REAL ESTATE SPECIAL REPORT
Midtown makeover
The Adams administration has launched a plan to rezone large swaths of Midtown in an effort to boost the city’s housing supply. The plan would encompass 42 blocks and centers on converting empty of ce buildings into residential properties, an idea that has gained prominence since the onset of the pandemic.
Old, plain of ce buildings face a moment of crisis
Special Garment Center District:
This area of the rezoning plan is known as the Special Garment Center District and runs between Broadway and Eighth Avenue and between West 35th Street and West 40th Street.
Midtown South: The rezoning also includes the portion of Midtown South running between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue and between East 35th Street and East 39th Street.
Adams’ rezoning proposal aims to transform Midtown
Scrapping old manufacturing zones in the middle of Manhattan could unlock housing, if landlords get on board |
A state plan to build skyscrapers around Penn Station seems all but dead, and hopes of ambitious new housing construction in New York are stalled by inaction in Albany. But Mayor Eric Adams may yet manage to transform a major chunk of Manhattan through other means: nally discarding the industrial zones that sit in the middle of Midtown and letting them evolve into bona- de neighborhoods.
If the city rezones the 42 blocks that Adams laid out last month, their transformation might not play out on the street level, but within the walls of the imposing loft buildings that now sit largely empty thanks to the devastating
Landlords of the city’s so-called Class C properties weigh their future as of cials push for conversions into residential
By C. J. Hughes
ey’re a xture of the city that can seem as commonplace as pizza slices and pigeons: small, old o ce buildings with no-nonsense lobbies and mom-and-pop-type tenants, often tucked away on side streets.
But these properties, known in real estate lingo as Class C buildings— Class A designates the newest, most amenity-laden properties, followed by the slightly older and smaller buildings in Class B— appear to be facing an existential crisis, according to some landlords, tenants and brokers.
As hybrid work has sapped the need for square footage and layo s begin to gut payrolls, Mayor Eric Adams is ramping up e orts to turn obsolete ofce buildings into housing. An
By Nick Garber and Eddie Small
one-two punch of industrial decline and the Covid-19 pandemic. It could result in Midtown looking more like downtown, which underwent a similar transition from o ces to apartments starting in the 1990s—or, in another sense, more like SoHo, whose onetime factory buildings were repurposed by creatives after falling into disuse.
With the unusual early support of both local City Council members, the Midtown plan stands a strong chance of getting approved next year. But whether it succeeds in creating housing may depend on factors outside of the city’s control, like action from state lawmakers and the appe-
tites of local landlords.
e e ort, known formally as the Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan, focuses on four collections of blocks between 23rd and 41st streets, bounded by Fifth and Eighth avenues. ey have been zoned for decades to allow only industrial uses. e target area includes the Garment District, as well as less prominent sections of Flatiron and Chelsea lined with ofces, hotels and former factories.
e potential is clear—as many as 6,700 apartments could be built in the Garment District alone by converting old industrial buildings, according to the local
See REZONING on Page 14
obvious target, observers say, are early-20th-century structures with scarce amenities that have a hard time competing for tenants even in a strong market. And when Manhattan’s vacancy rate is pushing 20%, Class C’s may be the ultimate low-hanging fruit for conversions.
“I’ve never seen it this bad, and I just don’t see things improving anytime soon,” said David Berley, 84, the chairman of Walter & Samuels, who has been investing in Class C’s since he and his partners sunk $5,000 into an aged West 20th Street property in the early 1960s. Today Berley’s Manhattan-spanning portfolio is loaded with Class C’s, some of which are struggling with vacancy rates of 50%.
“Buildings have vacancy
See CLASS C on Page 38
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BY THE NUMBERS
Square feet of of ce space in Manhattan.
450M
Chelsea: The rezoning encompasses part of Chelsea as well, running between Sixth Avenue and Eighth Avenue and between West 24th Street and West 31st Street.
Historic districts: This area includes the Madison Square North and Ladies’ Mile historic districts. It runs between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue and between East 23rd Street and East 31st Street.
Source: City of New York Department of City Planning
Mark Weiss of Cushman & Wake eld in front of 1372 Broadway | BUCK ENNIS
Mount Sinai to close Beth Israel hospital campus, sparking pushback from advocates, elected officials
By Jacqueline
Mount Sinai will close its Beth Israel hospital campus on 16th Street, Crain’s has learned.
Leadership plans to initially reduce the hospital’s inpatient bed count, then operate with fewer beds as the campus “gradually” closes, Mount Sinai spokeswoman Lucia Lee confirmed on Sept. 13. She added that Mount Sinai made the decision because of mounting financial pressures and “years of agonizing debate and analysis.”
For now, the hospital and its emergency department remain open.
“Despite massive investments and upgrades, in the past 10 years MSBI has sustained losses in excess of $1 billion,” Lee told Crain’s “Nevertheless, losses have escalated and MSBI is on track to lose an additional $150 million this year. Maintaining the status quo is no longer an option.”
Sinai will offer impacted unionized staff roles with the same titles and pay at other locations in the system.
Crain’s approached the hospital system for details on the plans after reviewing text messages suggesting the closure was imminent.
Labor and supply costs have grown as the hospital’s inpatient census has dropped, Lee said, and Beth Israel is currently running at 20% capacity. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cost
reports show that Beth Israel recorded an operating loss in 2022, bringing in $801 million in net patient revenue but spending more than $1 billion on operating costs. In August, credit rating firm Moody’s lowered Mount Sinai Hospital’s rating, citing a weaker performance for the Upper East Side hospital driven by high permanent labor expenses and liquidity troubles.
Need for ongoing care ‘acute’
Health care advocates and lawmakers were apprehensive that the closure could threaten quality of patient care. State Assemblyman Harvey Epstein, who has vocally opposed Mount Sinai’s past plans for the hospital, said Beth Israel has been an “integral part” of the downtown community.
“The need for ongoing care is acute,” Epstein said. “We’ve already lost a lot of hospital beds in our neighborhoods, in our city, and especially in downtown. And this will just exacerbate a problem that we’ve seen happening.”
Epstein released a statement with other lawmakers Sept. 14, including City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, criticizing Mount Sinai’s lack of engagement with the community around the closure and its decision to shut down Beth Israel when Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the rise in the city.
“We will be exercising all oversight authority to hold them accountable,” it reads.
don’t have time to drive additional blocks to get to treatment,” said McLennon-Wier, who is blind.
Long saga
The closure would be the latest twist in a long saga surrounding the ailing hospital, which was founded in 1889, and is not the first time Mount Sinai has planned to downsize Beth Israel.
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In the past 25 years, 20 hospitals have closed across the city, according to a 2022 Crain’s analysis, including 12 in communities with a higher proportion of low-income residents and residents of color. The trend has amounted to a 5,800-bed loss, and six city districts now have no hospital at all, running the risk of widening health care disparities among already marginalized groups.
Sharon McLennon-Wier, the executive director of Midtown-based Center for Independence of the Disabled New York, said that could happen if Beth Israel closes, too. The 16th Street campus serves many older New Yorkers and those with disabilities who often rely on public transportation to get to the hospital, are familiar with its location and have established relationships with their doctors, she said. Closing Beth Israel could change whether they’re able to access the care they need and potentially disrupt those relationships.
“If you have an emergency, it’s going to take longer to get to care and [in] some types of emergencies, time is of the essence. You
The health system originally announced plans to relocate the hospital to a smaller site in 2016 and filed an application with the state for the project in 2019, which was approved. But in 2021, Mount Sinai informed the community that Beth Israel wouldn’t be moved after all,
surfaced in 2022 and included divvying up the infirmary’s specialty services.
Mount Sinai has maintained that the merger is necessary to preserve NYEEI services for patients and the infirmary’s acute care hospital status. But community members argue that the potential plans would disrupt care access for vulnerable New Yorkers.
a group that opposes the merger, said the closure did not come as a complete surprise.
When merger opponents reviewed Mount Sinai’s certificate of need application for the project, they noticed “serious and repeated financial losses” from Beth Israel for the past several years, he said. He added that if the state had approved the merger, that would have tied the infirmary’s future to Beth Israel’s.
as the Covid-19 pandemic forced the health system to rethink aspects of how it provided care, according to a spokesman at the time. In a memo to employees that summer, the hospital said it would not need to maintain the “entire current MSBI campus” because not every part of the hospital saw usage. Instead, Sinai said it would choose parts of Beth Israel to modernize.
Most recently, the hospital has been embroiled in controversy surrounding a potential merger with the New York Eye & Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, a plan that
In light of their fears and Mount Sinai’s plans, State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald laid out stipulations the merger would need to meet in order to gain approval from the state earlier this summer.
Mount Sinai has not commented on whether or how the merger will move forward but told Crain’s on Sept. 13 that patients will still be able to access NYEEI specialty services as the 16th Street campus begins to close.
Will engage
Dr. Paul Lee, the founding member and president of the Save New York Eye & Ear Infirmary coalition,
Lee acknowledged the “immense challenges” of running a hospital and said he believes the only path forward for Mount Sinai is partnering with “vital stakeholders” for next steps.
Lucia Lee, Sinai’s spokeswoman, added that the health system will engage with community members and elected officials as it moves forward and that closing the 16th Street campus is a way to maintain Sinai’s ability to care for New Yorkers. She did not address questions about community concerns over the closure’s potential impact before publication but said Sept. 13 that Mount Sinai will consider options for opening a smaller hospital downtown.
2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023
Neber
“We’ve already lost a lot of hospital beds in our neighborhoods, in our city, and especially in downtown.”
State Assemblyman Harvey Epstein
Mount Sinai Beth Israel is currently running at 20% capacity, a spokeswoman said. | BUCK ENNIS
mounting financial pressures cited as lawmakers, advocates worry about quality of patient care
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Ex-CEO of Time Warner buys Upper East Side co-op from renowned microbiologist
the residence Jeff Bewkes bought from Jan Vilcek sports
views of Central park from several rooms
By C. J. Hughes
Jeff Bewkes, who turned HBO into a showcase for serialized dramas like The Sopranos before handling the merger of Time Warner and AT&T, has snapped up a co-op on the Upper East Side.
The three-bedroom, five-bath apartment at 920 Fifth Ave., No. 2A, cost Bewkes and his wife, Lisa Bewkes, $11 million, according to a tax record that appeared in the city register Aug. 25. The deal closed Aug. 15, the filing said.
Sporting Central Park views from several rooms, the corner unit also offers a nearly 680-square-foot living room, a formal dining room and a library in a prewar building at East 73rd Street. Its sellers were microbiologist and philanthropist Jan Vilcek and his wife, art historian Marica Vil-
cek, who seem to have tried to sell the apartment for years, at different price points. Indeed, No. 2A appears to have been on and off the market since 2019, when the Vilceks initially listed it for $15 million, according to StreetEasy, suggesting it took a discount of about 25% to find a taker.
A defector from communist Czechoslovakia in the mid-1960s, Jan Vilcek went on to develop the anti-inflammatory drug Remicade, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases.
The Vilceks also created and oversee a $150 million Upper East Side-based foundation to raise awareness of the contributions of immigrants to American society. The couple also are frequent benefactors of New York University’s medical school, where Jan taught.
Bewkes, for his part, left a job on Wall Street in the 1980s to transform HBO into something more than an outlet for boxing matches. He rose to the position of CEO in 1995, a few years before the award-winning Sopranos had its
debut while at the same time ushering in a new era of scripted high-budget cable TV programming.
Tenure as chief executive
In 2008 Bewkes succeeded Richard Parsons as the CEO of Time Warner but stepped down in 2018 as AT&T completed its $85 billion merger. AT&T ended up unloading its stake in the company for $43 billion to Discovery a
few years later. The Bewkes real estate deal is in rarefied company. In Manhattan in the second quarter, the median sale price of co-ops stood at $835,000, which was down about 4% from the previous year, according to data from the firm Miller Samuel prepared for Douglas Elliman. And the co-op market had more than nine months of supply to burn though, versus about six months in the second
quarter of 2022, the firm said. John Burger, the agent with Brown Harris Stevens who marketed the apartment on behalf of the Vilceks, had no comment on the transaction.
