Crain's New York Business

THE NEXT-DOOR ENTREPRENEUR

BY CARA EISENPRESS

In the western part of Park Slope, Brooklyn, several long blocks from Prospect Park, a lot of the public space is meant for children. But during the summer, the local business group added picnic tables and benches to the plaza on Fourth Street, and soon adults were bringing their lunch from local spots or setting up with laptops and co ee for a remote-work afternoon.

“ ere’s less going to Manhattan, and that’s all supporting our commercial corridor,” said Joanna Tallantire, executive director of the Park Slope Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District. Similarly, in Morris Park, residents stick around the neighborhood

even on weekends, working out at the Untamed Studio gym. ey are buying smoothies from Healthy Fresh, which renovated its space not long after opening, and hiring local tax preparers and lawyers—at least three have opened on the avenue in the past two years.

More than two years of altered patterns have upended how New Yorkers, visitors and commuters use their city. As some residents work from or near their home, and others commute to Manhattan but less frequently, their presence—and wallets—in the areas near where they live has bolstered the vitality of outer-borough neighborhoods in the form of foot tra c, business patronage and

4COMMERCE is moving outward from Manhattan in four districts examined by Crain’s

lunch orders. At the same time, small-business owners once desperate to make it through 2020 have enhanced their marketing, online presence and customer relationships to become essential to these communities, developing connections with nearby merchants and planning corridorwide events.

Mayor Eric Adams acknowledged the trend last Wednesday at a Crain’s event. “It’s clearly the

Adams touts strong biz creation at Crain’s Power Breakfast

BY BRIAN PASCUS POLITICS

Mayor Eric Adams told Crain’s that new data from the Economic Development Corp. suggests the city’s economy is recovering well. But a more robust return to o ce by workers

and a reimagining of central business districts including more residential space will determine the extent of the city’s comeback, the mayor added.

“ e nancial ecosystem of our city depends on some kind of in-ofce environment,” Adams said. “We’re going to see a sort of a hybrid. We understand that, and we have to lean into it.

Dishing up old traditions for new JARGON

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of Covid on Monday but out at the nightclub on Sunday. You can’t have it both ways,” he added to laughter.

e mayor made his comments at a Crain’s Power Breakfast in Midtown during a discussion with Editor-in-Chief Cory Schouten. Adams noted that new data from the EDC indicates strong economic growth: Nearly 12,000 new businesses were created in the rst quarter of the year; an estimated 5,000 new businesses opened between January and March, more than the net total in all of 2021; the city’s annual private-sector employment growth rate of 8% from August 2021 to

NEIGHBORHOOD WORK: Tompkins Avenue in Bed-Stuy is among the thriving business districts.

BUCK ENNIS

Outer-borough business districts are bouncing back quickly as New Yorkers appreciate staying close to home

DETAILS

CUNY marshals $16M to build campus-to-industry pipeline

BY BRIAN PASCUS

The City University of New York has announced a $16 million workforce development ini tiative, funded by the city and pri vate partners, to improve career op portunities for CUNY students and fuel job growth across the city.

CUNY’s Inclusive Economy Ini tiative will pool $13 million in city funds and $3 million in private philanthropy to create a cam pus-to-industry pipeline that im proves career prospects for CUNY undergraduates and graduates. e program is expected to provide more than 3,000 students with paid internships and apprenticeship op portunities with local employers in its rst year. It follows the success of CUNY’s Career Launch internship program, which connected 2,000 students who lacked previous work experience with internships this past summer.

ministration and CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. It carries the goal of connecting 80% of CUNY grads to jobs within six months of graduation by 2030.

“It’s really one of the main missing parts in making CUNY ready to go to the next level of social mobility for our students, in terms of career en gagement and career development,” Matos Rodríguez told Crain’s. “It would make it easier for employers to connect with us and explore op portunities for paid internships, ap prenticeships and hiring down the line.”

‘A better future’

e CUNY system has more than 400,000 students in degree and non-degree programs, according to the university.

Mayor Eric Adams praised the program’s vision in a statement.

ing early exposure to professions through skills training and quality internships,” Adams said. “As a CUNY alum, I know the important roles this institution plays in helping New Yorkers create a better future for themselves and their families.”

Workforce development is quick ly becoming a hallmark of the Ad ams administration.

Earlier this month Adams and Schools Chancellor David C. Banks unveiled the Career Readiness and Modern Youth Apprenticeship pro gram, an initiative that expands ca reer-connected learning opportuni ties for city public school students.

e administration expects 3,000 students from more than 50 high schools to participate in the multi year program.

bene ts to up to 30,000 workers to attend bachelor’s or associate de gree programs at one of eight CUNY colleges. Other private rms sched uled to provide a multiyear commit ment in either funding, employment partnerships or paid internships in clude Cognizant, the Charina En dowment Fund, the CD&R Founda tion and the Robin Hood Foundation. e university ulti mately hopes to engage 20,000 busi nesses across the city by 2030.

CUNY anticipates the Inclusive Economy Initiative will help more than 3,000 with job placements by the end of 2023. e $16 million fund will also help the university re launch the CUNY O ce of Careers & Industry Partnerships, a unit that will now be brought into the chan cellor’s cabinet.

“By launching the CUNY Inclu sive Economy Initiative, we are growing the student-to-career pipe line for CUNY students and provid

e venture is supported by JP Morgan Chase, Accenture, Amazon and Bloomberg Philanthropies, among other companies.

Time: 9 to 11:00 a.m. 180 Central Park South CrainsNewYork.com/OctoberForum the next the

e Inclusive Economy Initiative is the brainchild of the Adams ad

e new CUNY initiative also partners with Amazon. e corpora tion has pledged to provide tuition

“ is is an initiative we hope to scale up,” Matos Rodríguez said. “We’ll see how that rolls out and learn from that, and then over the next three or four years, we’ll ex pand across our campuses.”■

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Meal delivery service dishes up old traditions for new moms

The upstart: Nouri

Two years ago, Irene Liu, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, learned about a tradition deeply rooted in her family’s history. “My aunt had a baby, and my mom was ordering meals for her from this very hyperlocal service in Los Angeles,” she says. “It’s very, very traditional. I was fascinated.”

Across East Asian cultures, there are a number of delivery services catering to expectant and postpartum mothers with meals tailored to their current stage of motherhood. While similar out ts exist in the U.S., they tend to be small and primarily serve Asian immigrants.

Liu got to thinking this service might have appeal far beyond the Asian community. She emailed Jennifer Jolorte Doro whom she’d been following on Instagram. Jolorte Doro, the daughter of Filipino immigrants, was working as a nutritionist and private postpartum chef.

e result is Nouri, a meal delivery company they co-founded in 2020. It now serves roughly 500 households in the New York City area with Asian fare tailored to three speci c stages: fertility, prenatal and postpartum.

First trimester subscribers get meals that are easy-to-digest and often include ginger to combat nausea, for example. e postpartum menu features dishes like an iron-rich seaweed soup.

e heat-and-eat meals, which cost from $15 to $26 depending on the subscription level and options selected, are delivered weekly by courier, packed on ice.

e postpartum option is the most popular so far, accounting for roughly 45% of the company’s sales, says Liu, the company’s CEO. And nearly a fourth of the sales are gift subscriptions.

Nouri will launch national delivery next month and is moving from its 300 square-foot Lower East Side kitchen to one more than 20 times that size in Kearny, New Jersey.

The reigning Goliath: Blue Apron

New York-based Blue Apron serves roughly 349,000 customers who choose from vegetarian, heat-and-eat and wellness options. e company says it has shipped more than 465 million meals since its 2012 launch. Its 2021 sales topped $470 million.

How to slay the giant

After months spent interviewing moms, developing recipes and testing delivery containers, Nouri launched a beta test in October 2020.

Jolorte Doro cooked the meals in the kitchen of her upstate Millbrook home. Liu, still completing her MBA at the Wharton School in Philadelphia, borrowed a friend’s car and met Jolorte Doro in Manhattan every Sunday to help deliver the meals. “I remember the rst delivery because it was my rst time driving in New York, and I got lost,” Liu recalls. ey learned a lot from the initial test, which offered meals such as a buckwheat bowl with miso coconut roasted vegatables. Many customers had queries about the food and ingredients, for example. A common question: Why didn’t the dishes have more salt? Nouri started including educational information with the meals to explain the health bene ts of each recipe. “ e education piece is huge,” Jolorte Doro says.

ey also learned that while traditions typically limit postpartum fare to special soups, that didn’t satisfy American eaters. Jolorte Doro tweaked the postpartum menus to include heartier fare with more grain and noodles.

e business funded itself through year one. ey spent nothing on marketing, thanks to Jolorte Doro’s connections with local “mom in uencers” on social media and friends in the city’s maternal wellness community who recommended the service. “It was really easy to tap into those existing relationships,” she says.

Because customers paid in advance, the company was able to use subscription revenue to hire several cooks and rent a professional kitchen on the Lower East Side. By its rst anniversary the company was serving 350 households and had racked up $200,000 in sales.

e co-founders started fundraising last year to support expansion plans. ey found several angel investors among their subscriber ranks and raised a pre-seed round of $350,000 in April.

Malcolm Waddell of the Harvard Business School Houston Angels Network bought a postpartum subscription for his daughter in New York after spotting Nouri at a startup competition. With his daughter’s encouragement, he later invested in the company. While the meal delivery business looks saturated, he says, there’s room for players who have discovered a new niche.

The next challenge

Other food delivery startups faltered when they sacri ced service and quality to rapid expansion, Waddell notes. But Nouri says it’s taking things slow—when it launches nationally it will only o er the postpartum plan to folks outside the local area. “Being able to ship that, logistically, makes more sense than trying to do all of the stages and all the variations,” Liu says. “At least in the beginning.” ■

Anne Kadet is the creator of Café Anne, a weekly newsletter with a New York City focus.

COURTESY OF NOURI

NOURI co-founders Liu (left) and Jolorte Doro (right)

Collapse of Hotel Bossert project casts a cloud over once-bustling Montague Street’s rebound

A revival of the historic Brooklyn Heights inn, now facing foreclosure, was supposed to restore the fortunes of the struggling retail corridor

BY C. J. HUGHES

Now that a decadelong push to revive the historic Hotel Bossert in Brooklyn Heights is dead—its owners are fac ing foreclosure after defaulting on mil lions of dollars in loans—there are fresh questions about the future of its block.

A revamped hotel was expected to revive the fortunes of a once-bustling but now long-sleepy Montague Street, brokers say. And without the visitors the hotel might have brought, Mon tague may have to work harder to turn itself around.

“Having the hotel would have made the street that much stron ger, would have driven that much more tra c,” said George Skaliarinis, a man aging director of Kassin Sabbagh Realty, a rm that frequently works on the street. It recently installed a martial-arts studio at No. 151, in a former nail salon, and a Blank Street Co ee, at No. 147, in an ex-Sprint store. “But I still think the street will eventually thrive.”

e vibrant retail heart of Brooklyn Heights a century ago, Montague in recent decades has o ered a hum drum hash of casual restau rants, delis and chain banks, though Covid wiped out some of those tenants. Indeed, by some counts, about 20% of the four-block street’s 120 businesses fold ed in the past few years.

Holding the street back, both in pre- and post-pan demic times, in a way is its historic architecture. En tering some retail spaces requires walking up or down a few steps, a layout that can discourage shop pers, brokers say; restau rants are particularly turned o by stairs like that.

But owners seem to be betting a rebound is close. Asking retail rents on the street, which is anchored on its eastern end by the busy Court Street/Borough Hall subway, range widely from $50 to $150 per square foot annually, said Skaliar inis, which seem healthy.

