Crain's New York Business

CHASING GIANTS Coffee startup brews up tiny shops to take on Starbucks

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APRIL 4, 2022

TECHNOLOGY

Your hybrid office will see you now

Companies’ return-to-office plans put focus on flexibility following two years of fruitful remote work

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BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH t the Justworks office at 55 Water St., there is a buzz lately on Tuesdays and Thursdays, plus a decent crowd of employees around on Wednesdays.

Justworks reopened its 135,000square-foot downtown space last month to roughly 900 employees. Managers and workers were assigned to choose at least one day each week for in-person work.

“Mondays are usually more contemplative,” said Allison Rutledge-Parisi, senior vice president of people for the human resources-tech company. “Fridays are quiet.”

The technology industry, which has been slowest among office employers to return to in-person work, is now slowly bringing employees back. But after two years of remote work that was largely productive for workers (and lucrative for employers), return plans in the industry include plenty of caveats and flexibility.

Google, employer of more than 12,000 New Yorkers, began calling workers back for at least three

BUCK ENNIS

JUSTWORKS’ Rutledge-Parisi says some office time is necessary to foster workplace culture and staff retention.

See OFFICE on page 18

HEALTH CARE CHECKUP

Local health-tech investment boom faces headwinds in 2022

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

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oosted by the conditions of the pandemic, city health care startups pulled in record funding from venture capital investors in 2020 and 2021—powering local hires, real estate leases and new products.

Data for the first months of 2022, however, indicates that the money

NEWSPAPER

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is no longer flowing quite as fast as it was. But industry insiders say many of the changes that boosted investment into health technologies are here to stay.

“We may well see a slowdown, but the investment is still way ahead of where we were in 2019,” said Bunny Ellerin, president of the New York City Health Business Leaders, an industry group for

© 2022 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC.

MORE health care coverage on Maimonides, Planned Parenthood and New York-Presbyterian Pages 16-17

health care companies.

Health-tech startups based in New York raised $9 billion in 2021, more than doubling a record total in 2020, according to a report from

New York City Health Business Leaders.

The group has not yet released its report for the start of 2022, but Ellerin said funding is about even with the last three months of 2021, when the first indications of a slowdown emerged. Local health startups raised $1.4 billion that quarter, the group found, while total funding surpassed $2 billion in every

quarter of 2021 before that.

The private investment market is feeling the sting of rate-interest hikes and uncertainty driven by the ongoing pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The initial public offerings that provide big returns to early investors are near nonexistent so far this year. There have been 18 See STARTUPS on page 22

BETTER TECH FOR AN ‘IGNORED’ BASE

The priciest residential real estate sales in the city

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TECH SPOTLIGHT

4/1/22 5:20 PM

CLIMATE CHANGE

Flood-prone park in Queens gets a new climate plan

Ready for the future That’s nothing compared to what’s on the horizon. Without upgrades, much of the green space, which is a former tidal wetland, could be permanently inundated by 2080, the New York Panel on Climate Change said.

Karen Imas, vice president of programs at the Waterfront Alliance, said the city must ensure the park is “prepared for our climate future.” The best way to do that, she said, is by developing a plan with those who know the park best.

“This is really an opportunity to work hand in hand with the community in and around the park and with city agencies to identify what are the greatest haz-

“THIS IS REALLY AN OPPORTUNITY TO WORK WITH THE COMMUNITY” After a heavy rainfall, it’s common for huge puddles to transform park basketball courts and fields into ponds for days. Overflow from

CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS

B R E A KFAST

CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS

R E A KFAST EVENTB CALLOUT

APRIL 29 CRAIN’S POWER BREAKFAST At our upcoming in-person Power Breakfast, on April 29, Crain’s will interview Congressman Ritchie Torres and state Sen. Jessica Ramos about their legislative agendas, New York’s economy and business environment, the state’s upcoming infrastructure investments and changes to smallbusiness services.

NEW YORK ATHLETIC CLUB, 180 CENTRAL PARK SOUTH Time: 8 to 9:30 a.m.

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lushing Meadows–Corona Park, one of the most frequently flooded green spaces in the city, is getting a comprehensive plan on how best to adapt Queens’ largest park to climate change.

Last month a congressional spending bill green-lit a $530,322 grant for the Waterfront Alliance to lead a climate resilience plan for the 897-acre park. Those federal dollars, which Queens Rep. Grace Meng requested from Congress last year, will enable the alliance to develop a road map of infrastructure projects and priorities to stymie prolific park flooding, which is only expected to worsen with increasingly heavy rains and sea level rise.

both Meadow and Willow lakes frequently engulfs trails, making the park a challenge to navigate. Hurricane Ida laid those challenges bare with torrential rains that flooded the park and overflowed onto the Van Wyck Expressway and Grand Central Parkway, which spurred emergency rescues for drivers trapped on the roads.

ards and vulnerabilities, and how they can be addressed,” Imas said.

That will likely be through a mix of projects, including wetland restoration, bioswales and revamped sewage infrastructure, she added.

The project will include an engineering and design study that will survey the park’s climate vulnerabilities and develop conceptual designs for resilient solutions, according to a preliminary planning document shared with Crain’s. A firm to conduct that study in part-

nership with the Waterfront Alliance has yet to be selected.

It’s unclear just how much it would cost to revamp the park for a greener future.

Time frame The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is in the midst of distributing the grant money, but the Waterfront Alliance said it expects to begin the plan during the summer and to wrap up the effort by the end of 2023.

In the wake of Hurricane Ida, while on the campaign trail, Mayor Eric Adams unveiled a citywide plan to address extreme weather and climate change, highlighting the need for upgrades at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. But his administration has yet to unveil new resilient projects for the parkland.

In the meantime, the city Department of Parks and Recreation said it had invested $350 million for recent and forthcoming park renovations. ■

FINANCE

CEO of office landlord Paramount Group scores with a well-timed option grant

BY AARON ELSTEIN

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ast year was a difficult one for Paramount Group. The office landlord was unable to fill 500,000 square feet after Barclays Capital vacated 1301 Sixth Ave. Last month the firm fended off an unsolicited takeover bid for the second time since the pandemic hit.

Yet CEO Albert Behler got a raise, thanks in part to adeptly timing the market for Paramount’s stock.

On Jan. 11, 2021, the company granted Behler options to buy about 780,000 shares at the day’s closing price of $8.63. That was the rock-bottom price for Paramount shares most of last year until the omicron surge drove them lower.

The favorably timed option grant, valued by Paramount at $1.6 million, helped lift Behler’s total compensation last year to $9.7 million from 2020’s $9.3 million, even though his company’s stock price fell by 5% and remains 26% below

BEHLER

GETTY IMAGES

BY CAROLINE SPIVACK

FLUSHING MEADOWS– CORONA PARK is the largest green space in Queens.

its prepandemic level.

Behler’s raise, disclosed in a regulatory filing last Thursday, spared him the sting experienced by rival CEOs, including Empire State Realty Trust’s Tony Malkin. His total pay fell by more than 20% last year, according to another filing Thursday.

There’s nothing illegal about favorably timed option grants and no

evidence that Paramount did anything wrong. In the past, companies have gotten into trouble for backdating, which means altering the grant date so the exercise price is lower and the options are worth more. Many companies repriced options for top officials or exchanged older grants for new ones after the 2008 market crash.

Pay consultants anticipated a wave of option repricings after the stock market sank in 2020, but the matter became moot when most sectors recovered quickly. Share prices of Manhattan landlords remain well below prepandemic levels, however.

Investors value Paramount’s New York holdings at $500 per

square foot, according to an Evercore ISI report last month. Manhattan office landlords were valued at more than $900 per square foot before the pandemic. Paramount’s 9 million-square-foot portfolio includes its namesake tower at 1633 Broadway and 31 W. 52nd St. It also owns towers in San Francisco. Annualized rent collections fell by $30 million last year, to $652 million.

Worthless options Before last year’s fresh batch of options, Behler’s older grants conferred the right to buy Paramount shares at prices ranging from $14.94 to $17.50 a share. That’s substantially higher than the market price since Covid-19 upended the Manhattan office market, rendering those older grants “underwater” or worthless.

Paramount stock traded at $10.90 a share last Thursday. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment. ■

Vol. 38, No. 13, April 4, 2022—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for no issue on 1/3/22, 7/4/22, 7/18/22, 8/1/22, 8/15/22, 8/29/22, 11/28/22 and the last issue in December. Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, PO Box 433279, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9681.

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2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | APRIL 4, 2022

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CHASING GIANTS

BUCK ENNIS

COFFEE DISRUPTORS Issam Freiha, left, and Vinay Menda know a thing or two about high-end coffee.

Blank Street Coffee bets on tiny storefronts and lower prices to compete with Starbucks The upstart has rapidly launched 29 locations in New York by leveraging local partnerships

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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 upstart: Blank Street Coffee

revenue of $29.1 billion in 2021, now has 400,000 employees and 34,300 stores. It added 1,200 locations globally in the past two years, but New York City is a different story. Since the pandemic began, the chain has closed more than 40 New York storefronts, mainly in Manhattan.

Blank Street’s co-founders, not surprisingly, are coffee How to slay the giant fiends. Vinay Menda, 29, grew up in Dubai and moved to New Blank Street’s founders are huge admirers of Starbucks and York to attend New York University’s Stern School of Business. its founder, Howard Schultz. But the coffee colossus is too big His favorite fix is a double espresso over ice, which goes a long to evolve with the times, they say. It’s saddled with an expenway when you weigh just 104 pounds. “If you’re boxing, sive network of cavernous cafes when more people want their there’s different weight classes,” he says. “I’m below coffee to-go. Starbucks also serves what’s now conthe lowest weight class. I don’t even hit the flyweight sidered a standard-grade brew, the founders say, number.” when a growing number of coffee drinkers demand Issam Freiha is 26 and grew up in Beirut, London the quality offered by Blue Bottle, among other pricand Dubai before studying economics and statistics ey “third wave” purveyors. at Columbia University. He’s a science fiction-lovTheir strategy: By slashing location costs, Blank ing cyclist who drinks his coffee black—up to four Street claims to offer truly high-end coffee (its beans cups to power his 15-hour workday. are from Brooklyn’s Parlor Coffee Roasters) at prices The two met through friends in New York and lower than Starbucks'. An 8-ounce cappuccino that opened the first Blank Street location in August 2020 costs $4.35 at Starbucks, for example, costs $3.50 at in a custom-made mobile cart parked on a lot be- ANNE KADET Blank Street. side the old Wythe Diner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Rather than renting large spaces that offer lots of The 200-employee company now has 29 storeseating, Blank Street serves its coffee mostly from front and cart locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan. While carts and tiny storefronts ranging in size from 165 to 400 square they won’t disclose revenue, the founders say each location feet—just big enough for a counter, a barista and a few potted becomes profitable within two months of opening. Flush with plants. $25 million from a Series A round in October, they plan to opThe cost to build out one of these tiny storefronts is less than erate 100 New York City locations by the end of this year while a quarter of a typical full-size café, Freiha says, and so is the expanding to new markets on the East Coast and in London. rent. But these tiny locations can do a lot of business—roughly half the volume of a full-size café. This produces higher profit The reigning Goliath: Starbucks margins and allows Blank Street to guarantee its baristas at Starbucks famously introduced the nation to a more high- least $23 an hour, which attracts top talent. While many estaber-quality cup of coffee along with the concept of a “third lishments had to raise wages in recent months, Blank Street place”—a space between work and home where people can was already paying what it considers a livable wage.

