE BILLS to make up for any shortfalls— funds that would presumably be used in the wake of the Treasury Department’s decision last Tuesday to award New York only about $119 million in additional dollars.

Both chambers’ proposals provide more concrete support for the rent-relief program than Hochul’s proposed budget, which designated $2 billion for the much broader category of pandemic relief. Officials have so far referred to rent relief as just one possible use for those funds.

Medicaid bidding When it comes to health care, the one-house budget plans left out Hochul’s effort to initiate a competitive bidding process for managed-care organizations to cover or continue covering the state's Medicaid enrollees. Of the state’s 7.4 million Medicaid members, roughly 6 million are enrolled in a Medicaid managed-care plan, according to the state Department of Health.

State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, who chairs his chamber's health committee, said the executive budget proposal “set an ambitious, if not unrealistic, time frame for conducting such a massive undertaking— which could lead to confusion or gaps in coverage.”

committee, said lawmakers rejected some proposals only to counter the longstanding practice of using the budget as a vehicle to pass non-budget-related legislation.

“We’ve been trying to keep those off the budget table as much as possible and deal with them post-budget,” he said. ■

provides $1 billion for financially distressed or safety-net hospitals, and the Assembly proposes $750 million for these providers. ● The Senate budget eliminated the $250 million distressed hospital fund sales tax intercept.

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, who chairs his chamber’s health

Whether you are a business owner, foreign national, self-employed, or retired, our Bridge to Home Loan Program is designed for borrowers with unique job and credit situations. We understand your circumstances may not check the boxes of many large lenders – which is why we take income and assets into consideration to provide you with a path to homeownership.

Program features: • No minimum credit score required • Ability to qualify based on income or assets • Applicable for owner occupied, second home or investment properties • Purchase, refinance and cash-out refinance1

Scan for program details.

Brooklyn 5801 8th Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11220 718.435.1288 1322-1328 Ave. U, Brooklyn, NY 11229 718.998.2218

For more information, visit your local branch or call 877.392.6868 and mention promo code: PREN. Flushing 135-11 Roosevelt Ave., Flushing, NY 11354 718.640.9388 38-05 Union St., Flushing, NY 11354 718.961.4966

Manhattan

208 Canal St., New York, NY 10013 212.710.2913 77 Bowery, New York, NY 10002 212.966.3303

Offer valid until 3/31/2022. Promotional rates available for Bridge to Home Loans only. Subject to qualifying minimum loan amounts. Applications must be received by 3/31/2022 with funding no later than 6/30/2022. Loan amounts up to 60% of property value. All rates, fees, products and program guidelines are subject to change or discontinuance without prior notice. Other limitations and restrictions may apply. All loans are subject to East West Bank’s application, underwriting, appraisal and credit approval. Mortgage program is available in selected counties of California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Texas and Washington.

1

Cash-out refinance is allowed only on Second Home and/or Investment Properties in the State of Texas and is not allowed on owner-occupied properties.

Equal Housing Lender

Member FDIC

NMLSR ID 469761

March 21, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 7

P007_CN_20220321.indd 7

3/18/22 3:46 PM

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

EDITORIAL

publisher/executive editor

Proposals to fix child care are welcome, even if Albany is divided on funding

Frederick P. Gabriel Jr. EDITORIAL editor-in-chief Cory Schouten,

cory.schouten@crainsnewyork.com managing editor Telisha Bryan

M

Assembly and the Senate allocated billions for child care. The Senate proposed spending $2.2 billion next year, and the Assembly said $3 billion. Both figures are greater than what Hochul proposed in January.

Even as the Legislature was announcing its budget plans, the governor came out with a proposal to expand and create child care centers across all State University of New York campuses for students and faculty.

Clearly, everyone sees the issue as a political winner. It’s not hard to see why, as it touches so many lives.

For frontline workers who’ve been required to report during the pandemic to their non-remote jobs, the lack of accessible child care has been a disaster. The RECORD NUMBERS OF WOMEN workers are disproportionHAVE LEFT THE WORKFORCE ately women of color. While IN THE PAST TWO YEARS going to work to keep their family fed and to see who can take the most clothed, they have had to create credit. There’s a tussle over whose proposal will emerge as the a patchwork of care for their own children that relies on relatives, best answer. But all in all, their friends, scarce sick days and direction is laudable. concerns they might be fired if the In their single-house budget juggling act drops a ball. resolutions passed last week, the

data editor Amanda Glodowski

uch like a child learning to walk, state leaders are toddling toward some form of financial support for child care after two pandemic years that have devastated the care infrastructure in New York.

They are heading in the right direction, with the goals of universal care, better wages for caregivers and a financial structure that makes running a child care business less precarious.

What’s needed is a transformative investment to get parents back to work and to rebuild available day care spaces.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature have been competing

digital editor Taylor Nakagawa deputy digital editor, audience & analytics

Jennifer Samuels art director Carolyn McClain photographer Buck Ennis senior reporters Cara Eisenpress,

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

Brian Pascus, Natalie Sachmechi, Shuan Sim op-ed editor Jan Parr,

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

editors@crainsnewyork.com GETTY IMAGES

www.crainsnewyork.com/staff

definitely not afford child care, and as a result I had to leave a job that I cared about very deeply.”

We need a government that recognizes the role of child care in supporting a functioning and equitable society. Leaders in Albany have a genuine opportunity to advance that cause during this budget season—even if they haven’t fully worked out which foot goes where as they move toward the goal. ■

T

Rebuild smarter At the same time, we should seize this moment to rebuild our city in smart ways. We can eliminate unnecessary building costs; streamline approvals and permitting; and prioritize the type of construction that post-Covid New York will desperately need, such as housing instead of office space.

These are a few steps the state and the city should take to kick-

ADVERTISING

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

Laura Warren people on the move manager Debora Stein,

dstein@crain.com CUSTOM CONTENT associate director, custom content

Sophia Juarez, sophia.juarez@crainsnewyork.com custom content coordinator Ashley Maahs,

ashley.maahs@crain.com EVENTS

www.crainsnewyork.com/events manager of conferences & events

Ana Jimenez, ajimenez@crainsnewyork.com

Here’s how to kick-start construction and get New Yorkers back to work here are two sure signs that will tell us New York is back.

One is seeing packed restaurants at night. The other is looking up at towering construction cranes dotting our mortar-and-steel horizon during the day.

If New York wants to return to pre-Covid-19 times, we need to build our way back. We need to get laser-focused on expediting construction projects to restore the roughly 44,000 direct, good-paying jobs lost during the pandemic.

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

sales manager Courtney McCombs

About 1,500 New York child care providers closed between April 2020 and February 2021, according to data from the Schuyler Center, a research and advocacy group focused on family issues.

Record numbers of women left the workforce in the past two years. Hochul herself has acknowledged, “I was one of those moms who loved my job, who could not find child care,

OP-ED

BY LOUIS COLETTI

assistant managing editor Anne Michaud

start construction and get New Yorkers back to work: • Allow the rezoning of commercial space in New York City for residential use, which is in much higher demand. The Real Estate Board of New York estimates 10% of Midtown’s older office space can be redesigned for residential use, creating 14,000 apartments.

• Move quickly on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s revised version of the $6 billion reconstruction and expansion of Penn Station, including both office and residential units.

• Scrap the lengthy ULURP in favor of an expedited public-review process.

• Expedite the allocation of the billions of dollars expected from the $1.3 trillion infrastructure package approved in Washington.

The money will provide thousands of jobs for the MTA and the Gateway rail tunnels.

• Eliminate the exorbitant and unnecessary insurance mandates of the state’s scaffold law, respon-

sible for insurance premiums 300% higher than anywhere else in the country. The law, repealed in every other state except New York, imposes automatic, 100% liability on contractors for any worker injury, irrespective of any contributing factor, and it is a primary driver of the high cost of construction.

• Approve a new 421-a building incentive law, with prevailing wage requirements, now under consideration in Albany.

• Establish a community hiring program to provide apprenticeships for low-income New Yorkers.

The city’s unionized construction industry was thriving until March 2020, when the pandemic hit and everything bottomed out, halting construction jobs everywhere.

The numbers are jolting. New York City lost $9.8 billion in construction activity, including 74,000 direct and indirect jobs and $5.5 billion in lost wages.

The hit to construction employment during the pandemic has been the worst in the state’s private sector, with an employment decline of 14.4%.

Construction activity is a proven path to decent, middle-class lives for New Yorkers. Every dollar spent on construction yields $1.31 spent in New York City. Eight jobs are created for every $1 million spent on construction. Construction and real estate comprise 20% of the city’s GDP. The Partnership for New York City estimates that 47% of city job openings require a college degree, yet 43% of employable New Yorkers do not have a high school degree or equivalency.