98 MONTAGUE ST.

Hotel Bossert, a 12-story, 182,200-square-foot structure that opened in 1912, part of New York’s oldest landmark district, was supposed to get a top-to-bottom makeover by a partnership between the Chetrit Organization and Clipper Eq uities, which bought it in 2012 for $81 million. But despite nearly $200 million in nancing, the often-delayed project never crossed the nish line. And on Nov. 9, it will head to the court house steps for a foreclosure auction because the developers haven’t made a loan payment since summer 2020. The exact reasons for the collapse are unclear, though rent-regulated ten ants continue to live in the building, and the de velopers would have had to build around them. The Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, which once controlled $1 billion in buildings in Brook lyn Heights, owned the Bossert from 1983 to 2012. Way earlier, the Brooklyn Dodgers threw their 1955 World Series victory party upstairs.

105 MONTAGUE ST.

This 8-story, Queen Anne-style, brick-and-granite build ing, a co-op, has 25 one- and two-bedroom apartments. Completed in 1885, when Brooklyn Heights was fashion able among the Wall Street crowd, the building was in de cline by the mid-20th century, just like Hotel Bossert. In 1971 No. 105 became a welfare hotel called the Brook mont, according to The New York Times, though in 1981 it bounced back and went co-op. According to Street Easy, a two-bedroom with an angled ceiling (unusually, the building’s roof is peaked), No. 803, was listed in September for $1.1 million, though that was a reduction from March 2021, when the unit was nearly $1.3 million.

125 MONTAGUE ST.

Among the retail casualties of the pandemic is the Ann Taylor Loft store on the ground oor of this 2-story retail building; a “for rent” sign is in the window. Up stairs is a branch of New York Kids Club, a preschool playgroup. The 19,000-square-foot corner building appears to be owned by an entity tied to Midwood In vestment and Development, a three-generation fam ily-run rm that has a variety of national holdings.

Locally it owns 800 Union St. in Park Slope, a 28-unit apartment converted from a parking garage. The rm, which was founded in Midwood, Brooklyn, appears to have owned No. 125 for decades.

124 MONTAGUE ST.

Vacancies are numerous on the street, some of which predate Covid, like at this 2-story 1950s building. A Starbucks coffee shop once brewed java there. But in 2012 a leaky roof forced it to relocate down the street to No. 134, a berth previously occupied by a Nine West shoe store, reports say. No. 112 has been empty ever since, despite “for lease” signs taped to its windows. Tax records show the owner of the 3,750-squarefoot structure to be Newark-based Patricia Hold ing Corp., which seems to have been around since the 1930s. The current annual tax bill for the empty and residentially-zoned building is $53,000, though the property has declined in value, according to the city: It was worth $2.9 million in 2020 but is worth $2.2 million today.

e average rent citywide earlier this year was about $58 per square foot, according to a report from the rm Marcus and Millichap.

By next year New York should hit 2019 levels, it added. “Competitive leasing should spur rent gains in re maining storefronts as tenants explore alternative options.”

But whether Montague can shake o a malaise that predated the current dip remains to be seen. ■

This 2-story, yellow-brick commercial building has seen some tenants turn over and others stay. A Corcoran Group real estate of ce that had been on the second oor closed during the pandemic; a Compass outpost replaced it. The ground oor has a Kiehl’s skin care shop; in 2014 it was the rst store from the East Village chain to open in Brook lyn. The owners of the 4,500-square-foot building appear to have once included Glenn Markman, ac cording to a deed from 2006, which shows it was purchased for $1.4 million. Markman, who also worked as a Cushman and Wake eld broker, died from cancer in 2014 at age 52, though the build ing’s ownership does not seem to have changed

118 MONTAGUE ST.

Montague is not known for its restaurants, as near by Court and Smith streets are. The proper venting of 19th-century buildings is a hurdle, brokers say.

But eateries do turn up, like at this 5-story, Ital ianate brownstone. It’s home to Saketumi Asian Bistro, which replaced the earlier Tenda. Taco eatery Tacomadre called the place home in the mid-1990s. The landlord of the building is Fox boro Real Estate, which has owned it since 1976.

The sale price is not clear from the old deed. But in 1944 it changed hands for cash and a $24,000 mortgage, according to news reports. At that time it contained of ces. Today the desks have given way to apartments—13 of them. A studio leased in July; it was last listed at $1,895 a month.

122 MONTAGUE ST.

In 2016 this plain-fronted, 5-story building was sold by G.M. Realty Holding Co. to JSRE Acqui sitions for $7.6 million. JSRE is the real estate investing arm of the Safras, the global banking family. It has three apartments and a pair of re tail berths, one of which hosts an arm of the Les lie J. Gar eld brokerage. The other space housed a location of the Housing Works high-end thrift store chain before it closed in 2017, after a 10year run. Soon after, the Safras picked up the site. That storefront, which totals 3,400 square feet across two levels, is being shopped around.

112 MONTAGUE ST.

Community

Working together to drive progress

At Bank of America, we continue to support diverse local communities to help fuel economic opportunity and growth. We’re inspired by the determination and passion of Hispanic-Latinos and are committed to doing more as a trusted partner. Here are some of the ways we’re helping:

Listening

Our Hispanic-Latino Business Councils across the country are focused on understanding the needs of our clients so we can better serve them.

Supporting

We’re furthering our partnership with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Inc., helping emerging leaders succeed in today’s economy.

Delivering

Our Better Money Habits® platform is available in Spanish, Mejores Hábitos Financieros,® to help people build financial know-how and make informed, confident decisions.

My teammates and I are proud of the work we’re doing in New York City to address the needs of our clients and the diverse communities we serve.

José Tavarez President, Bank of America New York City

Learn more at bankofamerica.com/metroNYC

Bank of America, Better Money Habits, Mejores Hábitos Financieros and the Bank of America logo are registered trademarks of Bank of America Corporation. Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Credit Opportunity Lender © 2022 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved.

What would you like the power to do?

‘Epic turnaround’ hits runway at Ralph Lauren

Cannabis is pretty easy to buy now in Manhattan, but have you tried to shop late ly for a belt or a pair of shoes? Scores of retailers have thrown in the towel, and vacant storefronts blight the streets crowded with Ama zon delivery trucks.

One of the best retail comeback stories may be underway at Ralph Lau ren. A new regime brought in ve years ago said last Monday that the glamour is back.

Ralph Lauren isn’t sell ing more stu —units sold haven’t changed much since 2018—but it is charging a lot more. Average selling prices for mer chandise have jumped by 64% since 2018 after management yanked clothes out of department stores and discount outlets while persuad ing younger shoppers to pay full price at the chain’s stores.

e brand started in 1967 and, thanks to its super-popular polo

shirts, went public 25 years ago, around the same time as Martha Stewart’s line. But fashion labels can go to seed—have you seen Martha Stewart merchandise lately?—and Ralph Lauren’s stock shed twothirds of its value after the brand started showing up at TJMaxx.

“We’re in the dreams business,” CEO Patrice Louvett told Women’s Wear Daily

It’s fundamentally in the rag trade, though. But by repositioning itself as a luxury brand, and remind ing shoppers that it’s the o cial out tter of the U.S. Olympic Team, Ralph Lauren boost ed sales by 8% last quarter. at mir rors the success of Capri, which owns the high-end Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo labels.

Ralph Lauren plans to capitalize on its revival by opening 250 stores globally over the next three years, in cluding 100 in North America. Man agement thinks the stores will boost

the online channel that accounts for more than a quarter of its revenue. It also aims to lure in more female shoppers, who at the moment ac count for 50% of visitors to the stores or website but only 30% of sales.

“Ralph Lauren could prove to be one of the most memorable brand rejuvenation stories in fashion,” Evercore ISI analyst Omar Saad said in a client report. An “epic turn around [is] unfolding.”

Financial PR rm takes on a new name

When the going gets tough, the tough sometimes change their name.

Abernathy & MacGregor, a public

relations rm that helps top compa nies promote triumphs or put the best possible spin on bad news, is changing its name to H/Advisors Abernathy. e rebranding is in tended to emphasize the rm’s rela tionship with Havas, the French PR and advertising company that has owned it for 22 years.

“ is is an exciting next step that enhances Abernathy’s ability to pro vide all our clients a more cohesive, global organization,” the rm said, noting there would be no manage ment changes.

e step comes as Abernathy’s sweet spot, nancial public rela tions, is in a funk. Corporate deal ac tivity has fallen sharply amid swoon ing markets and rising borrowing costs. Goldman Sachs and other banks are preparing layo s.

An Abernathy o cial said the rm is on pace for one of its best years ever. PR has been ascendant while news-gathering organizations have shriveled in the past 20 years. Nearly 30,000 PR specialists and managers work in the New York

area, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared with just 4,750 journalists. ere were rough ly equal numbers of publicists and journalists in the city 25 years ago.

Abernathy, Brunswick, Finsbury, Joele Frank and Kekst are among the leaders in nancial public relations. e rms can be understood as cor porate xers. Roots of the business go back to the 1980s, when junkbond king Michael Milken was un der investigation for insider trading but labeled a “national treasure” by handlers for helping small compa nies raise money.

Abernathy clients over the years have included those involved in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It ad vised Detroit during the city’s bank ruptcy. It represents Atlas Air World wide in its pending $5.2 billion sale to a group led by private-equity gi ant Apollo Global.

Abernathy doesn’t disclose reve nue, but the Havas collection of PR brands had $225 million in sales in 2020, according to the Holmes Re port. Abernathy has 85 employees. ■

Placing a casino at Hudson Yards is a losing bet

Gambling has long been an attractive economic development tool for Republicans and Demo crats alike. Casinos provide employment, sometimes at union ized wages, and the revenue gener ated can be funneled into state co ers, helping to pay for education and other pub lic services. It is an alleged win-win scenario and constantly pitched that way to voters.

Now Stephen Ross, chairman of e Related Cos., wants in on the ac tion. He’s teaming with Wynn Resorts to try to lure a casino to Hudson Yards, situating it on an undeveloped tract of land next to the Javits Center. Ross would be competing for one of three new full-service casino licenses autho rized for New York City.

It’s an intriguing but ultimately terrible idea. e casino market, in the New York area and nationally, is overwhelmingly saturated. Casinos in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut keep locals from trav eling elsewhere to gamble. e Hudson Yards casino would likely siphon revenue from Resorts World in Queens, Empire City in Yonkers and other gambling venues north of the city that have tried, and most ly failed, to revitalize struggling towns and cities. Many are under performing expectations. Midtown Manhattan’s pandemic-era prob

lems, tied to the rise of remote work and a loss of tourism dollars, won’t be solved with a casino.

From an economic development and revenue-generating stand point, gambling simply isn’t a pan acea. Legalized in January, mobile sports betting revenue skyrocketed before crashing in the summer. e return of football season should lead to another spike, but there is a limit to how much money the state can take in from a grow ing cohort of problem gamblers. By June mobile sports betting had gener ated $263 million in reve nue for the state, which sounds like a lot until you consider the actual size of New York’s $220.5 billion budget. In that context $263 million or $363 mil lion or $763 million is little more than a rounding error.

And for what? Mobile sports bet ting has been quietly fueling a new generation of gambling addicts, young men in particular, who now nd they can wager on sports at all hours of the day and night from their smartphone. e social costs of legalizing instant betting will be felt for years to come, and few policymakers thought through what it was they were unleashing. A gambling addiction isn’t too di er ent from a drug addiction.

In this context, casinos are less dangerous: ey are physical spac es that gamblers travel to and later

leave. Many go to casinos to have din ner, see a show or drink with friends. Putting aside the problem of gam bling addictions, casinos, even in dense cities, are not going to meaning fully a ect econom ic development. Businesses in New York thrive through being in close prox imity to one anoth er, bene ting from foot tra c. A pizze ria, a barbershop, a pharmacy and an antiques store can all succeed on a sin gle block. Casinos aren’t like that at all.

