Crain's New York Business

A 110-year-old structure holding up Midtown is in dire need of repairs

BY CAROLINE SPIVACK

The 110-year-old structure that supports Park Avenue and its side streets—30 acres of prime Midtown real estate— is beginning to show its age.

Just as developers platformed over a rail depot to create Hudson Yards, an earlier generation did the same to the north of Grand Central Terminal. Now the Metropolitan Transportation Authority says it is barely keeping up with deterioration of the structure known as the Grand Central Terminal train shed.

e MTA has patched the corrosion of the train shed’s roof piecemeal for more than a decade. But o cials now say that the 2017 East Midtown rezoning and resulting construction—along with the

sheer weight of time—are creating urgency around a comprehensive overhaul for the facility that feeds Metro-North Railroad trains into Grand Central.

MTA Chief Executive Janno Lieber calls it the “ultimate state-of-good-repair megaproject.”

“ e structure itself has been deteriorating dramatically over time. It has reached the point where the pace of that deterioration is accelerating and it’s spreading,” Lieber told Crain’s. “We have to move from what the team at Metro-North has been doing for the last 10-plus years

HEALTH CARE

COVID WELL RUNS DRY

The health sector prepares for changes to programs that supported low-income and marginalized New Yorkers

BY AMANDA D’AMBROSIO

The federal government declared Covid-19 a public health emergency on Jan. 31, 2020, launching a patchwork of federal programs that ooded the city with more than $26 billion to pay for medical supplies, support businesses and boost agencies’ crisis response.

On May 11, more than three years and six major Covid relief bills later, the federal government will halt the public health emergency, ending universal coverage for vaccines and treatments, immunization data reporting requirements and certain exibilities for providers.

e funds will also dry up for a lesser-recognized Covid-19 response tool: the public health workforce.

e city’s public health workforce grew rapidly at the onset of the pandemic, bringing testing, treatment and basic necessities to low-income and marginalized communities that faced obstacles to getting care. e city successfully vaccinated more than 80% of its

residents, and hospitalizations and deaths have fallen to a fraction of what they were in previous years of the pandemic, reducing the need for the in ux of funding that mitigated the crisis.

As infections drop and the public health emergency comes to a close, the virus is not necessarily going away, said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health who co-leads the Pandemic Response Institute.

“ is doesn’t mean that the emergency should not end,” ElSadr said. “What it means is that the emergency should morph into something else.”

Health infrastructure that materialized in a matter of weeks o ered a glimpse into a model of public health preparedness that could address longstanding health equity issues, providing programs that offered medical support and

See PROGRAMS on page 19

LETO of RiseBoro said community health workers were reliable and trusted sources of information during the pandemic.

POWER CORNER City Council leader Cabán on the NYPD and the Secure Jobs

Fixes to the cavernous rail yard under Grand Central Terminal could cost $2.7 billion over 15 years

MTA OFFICIALS assess deterioration at the Grand Central train shed.

A CORRODED STEEL BEAM under East 48th Street in the Grand Central train shed

CAROLINE SPIVACK

New York’s top prosecutor says white-collar cases must be handled quickly

BY AARON ELSTEIN AND TAYLOR NAKAGAWA

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York wants his office to bring white-collar criminals to justice quickly to help restore public confidence in the rule of law.

“We need to collapse the distance between misconduct and consequence,” Williams told the audience at a Crain’s Power Breakfast last week. “The longer time goes by where something bad happens and no one is held accountable, that can lead to a sense of lack of enforcement, lack of rules, distrust in the criminal-justice system.”

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, the nation’s preeminent white-collar prosecutor, saw its public standing dinged after the financial crisis when it declined to charge officials at Lehman Bros. and other financial institutions with fraud or other crimes. The U.S. attorney at the time, Preet Bharara, told a Crain’s audience in 2014 that it was too difficult to prove criminal intent. Massive banks were granted deferred pros-

State reaches $229B budget deal after weeks of delay

BY NICK GARBER

Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders have reached a $229 billion deal on this year’s state budget, signaling an end is near to the stalemate that has endured for nearly a month past its original deadline.

The deal—$2 billion higher than her initial plan—is only the “concept of a framework,” Hochul said at an abruptly-called press conference in Albany Thursday night. The Legislature will still need to pass the budget as a series of bills, which will likely happen this week.

“What was important is not a race to a deadline but a race to the right results,” Hochul said.

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ecution agreements, meaning they were spared criminal charges so long as they sinned no more, and in 2013 former Attorney General Eric Holder acknowledged some mega-institutions were “too big to jail,” although he later backtracked.

Williams, who was named U.S. attorney in 2021, said he wants his staff of 450 to bring cases against corporate criminals whenever the evidence supports it and to do it quickly. His office charged former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and his deputies within weeks of the crypto exchange’s failure last year and has secured several guilty pleas. Williams indicated he expects more white-collar cases as the slowing economy reveals accounting fraud and other mischief

want the court to get to a better place.”

Other takeaways

● Williams said his office’s top priorities include bringing cases involving gun violence and protecting civil rights.

● Bringing corruption charges against public officials is also a priority, but Williams observed the U.S. Supreme Court has made those cases tougher by narrowing the list of prosecutable offenses. A federal judge in December dismissed some corruption charges against former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, saying prosecutors had failed to demonstrate an “explicit quid pro quo.”

● Cases involving drugs tainted with fentanyl are “the thing that keeps me up at night,” he said, noting the amount fitting on the tip of a pen can be fatal. He said his office has gone after dealers locally as well as traffickers globally.

A closely-watched rescue package for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will raise $1.1 billion for the cash-strapped agency through a “minor” increase in payroll taxes on large businesses based in New York City, Hochul said—suggesting suburbs that benefit from the MTA will avoid contributing any new funding.

The city will also be asked to pay an extra $165 million per year, Hochul said, well short of the initial $500 million figure that rankled Mayor Eric Adams. The MTA will also implement a $400 million plan to “make their operations more efficient,” and will test out fare-free buses for one line in each borough over the course of two years, Hochul said.

Bail and other policies

never opened.

Housing policies are almost entirely absent from the deal, following the high-profile collapse of Hochul’s pro-growth agenda and the Legislature’s own desired tenant protections. The state will, however, invest $390 million to expand the emergency rental assistance program for public housing tenants, the governor said.

Hochul conceded that the Legislature had doomed her far more ambitious housing goals, but promised to revisit the issue before long, pointing to the state’s affordability crisis.

“I believe major action is required to meet the scale of this crisis,” she said. “The Legislature saw it differently—they’re not ready to commit to the kind of transformative change I proposed.

“We’re not walking away from this issue,” she added, saying she would announce new executive actions on housing in the coming weeks.

that isn’t apparent in better times.

“There is a strong potential that these kinds of moments of transition reveal more and we’re going to be there,” said Williams, who as a law clerk worked for Attorney General Merrick Garland and former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. “We view that as an opportunity.”

The current state of the Supreme Court was also addressed, and Williams was asked if Supreme Court justices should follow the same ethics rules as other federal judges. Although he declined to comment on specific rules, Williams acknowledged faith in the nation’s top court has decreased.

“As someone who believes deeply in our institutions and wants them to succeed,” he said, “I

● Williams said there is no formula for the cases his office pursues, but the Southern District of New York prioritizes ones that can curtail bad behavior or issues that are often overlooked.

● Feedback to the recently announced corporate disclosure policy has been positive so far, Williams said. The policy, unveiled in February, aims to incentivize corporations to self-report instances of misconduct within their ranks.

“A corporation can rest easy that they’re not going to be charged with a crime and have to plead guilty if they voluntarily self-disclose,” Williams said.

● Williams’ long-term goal as U.S. attorney is to hand his office to a successor in better shape than he found it. “The Southern District of New York should remain the crown jewel of the Justice Department,” he said. ■

Hochul began her remarks by outlining a deal on bail, which served as an initial stumbling block as she pushed to roll back the state’s 2019 bail reforms amid resistance from the state Senate and Assembly. Hochul said she has gotten her desired change, which removes a requirement that judges use the “least restrictive means” of ensuring that defendants return to court.

But she also said the deal would invest $40 million for public defenders, meeting a longstanding demand from criminal justice reform advocates.

The minimum wage will rise to $16 per hour next year in New York City, rise to $17 by 2026, and then increase annually by the rate of inflation starting in 2027, Hochul said. She had proposed to peg the wage to inflation without raising it first, while progressive lawmakers had wanted to raise the city’s minimum wage as high as $21.25 before indexing it.

Hochul also appears to have gotten her way on charter schools, saying that the budget will revive 14 socalled “zombie” charters within the city that had either shuttered or

The city in particular may be ripe for more action to increase housing supply, Hochul said, pointing to a potential extension of the 421-a tax break or lifting the decades-old cap on residential density in the city. Those issues could be revisited as soon as this legislative session, Hochul said.

Mental health treatment

On health care, Hochul said the state will spend more than $1 billion for mental health treatment, including the creation of 1,000 inpatient psychiatric beds. The deal also provides the “largest Medicaid rate increase in two decades,” she said, without specifying the number.

Also absent from the deal is any tax increase on wealthy New Yorkers, which the Senate and the Assembly had both wanted but Hochul had opposed.