Construction jobs offer a solid career path for those individuals and can lead to increased economic activity and revenue for the entire state. ■

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

Simone Pryce media services manager Nicole Spell SUBSCRIPTION CUSTOMER SERVICE

www.crainsnewyork.com/subscribe customerservice@crainsnewyork.com 877.824.9379 (in the U.S. and Canada). $140.00 one year, for print subscriptions with digital access.

Entire contents ©copyright 2022 Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. ©CityBusiness is a registered trademark of MCP Inc., used under license agreement.

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

Louis Coletti is president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers Association.

8 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MARCH 21, 2022

P008_CN_20220321.indd 8

3/18/22 3:37 PM

OP-ED

Success does not stem from only a Harvard degree—you can find it at a CUNY school too

W

hen I, the son of Barbadian migrants, completed my graduate work from New York University and Harvard, my family and friends were proud of me. Migrants growing up in East New York, Brooklyn—people like me—aren’t exactly over-represented on the greens of Cambridge. But the experience that gave me the best education when I needed it most was my time at the City University of New York.

People think Harvard made me, but CUNY gave me a foundation for success. At Harvard, I had fancy alumni clubs and networking

winding. It took me a while; I chose a lucrative job in real estate over furthering my education. When the market crashed and I returned to school a few years later, CUNY welcomed me back with open arms.

When other schools would have told me to kick rocks, CUNY gave me the academic advising and support to finish my degree. In 2010, after seven years of college, I made it onto the dean’s list and graduated.

Growth and salvation CUNY was my salvation. It was there that I was able to grow from a kid who witnessed people waging turf wars over land they didn’t own to a successful businessman who helps struggling families access affordable homes and quality internet service.

But CUNY needs help.

Per-student funding for CUNY senior colleges has fallen almost 40% since 1990, amid inflation, leaving buildings that are falling apart, a dearth of full-time teaching faculty, and a concerning lack of academic and mental health advisers. Since 2008, tuition has increased 60% at the senior colleges and 71% at the

IT’S TIME FOR ALBANY TO SAVE THE INSTITUTION THAT SAVED ME opportunities. But it was at CUNY that I learned from teachers who looked like me and understood me.

As with many CUNY students from working-class Black and brown families, my journey to finish my undergraduate degree was

community colleges, and that doesn’t even factor in the huge growth in living costs for New Yorkers.

Good economic sense One consequence of the underfunding is that the majority of CUNY students take more than four years to graduate.

It’s time for Albany to save the institution that saved me, and many like me, and the so-called New Deal for CUNY would do that. The proposal, led by Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assemblywoman Karines Reyes, would establish minimum ratios of full-time faculty, mental health counselors and advisers to students, raise pay for adjunct faculty, and make CUNY fully free.

Increasing CUNY funding in the governor’s executive budget by $254 million would provide the money to fulfill the New Deal’s adviser and mental health counselor requirements and would support more than 1,900 additional full-time faculty. Adding $284 million more could make CUNY community colleges free.

The New Deal for CUNY just makes good economic sense.

BUCK ENNIS

BY BRANDON GIBSON

Almost 80% of CUNY students work full time in our state after graduating and contribute billions to our economy every year. Not everyone can go away from home for college; many stay in New York and help their families without worrying about room and board.

If we don’t invest in giving New Yorkers an education that’s within

their reach, economically and geographically, our state will never recover from our current economic crises. Let’s build up CUNY so CUNY can build up New York. ■ Brandon Gibson is co-founder of Flume Internet, which brings gigabit fiber internet to underserved communities.

OP-ED

As fitness studios get a much-needed break from city red tape, let’s keep the momentum going

R

etail plays a critical role in New York’s economy and will be vital to its recovery. Retail businesses, owned by both recognizable brands as well as entrepreneurs, attract people to our streets and provide amenities that make our neighborhoods better places to live and work. They create jobs and add significant revenue for city services through sales and property tax payments.

With New York City at a critical phase on its path to long-term recovery, elected officials must continue to advance policies that

cal culture and health establishments, or PCEs. Included in that category are gyms, yoga studios and licensed massage-therapy businesses. Often these business tenants—almost always operated by individual entrepreneurs or small groups—do not have the financial means to deal with the possibility of delayed openings caused by the lengthy approval process.

Proven benefits For small businesses without the government experience or the financial wherewithal to deal with the delays or downtime, or that could not navigate the byzantine process, the special permit requirements for PCEs compounded challenges already faced by most brickand-mortar businesses.

For many hopeful health and fitness center proprietors, the process of attaining the PCE special permit could take more than a year to facilitate and cost tens of thousands of dollars. The costs came out of entrepreneurs’ total build-out and opening budgets, and as the process to attain the permits could not

THE CITY MUST CONTINUE TO IDENTIFY BARRIERS AND CREATE INCENTIVES make it easier for small businesses to operate.

Leaders in city government recently approved the Health and Fitness Text Amendment, which eliminated antiquated requirements for special permits for physi-

begin until space was attained, businesses also had to pay rent while the property waited to legally operate.

All of that was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the limitations that restrictions put on such retailers.

The community rallied around small-business owners and real estate professionals and appealed to city officials, who made the commonsense decision to approve the and Fitness Text Health Amendment.

The benefit of the change was reflected in the substantially improved leasing velocity in the fourth quarter throughout New York’s retail market—a more that 40% increase in activity year over year. Many of the new tenants are in the health and fitness industry.

What to tackle next Numerous challenges remain, however. Similar initiatives the city could tackle next to support small business should include eliminating the commercial rent tax that applies in Manhattan below 96th Street; creating a Small Business Services storefront presence in every business-improvement or

GETTY IMAGES

BY JOANNE PODELL AND STEVEN SOUTENDIJK

community district; and simplifying permit processes for small-business owners to a single overarching permit to open their doors.

We also need to streamline the approval process by the city Buildings and Fire departments.

The city’s action on PCE requirements last year has produced real results and should be commended.

Small businesses, real estate indus-

try professionals and public officials must continue to work together to identify and eliminate barriers and create incentives to economic growth. ■ Joanne Podell is executive vice chairwoman for retail services, and Steven Soutendijk is an executive managing director at Cushman & Wakefield.

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.

March 21, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 9

P009_CN_20220321.indd 9

3/17/22 4:09 PM

POLITICS

Mayor’s minority- and women-owned business strategy would triple no-bid procurement threshold

M

ayor Eric Adams aims to improve the city’s performance in procuring contracts with minority- and women-owned business enterprises, one year after the city hit procurement lows not seen since 2013.

Adams announced he wants to raise the threshold for city contracts that MWBEs can seek, without a competitive bidding process, from $500,000 to $1.5 million.

That would mean that nearly 11,000 city MWBEs would be eligible to compete for more lucrative contracts before the formal competitive bidding process opens to the full market of small-business and corporate contractors.

Adams’ proposal would need approval from the state Legislature, which in 2019 raised the initial nobid contracting threshold from $200,000 to $500,000.

“The increase to $1.5 million will absolutely make a difference,” said Gregg Bishop, commissioner of the city Department of Small Business Services from 2015 to 2020. “I think it’s excellent.”

Adams also wants to streamline the certification process for MWBEs—which also would need approval in Albany.

Bishop said that when he started at Small Business Services 13 years ago, the discretionary limit for MWBEs was $20,000, meaning any city contract greater than $20,000 would head out for bid on the open

market. He advised the Adams administration during its transition on MWBE policy and emphasized that agencies have been more willing to contract with MWBEs as their ability to offer them more lucrative, no-bid contracts has improved.

“We saw an increase in utilization of MWBEs when agencies had flexibility,” he said. “The portfolio of firms is much larger in terms of companies that can bid, so it’s the right time to be aggressive in this area.”

Under Mayor Bill de Blasio, the number of certified MWBEs in the city rose from 3,460 in 2014 to more than 10,500 by the end of 2021. But the share of contracts awarded by the city did not rise as fast. Of the $30.4 billion in total contracts awarded by the city in fiscal 2021, only roughly $1.2 billion—3.8%— were awarded to MWBEs, the lowest total since city procurement reached 2.7% in 2013.

Spending also lagged under de Blasio. Only 16% of MWBEs received city dollars in the fiscal year that ran from July 2020 to June 2021.

More than one reform Former City Comptroller Scott Stringer regularly took de Blasio to task for his low MWBE procurement numbers in the eight years their offices overlapped. The former comptroller said he believes Adams is proposing “very worthwhile changes” but needs to do more, notably hire a chief diversity officer at every city agency.

“At the end of the day, these are

“THE INCREASE TO $1.5 MILLION WILL ABSOLUTELY MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IT’S EXCELLENT” good, important measures, but there has to be a wholesale change in the way we do procurement with MWBEs, because the needle does not move,” Stringer said. “We need a stand-alone plan to smash the glass ceiling. Incrementalism is choking the businesses and the communities.”