People go to casi nos to spend all or most of the money they’ve budgeted for that day. A din ner at a Manhattan restaurant can lead to a ticket to a Broadway show and a trip to get ice cream later on. Casinos would de vour most, if not all, of that revenue. Small businesses aren’t going to suddenly thrive if Hudson Yards gets its casino. ere are far better uses for that land.

Quick takes ● e Mayor’s Management Re

port is out, and it shows that city government has slowed under Eric Adams. Far less a ordable housing is being built, and housing targets are now lower than they were during the de Blasio years.

● Ending New York’s right to shelter won’t solve the new migrant crisis. Getting city government bet ter organized and processing mi

grants into existing, vacant shelters would be far more e ective and hu mane.

● Will city government ever em brace remote work? Vacancies will go un lled as long as the city holds to such an in exible policy. ■

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

BLOOMBERG

AARON ELSTEIN

ROSS BARKAN

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City Council introduces syringe-buyback bill to mixed reactions from community members

BY JACQUELINE NEBER

The City Council introduced a bill at a hearing last Tues day that would implement a syringe-buyback pro gram at the city’s two Overdose Pre vention Centers in the hopes of in centivizing New Yorkers who use drugs to use OPC services, reducing syringe litter and decreasing over dose deaths.

Introduction 609, sponsored by Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala of Manhattan, would require the De partment of Health and Mental Hy giene to set up a pilot program that would give OPC participants 20 cents back per needle, syringe or sharp they bring to the center for disposal, capped at $10 per day. Anyone could bring materials in to get money back, but the program is intended for active drug users who are registered at the OPCs in East Harlem and Washington Heights. e program would run for a year before the Health Department would be required to decide wheth er to continue it, Ayala told Crain’s e bill is introduced at a time when city overdose deaths have hit record highs. Advocates hope the

pilot will decrease them as well as public drug use that community members have been increasingly concerned about, which also has ballooned during the pandemic.

e pricing structure is modeled after a similar pilot program in Bos ton. e Health Department is in conversations with o cials in Bos ton to discuss the pilot, Ayala said.

In the committee on mental health, disabilities and addiction hearing Tuesday, community members expressed concern about

for the bill’s intention but said that, as it stands, New Yorkers at the OPCs who are users cannot take their supplies out of the centers. He questioned the need for a buyback program if the people it’s intended for can’t take equipment into the community in the rst place.

Although the City Council doesn’t want to incentivize drug us ers to buy more drugs by giving them money, the alternative to a buyback program—more syringes on the streets that could potentially harm children or community mem bers, as well as more untrained members of the public picking up the litter—is worse, Ayala said.

partment of Sanitation worker dis pose of the litter. From the call to disposal can take about 24 hours.

Combating stigma

Jasmine Budnella, director of drug policy at Voices of Community Activists and Leaders, a syringe ser vice program and advocacy organi zation in Downtown Brooklyn, said the buyback program would be a win-win.

Crucially, she said, it would en courage New Yorkers to receive ser vices at the overdose prevention centers and syringe service pro grams. At the facilities, people can access safe supplies for using drugs, naloxone for overdoses, care-coor dination services, referrals to other community-based services and even acupuncture.

matizing and harmful.”

e city’s overdose prevention centers, which are the rst of their kind in the country, have been em broiled in controversy since they opened in November. Community members rst argued against the centers’ proximity to shared spaces, such as playgrounds.

$0

the upswing in syringe litter they see in neighborhoods. Some had questions about whether a buyback program is the solution.

When asked about the bill, the Health Department referred Crain’s to testimony at Tuesday’s hearing by Dr. Michael McRae, deputy com missioner of the division of mental hygiene. McRae expressed support

“I’m sure it will be controversial, but when you consider the alternative, something drastic has to happen,” she said.

Ayala said supporters also hope the buyback program will be more cost-e ective and e cient than the city’s current methods of picking up syringe litter, which include a smat tering of contracts with community groups or calling 311 to have a De

e program could also help de crease stigma by allowing people to have a more active role in their neighborhood, Budnella added.

“People think that people who use drugs don’t want to be in the community or be part of the com munity. But [people] care about their neighborhoods,” she said.

“ e amount of backlash I’ve seen [against the program] is both stig

Nearly a year later, OnPoint NYC, which operates the centers, told Crain’s that as of Sept. 14, there are 1,757 registered OPC participants. ere were 36,160 visits and utiliza tions, OnPoint said, and the centers have intervened in 490 overdoses, potentially saving hundreds of lives. Most recently both centers have begun using drug-testing technology that helps warn com munities about “bad batches” of drugs that contain lethal levels of fentanyl. Advocates are pushing for the OPCs to be open 24/7.

Ayala said the City Council is waiting on feedback from the Health Department’s conversations with Boston about its pilot program before potentially making amend ments to the bill. She said that, if passed, she hopes the program would go into e ect as soon as pos sible. ■

Deductible plan options Virtual Visit copays

Oxford insurance products are underwritten by Oxford Health Insurance, Inc. Oxford $0 deductible plans are available for New York-sitused employers and can be paired with either the Freedom, Liberty or Metro network. $0 virtual care copays apply to all Oxford fully-insured non-HSA plans except for Healthy NY. Plans sold in New York use policy form numbers: OHINY_SG_GEA_2023 and POL20.OHI.2019.LG.NY.

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“THE AMOUNT OF BACKLASH IS BOTH STIGMATIZING AND HARMFUL”

president & ceo K.C. Crain group publisher Jim Kirk publisher/executive editor Frederick P. Gabriel Jr.

If workers won’t come to the of ce, rms should consider bringing the of ce to them

New York City is more than Midtown.

Despite the skyline’s ubiquity in movies and TV shows, in real life, Manhattan’s four sister boroughs play an essential role in making the metropolitan area what it is—the suburbs and New Jersey, too. e outer boroughs and the surrounding counties are the neighborhoods where people live and play. And as senior reporters Cara Eisenpress and Aaron Elstein uncovered in this issue’s Crain’s Forum, they’re also the places where people are choosing to work.

bors. Although Manhattan remains incredibly important to the city’s economy, large companies would do well to take note of what the pandemic-era workforce says it wants and needs.

For the past few months, large companies such as Amazon, JPMorgan, KPMG and Meta have announced plans to reduce their local o ce footprints as remote work continues to be important to o ce workers. But these companies might be missing an opportunity. It’s likely that o ce workers no longer want to stay home over Covid fears. Rather, they probably want to stay home for convenience.

AN HOURLONG TRAIN RIDE INTO MIDTOWN IS LIKELY WHAT IS HOLDING WORKERS BACK

roughout the pandemic, many in the workforce have come to prioritize a commute that is 15 minutes or less, staying close to home in neighborhoods outside Manhattan for doctor visits, shopping trips and restaurant dining. Many have started small businesses in these places, nding willing customers in their neigh-

An hourlong train ride into Midtown is likely what is holding these workers back from a fuller return, so instead of shunning o ce space altogether, companies would do well to rethink their choice of location. Paring down their Manhattan property needs while also looking for additional options to open satellite branches closer to where their employees live might be exactly what it takes to restore o ce culture.

To this end, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser last week said the nancial giant is considering opening o ces in New Jersey and Connecticut for the bene t of its employees. “We very much appreciate how expensive it is getting for all our people to commute,” Fraser reportedly said at a House Financial Services Committee hearing. “We’re very mindful around that as well as being exible for working families.”

e city’s plans to bring more a ordable housing to Midtown would also help. More mixed-use development (as was done in Lower Manhattan post-9/11) would

allow workers to go back to the central business district with a more manageable commute.

New York City is home to some of the most innovative companies in the world. And major cachet will always come along with a Midtown shingle. But instead of shrinking their o ce space down to nothing and giving up on the o ce model, local companies would be smart to try to meet their employees where they are. And increasingly, that means looking at the neighborhoods closer to where they live. If they won’t come to the o ce, it’s worth a shot to bring the o ce to them. ■

Home health workers deserve to make a living for themselves and their families

BY ADRIA POWELL

Every morning thousands of home care workers in the city begin long and complex workdays.

Many journey on public transit and endure some of the worst commutes in the city. eir rst task is to assist their clients, likely older adults and people with disabilities, in beginning their day. is requires lifting their clients from bed, bathing them, dressing them and preparing their meals. ey remind their clients to take their medication, they take them to appointments, and they run errands for them.

Upon leaving a client’s home, a home care worker may see others, but schedules are often unpredictable. e work is taxing, but it allows their clients to live with dignity and independence in the communities where they are known and loved.

As the president and CEO of Cooperative Home Care Associates in the Bronx, I have spent decades

of my life with home care workers. CHCA is one of the largest and oldest worker-owned cooperatives nationwide. It’s clear to everyone within the industry that these duties are not easy to perform, and they require expertise, in addition to dedication and compassion.  e need has never been greater: Demand for these services will double between 2000 and 2050, while turnover rates averaging around 60% nationally will exacerbate the shortage. In New York state, the average wage is only $14.86 an hour. Consequently, around 57% of New York’s home care workers rely on public benets, and nearly half lack a ordable housing.

Racial and gender justic ere are clear racial and gender justice implications: More than 80% of home care workers are people of color, and 92% are women. Although home care workers are a substantial part of a larger health care system, they are

not treated as such. In addition to unpredictable schedules, a lack of training and a sense of deep isolation are common.

Systemic change needed

At CHCA, which employs more than 1,700 people, workers have a stake in ownership, which allows them to earn dividends and participate in governance. ey receive training, mentorship and fair schedules. We acknowledge the value of their labor. With reduced turnover, workers are able to provide higher quality care.

We know that workers deserve jobs with fair wages, bene ts and advancement opportunities. Systemwide change, however, is required. Work in long-term care is largely funded by Medicaid, which fails to provide adequate reimbursements to agencies, thus stymying wages. CHCA is part of the New York Caring Majority, a coalition of advocates, providers, and labor and social justice organizations working toward a future where care provision is universal,

and workers are provided good jobs.

rough the Fair Pay for Home Care Campaign, we're ghting to increase home care worker wages to $22.50 per hour and to increase reimbursements so providers can meet this standard. While Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature ended up passing the 2023 budget that included a $3 per-hour wage increase over two years, this increase does not go far enough, and it does not provide for a corresponding increase in reimbursement rates for providers, placing CHCA and many others on the brink of disaster.

It’s obvious to me that these workers—largely women of color in the fastest-growing sector in health care—deserve nothing less than the ability to provide for themselves and their families with dignity and respect.

Now more than ever, large-scale investment is vital. ■

Adria Powell is CEO of Cooperative Home Care Associates.

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chairman Keith E. Crain vice chairman Mary Kay Crain president & ceo K.C. Crain senior executive vice president Chris Crain editor-in-chief emeritus Rance Crain chief nancial of cer Robert Recchia founder G.D. Crain Jr. [1885-1973] chairman Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. [1911-1996]

BLOOMBERG

BY BETSY PLUM

The U.N. General Assembly met in the city last week, a week known to most New Yorkers as the time when it might be faster to literally crawl across town than try to drive through un ending gridlock. ough conges tion frustrations are real, even worse was the amount of pollution from CO2 emissions released from all those idling cars lled with dip lomats.

U.N. President Csaba Korösi has made climate sustainability a hall mark of his tenure. It’s a message that should resonate strongly with New Yorkers, especially as the Gen eral Assembly’s meeting coincides with our annual Climate Week. In this moment, with the eyes of the world’s leaders on us, it’s time for

buses, so it should be a no-brainer that a reduction in vehicles and congestion on our roads will lead to a reduction in emissions. Conges tion pricing will accomplish exactly that, which is why the state Legisla ture passed it into law in 2019. As the clock ticks down, let’s start 2023 right by nally implementing it.