Legislative leaders did not appear alongside Hochul and did not immediately release statements about the deal. But the governor insisted her relationship with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins is “stronger than you could possibly believe.” ■

“WE NEED TO COLLAPSE THE DISTANCE BETWEEN MISCONDUCT AND CONSEQUENCE”

GOVERNORKATHYHOCHUL/FLICKR

Governors Island climate hub moves forward as city picks operator

Stony Brook University will spearhead the $700 million campus to be built on the island’s south end

BY NICK GARBER

The city has unveiled Stony Brook University as the winning operator of an expansive environmental research center on Governors Island that promises to transform the island’s undeveloped south end with a fullscale campus, to include a hotel, laboratories and student housing.

e project, known as the New York Climate Exchange, was facilitated by the city’s 2021 rezoning of Governors Island. After announcing three nalists in the fall of 2022, Mayor Eric Adams picked Stony Brook’s $700 million proposal, which will span 400,000 square feet.

“ is is where we will meet the challenge of climate change head-on,” Adams said.

Construction will run from 2025 to 2028. e campus will include two classroom and research buildings made of climate-friendly mass timber. Stony Brook will renovate two former military buildings to open up 170,000 square feet of space, the mayor’s o ce said.

Plans to redevelop Governors Island have

been in the works since the federal government turned over control of the 172-acre island to the city in 2003. Before the climate center proposal emerged, around 2019, ideas had been oated for a public health institution or a giant new campus for the City University of New York.

A popular park

Not all have welcomed the prospect of building up the largely pristine island, which is an increasingly popular public park. An environmentalist group sued to block the rezoning, but a judge dismissed the case in November, paving the way for the recent announcement. e group, the Metro Area Governors Island Coalition, has signaled it will appeal.

e campus will include nearly 5 acres of new open space, joining the existing 43-acre park and 92-acre historic district lled with dozens of old military buildings. A recordhigh 939,000 people ocked to the island last year, according to data from the Trust for Governors Island, taking advantage of new yearround access.

Other applicants that bid unsuccessfully for the project included Northeastern University and a joint bid by the City University of New York and the New School. A selection committee comprised the trust, City Hall o cials and the Department of City Planning.

e climate center’s $700 million price tag will include $150 million in already-allocated city funding, $100 million from the nonpro t Simons Foundation and $50 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies. e remaining costs will be raised by a 15-member consortium, which includes the Georgia Institute of Technology, Pace University, the Boston Consulting Group and IBM.

Students already enrolled at institutions in that consortium will be able to enroll in a “climate solutions semester abroad” at the new facility, which will o er job training and college-level environmental coursework to New Yorkers for free or at low cost, the city said.

Research and educational programs at the complex will focus on sustainable and resilient cities; the use of food, water and energy on climate change; and environmental justice and inclusion.

At 400,000 square feet, the new campus will be slightly larger than Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus.

Also included will be university hotel rooms and housing for students and faculty, according to the city, which did not specify the location. e 2021 rezoning allows for buildings as high as 20 stories, as well as retail, restaurants and o ces.

Substantial subsidy

e new campus will generate 100% of its energy on-site and divert 95% of its waste from land lls, o cials said. As part of the project, the trust will begin operating more frequent ferry service from Manhattan, running every 15 minutes—half of current headways.

e trust, whose board includes leaders of the real estate rms MSquared and Dune Real Estate Partners, has said that development on the island’s south side could generate $80 million annually by 2050 in tax and lease revenues. It is only then that the island could become self-su cient and wean itself o its substantial city subsidy, which now totals around $15 million. ■

CONSTRUCTION will run from 2025 to 2028. The campus will include two buildings made of climatefriendly mass timber.

RENDERINGS of the New York Climate Exchange, to be built on the south end of Governors Island

THE NEW YORK CLIMATE EXCHANGE CAMPUS will be led by Stony Brook University.

Suburban home developer picks up a city condo

BY C. J. HUGHES

Steven Dubb, a principal at builder Beechwood Homes, which has shaped the look of New York’s suburbs, has snapped up a home in SoHo.

Dubb and his wife, Selby Drummond, an executive at dating website Bumble, purchased a five-bedroom loft at 583 Broadway for $8.6 million, according to property records.

The condo, which has a column-lined interior with an open kitchen and four exposures across 4,600 square feet, hit the market in October for about $9.3 million. The deal closed April 11.

A 12-story prewar doorman elevator building, 583 Broadway,

$9.3M

floors of 583 Broadway, which had been used as offices, converted into a 19-unit residential condominium.

Towering above many of its neighbors and a rare condominium in a cooperative-filled neighborhood, 583 Broadway, which is near Prince Street, has been home to many bold-faced names throughout the years. They include rock star Jon Bon Jovi; Standard Hotels developer André Balazs; and Mark Madoff, son of disgraced financier Bernie Madoff.

whic h extends through its block and is also known as 158 Mercer St., became the home of the New Museum six years after its founding in Tribeca. The contemporary ar ts institution occupied the lower floors of the commercial building from 1983 to 2007, when the mus eum relocated to nearby 235 Bowery. In 1996 the upstairs

HEALTH CARE

Dubb, who appeared on Crain’s Notable in Real Estate list in 2021, is a s e cond-generation leader at Beechwood, which was founded in 1985 by his father, Michael.

The company, based in Jericho, Long Island, has built more than 9,500 homes in the state during the past four decades, most of them in gated communities on Long Island. Dubb’s work includes sourcing loans and deals as well as handling leasing.

Beechwood has undertaken

some projects in the city as well. Starting in 2002, it helped develop a long-term, 2,300-unit residential project in the Arverne section of Queens on the Rockaway Peninsula. The low-slung, suburban-style community offers a mix of two-family houses and condos by the beach. Monica Podell, the agent at Brown Harris Stevens who marketed the SoHo condo, could not be reached by press time. And a Beechwood spokeswoman had no comment. ■

City Council unveils roadmap to fight growing mental health crisis

BY JACQUELINE NEBER

The City Council revealed its mental health roadmap, which emphasizes increasing funding around prevention services in an effort to help the city combat its growing mental health crisis.

The roadmap has four pillars: prioritizing preventive and supportive services, addressing the workforce shortage, looking into mental health’s intersection with the criminal justice system and bolstering interagency communication around mental health initiatives. Each pillar has city, state and federal actions tied to it.

The roadmap includes at least $92 million the council is urging the city to include or add to the fiscal 2024 budget to accomplish these goals.

“This crisis has been shaped by years of neglect, stigma and inadequate public policy,” Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said at a press conference. “The city has over-relied on emergency and crisis responses. This approach has been expensive, dehumanizing and, in too many cases, deadly.”

The council released this roadmap about seven weeks after Mayor

Eric Adams unveiled the second phase of his own mental health plan.

His second phase, revealed in March, follows a controversial first phase that garnered the criticism of community organizations and advocates. That first plan, announced in November, includes a directive emphasizing the authority of law enforcement officers, outreach workers and mental health professionals to involuntarily transport New Yorkers who seem to be unable to meet their basic needs to hospitals.

Back in November, Speaker Adams called on the mayor’s office to produce concrete details about his plan. By contrast, the council’s roadmap includes more than three dozen action items at the city, state and federal level.

Focus on preventive care

To provide more preventive and supportive services, the council will consider legislation by Majority Leader Keith Powers that would expand the number of crisis respite centers.

The council will also consider legislation to expand Clubhouse community centers, where New Yorkers can access resources, advo-

cate for adequate funding for school-based mental health services, encourage City Hall to earmark $5 million for the Mental Health Continuum partnership and advocate for adequate funding for youth mental health programs.

According to the roadmap, the council will also provide mental health first aid training for staff.

Meanwhile, the council said it will call on the state and Gov. Kathy Hochul to make sure 150 state-run psychiatric hospital beds come back into service—and increase the fines for hospitals that don’t comply.

The preventive pillar also focuses on housing as a way to mitigate mental health concerns. To that end, the roadmap says, the council will call on the Adams administration to revamp its 15/15 supportive housing plan, which in 2015 set out to develop 15,000 units of supportive housing in the next 15 years, and put an additional $45 million toward it. On the state side, Powers will put forward a resolution to have the state and the city reintroduce a NY/NY Supportive Housing Program.

A quarter of the roadmap focuses on strengthening and retaining the

mental health workforce along with the hospital, nursing home and direct support professional workforces.

To address the crisis, the council will advocate for the fiscal 2024 city budget to include funding for community-based organizations, as well as to fund a social work fellows program at one or more City University of New York schools. And the council will continue to advocate for pay parity for mental health workers.

The council plans to call on the city and the state to increase Medicaid reimbursements for mental health services in order to expand access for families with middle incomes

At the press conference, Speaker Adams emphasized the city’s responsibility to ensure the criminal justice system is not a stand-in for mental health care.

According to the roadmap, Rikers is now counted as one of the three largest providers of psychiatric care in the U.S., and about 12% of New York’s prison population has a severe mental illness.

To address this, the council will consider legislation introduced by Council member Linda Lee, chair of the Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction, that

would require the Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health to report on implementation of the involuntary transport directive.

The council will also advocate for the city budget to include adequate funding for street outreach teams as well as the expansion of the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s intensive mobile treatment teams and assertive community treatment teams. Furthermore, the council will push for the budget to include $12.8 million for 380 units of justice-involved supportive housing.

To facilitate communication between city agencies, the council will consider legislation from Council member Eric Bottcher that would require the Adams administration to conduct outreach on mental health services provided by NYC Care and legislation from Lee that would create an outpatient mental health services location data set.