Billionaire Guy Wildenstein’s mansion by East River sells for $26.1M after seven years on and off market
By C. J. Hughes
The home of a controversial art dealer has found a taker at last.
Billionaire Guy Wildenstein’s sprawling townhouse at 7 Sutton Square, which was marketed on and off for seven years, has sold for $26.1 million, according to a deed that appeared in the city register Aug. 31.
When introduced in 2016 in a much stronger market, the asking
$33 million, so the trade happened at a more than 20% loss.
The buyer in the deal, which closed Aug. 21, was listed on a deed as a shell company called The Zhun Square. The company’s address in suburban Westchester County is a house owned by Yang Gui and Yang Lu, according to property tax records. Efforts to reach the couple were unsuccessful, and Loy Carlos, the Serhant agent who marketed 7 Sutton, did not reply to a request for comment.
Also, an email sent to Wildenstein & Co.’s New York office on Fifth Avenue in Midtown was not returned.
the late 1990s. A sensational divorce trial between Guy’s brother, Alec, and Alec’s ex-wife, Jocelyne, who was nicknamed the “catwoman” for the way she looked after allegedly extensive plastic surgery, was a staple of tabloids at the time. The couple lived in a different townhouse, on East 64th Street.
Legal woes in France
price for the 8,800-square-foot, East River-facing property was about $40 million.
Wildenstein, whose family firm, Wildenstein & Co., was founded in France in 1875 and specializes in works by European masters, purchased the five-bedroom Sutton Place property in 2008 for about
A 33-foot-wide property that’s a combination of two townhouses, 7 Sutton offers a living room with wainscoting, bay windows and a fireplace; a landscaped roof deck with a solarium-topped bar takes in the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. A centerpiece of the home is a spiral staircase.
The name Wildenstein was a familiar one to many New Yorkers in
But the family has more recently also been the subject of unfavorable news cycles. In 2016 Guy Wildenstein went on trial in France for tax fraud and money laundering for allegedly under-reporting much of the fortune he inherited when his father, Daniel, died in 2001. The family’s wealth, from works by Picasso, Monet, Cezanne and many others, was hidden in trusts in places including the Cayman Islands, according to French authorities, who hoped to get Guy Wildenstein to fork over $602 mil-
lion in back taxes and fines, and report to prison for 10 years.
But Guy, who argued that he didn’t know all the details of Daniel’s trusts, and that French law didn’t require them to be reported anyway, was acquitted in 2017. Still, a higher court later annulled
the verdict and ordered a new trial, which is set to take place this month.
In 2020 Wildenstein and his wife, Kristina Hannson, also listed their compound in upstate Millbrook, in Dutchess County, for $20 million.
4 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023
RESIDENTIAL SPOTLIGHT
$11M Sale price for No. 2A at 920 Fifth Ave.
No. 2A is in a prewar building at 920 Fifth Ave. BROWN HARRIS StEVENS
The apartment appears to have been on and off the market since 2019.
A landscaped roof deck with a solarium-topped bar takes in the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge.
REAL ESTATE SPECIAL REPORT
7 Sutton Square BUCK ENNIS
In record-breaking year for spending on lobbying, health care giants push to raise Medicaid payments
By Amanda D’Ambrosio Kenneth Raske
A hospital industry group and labor union led the charge in lobbying spending in 2022, a year that saw a record-shattering $331 million in overall spending in New York, the state’s ethics commission found. High spending among health groups represents a push to increase Medicaid rates and address labor issues.
The Healthcare Education Project, an organization jointly created by the labor union 1199SEIU and the Greater New York Hospital Association, earned first place on the list of top spenders, paying $5.7 million on lobbying efforts in 2022, according to a report released Aug. 28 by the state’s Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government.
Both GNYHA and the union also made the list of top spenders on their own, spending $3.4 million and $2.3 million on lobbying, respectively.
While it’s typical for health care groups to lead the pack of top spenders, health care spending this year seemed “particularly lopsided,” said Bill Hammond, senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center, an Albany-based think tank.
Spending was somewhat striking because of the political agenda put forth by Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022—mainly, that she did not come to office with a controversial health care agenda, Hammond said.
“In fact if you look at the budget, it was the most generous proposal a governor has made on health care in a long, long time,” Hammond said, noting that Hochul was amenable to significant Medicaid rate increases.
“So what was there for the industry to lobby about?” Hammond said. “The industry wanted even more.”
Medicaid rates
Kenneth Raske, president of GNYHA, said the organization’s spending on lobbying in 2022 was tied to its efforts to include more Medicaid funding in the recent budget, as well as stop health insurers from denying hospital claims.
“The results in the budget were not satisfactory,” Raske said. “Despite all of our efforts, and all the … help that we got from 1199, the budget result on Medicaid was still woefully inadequate.”
The final budget this year included a 7.5% Medicaid reimbursement rate increase for hospital inpatient services and nursing homes, as well as a 6.5% bump for outpatient hospital services and assisted living, an investment of $1.2 billion, according to the governor’s office. Some organizations called for a rate as high as 20%.
But with losses in funding from changes to the 340B drug program, which impacts safety-net providers, those increases were not enough, Raske said.
The pandemic exacerbated many
long-standing problems facing New York’s health care system, putting safety-net hospitals at the brink of closure, threatening access to long-term care and creating critical staffing shortages, said Bryn Lloyd-Bollard, a spokesperson for 1199SEIU.
“Against this backdrop, 1199SEIU members were very active in fighting for quality care across the state
in 2022,” Lloyd-Bollard said of the union’s lobbying contributions. “We invested significant resources as part of our efforts to raise awareness of important health care issues–including the need to close the Medicaid funding gap, secure fair pay for home care workers, improve staffing in nursing homes and address New York’s growing mental health crisis.”
Hammond said the health care
organizations have used challenges that affected hospitals and health care workers during the pandemic to bolster political efforts, running television advertisements that were often misleading about cuts to the Medicaid program to advocate for higher payments, for example. The Healthcare Education Project and 1199SEIU spent $5.5 million and $2.1 million on advertising, respectively.
Hammond added that GNYHA and 1199SEIU have become “lob-
bying juggernauts” that understand how to exert their influence.
“Separately, they would be very formidable political forces,” Hammond said. “When they are working together, they are very difficult to resist.”
Raske said GNYHA will “redouble” its lobbying efforts to secure additional Medicaid funding in the next budget.
“I do not know if we have the resources to do that,” Raske said. “But I do know that we have the will.”
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Supportive housing nonprofit Comunilife bringing 83-unit residential project to Bronx neighborhood
the development at 2444 tiebout Ave. in Fordham will stand 10 stories and 100 feet tall
By Eddie Small
A Manhattan nonprofit is bringing a new residential building to the Bronx.
Comunilife, a Garment Districtbased organization that is well known for its supportive housing developments, recently filed plans with the Department of Buildings for a project at 2444 Tiebout Ave. in Fordham. The building will stand 10 stories and 100 feet tall with 83
residential units and span about 60,000 square feet with a community facility on the second floor. Monica Lopez is the architect.
The $58 million project is known as the El Hogar Residence, and the units will be split between 50 homes for the frail elderly, 32 for very low-income seniors and one for the on-site superintendent, according to Comunilife President and CEO Dr. Rosa Gil. The group expects to start construction in
January and finish the project in the spring of 2026.
The property is owned by St. Barnabas Hospital, and it is currently home to a parking facility, city records show. Comunilife is buying the land from St. Barnabas but will partner with the hospital “to ensure that the tenants receive the health care they require to re-
main healthy and stably housed,” Gil said.
Comunilife recently received a roughly $95.6 million contract from the city to maintain 368 supportive housing units across developments in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens for people living with HIV/AIDS. The group was founded in 1989 and focuses on
Women-led performance space in Williamsburg buys its home
By C. J. Hughes
A Williamsburg showcase for avant-garde performances has changed hands. But the new owners are familiar faces.
The nonprofit National Sawdust, a 350-seat theater at 80 N. Sixth St., has purchased the brightly painted building that it calls home for $24 million, according to a deed that appeared in the city register Sept. 8.
The seller in the deal, which closed Aug. 30, was the development group that purchased the
former factory in 2009 for $2.3 million before embarking on a multiyear, $16 million renovation. Signing the paperwork for the seller, a Virginia-based limited liability company, was Kevin Dolan, a National Sawdust co-founder and tax attorney.
Under a unique fundraising arrangement apparently conceived by Dolan, National Sawdust during its drawnout reconstruction reportedly sold $7 million shares in itself to investors with the promise that those shares at a set time must be awarded back to the theater as gifts, allowing the investors to take deductions on their contributions.
Some of those investors appear to have seats on the theater’s board, based on public filings. Until 2009
Dolan worked as a lawyer for Merrill Lynch.
Ana De Archuleta, National Sawdust’s managing director, handled the acquisition on behalf of the theater, which is considered the only major arts organization in New York to be helmed entirely by women. Composer Paola Prestini, a co-founder, serves as its artistic director.
Variety of events
The building, which is enlivened with vivid murals at the corner of Wythe Avenue, has hosted small orchestras, dance performances, jazz shows, drone events and concerts by artists including Zorn since opening in 2015. An eighthour performance scheduled for December, “Breathless: Catie and the Robot,” will present a dancer engaging in pas de deux with a
providing affordable and safe housing to vulnerable communities. The group operates 3,059 housing units overall, according to its website.
Multifamily building plans
Developers filed plans for 12 multifamily buildings with 639 to-
tal units in the Bronx during the second quarter of the year, according to a report from the Real Estate Board of New York. That made it the second-busiest borough in the city last quarter, behind only Brooklyn, which saw 24 planned multifamily projects with 1,514 total units, according to the report.
6 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023
mechanical arm. Tickets for most events are between $20 and $35. Executives at National Sawdust could not be reached by press
time. And a phone message left for Dolan at his office at the firm Shearman and Sterling was not returned.
National Sawdust purchased the brightly painted, 350-seat theater for $24 million, according to a deed.
Comunilife will partner with St. Barnabas Hospital “to ensure that the tenants receive the health care they require.”
Comunilife
President and CEO Dr. Rosa Gil
Fordham Road in the Bronx | BLOOmBERG
REAL ESTATE SPECIAL REPORT
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Mayor Eric Adams’ public statements on the migrant crisis are not helping
Mayor Eric Adams appears to have forgotten he’s no longer just a voice in the wilderness but the leader of the largest and richest city in America. Faced with a migrant crisis that would test the mettle of any public o cial, his governance has been plagued by miscommunication, missteps and the appearance of a captain who has lost control of his ship.
Let’s be clear: New York City’s migrant crisis is no small a air. With over 110,000 migrants housed in more than 200 emergency shelters, and a whopping $1.5 billion spent on this issue since the spring of 2022, it’s a colossal challenge. But Adams is the mayor of a city with a $107 billion budget, and he should act like it. Instead, his public demeanor has been one of agitation and discord, more be tting a protest leader than a person steering a massive ship through turbulent waters.
Worse, he’s alienating potential allies, starting with President Joe Biden. Adams said he hasn’t been in touch with the White House since early this year, a signi cant shift from the days when he was considered a potential surrogate for Biden. Ad-
ams is thwarting his own interests by disparaging Biden’s handling of immigration, particularly when Republican lawmakers have shown zero interest in compromise.
Business leaders know they have only so much control of the economy, or the weather, or what elected o cials do. But they’re required to run their operations well and maximize their people and other resources available. Adams should be en-
listing allies inside and outside of government, including the business community, to nd solutions.
Could learn from governor
Instead, Adams is engaging in Trumplike scapegoating of migrants, declaring that “this issue will destroy New York City.”
A city that weathered a pandemic and re-
bounded from a devastating terrorist attack will not be laid low by a humanitarian challenge.
In a recorded speech posted to YouTube on Sept. 9, Adams warned that city agencies might need to cut their budgets by up to 15% because of the migrant crisis. But let’s not be fooled: Less than half of the potential $14 billion budget gap next year is related to the crisis, according to the Citizens Budget Commission. Adams should be asking tough questions about labor contracts and other nancial commitments instead of blaming migrants and other levels of government.
He could learn something from Gov. Kathy Hochul. She wants more migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to be able to work sooner, so the governor has signaled in recent days that she’s considering ways to get more people to work through statebased means.