Adams has more than one reform in mind for MWBEs. He also wants the Mayor’s Office of MWBEs to work with the New York City Housing Authority to create prequalified lists of certified MWBEs that would give them expanded opportunities to bid within NYCHA’s $2 billion annual procurement budget.

There is no shortage of opportunities to contract with NYCHA. Gregory Russ, NYCHA’s president and CEO, testified at a City Council hearing last week that the capital repair needs at the city’s public housing authority are growing at a rate of $1 billion per year.

The mayor wants to expand prequalified lists beyond NYCHA and use them at all city agencies. His Office of MWBEs would strategically target areas within city government

ADAMS FLICKR

BY BRIAN PASCUS

where spending can flow directly to proven contractors.

“With NYCHA, you have everything from regular household improvements to complex boiler repairs, and you have all types of work that I think the smaller MWBEs can benefit from,” Bishop said. “I’m really excited to see the prequalified strategy move to other agencies, especially agencies with the variation of work you’re going to see with ­NYCHA.”

timelines. The Port Authority and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have different processes for certification. Adams wants to create “certification reciprocity” for any firm that is already certified by the city.

Advocates argue improving certification isn’t nearly as urgent as improving procurement.

“Procurement is where the rubber meets the road, and a lot of our MWBEs don’t know how to get in the game,” said Randy Peers, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve helped them through the certification process, but it’s always, ‘I got certified and then what?’ ” ■

Certification changes The certification process for MWBEs requires different applications for the city and the state, and there are no standard approval

Legislature drops booze-to-go from budget proposals

BY CARA EISENPRESS

are required to be closed.

“If we want to make adjustments that would be fair for all, I think we should all get together and sit around the table and talk about this industry,” Michael Correra, executive director of the Metropolitan Package Store Association, which represents liquor stores in the state, said around the time of the governor’s speech supporting booze to go.

T

he state Legislature plans to dump Gov. Kathy Hochul’s permanent alcohol-to-go

Cascading effects The program was started by Gov.

Separate legislation

ISTOCK

plan.

The Assembly and the Senate omitted from their signed budget proposals a plan that would allow establishments to sell alcoholic drinks for takeout or delivery. The proposals reveal the points both houses plan to negotiate with the governor before the budget passes in the spring.

When Hochul released her executive budget proposal in January, she said the temporary pandemic-era program should be made permanent.

“Who would have thought this would be the most popular item in my budget?” she asked a crowd at a bar in Bedford-Stuyvesant this month, discussing proposed changes to the State Liquor Authority.

“I’ve got $10 billion for health care.

We have great projects. But the one thing that went viral was to-go drinks. You gotta love New York.”

Andrew Cuomo in 2020, after he shuttered dining rooms and bars in an attempt to stop the first wave of Covid-19. Cuomo extended it several times, but when the Legislature revoked his emergency powers, the program ended. Selling wine and

margaritas with to-go food orders supplemented restaurants’ bottom lines during the crisis, operators say. But the hospitality industry has been doing without the revenue since June.

The idea of a permanent proposal

was met with immediate resistance from liquor retailers, which envisioned all kinds of cascading effects.

Chain restaurants with on-premises alcohol licenses might be able to deliver booze at 2 a.m., for example, when heavily regulated liquor stores

The Legislature’s lack of support was first noted by WNYC and Gothamist’s Jon Campbell.

If the alcohol-to-go rule does not pass as part of the budget, it is likely to be reintroduced as separate legislation, as it was in the fall.

Both houses of the Legislature did offer support for a separate proposal from the governor’s executive budget that would allow the State Liquor Authority to approve temporary liquor licenses for new bars and restaurants, provided they meet a number of criteria. The idea is to let businesses get up and running without waiting months for their final liquor license. A version of the update has been in effect since December. ■

10 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | March 21, 2022

P010_CN_20220321.indd 10

3/17/22 3:42 PM

WOMEN IN CONSTRUCTION, DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE NEW YORK’S FABULOUS SKYLINE has been an architectural marvel for generations. Its built environment—a montage of styles stitched together over centuries—is more than just so many soaring buildings. From One Vanderbilt to Hudson Yards, from the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower to the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, from the Unisphere to Yankee Stadium, the city’s structures have long represented resilience, optimism and ingenuity.

For generations that skyline—and streetscape— overwhelmingly represented the vision and labor of men. But that is no longer the case. Increasingly women are making significant inroads into the construction, design and architecture fields.

The ranks of women working in the construction trades, for example, grew by 17% between 2017 and 2018, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found. Meanwhile, half of architectureprogram graduates today are women, as are nearly two-thirds of commercial interior designers.

Those numbers tell only part of the story, though, because women in the three sectors remain underrepresented in the highest ranks of management.

With all that in mind, Crain’s presents this list of notable women in construction, architecture and design. In compiling it, Crain’s sought to spotlight the most outstanding female professionals in the three fields. The 40 women celebrated on these pages represent the top tier of their respective industries. They provide creative vision and artistic prowess vital to their crafts.

To select the honorees, Crain’s consulted with trusted sources in the construction, architecture and design realms and in the city’s business world in general. Individuals and companies in the area submitted nominations, which were then carefully vetted. Ultimately, the honorees were chosen for their role in shaping the city’s contours.

Read on to learn how these gifted individuals add to the city’s splendor.

METHODOLOGY: The honorees did not pay to be included. Their profiles were drawn from submitted nomination materials. This list is not comprehensive. It includes only executives for whom nominations were submitted and accepted after an editorial review.

To qualify for the list, female honorees had to serve in a senior level role at a construction, architecture, engineering or commercial design firm for a minimum of 10 years. Construction/engineering firms must have had an annual revenue of at least $10 million and architecture and design firms an annual revenue of at least $1million. Honorees had to show accomplishment in their field and the ability to effect change in their role or area of practice.

ALLA AYZENSHTAT Associate commissioner | New York City Department of Design and Construction

Ayzenshtat, a 15-year veteran of the city Department of Design and Construction, is charged with overseeing all operations of its Safety and Site Support Division. The associate commissioner is responsible for the agency’s construction safety program, including field safety inspections, site safety plan review and acceptance, accident investigations and emergency responses. During the pandemic, Ayzenshtat developed and implemented policies for more than 200 active DDC construction sites. She leads programs, initiatives and events that reduce deviations from protocol and allow for expedient corrective actions—while providing environmental, geotechnical, qualityassurance and construction safety services.

DENISE BERGER Chief strategy and innovation officer | AECOM

With more than 30 years of experience in project delivery, design and construction, Berger oversees engineering firm AECOM’s marketing and branding; environmental, social and governance initiatives; and digital transformation for more than 65 offices.

Among the numerous industry awards she has received, she was inducted into the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows in 2018 and was named a fellow in 2021 by the Royal Institute of Construction Surveyors. Berger serves on a number of boards including the one at the New York Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Design.

REY BLACK Vice president of design and construction management | Howard Hughes Corp.

Black leads a design team for high-profile construction projects at Hughes, ensuring that all goals related to design intent, quality and sustainability are met. She also oversees the team’s fees and schedules and executes design-consultant contracts, and she troubleshoots issues that arise throughout the design process. Her major projects have included a new South Street Seaport pier that serves as the foundation of the Tin Building, a high-end food market at the original location of the Fulton Fish Market that’s due to open during the spring. She previously was vice president of design and construction at The Related Cos.

AMANDA CARROLL Principal and co-managing director | Gensler

At design and architecture firm Gensler, Carroll identifies trends that affect global business strategies and design philosophies for companies including Google and IBM. She has helped lead the expansion of Gensler’s New York practice and its return-tooffice strategy, including efforts related to hybrid work styles, onboarding and the firm’s climate action commitment. Her expertise on the future of work has been covered by The New Yorker, The Washington Post and other publications. She has received numerous awards including the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment Award in 2020 and a 2021 Design Award from the Society of American Registered Architects’ New York Council. Carroll is an active member of the national scholarship committee of Girls Inc., which provides girls with skills they need to become independent adults.

SUZANNE CASTELLANO Vice president | Turner Construction

Castellano is responsible for delivering seamless execution for Turner’s clients, from preconstruction through fulfillment. She maintains optimal relationships with clients by overseeing operational planning and ensuring quality, schedules and costs are met as expected. She recently was inducted into Turner’s Master Builder program, which trains, mentors and supports emerging professionals in the industry. As executive sponsor of Turner’s Pride employee resource group, she leads community outreach initiatives that affect New York organizations, families and communities. Throughout her career, she has mentored dozens of individuals at Turner.