To create the roadmap, the council worked with stakeholders from community organizations including Correct Crisis Intervention Today, Community Access, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and National Alliance on Mental Illness–New York City. ■

Steven Dubb of Beechwood Homes is the new owner of a five-bedroom loft in a SoHo building once home to the New Museum

583 BROADWAY in SoHo has an open kitchen and five bedrooms.

THE 4,600-SQUARE-FOOT CONDO HAS A COLUMNLINED INTERIOR AND FOUR EXPOSURES

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State misses opportunity by abandoning housing proposals

Making a confident prediction in a column has generally been a surefire way to end up looking like an idiot, but this feels like a pretty safe one to me: If nothing changes about New York’s housing policies, nothing will change about New York’s housing crisis.

This is the dispiriting place the state now finds itself in after what initially looked like a budget process that could transform its housing landscape. These changes were highlighted by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to require downstate counties to grow their housing supply by 3% every three years, but issues ranging from “good cause” eviction to tax incentives for commercial-to-residential conversions were on the table as well.

Instead, with a budget deal finally being reached late last week, it now looks as though the state will get virtually nothing. Not an ambitious housing plan, not a wa-

tered-down housing plan, not a promise to build a new house on that one unsightly vacant lot in your neighborhood, but nothing. It’s a huge missed opportunity for the city and for the state.

None of these policies would have been a magic bullet for the longstanding housing problems plaguing New York. A version of Hochul’s proposal with even higher growth targets and the most progressive version of good cause eviction could have both passed, and the next day Manhat-

But a housing package would have at least represented an attempt to improve the situation in New York, which everyone agrees is terrible and no one agrees how to fix. And if the new laws weren’t making things better or working as intended, they always could have been changed.

Budget plans

tan rents would still have been historically expensive and eviction cases would still have been filed.

Totally abdicating on housing rather than including even modest plans in the budget doesn’t completely shut the door on reforms. If the budget really does officially pass without a single housing measure, it could put more pressure on lawmakers to address the crisis during the legislative session or next year rather than letting them say they’ve already dealt with the issue and now it’s time to move on to other serious topics, such as giving themselves another pay raise. But this seems like a risky bet at

best. Rents in the city and home prices in the suburbs are already at record highs; evictions are already rising; the city’s homeless shelters are already overburdened; and it’s already been made painfully clear just how little housing the city and its suburbs have built in recent years compared to other parts of the country. But this confluence of factors still wasn’t enough to get a housing package

into the budget.

I guess the good news, if you could call it that, is we’ll all get a chance to figure out whether another year of dealing with these problems and likely watching them get worse is enough to finally move the needle on housing policy in Albany. Because the only thing the state will guarantee by doing nothing is that nothing will get better anytime soon. ■

EDDIE SMALL

IF NOTHING CHANGES ABOUT HOUSING POLICIES, NOTHING WILL CHANGE ABOUT THE HOUSING CRISIS

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City delivers innovative ideas for managing last-mile package crunch

The seemingly bottomless demand for online shopping and home deliveries has put pressure on last-mile delivery: the nal stage from a warehouse or distribution center to the customer’s door.

e city is grappling with more than 2.3 million package deliveries daily. Neighborhoods such as Red Hook, Brooklyn, are being used as logistics hubs to get packages to customers faster than ever, while Chelsea is ooded with Amazon deliveries. Giant trucks plague southeast Queens.

e city has decided to do something about the chaos.

is summer the city Department of Transportation will

redesign the city’s 1,300 miles of truck routes to enhance safety and reduce congestion, addressing environmental justice concerns.

Innovation is excellent news for the business community. One founder of home goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond, now in bankruptcy, has said its recent struggles were caused in part by its failure to adapt to the digital age. e improved organization of last-mile deliveries will support both small and large businesses as they brace for a potential recession.

introduce micro-distribution centers, or micro hubs, to improve e ciency and sustainability. In addition, City Council member Alexa Aviles of Brooklyn has proposed legislation that would

OP-ED

Transit o cials plan to site 20 micro hubs in consultation with businesses, the freight industry and residents. Priority locations will be where commercial and residential areas meet, in close proximity to truck routes, mass transit and bike lanes. At the micro hubs, freight operators will unload goods onto smaller, low-emission or human-powered vehicles, streamlining delivery processes, reducing costs, enhancing customer satisfaction and boosting brand reputations.

e city’s truck routes have

remained largely untouched since the network was created in the 1970s. Aviles pointed to an overdue redesign of the city’s truck routes as one immediate step the city can take toward reducing the harms caused by e-commerce delivery. e DOT supports Aviles’ bill.

“We think taking a fresh look in light of changing delivery patterns makes sense,” said Eric Beaton, the DOT’s deputy commissioner

for transportation planning and management.

Together, the micro-hub and truck-routing initiatives represent a signi cant step toward a more sustainable and e cient approach to last-mile delivery. Embracing this innovation will prove to be a game-changer for the business community, tackling the challenges of the digital age and fostering a greener, more vibrant urban landscape for everyone. ■

Incentivize developers to turn commercial buildings into affordable housing

BY DANIEL VISLOCKY

According to a vacancy survey by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, between 2017 and 2021 the city lost roughly 96,000 apartments with rents below $1,500 while simultaneously gaining 107,000 apartments renting at $2,300 or more. Developers are desperately trying to keep pace with inventory needs, but regardless of how many new buildings go up, a ordable housing is limited.

City planners warned almost a half-century ago that the city’s population would explode, and as a result, the city implemented zoning laws to limit the size of buildings and the number of occupants inside. Instead of helping, these laws created an a ordable housing crisis. In 2019 the city area needed almost 400,000 additional homes to meet the demand.

While the city continues to try to nd solutions to this growing

problem, tax incentives and commercial conversions are potential answers.

e city is no stranger to o ering incentives. Under previous administrations, tax programs were launched to incentivize the creation and maintenance of multiple-dwelling households. e program, 421-g, o ered varying tax exemptions and abatements for developers, and the rental units became subject to rent stabilization for the duration of the tax bene ts, making this appealing to both developers and renters alike. is program helped bring projects such as 20 Exchange Place and 90 Washington St. to fruition, which changed the trajectory of downtown Manhattan. Under the program, many neighborhoods that previously were not residential-friendly, Wall Street among them, welcomed new residents.

Similar programs were launched to regenerate interest in developing a ordable housing. Most re-

cently 421-a allowed tax exemptions for developers building new construction with a minimum of 20% designated for a ordable housing. While this program was an excellent start and a huge boost to a restrained housing market, more must be done. When 421-expired in June 2022, the city saw a sharp downturn in the number of lings for multifamily developments, dipping by almost 60%.

Repurposing spaces

As hybrid work continues and o ce vacancy rates level o , New Yorkers are looking to repurpose older commercial spaces. While new o ces in neighborhoods such as Hudson Yards are still in high demand, older o ce buildings could be repurposed and become a ordable residences.

Without government intervention, the city will continue in a prolonged downturn of new developments and conversions. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $227 billion budget pro-

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posal has big aspirations, including plans to make it easier to convert older o ce buildings into residential uses, which could help create 20,000 homes in the next decade. e plan includes a 19year tax exemption eligibility for landlords and developers who agree to create a ordable housing within their buildings.

To receive a subsidy currently, New York requires more units to be considered deeply a ordable, which in turn generates signicantly less rent. With the projected commercial real estate de cit looming, real estate needs support from Albany to assist with the market correction. If Albany supports conversion projects through funding, tax credits, tax abatement or other helpful laws, two immediate crises could be addressed.

e incentives would help renters and buyers in the long run. ■

Daniel Vislocky is the founder of Station Companies.

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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]

“WE THINK TAKING A FRESH LOOK IN LIGHT OF CHANGING DELIVERY PATTERNS MAKES SENSE”

BUCK ENNIS

Hiring neurodivergent professionals is good for business, the city and individuals with autism

BY ALYSIA STEINMANN

April was Autism Acceptance Month, and every year we light up buildings in blue, wear pins to show our support and share stories about how people with autism have touched our lives. But to make true progress toward inclusion, we must recognize that those with cognitive differences are an integral part of the city. Not only that, their often-overlooked abilities may be the key to transforming New York’s economy.

Those with neurodivergent family or friends, including me, understand the tremendous contributions of this underappreciated community. I had just returned from my second maternity leave when my older son was diagnosed with autism, followed by his younger brother a few years later. This became the catalyst that would forever alter my personal and professional life.

Today I advocate building a world that celebrates their differences as strengths.

More than 5 million adults in the United States live with autism. As

many as 85% are unemployed or underemployed. This means millions of dollars in lost revenues, not to mention immense untapped potential.

Exceptional skills

Yet many neurodivergent individuals possess exceptional technical skills or remarkable creativity that can deliver significant business value. At Ernst & Young, we’ve long recognized this potential, and in 2016 we launched our first NeuroDiverse Center of Excellence, in Philadelphia. This program has been incredibly successful, and today we have nearly 450 members in 19 locations across eight countries. Our neurodivergent professionals have a huge impact on us and our clients: They work on breakthrough innovations, improve our processes and boost efficiency.

This team has contributed to more than 200 automation, analytics, cybersecurity and innovation projects across assurance, tax and consulting, resulting in millions of dollars of new product revenue and cost savings. What’s more, our dedicated talent support model has resulted in a retention rate of more than 90%.