Underfunded, unreliable

e city ranks worst among cities with the most tra c congestion in the country, resulting in increas ingly polluted air and leaving vul nerable populations at high risk for respiratory illness, all the while stranding buses and ambulances in gridlock. At the same time, the vast majority of the city and the sur rounding region is relying on a bus and subway system that is under funded, outdated and unreliable, creating regular de lays and disrup tions for riders.

HAVING WORKED TOWARD FINDING PRACTICAL WAYS of reducing the carbon footprint for more than two decades, I found the Crain’s op-ed on the topic by Michael Romita [“We need to face climate change’s economic realties”] to be rife with awed logic and unhelpful.

As an engineer who has actually calculated the energy use in New York state, I view this challenging issue through the lens of math and physics, not emotions. People need to wake up from the delusion that renewables are going to be our savior.

We are not going to fall “slightly short,” as Romita says. New York is going to fall massively short.

e centerpiece of the state’s plan is gaining 9 gigawatts of o shore wind power. Assuming opposition to connecting to the grid and technical issues can be overcome, this will not replace even half the current fossil fuel load.

Next is the projected production of solar power from upstate. is will require about 400 square miles of prime upstate farmland at a time when there is a worldwide food shortage and the potential loss of major food production from chronically drought-ridden California. Farmland prices across the U.S. are already escalating rapidly, making opening large-scale solar farms cost prohibitive.

e state’s energy problem is compounded by the fact that the rush to electrify building heat is going to far exceed renewable pow er installation, while the mandated

new electric vehicle and clean truck rules—the best ways to reduce fossil fuel load—are going to add 150% of the existing fossil fuel load to the system. All this new load is being added without the ability to add enough renewables and comes amid the push to close fossil fuel and nuclear plants.

New York’s plan is not revolu tionary. Germany has been trying the same thing for more than 30 years. It was failing magni cently since well before the war in Ukraine. Germany was already adding coal plants to its generation mix in December. How is that environmentally friendly?

ere is a reason California is on the verge of major blackouts. California recently averted a major statewide power failure by sending out an emergency text message to residents begging them to immedi ately reduce their electricity use. Obviously, this is not a sustainable approach.

Meanwhile, California has been closing fossil fuel plants, creating the illusion that it is lowering its

greenhouse gas footprint, while scouring the western states to import power, much of which is from coal- red plants with a 67% higher carbon footprint.

New York should absolutely be installing renewable generation sources as quickly as possible. However, idiotic policies calling for the wholesale closure of fossil fuel plants and electrifying major build ings without su cient power sources to support the process are irresponsible and dangerous. ey will result in a breakdown of the electric power supply we rely on and have taken for granted. It is not an exaggeration to state that such measures are life-threatening.

I’ve presented my numbers and analysis to many engineers. Not one has contradicted my conclu sions. Even the engineers at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority have told me they can’t nd a problem with my calculations.

ere is a reason the New York Power Authority declined to take on the renewable installation project requested by the state.  e authority is not anti-environment; it simply knows that the project won’t work.

e state’s energy policymakers need to consider this and so many more indisputable facts and make sensible adjustments before they nd themselves texting pleas for all of us to save the power grid by turning o our lights!

RICHARD ELLENBOGEN President, Allied Converters

New Yorkers to support climate ac tion and sustainability initiatives here at home by getting behind congestion pricing once and for all. Korösi has argued that taking stock of the U.N.’s Sustainable De velopment Goals is simply not enough; more action is needed if we intend to actually reach those goals by the proposed date of 2030. In New York we’re racing against a similar clock, looking to realize the state’s commitment to 100% zeroemissions electricity by 2040 and a reduction of at least 8% below 1990-level greenhouse gas emis sions by 2050.

Vehicles are the culprit

Of our state’s CO2 emissions, 47% come from the transportation sec tor, primarily from cars, trucks and

Congestion pric ing can help us remedy both of these issues—pro viding funding for a modern, clean and reliable mass transit system while signi cantly reducing the number of cars on the roads.

Alongside this program, New York has the ability to transition the entire Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus eet to zero-emis sions buses and expand six-minute service on subways and buses be yond the traditional rush hour, throughout the day and the week.

New York has a rare opportunity to create a public transit system for the 21st century and improve air quality at the same time. If we move congestion pricing forward now, soon U.N. gridlock days can be a thing of the past. ■

Betsy Plum is executive director of the Riders Alliance.

City’s preservation scal year, per report

BY BRIAN PASCUS BUCK ENNIS

The city’s a ordable hous ing production dropped by 45% in the last scal year, which included the rst six months of Mayor Eric Adams’ ad ministration. Housing experts say higher interest rates used to ght in ation have contributed to the sharp decline in a ordable housing construction and preservation numbers.

Data from the Mayor’s Manage ment Report, released on Sept. 16, showed that the Department of Housing Preservation and Devel opment, the city’s principal arm in creating and maintaining a ord able housing, nanced the creation and preservation of 16,042 units in the scal year that began on July 1, 2021—a 45% drop from the previ ous scal year.

By comparison, the city nanced the creation and preservation of nearly 29,500 a ordable units in the last full scal year under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, between July 2020 and June 2021; the city reached a high of 32,517 new con struction and preservation starts for a ordable housing projects un der de Blasio in the scal year that began in July 2018 and ended in June 2019.

Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference, an a ordable housing advocacy group, noted the annual produc tion decline occurred during “soar ing rents and a massive housing shortage.”

“Such a signi cant decline is a serious warning that New York is moving in the wrong direction on housing, and it will make it signi cantly harder for public investment to respond to this crisis,” Fee said.

e average net e ective rent in Manhattan exceeded $5,000 in July, according to data from Douglas El liman. More than half of city renters paid more than 30% of their income toward rent last year, according to data from the Coalition for the Homeless, a nonpro t. Last week the city’s homeless shelter census exceeded 56,000, up from roughly 48,000 at the start of the year, ac cording to city data.

e low production levels come after Adams revealed a much-bally hooed a ordable housing plan in June. Unlike his predecessors, Ad ams refused to set an a ordable housing production goal over a set period of years and downplayed the importance of benchmarking such numbers.

e mayor’s o ce did not re spond to a request for comment on the Mayor’s Management Report or whether the administration has speci c plans to increase produc tion rates.

Logan Phares, political director of Open New York, a pro-housing advocacy group, noted that the data captures only the rst six months of Adams’ time in o ce and said members of the group “are hope ful” the mayor will prioritize creat ing more a ordable housing in the next year.

Economic headwinds

Whatever the mayor’s a ordable housing goals are, rising interest rates make it very hard to deliver on them.

e Mayor’s Management Report cited increasing construction costs as the main reason for low produc tion levels this year, and it said ris ing interest rates, brought on to ght in ation, are the main reason for the increasing construction costs.

With in ation reaching a 40-year high of 8.3% this year, the federal funds rate, the prime interest rate of loans made between banks, has

gone from nearly zero to 2.25% since January. And Federal Reserve o cials raised the interest rate by another 75 basis points last week.

A 30-year xed mortgage rate of 6%, a 14-year high, has added to the housing crunch.

Sean Campion, director of hous ing and economic development studies at the Citizens Budget Com mission, a nonpartisan scal re search rm, said that higher inter est rates mean increased debt service costs for developers, espe cially a ordable housing develop ers, who take on projects that al ready require higher levels of debt service because the amount of rent al income is capped.

“ e two consequences are you borrow less because you have less capacity to pay and developers must bring more money to the ta ble,” Campion said. “Or the city must increase the subsidy on a perunit basis, and that means the same amount of subsidy dollars don’t go as far.”

Campion added that rising in a tion percentages have made con struction costs steeper for develop ers, thus contributing to the lower a ordable housing production to tals.

Earlier this year the state Legisla ture passed a bill that allows the state to reimburse rms for materi al cost overruns on public con struction projects.

“[ e rising cost of construction] gives you the possibility of either needing to commit more money for the same number of units or getting fewer units produced for the same amount of subsidy,” Campion ex plained. “Some deals that would close at one construction price wouldn’t close now at the higher cost.”

No excuses

Despite championing a $22 bil lion capital investment over 10 years to New York’s a ordable housing sector, the Adams admin istration penciled in low a ordable housing production goals for this year and 2023 in the Mayor’s Man agement Report.

e administration set a scal 2022 production goal of 25,000 new unit starts for construction and preservation; the scal 2023 pro duction goal declined to 18,000 new units constructed and pre served.

“ at was just the saddest thing,” Fee of the New York Housing Con ference said. “For 2023 that is really low, and that’s particularly stark if that’s the goal for next year.”

Unlike the de Blasio administra tion, however, the Adams adminis tration has dedicated more re sources toward increasing new construction, rather than preserv ing or rehabbing existing units.

e Real Estate Board of New York estimated in January that the city needs to build 560,000 residen tial units by 2030 to meet the exist ing housing demand.

If the city is to keep pace with REBNY’s ambitious timeline, then it will need to do more than just rely on Adams’ strained Depart ment of Housing Preservation and Development sta to create more a ordable housing, experts say. An all-hands-on-deck approach is needed, Campion said.

“Market-rate housing alone won’t solve the a ordability crisis.

ese city-subsidized units help ll the gap, but it’s one piece of the housing market,” he said. “ ere should be a focus on increasing production of all segments of the market, including private.” ■

BY BRIAN PASCUS

Gov. Kathy Hochul an nounced last Tuesday that all city subway cars would be equipped with security cameras going forward.

e new policy is an extension of a pilot program that began in June and is being made to ease commut er fears about crime in the subway system following a number of vio lent incidents in the past year.

Hochul made the announcement as she stood beside Janno Lieber, chair and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, on a platform at the Corona Yards Main tenance Facility in Queens. e governor said that two security cameras would cover the width of each of the 6,455 train cars in the MTA’s subway eet. e program will be funded by a $6 million feder al grant from the Department of Homeland Security and $6 million

from an MTA action fund, she said.

“You think Big Brother is watch ing you on the subways? You’re ab solutely right,” Hochul said. “ at is our intent. Get the message out: We’re going to have surveillance of activity on subway trains, and that is going to give people great peace of mind.”

to those complaints.

“Today’s announcement is an other example of how we’re not just listening to customer concerns but actually acting on them,” Lieber said. “If you prey on New Yorkers, or commit vandalism or damage MTA facilities, we’re going to have pictures of you, and the NYPD is going to nd you, catch you and pun ish you.”

the data.

Lieber said the program was “the logical extension” of an MTA pro gram that had installed more than 10,000 security cameras across the city’s turnstiles, platforms and train yards in the past year. He empha sized that the MTA had heard com muters’ concerns about subway crime, and the MTA is responding

Like overall city crime rates, transit crime has increased steadily in the two years since March 2020, when the pandemic began. More than 1,600 transit crimes have been reported to the New York Po lice Department in the past year, up 45% from the same period in 2021, according to city police data. Across all subway jurisdictions, 75 arrests were made in July compared with 44 arrests in July 2021, according to

Two violent attacks on subway platforms this year shook the con dence of riders across the ve bor oughs. Michelle Go was pushed to her death in front of an oncoming R train at the 42nd Street subway sta tion in Manhattan in an unpro voked attack in January. A mass shooting in April on an N train pull ing into the 36th Street station in Brooklyn left 19 people injured by gun re. A suspect, Frank James, was arrested.

Subway ridership has gradually returned, however, despite the fears concerning crime. On Sept. 14, dai ly subway ridership surpassed 3.7 million people for the rst time since March 2020. Daily weekday ridership is roughly 60% of what it was before the pandemic began, according to MTA data.

“More riders means fewer crimes,” Hochul said. “It’s starting to feel like the city’s moving again.”

e governor noted that she had worked with Mayor Eric Adams earlier this year to implement a subway safety plan that increased the deployment of police o cers on the city’s subways and plat forms. She also noted that she had signed a state bill in June that made it a felony to assault transit employ ees.

Hochul brushed aside concerns that the use of security cameras on subway cars would infringe on New Yorkers’ civil liberties. e governor reminded reporters that there were security cameras in grocery stores, o ces and airports.