“We focus on the essentials—getting the highest quality connect. The company, which reported a consolidated net

coffee, the highest quality baristas,” Freiha says.

Among the company’s new partners is the Prospect Park Alliance, which is renting space to two Blank Street carts for park visitors. The nonprofit says it spent years looking for a good coffee vendor until Blank Street came along offering a mix of high-quality, affordable pricing and eco-friendly practices. The Prospect Park Alliance expects its own staff to be among the most frequent visitors to the carts: “It’s going to keep us caffeinated.”

The additional challenge Assuming the Blank Street model proves successful, what’s to prevent copy-cat startups from doing the same?

It’s all in the details, the founders say. To create a 250-square-foot storefront near the Bedford Avenue-Grand Street intersection in Williamsburg, for example, Blank Street had to persuade the landlord to split a large space in two.

Then it had to find a partner tenant—in this case bone broth purveyor Springbone Kitchen—to take the bigger half.

In February it partnered with potted plants purveyor The Sill to open a new location in Park Slope. It leased a 2,000-square-foot storefront and is occupying about a quarter of that space for its cafe, subleasing the rest of the space to The Sill. Customers come in for plants and snag a coffee or vice versa. The startups are planning additional locations together.

“Outworking others is the only way we’re going to outperform,” Freiha says.

Starbucks declined to comment, but in a recent earnings call, the giant said it’s sticking to its guns, providing a spot for people to sit down and socialize. “Human connection is the very foundation of the Starbucks experience,” CEO Kevin Johnson said. ■ 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.

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4/1/22 4:54 PM

WHO OWNS THE BLOCK

550 MADISON AVE.

Plaza District leases by insurer Chubb and fashion brand Hermes buoy comeback hopes All eyes on Madison for signs of recovery for Midtown office, retail 19 E. 57TH ST.

he pandemic has created a vicious cycle in the ecosystem of New York’s business districts. Without workers in offices, stores in places like Midtown have struggled, which in turn has created bleak streetscapes that discourage some workers from coming back.

Whether the sector can bounce back like the residential market will become clearer in a couple of weeks, when a fresh batch of market reports will shed more light on activity.

In the meantime, landlords around Madison and Fifth avenues, near Central Park in the Plaza District, point to recent high-profile leases as signs of recovery, including one at the former Sony building, where a major renovation was recently completed.

“We have seen tremendous activity this past quarter, and a lot of the deals we have been doing are 10-year deals,” said Aaron Marcus, a vice president of Lexin Capital, which owns 551 Madison Ave., a Plaza District tower now on the market.

If the Plaza District can rebound, that might speak volumes; the neighborhood faces several headwinds. Besides Covid, the area is transitioning from single-tenant towers to multifirm office buildings, which require more work than a single swipe of a pen.

That’s the case at 550 Madison, where owner Olayan Group has spent $300 million to attract a diverse roster.

Two tenants have signed up so far: the insurance company Chubb and the apparel company Hermes.

But those deals account for just 312,000 of the 685,000 square feet in the tower, suggesting a somewhat long road ahead. A spokeswoman had no comment about whether other deals are pending.

A flurry of deals at nearby 590 Madison, the former city headquarters of IBM, meanwhile, shows a continuing interest among financial firms to be in this Wall Street North type of neighborhood. Five new leases and an expansion totaling 52,000 square feet occurred during the winter, although No. 590 has 1 million square feet to keep full.

Any boost might be helpful. At the end of 2021, the Plaza District had a steep 17% availability rate for its offices, according to figures from the brokerage Newmark. But unlike with other Midtown submarkets, the district, with asking rents of $100 per square foot annually, benefited from having slightly more space leased by tenants than what was vacated.

Retail, which was in a jam even before Covid, seems to need more help.

The corridor along Fifth Avenue, from East 49th to East 60th streets, saw rents decline in the fourth quarter from $2,925 to $2,625 per square foot, Cushman & Wakefield found. And storefronts that were empty a year ago are, for the most part, still that way, the firm said. ■

In an enclave of mammoth brick buildings, this slender, fritted-glass, 24-story shard stands out. The building, which opened in 1999, is owned by the French conglomerate LVMH, which also has its American headquarters there. One of the firm’s retailers, Christian Dior, occupies the ground-level store. Its architect, Christian de Portzamparc, also designed the high-end condo 157 W. 57th St., a few blocks away. LVMH also controls next-door 598 Madison Ave., a 15-story, 77,000-squarefoot prewar midrise leased through 2045, according to records. The building was purchased in the 1980s by a partnership that included the estate of developer Sol Goldman. It has been controlled since 2000 by a team led by Stanley Chera, who died of Covid-19 two years ago.

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590 MADISON AVE. This 43-story, 1 million-square-foot blocklong building, constructed in 1983 as the city headquarters of IBM, in many ways embodies the Plaza District. Although it was once occupied by a single tenant, it is now home to about 12, including the Corcoran Group, Colony Capital and Morgan Stanley. Several financial firms recently signed small-office leases, including Reverence Capital Partners, a private-equity firm whose founders include Goldman Sachs alums. It took 13,700 square feet in the building, which has asking rents of about $135 per square foot. But the tower has also seen a high-profile departure. In March IBM said it would relocate its city offices to 1 Madison Ave., the property on Madison Square Park redeveloped by SL Green Realty and Hines. In late March there were about six office spaces for rent, ranging from 3,600 to 25,500 square feet, according to Jeffrey Sussman, a vice president at Edward J. Minskoff Equities, which bought the property for $202 million in 1994 with Odyssey Investment Partners, backed by funds from Ohio’s State Teachers Retirement System.

711 FIFTH AVE. This 18-story pilaster-lined Beaux-Arts office and retail building achieved trophy-property status when it sold for $909 million in 2019. Coca-Cola was the seller; the buyer was a diverse group that includes Wafra (Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund), Nightingale Properties and Shvo.

But there have been challenges. A 39,000-square-foot Ralph Lauren store that was the luxury retailer’s largest location shuttered in 2017 after just four years, although Ralph Lauren’s well-received Polo Bar restaurant continues to serve burgers there. Two watch stores—Swatch and Omega, a Swatch affiliate—are also still open, and Swatch would seem to have an incentive to make things work. It signed a lease worth $80 million, or about $1,600 per square foot, in 2011. Upstairs office tenants include investment firms such as Allen and Company, Sandler Capital Management and Catalyst Investors.

550 MADISON AVE. This blocklong, 37-story behemoth, built in 1984 for AT&T before being leased (and eventually sold) to Sony, was acquired by the Chetrit Group and Clipper Equities for $1.1 billion in 2013 for residential condos. But a softening market for luxury homes may have spooked the developers, who sold the 685,000-squarefoot tower for $1.4 billion in 2016 to a partnership led by the Olayan Group. A three-year renovation of the Philip Johnson-designed building, a landmark, added a glass-enclosed lobby garden. There’s also a tenant library, courtesy of Assouline, the design publisher. This year the city appraised the building at $385 million. Although officials typically understate market values, it may be notable that No. 550 was appraised at $454 million in the pre-pandemic year of 2018, for a 15% decline.

595 MADISON AVE. This bronze-and-marble art deco edifice, the Fuller Building, was named for its builder, the George A. Fuller Co., one of the city’s most-prolific construction firms.

Its portfolio boasts the original Penn Station, the Plaza Hotel and the Seagram Building. Today the 40-story, 322,000-square-foot structure is owned by Vornado Realty Trust, which bought it with the Mendik Company for $125 million in 1999. In a rare move, No. 595 has landmark status both for its exterior and part of its interior. Office tenants include fashion firms such as Bottega Veneta, Marc Fisher and Tom Ford. But the building had just 81% occupancy at the end of last year, according to stock filings. In comparison, Vornado’s 650 Madison, at East 59th Street, had 93% occupancy.

432 PARK AVE. The business district took a residential turn in the mid-2000s when developer Harry Macklowe and CIM Group bought the former Drake Hotel and began to piece together the site that would give rise to No. 432, a 1,396-foot-tall luxury condominium. It was an expensive undertaking. The Drake cost $418 million, according to the city, while an adjacent site on East 57th sold for $315 million. In addition, various air-rights purchases totaled about $18 million. The tower, which was the tallest apartment building in the city for years, has reaped $3 billion in sales since 2013, but it hit hurdles in 2021, when residents sued, claiming construction defects, including vibrations from building sway. The developers punched back in a lawsuit, claiming the condo’s board had obstructed repairs. Meanwhile, the condo has seen several big-ticket resales. Its six-bedroom 96th-floor penthouse came on the market at $169 million during the summer of 2021 and remains Manhattan’s priciest listing. The borough’s second-most-expensive, at $135 million, is also there, and several others round out the top 10, according to StreetEasy.

551 MADISON AVE. Small financial companies, law firms, medical offices and one big fashion tenant—Lacoste, which has 35,000 square feet—mix at this 17-floor prewar tower, which Lexin Capital snapped up for $155 million in 2017. Two of the building’s retail spaces are on the market, as are two office spaces, which are available for $75 per square foot, said Aaron Marcus, the Lexin executive who handles leasing.

He declined to comment on the property’s occupancy rate. Anecdotally speaking, more employees seem to be working on site than from home, Marcus said, adding that the flight of office tenants to Hudson Yards that was predicted a couple of years ago seems to be much less of a factor than feared.

BUCK ENNIS, GOOGLE MAPS

BY C.J. HUGHES

4 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | April 4, 2022

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4/1/22 4:12 PM

She means business.

And we’re here to help.

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Committing more than $300 million to provide capital to diverse entrepreneurs and small business owners, including women

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“I’m also proud that Bank of America walks the walk when it comes to hiring, supporting and promoting women within our walls.

Our board of directors is 50% diverse, including 6 female directors. Our workforce is half women, just like New York City. And our management team is more than half diverse, including 7 female leaders.”

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IN THE MARKETS

Wall Street warning sign: Jefferies’ earnings drop quantifies impact of rising rates and Ukraine war “THE RISKS OF FURTHER SHOCKS TO GROWTH ARE ELEVATED AT THE MOMENT” even though it employs only 4% of the workforce. Last week the New York state comptroller’s office reported that the average 2021 bonus rose by 20%, to a record $258,000.

Bearish signals But the Nasdaq has gotten thumped since the calendar turned.

Instacart, a privately held online grocer, slashed its valuation last week by almost 40%, to $24 billion.

Oil prices are way up, and interest rates are rising steadily.

The bond market is sending bearish signals, maybe, with the difference in the yield between the two-year and 10-year Treasury bonds shrinking. A flattened yield

BLOOMBERG

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ue the sad trombone be even worse, so last Monday's news drop was received positively sound.

Quarterly earnings fell in the market. CEO Richard Hanin half at Jefferies Finan- dler said he was proud of Jefferies’ cial Group, the first financial insti- performance “despite the change in tution to quantify the impact of ris- market tone.”