Adams needs to remember he’s in the mayor’s seat, not on a protest line. It’s time he showed leadership that matches the scale and complexity of the challenge he faces.
City plan for bike lanes on McGuinness Boulevard will overwhelm tranquility of residential side streets
Mayor Adams and the city’s transportation department have engaged in a protracted debate over the redesign of McGuinness Boulevard. is contentious plan has been fervently promoted by the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives as well as Assembly member Emily Gallagher and Council member Lincoln Restler. However, these politicians seem to have prioritized a subset of their constituents who support the addition of bike lanes on McGuinness Boulevard, even if it means sacri cing parking spaces or commercial lanes on this heavily used thoroughfare.
Advocates for the McGuinness bike lane argue that it’s primarily about safety, but it increasingly appears to be driven by a singular determination to have a bike lane on McGuinness Boulevard at any cost.
I founded Keep McGuinness Moving in the summer of 2022 after noticing that this project was primarily promoted on social media platforms. It seemed as though the politicians, and their associates, including the group Make McGuinness Safe,
deliberately targeted a speci c online audience. e strategy excluded Greenpoint residents who are not on social media, much less follow the particular groups regarding this “road diet.” When Keep McGuinness Moving canvassed the neighborhood, many residents were unaware of the proposed changes.
Measures we suggest
ose of us opposing this road diet plan genuinely care about the safety of Greenpointers, who currently enjoy peaceful residential side streets. is tranquility will be disrupted when thousands of cars and trucks are rerouted onto these local streets, as indicated by the Department of Transportation’s own gures. DOT’s 2021 data from the height of the pandemic indicated that over 55,000 cars and trucks use McGuinness Boulevard daily. ese numbers have undoubtedly increased as more people have returned to work. DOT has not conducted an updated study. Such substantial volumes of tra c will not simply vanish. Some may nd alternative routes,
but not all will, forcing tens of thousands of vehicles onto local side streets.
As a mother, I fear for my child’s safety every day when I push his stroller down these streets. e risk posed by bicyclists and e-bikers disregarding stop signs and red lights, which are often unenforced, is a constant concern.
In June, a two-year-old was struck by an e-bike while in a stroller, requiring hospitalization. is is a widespread fear for anyone walking with seniors or children. ese new bike lanes will also attract reckless scooter drivers. Who will be responsible for ensuring their compliance with tra c laws? Will the politicians and Make McGuinness Safe take on the task of policing these bike lanes?
Our proposed solutions for improving safety and commercial access do not involve narrowing the road and adding bike lanes. We suggest a combination of mea-
sures, including red light and speed cameras, electric speed warning signs, curb extensions, rumble strips, speed bumps, tra c signal timing adjustments, additional signals at highway o -ramps and increased police presence and enforcement to address reckless behavior by drivers and riders of various vehicles. ese solutions will address the real safety issues without these counterproductive road diet plans. Our goal is to keep everyone safe while maintaining access for all members of the neighborhood and stakeholders.
8 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 18, 2023
PERSONAL VIEW
EDITORIAL
Eric Adams | BLOOMBERG
Write us: Crain’s welcomes submissions to its opinion pages. Send letters and op-eds of 500 words or fewer to opinion@CrainsNewYork.com. Please include the writer’s name, company, title, address and telephone number. Crain’s reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity.
KATTUB/FLICKR
Averianna Eisenbach lives in Greenpoint and is the founder of Keep McGuinness Moving, which has the nancial support of 328 businesses and unions.
Renew tax abatement programs to refill pipeline of new housing
You already know New York City is a magnet for dreamers, professionals, and adventurers who want the vibrancy and opportunities that only our city can provide. With a little help from inflation, this demand has sent apartment rents to all-time highs, contributing to an ever-worsening affordability crisis, displacement of residents, and a rise in homelessness.
What you may not know is that a silent storm is brewing that threatens to further disrupt the supply-demand imbalance of apartments. The expiration of the 421-a and Affordable New York tax abatement programs has brought a near halt to new apartment development, promising to send shock waves through the city’s real estate market, with a surge in apartment rents being the likely outcome. The expiration of the 421-a and Affordable New York tax abatements has created a grim reality: The pipeline of new housing stock is drying up at an alarming rate. This scarcity is set to collide head-on with a rental market that continues to get increasingly expensive.
For years, tax abatements have been the lifeblood of new residential construction
PERSONAL VIEW
in New York City. The disturbing truth is that without them, there is little-to-no incentive for developers to start new projects. Exorbitantly high property taxes make the prospect of new construction daunting and, in most cases, financially unviable. Affordable housing developments depend especially on these abatements to balance their budgets. Without these crucial incentives, development has already stagnated markedly, creating a supply bottleneck that can only lead to an upward spiral in rent prices. In the past 10 years, there have been an average of 7,218 permits for new residential construction filed per year. That number shrunk to 3,223 last year, less than half the rate of normal new residential supply.
The impact of this crisis isn’t immediate. The qualification period for tax abatements ended only in June 2022, and it takes several years for new development projects to navigate the complex maze of approvals, construction, and finalization. This means that the units delivered to the market in any given year are the culmination of development efforts that began one to five
years prior. Consequently, the full brunt of the abatement expiration has yet to be felt.
According to RentHop, the rent for a 1-bedroom apartment has risen 43% in just the past three years. As the city’s population continues to grow and employment opportunities remain a strong lure, the demand for housing in New York City remains unrelenting. However, the housing supply cannot keep pace with this insatiable demand. The result is simple economics: When demand far outstrips supply, prices surge. In this case, apartment rents are poised to reach unprecedented heights.
Homebuying difficulty
Making matters worse in this perfect storm is that a shortage of home sale inventory, high home prices and high interest rates have made it nearly impossible for renters to become homeowners now,
meaning even more renters will remain renting.
The implications are profound, exacerbating problems like a shortage of affordable housing, displacement of legacy residents and families thrust into homelessness. If action is not taken promptly, the looming surge in apartment rents could escalate into a full-blown affordability crisis, reshaping the city in ways we can scarcely imagine. Urgent consideration must be given to new incentives that stimulate residential construction. The lifeblood of New York City is its people, and they deserve a place they can call home without the fear of being priced out.
How New York can reinvent itself after the pandemic
By Phil Friedman, Ed Cox and Lori Esposito Murray
New York City emerges from the pandemic facing a transformed economic and social landscape. Post-pandemic challenges—and exacerbated pre-existing ones—jeopardize its stature as a global commercial hub.
But risk is not fate. New York City has long been a model for reinvention, rising from economic disasters and the devastation of 9/11. It can rise again. The key: City and state officials must work with business leaders to leverage NYC’s strengths and address the challenges to attracting and retaining businesses, residents and tourists.
Part of the answer involves developing emerging economic sectors, including technology and health. Equally important is reinvigorating the city’s traditional pillars—finance and insurance, real estate, and leisure and hospitality.
The stakes are high: As the largest economy in the nation and among the largest in the world, New York’s recovery is imperative to the country’s growth and can be a model for other major cities, both domestically and globally. Remember: Cities generate over 80% of global GDP, and America’s biggest cities provide
the main engine for U.S. growth.
In many ways, New York City’s economy appears to be restored: The city’s boroughs have recovered 99.9% of the nearly 1 million jobs lost during the pandemic. Air travel has returned to prior heights, while hotel and leisure spending is likely to exceed pre-pandemic levels.
But New York still faces major economic hurdles.
Nearly 500,000 residents left the city during the pandemic. While some businesses permanently shuttered, others moved to places including Miami; Nashville, Tenn.; and Austin, Texas. Remote work has hollowed Manhattan offices; roughly 100 million square feet of office space—a record—sits vacant.
Reforming the city’s regulatory and tax burden to boost interstate competitiveness is key, including revisiting the state-andlocal tax deduction issue.
Relocated investment firms have moved $1 trillion in assets under management from New York and California since 2019, according to a Bloomberg report. Most moved to Sun Belt states, motivated by lower taxes, lower cost of living, crime and public safety concerns and warmer weather.
City and state officials must provide real estate developers greater flexibility by easing restraints around office-to-residential
conversions and new construction. The city should also prioritize investments in flexible development uses, like the Javits Center’s recent expansion, to remain a leading center for business travel and conventions.
Workforce investment
Global competition is also mounting. Financial centers in Asia and the Middle East have significantly invested in developing their workforces and building fintech and venture capital ecosystems. The U.K. is among several countries aiming to compete with New York by enhancing their local regulatory and tax regimes’ competitiveness.
City leaders should establish a taskforce on Revitalizing the New York City Economy, made up of public, private and nonprofit stakeholders. It should prepare a roadmap for leveraging New York’s strengths, including how to take advantage of the city’s financial capital and expertise.
New York must also support the recovery of the tourism and cultural sectors, by establishing an ongoing revenue stream with business support to promote these sectors.
Finally, New York must prioritize investing in its workforce. Expediting immigration reform, including removing the 150day waiting period before an asylum seeker can apply for a work permit, should
be a key federal priority. Also, New York’s K-12 schools, community colleges and universities should expand career-oriented curricula to offer students workplace skills for academic credit. Business partnerships, including high school internship programs, offer models for this.
New York’s response to today’s opportunities and challenges will have a significant impact beyond the Big Apple. If leaders adapt to the new economic realities, the city will remain a beacon of prosperity and be the model for other cities’ comebacks.
Phil Friedman is president and CEO of Computer Generated Solutions. Ed Cox is a former partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler. They are co-chairs of the Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board’s NYC Business Task Force.
September 18, 2023 | CrAIN’S NeW YOrK bUSINeSS | 9
ALA m Y
PERSONAL VIEW
Sam Eshaghoff is the managing principal of West Egg Development in Great Neck.
The demand for housing in New York City remains unrelenting. | bUCK eNNIS
Lori Esposito Murray is the president of the Committee for Economic Development.
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
HEALTH CARE
New York Spine Institute
New York Spine Institute (NYSI)
recently announced that Dr. Rohan Desai has joined the practice as an orthopedic surgeon. Dr. Desai will treat patients facing orthopedic and spine conditions at multiple NYSI locations across New York City and Long Island and perform surgical procedures at NYU Langone Hospital and Mercy Hospital. Dr. Desai focuses on cervical, thoracic and lumbar spinal disorders, spine trauma, degenerative conditions and specializes in minimally invasive surgeries.
HOSPITALITY & TOURISM
LaGuardia Gateway Partners
Suzette Noble has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of LaGuardia Gateway Partners (LGP), the manager and developer of the new LaGuardia Terminal B. Suzette previously served as LGP’s Chief Operating Officer. During her tenure as COO, the terminal achieved a perfect five-star rating and was named “World’s Best New Airport Terminal” by airport rating firm Skytrax.
Suzette has more than two decades of experience in guest experience and operations leadership.
LEGAL SERVICES
DarrowEverett LLP
Timothy Gladden has joined the firm as a partner in the Corporate & Business Transactions, and Private Equity, Capital Markets & Securities Practice Groups. He focuses primarily on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity investments, securities transactions, and other complex and general corporate matters. Gladden regularly represents clients in structuring, negotiating and managing transactions across a range of industries, including technology, financial services and more.
NONPROFIT
Sandy Hook Promise
Sandy Hook Promise is excited to announce that
Lauren Levin has re-joined the organization as Chief Advocacy Officer. Levin previously worked as the SVP of Policy and Partnerships from 2016-2022, helping to implement policy initiatives to prevent gun violence and make schools and communities safer. In this new role, Levin will bring her sharp leadership skills and breadth of policy experience to advance Sandy Hook Promise’s mission by enacting change at the state and federal levels.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Shapiro+Raj
Chelsey Merker has been promoted to the role of Senior Vice President, leading Shapiro+Raj’s Strategy and Research Excellence teams. Chelsey’s ability to unearth future-forward insights that drive impactful results has made her an invaluable leader at the firm. As Senior Vice President, Chelsey Merker will be at the forefront of shaping Shapiro+Raj’s strategic direction, contributing to the firm’s ongoing success and growth, and helping clients shape, not just respond to the future.
for more information,
Advertising Section
To place your listing, visit www.crainsnewyork.com/people-on-the-move or,
contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com
CrainsNewYork.com/CareerCenter Connecting Talent with Opportunity. From top talent to top employers, Crain’s Career Center is the next step in your hiring process or job search. Get started today SHOWCASE INDUSTRY LEADERS
Stein / dstein@crain.com
10 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 18, 2023
Debora
CrainsNewYork.com/POTM
Value-based care transforms the patient experience in New York City and beyond
Many patients, healthcare providers and insurers are frustrated by the traditional fee-for-service system, which is focused on providing care to as many patients as possible in a day, rather than on whether the care they receive helps them get better. More and more are finding a solution in value-based care, in which reimbursement is tied to patient outcomes, because they have found it keeps patients healthier, reduces the strain on providers and saves all parties money in the long run.