For companies that are unable to offer targeted programs, govern-

ment support can bridge the gap. As a member of the mayor’s Future of Workers Task Force, I collaborate with other leaders to help businesses team up with nonprofits and community organizations to train and upskill New Yorkers, including those with a variety of physical, psychosocial, sensory, cognitive and neurological abilities.

As another example, through my role on the New York Jobs CEO Council, we work with the City University of New York to upskill and credential 100,000 workers from nontraditional backgrounds, preparing them for high-growth, well-paying jobs based in the city.

The city has an enormous pool of underutilized talent, from neurodivergent individuals to those without a four-year degree. These valuable individuals bring unique perspectives and untapped skills that organizations need to respond to today’s most pressing issues. Hiring them is good for business, and it’s good for our city. Harnessing diverse talent and opening access to meaningful ca-

reers will allow New Yorkers to afford to stay in New York, build their families and communities, and be a part of what puts our city at the leading edge of so many industries.

My boys have revealed the value of differences in ways that I cannot express. In addition to proudly cel-

ebrating them last month, I continue my fight for all New Yorkers to have the opportunity to share their talents and continue to revitalize our great city. ■

Alysia Steinmann is managing partner for the metropolitan New York City office of EY.

MORE THAN 5 MILLION ADULTS IN THE U.S. LIVE WITH aUTISM

THE LIST

LARGEST COMMERCIAL PROPERTY OWNERS

Ranked by 2023 rentable office area in Manhattan

TECHNOLOGY

An increasing number of businesses are choosing managed services providers for their information technology needs. What is driving this trend, and how can organizations determine if it is the best strategy for them?

Governor’s bold housing plan circles the legislative drain

It’s all but official—housing reform is dead in New York.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders, who were several weeks late but finally agreed on a new state budget, have dropped Hochul’s plan to force localities throughout the state, including Long Island and Westchester County, to build more housing. They’ve also decided, since they were at an impasse, to not include in the budget “good cause” eviction or the Housing Access Voucher Program, an ambitious and much-needed reform that could get homeless residents the subsidies they need to get off the streets and out of shelters.

The great sticking point was Hochul’s housing proposal, which faced furious opposition from suburban mayors and legislators who represent those towns and cities. Hochul’s proposal mandated that downstate counties add 3% to their housing stock every three years and permitted the state to override local zoning restrictions if they didn’t reach this modest goal. Local politicians hated the idea of the state telling them their restrictive zoning, in certain instances, could be voided.

They hated, even more, the possibility of change. Certain parts of Long Island and Westchester look exactly as they did in the 1960s. New housing construction is rare. Many homeowners enjoy the low-density lifestyle and don’t care that the downstate region has an affordability crisis; their property values have skyrocketed in the past 20 years, and scarcity is a financial benefit for them. These homeowners, usually regular voters, form a

constituency that Democrats in the state Legislature will bow to when the time comes.

Housing plan a reality

And the time came. It was Assembly Democrats, dispersed throughout the suburbs (in addition to New York City) who reportedly roadblocked the governor’s office. Ultimately, whether Hochul wanted, badly enough, to make her housing plan a reality is a question worth asking. In her orbit, further weakening criminal-justice reforms seemed to matter more, even if there’s no proven link between fluctuating crime rates and bail-eligible offenses. Maybe Hochul feared another suburban drubbing and backed off.

It’s plausible a program for housing construction can be passed outside of the budget. A normal state wouldn’t do so much crucial policymaking in such a rush, jamming together unrelated policy items. But in Albany, unfortunately, that’s how significant change happens. Lawmakers don’t like taking votes on controversial, standalone bills. Assembly and Senate Democrats from the suburbs don’t want to be on the record supporting local zoning overrides, even if that’s the only way housing will be built on a mass scale.

State lawmakers have said they prefer an incentive program to one that forces towns and cities to build against their will. But local mayors have already made it clear they don’t want to build at all. They don’t care that the tristate area is brutally unaffordable. They don’t care that a cohesive plan for regional housing construction could help working-

and middle-class people stay here. They revel in the status quo. No amount of state funding is going to change that.

In the interim, tenants will suffer with good cause eviction out of the budget. It’s unclear whether the legislation, which would limit rent increases statewide and make it harder for landlords to wantonly evict tenants, has the votes to make it through the Assembly and survive a veto from Hochul. The governor, who is close to the real estate industr y, does not support good cause, and she helped ensure it would not pass as part of a new budget.

Weeks ago Liz Krueger, a Manhattan state senator and chair of the powerful Finance Committee, told Crain’s she wanted all housing policy to be decided outside the budget, in a legislative session that will run until June. Now she’ll get her wish. Whether she can actually deliver on a set of housing reforms is another matter entirely. The outcome of the budget process certainly doesn’t inspire much hope.

Quick takes

● New York state should consider shifting back its fiscal year to July to align with the city and most other states around the country. Hammering out a budget in March, in the middle of a legislative session, is nonsensical.

● When the agreed-upon budget officially passes, there will be clarity on other big-ticket items that may not have survived, including the public financing of elections. Members of the state Legislature have made it clear they prefer the deeply flawed system as it is. ■

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

HASSAN KHAN

Technology Consulting

Partner

212-223-5021

hkhan@grassicpas.com

A managed services provider is a great option for many businesses because it removes the burden of managing critical information technology components and processes, allowing businesses to focus on their core strengths and mission.

MSPs do this by remotely managing or delivering IT services, such as network, application, infrastructure or security management, and assuming full responsibility for those services. They can also proactively identify which technologies and services would best achieve business goals.

The business landscape is highly competitive, making it even more essential for businesses to focus on their core competencies. With an MSP as an outsourced partner, management can focus on activities that drive growth without sacrificing the integrity of noncore processes.

One of the most attractive features of an MSP is access to a deep bench of IT experts who can manage complex business processes. This provides businesses with the best talent and latest resources without the compensation costs of in-house IT professionals.

Other advantages of an MSP are scalability and predictability. The level of support can be customized to a business’s evolving needs. Most MSPs are subscription-based software-as-a-service services, and a business can easily project the amount it will spend each month.

Traditionally, when IT infrastructure becomes crucial for business success, organizations start weighing the benefits of outsourcing their IT processes against their in-house capabilities. Before finding an MSP to manage a business process or area, management should assess its organization’s needs and determine an associated budget. Managers should consider if they already have the necessary in-house expertise to oversee the processes they are looking to outsource. If they do, they should ask themselves: Is the expertise readily available? Or will it need to be reallocated from other projects? Will additional hiring be necessary?

If managers do not have the necessary expertise, the analysis should shift to short-term expenditures, initial establishment costs and long-term recurring costs that would be incurred by bringing that capability in-house. This will provide a baseline to compare to the expense of an MSP.

If a business determines that hiring an MSP would be more efficient and cost-effective, it is imperative to perform due diligence and select the right one. Factors to consider include past performance, available team of experts, client testimonials, and the willingness to perform the specific functions the business requires. Best practices call for comparing four to five MSPs before making a final choice.

Changing MSPs frequently does not bode well for business continuity and growth. It is well worth the extra time it takes for decision-makers to explore the MSP’s company culture and values and determine if their organization can forge a long-term relationship with it.

These same principles can be applied to any business process in which organizations do not have in-house expertise or do not want to divert resources from more important activities. Other business processes that can usually be outsourced include payroll, workforce management, recruitment, vendor management, contract management and compliance, and human resources.

Having the most efficient and cost-effective solution in each of these areas will have a long-lasting impact on the business’s current and future success.

Hassan Khan is a Technology Consulting Partner at Grassi where he leads the firm’s technology advisory solutions in cybersecurity, data privacy, risk and compliance, digital transformation and outsourced CIO services. grassicpas.com

ROSS BARKAN

BLOOMBERG

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

ACCOUNTING

BST & Co. CPAs, LLP

BST & Co. CPAs, LLP has announced the hiring of Sareena Sawhney, MBA, CFE, MAFF, CAMS, as a director of the firm’s Valuation, Forensic Accounting & Litigation Support team. Sawhney has dedicated her career to providing forensic accounting services within the tri-state area and across a broad range of industries and brings 25 years of experience to the firm. She has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stony Brook University and a master’s degree in business administration in finance from Loyola University.

EDUCATION

Brooklyn Law School

Brooklyn Law School appointed David D. Meyer its 10th dean since its founding in 1901. He will become Joseph Crea Dean and President effective July 1. An accomplished lawyer, scholar and long-serving dean of Tulane Law School, he helped oversee Tulane’s Corporate Law Institute. Meyer’s focus on inclusive legal study and experiential education and his commitment to diversity will help position Brooklyn Law School as one of the preeminent independent law schools in the U.S.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

J.P. Morgan

Monica Issar has joined the Board of Directors of Mission Asset Fund, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that seeks to offer responsible financial programs focused on the needs of low-income, people of color, and immigrant communities. In her role, she will bring her lived experience and financial expertise to help create a more equitable world for the families they serve. Monica is the Global Head of J.P. Morgan Global Wealth Management’s Multi-Asset and Portfolio Solutions Group.

LEGAL SERVICES

Tarter Krinsky & Drogin

LAW

Foley Hoag

Foley Hoag announced that Karen Campbell has joined the firm as its inaugural Chief Information Officer. Campbell joins Foley Hoag after more than two decades in information technology, including most recently as Director of Global IT Operations at an Am Law 200 firm. Campbell earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Long Island University and an M.B.A. degree in Business Management from Dowling College.