MARCH 21, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 11

P011_P018_CN_20220321.indd 11

3/17/22 3:54 PM

NOTABLE 2022 NANCY CHIN

REBECCA CLOUGH

DARBY CURTIS

RAQUEL DIAZ

SARA DUFFY

Senior vice president and project executive, Clune Construction

Associate commissioner, New York City Department of Design and Construction

Co-founder and managing partner, Curtis & Ginsberg Architects

Senior project executive, Gilbane Building

Principal Stonehill Taylor

At Clune, Chin is responsible for managing her team’s projects, building effective policies and establishing business strategies. She helped the company adapt to pandemicrelated challenges, and despite material and labor shortages, she led successful projects at LIM College, Charter Communications and the Allsteel showroom. As a member of Clune’s diversity, equity and inclusion advisory committee, she works to improve recruiting practices, internal education and diverse subcontractor and supplier relations. Through her involvement with Clune’s mentoring program, she shares her knowledge with less experienced employees.

Clough spearheads the Department of Design and Construction’s multibilliondollar boroughbased jails program. She is responsible for the completion of four new jails—in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx—that will enable the city to close Rikers Island. To date, she has overseen close to $1 billion of city capital construction for the DDC, including the implementation of new construction methods at the city Police Department and correctional facilities. She was a key part of the DDC team that removed nearly 2 million tons of debris from the World Trade Center site after 9/11. Clough has mentored women in the construction and landscape architecture management fields.

Curtis is responsible for developing organizational strategies and business designs at Curtis & Ginsberg, a missiondriven firm that creates responsible architecture while providing opportunities for social and environmental progress. She also leads the firm’s civic and nonprofit work. Her experience helping underrepresented communities has led C&G to collaborate with local nonprofits and government agencies on community-based work. She is a board member of the Design Trust for Public Space and co-chairwoman of its planning committee.

Diaz, a 15-year construction industry veteran, is as a client advocate among project stakeholders at Gilbane. She has worked with large clients such as NYC Health + Hospitals, the Mount Sinai Health System and the city Department of Design and Construction. For the city department, Diaz led the fast-track construction of three outpatient facilities for Covid-19 patients. She is a mentor through Gilbane’s Rising Contractor initiative, which works to provide opportunities for diverse and disadvantaged businesses. Diaz is a founding member of Gilbane’s economic inclusion task force. She is on the ambassador council of Nontraditional Employment for Women, an employment agency.

At Stonehill Taylor, a hospitalityfocused architecture and interior design firm, Duffy works on high-profile projects across the country, including renovations of New York landmarks and reveals of flagship properties elsewhere.

To date, Duffy has worked with the Sydell Group, Marriott International and Hyatt Hotels , among other hospitality developers. Her projects have included the NoMad hotel in New York and the TWA Hotel at Kennedy International Airport.

She frequently mentors young women with design talent.

She led Stonehill Taylor’s partnership with the Black Artists & Designers Guild, aiming to share the work of Black creatives with interior designers worldwide.

WOMEN MADE UP 11% OF CONSTRUCTION-INDUSTRY EMPLOYEES IN 2021. SOME 13% OF U.S. CONSTRUCTION FIRMS ARE OWNED BY WOMEN. BETWEEN 2017 AND 2018, THE NUMBER OF WOMEN EMPLOYED IN CONSTRUCTION IN THE U.S. ROSE BY 17%.

—U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, BIGRENTZ AND THE NEW ENGLAND INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

MARY-JEAN EASTMAN

AVIGAIL EISENSTADT

SUSAN ERDELYI HAMOS

JANE GREENWOOD

DANA HECHT

Co-founder and vice chair, Perkins Eastman

Chief executive and principal, Avigail Eisenstadt Design Group

Senior vice president, WSP

Managing principal, Kostow Greenwood Architects

Senior vice president of infrastructure, MTA Construction and Development

Eastman oversees the creation of programmatically complex buildings including libraries, civic structures, schools, multifamily residences and health care facilities. Her architecture firm recently worked on the Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering and on three original Covid-19 care facilities during the pandemic’s initial wave. She has guided the firm from its founding to its current iteration, with more than 20 studios around the globe. Eastman has served on the boards of the American Institute of Architects, New York; the New York City Building Congress; and the Salvadori Center, which helps teachers impart science, technology, engineering and math knowledge to their students.

Eisenstadt has seen more than 200 design projects from conception to completion, focusing on large-scale commercial and health care developments that emphasize comfort and beauty. During the pandemic, she and her team developed so-called plexipods: visitation rooms with flexible “hug walls” and UV lighting to allow nursing home residents to visit with family members without risking Covid exposure. She is designing an airport terminal and complex for the Hatzolah air-ambulance service. Eisenstadt frequently mentors young female designers. She is working on an e-commerce interior design solution to bring her services to the middle market.

At engineering professional services company WSP, Erdelyi Hamos has worked with owners, developers, architects and engineers to design scores of iconic buildings.

Hamos, who began her career designing industrial facilities in Israel, has worked on 9 DeKalb, Brooklyn’s tallest building; the American Copper Buildings; and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. During the pandemic, she and her team have leveraged WSP’s technology infrastructure to ensure tens of projects continued apace. Hamos was recognized in 2017 as one of the Top Women in Real Estate by Sokol Media. She is a board member of the American Hungarian Library and Historical Society.

In her three-decade career, Greenwood has designed works for broadcast, media, cultural and institutional clients including CNN, SiriusXM and Verizon Media.

At Kostow Greenwood, she leads a team of architects and designers in concept design and construction while also overseeing operations, finance and hiring. Greenwood, whose projects have been profiled by major media outlets, has been recognized for her work by the Women Builders Council, Out magazine and the New York Business Journal. She cofounded the Organization of Lesbian and Gay Architects and Designers in the 1990s and is an advocate for underrepresented groups in the industry. She is on the boards of the Tarrytown Music Hall and the Old Dutch Church, where she contributes preservation knowledge.

Hecht is charged with ensuring safe and efficient transportation options for New Yorkers. In particular, she is responsible for the delivery of bus and subway capital projects at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. She oversees more than 500 active projects, with a budget totaling $15 billion. Before joining the MTA, she led the program management team at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Hecht also has worked for NJ Transit and the New Jersey Department of Transportation. She has received multiple awards for her service, including the 2019 Government Civil Engineer of the Year Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers in New Jersey.

12 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | March 21, 2022

P011_P018_CN_20220321.indd 12

3/17/22 3:31 PM

Congratulations

CN020667.indd 1

3/14/22 1:34 PM

NOTABLE 2022 KATHLEEN HENNESSY

LATOYA KAMDANG

IRENE KAPTZIS

SARA KENDALL

SARAH KLOZE

Y

Director of architecture and design, Cappelli Organization

Director of operations, Moody Nolan

Vice president and general manager, Turner Construction

Director of project management, EverGreene Architectural Arts

P S

From interior fit-outs to commercial developments measuring millions of square feet, Hennessy designs, manages and supervises projects for development and construction firm Cappelli.

She recently led successful land-use approvals for several multifamily projects with hundreds of units each in New Rochelle and White Plains. During her three decades in the construction industry, she has worked on projects in Boston, Cyprus, Ireland and many other locales. Hennessy has long mentored women in the design industry. She has held board positions at the Westchester–Hudson Valley chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Whitby School in Connecticut.

Under Kamdang’s direction, architectural firm Moody Nolan has grown from three employees to more than 20 professionals with aviation, health care, cultural, hospitality and retail expertise.

The associate principal oversees business development, strategy, design, creative direction and operations management.

Recently she led her team on four concourse design projects at LaGuardia and Kennedy airports. She has secured projects with the New York City Housing Authority and NYC Health + Hospitals. Kamdang and Moody Nolan are in the early stages of a renovation project for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s ancient Near Eastern and Cypriot galleries.

Deputy general counsel, New York City Department of Design and Construction

Kendall, who holds the distinction of being the first female general manager at Turner Construction, is responsible for developing strategic plans to grow the firm’s interior construction business. She oversees a $750 million portfolio of commercial and health care projects across New York City, providing executive oversight of Turner’s local operational, financial and sales initiatives. Kendall, whose major projects have included Times Square Tower and many health care facilities, organized a joint venture to advance opportunities for diversity within the commercial interiors construction market. During the pandemic-related demand for care, she oversaw several emergency construction projects at public and private health care institutions.

At design, restoration and historic-preservation services firm EverGreene, Kloze is responsible for significant restoration and conservation projects nationwide. She manages more than 100 people and has led projects at Grand Central Terminal, the Farley Building, the Enoch Pratt Library and the New York Public Library’s Rose Main Reading Room. Kloze previously served as director of exteriors and historic preservation at Columbia University, where she led the design and execution of restoration projects for 250 buildings. She spent several years with the ACE Mentor Program of America, which supports emerging architects, construction professionals and engineers.

K s d i

At the Department of Design and Construction, Kaptzis guides senior management on legal matters relating to the agency’s portfolio of professional and construction service contracts. She works on hiring operations within the agency’s legal division and reviews research assignments and legal documents prepared by staff.

Among her accomplishments, Kaptzis streamlined internal processes related to the review of contract-related disputes with agency contractors and consultants. She oversees the agency’s nonprofit reimbursement program and works with the mayor’s office to improve protocols regarding labor law compliance.