For insight into the fast-growing trend, Crain’s Content Studio spoke with Daniel Jorgenson, Vice President, Healthcare Networks, Empire BlueCross BlueShield (Empire). As the head of networks for Empire’s Medicaid, Medicare, and Commercial lines of business in New York, Daniel is the lead for all provider networks in the region, accountable for $20B+ in total health benefit spend.
JORGENSON: Shifting reimbursement from volume to value has for decades been considered an essential building block to improve the overall healthcare system but it was only after the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010 that we started to see more valuebased payment models being implemented with the increased introduction of accountable care organizations (ACOs) and bundled payments.
coordination and technology that help them better manage their patients’ – our members’ – care and costs. Later this year, Empire will be rolling out “EPHC 2.0,” which will be an even more beneficial program to providers.
CRAIN’S: How do you define value-based care, and how is this more outcome-based approach different from others being used?
DANIEL JORGENSON: Value-based care models reward doctors and other providers for care coordination, health outcomes, and the care experience, rather than reimbursing them for the volume of care provided under the traditional fee-for-service system. It gives providers the freedom to treat the unique needs of their patients while meeting evidence-based standards that help ensure all consumers benefit from high performance and align provider payments to quality outcomes like patient safety and satisfaction.
Value-based care increases preventive care, improves chronic condition management, reduces hospital admissions, incentivizes whole health, and ultimately helps lower costs for healthcare consumers and their employers.
CRAIN’S: When did valuebased care start coming to the forefront, and what trends are driving its adoption?
We expect to continue to see greater adoption of valuebased care as more employers, providers, and payers understand and see the benefits, and as artificial intelligence and more data sharing help transform patient engagement with their healthcare. As one of the largest health insurers in New York, we are working to share data
Our EPHC program currently includes 15,000 primary care providers and certain specialists who provide services to more than 822,000 members. As we continue to expand our value-based care models, we understand that providers need time to adapt to these methodologies. Empire is therefore committed to working with providers to put them on a glide path to success. While more providers are embracing value-based care, we still have work to do to bring all providers under this beneficial model because it ultimately can mean
both of which improve the healthcare experience for your employees. When your employees feel confident in their health coverage, they will be more likely to take proactive actions to improve their health. And better health outcomes drive better productivity and satisfaction among your workforce.
CRAIN’S: What do consumers need to know about valuebased care?
JORGENSON: Simply put, value-based care can improve
consumers’ experience and health outcomes. Primary care is the best place to start to reap the benefits of value-based care arrangements because primary care providers can influence much of downstream care as the first point of contact for patients. Empire’s data shows that our value-based care provider partners conduct more annual wellness visits with our members on average, which can help reduce emergency cases and inpatient admissions. This means a better healthcare experience for our members and better health outcomes overall.
with provider partners and ease administrative burdens to simplify their interactions with us as much as possible. This collaboration will, in turn, complement providers’ patient-specific actions and ultimately help improve health outcomes.
CRAIN’S: Is participation in value-based care limited to primary care providers?
JORGENSON: At Empire, our value-based solutions span the care continuum from primary care to specialty care to hospital and ancillary services. We are working to expand models such as our Enhanced Personal Healthcare (EPHC) program, where we pay providers a clinical coordination fee to fund investments in care
better access to healthcare and lower costs over time for everyone.
CRAIN’S: What do employers need to know about valuebased care?
JORGENSON: Your health plan is an integral partner in managing your healthcare costs. Rewarding value over volume and designing networks and plan benefits that offer choice will help deliver health coverage that leads to better outcomes at lower costs. Many health plans can help guide employees to high-performing care providers who excel at delivering quality, affordable care and personalized experiences through digital innovation and virtual care –
SPONSORED CONTENT
DANIEL JORGENSON
Vice President Healthcare Networks, Empire BlueCross BlueShield (Empire)
Services provided by Empire HealthChoice HMO, Inc. and/or Empire HealthChoice Assurance, Inc., dba Empire BlueCross BlueShield. Independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans. A02138NYEENEBS 10/22 Empire is here to materially and measurably improve the whole health and well-being of all New Yorkers. The confidence of whole health. empireblue.com
Rewarding value over volume and designing networks and plan benefits that offer choice will help deliver health coverage that leads to better outcomes at lower costs.
TOP PROPERTY SALES
Largest commercial transactions in New York City through the first half of 2023, ranked by price
12 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023 t HE LIS t
THE TOP
245 Park Ave. TRANSACTION PRICE $998 million 125 Greenwich St. TRANSACTION PRICE $598 million 1261-1281 Second Ave. TRANSACTION PRICE $403 million 1 Liberty Plaza TRANSACTION PRICE $490 million SOURCE: CoStar Group with additional research by Amanda Glodowski. This list includes leases with terms of at least two years. For quality control purposes, CoStar includes only deals where representatives for both the tenant and landlord are known. For more information, visit costar.com or call 800-204-5960. amanda.glodowski@crainsnewyork.com ADDRESS PROPERTY TYPE NEIGHBORHOOD SALE PRICE (MILLIONS) SQUARE FOOTAGE BUYER(S) SELLER(S) SALE DATE 1 245 Park Ave. Office Midtown East $998 1,784,480Mori Trust Co. SL Green Realty Corp. 6/26 2 125 Greenwich St. Multifamily Financial District $598 455,815Fortress Investment Group Bizzi & Partners Development / New Valley / SHVO Inc. 1/31 3 1 Liberty Plaza Office Financial District $490 2,346,000Brookfield Corp. Blackstone Inc. 4/6 4 1261-1281 Second Ave. Multifamily Lenox Hill $403 490,652GO Partners Soloviev Group 4/20 5 15 Laight St. Office Tribeca $274 119,561Hyundai Motor Group Vanbarton Group 2/15 6 850 Third Ave. Office Plaza District $266 621,786HPS Investment Partners The Chetrit Group 3/16 7 350 Park Ave. Office Plaza District $263 585,460Citadel Vornado Realty Trust 1/24 8 1337 Third Ave. Health Care Upper East Side $248 200,000Lenox Hill Hospital The University Financing Foundation Inc. 3/30 9 80 Columbus Circle Hospitality Uptown $215 213,125Reliance Industries Limited Investment Corporation of Dubai / The Related Cos. 5/18 10 525 Lexington Ave. Hospitality Midtown East $154 406,261Hawkins Way Capital / Varde Partners Inc. Deka Immobilien 1/27 11 600 Columbus Ave. Multifamily Upper West Side $120 175,500Slate Property Group / KABR Group / Avenue Realty Capital KB Cos. Inc. 5/30 12 408 E. 92nd St. Multifamily Yorkville $114 194,212Stonehenge Partners / The Carlyle Group UBS Asset Management 4/19 13 126 E. 56th St. Office Plaza District $113 171,591Sovereign Partners Pearlmark Real Estate 4/4 14 529 Fifth Ave. Office Midtown East $108 271,266Empire Capital Holdings Silverstein Properties 6/22 15 60 Thompson St. Hospitality SoHo $107 56,000Standard International Sixty Hotels 2/3 16 550 W. 54th St. Multifamily Hell’s Kitchen $100 144,328Namdar Realty Group / Empire Capital Holdings / Platinum Properties Invesco 4/4 17 945 Madison Ave. Specialty Upper East Side $100 50,560Sotheby's Whitney Museum of American Art/ Film 6/1 18 875 Sixth Ave. Office Penn Plaza/Garment District $93 265,000Beacon Capital Partners / Kaufman Organization Sierra Realty & Management 6/30 19 226 W. 150th St. Multifamily Central Harlem $87 436,115Paradise Management Fairstead 6/2 20 40 E. 52nd St. Office Plaza District $84 393,154Citadel Rudin Management Co. 1/24 21 160 E. 125th St. Land Harlem/North Manhattan $82 1.65 acres Metropolitan Transportation Authority Extell Development Co. 4/26 22 555 W. 18th St. Land Chelsea $80 .67 acres IAC Mendon Truck Leasing 4/4 23 400 Lafayette St.; 9-11 E. Fourth St. Office Greenwich Village $78 118,000New York University Sand Associates 4/18 24 37 W. 57th St. Office Plaza District $78 80,000Sedesco Inc. Prospect Resources 4/26 25 149 Madison Ave. Office Murray Hill $77 114,776Enchante Accessories Columbia Property Trust Inc.2/6 p HO t OS: BUCK ENNIS
FOUR
TOP OFFICE LEASES
Largest transactions in manhattan in the first half of 2023, ranked by square feet
September 18, 2023 | CrAIN’S NeW YOrK bUSINeSS | 13
t H e LIS t SOURCE: CoStar Group with additional research by Amanda Glodowski. This list includes leases with terms of at least two years. For quality control purposes, CoStar includes only deals where representatives for both the tenant and the landlord are known. CoStar conducts research to maintain a database of commercial real estate information. For more information, visit costar.com or call 800-204-5960. 1- Colliers consulted on the deal. amanda.glodowski@crainsnewyork.com ADDRESS SQUARE FEET TENANT TENANT REPRESENTATIVE LANDLORD(S) LANDLORD/SUBLANDLORD REPRESENTATIVE(S) DEAL TYPE NEIGHBORHOOD 1 110 William St. 640,000 Department of Citywide Administrative Services JRT Realty Group / Cushman & Wakefield Pacific Oak Capital Advisors / InvescoNewmark Renewal and expansionFinancial District 2 350 Park Ave. 585,460 Citadel Enterprise Americas Newmark Vornado Realty Trust Direct deal New Plaza District 3 40 E. 52nd St. 384,142 Citadel Enterprise Americas Newmark Rudin Management Co. Direct deal New Plaza District 4 100 Sixth Ave. 265,217 Two Sigma Cushman & Wakefield Hines Newmark Renewal SoHo 5 200 Park Ave. 256,840 Paul Hastings CBRE Tishman Speyer / Irvine Co. Direct deal Renewal and expansionMidtown East 6 51 W. 52nd St.259,178 Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & KatzNewmark Harbor Group International CBRE Renewal Plaza District 7 200 Liberty St.220,156 Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft Newmark Brookfield Properties Direct deal New lease Financial District 8 304 E. 45th St.1 199,000 United Nations Development Programme Newmark Williams Equities Colliers Renewal Midtown East 9 555 W. 57th St.186,882 CBS CBRE SL Green Realty Direct deal Renewal Columbus Circle 10 40 W. 57th St.159,000 HPS Investment PartnersCBRE LeFrak CBRE / Newmark Renewal and expansionPlaza District 11 550 Madison Ave. 143,528 Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Newmark RXR Realty / Olayon America CBRE New lease Plaza District 12 31 W. 52nd St.132,502 Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Cushman & Wakefield Paramount Group Direct deal New lease Plaza District 13 250 Vesey St. 131,048 Scotiabank CBRE Brookfield Properties Direct deal Renewal Financial District 14 30 Rockefeller Plaza109,419 Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton CBRE Tishman Speyer Direct deal Renewal Plaza District 15 280 Park Ave. 99,568 GIC Real Estate CBRE SL Green Realty / Vornado Realty Trust CBRE Renewal and expansionPlaza District 16 22 Cortlandt St.93,500 Municipal Credit Union CBRE Mayore Estates / 80 Lafayette AssociatesNewmark Renewal Financial District 17 63 Madison Ave. 92,306 Braze Savills George Comfort & Sons / Jamestown L.P. / Loeb Partners Realty Colliers New lease Gramercy Park 18 825 Third Ave. 81,810 Child Mind Institute Newmark The Durst Organization Direct deal New lease Plaza District 19 770 Broadway 79,211 Yahoo CBRE Vornado Realty Trust Direct deal Renewal Greenwich Village 20 22 Vanderbilt Ave. 78,353 Joele Frank Newmark Milstein Properties CBRE New lease Midtown East 21 245 Park Ave. 76,204 EQT Partners Inc Cushman & Wakefield SL Green Realty / Mori Trust SL Green Realty / Cushman & Wakefield New lease Midtown East 22 1 Pennsylvania Plaza72,908 Canaccord Genuity Group Cushman & WakefieldVornado Realty Trust Direct deal New lease Penn Plaza/ Garment District 23 199 Water St. 72,091 The Legal Aid Society CBRE Jack Resnick & Sons Jack Resnick & Sons / Cushman & Wakefield Renewal Financial District 24 1 Bryant Park 69,206 Bank of America CBRE The Durst Organization Direct deal New lease Times Square 25 55 Water St. 68,518 Revlon Cushman & Wakefield New Water Street Corp. Wharton Property Advisors New lease Financial District 26 350 Fifth Ave. 65,248 STV Savills Empire State Realty