COMPANIES ON THE MOVE

To place your listing, visit www. newyorkbusiness.com/companymoves or contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

The Advance Group Farmingdale and NYC 877.273.6480

theadvancegrp.com

FINANCIAL SERVICES

J.P. Morgan Private Bank

ARCHITECTURE

Arup

Jon Cicconi joins Arup, a leading global sustainable development consultancy, to lead the firm’s new US architecture practice based in New York. Cicconi, who previously worked at SOM, brings decades of experience to support Arup’s global architecture practice and to expand offerings in the US –focusing on the rail, transit, and infrastructure markets.

Brian Mauthe has joined J.P. Morgan Private Bank in New York City as an Executive Director and Banker. Brian works with high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth families, founders, C-suite executives and other professionals whose complex financial needs and ambitious goals demand sophisticated wealth management strategies. He prides himself on the strong work ethic, accountability, discipline and sense of teamwork he brings to his client relationships. Brian joins us from Citi Private Bank.

Tarter Krinsky & Drogin strategically expands its Intellectual Property Practice with the addition of Partner Brian A. Bloom. Bloom, who has created a niche area in his practice as a business lawyer for the music and entertainment industry, provides even further depth to the Firm’s intellectual property offerings. Bloom counsels clients on both entertainment-related litigation and intricate corporate transactions involving intellectual property issues.

ANNOUNCE YOUR BIG NEWS IN CRAIN’S!

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

EisnerAmper

LEGAL SERVICES

Tarter Krinsky & Drogin

CONSULTING ENGINEERING

Syska Hennessy Group

The board of Syska Hennessy Group, the international engineering firm, has elevated Cyrus Izzo to president and CEO. He previously served as co-president. In his new role, Izzo oversees the day-to-day management of Syska and is the top decision-maker for the company. Izzo, based in New York City, joined Syska in 1993. He oversaw Syska’s expansion into Dubai and Shanghai and established the firm’s first global practice -- critical facilities.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

J.P. Morgan Private Bank

Lauren ZakarianCogswell has joined J.P. Morgan Private Bank in New York City as a Vice President and Investment Specialist. Lauren works with some of the most sophisticated clients across the country, delivering experienced financial advice that underscores a tactical, opportunistic approach to investment decision making. She works side-by-side with clients to help them manage risk and position themselves relative to macro and micro trends.

Lauren rejoins the firm from Masterworks.

Tarter Krinsky & Drogin expands its cyber, privacy, and data management capabilities with the addition of Annmarie Giblin as a partner and co-chair of the Firm’s Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice. Relying on her legal background, including time spent as a litigation attorney, working on public policy issues, and as an in-house attorney, Giblin brings a litigator’s eye to every engagement and creates tailored strategies for her clients’ unique and novel legal problems.

EisnerAmper has named Jennifer Sklar and Dean Peterson as international tax partners. Jennifer specializes in tax planning and advises on crossborder tax planning and foreign information reporting obligations. She analyzes the impact of U.S. income tax treaties with foreign jurisdictions on cross-border transactions, including sourcing rules, withholding tax obligations and benefits provision limitations. Dean provides comprehensive tax consulting services, advising clients on cross-border transactions, international tax planning, tax treaty matters, PFIC reporting, investments tax, and restructuring/legal entity rationalization. His prior experience includes M&As, foreign tax credit optimization and U.S. international tax compliance.

The Advance Group (TAG) of NY announces the acquisition of Sorensen Moving & Storage and Sorensen Logistics to create one of the largest Moving, Logistics and Delivery organizations on the Eastern Corridor. As an award-winning Mayflower Transit Agent and Office Moving Alliance partner, Sorensen presented a key growth opportunity for TAG, NY City’s largest moving, logistics, delivery + installation, tech and warehousing company. Molloy Moving & Storage, TAG’s household moving brand, coupled with Sorensen Moving & Storage’s capacity and expertise, results in one of Mayflower Transit’s largest agents and interstate fleets. TAG plans to continue seeking strategic acquisition. The transaction was finalized March 31, 2023, with undisclosed terms.

Sklar Peterson

City Council leader talks crime, policing and redistributing power

INTERVIEW BY RAINA LIPSITZ

Alifelong resident of Queens, City Council member Tiffany Cabán represents District 22. Her 2019 primary race for Queens district attorney drew national attention; she first appeared to win but ultimately fell 60 votes short of victory. Then a first-time candidate, she campaigned on increasing funding for alternatives to incarceration, and she vowed to stop prosecuting minor offenses such as loitering and fare-beating.

Since being elected to the council in 2021, she has been a strong proponent of cutting funding from the New York Police Department and reinvesting the money in education and housing. She recently introduced the Secure Jobs Act, which would prevent businesses from firing employees without just cause.

You lost the 2019 primary for Queens DA by 60 votes. What does that margin represent to you, and what did you learn from that campaign?

That margin, which I’ve had plenty of time and opportunity to think about, amounts to, I believe, 0.06 of 1% of the vote. What it represents is this really incredible marker for a paradigm shift that we have been seeing over the course of the last several years around public safety, community safety, our criminal legal system and also the power of people-power, grassroots campaigns. It was a very, very painful margin.

Takeaway for business professionals

Cabán is sponsoring the Secure Jobs Act, a municipal bill that would end at-will employment in New York City by requiring employers to have just cause for firing workers.

But when I think about what we accomplished during that period of time, taking it in its full context—[in me] you had a career public defender who had never touched electoral politics, didn’t have any of those kinds of relationships, who ran a boroughwide, 2.5 million-people campaign on a shoestring budget against a career politician who had the backing of the county, a million-plus dollars in her campaign coffers, and [I] came that close [to winning] on an unapologetic message of using that immense power to shrink the size and scope of [my] own power. To lean into these alternatives and say, “Actually, what we need for safer and healthier communities is less criminalization; we need to target different kinds of bad actors who are destabilizing entire communities rather than criminalizing poverty, mental health and substance use”—that resonated so much that it built out one of the biggest, most diverse electoral coalitions that we have ever seen in the history of not just Queens but our city and our state.

A smaller percentage of New York City voters turned out in the 2021 general election than in any other mayoral election in nearly 70 years. Why do you think that is?

The name of the game is expanding the electorate, and the way that you expand the electorate is that you present people with a message that is not just resonant but that they feel in a true and genuine way, a message that they are putting out and you are reflecting, and also a message that shows that you are somebody who is going to break away from the status quo and be a champion for them and their families and neighbors. Across the board, cycle over cycle, there’s a certain number of voters who are going to vote every single time. And where we see growth and [higher rates of participation] are when you have really

exciting candidates that people can relate to, that look like them, that have shared experiences that can garner the kind of excitement that says, ‘Something’s going to be different this time.’

At a recent City Council hearing, the NYPD said if it had more officers, it would use less overtime. You tweeted that was false. In your view, why is the department really overspending, and how can city officials prevent that?

If you listen to these hearings, the testimony and responses offered by the NYPD, in comparison to any other city agency, you will immediately recognize and feel that [the department] is operating with impunity and no accountability. The numbers don’t matter to them. They blow through their overtime year after year. No other agency could ever get away with that kind of spending, but the NYPD does. Austerity and policing go hand in hand. If you have leadership or an administration or a mayor that’s tripling down on austerity, it’s affecting the

deliverance of social services to our everyday New Yorkers and [keeping us from creating] any sort of a continuum of care.

As long as we treat police as the ultimate or main provider of public safety, we are going to continue to see bloated police budgets, when in fact there are decades worth of data, empirical evidence and research to show that there are so many other systems that produce better health and safety outcomes than the police ever have or ever will.

We have a mayor who buys into this; he’s a former cop who views safety through that lens, and he’ll protect the NYPD’s budget while defunding vital public safety agencies and saying, “I won’t compromise on public safety.”

How would the Secure Jobs Act change the balance of power between employers and workers?

Right now we live in a city where power flows straight to the top, and everybody else gets left behind. I’m really excited about the Secure Jobs Act because it’s

DOSSIER

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES Seven

ON HER RÉSUMÉ City Council member representing District 22 in Queens; national political organizer with the Working Families Party; staff attorney at New York County Defender Services; staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society; candidate for Queens district attorney BORN Richmond Hill, Queens

GREW UP Richmond Hill and Fresh Meadows, Queens

RESIDES Astoria

EDUCATION Bachelor’s in crime, law and justice from Pennsylvania State University; J.D. from New York Law School

BREAKING THE MOLD While a littleknown first-time candidate in 2019, Cabán came within 60 votes of defeating Queens Borough President Melinda Katz in the Democratic primary for Queens district attorney. Cabán is the first woman, first Latina and first queer person to represent District 22 on the City Council.

a common-sense bill that every worker needs. But it also provides a lot of support for our smallest businesses.

It puts into place a progressive discipline system that makes it easier and clearer for employers to bring folks along, to have better hiring practices and ensure that they’re going to have better results in the workplace. It gives [employees] an opportunity to improve their behavior.

The bill would outlaw unjust and arbitrary firings. You can still fire somebody for just cause or if it’s financially necessary for your business to do so.

These protections are the norm in a lot of other countries. I think [the bill] would really shift the power balance to everyday working-class folks, workers, small businesses, neighborhoods and communities.