The change in tone could last ing interest rates and war in Europe. awhile, reckon Morgan Equity-underwriting Stanley analysts, who revenue dropped by twodowngraded the financial thirds for the quarter endsector’s outlook to “neuing Feb. 28. Investment returns sank by 82%, retral.” “The risks of further exogenous shocks to flecting steep drops in the value of tech startups. growth are … elevated at the moment given the All the market turmoil war in Ukraine, China’s led to a 51% drop in Jeffereal estate stress, and ries’ pretax income, to [the] ongoing battle with $327 million, and a 30% AARON ELSTEIN Covid,” equity strategist fall in net revenues. AnMichael Wilson said in a other key measure of profitability, annualized return on ad- report, “to name a few.”

Jefferies’ falling fortunes give a justed tangible equity, fell in half, to hint of what’s to come when JPMor16%. gan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Managing expectations other large banks start reporting The good news came from the quarterly earnings in the coming firm’s investor relations team, weeks. New York has a lot at stake which succeeded in persuading because Wall Street accounts for a sell-side analysts that results would fifth of all wages paid in the city,

curve could signal a recession is nigh—or not. Junkier parts of the credit market are reacting to somewhat-tightened financial conditions and are indeed paying higher yields, something they haven’t done for years.

Good news for Jefferies may have been scant, but Handler at least has no offices to close in the world’s most-sanctioned nation.

“We have no operations in Russia,” he said, “and our exposure to Russia is otherwise immaterial.” ■

ON POLITICS

Adams’ vaccine forgiveness helps entertainers and athletes but not the workers who support them want to tackle, is what to do with New York’s private-sector mandate.

Public health experts and Covid hawks continue to insist it’s vitally necessary to protect the city, even when no comparable policy exists anywhere else in the U.S. Almost 90% of the adult population of the five boroughs is fully vaccinated, a number that can’t be pushed much higher. Holdouts will not vanish, because unanimity on virtually any health care decision is impossible.

It's possible another Covid wave will come, driven by the new subvariant of omicron. But why would a mandate be necessary when so many residents are already vaccinated and Covid can spread among vaccinated and unvaccinated populations alike?

Omicron battered New York City in the winter, driving cases to record levels, infecting a largely vaccinated population. The Covid vaccines have done wonders for keeping people out of hospitals; stopping the spread, though, is another matter entirely.

IRVING

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ayor Eric Adams infu- their jobs too. Although other cities riated a large swath of have implemented mandates for New Yorkers when he public-sector employees, there is decided to allow ath- no other city in America with a simletes and entertainers working in ilar mandate covering private busithe city to perform while unvacci- nesses. The Kyrie Irving saga, quite nated. The carve-out for the pri- simply, would not have played out vate-sector mandate, announced at in Los Angeles, Boston or Chicago.

Citi Field, angered labor unions, The carve-out did not really come because of Irving, alconservative politicians and mandate-backing though the Nets did hire liberals alike. former Council City There was certainly Speaker Corey Johnson to logic to what Adams did. intensely lobby City Hall.

After he chose in early The real motivator was the March to end vaccine baseball season and the passports for indoor acreality that both the Yankees and Mets have playtivities, unvaccinated ers who refuse vaccinafans were allowed to ention. Steven Cohen, the ter New York sports arenas again. Brooklyn Nets ROSS BARKAN billionaire Mets owner, star Kyrie Irving, who is donated $1.5 million to a unvaccinated, could come and political action committee backing watch his team play but not enter a Adams last year. Randy Levine, the game. Unvaccinated players on Yankees president, is as well wired other teams were permitted to take as they come, a former deputy maythe court because their employers or in the Giuliani administration. were based outside of the five borIn turn, a new policy was develoughs. Under these circumstances, oped, one that will benefit the it became a farce for Irving not to wealthy and the famous, and few play. others. The vendors and janitors at But Adams had already enforced Yankee Stadium and Citi Field will vaccine mandates to a remarkable still need to be vaccinated. Aaron degree, making the backlash he re- Judge and Jacob deGrom can conceived inevitable. More than 1,400 tinue to bat away questions about public-sector workers were already their vaccination status. This, of fired. An unknown number of pri- course, is deeply unfair.

The greater question, which few vate-sector employees have lost

Adams, realistically, has two choices to make. He can either end the private-sector vaccine mandate for everyone, setting the same standard for bus drivers and public school teachers as Yankee outfielders, or decide it needs to become even more restrictive. A select number of public health experts want the definition of “fully vaccinated” to be changed to include booster shots. There are private colleges and universities requiring students and staff to have booster shots to be on campus.

If Adams pushes in this direction, New York will be an island apart, the only locality attempting such a mandate. Many more workers will likely be fired. Given the trajectory of Covid—all pandemics do fade eventually—this would be a divi-

sive policy.

Rather than impose more mandates, Adams should lean in harder on public education and beef up the city’s supply of Paxlovid, the new drug that effectively treats Covid. Once treatments are widely available for the virus, there is no further need to restrict which New Yorkers can go to work. Covid is never going away, and learning to safely live with the virus is paramount for a recovering city.

Quick takes ● The fight in Albany over revamping or scrapping 421-a altogether should focus entirely on whether the program has created enough affordable housing. Developers don't need more subsidies to build market-rate housing. ● The news that the feds are investigating whether Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin oversaw a straw donor scheme during his failed comptroller campaign last year is further confirmation that Gov. Kathy Hochul blundered when adding him to her ticket. ● The mayor is right: New York City should be able to add speed cameras on city streets without approval from the state Legislature and the governor. ■

Ross Barkan is a journalist and author who lives in New York City.

6 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | April 4, 2022

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4/1/22 4:20 PM

The Class A Destination for NYC’s Most Influential TAMI Movers and Shakers.

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

EDITORIAL

publisher/executive editor

Under Hochul’s plan, Buffalo will have a field day while downstate loses legislators, as it arrived so soon before the budget was set to be finalized. And the economists mentioned that the arrangement likely would not benefit the Buffalo area as much as the governor theorizes it will.

New York City often gets a bad rap for failing to remember that it’s not the center of the state.

Buffalo is about six hours north of New York City, and its residents deserve as many benefits from living in the Empire State as we downstaters do. Very often, many of us forget that life exists above Westchester.

However, Buffalo’s population last year is cited in some data as 886,000, a figure that is said to be declining. The 2021 population of New York City, meanwhile, was 18,823,000, a number said to be increasing.

Comparing the two cities is apples to oranges, of course, but it would be hard not to notice such a large portion of money being taken from taxpayers in the metro area and having it go toward a less populous area for such a nonessential reason. This is especially so when the city is contending with a

MANY TAXPAYERS WILL NEVER SEE THE PROPOSED STADIUM IN PERSON Buffalo sits, contributing $250 million. The rest of the money would come from the team and the NFL.

By Tuesday, state lawmakers and sports economists held a press conference criticizing the use of state money—and so much of it—for the initiative, saying the deal lacked transparency for

EDITORIAL editor-in-chief Cory Schouten,

cory.schouten@crainsnewyork.com managing editor Telisha Bryan assistant managing editor Anne Michaud data editor Amanda Glodowski digital editor Taylor Nakagawa

HOCHUL

audience engagement editor 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, Caroline Spivack op-ed editor Jan Parr,

opinion@crainsnewyork.com FLICKR.COM/GOVKATHYHOCHUL

G

ov. Kathy Hochul’s inclusion of $850 million in taxpayer funding in the proposed state budget to construct a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills probably wasn’t akin to a quarterback sneak. But one can’t imagine she intended for the deal to arouse as much (negative) attention as it has.

The governor announced last Monday that she had arranged for her hometown football team to remain in Buffalo for the next 30 years. New York state would kick in $600 million for the stadium project, with Erie County, where

Frederick P. Gabriel Jr.

homelessness crisis, a lackluster distribution of rent and utility-bill relief, and the myriad problems that come along with our transit system. Would the governor say to a struggling family in Queens “Sorry that the rent-relief portal ran out of money, but if you ever find yourself upstate, feel free to come to a Bills game”?

Hochul should have known this would be a hard sell, and her motivations for even attempting it

are questionable. Is she worried about losing upstate voters come Election Day? Or does she simply see the present moment as her being in the red zone for getting a pet project off the ground? It’s hard to say.

What’s a sure bet, though, is that taxpayers, many of whom live nowhere near the proposed stadium and will never see it in person, will lose out in the governor’s latest play. ■

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

OP-ED

Ana Jimenez, ajimenez@crainsnewyork.com

This bill can help small businesses hurt by New York’s monopoly problem

senior manager of events Michelle Cast,

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

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

BY KATY MILANI AND SUE WARFIELD

N

ew York state has a monopoly problem, but the proposed 21st Century Antitrust Act, sponsored by Sen. Michael Gianaris and Assembly member Jeffrey Dinowitz, would level the playing field for small and independent businesses.

Without this legislation, the problem will only get worse. We often hear from businesses—from toy store owners and booksellers to office suppliers and independent grocers—that monopoly power is the single biggest threat to their business’s survival.

Across the state, small businesses are being crushed, farmers are struggling to get fair prices, wages are being squeezed, rural communities are losing their economic base and communities of color are often bypassed by economic opportunity. Walk down any Main Street or commercial district in New York and you’ll likely see

empty storefronts where independent businesses once operated— along with the ubiquitous Amazon delivery trucks.

For far too long, New York’s small-business owners have been competing on an uneven playing field. Lax enforcement and antiquated state and federal antitrust laws have allowed monopolies, such as Amazon and others, to amass unprecedented economic and political power, dwarfing the ability of independent business owners to compete fairly and leading to waves of closures. Amazon’s rise coincides with a sharp decline in the number of independent businesses across the country; between 2007 and 2017, the number of small retailers fell by 65,000.

Reform antitrust laws The out-of-scale power of monopolies has affected thousands of small-business owners such as Bill Stewart. Stewart owns LI Toy & Game in Kings Park and is a member of Small Business Rising, a

growing coalition of small businesses that urges policymakers to safeguard the ability of small businesses to compete. Stewart supports the 21st Century Antitrust Act as a way to do just that.

“Amazon makes it nearly impossible for small-business owners like myself to make a profit selling on their Marketplace,” Stewart said recently. Charging exorbitant and ever-growing fees is just one way Amazon exploits independent sellers on its platform. Stewart shared some of his experiences, including Amazon’s copying product listings and undercutting his prices, pulling listings with no warning and withholding funds from sales.

If enacted, the 21st Century Antitrust Act would modernize and reform New York’s antitrust laws and create a pathway for clear rules of road about what conduct is and isn’t illegal. It would ensure that small businesses have an opportunity to be heard in court by enabling businesses to band together in class-action lawsuits

against monopolists for their abusive conduct.

This legislation would place New York in the vanguard of a growing chorus of antitrust efforts across the country. From Albany to Washington, D.C., legislators are pressing for long-overdue reforms that would rein in corporate power and create a fair and open marketplace for independent businesses.

Small businesses do so much for our communities. They create jobs, keep wealth and opportunity in the local economy, and help shape dynamic business districts.

This legislation would help rebalance the playing field and give New York’s entrepreneurs a chance to compete. ■ Katy Milani is a senior policy advocate with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs Small Business Rising.

Sue Warfield is president of the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association, a member of Small Business Rising.

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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]

8 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | APRIL 4, 2022

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4/1/22 4:41 PM

OP-ED

BY CARLOS PARDO MARTIN AND RENS VAN DEN BROEK

B

ehavioral health conditions, which include mental illness and substance use disorders, afflict about 1 in 4 Americans. Untreated, these conditions can harm people’s health, relationships and job prospects. They impose costs on all of us; Americans with behavioral health conditions account for about 60% of the nation’s overall medical spend.