Trust Newmark / Empire State Realty TrustNew lease Penn Plaza/ Garment District 27 555 W. 57th St.58,017 Greater New York Hospital Association Cushman & Wakefield SL Green Realty Direct deal Renewal Columbus Circle 28 65 E. 55th St. 57,333 ExodusPoint Capital ManagementNewmark Blackstone Savills New lease Plaza District 29 600 Third Ave. 53,721 Polsinelli PC CBRE L&L Holding Company / BlackRock L&L Holding Co. Renewal and expansionMidtown East 30 52 Broadway 52,542 The King’s College Armano Real EstateJack Resnick & Sons Cushman & Wakefield Renewal Financial District 31 530 Seventh Ave. 51,600 BCI Brands Newmark Savitt Partners Direct deal New lease Penn Plaza/ Garment District 32 55 Water St. 50,079 MetTel Inc. Colliers New Water Street Corp. CBRE New lease Financial District 33 120 Broadway 49,938 Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law CBRE Silverstein Properties / UBS Asset Management Silverstein Properties Renewal Financial District 34 101 Park Ave. 49,200 CI Financial Corp. Avison Young HJ Kalikow & Co. Cushman & Wakefield New lease Midtown East 35 One World Trade Center 48,486 Axsome Therapeutics Inc. JLL The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey / The Durst Organization JLL New lease World Trade Center 36 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza 48,363 The United Kingdom Mission to the United Nations CBRE Rockhill Management CBRE Renewal Plaza District 37 1385 Broadway47,000 Jordache Enterprises Elite Realty Associates Inc. Bloomingdale Properties Savitt Partners New lease Penn Plaza/ Garment District 38 277 Park Ave. 46,393 Arsenal Capital PartnersNewmark The Stahl Organization Cushman & Wakefield New lease Plaza District 39 3 Times Square 46,110 Thomson Reuters JLL Rudin Management Co. Rudin Management Co. New lease Times Square 40 568-578 Broadway46,076 ZocDoc Savills Allied Partners / Aurora Capital Associates / Adjmi Apparel Group Aurora Capital Associates Renewal SoHo 41 30 Hudson Yards 45,476 Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co.JLL Related Cos. CBRE New lease Penn Plaza/ Garment District 42 3 World Trade Center 44,032 StubHub CBRE Silverstein Properties Silverstein Properties New lease World Trade Center 43 200 Park Ave. 43,108 Consulate General of IrelandSavills Tishman Speyer / Irvine Co. Tishman Speyer New lease Midtown East 44 150 Columbus Ave 42,004 New York Department of EducationNewmark Millennium Partners Management Ripco Real Estate New lease Upper West Side 45 195 Broadway 41,854 The Messenger Cushman & Wakefield L&L Holding Company / Korea Investment & Securities / Samsung Group Cushman & Wakefield New lease Financial District 46 1345 Sixth Ave. 41,613 Greenspoon Marder Savills Fisher Brothers Management / J.P. Morgan Asset Management Cushman & Wakefield New lease Columbus Circle 47 205 E. 42nd St.41,000 Serendipity Labs JLL The Durst Organization Direct deal New lease Midtown East 48 1166 Sixth Ave. 40,240 Axis Capital Holdings CBRE Edward J. Minskoff Equities JLL New lease Times Square 49 125 Park Ave. 39,681 Robert Half JLL SL Green Realty Newmark Renewal Midtown East 50 1120 Sixth Ave. 38,849 Sojitz Corp. of America JLL Edison Properties Cushman & Wakefield Renewal Times Square
REZONING
business improvement district, and untold more homes could arise in the additional blocks proposed for rezoning further downtown. Several Midtown landlords have expressed interest in conversions, and others will likely come forward—but they could be deterred by a lack of incentives and other zoning constraints that remain in place.
Dan Garodnick, director of the Department of City Planning, said the rezoning marks an effort to “move past what is an outdated perception of this area to a real study of what’s actually happening in the neighborhood.”
“Let’s be clear-eyed here about what is happening in order to foster the type of neighborhood that we actually want to see,” he said, “rather than hanging onto historic notions of the area.”
Set in motion last year
Dan Doctoroff, who reshaped swaths of the city as Michael Bloomberg’s deputy mayor, called Midtown South “an area that has, I think, been largely ignored for a long time now.”
“This isn’t Midtown as classically defined,” he said. “It hasn’t been rezoned in a material way since, like, 1961.”
Indeed, city leaders have struggled in recent years to figure out what to do with Midtown’s remaining industrial zones. As recently as 2018, the city loosened the Garment District’s manufacturing-only zoning to allow for more office use, but it passed up a chance to permit housing. Local officials and business leaders wanted to allow apartments but faced resistance from then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, which wanted to prioritize creating affordable office space, according to people who worked on that effort.
That seems like even more of a missed opportunity now, after the Covid-19 pandemic put to rest any notion that Midtown’s future could be commercial-only.
“In 2018, it was such an incredibly different climate—it’s just breathtaking,” said Barbara Blair, president of the Garment District Alliance, the neighborhood’s business improvement district. “Covid recalibrated everything.”
The new rezoning effort was set in motion last year, when Blair’s group approached City Council members Keith Powers and Erik Bottcher and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine to float the idea. The Alliance was armed with a report it commissioned that found that rezoning could produce 6,700 new apartments through conversions over 25 years—and that garment manufacturing has dwindled to less than 2% of the district’s floor area.
Such advocacy might seem unusual for a BID, which tend to be known more for handling trash pickup and security patrols rather than pushing fundamental changes to their neighborhoods. But Blair said the campaign is in keeping with the Alliance’s goals of keeping the area clean, safe and desirable for
businesses.
During the pandemic, emptied-out offices gave rise to a feeling of desolation, and Blair argued that the city felt empowered to open unpopular facilities like shelters and syringe exchanges near the Garment District because there were few permanent residents to object. That created new urgency around the idea of transforming the Garment District into a 24/7, “livework” neighborhood, Blair said.
“We need to animate these streets further into the evening,” she said. “Unless you have good users, then not-such-great users can take over.”
Although new development is often met with hostility from local lawmakers, Powers, Bottcher and Levine are more open to building than some of their colleagues, and all three were immediately interested in the Alliance’s ideas. Bottcher and Powers referred the proposal to City Hall last year, and Adams unveiled the plan in August—focusing not only on the Garment District but also on the two dozen blocks below 31st Street that are confined by the same zoning scheme.
The framework announced in August is still just a concept, and the Department of City Planning is studying the area to determine each building’s occupancy levels and current use. By next spring, Adams’ administration will detail each block it wants to rezone and the changes being sought, and the roughly seven-month public review will begin in early 2024.
Will landlords bite?
Changing the zoning code will mean nothing unless property owners take up the city on its offer to renovate or build. In interviews, several Manhattan landlords voiced support for the city’s plan—but none had any immediate plans to convert properties into apartments.
Marty Meyer, principal at Meyer Equities, owns several properties in the Garment District. While his firm is not interested in doing conversions, he would be eager to sell to people who are, he said, citing one 10-story building near Penn Station in particular.
“We invested recently in 260 W. 36th St., which is, I think, a good candidate for it,” Meyer said. “It’s got good floor plates. The building has nice ceiling heights. It’s the right size for it, and I think it fits the profile for residential in that sense.”
Prospective buyers are also taking notice. Time Equities, a development firm that owns dozens of properties in the city, would likely take a closer look at acquiring Midtown buildings if a rezoning passed, said CEO Francis Greenburger.
However, office-to-residential conversions have always been an easier sell in theory than in practice.
Hilary Spann, executive vice president of the New York region for Boston Properties, noted that one advantage of mounting a strong push for conversions in Midtown is to get a better understanding of how feasible they really are.
“I do think that people should be putting time and effort into it because, unless you do that, it’s really hard to create a market for it and to create a clear understanding of what
the opportunity set is and what the limits of the opportunity set are,” she said.
At least some interest does exist. Blair, the Garment District Alliance leader, said six landlords have accepted her group’s offer to send Perkins Eastman architects into their buildings to analyze whether they could be converted to apartments.
Other uncertainties threaten to undermine any hope of widespread conversions. In this year’s state budget fight, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed measures that would incentivize office conversions through tax breaks and lift a cap on residential density in the city; the cap currently would make it illegal to convert some of Midtown’s bigger office buildings into housing. But lawmakers failed to pass any of the proposals, despite pleading from Adams.
“We could rezone for residential but it’s going to require state action because evidently, in most instances, converting to residential doesn’t pencil out economically for many property owners,” said Bottcher, one of the two City Council members representing Midtown South.
“When we layer on affordability requirements, which we will, that will further reduce the number of buildings that convert to residential.”
The city can also take some limited action of its own. A citywide zoning-code rewrite intended to boost housing, which Adams’ administration will submit for review next year, will include a measure allowing buildings built before 1990 to be converted to housing. That would extend the current cutoff of 1977 and could produce as many as 20,000 homes citywide, officials said last month.
It may be hard to predict landlords’ eventual interest based only on what they’re willing to say in public. Powers took over Garodnick’s former City Council seat in 2018, shortly after the passage of the Midtown East rezoning, and was surprised to find that he was quickly approached by developers not even on his radar who had quietly been working on projects that took advantage of the new rules. Among those proposals were JPMorgan’s Park Avenue skyscraper and the RXR-TF Cornerstone office tower
set to replace the Grand Hyatt next to Grand Central Terminal.
“You can take a look at the area now and make some assumptions about what will happen, but most likely you’ll find out after you create a program that there’s some other applicants that are ready to take advantage of it,” Powers said.
Affordability, preservation
Despite its warm reception so far, the Midtown South plan is likely to face questions, especially about the affordability of the homes it creates.
The area will be subject to the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing law, which requires a portion of new apartments to be income-restricted. But that doesn’t guarantee those apartments will be built at all—development has slowed dramatically in recent months due in part to the expiration of the 421-a tax break, which state lawmakers failed to replace during budget talks.
Among the first to weigh in formally on the Midtown South rezoning will be Community Board 5, which will make a recommendation soon after it is formally introduced next spring. Layla Law-Gisiko, who chairs the board’s land-use committee, said the proposal “has the power to make a massive impact” by creating new housing in a neighborhood with little room to build.
“We’re really hoping the housing is affordable,” she said. “It remains to be seen what kind.”
Carl Weisbrod, senior adviser at HR&A Advisors and former director of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., said he remains proud of the downtown revitalization plan he helped shape but regrets not requiring affordable housing.
“While a lot of housing has been produced downtown, virtually none of it has been affordable, and I think that was a real mistake and a missed opportunity on our part,” he said. “That’s one of the lessons that the city should take from the Lower Manhattan experience.”
Preservation is another question mark, with advocates likely to raise the alarm about altering historic buildings. When the city rezoned Midtown East in 2017, it also designated a dozen new landmarks in the
area—creating a lucrative air-rights market for owners of the preserved buildings.