How do you respond to critics who say your bill would make it harder for certain workers to get hired in the first place?

We just haven’t seen that happen. [City Comptroller] Brad Lander was the prime sponsor [of the legislation that extended the protections to fast-food workers in New York]. And I think it was the University of Minnesota that did a study that showed that we didn’t lose jobs [as a result]. Corporations didn’t move. In fact, the fast-food sector has seen unprecedented growth since the passage of [Lander’s] bill. ■

ASHLEY HOLT

A beginner’s guide to crypto and where it stands in New York

BY JACK GRIEVE

WHAT IS CRYPTOCURRENCY?

CRYPTOCURRENCY, in its simplest terms, is a type of encrypted digital cash.

Cryptocurrency and the blockchain technology that enables it are inherently complicated.

The concept challenges our traditional understanding of currency, and its proponents might seem to be using a dictionary of their own. “Coins” are not change that we keep in our pockets, and “mining” has nothing to do with digging underground.

Many people do not fully understand what crypto is. If that includes you, you’re in the right place.

Unlike money issued by a central bank, cryptocurrencies do not exist in a physical form. Rather, they are stored in a computerized database. Crypto sometimes can be used to buy regular goods and services, but the currencies are more often treated as investments.

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, and it is the most well known. Other examples are Ethereum, Litecoin and Dogecoin

One can buy crypto on exchanges such as Coinbase SoFi, Venmo and several other financial technology companies have opened their platforms to crypto trading.

Crypto is designed to be decentralized, meaning no single entity oversees transactions. Crypto’s self-regulating function is a key draw for enthusiasts, as no central bank or government sponsor is required

HOW IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT REGULATING CRYPTO?

ONE OF THE BIGGEST STICKING POINTS in federal efforts to regulate the industry is determining whether crypto tokens should be considered securities or commodities.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has argued for the former. Chairman Gary Gensler has said most cryptocurrencies outside of Bitcoin are securities that must play by the same rules as stocks and other investments overseen by his agency.

Meanwhile, many industry advocates say crypto more often functions like a commodity and thus should be overseen by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. But consumer advocacy groups say the SEC has greater resources and a stronger investor-protection mandate than the futures market regulator.

Existing law leaves that distinction up to the near 80-year-old Howey test, whereby a transaction is a security if it is determined to be an investment contract. Congress could set guidelines for the industry, but previous attempts have stalled. That means, at least for the time being, both bodies will continue to have their hands on the scales, with the SEC and CTFC each bringing enforcement actions against key players in the industry.

WHAT IS A BITLICENSE?

PUT SIMPLY, a BitLicense is the required credential for companies that want to facilitate crypto transactions in New York. Among its requirements are regular audited financial statements and systems to thwart money laundering.

Getting a BitLicense involves submitting two years’ worth of audited financial statements, registering with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and providing an independent assessment of the applicant’s systems to detect money laundering. The New York DFS recently began charging BitLicense recipients for the costs of that supervision and examination, similar to how banks are regulated.

When the BitLicense first took effect in 2015, critics called its requirements too slow and onerous for a fast-moving new industry. But some 30 companies eventually bought into it or received a related state trust-charter for virtual currency. Now New Jersey and other states are considering their own version of a crypto-specific license.

HOW DOES BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY WORK?

THE BLOCKCHAIN IS ESSENTIALLY a public ledger system that records transactions electronically and keeps track of who owns what. The blockchain is public and exists on computer servers around the world—which is what allows crypto to act independent of a central authority.

Ledger entries are sorted into blocks, which are chained together so that they can be tracked over time. The ledger is protected by cryptography, which makes it difficult for an outsider to modify or hack it. The system is sufficiently robust that millions of users now trust blockchain technology to record financial transactions—and that trust is the basis of the currencies’ value.

HOW BIG IS THE CRYPTO INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK?

CRYPTO HAD A FIVE-YEAR STINT as the fastest-growing subsector of startup creation in New York. It reached its peak at the end of 2021, when the startups were on track to raise $6.5 billion from investors—the most of any U.S. region.

Last year brought trouble for crypto, wiping $2 trillion from their total market value and rocking the New York environment. Investor dollars froze, and there were layoffs at city-based startups that had risen to multibillion-dollar valuations months earlier.

Despite the turmoil, there are signs the industry is rebounding. Currency values are beginning to rise again. Bitcoin, for example, reached $30,000 April 11, up 80% from the start of the year, although still far from its high point of $65,000 in 2021. Meanwhile, large financial institutions continue to carve out their space in the crypto world, and some firms see hope in what’s poised to become a more regulated industry.

HOW IS CRYPTO REGULATED?

NEW YORK WAS THE FIRST STATE to regulate crypto with the introduction of the BitLicence in 2015.

Since the crash last year, officials across the state have been rushing to crack down on the industry. State Attorney General Letitia James, for example, has sued crypto companies that she says are violating New York’s investor protection laws.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill in November imposing a two-year moratorium on allowing new gas-powered crypto-mining facilities. The law keeps the state from issuing new permits to companies that wish to begin mining in facilities that use a carbon-based fuel. The mining requires considerable amounts of electricity.

The Department of Financial Services, the powerful state banking regulator, has expanded its staff of industry inspectors and has new powers to charge companies for inspections. Lawmakers in the current Legislature session are considering bills that would add certain types of crypto scams to the penal code and require greater disclosures in the advertising of crypto products.

BUCK ENNIS

BITCOIN ATM at T imes Square

GARY GENSLER

LETITIA JAMES

BLOOMBERG

BLOOMBERG

SL Green CEO took half his bonus in landlord’s shares

BY AARON ELSTEIN

Even when times are tough, New York office landlords invariably speak with great enthusiasm about their company’s prospects. But talk is cheap and analysts are closely watching to see if they are putting their money where their mouths are.

SL Green Realty Chief Executive Marc Holliday, who last month insisted “things are coming around in the right direction,” demonstrated his faith in the future by electing to get 50% of his 2022 bonus paid in shares instead of cash, according to a regulatory filing.

Commercial real estate optimists are tough to find when interest rates are rising and remote work habits harden. SL Green, Manhattan’s largest office landlord, report-

ed in April that the vacancy rate at its buildings rose in the first quarter at its fastest rate since the pandemic.

The board had awarded Holliday a $2.1 million cash bonus, $400,000 more than in 2021, because it said he delivered a successful year “in many respects.” But the CEO sensed that the bonus wouldn’t go over well with investors after SL Green’s stock price fell last year by more than half.

“Marc’s election reflects his strong belief in the underlying value of the company and his desire to be aligned with shareholders,” a spokesman said.

Holliday’s show of confidence was outmatched by Tony Malkin, CEO of the owner of the Empire State Building, the tower acquired by his grandfather more than 60 years ago. Last year Malkin took all of his $1.5 million bonus in Empire State Realty Trust shares for at least the fifth consecutive year, according to regulatory filings. The shares vest over three years and Malkin gets a

20% boost to his grant in exchange for waiting, filings show.

Paramount Group CEO Albert Behler’s faith in an office recovery may be wavering slightly. Last year he swapped 50% of his nearly $1.8 million bonus into stock and kept the rest in cash, according to a filing. He exchanged 100% of his $2.2 million cash bonus for 2021 into shares and 80% in 2020. Paramount’s office portfolio is in Manhattan and San Francisco.

A Paramount Group spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Vornado Realty Trust CEO Steven Roth took a cash bonus last year for the first time since 2015. He already controls 5% of his company’s stock and was awarded 118,000 shares last year that vest over time.

CEO pay

Most CEOs of publicly traded New York office landlords saw little change in their total pay last year. The exception was Holliday, whose compensation fell 20%, mainly because of a drop in the value of stock awards.

At S&P 500 companies, bonus pay edged down by 5% last year,

consulting firm ISS Corporate Solutions said last week. Median CEO pay rose by 3%, to $14 million, because any declines in salary or cash bonuses were more than offset by higher stock and options grants.

“Lower bonus and annual incentive payouts were expected over the last year, given a challenging oper-

ating environment for many bluechip companies,” said Roy Saliba, managing director at ISS Corporate Solutions. “It’s surprising to see, however, the magnitude of increases in stock and option awards, particularly when viewed against the backdrop of last year’s market volatility.” ■

THE BOaRD HAD AWARDED HOLLIDAY A $2.1 MILLION CaSH BONUS, $400,000 MORE THAN IN 2021.

BLOOMBERG

SL GREEN’S Marc Holliday was awarded a $2.1 million bonus for 2022.

resources for food, housing and financial assistance.

Covid infections in New York City have decreased significantly, to an average of 267 cases a day, according to the Health Department. Though the falling number of infections has reduced the need for some public health emergency programs that connected New Yorkers with testing and medical care critical at the height of the pandemic, inequity in marginalized communities persists. Community groups that received a windfall of cash say the evaporation of funding has pushed them to rethink their public health workforce, ultimately breaking down programs that served vulnerable New Yorkers.

Funding to community-based organizations and the public health sector—which has historically been under-resourced—prepared New York for upcoming emergencies, ranging from infectious disease outbreaks to climate crises, El-Sadr said.

“What I worry about is that the investments are going to go away, and those systems will be eroded over time,” El-Sadr said.

More expectations

Dr. Ashwin Vasan, commissioner of the city’s Health Department, said at a city budget hearing earlier this year that the agency is concerned about how the disintegration of federal funding will affect public health infrastructure.