Research by consulting firm McKinsey & Company uncovered disparities in behavioral health outcomes and access to services in the city, particularly among racial and

worse than they appear among groups that experience more stigma and are less likely to seek help.

Three approaches More than 30% of the New Yorkers who say they have been diagnosed with mental illness believe they can’t afford care—and they may be right. Most of the city’s behavioral health providers are in Manhattan, and many do not accept insurance. More than 84% of psychologists in the city identify as white, compared with only 43% of their potential patients. In our survey in November 2021, more than half of Black and Asian respondents said they expected to face challenges getting help if they were to have a behavioral health crisis, compared with 37% of white respondents.

New York is well positioned to address these disparities. The city’s many forward-thinking public, social and private stakeholders can work together to innovate and increase equitable access to behavioral health resources. Collaborative leadership at the city, state and

LET’S MAKE NYC HEALTHIER, SAFER, MORE PROSPEROUS AND MORE EQUITABLE ethnic minorities, the LGBTQ+ community and young people.

These and other groups experience unique challenges and worse outcomes across behavioral health and broader social determinants of health. The burdens may be even

federal levels could help.

They can consider at least three approaches to help close gaps in access: 1. Expand behavioral health services to meet the needs of diverse populations.

Public and private policymakers could help nonspecialists practice at the “top of their licenses,” especially among providers in underrepresented communities who speak languages other than English; provide more services in underserved neighborhoods; and expand telehealth to meet the needs of people with lower access.

2. Tailor services more closely to the needs of diverse populations.

Policymakers and providers should consider diverse needs as they expand the supply of behavioral health services. The city could provide public, social and private organizations with insights to help providers tailor services accordingly.

3. Foster and strengthen community prevention.

GETTY IMAGES

We need to expand access to affordable, tailored, high-quality behavioral health services in the city

Besides giving employees access to decent health insurance, many employers can help reduce stigma in the workplace and create work environments that support workforce mental health, such as by helping employees understand the signs of psychological distress and find treatment.

With concerted action, the city

can expand access to high-quality, fit-for-purpose and affordable behavioral health care, making the country’s largest metropolis healthier, safer, more prosperous and more equitable. ■ Carlos Pardo Martin and Rens van den Broek are partners in McKinsey & Company’s New York office.

OP-ED

BY CARTER STRICKLAND

N

ew York City needs an economic booster shot. We lost more jobs than the national average and our recovery has been slower than that of other major U.S. cities. One key step is to show workers that a day in the city is better than another day in the home office.

The city can do that by doubling down on the public places that make it unique: the subways, streets, parks, cafes, theaters and building lobbies that make for lively and interesting interactions. That social infrastructure, designed to

ing lunch or after-work drink in a world-class city with great parks, active streets, and a vibrant arts and culture scene?

A good start Mayor Eric Adams’ blueprint for economic recovery recognizes the need to reactivate the public realm, and his recent commitment to restart 100 park renovations is a good start. In the short term, park projects will add much-needed local construction jobs.

For the long term, park investments will make the city a “must visit” destination for commuters and tourists. New parks built in neighborhoods that need more open space to be truly livable are essential to convincing residents that the quality of life is better here than elsewhere.

A new report from Trust for Public Land quantifies the economic benefits of parks and shows that this is a wise strategy. Parks significantly strengthen the local economy by attracting visitors from outside the city, supporting local jobs, boosting spending at local busi-

SHOW WORKERS THAT A DAY IN THE CITY IS BETTER THAN ANOTHER IN A HOME OFFICE facilitate casual interaction, is the perfect balance to sitting in front of a computer.

Skipping the commute is often justified as freeing up quality time, but what better way to reconnect with friends, family and even interesting work colleagues than meeting for a walking meeting, network-

nesses and generating local tax revenue. Surveys and other data show that domestic travelers who visit the city at least in part to participate in outdoor activities spend nearly $18 billion in a typical year, and residents spend an estimated $681 million annually on sports, recreation and exercise equipment.

The benefits go far beyond tourists or a few destination parks. Our holistic review of all parks throughout the five boroughs found that residents alone visited parks in the city at least 527 million times, far greater than the number of visitors to the entire New York state and federal park systems combined.

Crticial infrastructure The frequent use of parks within walking distance of home meant that city residents received billions of dollars in benefits every year— more than $9 billion in recreational value, more than $1 billion in health care cost savings and well

GETTY IMAGES

When we support parks, we attract tourists and workers and make neighborhoods more attractive

over $2 billion in stormwater management.

New Yorkers want to live near parks. That fact contributes more than $15.2 billion in increased property value, which translates into at least $101 million in annual property tax revenues for homes within 500 feet of parks.

Parks are critical infrastructure

for the city, and they are essential to its long-term role as the place to connect with people, culture, arts, fashion and business. Let’s start that investment now. ■ Carter Strickland is vice president, mid-Atlantic region, and New York state director of the Trust for Public Land.

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.

April 4, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 9

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THE LIST LARGEST RESIDENTIAL SALES City deals between Q2 2021 and Q1 2022, ranked by price

RANK

1 2 3 4 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

STREET ADDRESS/ UNIT/ NEIGHBORHOOD

PROPERTY TYPE

TOTAL PRICE (IN MILLIONS)

TOTAL SQUARE FOOTAGE

NUMBER OF ROOMS

DATE SOLD

RAN

15 Central Park West PH18/19A and SS703 Upper West Side

Condo

$46.7

5,902

Total rooms: 11 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 6.5

April 16, 2021

990 Fifth Ave. PH12/13/14 Upper East Side

Co-op

$35.0

7,700

Total rooms: 14 Bedrooms: 6 Bathrooms: 5

Sept. 23, 2021

601 Washington St. PHE West Village

Condo

$30.7

7,475

Total rooms: 15 Bedrooms: 6 Bathrooms: 6.5

Oct. 19, 2021

27 E. 11th St. n/d East Village

House

$29.5

9,000

Total rooms: 18 Bedrooms: 7 Bathrooms: 10

Oct. 7, 2021

56 Leonard St. PH55 Tribeca

Condo

$29.5

5,200

Total rooms: 9 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 4.5

Aug. 16, 2021

220 Central Park South 38B Midtown

Condo

$26.9

3,043

Total rooms: 7 Bedrooms: 3 Bathrooms: 3.5

Oct. 14, 2021

1133 Fifth Ave. PH15/16/17 Upper East Side

Co-op

$26.5

n/d

Total rooms: n/d Bedrooms: n/d Bathrooms: n/d

June 3, 2021

80 Columbus Circle 74AB Columbus Circle

Condo

$23.0

5,323

Total rooms: 10 Bedrooms: 6 Bathrooms: 5.5

May 14, 2021

334 W. 20th St. n/d Chelsea

House

$22.5

7,058

Total rooms: 16 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 5.5

Nov. 16, 2021

159 W. 12th St. n/d West Village

House

$19.8

5,700

Total rooms: 12 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 5.5

May 25, 2021

1030 Fifth Ave. 12th Floor Upper East Side

Co-op

$19.3

5,700

Total rooms: 15 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 5.5

Dec. 9, 2021

230 W. 11th St. n/d West Village

House

$18.8

5,000

Total rooms: 8 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 5.5

Dec. 21, 2021

26 Bank St. n/d West Village

House

$18.4

4,664

Total rooms: 10 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 3.5

Oct. 12, 2021

279 Central Park West PH3A/B Upper West Side

Condo

$18.3

6,713

Total rooms: 15 Bedrooms: 6 Bathrooms: n/d

June 23, 2021

211 Central Park West 19E Upper West Side

Co-op

$17.2

3,800

Total rooms: 11 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: n/d

Aug. 12, 2021

18 Gramercy Park South 15th Floor Grammercy Park

Condo

$17.0

4,207

Total rooms: 8 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 5.5

Sept. 28, 2021

15 W. 63rd St. 29/30A Upper West Side

Condo

$16.8

7,758

Total rooms: 14 Bedrooms: 7 Bathrooms: 6

May 17, 2021

2 Waterline Square PH38A Upper West Side

Condo

$15.9

4,694

Total rooms: 7 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 5.5

Aug. 6, 2021

7 Hubert St. PHC Tribeca

Condo

$15.0

4,262

Total rooms: 7 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 2.5

May 4, 2021

24 Leonard St. 4 Tribeca

Condo

$14.7

4,929

Total rooms: 11 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 4.5

July 29, 2021

140 Franklin PHA Tribeca

Condo

$14.5

5,019

Total rooms: 10 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 3

Aug. 13, 2021

30 W. 63rd St. 28D Upper West Side

Condo

$14.0

4,952

Total rooms: 12 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 5.5

June 23, 2021

28 W. 76Th St. n/d Upper West Side

House

$13.9

6,500

Total rooms: 13 Bedrooms: 9 Bathrooms: 6.5

Sept. 9, 2021

18 Gramercy Park South

Condo

$13.5

4,207

Total rooms: 7 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 5.5

Aug. 20, 2021

Co-op

$13.3

4,900

Total rooms: 10 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: n/d

July 6, 2021

7 NEW YORK BUSINESS | April 4, 2022 10 | CRAIN’S Grammercy Park 115 Central Park West PH31-33CS Upper West Side

P010_P011_CN_20220404.indd 10

1 1 2 2 2 2 21 2 23 24 24 26 37 8 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2

The res

3/31/22 4:04 PM

1

1

18 19 20 21 22 23 1 24 2 25 3 26 4 27 4 28 6 29 7 30 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 RANK

Upper West Side

Bathrooms: 5.5

7 Hubert St. PHC Tribeca

Condo

$15.0

4,262

Total rooms: 7 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 2.5

May 4, 2021

24 Leonard St. 4 Tribeca

Condo

$14.7

4,929

Total rooms: 11 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 4.5

July 29, 2021

140 Franklin PHA Tribeca

Condo

$14.5

5,019

Total rooms: 10 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 3

Aug. 13, 2021

30 W. 63rd St. 28D Upper West Side

Condo

$14.0

4,952

Total rooms: 12 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 5.5

June 23, 2021

28 W. 76Th St. STREET ADDRESS/ UNIT/ n/d NEIGHBORHOOD Upper West Side

House

Total rooms: 13 Bedrooms: 9 NUMBER OF ROOMS Bathrooms: 6.5

Sept. 9, 2021

15 Gramercy Central Park 18 ParkWest South 7PH18/19A and SS703 Upper West Park Side Grammercy

$13.9

6,500

TOTAL PRICE (IN MILLIONS)

TOTAL SQUARE FOOTAGE

Condo

$46.7 $13.5

5,902 4,207

Total Totalrooms: rooms:11 7 Bedrooms: 45 6.5 Bathrooms: 5.5

April 20, 16, 2021 Aug.

990 Central Fifth Ave. 115 Park West PH12/13/14 PH31-33CS East Side Upper West

Co-op

$35.0 $13.3

7,700 4,900

14 Total rooms: 10 Bedrooms: 56 Bathrooms: Bathrooms: n/d5

Sept.6,23, 2021 July 2021

601Riverside Washington 60 BlvdSt. PHE 2102 West Village Upper West Side

Condo

$30.7 $13.2

7,475 5,847

15 Total rooms: 14 Bedrooms: 6 6.5 Bathrooms: 7.5

Oct. 19, April 28, 2021

27 E.West 11thEnd St. Ave. 347 n/d East Village Upper West Side

House

$29.5 $13.0

9,000 8,457

18 Total rooms: 19 Bedrooms: 67 Bathrooms:3.5 10 Bathrooms:

Oct. 7, June 3, 2021 2021

956E.Leonard 92nd St.St. PH55 n/d TribecaEast Side Upper

Condo House

$29.5 $12.9

5,200 7,205

Totalrooms: rooms:119 Total Bedrooms: 74 4.5 Bathrooms: 7.5

Aug. 30, 16, 2021 Dec.