Garodnick confirmed that City Planning has asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission to look for worthy sites in Midtown South, suggesting that preservation could once again be paired with new development. (The rezoning area already overlaps with the historic districts of Madison Square North and Ladies’ Mile, as well as individual landmarks like the Tin Pan Alley buildings on West 28th Street and ornate old hotels like Gilsey House.) Also uncertain is how a rezoning would affect what little industry remains in Midtown, including garment manufacturing. The city has no plans to force out any businesses, but allowing residential conversions could prompt some landlords to ask commercial tenants to leave—and the owner of one business squarely in the middle of the rezoning site is far from thrilled.
“The city doesn’t really value our contribution,” Katie Sue Nicklos, owner of Wing and Weft Gloves on West 37th Street, told Crain’s in January. “We’re not thought of in the same way that other revenue streams are.”
Garodnick, for his part, said City Planning is studying the businesses that remain in the area—but he also pointed to the global economic factors that have caused manufacturing to decline in New York, regardless of what the city has done with zoning.
“We certainly are sensitive to it, and we’ll do our best to strike a good balance here,” he said.
The Midtown South plan was spearheaded by a BID whose mission centers on public safety and boosting local business. But city leaders have their own motivation for the rezoning: to put a dent in New York’s desperate housing shortage that has led to soaring rents across the five boroughs.
“I don’t think that many people fully comprehend the severity of the housing crisis and what it means for New York City’s future,” Bottcher said. “We could be facing rent increases and levels of homelessness that dwarf what we’re experiencing now.”
14 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023
From page 1
REAL ESTATE SPECIAL REPORT
City Council member Keith Powers is interested in the ideas of the Garment District Alliance. | BUCK ENNIS
ASKED & ANSWERED
Startup founder: Tech can help in state’s housing crunch
After leaving DigitalOcean, a cloud service technology company he co-founded that raised hundreds of millions of dollars in its subsequent IPO, Alec Hartman was looking to buy a home, but he couldn’t find the right one. Eventually he picked up a lot in the lower Hudson Valley and oversaw construction of his own property. (He then did this several more times to try out ideas.) He found out firsthand why new single-family home construction in New York state is difficult and expensive. Hartman decided the process could use a technology solution, so in 2020 he started Welcome Homes with several of his previous co-founders to build single-family homes even in developed areas close to New York City. Though the company is in its early stages—it raised a $29 million Series A in January, and just under 100 homes are under contract, in construction or finished in the New York metro area—its early operations that assess land, standardize design and accurately estimate costs shed light on how tech might alleviate some of the state’s housing problems. | Interview by Cara Eisenpress
What is the role of technology in housing development and building?
The decentralization of regulation from small municipal authorities has a system that doesn’t use technology at all. It rewards the use of paper and slow-moving processes. The majority of building departments require paper, and nothing can be done online. Information that should be flowing freely to promote development is bottlenecked.
When you extract that further— to how trades communicate and bid, to insurance and bonding and to state-level regulation— none of that is online. Tech can play a role in speeding it up. Look at the DMV. It’s an example of an agency that is better able to address constituents with technology.
Dossier
WHO HE IS Co-founder, Welcome Homes
GREW UP West palm Beach, Florida
RESIDES He splits his time between the Upper East Side, miami and Wilton, Connecticut.
EDUCATION Bachelor’s in political science, Emory University
VOTE FOR HIM Hartman entered the primary to represent District 4 on the City Council in 2017.
GOOD EATS His favorite restaurant in the city is BondSt because “the tuna tarts are amazing.”
SPARE TIME Hartman calls himself an avid race car driver. He also plays tennis and is learning to be a pilot.
Why do you think property development has not spurred the same kind of techforward thinking as other industries?
Adoption is the number one reason. It’s so difficult to implement tech solutions because there aren’t bridges between different groups, like home buyers and contractors, and the incentives aren’t aligned. In commercial [real estate], there is a success case: Procore. But that was after incentives were finally aligned. Residential construction has a structure that disincentivizes transparency, and the adversarial relationship is inevitable.
New York state’s stalled proposal to increase housing focused a lot on rezoning
for more density near public transporta tion, but Welcome Homes is focused on single-family housing. How do you think about density?
Density serves a purpose, but it’s more complicated than density and adjacency.
There are other things the state could do to increase responsible development, like a fast-tracked process to certify certain designs. That could reduce the cost of construction. Density can also segregate different pockets of wealth in different areas, which means more friction in the long run.
What policy solutions to the housing crunch are being overlooked?
The regulatory climate in New York has grown to be oppositional to further development of single-family new homes because of its complexity. There is a lot we can do with streamlining regulatory authority and centralizing it to reduce complexity and to help builders navigate a streamlined system. A framework and timeline for review by local building departments would help, as would allowing county governments to make
Planning panel OKs zoning rewrite for climate projects
By Caroline Spivack
The City Planning Commission advanced a sweeping rewrite of New York’s zoning law Sept. 11 that would eliminate bureaucratic barriers to climate-friendly building projects.
In a 12-to-1 vote, the CPC approved a package of zoning changes known as the City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality designed to peel away red tape that makes it needlessly challenging for property owners to embrace green technologies in their buildings or on their land. The policies are designed to help the city hit its target of an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.
changes will clear the path for energy efficient measures in nearly every aspect of our city.”
Solar panel acreage
The proposal is a package of 17 policies intended to modernize how New York’s zoning grapples with climate change. For example, the zoning amendments ensure that owners wouldn’t be hampered by existing limitations in city regulation if they want to install solar panels on their roofs or high-performance walls to better insulate their buildings.
Officials project the changes would free up more than 8,500 acres of parking for potential solar panel use—enough renewable energy to power up to 130,000 homes. Electric vehicle charging would also be possible on 400 million additional square feet of the city, and green retrofits would be made easier at more than 50,000 buildings.
The CPC’s approval ushers the proposal to the final hurdle in the review process: a hearing and vote by the City Council.
“This initiative is the boldest, most thorough update of our zoning resolution related to the environment in its history,” Department of City Planning Commissioner Dan Garodnick said during the vote. “Instead of being hindered by 1961 zoning rules that pre-date the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, this set of 17 zoning
All 59 city community boards and each of the boroughs’ presidents have reviewed the proposed changes over the past five months, with mostly positive feedback. The CPC’s approval ushers the proposal to the final hurdle in the review process: a hearing and vote by the City Council.
Only one city planning commis-
sioner, Alfred Cerullo III, voted against the amendment, citing concerns with how new projects as a result of the changes will affect the character and use of residential neighborhoods. Other commissioners who voted for the proposed changes expressed some skepticism about the ability of the city’s electric grid to handle the increased demand. City Planning Commissioner Juan Osorio urged for additional data to be
shared with New Yorkers.
‘Peaker’ plants
“The public deserves more information regarding the energy projections used by the city to assume that the grid will have the renewables in place . . . when the additional demand created with electrification from buildings comes into play,” Osorio said.
He pointed to reports indicating
that New York City may be forced to rely on dirty “peaker” power plants, which are used during times of peak energy demand, to meet the city’s ballooning demand for electrification.
The carbon neutrality proposal is one of three citywide zoning text amendments launched by Mayor Eric Adams as part of his City of Yes vision designed to grow the economy, support sustainability and create housing.
16 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023
BUCK
A worker installs solar panels. BLOOmBERG
ENNIS
Temporary health care workers could be a lifeline for city’s Airbnbs
By Cara Eisenpress
New York City has cracked down on short-term rental listings with a law that took effect Sept. 5. The new rule requires that any host renting a space for fewer than 30 days register with the city, and only hosts who comply with housing laws that specifically prohibit whole-unit listings lasting less than a month can successfully register. Just 199 units had approved registrations as of Aug. 14, according to the city.
One way around the rule for local hosts who rely on the rental income is to seek visitors who plan to
“I’m trying to figure out where traveling nurses look when they come here,” explained Gia Sharp, a Brooklyn homeowner who often uses the second unit in her Brooklyn townhouse for extended family and therefore does not want a permanent tenant. She said she was shifting her for-rent unit so it is only available for durations of 30 days or more.
form in 2020 but had to take it offline to scale it up in 2021, she said. Since relaunching in the spring, nearly 150,000 nurses and 20,000 hosts have joined the site. She did not share numbers for New York City hosts but said there had been an influx in the past month or two.
be here for a full month, since renting for that term is perfectly legal. For that, they are hoping to find legal guests in the pool of travel nurses, allied health workers and even students training for health careers and are searching for ways to connect with this group.
She is not alone. A search on Airbnb for an early October weeklong stay in Park Slope, near NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, for example, now yields almost no listings. But change the dates to the full month of October and there are more than three dozen apartments, though many cost more than $4,000 a month. Inbound interest from hosts has been strong at Nursesbnb, a Virginia-based housing platform set up specifically to target the needs of travel nurses and local residents who seek to host them.
Founder Keisha Manning, a nurse, said she had found it difficult to find safe and convenient housing that was also affordable while on a travel nurse assignment. She first launched her plat-
“Once people know we exist, it’s a no-brainer to list their property,” she said. Nursesbnb vets each home listing to make sure it is not a scam, Manning said.
Housing stipends
Travel nurses typically sign contracts for about 13 weeks, according to Audrey McCollough, who works with a San Francisco-based health staffing company called Trusted. Health systems that hire them usually provide a housing stipend pegged to rates set by the U.S. General Services Administration, McCollough said. For October in New York City, that is $315 per night, or $9,765 for the month. The rate varies by season and goes down to $169 per night in January and February and in the mid $200s for the rest of next spring and summer.
However, nurses typically try to pay less than the maximum, since
they are often aiming either to save a lot of money in a short period or hoping to put their dollars toward enjoying the city’s culture and entertainment while they’re here, McCollough said. Nurses don’t usually want just a bedroom in a shared apartment, since long shifts mean they often come home late.
At Northwell Health, where about 2.5% of nurses are there on short-term contracts, the in-house temporary staffing agency FlexStaff, used to help travel nurses or other specialists find housing, but after the rise of Airbnb, there was no longer a need to play this role. Now, travel nurse contracts come with a rent stipend, but job holders make their own decisions about where to live, said Jason Molinet, principal in media relations at Northwell.
Several Airbnb hosts who live in residential neighborhoods where there are hospitals but few hotels said they had already frequently played host to people in town because of the hospitals, including travel nurses, medical students on rotation and patients’ families.
WE'RE RAISING HEALTH FOR MORE PEOPLE IN NEW YORK THAN ANYONE
Anyplace, a remote company that rents furnished apartments for 30 days or more in New York, said that traveling nurses use the service but are not a substantial source of bookings. “It’s not a huge percentage of our business, though,” said Joe Frabotta, director of marketing. “I’d say around 5%.”
The continuing availability of 30-day-long listings may also benefit health care students struggling to find housing.
Anthony Franco, who is studying nursing at LaGuardia Community College, said he ran into a difficult housing situation last spring. Through a program called LaGuardia Cares, he qualified for an Airbnb near to campus funded by Airbnb itself. The security helped him finish the semester with a 3.8 grade point average, which led to an apartment covered by a different nonprofit, paid for until he graduates in 2025.
“I want to join 1199 SEIU,” he told Crain’s. “My end goal is to become a nurse practitioner.”
September 18, 2023 | CrAIN’S NeW YOrK bUSINeSS | 17
With more experts across all specialties working together, we’re Raising Health for more people in New York than anybody.
MORE EXPERTS. DEEPER INSIGHTS. NEWER BREAKTHROUGHS.
“Once people know we exist, it’s a no-brainer to list their property.”
b LOO mber G
Keisha Manning, founder of Nursesbnb
Momofuku Ssam Bar will close for good two years after moving to the Seaport
By C. J. Hughes
A restaurateur who did for ramen what Nike did for basketball shoes is calling it quits at a downtown location.
Hydropower project asks state for more money, imitating offshore wind developers
By Caroline Spivack
The developer behind a massive clean-energy project set to deliver Canadian hydropower to New York is arguing for a bigger state subsidy now that offshore wind developers are also petitioning the state.
Blackstone-owned Transmission Developers is leading the $6 billion Champlain Hudson Power Express Project and argued in filings to the Public Service Commission late last month that their undertaking is just as deserving of “cost adjustments” as the four offshore wind projects. The wind projects’ developers called on the state this summer for greater subsidies due to unforeseen costs.