“Security cameras have been a way of life,” she said. “We have to do something dramatic here and sim ply insert that kind of technology, surveillance, into a mode of trans portation, which is critical for the re-emergence in a full, robust way of our economy and this whole region.”

ADAMS

JACLYN GRODIN Counsel ALLISON J. SHERRIER

CRAIN’S: What are the biggest obstacles for middle market private equity rms when it comes to accounting for increased regulatory oversight and compliance mandates?

JACLYN GRODIN AND ALLISON SHERRIER: Overhead costs, associated with ensuring regulatory compliance for private equity rms, always require advisers and compliance of cers to weigh the costs and bene ts of changes to compliance regimes, regardless of the size of the rm. The SEC’s recently enhanced private fund exam and enforcement priorities, however, should lead middle market rms, in particular, to assess their current policies and procedures, in order to identify areas where they can implement more ef cient processes and streamline redundancies. In doing so, rms will be able to pivot more easily if—and when—rule changes come into effect. If rms wait for the implementation of new rules

without considering how those amendments will affect their compliance costs, they will be at a disadvantage.

CRAIN’S: How are private equity funds adapting to growing investor demands for greater transparency from advisers and competition in the area of fees and expenses?

JACLYN GRODIN AND ALLISON SHERRIER: Investor demands are broadening competition in the private equity space, while simultaneously increasing the potential for complaints to regulatory agencies. When funds are more willing to provide investors with detailed analyses of fees and expenses, they can set themselves apart from similarly situated funds and become more attractive investment options, particularly for institutional investors. At the same time, more detailed disclosures increase the potential for inadvertent omissions or incomplete information, thereby opening another avenue for investor discontent. Firms are trying to balance satisfying investors’ increasing interests in the calculation of fees and expenses with the SEC’s proposed rule changes and internal risk assessments—and the results are still unknown.

CRAIN’S: How does the prospect of a recession impact the short- and long-term investment planning for advisers dealing with more de ned investment mandates?

JACLYN GRODIN AND ALLISON SHERRIER: With the uncertain prospect of a recession looming, private equity rms need to be agile and watch for opportunities. In general, private equity rms typically fare better than public markets in a recession. They have the option to hold a long-term investment until the value improves, although some investors may not want to wait for returns and the fund may have exit requirements.

In addition, when traditional lending institutions tend to shy away from risky investments in an economic downturn, private equity funds can take advantage

of the lack of bank funding, in order to invest—on favorable terms—in companies that need a capital infusion in the short-term.

CRAIN’S: In the face of growing competition in the private fund space, how are funds and advisers differentiating themselves to attract increasingly diligent investors, both on the individual and institutional side?

JACLYN GRODIN AND ALLISON SHERRIER: Right now, advisers are trying to nd deals that make sense ahead of a likely recession, while pricing those deals at multiples that re ect the reality of the current, volatile market. That’s not an easy task, and advisers are becoming more creative in identifying value across the post-pandemic economy in sectors they may not

have considered before. Likewise, investors on the institutional and individual sides are leaning into diligence in a more thoughtful and demanding way than before, requiring advisers across the private equity landscape to respond with a greater understanding of the motivation behind the request—and the risk that investors may abandon an investment opportunity if they nd more rm and adviser engagement elsewhere.

CRAIN’S: From the changing economic pressures to increased transparency requirements, what are the greatest challenges private equity rms are currently facing when raising a new fund?

JACLYN GRODIN AND ALLISON SHERRIER: While private equity rms are juggling the changing regulatory regime

and the shifting economy, the biggest challenge remains predicting and navigating the economic uncertainties. The increased transparency requirements will have an increased administrative burden, but most established private equity rms already have robust reporting policies in place. However, in ation and higher interest rates will decrease the projected returns to investors, while simultaneously making it more dif cult to obtain debt nancing. As a result, the major challenge for private equity rms who are raising a new fund is determining which investments will most likely provide steady returns, and making the investment returns worthwhile for investors.

TOP FILM AND TV PRODUCTIONS

Ranked by in

RANKPRODUCTION PRODUCTION COMPANY

2021 TOTAL TAX CREDIT (IN MILLIONS) 1 2021 QUALIFIED COSTS (IN MILLIONS) 2 2021 TOTAL STATE SPENDING (IN MILLIONS) 3 2021 TOTAL HIRES

The IrishmanThe Irishman Film Net ix Villa Roma Productions LLC $35.2 $117.8 $160.5 5,619

FBIFBI TV series

NBCU Universal Telivision LLC 1 $26.4 $88.2 $120.0 6,418

The MarThe Marvelous Ms. Maiselvelous TV series Amazon Picrow Streaming Inc. 3 $24.5 $81.8 $107.9 6,090

The TThe Tonight Shoonight Show Starw Starring Jimmy Fring Fallonallon TV series NBCU Universal Telivision LLC 3 and 4 $24.2 $80.9 $180.9 5,072

BlacklistBlacklist TV series Woodbridge Prodns 6 $22.1 $74.0 $104.1 5,675

Escape at DannemoraEscape TV series Showtime Possible Productions Inc. $21.5 $67.8 $85.2 2,840

The DeuceThe Deuce TV series HBO Penny Lane Productions LLC 3 $21.4 $71.3 $94.3 7,899

Blue BloodsBlue Bloods TV series Eye Productions Inc. 9 $21.0 $70.3 $110.0 5,773

BillionsBillions TV series Possible Productions Inc. $20.6 $68.5 $96.0 6,017

America's Got TAmerica's Talentalent TV series Marathon Productions Inc. 9 and 10 $19.9 $66.4 $92.4 1,849

SuccessionSuccession TV series HBO Sourdough Productions 2 $18.9 $62.4 $75.4 4,939 $18.6 $62.2 $101.7 2,624 $18.6 $62.1 $71.8 4,888 $18.4 $61.6 $84.2 5,086 $18.3 $61.1 $77.5 $58.1 $77.1 $98.6

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

ARCHITECTURE

Mancini Duffy

Daniel Castner, AIA, LEED AP, has been named Director of Life Sciences at Mancini Duffy, a national design rm with a 100+-year-old history and tech-forward approach headquartered in NYC. Castner will drive the rm’s expansion by building Mancini’s life sciences sector into a ourishing practice. Castner joins Mancini after 22 years at BAM Creative’s Science + Technology practice.

ENGINEERING

Syska Hennessy

Syska Hennessy Group, the international engineering rm, has promoted associate principal Anthony Jamsek to director of information systems. In his new role he oversees all software platforms, including ERP technologies, used by the rm. He also leads the project management oversight team, which assists with internal oversight and management of client projects. Jamsek, who is based in New York City, has worked at Syska for more than 25 years.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

ConnectOne Bank

ConnectOne Bank has launched a dedicated Healthcare Commercial Banking Division, spearheaded by industry veteran James Vincenti, joined by SVP Relationship Managers, Betsy Shelley, Matt Girty and Robert Albano. The team brings a collective experience in commercial lending and advising speci c to the healthcare sector and works to provide custom-tailored solutions to borrowers with operations in multiple states. In addition to Bridge-to-HUD mortgages, CAPEX & equipment term loans, a variety of depository and professional loan services will be offered, focusing on senior care providers, behavioral health/ substance abuse facilities, health systems, ambulatory surgery centers, urgent cares, medical, dental, and veterinary practices.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

KeyBank

KeyBank Real Estate Capital hired Steven Stowers as Sr. Banker serving its Metro NY and Philadelphia markets. With 20 years of CRE nance experience, he joins Key from Kearny Bank, where he did construction and CRE lending in NYC and Philadelphia metro markets. Previously, he was in the CMBS Group at Morningstar Credit Ratings. He began his banking career at Bank of America, with stints at Valley National Bank and M&T Bank. Steve has a BA from Hunter College and an MBA from New York University.

FINANCIAL / TECHNOLOGY

nate

Leon Ho has joined uni ed shopping wallet nate as Vice President of Product. He will lead nate’s Product team to strengthen and expand the nate service to customers, delivering on the company’s vision to enable customers to discover and shop conveniently and securely anywhere. As the single-threaded leader for the product, he will collaborate closely with all teams to ensure there is a coherent strategy and coordinated execution to improve the experience, ef ciency and economics of the product.

Valerie Stevens has been named managing partner of Hodgson Russ LLP’s New York City of ce. She is an experienced corporate transactions attorney and will continue to advise clients on national and international middle market acquisition, divestiture, and joint venture transactions, as well as trade regulation and commercial matters. Valerie will lead the NYC of ce and continue the rm’s commitment to exceptional client service and growth.

LAW

Hodgson Russ LLP

RECOGNIZE

WHAT’S NEXT FOR NYC TRANSPORTATION

Crain’s is bringing together leaders in transportation to go inside what’s next for getting around in NYC. In this conversation we’ll talk to policymakers and transportation experts about the future of planes, trains, automobiles, as well as innovation in public transportation. CrainsNewYork.com/OctoberForum

RICK

RUTH

Businesses don’t need a Manhattan address anymore

Some professionals have decided to ditch the commute and practice where they live

BY AARON ELSTEIN

Turns out, clients really don’t need to meet their therapist at a central business location.

“Until the pandemic, I didn’t imagine doing it any other way,” said Meredith Carlisle, a licensed clinical social worker who saw clients in her Lexington Avenue o ce until meetings were forced onto Zoom.

Carlisle kept her Midtown o ce at a reduced rent until the end of 2020. Even after giving it up, the Westchester County resident gured her practice would eventually return to Manhattan.

But gradually she realized the new arrangement was better for her clientele of postpartum mothers, who suddenly didn’t have to squeeze in appointments around their baby’s unpredictable nap times. Carlisle could o er more exible meeting schedules because the train ride into Manhattan no longer swallowed an hour of her time.

Even after two years, she still hasn’t committed to working in the suburbs exclusively. Returning really hinges on whether clients want to meet in person in Manhattan again. ree months ago she thought she would be back in Midtown by the fall, but there’s been no urgent reason to do so.

“It’s concrete slowly drying,” she said.

Midtown’s streets are the fullest they’ve been since the pandemic struck. O ces are back to nearly 50% capacity, as banks and big employers nudge back sometimes reluctant workers. But it’s also clear that many small-business owners will continue running their shops from the outer boroughs or suburbs where they and their clients live.

Between 2019 and 2021, Manhattan lost more than 5,000 “private establishments,” according to data from the city comptroller’s o ce. A private establishment could be anything from a small business to a household that employs cooks or cleaners, and the latter account for 60% of the decline in Manhattan, according to the comptroller’s data. Brooklyn establishments increased by 7%, the Bronx by 5%, and Queens and Staten Island by 4% each, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

“Pandemic-driven reductions to private household establishments may be a consequence of changing patterns of work and schooling,” the comptroller’s report said.

Barbara Denham, senior economist at Oxford Economics, said the private-establishment gains in Brooklyn could re ect the growth in gig workers, such as food-delivery drivers. at’s because establishment growth far exceeds employment growth.

Still, there’s no question that some businesses don’t need a Manhattan address anymore.

Chiropractor Louis Ottino relocated his practice from an o ce near Grand Central Terminal to Mount Kisco. He was living in a 550-square-foot apartment on the Upper East Side, and it was time to upgrade after his wife gave birth to their son.

“ e commute time and money is enough to make me stay in Mount Kisco for the foreseeable future,” he said.

Carlisle hasn’t written o a return to Manhattan, if that’s where clients want to see her. Should that happen, she’ll look for a location that’s easily reachable for clients across the city.

“I’m thinking maybe Union Square,” she said. ■

IT’S AMAZING to watch the evolution of a story. This installment of our monthly Crain’s Forum started with a bit of data: a count of businesses in the ve boroughs that showed Manhattan had a net loss in recent months, while counts rose in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens and on Staten Island.