220Walker Central 45 St.Park South 38B PH Midtown Tribeca

Condo

$26.9 $12.8

3,043 7,185

Totalrooms: rooms:127 Total Bedrooms: 43 3.5 Bathrooms: 4.5

Oct. 14, 2021 Sept.

3, 2021

1133 Fifth Ave. 80 Columbus Circle PH15/16/17 73C East Side Upper West

Co-op Condo

$26.5 $12.5

n/d 3,165

Total rooms: n/d Total rooms: 7 Bedrooms: n/d Bedrooms: 3 Bathrooms: n/d 4.5

June 23, 3, 2021 2021

80 Columbus Circle 74AB

Condo

$23.0

5,323

Total rooms: 10 Bedrooms: 6

May 14, 2021

Total rooms: 16 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 5.5

Nov. 16, 2021

5,700

Total rooms: 12 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 5.5

May 25, 2021

PROPERTY TYPE

DATE SOLD

The list includes residential sales in the five boroughs of New York City taking place between Q2 2021 and Q1 2022. There is no guarantee that the list is complete. n/d-Not disclosed. Source: Brown Harris Stevens (bhsusa.com) with additional Columbus Circle Bathrooms: 5.5 research by Amanda Glodowski.

334 W. 20th St. n/d Chelsea

House $22.5 DATA? VISIT CRAINSNEWYORK.COM/LISTS. 7,058 WANT MORE OF CRAIN’S EXCLUSIVE

159 W. 12th St. n/d West Village

House

$19.8

1030 Fifth Ave. 12th Floor Upper East Side

Co-op

$19.3

5,700

Total rooms: 15 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 5.5

Dec. 9, 2021

230 W. 11th St. n/d West Village

House

$18.8

5,000

Total rooms: 8 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 5.5

Dec. 21, 2021

26 Bank St. n/d West Village

House

$18.4

4,664

Total rooms: 10 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 3.5

Oct. 12, 2021

279 Central Park West PH3A/B Upper West Side

Condo

$18.3

6,713

Total rooms: 15 Bedrooms: 6 Bathrooms: n/d

June 23, 2021

211 Central Park West 19E Upper West Side

Co-op

$17.2

3,800

Total rooms: 11 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: n/d

Aug. 12, 2021

18 Gramercy Park South 15th Floor Grammercy Park

Condo

$17.0

4,207

Total rooms: 8 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 5.5

Sept. 28, 2021

15 W. 63rd St. 29/30A Upper West Side

Condo

$16.8

7,758

Total rooms: 14 Bedrooms: 7 Bathrooms: 6

May 17, 2021

2 Waterline Square PH38A Upper West Side

Condo

$15.9

4,694

Total rooms: 7 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 5.5

Aug. 6, 2021

7 Hubert St. PHC Tribeca

Condo

$15.0

4,262

Total rooms: 7 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 2.5

May 4, 2021

24 Leonard St. 4 Tribeca

Condo

$14.7

4,929

Total rooms: 11 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 4.5

July 29, 2021

140 Franklin PHA Tribeca

Condo

$14.5

5,019

Total rooms: 10 Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 3

Aug. 13, 2021

30 W. 63rd St. 28D Upper West Side

Condo

4,952

Total rooms: 12 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 5.5

June 23, 2021

Total rooms: 13 Bedrooms: 9 Bathrooms: 6.5

Sept. 9, 2021

Total rooms: 7

Aug. 20, 2021

Stronger Together.

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

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

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International Limited, a global network of independent accounting firms.

28Kreston W. 76Th St. House n/d Upper West Side

18 Gramercy Park South 7 Grammercy Park

Condo

115 Central Park West PH31-33CS Upper West Side

Co-op

P010_P011_CN_20220404.indd 11

© Copyright 2022. CBIZ, Inc. and Mayer Hoffman McCann P.C. All rights reserved. $13.9

$13.5

6,500

4,207

4 April 4, Bedrooms: 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 11 Bathrooms: 5.5 $13.3

4,900

Total rooms: 10 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: n/d

July 6, 2021 3/31/22 3:57 PM

ON REAL ESTATE

Give Corey Johnson’s land-use plan another look These are valid criticisms, and it’s safe to assume any version of the plan that passes would include at least a few major changes. But for those changes to happen, the City Council would need to first resume at least talking about the plan, which does not appear to be a high priority.

GOWANUS

JOHNSON

Stuck in a time loop This is happening at a time when the city needs to rethink how it uses its land—particularly its office buildings—more dramatically than at any other point in recent history.

New York has essentially been stuck in a time loop since March 2020, as a return-to-office moment arrives once every three months without ever actually arriving. And with giant companies including JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo cutting their space by hundreds of thousands of square feet, the idea of going back to 2019 levels of office demand looks more and more unrealistic with each new Covid surge.

The buzzworthy idea of the moment is to convert this unused office space into residential space,

BUCK ENNIS

A

mbitious proposals that the economy and population of don’t go anywhere are a New York that would be used to hallmark of government. draft a citywide goals statement.

As the old saying goes, if it The city would then prepare a longain’t broke, don’t fix it, and if it is term development plan that would broke, just complain about it on be the basis for decisions on develTwitter for a while and opment going forward. trust that you will forget Is the proposal perfect? about it soon enough.

Of course not. But it does But one ambitious procome with one huge advantage over other proposal in particular that posals for broad reforms hasn’t gone anywhere has to the city’s land-use rebeen on my mind a lot review process: It exists. cently: former City CounNew York’s current syscil Speaker Corey Johntem for land-use decison’s plan to revamp the sions occupies that bewilcity’s land-use policies. deringly common Given the growing calls to EDDIE SMALL governmental sweet spot reimagine how New York uses its commercial space and the of being simultaneously entrenched fact that the Gowanus and SoHo re- and hated. Most of the concerns zonings are both once again bogged raised at the February 2021 hearing down in lawsuits, it would be well that the Johnson plan received beworth giving this plan another look. fore it faded into oblivion were that Johnson unveiled his proposal at it would just make things worse, the end of 2020, and in the alterna- with critics ranging from the Detive universe where it passed, that partment of City Planning to the moment would have ultimately New York Landmarks Conservancy kicked off a decadelong reform pro- arguing it was infeasible, ineffective cess. It essentially calls for writing a and littered with unanswered ques“Conditions of the City” report on tions, according to City Limits.

helping deal with the city’s lack of housing and surplus of offices in one fell swoop. This makes plenty of sense on paper. But if any efforts involve the current rezoning process, they will likely face lawsuits, take years and then face even more lawsuits if and when they pass.

To be fair, any broader efforts at reforming the city’s land-use policies are also likely to be lengthy and litigious. But if the city is serious about rethinking how it uses its real

estate in the wake of the pandemic—as it should be—it should rethink the process it uses to make these changes as well.

The Johnson plan is not perfect, and it may be a pipe dream to think that any version of it could pass now, given that this wasn’t the case when its main backer was still the City Council speaker. But change has to start somewhere, and this plan is as good a starting point as any. ■

HOSPITALITY

Lunch is back on the menu for Midtown, FiDi restaurants that cater to returning office workers

O

ne of the missing pieces of restaurants’ business is finally coming back: lunch service.

Seatings for midday meals had continued to lag those at dinnertime and happy hour, even as some office workers and tourists began to return to Midtown and the Financial District. Their return has been in fits and starts over the last year, restaurant owners say.

In the course of a few weeks, noontime diners have turned a trickle into a steady flow. Commercial district lunch reservations between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. weekdays are up 23% for the first three weeks in March compared to the same period in February, according to the reservations-reward app Seated, which has about a half-million lo-

pled on certain weekdays, owner Istvan Nagy said.

“Soon I’ll have to add another person to lunch service,” he said.

Every order helps The renewed source of revenue is crucial, he said—every last order helps him come back from two years of squelched sales. New York City lifted the requirement that all restaurant-goers show proof of vaccination on March 7. The nice spring weather also drives dining out, Nagy said.

The Union Square Hospitality Group restaurant at the Museum of Modern Art, the Modern, also reports solid sales, with Monday-through-Friday lunch revenue back at 92% of its pre-pandemic level, according to the restaurant.

For dining rooms that stay open late into the evening, opening for lunch usually means staffing a second shift. Too many employees working with not enough guests is a drag, both on the eatery’s bottom line and on employee tips. Owners have to make a careful decision about when there is enough demand to open.

At Jasmine's Caribbean Cuisine, owner Jasmine Gerald said she is getting an increasing number of requests for lunch. Since opening the restaurant in Times Square in November 2020, she said, she has set a

SHE IS NOTICING LUNCH PICKING UP FOR RESTAURANTS NEARBY cal users. That figure was, in turn, up 70% between the first three weeks in February and the first three weeks in January.

The trend is obvious inside the restaurants.

Between the tail end of February and this week, the number of guests who come to Side Door, a pub and sports bar on E. 57th St., have tri-

BLOOMBERG

BY CARA EISENPRESS

start time of 4 p.m. on weekdays.

She is watching the neighborhood’s midday traffic carefully and said she has noticed that lunch is picking up for others nearby.

“We are thinking about opening next month for lunch,” she said.

“We’ll do Thursday and Friday and then take it from there.”

In fact some spots are so busy that they have been unable to accept catering orders through Great Performances, the Bronx-based catering company that had found a way to bolster its business with collaborations to bring its food into office dining rooms.

“Now they are getting so busy, they can’t do the lunch for 400 anymore,” said Jennifer McMahon Elliott, vice president of strategic partnerships at Great Performances. Elliott, who oversees the contracted restaurants and corporate accounts, said that in-office daily service catering is also making a comeback.

Difficult to predict Despite the positive trajectory, workers’ hybrid schedule can make it hard to predict how much food to order and staff to schedule, Nagy said.

“When there is an office day, you know,” he said. Dining rooms fill up—both at lunch and at happy hours beginning as early as 4 p.m.

He explained that might give a restaurateur the impression that a certain day of the week—say, Tuesday—is back, when in fact it might have been something about that particular Tuesday that brought people in, such as a visiting client or a required meeting.

“Then two weeks later, you have the same day without workers,” Nagy said, leaving him questioning his views about Tuesdays being busy. ■

12 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | April 4, 2022

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REAL ESTATE

Mayor extends rent-stabilization survey deadline 60%

T

he first bill signed into law

by Mayor Eric Adams extends the deadline to complete the city’s housing and vacancy survey. Its data will determine whether the rent-stabilization law remains in effect.

The New York City Housing Vacancy Survey is conducted by the Census Bureau every three years on behalf of the Department of Housing and Preservation Development.

Field surveyors inspect about 18,000 units across the five boroughs to determine the vacancy

there is ample housing.

“Too many New Yorkers are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table, and this bill provides the time needed for the city to make an informed decision on the extension of rent stabilization,” Adams said at a hearing Wednesday.