“Our experience with Covid-19 has, frankly, raised the expectations for our public health responses and for public communication,” Vasan said.

After the onset of the pandemic, the city received billions of dollars in federal funding that must be spent by fiscal 2027. The bulk of this funding came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Education and the American Rescue Plan’s allocation to state and local fiscal recovery.

TRANSPORTATION

The city’s Health Department received $76 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan, according to the city comptroller’s office.

Vasan said the agency is “concerned with long-term funding from the federal government to support public health infrastructure,” including public health and hospital preparedness funds that helped the city deploy nurses to overwhelmed hospitals and ramp up infectious disease surveillance and lab capacity. This funding, Vasan said, helps health departments and their partners fight future crises, such as hurricanes and bioterrorism.

The NYC Test & Treat Corps, a part of the public health system New York City Health + Hospitals, received $2.5 billion in federal Covid relief from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, FEMA and the Treasury, said Adam Shrier, a spokesperson for the health system.

The federal funding was put to work supporting the day-to-day operations of the city’s Health Department and hospital system and bringing testing and treatments directly to communities atrisk of worse Covid outcomes, including the resource navigator program.

The resource navigator program was offered through H+H’s NYC Test & Treat Corps, connecting New Yorkers with Covid-19 to resources that eased the quarantine process. H+H partnered with community-based organizations that called people directly to ensure they could access these supports. In all, the program connected 32,000 New Yorkers to isolation hotels; delivered 2.3 million meals, nearly 600,000 care packages containing masks and thermometers, among other necessities; and provided $2.1 million in cash assistance.

The program started as a resource for people with Covid, but as post-Covid illness became a greater concern, H+H developed the After-

Care program in April 2021 to continue to connect patients to care after they recovered from the virus. AfterCare navigators have called more than 500,000 people who were previously infected with Covid-19, referring 57,000 individuals—including those with long Covid symptoms—to health, social and financial assistance programs.

The AfterCare program will cease operations with external community organizations in early May, continuing only through H+H. But the program won’t end entirely when the federal Covid emergency comes to a halt; New Yorkers will still have the ability to call navigators that can connect them to post-Covid care centers, such as the H+H Covid-19 Centers of Excellence.

Staffing problems

As the program slows down, community-based organizations are reshifting their staff and plan-

with people who are uninsured or undocumented, who may not readily go to hospitals or medical clinics, to get vaccines or treatments, he said.

For several organizations, dwindling funds have meant personnel cuts

The City University of New York’s School of Public Health announced earlier this year that it would lay off 70 workers with the resource navigator program, effective by May 11, although Ariana Costakes, a CUNY School of Public Health representative, previously told Crain’s that the contract with H+H was to run through June 30. The School of Public Health had hoped to continue the program for another year beyond that. Now the public health ser vices it offered through the program will cease to exist.

BronxWorks, a human services organization based in Mount Hope, announced in late March that it would cut 40 employees effective May 16. The contract with H+H was also scheduled to run through June, but it will end a month early.

Medicaid enrollment—another Covid relief measure that provided enrollees with coverage they did not need to be recertified for during the pandemic—comes to a halt in the next year, low-income communities will face repeated disruptions to care.

RiseBoro has four resource navigators that are budgeted until the end of June, Leto said, and after that the program will end entirely, and the organization will pivot to health and wellness programs that are less focused on Covid.

Even as infections become less common, Leto said, there is still a need to bring health resources out into city neighborhoods.

“Any sort of health and wellness work we are doing in the community, there is going to be a need for No. 1, talking about long Covid, and No. 2, talking about vaccine hesitancy,” Leto said.

The work’s not over

ning how to meet the needs of future health emergencies.

Chris Leto, director of outreach and special projects at RiseBoro Community Partnership, a social services organization based in Bushwick, said community health workers were a reliable and trusted source of information during the pandemic. The loss of those workers could diminish access to critical health information among people who face obstacles to access care, he said.

Although the city has made an effort to hire more community health workers within various hospitals, Leto said, workers with community organizations bring invaluable insights about a patient’s living situation and address the social determinants of health. In addition, community organizations work

These organizations say they have attempted to reassign the workers who will be let go to other programs. Still, health services will be disrupted, eroding the system that allowed these organizations to swiftly respond to other outbreaks, such as the flu and mpox, leaders say.

“We were able to ramp up this program so quickly,” said Amanda Brown, director of the navigator program at BronxWorks. “That may not always be the case.”

Resource navigator programs served more than just medical needs, Leto said, connecting food-insecure New Yorkers to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Women, Infants and Children’s benefits and assisting people in finding housing or paying for rent.

Many of these organizations serve low-income and marginalized New Yorkers. As continuous

City health programs that leveraged community-based organizations brought resources directly to neighborhoods—a model of public health preparedness that could be used to treat a number of health crises facing the city, including HIV, chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, and the opioid epidemic, El-Sadr said.

This model is critical to targeting the health disparities observed with Covid-19 and many other illnesses, she added.

“There are people who haven’t had the access to services that they need,” El-Sadr said. “It’s our responsibility to go to them.”

Leto said the end of the Covid emergency will be an interesting phase for New York. He urged city agencies and nonprofits to work together to meet continued needs.

“We’re entering into a phase where nonprofits and our community partners will have to continue to navigate the challenges that were exposed by the pandemic,” Leto said. “We’re going to have financial challenges, workforce shortages, cost increases, things like long Covid. And it’s really going to require 100% of our attention.” ■

Italian developer launches campaign to rebuild Penn Station

BY AARON ELSTEIN

Imagine a Penn Station that isn’t a maze of confusing corridors, a place where the 600,000 passengers who use it daily can get to their trains or to the street easily. Imagine this rosy future without taxpayers being asked to cough up more money should the transformation project cost more than expected.

If you will it, it is no dream, insists ASTM, a Torino, Italy–based infrastructure developer that wants to rebuild Penn Station with a combination of public and private money. An official with the $3.7 billion-in-revenue company made his first public appearance to lay out his firm’s vision of a privately operated Penn Station.

“We’re talking about wholesale redesign and reconstruction of this building and making it work more than better—making it work well,”

Peter Cipriano, senior vice president for project development at ASTM North America, said at a panel sponsored by Community Board 5. “Elevators that actually work and are reliable are mandatory.”

ASTM’s idea of using private cash along with government funding for a massive public-works project recalls the way private investors kicked in $5 billion to help cover the $8 billion cost of rebuilding LaGuardia Airport. There are miles to go before any plan for Penn Station proceeds, but the fact that private investors see a business opportunity in the basement rail hub has sparked considerable excitement in the worlds of transportation and urban planning.

“This could be a game-changer in helping get the city the Penn Station it deserves,” said Alexandros Washburn, executive director of the Grand Penn Community Alliance.

State support needed

ASTM would pay to rebuild the station and cover any cost overruns in return for managing the station for 50 years. Its plan will need the green light from Gov. Kathy Hochul, who until recently maintained that the state’s share of the Penn Station project should be paid for by developing supertall towers around the neighborhood. The state venture with Vornado Realty Trust stalled along with the market for office space.

A senior official at Amtrak, Penn Station’s owner, said at a panel that the railroad would proceed with plans to add more tunnels and tracks—a project called Gateway— even if the state scraps its office-development proposal, known as the general project plan.

“I don’t think we ever thought we were going to rely on the GPP solely,” said Petra Messick, senior direc-

tor for Amtrak’s Gateway Program.

Private investment sounds enticing, but it can make projects more expensive because governments ordinarily borrow money at lower interest rates than developers do.

“It takes a lot of hard work to find exactly how you’re going to bring private capital into a project,” said Chris Ward, former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “People think it’s free money. It’s not. Someone has got to be paid back.”

ASTM, which manages toll roads in Italy, Brazil and the U.K., has signed high-profile architect Vishaan Chakrabarti, who seven years ago proposed to build a Penn Station no longer entombed by Madison Square Garden.

ASTM’s plan envisions the Garden staying put, but its attached 5,600-seat theater on Eighth Ave-

nue would get the boot; Chakrabarti praised such a plan as a “realistic concept,” allowing light to enter Penn Station while eliminating some of the hundreds of columns that crowd platforms at track level. MSG management would have to agree to part with the theater.

ASTM has not yet said what it expects the project will cost. It is expected to reveal that important detail, along with design and financing plans, in June, five years after Gov. Andrew Cuomo began paving the way to rebuild Penn Station. Even if the latest iteration is fast-tracked, it could be many years before commuters see a dignified Penn Station.

“The fact this private-development plan came out of nowhere and is being looked at closely tells me we’ve got a long way to go,” said Rachael Fauss, a senior policy adviser at Reinvent Albany. ■

“WHAT I WORRY ABOUT IS THAT THE INVESTMENTS ARE GOING TO GO AWAY, AND THOSE SYSTEMS WILL BE ERODED OVER TIME”

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to something that’s systematic.”

JPMorgan Chase & Co., which is building a new headquarters atop the Grand Central train shed, is paying for some repair work as a result of its new headquarters. Lieber hopes the proceeds from the years-delayed congestion pricing tolling program will fund the broader overhaul. If carried out over an accelerated, roughly 15-year timeline, a comprehensive rehabilitation would cost $2.7 billion, according to MTA estimates; stretching the timeline to 35 years would add $2 billion.