NOTABLE Q&A with Denise Berger

Sponsored Content

A strategy pro brings new vision to her career in infrastructure CRAIN’S: How did you get interested in the architecture, engineering and construction field?

At the infrastructure firm AECOM, Denise Berger is the chief strategy and innovation officer for the U.S. East and Latin America region. Berger is charged with driving growth, strategic planning, digital transformation, marketing and branding. Her initiatives include promoting environmental, social and governance and equity, diversity and inclusion across key cities, markets and business lines. Berger draws on her experience as chief of operations in the engineering department of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In that role she led the daily operations of more than 550 architects and engineers and oversaw an annual budget of $1.3 billion. Berger, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, uses her advocacy with Women’s Transportation Seminar International, Professional Women in Construction, the Women Builders Council and the ACE Mentor Program to support women and minorities in the architecture, engineering and construction industry.

Crain’s Content Studio connected with her on her career journey.

BERGER: My father and grandfather were builders, and I admired their work.

Living in New York City—surrounded by the world’s liveliest mix of marquee structures—was also a great influence.

My favorite was Eero Saarinen’s design of the old TWA Terminal at JFK, which is why I was excited to start my career working at the Port Authority. Seeing your designs realized and watching how they better peoples’ lives—well, that’s what makes architecture so rewarding.

CRAIN’S: In your current role, you are driving strategy and innovation.

What are some of the key strategic initiatives you are involved with?

BERGER: A major focus for AECOM and my teams is the potential for digital technology to change everything we do. Our architects and engineers are collaborating with digital specialists, using the most innovative tools and software, to advance our projects to a whole new level. The point really is to help our clients see how digital can transform what they do, to look at their assets and make better informed decisions to strategically move forward.

The future is digital.

CRAIN’S: You have developed and implemented sustainability and resilience programs previously in your career. What inspired your interest in sustainability?

BERGER: My career has focused on infrastructure, which is more than physical structures. It’s also the ties that bind us as people living in an interconnected world. That’s why I enjoy leading ESG initiatives. Yes, sustainability means protecting the environment and building in resilience, but it’s equally vital that we measure the social value of projects—to promote equity, inclusion and economic justice—so we deliver sustainable legacies that best serve our local communities and society as a whole.

CRAIN’S: You’ve been a significant force in advocating for women in construction. What do you think needs to be done to attract more women to the field and provide opportunities for advancement?

and in creating employee resource groups that offer strategic mentorships and address the unique needs women face. We’re committed to improving gender balance and ensuring that women comprise at least 20% of all senior leadership roles.

CRAIN’S: You’ve also been a tireless champion of minority- and womenowned businesses. What would help to ensure that MWBEs have more access to opportunities to win contracts in construction and engineering?

BERGER: We’re doing a lot at AECOM to help MWBEs achieve success, from including MWBEs on all contract levels so we broaden our network of trusted subcontractors, to creating mentorprotégé programs so MWBEs can build meaningful client relationships. My mantra is “Network, collaborate and communicate.” Actively engage with your local organizations, and ask for the opportunity to be a subcontractor.

By lifting up one, we lift up all.

BERGER: If we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that we must support our staff, especially women, who bear more of the work-life balance struggle. At AECOM, we’re invested in providing greater workplace flexibility

14 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | March 21, 2022

P011_P018_CN_20220321.indd 14

3/17/22 3:32 PM

a a f t N C f A e Y I e i S

e

e

YASEMIN KOLOGLU

JOANNA KRIPP

ANDREA LAMBERTI

MARGIE LAVENDER

GENTRY LOCK

Principal, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Operations manager, Gilbane Building

Partner, Rafael Viñoly Architects

Principal, Ike Kligerman Barkley

Principal and landscape architect, Stantec

Kologlu, an advocate for sustainability, equality and diversity in the design industry, leads the design and development of responsible, low-carbon projects that enrich lives.

Her major projects include Urban Sequoia, a carbonabsorbing building that received a Responsible Disruptors award from Metropolis magazine; and the net-zero expansion of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. Kologlu, the founder of Skidmore’s Climate Action Group, recently was elected co-chair of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects’ environment committee. She is a sponsoring principal of Skidmore’s Design Equity Lab.

Kripp, a 40-year veteran of the construction industry, has been at Gilbane for her entire career.

She now is responsible for assigning 300 employees and providing teams with sufficient resources.

What’s more, she is the account manager for Gilbane’s largest client. Kripp has navigated the company’s New York City business unit through pandemic-related setbacks. A graduate of the Gilbane Leadership Development Program, she has led major projects in New York and New England, including the $104 million North Reading Middle School and High School in Massachusetts. Kripp is a founding member of her company’s economic inclusion task force.

Lamberti is an expert at working with clients in the academic, corporate, cultural, commercial and civic spheres. She leads master planning and building projects, strategic planning, new business development and marketing for Viñoly. Lamberti, who’s overseeing a project for a 240,000-square-foot health care facility, has worked on projects for the National Institutes of Health, Princeton University and Rockefeller University.

She is involved in her firm’s architects training and research program, and she routinely shares her professional expertise at higher education and life sciences building conferences.

Lamberti is a former vice president of professional development at the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Lavender has led architectural projects ranging from a Brooklyn townhouse to a rural Maryland estate. At architecture firm Ike Kligerman Barkley, she heads staffing and business development for the New York office.

Lavender is a co-founder of the Pollinator Pathway project in Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester County—which works to increase biodiversity on public and private lands by supporting bees and other pollinating creatures. Through the Design Leadership Network, she has participated in student résumé and portfolio critiques.

Lavender is working on the launch of a paid summer internship program at her firm to provide opportunities for students of color.

Lock manages complex, interdisciplinary public-space projects in New York City. She offers consulting services in planning, engineering, architecture and interior design. She is the lead landscape architect on the East Midtown Greenway project, a plan to create a 40-foot-wide bikeway and esplanade along the East River. She is department manager for Stantec’s New York landscape architecture studio and works with the New York City Economic Development Corp. and the city Parks Department, among other clients. She is on the board of the Bryant Park Corp.

CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS 2022

WOMEN IN CONSTRUCTION

Honoring CHRISTINA RIVERA

380 LEXINGTON AVENUE

|

NEW YORK, NY 10168

|

212.983.7150

|

CAULDWELLWINGATE.COM

March 21, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 15

P011_P018_CN_20220321.indd 15

3/17/22 5:11 PM

NOTABLE 2022 MARY MAHANY Project executive, Shawmut Design and Construction

At Shawmut, Mahany is responsible for $200 million in New York projects. As a member of the firm’s senior leadership team, she serves as a client liaison.

Mahany leads office and field teams and carries out educational, commercial, institutional and health care projects. She is project lead for a confidential technology client, Shawmut’s largest interior project to date. In addition, she is leading the renovation of a century-old building for nonprofit City Harvest. Mahany is co-leads a regional diversity council at Shawmut.

CHERYL MCKISSACK DANIEL President and CEO, McKissack & McKissack

McKissack Daniel runs the show at McKissack & McKissack, the oldest minority-owned design and construction firm in the nation. She leads numerous projects in the health care, education, transportation and commercial sectors. The firm’s current ventures include the new Terminal One at Kennedy International Airport and the renovation of Coney Island Hospital’s campus.

McKissack Daniel, who boasts more than three decades of construction experience, works toward diversity implementation in each project. She is on numerous corporate, charitable and community boards including those of the Regional Plan Association and the New York Building Foundation.

CARRIE MOORE

LISA MOVING

KAROLINA O’CONNOR

Principal, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, Turner Construction

Design principal, Unispace

Moore is a global expert in technical design, project delivery, construction methodologies, material science and decarbon­ ization. At architectural planning and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, she focuses on the education, science, government and health care sectors. She recently worked on Wellesley College’s Science Center, transforming a collection of dim, cramped spaces into a modern interdisciplinary research hub. She has led several career initiatives at Skidmore, including founding Year One, a program that supports recent graduates searching for architecture, engineering, urban planning and interior design positions.

Moore is a member of a Skidmore committee that focuses on talent development and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Moving has held an array of titles at Turner, including field engineer, cost control manager, business development engineer and project manager. As vice president, she led the development of Turner’s inaugural diversity, equity and inclusion impact report. As chairwoman of the company’s action committee, she oversees the development and national operationalizing of recommendations alongside leadership teams. Moving, who established Turner’s Diversity Advocate Network, mentors several women in the construction industry through the company’s volunteer and outreach programs.

O’Connor leads design team operations at the New York studio of Unispace. She is responsible for helping to secure new business opportunities and to cultivate client satisfaction regarding quality control and financials.