Senior reporter Cara Eisenpress took the data and brought it to life. In her interviews with entrepreneurs and neighbors, she found the in uences that were pushing commercial activity out from the city center to enliven neighborhood hubs. She chose four areas to focus on: Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn; Tompkins and Lewis avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn; Morris Park Avenue in the Bronx; and the square blocks around Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, Queens.

The pandemic accelerated a trend of commercial growth in the outer boroughs that has been building for 25 years. As one person put it, “You can eat, be entertained and shop. From Covid, we learned you can nd everything on your own block.”

At the same time, senior reporter Aaron Elstein spoke with professionals who discovered they no longer need to hang a shingle in Midtown.

Please share your thoughts at CrainsNewYork.com/forum.

— Anne Michaud, Assistant Managing Editor

INSIDE

JESSICA WALKER

KEVIN D. KIM

The city is updating its processes to better serve small business

BUCK ENNIS

“UNTIL THE PANDEMIC, I DIDN’T IMAGINE DOING IT ANY OTHER WAY”

CARLISLE traded in her of ce on Lexington Avenue in Midtown for a virtual therapy practice in Irvington.

outer boroughs” that are drawing new business creation, he said. “Covid has re vealed that people have discovered that it’s OK to build these new business hubs out side of Manhattan.”

e number of private establishments— excluding household employers—rose in all boroughs outside Manhattan in the two Covid-era years between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the same period in 2021. (Household employment dropped a great deal in this period, according to a similar

diately by small businesses eager to serve an out-and-about neighborhood that’s like a city in its own right.

Embedded in the highly localized minibooms—which continue a pre-2020 trend—lies a question bigger than the suc cess of any one small business or the va cancy rate in any particular corridor: How should the city’s commercial infrastructure serve its residents, workers and visitors as its recovery progresses and its leaders set a course for growth?

Of course, beneath the enthusiasm of re covery and hidden in the net gains are thousands of business closures. Although these four districts are models in many ways, some Manhattan neighbor hoods are doing well, and many out er-borough areas are not seeing an increase in business formation or ex pansion.

analysis by the New York City comptroller, so excluding categories such as caretakers and home cleaners paints a clearer picture of where business growth is occurring in retail, hospitality, professional services and the arts.) ough establishments in Man hattan shrank by just a tiny fraction of a percent during that period, in Brooklyn the number of businesses increased by 7%. In the Bronx, it was 5%, and both Queens and Staten Island saw increases of nearly 4%.

e changes elongate a 25-year trend in which Manhattan’s share of city establish ments has shrunk every year.

To see how this shift has played out city wide, Crain’s looked at four outer-borough districts that exemplify the move of entre preneurial energy from Manhattan out, al though they are quite di erent from one another:

● Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where a well-heeled bunch of residents opened their wallets for favorite restau rants and activities;

● Tompkins and Lewis avenues in Bed ford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where the pio neering Open Streets program beckoned visitors, who in turn supported businesses that drew out more locals;

● Morris Park Avenue in the Bronx, whose inclusion of the Monte ore Medical Center makes it an employment center in the borough that can sustain a bona- de “main street”;

● e square blocks around Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, Queens, where vacant storefronts get rented imme

“Areas of east and southeast Brook lyn continue to struggle mightily,” said Randy Peers, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “ ese areas were hurting before the pandemic, and things have not gotten better.”

Local spending

In Flushing, sidewalks on the blocks sur rounding the 7 train stop at Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue are packed, as residents and regional visitors get back to the shop ping, dining and personal care routines that have allowed hordes of new business es to reopen on the heels of a wave of Covid-related closures.

“I was impressed by how fast we bounced back as a community,” said Dian Yu, executive director of the Downtown Flushing Transit Hub Business Improvement District. e resurgence is due to regional visitors and the everyday routines that bring families out to spend on dim sum, groceries for the week and various beau ty treatments, he said. Since Covid, nearly a half-dozen new bubble tea spots have joined several already in the neighborhood. ere, the neighborhood’s young peo ple now sip drinks and so cialize. In addition, steady real estate deals keep an array of lawyers’ and accountants’ storefront o ces in business.

at locals are staying put near their homes is clear in the numbers. Subway rid

ership has yet to recover beyond 70% of its pre-2020 level. Foot tra c on main drags such as Times Square, or even relative comeback leaders like the Flatiron-NoMad neighborhood, is only about 80% as busy as before. About half of o ce workers are at their desks in Manhattan on any given day, according to the latest Partnership for New York City survey.

By contrast, Downtown Brooklyn has seen a steady rise in the number of compa nies in the area in the past decade, with more midsize design and professional rms signing leases by the month. at means that even for those Brooklyn profes sionals who are back to work, commutes may be shorter, and time spent near home is still copious.

Fifth Avenue in Park Slope is quieter than it is in Flushing, but still, the steady stream of families making their way up and down has led to a successful rst year on the strip for Rolando Balboa’s Brooklyn Fencing Center.

“I don’t have to do advertising,” he said. “People are just coming.”

So many people walk by that the store it self serves as the only outreach he needs, he said, and he has enough momentum that he is planning to expand to Downtown Brooklyn. Balboa had been in operation for more than a decade in other parts of Brook

lyn, but his arrival on Fifth Avenue in May 2021 was part of a surge in openings in the area that brought the retail vacancy rate down from 15% to 4%. at surge included at least one company that crossed the East River from Chelsea: Midoriya, a Japanese grocery store. e in ux to Fifth Avenue re verses a slight depression of the late 2010s, when some local retailers were struggling to make ends meet because of the growing popularity of e-commerce.

All told, the Fifth Avenue BID counts 55 lost businesses between March 2020 and early September of this year, said Tallantire, the executive director. But there have been 86 openings, and an additional seven busi nesses are under construction. About half of the new spots are not eateries, Tallantire said, including services and activities such as fencing, chess and science, re ecting a larger shift. Manhattan had a net decline of 244 private establishments in the arts, en tertainment and recreation sector; Brook lyn gained 57, according to the city comp troller.

Eateries had a high turnover before Covid-19, but only Manhattan lost net pri vate establishments in the accommodation and food services sector, the comptroller’s data showed.

Twenty blocks north and slightly east of the Fifth Avenue boom, restaurants are re

viving the empty juncture of Sixth, Flatbush and St. Marks avenues. at’s where the pandemic-era fried chicken pop-up Pecking House opened its rst brick-and-mortar shop in early September. Pecking House came out of co-founder Eric Huang’s e ort to help a family-owned Chinese restaurant in Queens stay in business. e Eleven Madison Park–trained chef began o ering fried chicken with sides made with Southern American and Taiwanese avors for delivery in the spring of 2020. Quickly, orders piled in, and a 10,000-person waiting list amassed. Because Huang and co-founder Maya Ferrante were doing all their own sales and delivery, they ended up with access to prize location data.

“We were able to see that we were doing the majority of our delivery in Brooklyn— Prospect Heights, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Heights—and it just made sense to us,” Ferrante said. e restaurant no longer delivers. It didn’t hurt that they live within walking distance of the space, the co-founders said, or that a build-out would be much less expensive in Brooklyn than in Manhattan.

On Sept. 9 the co-founders peeled back the paper that had covered the large windows since the previous restaurant shuttered in 2019. Service begins at 5 p.m. On each of the rst four days they were open,

lines began forming around 4:30 p.m., they said. ey found that settling into the neighborhood and helping drive its comeback gave them renewed focus and energy.

“ e food is the best it’s ever been,” Huang said.

Sustained support

In April 2020 the Tompkins Avenue Merchant Association launched its Open Streets program. Restaurants, clothing stores and co ee shops on the commercial strip gathered with entertainers and residents for what became a block party that attracted New Yorkers from around the ve boroughs. Close to 2,500 participants come on a given Open Streets day, said Blondel Pinnock, president and CEO of Bed-Stuy Restoration Plaza, which fosters economic development in the area.

e strip, which includes more than two dozen small businesses, is one of several that are thriving in Bed-Stuy, where vacancy rates have dropped by as much as 10% in certain commercial corridors, said Oma Holloway, chief operating o cer of the Bridge Street Development Corp. in BedStuy.

On Tompkins Avenue alone in recent months, the bar Oddly Enough quickly took over the space of restaurant Eugene & Co. when it closed; longtime restaurateur

Myriam Nicolas expanded her café Brooklyn Brown Butter to a second location, where she sells ice cream; and Greedi Vegan began selling meat-free comfort food. At the southern end of the corridor, by Fulton, supermarket Met Fresh opened over the summer. Another standby, Peaches Hothouse, had enough momentum on Tompkins to open a second location in Downtown Brooklyn. Around Bed-Stuy, the list of entertainment and arts venues includes the Billie Holiday eatre and recently opened arts space the Laundromat Project.

“What I am seeing is that community-based organizations are doing partnerships and collaborations to enhance the business corridors,” Pinnock said. e city added two new o cial business improvement districts earlier this year,

bringing the total to 75. But that doesn’t count the uno cial merchants organizations that have worked hand in hand with businesses in the past two years to help them build a social media presence, pilot city programs such as e-scooter rentals or apply for state and federal relief funds. Nearly all the brick-and-mortar businesses in the Bronx that come to the Lehman College Small Business Development Center have questions about how to bolster their e-commerce, with the goal of keeping revenue high enough to a ord rent, interim director Jackeline Rosero said.

Other e orts are on the surface.

In Morris Park, Camelia Tepelus, executive director of the Morris Park Business

PHOTOS: BUCK ENNIS

BUSY DAYS: Lively commercial areas in Park Slope (opposite page and this page, near left and bottom right), Bed-Stuy (above), Morris Park (top right) and Flushing (middle right)

Improvement District, is cleaning 126 tree pits and installing more than 50 plantings.

“ is is Park Avenue level,” she said. “I’m trying to infuse a new vibe.”

More is more

On a recent weekend, Bridge Street Development Corp.’s Holloway was trying to gure out what to do after dinner at a Haitian restaurant in Bed-Stuy, when she and her friends remembered that erapy Wine Bar on Malcolm X Boulevard stays open late for desserts, cocktails and co ee. ey strolled there through the neighborhood.

“You start seeing that it’s like how you would feel in Manhattan or Downtown Brooklyn,” Holloway said. “You can eat, be entertained and shop. From Covid, we learned you can nd everything on your own block.”

Near to Pecking House in Park Slope, business presence seems to have a cyclical e ect, with at least four more eateries that will open or reopen in the coming months.

“It’s been a little dead,” Ferrante said. “We’re excited to be part of it coming back.”

Likewise, Morris Park Avenue’s population has continued to patronize services close to home, even once residents went back to work in person.

“On the weekends there used to be low foot tra c,” Tepelus said. Now people stick around.

Back in Bed-Stuy, the boost from the Open Streets program and other investments in marketing have increased the diversity of o erings in the neighborhood, turning Tompkins Avenue and other BedStuy strips from spots to check out occasionally to vibrant ecosystems for both residents and visitors, in a way that goes beyond economics.

One new Bed-Stuy storefront is e

Laundromat Project, an arts organization that had operated in the neighborhood for years before signing a lease in 2020 and opening its doors this past summer. Rather than a shop or a restaurant, this is a community place.

“We’re thinking of it as a space that can hold joy, gathering and togetherness,” said Ayesha Williams, its executive director. Locals packed into its open house for a project that highlighted bodega owners and food from nearby eateries, including Brooklyn Tea. “Folks were here,” said Williams, who described how an ecosystem of business owners and community members supported each other, in the process building up the viability of the community.

Matthew Clarke, executive director of

Design Trust for Public Space, which works to improve public areas in the city, said: “ e driver for the commercial corridors isn’t just to purchase goods. It’s an experiential quality, to have a sense of culture and connection to neighborhoods.”