Deadline extension The deadline to complete the survey and determine the city’s vacancy rate has been postponed several times since the pandemic began. It has now been extended from April 1 to July 1.

During the spring of 2021, the state Senate voted to postpone the survey, claiming there was not enough manpower to collect the data properly because of the pandemic. But landlords didn’t buy it. They suggested that lawmakers were afraid the vacancy rate was much higher than stated, and if the rent laws disappear, their political goals would be in trouble.

By August 2020, the city’s residential vacancy rate had hit 5.1%, according to a report from brokerage firm Douglas Elliman, and reached as high as 11.6% in May

IF THE VACANCY RATE DROPS BELOW 5%, THAT CREATES A HOUSING EMERGENCY rate and whether the rent law stays or goes.

Nearly 60% of the city’s total rental housing stock is rent-regulated, according to the Rent Guidelines Board’s figures.

If the city’s housing vacancy rate drops below 5%, that creates a housing emergency, and the law is triggered. If the vacancy rate is higher than that, the law is void as

ROUGH percentage of the city’s housing stock that is rent-regulated, according to the Rent Guidelines Board

1.3%

RESIDENTIAL vacancy rate in February, according to a Douglas Elliman report

BLOOMBERG

BY NATALIE SACHMECHI

2021. That number had dropped to just 1.3% as of February, Elliman reported, but that includes only market-rate apartments and not the city’s rent-regulated stock.

“Rent regulation has always been instituted as a temporary measure, but 75 years of the same thing is not temporary,” said Joe Strasburg, president of the Rent Stabilization Association.

“We’re not surprised that at the end of the research in three months, there will be a vacancy rate under

5% that gives everyone the political cover to regulate rent in the city of New York,” he added.

Legal challenge In 2019 the Rent Stabilization Association and the Community Housing Improvement Program, which represent the owners of rent-stabilized units, filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the rent law after the passage of the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act,

which granted increased protections for tenants in rent-stabilized units.

They claimed that the law decreases property values and makes it too difficult for the landlords to change or sell their properties, but federal Judge Eric Komitee of the Eastern District of New York dismissed the lawsuit. The RSA and CHIP filed an appeal in October 2020. If the court doesn’t rule in their favor, they plan to take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. ■

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APRIL 4, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 13

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INSTANT EXPERT

What to know about New York’s push to freeze crypto mining

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

THE PROPOSED CRYPTO MINING FREEZE targets large-scale operations powered by fossil fuels. It calls for a moratorium on state permits for any facility where crypto mining is powered by “carbon-based fuel.”

It also would require the Department of Environmental Conservation to study the environmental effects of cryptocurrency mining operations within two years.

Assembly member Anna Kelles, who represents Tompkins and Cortland counties, and state Sen. Kevin Parker of Brooklyn are sponsoring the bill.

A similar crypto mining moratorium won the approval of the state Senate last year but failed to pass the Assembly, making last week’s vote to advance the bill a significant one.

The separate bill advanced last week by the Assembly would require the state to launch a task force to review how the state governs blockchain-based technology. That includes its environmental impact. The Legislature passed the same bill in 2019, but the pandemic delayed creation of the task force and the law expired.

NYASSEMBLY.GOV

WHAT THE BILL DOES

KELLES

AP PHOTO

N

ew York is a step closer to imposing a temporary ban on cryptocurrency mining that uses fossil fuels.

The Assembly’s Environmental Conservation committee voted late last month to advance a bill that would impose a two-year moratorium on large plants that use a process known as proof-of-work to authenticate blockchain transactions.

While some advocates for crypto say the moratorium could stymie economic growth in New York, lawmakers and environmental groups say mining operations reliant upon fossil fuels threaten the state's progress in meeting emissions-reduction goals to thwart the worst of climate change.

Last week the Assembly Banks committee voted in favor of a separate bill that would launch a cryptocurrency and blockchain task force, whose mandate would include studying the environmental impact of blockchain technology.

Here's a primer on the issue:

PARKER

ASSEMBLY MEMBER Kelles held a rally with environmental groups last week in support of the bill and against a renewal for Greenidge’s permit. “We simply cannot let proof-of-work mining lead to an enormous energy consumption spike,” Kelles said.

The Blockchain Association, a large industry group that just launched an Albany office, said in a letter to lawmakers that its members support the state’s environmental goals, but believe that crypto is being unfairly targeted for its energy consumption. “[The bill] creates unreasonable standards for an industry that is only just beginning to establish itself in New York and holds crypto mining to a different standard,” the letter said.

Mayor Eric Adams is a well-known proponent of cryptocurrency and has famously converted his first paychecks into bitcoin and ether. Adams’ support of cryptocurrency, however, has been more focused on the financial applications of virtual currencies.

“I support cryptocurrency, not crypto mining,” he told state legislators at a budget hearing last month.

WHAT IS CRYPTO MINING? BITCOIN, the most popular virtual currency, relies on thousands of miners running high-powered computers that verify and add transactions to the blockchain, a process known as proof-of-work. Successful miners are awarded in virtual currency. An index built by the University of Cambridge estimates bitcoin alone consumes energy at a similar rate to the entire country of Norway, which has a population of 5 million.

Not all blockchains use proof-of-work validation. The ethereum blockchain is switching to a validation called proof-of-stake this year, which proponents say requires significantly less energy. Crypto advocates also counter that mining is increasingly powered by renewable energy, and that the traditional financial system consumes plenty of energy itself.

MINING BOOM VS. CLIMATE GOALS NEW YORK TRAILS only Georgia and Kentucky for total crypto mining operations, according to numbers that mining pool company Foundry provided Bloomberg in February.

One of the largest-scale operations is near Seneca Lake in Dresden, New York. There, a coal plant was converted to natural gas in 2017 and began mining bitcoin in 2020.

The state is reviewing whether to renew environmental permits for the plant, which is operated by Greenidge Generation Holdings.

A coalition of environmental groups that include Earthjustice and the Sierra Club have rallied support against the renewal. They say the plant’s operations do not conform with goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 85% by 2050, as set by the state’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

AP PHOTO

LOCAL ACTION

“WE CANNOT LET PROOF-OF-WORK MINING LEAD TO AN ENORMOUS ENERGY CONSUMPTION SPIKE”

ISTOCK

NYCMAYORSOFFICE/FLICKR

ADAMS

14 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | April 4, 2022

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HEALTH CARE CHECKUP

Exclusive: Maimonides president on transforming its network of facilities into a health care system

GIBBS

M

aimonides Medical Center announced on March 25 that it has launched a health system, Maimonides Health, as the umbrella organization for its three hospitals and network of ambulatory care centers. Crain’s Health Pulse spoke with Maimonides President and CEO Kenneth Gibbs about the rationale for the transformation and how he plans to turn a network of health care facilities into a system.

Included will be New York Community Hospital, which Maimonides acquired in July, and which will be renamed Maimonides Midwood Community Hospital. Maimonides’ flagship hospital in Borough Park, Maimonides Children’s Hospital and its new standalone emergency department under construction in Bay Ridge will be included. Altogether, the new system will have 7,000 employees, 1,800 doctors and 80 locations in Brooklyn. It’s a fraction of the size of the city’s other major health systems, some of which boast well over 40,000 employees.

Why now?

The “now” really is that this is both in spite of and in response to the pandemic— “in spite of” in the sense that this has been a long, developing effort. Maimonides over a decade ago brought cancer care to Brooklyn, and within that time frame brought what is the most honored ambulatory surgery program in orthopedics in the borough and other services beyond just being a medical center.

This has been a long progression. The pandemic only accelerated patients’ needs for this kind of development of a delivery network. The announcement now has to do with us adding our third hospital [Maimonides Midwood, formerly New York Community Hospital].

How would it have potentially benefited Maimonides to have had this structure before the pandemic? Would anything have been different?

With the pandemic, it totally accelerated

GETTY IMAGES

How specifically will this transformation enable Maimonides to better meet patients’ needs?

This is about creating access and bringing care to people in a way that they can consume it. Patients are looking to be served more and more like consumers with regard to their health care. We in health care use the phrase “we are building integrated health networks.” As an integrated health care network, it means that from a point of contact that is convenient, there is access to meet the full range of needs. You might get a diagnosis or learn there’s a range of care that’s useful to you. By being integrated and having more local reach, we can make the delivery of all the complexities that create quality health care, wellness and good outcomes more accessible, convenient, quicker and coordinated.

BY MAYA KAUFMAN

our digital services and health, and it would’ve been nice to have that fully built out and realized on day one. The whole industry, including us, is in the process of building out and expanding telehealth and digital health offerings. If it had been available in the past, it probably would’ve made a real difference in the pandemic.

What changes will you make administratively to operate more like a system now than a set of discrete health care facilities?

I think there are a couple of components to “systemness.” One is the investment in technology so that information is available instantaneously at all different sites of care and that the right information is available.

The other is the processes and behavioral habits and patterns that use that data and communicate and help patients navigate the course of their care as their needs are developing. Both technology and coordination are the critical components.

You have an affiliation with Northwell, which has said this will eventually progress to a merger or acquisition. How does your formation of this system fit into that plan?

Nicely! In all seriousness, they remain a very good partner and our objectives remain consistent. That relationship continues to support our efforts to continuously improve the care we can make available to Brooklyn residents. ■

BY SHUAN SIM

F

ederal funding to cover Covid treatments and vaccination for uninsured individuals has dried up, and hospitals are left to fend for themselves. Local players say they're ready to tap charity care funds to ensure patients get treated.

As of Tuesday, the Uninsured Program, run by the Health Re-

Covid response, but such funding was stripped from the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill passed earlier this month. The program will stop accepting claims for vaccination-related costs after April 5.

"The lack of funding for Covid-19 needs is having real consequences," said Martin Kramer, spokesman for HRSA, in a statement. "We have begun an orderly shutdown of the program."

The Uninsured Program receives about 1 million claims a day and pays out approximately $500 million a week, according to HRSA. Over 50,000 providers have been using the program, and there are about 1 million uninsured people in New York.

The protocol at Northwell for treating the uninsured is first to see if the patient qualifies for Medicaid or any other insurance options, said Joseph Kemp, spokesman for

“THE LACK OF FUNDING FOR COVID-19 IS HAVING REAL CONSEQUENCES.” sources & Services Administration, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, has stopped accepting claims for reimbursements for care provided to uninsured people. The program's support ran out as the Biden administration called for an additional $22.5 billion to fund ongoing

Northwell Health. Failing that, the patient will then be assessed for "charity care" and Northwell has a financial assistance program, he added.

Backup plan Charity care is low- or no-cost medical care provided under the Hospital Financial Assistance Law, available to all uninsured patients living at or below 300% of the federal poverty line. The state provides about $1.1 billion annually through the Indigent Care Pool for charity care.

Hospitals can tap charity care, but ultimately support will be needed at the federal level, said Brian Conway, spokesman for Greater New York Hospital Association, which represents 271 hospitals statewide. "We urge Congress to support the Biden administration's request for additional funding for the HRSA Uninsured Program and other important Covid-19 programs," he said.

The HRSA Uninsured Program provided an essential funding stream when hospitals needed it most, said Conway. Its members have remained committed to providing uninsured care, patients even if the funding goes away, he said.

The city remains ready to expand its capacity to treat all New Yorkers regardless of insurance if needed, said Kate Smart, spokeswoman for City Hall.