“Like the other many developers that have filed petitions, petitioners faced global supply chain shortages and market disruption
For its part, Transmission Developers is arguing that the CHPE “should be treated equally and consistently with respect to any cost adjustments granted by the commission.” The firm has proposed a formula-based price adjustment to cover construction costs for all renewable energy projects, which would treat developers equally.
The PSC is reviewing the wind developers’ petitions.
Costing out the energy
for their constituents.
“It is imperative that the New York State Public Service Commission takes a resolute stance against this preposterous increase, with unwavering focus on the welfare of our state’s citizens, and the non-negotiable affordability of electricity,” the lawmakers wrote.
Chef David Chang, who began his career in 2004 by offering clever takes on Japanese dishes in a skinny storefront on First Avenue in the East Village before swelling his business into a global empire, will shutter his Momofuku Ssam Bar in the Seaport district on Sept. 30, according to a post on his Instagram page.
“Ssäm Bar is where we made our first Bo Ssäms and ducks and met so many people who remain part of the Momofuku family to this day,” he wrote. “We believe in using food as a way to connect, start conversations and challenge the status quo.”
The sudden closure comes just two years after Chang relocated the restaurant to the Seaport from its longtime home on Second Avenue in the East Village as part of an effort to consolidate and ride out
Hughes Corp. has extensively redeveloped over the years through a lease with the city.
What will become of Ssam Bar’s space, which sits near offerings from chefs Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Andrew Carmellini, is not known. A spokeswoman for Howard Hughes did not make anybody available to comment. And a message left with Ssam Bar was not returned by press time.
Upgraded ramen
A former employee at Flatiron’s Craft restaurant, Chang burst onto the scene in 2004 with Momofuku Noodle Bar at 163 First Ave., near East 10th Street, with styles of ramen that used poached eggs instead of hardboiled ones while offering zippy upgrades on a type of food perhaps associated with paper containers in college dorm rooms.
and the substantial negative impacts of inflation and interest rate increases on construction costs in both the United States and Canada,” the CHPE developer wrote in an Aug. 28 filing to the state.
CHPE’s request came the same week as a new analysis by the New York State Research and Development Authority that supports the claims of the offshore wind developers. NYSERDA projects that the so-called strike price, or the amount producers are guaranteed for their electricity, will be between 27% and 66% higher than the developers had originally proposed.
The NYSERDA analysis lays bare the creeping costs of New York’s transition to a clean-energy grid.
For the three offshore wind projects being developed jointly by Equinor and British Petroleum—Empire Wind 1 and 2 near the Jersey Shore and Beacon Wind east of Montauk—NYSERA estimates that Empire 1 would see a 35% increase in its price of $118.38 per megawatt hour to $159.64, leading to a 48-cent increase in residential customers’ monthly bills. Empire 2 would see the price per megawatt hour spike from $107.50 to $177.84, which would amount to a roughly $1.08 increase for residential consumers.
The Beacon Wind project, which will deliver energy to Queens, would see its price per megawatt hour rise by 62% from $118 to $190.82 under NYSERDA’s estimates. The increase on the average residential customer’s monthly bill could be as much as $1.14, agency officials said.
Some elected officials have balked at the developers’ calls for more money. In a Sept. 1 letter to the PSC, Long Island State Sen. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick and Assemblyman Ari Brown, both Republicans, called on state regulators to reject Equinor and BP’s petition for additional money, citing affordability concerns
If the PSC moves forward with cost adjustments for certain renewable energy projects but not others, Transmission Developers argued in its petition, such a move would set an “ill-advised precedent and the wrong incentives for future renewable projects” in New York.
The state’s pipeline of renewable energy projects is key to New York achieving its target of a clean-energy electric grid by 2040, and CHPE is especially critical to also weaning the city’s electric grid off of fossil fuels.
Energy carried downstate on 339 miles of transmission line will bring up to 1,250 megawatts of electricity to the five boroughs— enough to power about 1 million homes and meet roughly 20% of the city’s energy needs.
The New York Independent System Operator, which monitors the reliability of the state’s power systems, has frequently warned that if the CHPE project fails to stay on track, the city could face electricity shortages and could have to rely longer on dirty “peaker” power plants, which are used during times of peak energy demand.
None of these challenges is especially unique to New York. Supply-chain troubles, long waits to connect to the power grid and turbulent political landscapes across the U.S. are holding back the pace of what otherwise would be a renewable energy building spree due to the increased demand of state climate targets and the Biden administration’s clean-energy goals.
the tumult of the pandemic. Ssam Bar took over Chang’s Bar Wayo, which itself lasted two years.
Pier 17 restaurants
Momofuku Ssam Bar, which occupies a soaring space facing the East River that features a patio and a dining room with exposed girders, is one of about a dozen restaurants in the Seaport’s Pier 17 section, which the Howard
Momofuku Ssam Bar, a larger and more traditional eatery than Noodle Bar, opened in 2006 on Second Avenue, at East 13th Street, where it stayed till 2021. Momofuku Noodle Bar, meanwhile, relocated to 171 First Ave., where it still serves glazed pork belly, chicken wings and many takes on ramen, of course. Two other Chang outposts remain in New York, Momofuku Ko, in a different part of the East Village, and Bang Bar, at Columbus Circle, though he also owns eateries in Las Vegas and other cities.
Momofuku, Japanese for “lucky peach,” also led to Chang becoming a sort of one-man media empire, including a star turn in a food-oriented travel show, “Ugly Delicious.” He also penned a 2020 memoir, “Eat a Peach.”
18 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023
The wind projects’ developers have called for greater subsidies because of unforeseen costs.
Chang relocated the restaurant to the Seaport in an effort to consolidate and ride out the pandemic.
will close on Sept. 30. | tHE DESIGN AGENCY
A hydroelectric generating station in Quebec | BLOOmBERG
Momofuku Ssam Bar
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New York City fall arts preview
Any preview of the arts in New York City can only scratch the surface. But if you are itching to get out and take in some of its riches this fall, here are 22 promising starting points.
Below you’ll find out where to hear the sounds of Sondheim and see science on screen, experience brightened beasts in the Bronx and a batch of book events in Brooklyn, see pics of pets, catch comedy with Conan and bask in bursts of Balanchine and burlesque. Enjoy.
|
By Lou Harry
SEPTEMBER
Ongoing Science on Screen
t he m useum of the m oving Image continues its long-running film series that features narrative films and documentaries alongside discussions about the issues raised with the filmmakers and other thought leaders. t his fall’s offerings include The Space Race , a 2023 documentary about NASA’s Black pilots, scientists and engineers; After Yang , starring Colin Farrell as a father helping his family deal with the loss of their beloved android; and Hollow Tree , a documentary about the climate crisis in Louisiana.
https://movingimage.us/event/ hollow-tree/
Previews begin Sept. 19
Merrily We Roll Along
Original productions of musicals composed by the late Stephen Sondheim were not always big box office hits, and the 1981 debut of this one was a notorious early closer. t he
story of a three-way friendship destroyed by ambition, its scenes are presented in reverse, with cynicism and negativity moving backwards in time toward an optimistic beginning (or ending, depending on how you look at it.). For the first time, it’s back on Broadway, now with Jonathan Groff, Lindsay m endez, and Daniel Radcliffe.
https://merrilyonbroadway.com/
Opens Sept. 22
Best in Show: Pets in Contemporary Photography
Social media isn’t the only place where you’ll find shots of beloved domesticated beasts. t his exhibit, at Fotografiska New York, the five-floor photography showplace in the Flatiron District, features the work of 24 photographers from around the world.
https://www.fotografiska.com/nyc/ exhibitions/best-in-show/
Sept. 24-Oct. 2
Brooklyn Book Festival New York City’s largest free literary
festival has grown from a one-day event in 2006 to eight days of vibrant activity. Authors making appearances this year include Roxanne Gay, Walter m osley, Joyce Carol Oates, Colson Whitehead and about a hundred more. Highlights include a Virtual Festival Day on Sept. 24, Children’s Day on Sept. 30 and a Literary m arketplace on Oct. 1 in Downtown Brooklyn. https://brooklynbookfestival.org/
Opens Sept. 24
Manet/Degas
We often think of artists as isolated. Yet they existed—and exist—in the context of other artists. t his exhibit not only features the works of two creative legends, Edouard m anet (1832–1883) and Edgar Degas (1834–1917), it also explores their relationship as friends and rivals. m ore than 150 paintings and works on paper are included in the show, a collaboration between the m et and
the m usée d’Orsay and m usée de l’Orangerie in paris.
https://www.metmuseum.org/ exhibitions/manet-degas
Opens Sept. 26
All Balanchine
You’ve binge-watched tV shows, now you can binge-watch the career of one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed and influential choreographers. the New York City Ballet offers up five programs of his work (plus another in the spring). For newcomers, a good entry point is the second one, which includes Slaughter on Tenth Avenue , featuring a jazzy score by Richard Rodgers and an over-the-top gangster plot. And, beginning in late November, you can cap off that quintet of performances with Balanchine’s staple The Nutcracker . At Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch theater.
https://www.nycballet.com/ season-and-tickets/fall-2023/
Previews begin Sept. 28.
Here We Are
And there’s more Sondheim. In addition to Merrily We Roll Along and the still-running Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd , the master composer/ lyricist will be represented off-Broadway in the world premiere of a piece he was working on when he died last year. t he creative team has been secretive with details, but we do know that it’s inspired by two films by Luis Buñuel, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel , and that the cast includes Bobby Cannavale, Amber Gray and David Hyde p ierce.
https://theshed.org/program/301here-we-are
Sept. 28-Oct. 1
New York Burlesque Festival
Catch the action—and maybe a tossed garment—as Quinn Dixie, pepper Grinds, m urray Hill and many
20 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023
FALL ARTS AND CULTURE GUIDE
Western Symphony , part of All Balanchine at The New York City Ballet | NYCBALLEt.COm
Hollow Tree | mOVINGImAGE.US
more performers add spice to this 21st annual event. t he citywide celebration starts at the b ell House in Gowanus, continues with a p remiere party a t Williamsburg’s b rooklyn b owl and truly takes off with the Saturday Spectacular at Sony Hall in times Square. t he playfulness also includes the Golden pasties Awards and Supper Show, where winners are determined in such categories as “ t he e lvis Award” for most dramatic lip snarl and the “Where’s Waldo Award” for the performer most likely to miss a curtain call.
https://thenewyorkburlesquefestival. com/
Sept. 29-Oct. 15
New York Film Festival
t he lineup for the 61st edition of the festival includes high-profile premieres of May December , starring Natalie portman and Julianne m oore; Priscilla , Sofia Coppola’s biopic about p riscilla p resley; m ichael m ann’s high-octane Ferrari , with Adam Driver and penelope Cruz; and Evil Does Not Exist , the latest from Drive My Car director r yusuke Hamaguchi. Can’t score tickets to the red carpet? take a deeper dive into the schedule beyond the m ain Slate flicks and into the lower-profile Spotlight picks, the more experimental Currents lineup or the r evival options. Screenings take place at Lincoln Center venues as well as arthouse cinemas across the five boroughs.
https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2023/
OCTOBER
Opens Oct. 7
Spike Lee: Creative Sources m ore than 350 pieces—many drawn from the director’s personal collection—tell the story not only of the prolific director, but of those who have influenced him. t he exhibition is split into seven tracts, including sports, music, family and politics. Among the visuals are works by artists Kehinde Wiley, Deborah r oberts, and m ichael r ay Charles. Appropriately, it can all be found in Lee’s muse of a borough, at the b rooklyn m useum.