Although Labor Day this year seemed to be, at last, a mark in the city’s push for a return to the o ce, Tompkins Avenue restaurants and cafés continued to be well-populated around lunchtime on a Tuesday, with groups gathered for lunch and individuals with laptops seeking Wi-Fi and companionship.

In an analysis by the city comptroller, an increase in back-to-work does not appear to jeopardize retail and recreation activity outside Manhattan. For every 1 percentage

THE CITY IS WORKING ON UPDATING ITS PROCESSES TO PUT SMALL BUSINESS FIRST

ON MARCH 10 Mayor Eric Adams set forth a bold new vision for the city’s economic recovery. Six months later the city’s small-business ecosystem is evolving with lightning speed. New shops and restaurants emerge every day in the place of vacant spaces, tourists are returning at prepandemic levels, and nightlife is popping.

This is not an accident. The city, with unprecedented interagency coordination, is mobilizing to forge a full and inclusive economic recovery centered on the growth of our small businesses. For example, the city already identi ed 118 regulations to reform that unduly burden small businesses. This effort alone will put millions of dollars back into the hands of small businesses each year. And that’s just the start.

At the city Department of Small Business Services, we launched the NYC Business Express Services Team— a program that provides small-business owners with one-on-one assistance with navigating the web of city regulatory agencies that are similarly updating their processes to put small businesses rst.

We know that strengthening our commercial corridors is an important tool to speed up economic recovery. At the department, we have made critical investments to revitalize neighborhoods hit hardest by the pandemic by awarding for the rst time $800,000 in grants to bolster the formation of new business improvement districts. These grants will help beautify and enhance the quality of life in these areas for years to come.

In addition, we are using every tool in the box to put equity front and center by advocating for minority- and women-owned business enterprises. We pushed the state Legislature to pass a groundbreaking bill to make it easier for city agencies to work with MWBEs.

This year the city will reach an unprecedented level of government contract awards to MWBEs, effectively building the most inclusive economy in this country.

point increase in e ective o ce occupancy in the New York metropolitan area, there is a related 0.42 percentage point increase in visits to workplaces and a 0.28 percentage point increase in visits to retail and recreation establishments. Even in outer parts of the metropolitan area, such as the suburbs, that same increase in o ce occupancy only diminishes activity by about 0.1 of a percentage point.

at people will still be out and about in their neighborhood whenever they can squares with Clarke’s view that the outer-borough commercial strips can hang onto their hard-won vitality, bringing both convenience and connection to residents.

“People are hungry for this when work is atomized,” he said. ■

To further ensure that we are responding to the real-time needs of the small-business community, we will soon announce the members of our newly formed Small Business Advisory Commission, a diverse group of small-business owners and community-based organizations that will advise the mayor on matters affecting small-business owners now and in the future.

The city is well equipped to recover faster and stronger from a pandemic, thanks to these initiatives. The mayor continues to prioritize public safety, and we are seeing real signs of emergence as retail spending reaches 91% of preCovid levels.

We can all do our part to bring the city back by supporting the small businesses in our midst that make our coffee, dry-clean our clothes and in ate the balloons when we celebrate good times.

New Yorkers are scrappy, industrious and innovative—but above all else, we are the most resilient people on the planet. ■

Kevin D. Kim is commissioner of the city Department of Small Business Services.

KEVIN D. KIM

BUCK ENNIS

THE CUBICLE-TO-CAFÉ trend is not new, but the pandemicaccelerated it and pushed it into the outer boroughs, as here at Velvette Brew in Park Slope.

BUCK ENNIS

SIGNIFICANT TRANSFORMATIONS are happening throughout New York in the wake of the pandemic. One key shift: The four boroughs outside Manhattan are leading the city’s job and business growth.

Economically, Manhattan was hardest hit among the ve boroughs during the pandemic. The borough experienced the greatest number of job losses and business closures, particularly in the central business district below 60th Street. Many reasons account for this: The vast majority of the city’s businesses and jobs are in Manhattan, particularly the “face-to-face” industries most disrupted by the pandemic; the cost of doing business is higher in Manhattan than in the other boroughs; and the loss of tourists and of ce workers was concentrated in Manhattan.

But we must delve deeper into what is happening to accelerate a broad-based economic recovery throughout the city. Indeed, this is crucial because New York is not expected to regain all the jobs it lost during the pandemic until 2026. Further, many small businesses took on substantial levels of debt to survive, and many continue to be at risk of closure.

So here are ve observations.

First, no matter the borough, commercial corridors with business improvement districts and strong merchant associations seem to have fared better. Those businesses received support and technical assistance throughout the pandemic. Similarly, businesses were helped through strategic outreach from the Small Business Resource Network, a public-private initiative with the ve boroughwide chambers of commerce (including ours). These programs are extremely effective and should be supported.

Second, we must not fall prey to false narratives that pit Manhattan against the other boroughs. The competition is not among the ve boroughs; it is New York versus other cities and even other nations. The move to remote work means our entire region must be more competitive to attract and retain workers, businesses and jobs. We have to ght to be the place where they want to be.

The “15-minute city” in which people increasingly live nearer to their workplace—which would mean more jobs spread throughout all ve boroughs—is good for the city overall because it is raising the quality of life and making this a more livable city.

Third, although the boroughs should not be in competition with one another,

we must acknowledge that Manhattan has a unique role in the city’s success and cannot be neglected. Manhattan remains the city’s economic center and its major cultural identi er to the outside world. We have an exciting opportunity to rethink the borough (particularly Midtown) and maximize its potential to help the entire city ourish.

Fourth, some good news is the growth of entrepreneurship. These are the businesses of tomorrow that must be supported so they can grow locally and ll commercial vacancies.

Finally, politics matter. We are lucky to have a mayor who gets it. Eric Adams has created a smart blueprint for economic growth, including a blue-ribbon commission to plan for the city’s future and several task forces focused on commercial corridor recovery that are making improvements in all ve boroughs. As Adams likes to say, he is “getting stuff done.” But we need other elected of cials to understand the precarious situation we are in—or risk undermining his efforts.

Any new laws that add undue costs or burdens to fragile businesses—or hamstring any industry, such as tech, that is growing rapidly in the city—could further delay New York’s overall economic recovery. That is why the City Council needs a formal process to evaluate the economic impacts of potential policies. Together, united among the ve boroughs, our city will prosper. ■

Jessica Walker is CEO of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.

JESSICA WALKER

BUCK ENNIS

MIDTOWN during the height of the pandemic

Jumaane Williams is trying to shake things up for New Yorkers

INTERVIEW BY BRIAN PASCUS

As public advocate since 2019, Jumaane Williams has been a leading progressive voice in city government.

This year he attempted to take his message statewide and challenged Gov. Kathy Hochul during the Democratic primary in June. Williams fell short, garnering only 20% of the vote. When campaigning, he called for higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations, greater police account ability and signi cantly more spending on affordable housing and rent protections. (He campaigned under dif cult personal circumstances: His daughter was born prematurely in February as his wife battled cervical cancer.) Williams could have been the rst elected Black governor in New York’s history had he made it past the primary.

The 46-year-old sat down with Crain’s to talk about campaigning, his personal values and his role in city government.

What did the gubernatorial campaign teach you about power in New York?

It didn’t really teach me anything. It’s stuff I’ve learned throughout my political journey. The two lessons that always get reinforced are how hard it is to do the right thing in this political sphere and how little [incentive] people need to not do the thing that they believe is right.

Those two things are always remarkable to me and remain consistent since I became elected.

Do you have any regrets from the campaign?

Takeaway for business professionals

The city’s public advocate is rst in line to succeed the mayor. Williams can introduce legislation like any City Council member. He has pushed a progressive agenda committed to affordable housing, government transparency and police reform.

No. I have a beautiful, healthy baby girl, and my wife is cancer-free. So, like I said on election night, I already won. The only thing is, I wasn’t able to campaign with the freedom I normally do—which can offset not being able to raise as much money. But I’m grateful for what God has done. I have a healthy family, and that’s very important. We got silver.

How did you start out in politics and gain power in New York City?

Well, I’m a community organizer by training. I started out in the nonpro t world, organizing world, and then decided that I wanted to run for of ce. I ran for school board. I got spanked and nished 12th out of 13. A few years later I ran for City Council against an incumbent and was told I wouldn’t make it, with six other folks in the race. But folks received the message, and I got elected. And I’ve been trying to really shake things up and [change] how things work for New Yorkers ever since then.

What actions are you focused on taking in the coming months?

We have some legislative packages we’re trying to push through now. One is on Black maternal health, and the other deals with [protections for] transgender New Yorkers. We just put forth the Homeless Bill of Rights. It doesn’t create any new laws; it takes existing laws and protections and puts them into one place. People sometimes don’t know what their protections are, and as we try to solve and deal with the homeless crisis, it seems some of the things we should be doing last we’re doing rst.

Where do you see inaction that frus trates you on a city and state level?

On a state level, what’s frustrating is it

seems like most decisions so far have been about how to win an election. And I see a through line of who is donating the most money where and the decisions that are being made. There’s a refusal to even

for instance, while we seem to want to increase funding for the Department of Correction and the NYPD, we may be cutting the Department of Education and the Department of Social Services.

ASHLEY HOLT

DOSSIER

EMPLOYEES 50

ON HIS RÉSUMÉ City Council member, District 45 (2010–2019)

BORN Manhattan (but he grew up in the Starrett City development in south eastern Brooklyn)

RESIDES Bay Ridge, Brooklyn

EDUCATION Bachelor’s in political science and master’s in urban policy, Brooklyn College

BREAKING THE MOLD Williams is outspo ken about living with Tourette syn drome and ADHD. He uses acting to nd his comfort zone, and he says his tics disappear when he’s onstage.

by how cheaply people [are diverted from] doing the right thing. They might not do it for a title or extra member item or a promise of something. That’s been tough to watch.

Who is your mentor?

I don’t know if I have any mentors, but I have folks who in uenced me along the way. My mom has been a huge in uence in my life. She raised two knucklehead children by herself. My dad gave me a good sense of balance, and that’s been helpful. My heroes when I was younger were Spider-Man, the X-Men, Malcolm X. And my life could’ve taken a huge turn if it wasn’t for my fth-grade teacher, Ms. Jeannie Nedd. She would’ve held my Bible at my inauguration.

Was there an alternative path you considered?

My rst love was acting. I still participate in an organization called Theater of War. My therapist told me to make sure I don’t let that piece of me go. When I’m acting, all my tics go away. I have Tourette syndrome and ADHD. It’s a very Zen place for me.

How do you persuade someone to your point of view?

look into revenue-raising from people who made a whole lot of money, while [many] New Yorkers have trouble paying for rent and for medicine. It’s tough to watch in real time.

On the city level, I’m hoping to see soon some of the nonpolice response to public safety that needs to be better funded and structured. Of course, our police partners have a role to play. But,

How do you de ne power?

I guess it’s the ability to move policies and people, or in uence policies and people, directly or indirectly.

Why do you think capable people in your line of work lose power?

The toughest lessons, for me, have been to see how hard it is to do the right thing, and I think sometimes people get jaded

Someone once told me, “You never know anyone’s journey.” I try to respect people’s journey and how they got to their position, and I try to gure out what they are saying: What are they afraid of? What do they love? What are their concerns in life? I just really try to come at it as understanding where someone is coming from, so I can share my point of view while accepting the emotion someone may have, because that’s real too. ■

“I TRY TO RESPECT PEOPLE’S JOURNEY.

WHAT ARE THEY AFRAID OF? WHAT DO THEY LOVE?”

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Notice of Qualification of RELATED SOUTHTOWN ASSOCIATES IV LLC

Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/18/22.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/14/22. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd St., NY, NY 10001. 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: 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., Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of SPORTS CONTENT CREATION

LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/20/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/08/22. Princ. office of LLC: 500 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91521. 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, DE Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Holding company.