"But we cannot do this work alone," she said. "We fully support the work of our partners in Congress fighting to renew this critical funding."

For the uninsured in the city, there is also NYC Care, a low- to nocost health access service, said

ISTOCK

Hospitals ready to tap charity care for uninsured Covid-19 patients as federal funding disappears

Chris Miller, spokesman for NYC Health + Hospitals. The program, launched August 2019, has recently reached 100,000 members and is ramping up advertising for enrollment, he said.

“Our mission is to care for all New Yorkers and our health system will never stop doing that," Miller said. ■

16 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | April 4, 2022

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HEALTH CARE CHECKUP

Planned Parenthood wraps $18.6 million in renovations

BY MAYA KAUFMAN

P

BY MAYA KAUFMAN

N GETTY IMAGES

lanned Parenthood of Greater New York has completed a $18.6 million overhaul of its Brooklyn and Bronx health centers that will enable it to see thousands more patients each year, the nonprofit announced last Wednesday.

The $8.6 million Bronx health center expansion features more than 6,000 square feet of added clinical space, including nine new exam rooms, a clinician station and counseling rooms for financial and follow-up consultations. The center now spans three floors in the South Bronx, up from two.

The expanded center is expected to double patient visits to roughly 34,000 a year, making it Planned Parenthood’s largest health center in the state in terms of volume.

The center will also launch HIV primary care services so patients who come to it for HIV testing and treatment can receive antiretroviral medications and use the facility as their home base for primary care. Eventually the nonprofit plans to expand the service to oth-

NYP/Columbia plans $53 million project for two imaging centers

er locations.

“Sexual and reproductive health care is a spectrum,” said Joy D. Calloway, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York. “We don't want to leave any one piece out.”

Over in Kings County In addition, the nonprofit redesigned its Joan Malin Brooklyn health center in Downtown Brooklyn to optimize patient flow. The $10 million modernization includes more computer stations for clinicians and a larger front desk to serve more patients at once while

allowing the center to maintain their privacy. Those tweaks will enable the center, which sees 20,000 patients a year on average, to increase capacity by 25%, a spokeswoman said.

The renovations are part of a larger modernization project that started with the 2015 opening of Planned Parenthood’s Long Island City health center. The goal is to expand access to health services in underserved communities and improve health equity, Calloway said.

Planned Parenthood of Greater New York operates 23 health centers across the state. ■

ew York-Presbyterian/Columbia is seeking state approval for a $53 million project to build two radiology and imaging facilities on its Washington Heights campus.

The new sites, which will be operated by New York-Presbyterian and Columbia Radiology, are intended to reduce wait times for imaging services by adding MRI machines and PET/CT scanners.

They will replace existing facilities that are run by ColumbiaDoctors and include three MRI machines and three PET/CT scanners.

New York-Presbyterian and Columbia plan to increase those numbers to six MRI machines and four PET/ CT scanners.

“Currently, limited capacity forces patients to wait or to return on a different day for needed imaging services,” New York-Presbyterian and Columbia wrote in a certificate-of-need application. “Expand-

ing capacity, improving throughput through modernization and supporting same-day services will improve access and the patient experience.”

The new Article 28 center and extension clinic are expected to generate an $8.5 million surplus and more than 48,000 visits in their first year, according to application materials filed with the state Public Health and Health Planning Council. Most patients are expected to be commercially insured or enrolled in Medicare.

In the coming days, the project is slated for a vote by the Public Health and Health Planning Council. Its Establishment and Project Review Committee recently recommended approval contingent on construction starting on or before Oct. 1 and the project being completed by 2024, among other conditions.

A New York-Presbyterian representative did not return a request for comment before press time. ■

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37%

OFFICE

porting to the office last month that it PERCENTAGE of created a proworkers who want gram called Reto go to an office orientation, for more than three employees who days a week, may have been according to the with the compaSlack Future ny for as long as Forum two years but have only worked remotely.

THRESHOLD “[It’s about] office occupancy not only getting has yet to familiar with crack, though our offices and it is inching up, according to how they operKastle Systems ate, but establishing how we are going to work together as a hybrid company,” said James Ossman, vice president of workplace at Etsy.

The five-day, in-office workweek is still a long way off for all industries. The average daily office occupancy ticked up throughout March—but is still yet to crack 40%, according to data tracked by Kastle Systems.

Subway ridership in March climbed closest to pre-Covid levels on Saturdays and Sundays, peaking around 70% recovered; Mondays hovered around 55%.

Google may be embracing flexibility, but it’s also betting big on the office. The company purchased the St. John’s Terminal building on Manhattan’s West Side for $2.1 billion last year, the largest real estate purchase of the Covid era.

Technology companies accounted for 36 of the top 100 national leases by square footage last year, the highest of any industry, CBRE found. Tech companies added 1.4 million square feet of New York City office space between April 2020 and the end of 2021, Avison Young reported, the most of any industry.

FROM PAGE 1

days a week on April 4. The search giant is a trend-setter in the industry and, indeed, many startups and tech firms are following them back to the office this month.

Midweek return

“CHANGES IN WORKPLACE BEHAVIOR RIGHT NOW ARE HAPPENING BOTTOM-UP”

The Great Resignation The return of workers to office buildings means more coffee, lunch and happy-hour customers in business districts that have struggled

COCKROACH LABS gave workers three options ahead of its office reopening.

BUCK ENNIS

advocacy group. “We need to attract them to the office.”

The advocacy group has been regularly polling employers on return-to-office plans and in January found that about 40% expected to have at least half of employees back regularly by April.

Some firms on Wall Street want to make days outside the office a rarity. David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, called remote work an “aberration” at a conference in February and told Fortune he wants workers back in the office five days per week.

Tech, on the other hand, is taking a more gradual approach.

Google, for instance, has allowed employees to apply for permanent remote work or to request an extension on returning to the office. Individual teams within the company are deciding what days to work on site, noted Angela Pinsky, head of government affairs and public policy for Google New York.

CEO Sundar Pichai declared during the summer of 2021 that “the future of work is flexibility.”

Brooklyn-based Etsy, which has about 2,400 employees, started a hybrid approach March 7. Employees can choose to work full time from an office, operate on a flex schedule (with two or more days at home) or go fully remote.

Etsy had so many new faces re-

GOOGLE set a trend with its decision to return to the office April 4.

during the pandemic—in no small part why Mayor Eric Adams has stressed workers “can’t stay home in your pajamas all day.”

For company leaders, the decision is more complicated. Hanging over plans to get workers into offices is the Great Resignation, the term for the millions of people who left or changed jobs in the past year.

In tech, a tight labor market is empowering employees to dictate where and when they work.

“We are used to decisions happening in the privacy of boardrooms and then being rolled out to employees,” said Anna Tavis, a professor of management at the New York University School of Professional Studies and the author of a new book on the hybrid office.

“These changes in workplace behavior right now are happening bottom-up.”

Nearly half of all people working from home would sooner quit than return to the office full time, according to a recent poll by recruiting firm Robert Half.

“We hired a lot of people last year, and I really want those people to feel connected to our culture, so I worry about that,” said Robert Lo-

cascio, CEO and co-founder of LivePerson, which makes artificial intelligence–driven customer-service software. “But if anyone ever mandated five days a week back in the office, you’re going to lose your entire population.”

Locascio said he has no desire to make that type of demand anyway—he said some of the company’s 1,700 employees work best remotely, others prefer the office, and many want a hybrid approach.

The company gave up its headquarters near Hudson Yards during the pandemic and relies on a WeWork location in the Flatiron District to serve its New York–based employees and coworking memberships for the many that are in other cities and countries.

Just 37% of employees want to work in an office more than three days per week, according to national polling by the Slack Future Forum report. Employees in a hybrid model report better work-life balance and stress management, the poll of 10,000 workers found.

“Even our folks who are in the office, they’re not in the office every day,” said Mary Good, chief people officer for Squarespace. “Whether

BUCK ENNIS

40%

Justworks, for its part, has been successful with remote work. Revenue grew 32% in its last fiscal year, to just under $1 billion, at a $10 million profit. The firm nearly went public before a downturn in the stock market put the plan on pause.

But company leaders fear permanent remote work could eventually have consequences for its culture and ability to keep employees.

It is loading up its workspace with free pizza and cupcakes each day and betting that it can make the office a place employees want to be— for at least part of the week.

“We are not going to be a fully remote team,” Rutledge-Parisi said.

“We really believe that innovation and connection arise best from a shared in-person presence and physical space regularly. What that looks like—that’s what we can work on.”

It’s something local firms across industries are working on. As cases from the omicron variant slowed in mid-February, leaders began putting plans in place for the office that are now kicking into gear.

“The technology industry is so important because it is bringing so much new talent to the city,” said Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a business

you’re balancing an elder care issue or child care—whatever may be going on in your life—that flexibility has been so helpful to everyone.”

Squarespace, which helps people and companies build personal websites, reopened its 150,000-square-foot headquarters in the West Village at the start of March on an optional basis. Just under half of its nearly 1,700 employees are in remote roles.

Hiring remotely Jobs data analyzed by the Brookings Institution found that tech jobs are spreading from central hubs such as San Francisco and New York into cities such as Charlotte, North Carolina, and San Antonio, Texas. Even as they reopen the office, New York companies plan to recruit from everywhere.

“It is certainly much easier to recruit the best talent when you can draw from across the country,” said Nithya Das, chief operating officer and chief legal officer for Olo, a food-ordering software company based at 1 World Trade Center. That office opened to employees in February on an optional basis, but Olo operated with hundreds of remote workers even before the pandemic, Das said.

Cockroach Labs, a startup based in the Flatiron District, gave its 425 employees the choice of three workplace classifications ahead of its official office reopening, also on April 4.

About half of its employees have elected to continue working remotely—an option left only to people who live 60 miles or more from the company’s offices in New York, San Francisco and Toronto. Only 10% have chosen to report to the office full time (at least four days).

The rest will use a hybrid option, working at least two days per week from home.

“Within HR especially, there’s been so much uncertainty leading up to this point,” said Lindsay Grenawalt, the company’s chief people officer. “All we’re trying to do now is create certainty for this next process to say, ‘OK, this is how we believe it’s going to be. This is where we’re placing our bets.’ Let’s see how it works.” ■

18 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | APRIL 4, 2022

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REAL ESTATE

Tenants accuse two landlords of violating state’s controversial affordable housing tax break program

A

landlord in Brooklyn and another in Queens are accused of violating New York’s contentious 421-a affordable housing tax break program, according to lawsuits tenants have filed against the developers.

The two lawsuits accuse the landlords of not following the program’s rules by registering the rents in their buildings as higher than what tenants would actually pay. Under the 421-a program, which gives developers a tax break in exchange for making 30% of the units in their buildings affordable,

The lawsuits were filed last Monday against the World Wide Group over its building the QLIC, at 41-42 24th St. in Long Island City, and against North Brooklyn Management over its building at 1003 Greene Ave. At 1003 Greene Ave., the landlord registered the initial rent for a tenant’s apartment as $2,550, but the actual rent was $2,195, the lawsuit claims, citing a StreetEasy advertisement for the unit.

At the QLIC, the landlord registered an apartment’s rent as $3,795 in 2015 and as $3,126 in 2017, but the first rent charged for and paid by the tenant was actually $2,885, according to the lawsuit, again citing a StreetEasy advertisement for the unit.