Despite the challenges of remote work, O’Connor increased the size of her team and sustained highprofile projects. She has received the National Council for Interior Design qualification and the WELL Accredited Professional credential, which have empowered her to strengthen Unispace’s sustainable design capabilities. O’Connor, who has more than two decades of professional design experience, has mentored graduating design students.

CONGRATULATIONS NANCY! And all 2022 Crain’s Notable Women in Construction, Design & Architecture Chin has been a strong leader at Clune from the early “ Nancy days of our New York office. She has played a critical role in

the expansion of the region and has made it her mission to cultivate young talent into future leaders. We are excited to congratulate Nancy on this well-deserved honor, thank her for her for all of her hard work and look forward to her successes to come.

- Ben Walker, COO, Clune Construction

”

16 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | March 21, 2022

P011_P018_CN_20220321.indd 16

3/17/22 3:32 PM

d

MICHELE O’CONNOR

RINA PARADO-READ

HOW SHEEN PAU

MIMI RAYGORODETSKY

RONNETTE RILEY

Senior vice president, Langan

Principal and project director, IA Interior Architects

Principal and vice president, Langan

Owner and principal, Ronnette Riley

O’Connor manages the site and civil department in the New York office of engineering and environmental consulting firm Langan. Her responsibilities include business development, client management, senior technical review and staff mentorship. The senior principal and senior vice president, who has been with Langan since 1994, is the corporate leader of Women@Langan, which aims to foster a supportive, empowering environment for women at the firm. O’Connor was honored by the Women Builders Council in 2021 for her work on diversity, equity and inclusion. She chairs the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation.

Parado-Read’s early career included stints as a draftswoman in the Philippines, a junior designer in Singapore, and an intermediate architect in Hong Kong and the Philippines.

Parado-Read joined IA in 2014, and now she leads high-profile accounts in New York and farther afield for clients in the financial, technology and consulting industries. In addition, she is involved with business and staff development at her firm’s New York office, growing relationships with clients and vendors and mentoring project managers.

Parado-Read has been profiled

by The New York Real Estate Journal.

Acting associate commissioner of design and infrastructure, New York City Department of Design and Construction

Raygorodetsky has worked on numerous multidisciplinary redevelopment projects at brownfield sites across New York City for engineering and environmental consulting firm Langan.

Her notable projects have included the IAC Building, Greenpoint Landing and Willets Point.

Raygorodetsky, a founder and leader of Women@Langan and the firm’s diversity, equity and inclusion committee, recently was named co-chair of the New York Building Congress’ Council of Industry Women. A veteran of more than two decades in the business, she has presented virtually for real estate organizations and taught classes at Columbia University.

Since 1987, Riley has been overseeing projects and providing design and team leadership at her eponymous architectural firm. She works to translate client goals into effective design solutions. To date, Riley’s firm has completed more than 900 renovation projects—at schools, health care facilities, offices, parks, bridges, cultural institutions, public safety facilities, housing and social service centers. Riley is a fellow at the American Institute of Architects, where she is a director of its New York state board. She lectures at universities and professional associations and has appeared in two Discovery Channel documentaries.

Pau oversees a 170-member design team at the Department of Design and Construction.

She is tasked with managing design and risk assessments related to the replacement and expansion of the city’s water and sewer network. She also works on the city’s street infrastructure and public plaza program. Last year she led design efforts for the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, the largest urban climate adaptation program in the nation. She has spent her entire career at the DDC, leading design efforts on transformative public space across the five boroughs, including Starlight Park on the Bronx River.

March 21, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 17

P011_P018_CN_20220321.indd 17

3/17/22 4:03 PM

NOTABLE 2022 CHRISTINA RIVERA

NANCY RUDDY

CATHERINE SHERIDAN

JANE SMITH

EMILY SOBEL

Senior project executive, Cauldwell Wingate

Managing principal, CetraRuddy

Chief of staff, MTA Construction and Development

Partner, Spacesmith

Executive vice president, Savills

Rivera oversees several operations teams for major high-rise development projects at construction firm Cauldwell Wingate. Her renowned projects to date have included 71-17 Roosevelt Ave. in Jackson Heights, Queens, and 200 E. 21st St. in Manhattan. Rivera, who is on a Cauldwell committee responsible for the development and oversight of internal processes, is the founder of Women Promoting Success, an internal organization designed to support women en route to construction career triumphs.

She recently participated in the 2021 New York Build Expo and the New York Festival of Construction.

Ruddy has worked on architectural and design projects as varied as the Rose Hill condominium tower and Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan, affordable housing developments in Brooklyn, restaurants in Hudson Yards and three schools in India. As executive director of interior design at architecture and design firm CetraRuddy, she leads business development, strategic planning and design work across the commercial, residential, cultural and educational sectors. Ruddy, who has grown the firm from a two-person operation to a nearly 100-member entity since its founding in 1987, has ensured that mentorship is prioritized at the organization. She is on the advisory board for Baruch College’s Newman Real Estate Institute.

Sheridan provides day-to-day operational management at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. She directs 1,800 individuals in the planning and delivery of a $55 billion capital program across five agencies.

In addition, she is responsible for strategic planning and implementation, industry relations, intergovernmental affairs, internal and external communications and emergency management.

Despite pandemic-related challenges, she developed worker protocols that limited infection rates and ensured that projects continued apace.

Sheridan has developed transparent project and program reporting systems and metrics, and she has updated the MTA’s coastal storm preparedness and response plan.

With experience in civic architecture, workplace design and retail environments, Smith leads architecture, planning and interior design firm Spacesmith, of which she is a founding partner.

Her projects have included U.S. consulates across the globe and community and family service centers in New York. Smith was appointed to the industry advisory group for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations for a 2021–2023 term. She is on the board of trustees for the Olana Partnership, a nonprofit that supports the restoration and development of Olana, a state historic site. She is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Sobel oversees all elements of the real estate and construction capital-project life cycle for real estate services provider Savills.

Managing team members on several concurrent projects, she provides strategic direction, delivers subject matter expertise, manages new business opportunities, and recruits, onboards and trains new hires. Since 2019 Sobel has been the project executive overseeing the interior fit-out of a 19-story corporate headquarters. She co-sponsored LeanIn, a mentorship initiative at Savills. She was named by the New York Business Journal as a 2021 Woman of Influence.

Congratulations to our own

KATHLEEN HENNESSY Director of Architecture & Design on her well-deserved recognition NOTABLE WOMEN IN CONSTRUCTION, DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE

CAPPELLI ORGANIZATION 7 RENAISSANCE SQUARE • 4TH FLOOR WHITE PLAINS, NY 10601

914-769-6500 WWW.CAPPELLIORG.COM

18 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | March 21, 2022

P011_P018_CN_20220321.indd 18

3/17/22 3:33 PM

CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS

B R E A KFAST Join us live while we break news and network with the city’s most influential leaders and policy-makers Gregory Russ Chair & CEO CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS New York City Housing Authority Learn more about the organizational reform, preservation strategy and investments coming to the city.

B R E A KFAST

April 6 | 8-9:30 a.m.

Ritchie Torres US Representative State leaders discuss legislative agendas, New York’s economy, infrastructure investments, business initiatives, and more.

April 29 | 8-9:30 a.m.

Janno Lieber Chair & CEO MTA Find out how the MTA plans to tackle its big challenges, how it will utilize an infusion of federal dollars and what to expect from the subway of the future.

May 11 | 8-9:30 a.m.

Register Today: CrainsNewYork.com/PowerBreakfast

Sponsorship Opportunities:

Contact Crain’s New York Sales Manager courtney.mccombs@crainsnewyork.com

CN020675.indd 1

Event Questions:

Contact Crain’s New York Events crainsevents@crainsnewyork.com

3/17/22 3:45 PM

CLASSIFIEDS 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 #047C– Epoxy Flooring (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) BP #047A – Resinous Matrix Terrazzo Flooring (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) BP #047B – Rubber Flooring (Bid, Payment & Performance Bond Required) BP #050 – Specialties (Partitions, FEC & Extinguisher) (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: April 11th, 2022 and initial submission of a prequalification statement not later than April 11th, 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 #047C, #047A, #047B and #050 A Webcast about the above Bid Package/s will be held on March 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_YWVhMTM0ZTktYTliZC00ZDkyLThiYjQtMTkwMWE4ZWIyZmFj%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

Advertising Section

Contact Claudia Hippel at 312-659-0076 or email: claudia.hippel@crain.com

POSITIONS AVAILABLE Quantitative Researcher (Citadel Americas Services LLC – New York, NY); Mult. Pos. Avail. Formulate math & simulation models of complex mrkt probs, relat’g constants & variables, restrictions, alternatives, conflicting objectives, & their numerical parameters using tech, math & stat model’g, & comp systems. F/T. Reqs a Master's degree (or foreign equiv) in Stat, Math, Physics, CS, Engin, Fin, or a rel field & 1 yr of exp in job offered or in quant res. Edu, train’g, or exp must include the follow’g: apply’g adv stat & math model’g techniques includ’g time-series analysis, crosssectional analysis, Statistical Machine Learn’g, Natural Language Process’g, or sim; C++ or OOD programm’g; stat packages includ’g R, Matlab, PyTorch, or sim; script’g languages includ’g bash, PERL, Python, or sim; &, analyz’g gigabyte or terabyte sized large datasets. Resumes: citadelrecruitment@citadel.com.