Notice of Formation of PERRY STREET 6 LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/22/21.

Notice of Qualification of BEDFORD BRIDGE LLC

Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/26/22.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/22/22. Princ. office of LLC: c/o Bridge Funding Inc., 641 Lexington Ave., 20th Fl., NY, NY 10022.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808-1674. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of JPSF Ventures LLC.

Notice of Formation of Construction Bae LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 06/28/2022. Office: Brooklyn County. United States Corporation Agents, Inc. designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to United States Corporation Agents, Inc. at 7014 13TH Avenue, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. The principal address of the LLC is 557 Grand Concourse, Suite 6046, Bronx, NY 10451.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

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, 347 5th Ave., Ste. 300, NY, NY 10016.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 8/2/22. Office location: New York County. NY Sec. of State designated agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served, and shall mail process to The LLC, c/o The Clark Estates Inc, One Rockefeller Plaza, 31st Fl, New York, NY 10020.

Purpose: any lawful activity

POSITIONS AVAILABLE

Zebra Tech Corp has opening in Holtsville, NY for Engr: Dsigns, dvlps, & tsts. MS or BS+2 yrs exp rq. Telecomm permi. When not telecomm must report to worksite. To apply email resume to jobs@zebra.com ref job #2295557

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES

Formation of EP Pilates LLC filed with SSNY on 07/13/22.

Office: NY County. Business address: 245 E 93rd St. #14F, NY, NY 10128. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC to registered agent: United States Corporation Agents, Inc. at 7014 13th Ave. Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY, 11228.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of PERRY STREET 5 LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/22/21.

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, 347 5th Ave., Ste. 300, NY, NY 10016.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of PERRY STREET 7 LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/22/21.

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, 347 5th Ave., Ste. 300, NY, NY 10016.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

August of this year was higher than the national average of 4.4%. ( e city still trails its pre-Covid employment by more than 150,000 jobs.)

“It’s clear that we’re trending in a direction—back to school, back to work. People are refocusing their attention and nding ways to get back into the o ce space,” Adams said. “Wherever you have a major o ce building … it feeds the economy in that area. When o ce employees are home, those local businesses are impacted.”

e mayor noted that one of the critical components of sustaining the economic recovery and continuing the return-to-o ce trend will be reinventing the traditional business district through new zoning rules and mixed-use development.

“We have to make our o ces an experience. e days of everyone sitting in a row of desks and saying, ‘Gotta make the doughnuts,’ those days are over,” said Adams, who recalled a recent visit to a refurbished o ce space at a tech company’s home in Manhattan. “It felt like you were in your apartment. It was a very open and relaxed atmosphere,” he added.

To this end, the mayor highlighted his economic development panel led by Dan Doctoro and Richard Buery, both former deputy mayors, who have been charged with envisioning what a post-Covid business district should look like.

Adams said “it’s clearly the outer boroughs” that are drawing new business creation, and the administration has increased funding for business improvement districts.

“Covid has revealed that people have discovered that it’s OK to build

POLITICS

these new business hubs outside of Manhattan,” he said.

Other takeaways

● e mayor said concerns about subway crime and low ridership are more of a perception issue than anything else. He noted that the system carries 3.5 million riders per day, and crime is very low (an average of just six crimes reported per day, a mayoral spokesman clari ed after the event wrapped).

● Adams said metrics showing the city’s cleanliness are among the data points (other than crime stats) he monitors on a daily basis. e number and type of complaints on 311 calls and the response are primarily how he gauges progress.

● e mayor noted he chose to end the private-sector vaccine mandate early last week (it’s set to sunset Nov. 1) only after a lot of deliberation and once he felt the science told him it was safe. He said that he refused to be rushed.

● Adams plugged the city’s campaign to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention. He noted that he spoke with President Joe Biden about it last Tuesday.

“I whispered in the president’s ear yesterday and said, ‘Wouldn’t you like to be here in New York?’ He just looked at me,” Adams said to laughter.

● Adams bemoaned the fact that the state holds so much control over the Metropolitan Transporta-

Council report nds gender, racial pay gaps persist in city workforce

BY BRIAN PASCUS

The City Council last ursday released its annual pay equity report, which revealed stark pay gaps between genders and races in the municipal workforce. e data concluded that nonwhite sta and female employees typically have the lowest median salaries in the city’s workforce.

e City Council’s 2022 pay equity report uses data largely culled from the 2019 city workforce. is data revealed that female municipal workers on average earn 73 cents for every dollar that a male employee makes, Black city workers on average take home 71 cents for every dollar that white employees make, and Latino city workers and Asian city workers on average earn 75 cents and 85 cents, respectively, for each dollar that white employees make.

e gaps are more pronounced when comparing Black and Latino women who are municipal employees to their white male colleagues: 69 cents per dollar is the di erence.

For Asian women city workers, the di erence is 82 cents per dollar compared to their white male colleagues’ pay.

“We have long been aware that, even within our municipal workforce, pay disparity exists along racial and gender lines,” Speaker Adrienne Adams said . “ ese pay inequities especially a ect Black, Latina and Asian women.”

e city’s workforce is made up of 337,294 people, according to Citizens Budget Commission data for the scal year that began in July 2021. In 2019 nearly 60% of the workforce were women, and more than half were Black and brown women, according to the report.

Last year the council’s pay equity report concluded that civil service titles “are often segregated along racial lines.”

It appears the city’s gender pay gap is not much di erent than that of the nancial services sector.

e 2021 data from JPMorgan’s United Kingdom o ce found that women, on average, make 30.9% less than men in hourly pay. A 2021

report from Citibank’s London branch concluded that the hourly pay gap between men and women is 28.8%.

e banks are not required to disclose the data in the U.S.

Action plan

Adams made it clear that the council plans to address these pay-equity gaps in the future.

“As the most diverse and rst women-majority council, we will not rest until all New York City workers are valued equally with job salaries and opportunities for their contributions to our city regardless of gender or race,” she said.

e council’s committees on civil service and labor and human rights are slated to hold a joint hearing on legislation introduced by Councilwoman Farah N. Louis of Brooklyn that would amend the existing Pay Equity Law of 2019 by requiring the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to provide new data regarding city employment metrics.

e bill would give the council greater transparency over year-

tion Authority’s congestion pricing plan for Manhattan. Adams, who has previously expressed support for congestion pricing, said he wants thoughtful exemptions to the new tolling that ensure fairness for outer-borough drivers.

● e mayor declined to pick a favorite among likely sites for a casino in the city, including Coney Island, Willets Point, Hudson Yards and Times Square. He said the city has “very little input. New York State just wants to control New York City too often.” (An advisory committee will include mayoral and council appointees.)

● Adams said the biggest mistake that former Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo

made during the pandemic was not coming together and showing the city a united front.

“Bill and Andrew should’ve sat down and said, ‘No matter how we feel about each other, we’re the generals,’ ” Adams said. “When I ran into that building or in that subway station, chasing someone with a gun, I’m not arguing with my partner while we’re doing that. We can argue later.”

Adams said his own partnership with Gov. Kathy Hochul stands in contrast; he thanked her for aligning with him on several policies: mayoral control of schools, the earned-income tax credit increase, child care, the New York City Housing Authority land trust and some “tweaks” in criminal-justice reform.

● Adams said he’s open to the relocation of Madison Square Garden as part of a massive redevelopment of Penn Station. “I think the area is ripe for housing and real investment,” he said. “Maybe that will help the Knicks win.”

● e mayor dodged the question of whether he would seek the 2024 Democratic nomination if Biden does not. “Yes, I’m always running to be the mayor of New York, is that the nomination you’re talking about?” Adams asked with a smile. “Listen, you could run the country from New York.” ■

round pay and employment data to improve oversight.

e bill was introduced in June and has four co-sponsors.

e pay equity report follows the council’s introduction last Monday of a package of bills to improve diversity, equity and inclusion practices at the city Fire Department.

e council’s committee on re and emergency management found in a report this month that currently 76% of the department’s re ghters are white, 8% are Black, 13% are

Hispanic, and 2% are Asian. Less than 1% of the department’s workforce are women, out of a force of nearly 11,000.

“True equity in our city’s agencies extends further than the diversity and representation of its sta and leadership,” said Councilman Kevin C. Riley of the Bronx. “We build trust and strengthen relationships when the entire New York City community can see themselves in those who serve and protect them daily.” ■

BUCK ENNIS

“IT’S OK TO BUILD THESE NEW BUSINESS HUBS OUTSIDE OF MANHATTAN”

ADAMS responds to a question from Schouten at a Crain’s event attended by more than 300 business and civic leaders.

ADAMS

NIKHIL

Making health care understandable writer uses memes, humor to explain industry trends

BY MAYA KAUFMAN

EDUCATION Bachelor’s in sustainable development, Columbia University

POLICY WONK Asked for an example of a mindbogglingly complex health care term, Krishnan named MACRA, an acronym that stands for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. “I was like, how is there an acronym within an acronym?”

WAITING GAME Krishnan is on a two-year waiting list for Blue Java bananas, which are said to taste like vanilla ice cream. “I love waitlists,” he said.

COVID HICCUP Before Out-of-Pocket, he started Get Real, a new take on social media networks that was to be monetized through events, but timing got in his way; it launched two weeks before the pandemic.

Tucked into one of Nikhil Krishnan’s recent newsletters is a photograph of Hillary Clinton glancing distressingly at a kitchen in a public housing unit, a visit paid while she was on the 2016 presidential campaign trail. Krishnan gave the visual the tongue-in-cheek caption: “Home health startup actually visiting a patient’s home for the rst time.”

e meme was part of his guide to emerging health care business models, one of the latest editions of Krishnan’s free online newsletter Out-of-Pocket. More than 20,000 readers turn to Out-of-Pocket to learn about the business of health care and read analyses of new industry trends. Krishnan’s pitch is that he makes a complex business easy to understand—and fun, thanks to a healthy dose of memes that illustrate stubbornly nonvisual

topics like self-insurance and electronic medical records.

“I do think I’m marginally funny, and that bar in health care is very low,” he said.

Krishnan got into health care by accident. He studied sustainable development as an undergraduate

tures. During high school he customized shoes and sold them online. He also helped graduating seniors sell their Texas Instruments TI-89 graphing calculators to younger calculus students (retail price: $130).

with the goal of drawing new talent to the industry. at was where the memes came in.

at Columbia University but pivoted to tech by the time he graduated in 2014. His rst job was as an analyst for CB Insights, a market intelligence platform that tracks private companies and publishes analytical, sector-speci c newsletters on startups.

e startup world appealed to Krishnan, who had by then started a couple of his own edgling ven-

At CB Insights, he was charged with producing data-driven reports about digital health and biotech companies. He faced a steep learning curve but used it to his advantage, sharing his ndings in a newsletter and building a readership of 90,000. He did the same on Twitter, where he now has more than 44,000 followers.

He launched Out-of-Pocket in 2020, just a few weeks before Covid became the country’s dominant topic of conversation. e newsletter was a way to write about health care “in plain English,” as he puts it,

“My superpower, for better or worse, is I’m totally shameless. I don’t care about looking dumb on the internet,” he said. “I’m approaching things from a place of curiosity.”

e approach has been successful. He said the newsletter has an average open rate of about 52%— way beyond the average newsletter open rate of about 21% calculated by email-marketing platform MailChimp.

Krishnan has further tended to his mission by launching a medical bankruptcy–themed card game, a picture book about the drugmaking process, an invite-only Slack channel for health care innovators and a job board. Next up is a series of educational courses on health care business, marketing, data and product development, which are slated to launch this fall. ■

BUCK ENNIS

GREW UP Upper West Side RESIDES Williamsburg

AGE 30

KRISHNAN has launched a medical bankruptcy–themed card game.

“I DO THINK I’M MARGINALLY FUNNY, AND THAT BAR IN HEALTH CARE IS VERY LOW”