The bilevel train shed is made up of tracks, bridges and viaducts stretching from East 45th to East 57th streets, between Lexington and Madison avenues. The area was exposed to the elements before being covered and becoming the

ue for people to build buildings.”

foundation for roads, sidewalks and buildings that house some of the city’s major financial institutions. MTA officials said 24 privately owned structures have columns that interact with the train shed.

“I always like to say this is what made Midtown, Midtown,” Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA construction and development, told Crain’s. “It’s what created the real estate value, the economic val-

During a recent tour, MTA officials pointed out structures supporting the roof of the train shed, where a yearslong drip of liquids has eaten away metal and crumbled concrete. On one platform, a steel beam was so corroded that it resembled a stretched length of putty, with its midsection narrowing and cracking. On another platform, a pile of concrete rubble sat below a structure with exposed rebar; workers had hammered away at the loose concrete to ground it before it could fall and hit a train.

More construction is on the way. An update to zoning rules in East Midtown allowed builders to replace existing properties with larger skyscrapers. At the time it was approved, the city expected the rezoning to create about 6 million square feet of commercial space, with requirements that projects include upgrades for transit and public space.

That expected development boom has been recently tempered as the commercial real estate industry seeks to recover from the pandemic, which shrank the need for new offices.

Decades of decay

Over the years water and de-icing chemicals have leaked from the street onto the train shed’s steel and concrete. The spaghetti of utility lines for gas, water and other infrastructure has created punctures and further diminished the train shed’s waterproofing system, the MTA said. Climate change also comes into play as rainfall from storms becomes more intense. The result is rust and decay, largely near ventilation points and where the curb and the street meet. Throughout the train shed, several repairs can be observed, given away by their relatively fresh coat of paint. Michael Feinberg, senior director of projects at the MTA construction and development’s railroad business unit, said there are a “couple hundred” deterioration points the MTA is monitoring.

The work seemingly never ends. “We’re only hitting the worst areas as other areas continuously deteriorate,” said Anthony Tufano, senior vice president of the railroad business unit. “We’re just chasing and chasing it.”

Private partners

The MTA is collaborating with JPMorgan to replace the train shed roof at 270 Park Ave.—among the first projects to take advantage of the East Midtown rezoning—and the surrounding area, where the financial giant is building a 60-story global headquarters.

In 2022 the authority awarded a contract to John Civetta and Sons for the $300 million roof replacement, $66 million of which is coming from JPMorgan. As part of the project, the MTA will widen cityowned medians along Park Avenue to create public space. The effort is expected to be completed by February 2027.

A series of temporary support structures are in place beneath 270 Madison, and JPMorgan’s project added a massive structural wall that runs several stories down to support the new construction. “The East Midtown rezoning added all of this potential density without really contemplating how much more structure was required underground,” Torres-Springer said. “It’s not something people normally think about.”

Alfred Cerullo, president of the Grand Central Partnership, the business improvement district that serves 70 blocks in Midtown, said he’s been impressed by the MTA’s transparency during the Park Avenue project. He does worry, however, about the broader replacement work stretching on for a nebulously long time.

“Is it 20 years? Is it 30 years? Will they be able to accomplish it in 15 years? Whatever it is, it sounds like forever,” Cerullo said, “and it means we will be managing through major construction through more than a decade. And that’s a concern.”

Congestion pricing crunch

MTA officials pointed to congestion pricing as a key mechanism to fund future work at the train shed. The authority plans to sell $15 billion in bonds against $1 billion in annual revenue from the tolling

program to finance a slice of the agency’s 2020–24 capital program.

But congestion pricing is idling. The MTA is waiting for the Federal Highway Administration to reach a decision on the MTA’s 4,000-page environmental assessment of the proposed tolling program, which would charge most motorists traveling into Manhattan south of 60th Street.

“Projects like the train shed that are maybe lower on the radar [are] exactly the type of project that should be funded with congestion pricing and other sources,” said Rachael Fauss, senior policy adviser at government watchdog Reinvent Albany.

“This speaks to the urgency of getting it done now,” Fauss added. “It was fully intended for $15 billion to be for the current capital plan, but if we want congestion pricing to also be secure for future plans, it needs to start right now.”

A Federal Highway Administration respresentative said the agency was working closely with the MTA and planned to issue a decision soon but would not be more specific. Leiber chalked up the delay to a lot of technical back-andforth. He’s optimistic that the authority will get the green light, he said.

In the meantime, delays have consequences. The MTA said it doesn’t expect congestion pricing to take shape until the second quarter of 2024, which shaved $250 million in expected revenue from the authority’s capital plan for 2024.

At the MTA’s February board meeting, Fauss testified that the current capital program had only received 17% of funds budgeted, or nearly $9.7 billion of $55 billion—a slower pace compared to the past two capital plans.

MTA officials are working on what’s known as the 20-year needs assessment, scheduled for release in the fall. It’s a key planning document that will inform what major projects make it into the next capital program, including the work at the train shed.

“The main thing is we got to have the money,” Lieber said. “Congestion pricing is a huge piece of the programs to come out of the next couple [of] five-year cycles. The train shed is one of the reasons we need it so much.” ■

“WE’RE ONLY HITTING THE WORST AREAS AS OTHER AREAS CONTINUOUSLY DETERIORATE”

CAROLINE SPIVACK

JPMORGAN’S new under-constr uction headquarters at 270 Park Ave.

THE FOOTPRINT OF THE GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL TRAIN SHED A map showing the perimeter of the train shed and the building and streets above it.

IMMIGRANT-RUN CATERER FINDS A NEW LIFE

By pivoting to novel revenue streams, Eat Offbeat is rebounding from pandemic challenges

BY OLIVIA BENSIMON

Manal Kahi could have called it quits in March 2020, when her company, Eat O beat, lost 100% of its business practically overnight. It was a tough time to be a corporate caterer as pandemic shutdowns kept people away from the o ce.

But the sta and the chefs behind Eat Obeat—a team made up of immigrants and refugees—wanted the business to persevere.

So they quickly pivoted, rst by repackaging their catering best-sellers into individual portions for customers to order online, then by launching a subscription business, and nally by adding a line of shelf-stable goods and treats they could ship nationally.

“Every single person on the team has had to build their life three, four times over,” said Kahi, originally from Lebanon. She co-founded the company with her brother Wissam Kahi. “Being able to adapt so quickly was the only thing that helped us survive so far.”

When Kahi rst moved to the city in 2013 to pursue her master’s degree in environmental a airs, the hummus she found in stores gave her pause. She felt New Yorkers were getting short-changed on it, quali-

ty-wise. It led her to want to bring more traditional global dishes to the city.

e company launched in 2015 with a threefold mission: to provide quality jobs in the food industry for refugees in New York; to create connections between customers and cooks; and nally, through that, to change the narrative around refugees and immigration.

“Our chefs are here to contribute. ey’re adding to the local economy and not taking anything from it. ey start businesses. ey’re employing. ey’re hiring. ey’re opening up opportunities,” Kahi said. “ at’s really part of the message we want to convey: As long as they’re given the opportunity, they’re here to thrive.”

rough a partnership with the New York branch of the International Rescue Committee, Eat O beat hires recently relocated refugees. Applicants don’t need prior experience in a professional kitchen; being a home cook with a desire to share food from their home country is enough.

True to its mission

e dishes the company sells are its cooks’ family recipes: jollof rice from Chef Mariama from Senegal, Venezuelan carne mechada from Chef Lebjulet, a Sri Lankan dal from

Chef Shanthi, some hummus from Chef Diaa from Syria.

A testament to the team’s hard work, Eat O beat opened a storefront in the Chelsea Market last June, followed by another, on Madison Avenue and East 56th Street, in December.

Before the pandemic, the company said it doubled its revenue year after year and was on track to exceed $2 million in revenue in 2020. Now Eat O beat is projecting it will hit $1 million in revenue for 2023 through retail sales and the slow return to catering, Kahi said.

As more people come back to the o ce and events spring back in full force, Kahi hopes Eat O beat will soon be able to return to its prepandemic output. Revenue is currently split 50-50 between the rm’s brick-and-mortar shops and catering— which itself is split between high-end catering for galas and other events, and a more casual delivery line. e rm has also started hosting private events in its Chelsea Market space, which can welcome up to 70 people.

“We’ve pivoted a lot. We’ve changed our model, but we’ve always stayed true to our one thing. It’s always been food, and it’s always been made by refugees and immigrants

FOCAL POINTS

FOUNDED 2015

FULL-TIME STAFF 20

CEO Manal Kahi

PROJECTED 2023 REVENUE

More than $1 million

BUSINESS MIX The company sells global dishes sourced from the family recipes of immigrant cooks and chefs. Its heritage business is corporate catering, but it branched into online ordering and a subscription model during the pandemic. It recently opened two storefronts, one in Chelsea Market and the other on Madison Avenue and East 56th Street.

CHICKPEA LETDOWN Kahi brie y considered creating a hummus business after her arrival in the city in 2013, when she was confronted by a sea of disappointing versions of the basic dip she had back home in Lebanon. But she decided against it because of the need to add preservatives, plus the market was oversaturated anyway.

WEBSITE eatoffbeat.com

in New York City,” Kahi said. “We’ve always remained very true to our mission. e tools might change, but at the end of the day, we’re still doing the exact same thing.” ■

KAHI hopes Eat Offbeat will soon be able to return to its prepandemic output. BUCK ENNIS