The landlord also manipulated the tenant’s lease term and payment amount to evade preferential rent protections under the 2019 New York rent law that strengthened protections for rent-stabilized tenants, the lawsuit claims. The tenant initially moved in on May 30, and instead of giving

“THE 421-A TAX PROGRAM IS A FESTERING HOTBED OF FRAUD” the rents registered with the state have to be the amount charged to and paid by the tenants, and all later rent increases have to come from that amount, according to the lawsuits.

ing the tenants in both cases.

In addition, although the lease said the tenant’s preferential rent was $3,364, it was actually about $2,403, thanks to a concession, the lawsuit claims.

Scrapping 421-a

QLIC.COM

BY EDDIE SMALL

the tenant a one- or two-year lease, World Wide gave the tenant a licensing agreement to live in the apartment until Aug. 1, at which point the one-year lease term would begin, according to the lawsuit.

World Wide told the tenant it was doing this to remove the apartment from rent stabilization—tenants in these units need to be given one- or two-year lease options— and the tenant had to agree in

writing that the apartment was exempt from rent-stabilization rules, according to the lawsuit and Newman Ferrara partner Roger Sachar, who is representing the tenants in both cases.

“For them to call their tenants something other than what they are was fundamentally fraudulent,” said New York Law School professor Lucas Ferrara, a Newman Ferrara partner who is also represent-

Both lawsuits request a financial judgment against the landlords for violating rent-stabilization laws, along with money for their legal fees.

Representatives for the World Wide Group and North Brooklyn Management did not respond to requests for comment.

Housing Rights Initiative, which helped generate the lawsuits, pointed to them as reasons why 421-a should be scrapped instead of changed. It will expire in June if the state doesn’t take action to renew it.

“The 421-a tax program is a festering hotbed of fraud,” said Aaron Carr, founder and executive director of Housing Rights Initiative. “Instead of reforming this unreformable tax program, we should be reforming what can and should be reformed: New York City’s inequitable, regressive and broken property tax system.” ■

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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

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.

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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.

Notice of Qualification of 1898 HEALTH, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/18/22.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/28/22. Princ. office of LLC: 6205-B Peachtree Dunwoody Rd., Atlanta, GA 30328. 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: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Corps. Div., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Health care sales.

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Notice of Formation of CLAREMONT HOMEOWNERSHIP LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/18/22.

Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 116 E. 27th St., 11th Fl., NY, NY 10016. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207.

Purpose: Real estate development.

Notice of Qualification of 263 W 34TH STREET LENDER, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/18/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/09/21. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Marathon Asset Management L.P., One Bryant Park., 38th Fl., NY, NY 10036. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of Ahlex LLC. Arts of Organization filed with the SSNY ON 11/12/2021. Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 2804 Gateway Oaks Dr # 100 Sacramento, CA 95833. Purpose: Any Lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of BOW STREET SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES GP XVIII, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/15/22.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 01/26/18. Princ. office of LLC: 595 Madison Ave., 29th Fl., NY, NY 10022. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, State of DE, Dept. of State, Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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.

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Advertising Section

Contact Suzanne Janik at 313-446-0455 or email: sjanik@crain.com

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES Notice of Qualification of PEARL NETWORK LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/18/22.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/16/22. Princ. office of LLC: 520 Broadway, 4th Fl., NY, NY 10012.

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

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of 46TH STREET CALLAGY FAMILY LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/17/22. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 72 Glendale Rd., Rye, NY 10580.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of PEARL PRIMARY CARE NETWORK LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/18/22.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/16/22. Princ. office of LLC: 520 Broadway, 4th Fl., NY, NY 10012.

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

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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 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.

Notice of Qualification of CANNON HILL CAPITAL PARTNERS LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/16/22.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/24/22. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of NEUMANN BROOME ST. LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/22/22.

Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Jeffrey Neumann, 971 Huron Rd., Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417.

Purpose: Any lawful activity

PBTEX PR LLC filed w/ SSNY on 2/4/22. Office: New York Co. SSNY designated as agent for process & shall mail to: c/o Smith & Shapiro, 116 E. 27th St., 3rd Fl, NY, NY 10016. Purpose: any lawful.

Notice of Formation of PANTS VIEW 3, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/11/22.

Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 200 Park Ave. South, 8th Fl., NY, NY 10003. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of 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 FORMATION OF Kelsey Dunn Mental Health Counseling, PLLC. Arts of Org filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/16/2022. Office loc: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. Address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the PLLC served upon him/her is 119 W. 72 St #102 New York, NY 10023. Principal business address of the PLLC is the same. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

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FROM PAGE 1

IPOs this year, worth $2.1 billion total, compared with 101 worth $40 billion by this point in 2021, according to Renaissance Capital.

Even in the exuberant startup investment market last year, many tech firms that went public saw their value decrease.

Beyond that, it is tricky to forecast demand for many of the health-tech products that were ne-

rounds in 2022, so it is certainly not that no one can do it,” said Jordan Nof, managing partner at Tusk Venture Partners, which has made several health-tech investments.

“But the speed at which companies were able to raise money and build really large businesses was unprecedented in 2020, 2021.”

That was never going to last forever, Nof added, but investors are still looking to make deals. Venture firms have a lot of capital raised from their partners over the past two years that needs to be put to work. The pace is just moderating.

Health care is still attractive to many investors overall. It is an increasingly large part of the country’s gross domestic product and still seeing significant demand for innovation driven by Covid-19, noted Peter Micca, partner and national health-tech leader, audit and assurance, at Deloitte & Touche LLP. “The demand for care is really going to continue and far exceed supply for the near term,” Micca said. “So while industry sectors are always impacted by macroeconomic conditions, [health care] is insulated to a degree."

A recent report from Deloitte found investment in med-tech, which refers largely to companies making government-regulated products, increased 67% from 2017

IT IS TRICKY TO FORECAST CONTINUED DEMAND FOR HEALTH-TECH PRODUCTS cessities in 2020 and 2021.

“This year consumers and physicians are determining the best uses for telehealth, whereas there was no other choice during the heart of the pandemic,” Ellerin said.

Big funding rounds That hasn’t stopped all funding, of course. Recent large health-tech funding rounds include a $150 million investment into Flatiron District telehealth company Ro and $105 million for in-home care provider ConcertoCare, also based in the Flatiron District.

“There have been companies raising meaningful financing

to the end of 2021, to reach nearly $20 billion.

Midtown-based diagnostic testing company LetsGetChecked on March 29 said it would acquire genome-sequencing company Veritas Genetics and its spin-off, Veritas Intercontinental, though terms were not disclosed.

NoMad-based telehealth company Thirty Madison, best known for hair loss and migraine treatments, agreed in February to combine with Nurx, an online company best known for providing access to birth control products—with no financial terms disclosed.

ELLERIN notes that fast-growing health-tech startups bring jobs to the city.

ADRIENNE NICOLE PRODUCTIONS

STARTUPS

M&A to heat up Experts anticipate that merger and acquisition activity will pick up this year in the industry.

“I do suspect that we'll see more and more consolidation among the earlier-stage digital health companies,” said Nisha Dua, managing partner and co-founder of BBG Ventures. “Each care delivery model category is just getting more and more crowded. But all in all, there

are huge opportunities still on the table in telehealth, asynchronous care, health insurance.”

Ellerin said investment in healthtech is important for the city overall, as fast-growing startups hire a lot of people. But a tight labor market means that hiring could contin-

ue for some time even if investment slows. A poll of health-tech firms by New York City Health Business Leaders found that the ability to find talent is a top concern for most companies.

“It is still a really competitive market for talent,” Ellerin said. ■

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22 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | APRIL 4, 2022

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TECH SPOTLIGHT

JIMMY CHEN founded Propel in 2016

FOCAL POINTS

Brooklyn startup is building better tech for people receiving public benefits Propel raises $50 million to help “a customer base which is ignored by everyone else”

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

J

immy Chen was a product manager at Facebook in California eight years ago when he struck out on his own, wondering if he could take Silicon Valley’s software playbook and apply it to social problems.

He moved across the country to Blue Ridge Labs in Brooklyn, a three-month incubator program for entrepreneurs who want to help underserved Americans. Chen spent those months interviewing people on public assistance and found a persistent but seemingly solvable problem that became the focus of his startup, Propel.

It was way too hard, he said, to track how much money was left on the electronic benefit transfer cards used to make purchases with credits provided by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“If you overspend your balance, you can get into this really embarrassing experience at the checkout, where the transaction is turned down, and you have to put food back and all that stuff,” Chen said. “So people were checking the balance on these cards all the time—but the most common way to do that was by calling a 1-800 number on the back of the card.”

In 2016 Chen launched an app, now called Providers, that made it easy to check balances from a phone, using about $10,000 raised through Kickstarter. The business has grown steadlily since then to serve more than 5 million U.S. families.

5M

for qualifying families. Propel helped sign up 1.4 million people for the federal Emergency BroadFAMILIES band Benefit, a program that helps in the U.S. served low-income families afford highby Propel’s app, speed internet.

Providers, since Raising the new funding gives it was founded in Propel greater leeway to focus on 2016 long-term service to its users, Growing strong rather than on a short-term return, Chen said.

Last month Propel raised $50 mil“One of the biggest challenges that we face lion from investors to expand, including a debit card and checking account for people is in being a for-profit company, with venture investors, that’s building for Americans that on public benefits.

Investors in the latest round for Propel in- are extremely financially vulnerable,” Chen clude Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, said. “There are lots of organizations that are JPMorgan Chase and Salesforce Venture. The predatory toward those folks and serve them round was led by local venture investment with products not in their best interest.”

Part of that is building out its newest prodfirm Nyca Partners. Hans Morris, a managing partner at Nyca Partners, said Propel stands uct, a debit card and checking account. The out for being “completely dedicated to a cus- account, which is backed by Sutton Bank, is tomer base which is ignored by everyone designed to help people balance government benefits like disability and child tax credits. else.”

It lets users know of programs they might The company is not a government contractor. It simply transmits information to its cus- qualify for and when to expect their next deposit to arrive. There are no overdraft fees; tomers in a user-friendly way.

Propel makes money through ads sold on Propel makes money by collecting a portion the app, but Chen said the startup is careful of the interchange fees that retailers pay on about who can buy space. One of its main ad- card transactions.

Propel has 68 employees, with an office in vertisers was Comcast for a $10 internet plan

FOUNDED 2014 MANAGEMENT Jimmy Chen, CEO and founder; Jeff Kaiser, chief operating officer and co-founder; and Ram Mehta, co-founder and chief technology officer FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES 68 FUNDING Propel has raised $68.2 million from venture capital investors.

BUSINESS Its app, Providers, offers a free way to check the balance of government benefit programs such as SNAP. WHAT’S NEXT Propel is expanding its financial services to a debit and checking account that provides a central hub for people on government benefits to manage their finances WEBSITE joinpropel.com

Downtown Brooklyn. It expects to hire at least 30 more individuals this year.

Tip of the iceberg The company recognizes that it is taking aim at a large, entrenched problem. Chen does not expect to rid the country of poverty.

He wants to show that a sustainable business serving people often overlooked by the financial industry can be built.

“The best we can do is contribute,” Chen said. “If we can save someone five minutes of time who is on SNAP, that’s not going to lift them out of poverty. But it is going to make their day that much easier and better.” ■ APRIL 4, 2022 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 23

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