JobID: 6054777.

To obtain further information about contracting opportunities and/or the prequalification package and bid solicitation package/s, please contact Lyndsey Spangel, 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 April 12th, 2022 10 AM Link: Please join this opening meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetupjoin/19%3ameeting_YWVhMGQ2ZjctNDk0OC00MDcwLWJlOTctNzJhNGU4OTczYTdk%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b %22Tid%22%3a%2220e27700-b670-4553-a27c-d8e2583b3289%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22732a90ce-24b7-42ebbf78-d638e2a629ac%22%7d

Zebra Tech Corp has an opening in Holtsville, NY office for: Adv SWE: Dsign & dvlpmnt of drivr, suplicnt, & app lyer sftwre. Bach+5 yrs exp or Mast+3 yrs exp rqd. Telecommuting may be permitted. When not telecommuting, must report to work site. To apply, email your resume to jobs@zebra.com and reference job #2982079.

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES Notice of Qualification of GB EquipmentCo LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/17/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/02/19.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 820 N. French St., 4th Fl., Wilmington, DE 19801.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

HJ Studios NYC LLC filed w/ SSNY on 2/7/22. Office: New York Co. SSNY designated as agent for process & shall mail to: 368 3rd Ave., #28A, NY, NY 10016.

Purpose: any lawful.

LEGAL NOTICE Application for Authority of Torchia Entertainment, LLC filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) 2/3/2022. Formed in PA 1/1/2022. Office loc.: NY County. SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The principal business loc. and address SSNY shall mail copy of process is c/o Michael J. Torchia, 610 White Ash Dr., Langhorne, PA 19047.

Cert. of Organization filed with the Secy. of the Commonwealth of PA, 401 North St., 206 N. Office Bldg., Harrisburg, PA 17120. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of LADY IN THE LAKE, LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/01/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/14/21.

Princ. office of LLC: 11 Madison Ave., NY, NY 10010. NYS fictitious name: LADY IN THE LAKE PRODUCTION, LLC. 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, 820 N. French St., 4th Fl., Wilmington, DE 19801. Purpose: TV production.

Application for Authority of ABL RPC RESIDENTIAL CREDIT ACQUISITION LLC filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/1/2022. Formed in DE on 7/22/2020. Office loc.: NY County.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The address SSNY shall mail copy of process to 30 Montgomery St., Ste. 215, Jersey City, NJ 07302. The office address required to be maintained in DE is The Corporation Trust Company, Corporation Trust Ctr., 1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of formation filed with the Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

SUBMIT YOUR BUSINESS CLASSIFIEDS TODAY Get your message in front of New York’s influential business community with Crain’s New York Business - Classified Ads Advertising Section

Contact Hippel 312-659-0076 or To place aClaudia classified ad, Callat212-210-0189 email: claudia.hippel@crain.com or Email: jbarbieri@crainsnewyork.com 20 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MARCH 21, 2022

C

CLASSIFIEDS

N C H fi (S lo in P S d w s to (C 1 C W F D F 1 a

F fi (S N a a a to C P

N

s

0 .

.

it

CLASSIFIEDS

Advertising Section

Contact Claudia Hippel at 312-659-0076 or email: claudia.hippel@crain.com

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES Notice of Qualification of CALIBRANT RENEWABLE HOLDINGS, LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/28/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/23/21.

Princ. office of LLC: 125 W. 55th St., NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of DE, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Formation of EAST 89 NYC LLC filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 1/26/2022. Office loc.: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The address SSNY shall mail process to Christopher Shaari, 19 Country Club Way, Demarest, NJ 07627.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of MSG SPORTS VENTURES, LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/01/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/24/22.

Princ. office of LLC: 2 Penn Plaza, NY, NY 10121. 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 DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of 30W 85TH STREET LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/17/2021. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to Registered Agents Inc., 90 State St, Ste 700, Office 40, Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of CHARTED LABS LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/28/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/27/22.

Princ. office of LLC: 18 10th St., Apt. 928, San Francisco, CA 94103. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, Attn: Jayendra Jog at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: 850 New Burton Rd., Ste. 201, Dover, DE 19904. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., P.O. Box 898, Dover, DE 19903. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice is hereby given that a license, number 1341506, for beer, wine and liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell beer, wine and liquor at retail in a restaurant establishment under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 7 Times Square, Suite Nos. G003 and 200, New York, NY 10036 for on-premises consumption.

PT OPCO, LLC d/b/a Pink Taco

Notice of Qualification of FINCHLEY ROAD MEDIA LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/24/22.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/30/21. Princ. office of LLC: 740 4th St. North, Ste. 176, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. 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.

Raymond Realty Group LLC, Arts of Org filed with SSNY on 07/17/18. 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, 17 Catherine St, Unit 13, New York, NY 10038. Purpose: to engage in any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of DAVID KESSLER PROPERTY HOLDING, LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/01/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Nevada (NV) on 02/24/22. Princ. office of LLC: 460 Getty Ave., Clifton, NJ 07011. 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. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 202 N. Carson St., Carson City, NV 89701-4201.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of CAESAR, NAPOLI & SPIVAK PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/09/22. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of PLLC: 233 Broadway, Ste. 2348, NY, NY 10279. SSNY designated as agent of PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the PLLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Practice of law.

to

d

h t.,

Thursday, May 5, 2002 | 8:30 – 10:00 a.m.

The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated health disparities in New York City. Providers and public officials have made great strides to remedy those inequalities, from prioritizing hard-hit communities for the vaccine rollout to expanding telehealth services, but New Yorkers continue to slip through the cracks.

Join us on May 5 to hear from stakeholders representing hospitals and community health clinics, public policy experts, entrepreneurs, and advocates to discuss how to make the health care system more equitable and ensure New Yorkers get the care they need.

In-Person Event

Learn more at CrainsNewYork.com/MayForum MARCH 21, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 21

FROM PAGE 1

FRANK MARANDO

Yet out of the rubble, new companies formed. Their founders were seeking to rebuild after layoffs or company closures, to follow their passions or to find flexibility for family life. Their businesses are tiny, with fewer than five employees.

In fact, the number of businesses that size actually grew in the restaurant and recreation sectors, according to DiNapoli’s report, even as the count for companies with five or more workers shrunk. In the restaurant industry, for example, there were around 1,800 shuttered businesses of five to 49 employees, and 1,000 new companies with fewer than five between the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of last year.

The SBA defines a small business as one with fewer than 500 employees, but the tiniest firms are the most numerous. Of the 31.7 million small businesses nationwide in 2020, 81% had no employees, according to an SBA report.

The type of business can dictate the employee count. A retailer might need a dozen employees to staff a shop, but a retail consultant can get by with none. A restaurant typically needs at least several people on staff—unless it’s delivery-only or a pop-up shop.

And sometimes companies are small by choice. Erin Halper, founder of The Upside, a membership-based community for independent consultants, said some in her network pocket $300,000 annually working 25 hours per week, with no staff and no employee-related headaches.

Other tiny businesses stay little only because they lack the knowhow or capital. Among them are plenty of minority- and woman-owned concerns.

Whether or not the latest batch of tiny companies grows is a big question for the city. Many larger firms are gone, and tens of thousands of

jobs have yet to return, potentially leaving it up to the new guys to deliver the economic dynamism and employment New York needs.

Will they deliver? “I don’t think a brand-new businessperson comes in and wants to be a multinational corporation,” said Marlene Citron, SBA regional administrator for the area that includes New York. “They say, ‘I want to do something that looks and feels like me, and we will take it from there.’

“I don’t doubt that some of those will end up being the Apples of the future,” Citron added.

By necessity

In 2019 Kondrat was consulting at a retail agency.

When the pandemic hit, the agency’s team members looked at one another in horror. What client would open a store in a raging pan- NATIVE NOODLES offers Singaporean cuisine in Washington Heights. Pryke, the founder, is ready to grow her business but questions how. demic? The team disBorrowing other chefs’ spaces for kitchen” and considering the sale banded. Kondrat considered her Purdie, a trained chef. So she made options: apply for an in-house role the Japanese noodle dish, experi- her meals, she said, lets her focus of packaged goods. But when sales slowed in December and January, or start her own business. menting with broth and toppings. on the food.

“I don’t have to worry about rent she instead was in the position of “I chose the latter,” she said, In November 2020 she collaborated cutting costs to preserve margins. “thinking it would be very apparent with a supper club to send out or turning tables,” she said.

She avoids the need to hire a That can be the flip side of conquickly if it was going to work.” ramen kits. It went well.

A trickle of work from past con“It was a great thing for me, trol, Zagor said: “How much aggravation is tacts came in throughout the sum- for my courage and creatively, acceptable for how little mer of 2020. Going into last year, a to step back out there as a money?” combination of low commercial chef,” she said. She now runs For most tiny comparents and optimism about Covid-19 Ramen by Ra, which mostly vaccines led to a burst of inquiries operates as a pop-up experinies, it is not clear how and a realization that she appar- ence with top restaurants to go from a lean newbie to a scalable firm. ently had started a viable business. around the city, including Mel“Some owners want to be the Like Kondrat, Rasheeda Purdie ba’s and Red Rooster. She is hoping whole staff for her kitchen or front of the house. next Sweetgreen or similar,” Pryke found herself out of a job in 2020. to launch a packaged product too.

In that sense, being tiny is a reac- said. “Then you fund-raise. That is She had been at The Wing, a women’s coworking company, as an Flexible fit tion to the labor shortage and us right now—we want to grow, but assistant general manager, building It wasn’t only layoffs crowning expensive manpower, restaurant it is figuring out how.” She said it could take several years of saving to out the entertaining and confer- new entrepreneurs, and the new consultant Steve Zagor said.

“The net result,” Zagor said, “is: amass enough cash for a second ences arm and managing member- business formation was not limited location. to early 2020. For some, there was a Stay lean and do it yourself.” ship and retail.

For many of the newest firms, What’s more, “for many in the Purdie got through a rough dawning realization that their job food space, getting bigger means opening in a more normal universe no longer fit. post-layoff period by cooking.

Holly Pilch, a union TV produc- getting away from the customers,” as the pandemic wanes, staying “Having all the restaurants closed, I really missed ramen,” said tion manager who gave birth to her said Nina Oduro, co-founder of tiny is not the answer.

Lindsey Weiss and Alyssa Golub, second child during the early part Dine Diaspora, an agency in Washof the pandemic, was back at work ington, D.C., that is a resource for for example, have plans to launch a in August 2020, but her work-life businesses that are Black- and gourmet store-meets-bar, Pine & Polk, in Hudson Square this spring. balance seemed off. woman-owned.

“I just felt that I was not as presStaying small also can mean The plan came out of their panent for my kiddos when I wanted to remaining true to one’s craft while demic-life shake-ups—each lost a retaining flexible hours and the parent and made a cross-country be,” Pilch said.

She contemplated how to be her chance to capitalize on opportuni- move. Their long-discussed dream own boss. Upon seeing an empty ties that arise. of opening a business became a storefront, she rented it, opening In the restaurant industry, how- reality. the Rivertown General home goods ever, small scale can mean small Products with a West Coast bent store in Dobbs Ferry, the Westches- margins. will occupy the front of Pine & Polk, they said, with a speakeasy-like bar ter County town where she lives. in the back. Weiss said Pine & Polk She gained flexibility by cutting Room to grow overhead, including labor costs. All Amy Pryke, founder of Native is planning to hire up to 30 employwinter, when day care facilities shut Noodles, a Singaporean restaurant ees to operate from morning in the classrooms to avoid Covid-19 expo- in Washington Heights, does pay shop through evening at the bar.

Two months before opening, Weiss sure, she closed the store to care for rent on a shop.

She launched her business in is already imagining the possibiliher children.

Halper of The Upside said she 2019 at the Queens Night Market. ties for growth. has noticed more women making Then, as she was figuring out plans “If there are offices, we can do the leap. Before the pandemic, “it for a permanent location, the pan- team-building or trunk shows or felt more like a privileged choice, demic hit. After re-evaluating, she book signings, or open earlier on a like a luxury,” to go off to work on settled on Washington Heights in Saturday to do brunch,” she said your own, she said. But, she said, spring 2020, figuring that the hospi- excitedly. the attitude turned into: “I can’t tal and school workers nearby Kondrat, too, said she has a feeltake this anymore! I’m going to lose would be patrons. Native Noodles ing she will grow soon, at least a litit if I don’t make a change.” opened in February 2021. tle, as retailers ramp up to meet At Ramen by Ra, Purdie has been Most shifts, there are three cooks consumer demand for shopping able to grow her brand in a way that and one front-of-house worker—a and existing clients sign multiyear feels personally sustainable, she role Pryke herself sometimes fills. contracts. said. She usually takes time off She has been deliberate about “It’ll be obvious,” she said, “when between pop-up experiences to trying to increase revenue in her the next full-time person needs to PURDIE got through a layoff by comfort-cooking. She now runs Ramen by Ra, which recover. space, experimenting with a “ghost join.” ■ offers pop-up experiences at some of the city’s top restaurants.

BUCK ENNIS

TINY

WHEN CLASSROOMS SHUT, SHE CLOSED THE STORE TO CARE FOR HER CHILDREN

22 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | March 21, 2022

P022_CN_20220321.indd 22

3/18/22 5:04 PM

GOTHAM GIGS

CINDY LAWRENCE GREW UP Port Jefferson Station, Long Island RESIDES Mount Sinai, Long Island AGE 55 EDUCATION Bachelor’s in business administration, University of Buffalo; MBA, Hofstra University SPARE TIME Whenever Lawrence visits a new city, she seeks out the best ice cream spot. She also enjoys taking to trails on her bike and shooting photographs.

BIG FAN Not only is math used during everyday, practical activities, such as while running errands, Lawrence said, but the subject can also be beautiful.

She loves that math can be involved in the creation of important things like technology and vaccines.

FAMILY AFFAIR Lawrence has three adult children, all of whom work in STEM-related fields.

BUCK ENNIS

LAWRENCE rides a visitor favorite, the square-wheel tricycle.

Math is more than a 4-letter word

Executive director of a museum on the subject works to make it magical

BY BETH TREFFEISEN

M

ath, a subject many people loathe, is what Cindy Lawrence endlessly works to rebrand.

She first fell in love with it because of a calculus teacher in 12th grade who showed her that math was more than multiplication tables and decimal points.

Years before, a humiliating experience as she entered second grade turned her off from the subject. Her new teacher called out Lawrence for forgetting how to subtract during the previous summer break.

“I remember that feeling intently,” she said. “Feeling stupid. Feeling like I couldn’t be successful.”

Now, in her role as executive director and CEO of the National Museum of Mathematics, or MoMath for short, she strives to change people’s negative perceptions of the subject, trying to help them see the magic behind the equations.

“It is kind of like when you go to an art museum. You don’t think you are going to become an artist or a sculptor, but you go to see something beautiful,” Lawrence said.

“When people come to MoMath, not everyone comes who wants a career in math; they want to see something beautiful and inspiring.”

In 2008 Lawrence and a group of friends volunteered to open the museum. They first thought to place it near Stony Brook University on Long Island, but it quickly grew in popularity, so they began to search for a location in New York City. In 18 months the team raised $23 million for the move. The museum opened Dec. 12, 2012, in the NoMad neighborhood to a line out the door.

The museum welcomes 150,000 to 160,000 visitors a year, and in fiscal 2020, its revenue was $7.9 million. A fan favorite exhibit is the square-wheel tricycle, which shows wheels don’t have to be round.

Lawrence began her career as a

certified public accountant. When she decided to start her family, she transitioned into education and became a lead instructor and national editor for an international review program, Becker Professional Education. In addition, Lawrence created and continues to direct an extracurricular math program for gifted middle school and high school students through a joint venture with Brookhaven National Laboratory, located in Upton, Long Island.

In her leadership role at MoMath, she focuses on the creative design process for all exhibits and programs, both onsite and online. She also oversees the museum’s operations, including public outreach, engagement and fundraising efforts.

In the coming years, Lawrence hopes to find a larger space.

“It was a great startup location, but we would love to be bigger,” said Lawrence. “We want to take our place among the other museums in New York City.” ■

“IT’S KIND OF LIKE WHEN YOU GO TO AN ART MUSEUM. YOU GO TO SEE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL”

MARCH 21, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 23

P023_CN_20220321.indd 23

3/18/22 4:14 PM

T:10.875"

T:14.4"

Your work-life balance is our work life.

In business or personal banking, we’re committed to your success – whatever that means to you.

Our small business specialists are in your community, providing hometown convenience and global expertise. Find practical solutions not only for your needs as a small business owner, but also for your personal financing and banking.

Visit santanderbank.com/business to help your business grow.

To book an appointment, visit santanderbank.com/booking.

Santander Bank, N.A. is a Member FDIC and a wholly owned subsidiary of Banco Santander, S.A. ©2022 Santander Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Santander, Santander Bank, and the Flame Logo are trademarks of Banco Santander, S.A. or its subsidiaries in the United States or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CN0206xx.indd 1

659402

3/9/22 10:05 AM