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/ exhibitions/spike_lee
Opens Oct. 19
Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
First presented in London in 2022 and then in Hong Kong earlier this year, this choreography cornucopia offers 12 performances by a wide range of companies from around the world. A likely jaw-dropper comes courtesy of the acrobatic Corps extrêmes, which makes use of climbing walls and highlines to take the work of French choreographer r achid Ouramdane high off the stage. You may end up thinking of dance as an extreme sport. Locations include the b rooklyn Academy of m usic and the New York City Center.
https://www.dancereflectionsvancleefarpels.com/
Opens Oct. 20
Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility
Wha t you see is only part of what you get in this uniquely themed show featuring contemporary artists working in pain, photography, video, sculpture and installation, each making use of a partially obscured figure. What does it mean to fade out
of (or come into) the light? What do we see when we only see part of a person? Six ramps of the winding gallery central to the Guggenheim m useum provide the dramatic setting. https://www.guggenheim.org/ exhibition/going-dark-the-contemporary-figure-at-the-edge-of-visibility
Opens Oct. 24
Hell’s Kitchen
When a pop star’s name appears on a b roadway marquee, it sometimes means you’ll hear greatest hits (see MJ ) while other times it’s something new (as in Sara b areilles’ hit Waitress ). t he latter is the case with this new work, which features a score from hit maker Alicia Keys ( No One , Fallin’ ). In it, a cramped apartment houses a teen who falls for a drummer, while her mother tries to keep her from repeating her mistakes. Director m ichael Greif ( Rent , Next to Normal ) directs the At the p ublic t heatre (which, reminder, launched once-unknown shows A Chorus Line and Hamilton ). https://publictheater.org/productions/season/2324/hells-kitchen/
Oct. 28
The Music Critic
Not everyone loves b eethoven, Chopin and their classical counterparts. In this unique one-night-only event, actor John m alkovich spouts some of the most vicious comments ever made by critics about revered composers. Show creator Aleksey Igudesman and other musicians fight back—including with the performance of an original piece called “ t he m alkovich torment.” At the b eacon t heatre. https://www.msg.com/calendar/ beacon-theatre-october-2023-johnmalkovich#about-the-event
NOVEMBER
Opens
Pal Joey
Nov. 1
Now known primarily for its hit-packed score (including I Could Write a Book and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered ), Pal Joey broke new musical theater ground in 1940 thanks to its anti-hero title character and not-quite-happy ending. the last broadway revival, in 2008, didn’t quite catch fire but here’s a redo that could help regain its stature. Legendary tap dancer Savion Glover choreographs and co-directs alongside actor tony Goldwyn. At New York City Center.
https://www.nycitycenter.org/ pdps/2023-2024/pal-joey/
Nov. 3-12
New York Comedy Festival
Sure, you could catch stand-up comedians any time of the year in clubs around the city. b ut for top-notch talent, there’s no better time than November as more than 100 shows are offered in a festival
O’Hara ( ton y-nominated for Slave Play ) provides the directorial eye. b aritone Will Liverman (recently seen at the m et in Fire Shut Up in My Bones ) takes the lead.
https://www.metopera.org/ season/2023-24-season/x-the-lifeand-times-of-malcolm-x/
lineup includes international talent such as KAS:S t (France), m ochakk ( b razil), pan- pot (German y), and New York’s own Aurora Halal. https://www.time-warp.de/us/ index_eng.html
Opens Nov. 17
Holiday Lights at the Bronx Zoo
In nature, fireflies, jellyfish and select other creatures light up. but at the bronx Zoo during the holiday season, there are many more animals aglow. Animated light shows and customdesigned animal lanterns—as well as ice carving, a holiday train and hot cocoa and s’mores (of course)—turn the zoo into a winter wonderland. this year’s six lantern trails take visitors through winding paths featuring old favorites and new displays of creatures from the area’s waterways. Also new this year: Interactives highlighting bioluminescent beasts. https://bronxzoo.com/holiday-lights
Nov. 22-25
Lillias White: Blissfully Thankful t he dynamic b roadway star, who picked up a ton y Award in 1997 for The Life and has appeared in Dreamgirls , Fela! and Hadesto wn , brings her new cabaret show to 54 b elow. Accompanying her will be pianist/musical director m athis p icard.
https://54below.org/events/ lillias-white-blissfully-thankfulfeaturing-mathis-picard
DECEMBER
Dec. 20-23
Marvel Studios’ Black Panther in Concert.
that expands this year to 10 days. t hat means more chances to catch any of more than 100 shows, including sets by headliners b ill b urr, m argaret Cho, Ilana Glazer, Conan O’ b rien and more, at venues including the Apollo t heater and Carnegie Hall.
https://nycomedyfestival.com
Nov. 3-18
Watch Night
ton y winner b ill t Jones directs, choreographs, and co-conceived this multidisciplinary piece that weaves poetry, gospel, opera and more to tell the story of a journalist “who visits a sacred space defiled by violence…only to find that history repeats itself too soon, and too close to home.” It’s part of the inaugural season at the perelman performing Arts Center, a theatrical addition to the rebuilt World trade Center site.
https://pacnyc.org/whats-on/ watch-night/
Opens Nov. 3
X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X It’s common to think of operas as always being set in the distant past—for a long time, that was the norm. b ut when it debuted in 1986, Anthony Davis’ opera helped pave the way for contemporary stories. Still, it’s been a long road for X , which is only now having its m etropolitan Opera debut in a co-production with companies in Chicago, Detroit, Omaha and Seattle. t he score has undergone some revisions and r obert
Nov. 17-18
Time Warp USA
t he globe-hopping festival returns to the U.S., bringing high-tech production values and pulse-pounding music to the b rooklyn Navy Yard. t he
t he New York p hilharmonic continues its popular Art of the Score series of film screenings with live musical accompaniment. In September, it was Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake. Here, it’s the flick that, in 2018, brought new energy to the superhero genre. At Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall. https://nyphil.org/concertstickets/2324/black-panther
SPONSORED CONTENT
September 5 - November 22, 2023
In a New Light: American Impressionism
1870-1940 | Works from the Bank of America Collection at the National Arts Club in NYC
The National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 10003 nationalartsclub.org
The National Arts Club is thrilled to launch its 2023-24 exhibitions season with “In a New Light: American Impressionism 1870–1940 | Works from the Bank of America Collection.” Spanning over two floors of the NAC’s landmark building on Gramercy Park, this special exhibition features more than 130 works from seminal figures of the American Impressionist movement, including Childe Hassam, George Inness, and John Sloan.
September 18, 2023 | CrAIN’S NeW YOrK bUSINeSS | 21
X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X at the MetOpera | metOperA.OrG
Conan O’Brien and Margaret Cho | bAm, tOWN HALL
City aims to remake Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue by adding up to 4,000 homes in a 13-block stretch
By Nick Garber
The city revealed details Sept. 6 about how it plans to remake a stretch of Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, a major step in a decade-long effort to replace a dreary mile of warehouses and auto shops with much-needed housing.
The 13 blocks, running between Vanderbilt and Nostrand avenues, have long been zoned to permit only light manufacturing—a designation with little relevance in today’s city, as the industrial sector declines and the surrounding neighborhoods of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant grow more in-demand for residents.
Now, Mayor Eric Adams’ Department of City Planning says it will propose changing the corridor to a mixture of residential and commercial zoning that could create as many as 4,000 new homes, including 1,550 income-restricted
west and the Nostrand Avenue Long Island Rail Road station to the east. The target area runs mostly along Atlantic Avenue itself, but also stretches southward toward Prospect Park to cover a few blocks along Pacific, Dean and Bergen streets.
The area is home mostly to oneand two-story buildings containing auto repair shops, self-storage facilities and car washes, plus a slew of vacant lots. There are also some larger industrial buildings, like the former Studebaker service station at 1000 Dean St. that now contains loft-style offices. The neighborhood also includes a handful of apartment buildings already thanks to individual rezonings spearheaded by private developers.
apartments, according to a proposal unveiled Sept. 6.
The rezoning will begin its roughly seven-month review process in the spring of 2024. Unlike many contentious rezoning battles, the Atlantic Avenue effort seems likely to sail through the City Council, thanks to an unusual combination of local and political support—much like a similar rezoning in Midtown that Mayor Adams is separately pushing.
The 13 blocks being eyed for transformation are wedged between the burgeoning Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park complex to the
Efforts to reimagine the Brooklyn corridor began in 2013, when a neighborhood community board began studying ways to shift Atlantic Avenue away from its industrial past and toward a housing-centered future. That proactive effort, known as M-CROWN, differed noticeably from the hostility with which many of the city’s community boards typically greet new development.
Still, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration resisted the effort, saying in 2016 that it would not study changes to the thoroughfare unless the community board got behind a broader, citywide rezoning plan. Adams has taken a more welcoming approach, and announced last year he was embracing the Atlantic Avenue plan as part of his “moonshot” goal of building 500,000 homes in the next decade.
Given its prime location near transit hubs, the stretch of Atlantic Avenue has long been seen as ripe
for denser development, with the city labeling it in 2021 an “opportunity corridor.”
City Planning, along with local City Council member Crystal Hudson, spent the first half of this year soliciting feedback from neighborhood residents on the potential rezoning. In a recent 112-page report, the city summarized what residents want the most: permanently affordable housing, a “mixed-use” neighborhood with access to jobs and services, public green spaces and safety improvements along Atlantic Avenue.
Mix of zoning schemes
Officials said Sept. 6 that this community engagement informed the final plans for Atlantic Avenue. The proposal calls for a mix of zoning schemes, including a high-density residential layer
along the avenue itself that would allow buildings as high as 14 or 15 stories—akin to those found in Chelsea or Tribeca. Ground-floor commercial or office uses would also be allowed.
Along smaller north-south streets like Classon and Franklin avenues, the city is proposing moderate-density zoning like certain blocks in Harlem or the East Village that would also encourage non-residential uses on the ground floors. And on quieter mid-blocks, City Planning is proposing another less-dense scheme that could produce shorter mixeduse buildings like those in Williamsburg.
Another object of focus has been the Bedford Atlantic Armory, a historic structure near the edge of the rezoning area that is used as a men’s shelter. The city now wants to adjust its zoning to a denser manufacturing level, which City
Planning said could allow for new community uses or renovations.
“In the midst of a severe housing shortage, New York City must use every inch of space it can to create new homes and invest in communities across the city,” Adams said in a statement. He previously represented the same area during his seven-year tenure in the state Senate and supported calls for a rezoning as Brooklyn borough president.
As with any rezoning, though, no transformation is assured unless property owners decide that the newly permitted uses make it worthwhile to build something new or renovate an existing building. And some city leaders worry that little will get built unless the state creates new tax breaks for affordable housing construction or office-to-residential conversions—both of which Albany lawmakers failed to act on this year.
Casino operator will take over Trump golf course in the Bronx
By Aaron Elstein
Donald Trump’s name will soon disappear from another New York City property.
The license to manage Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, a professional-caliber course in the Bronx, is being acquired by casino operator Bally Corp. for an undisclosed sum. The golf course is owned by the city but day-to-day operations are handled by an outside party, which since the course opened in 2015 has been Trump Organization. The agreement expires in 2035.
The course is expected to be renamed Bally Links.
About 27,000 rounds were played at Trump Ferry Point in 2022, ranking 12th out of the 13 city-owned golf courses. Moshulu
in the western Bronx had the fewest at 19,000, and Pelham-Split Rock in the eastern Bronx had the most, with 74,000, according to Parks Department data. The Trump course’s relative unpopularity is partly due to political considerations, but also the high cost of playing 18 holes: $205 for city residents on weekends. That’s nearly quadruple the cost to play at Pelham-Split Rock.
Casino license bids
In February, Bally reached an agreement with Trump Organization to potentially take over 17 acres of the 300-acre Trump Ferry Point site so that it could build a casino. The bid by Bally’s is one of about a dozen proposals facing state regulators as they prepare to
award three casino licenses in or near the city in the coming months.
The de Blasio administration fought to cancel the city contract with Trump Organization after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, but a state judge ruled the contract had to stand. The city did end $17 million worth of other contracts with the Trump Organization in February 2021, including deals to operate a carousel and two ice rinks in Central Park.
Since Donald Trump was elected president, his name has been removed from a SoHo condominium-hotel and a West Side apartment complex. 40 Wall St., one of the company’s most lucrative holdings, is struggling with high vacancies while new tenants delay moving in.
In a statement, City Council member Majorie Velázquez said renaming the Trump golf course would “uplift our Bronx communities.”
“Working together, through Bal-
ly’s thoughtful stewardship, we can create a more inclusive project at Ferry Point and find a solution that is representative of who we are as a district and as a borough,” she said.
22 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023
It has long been seen as ripe for development, with the city labeling it in 2021 an “opportunity corridor.”
ALA m Y REAL ESTATE SPECIAL REPORT
Atlantic Avenue as it now appears, facing west near Franklin Avenue. A rendering from the Department of City Planning (inset) shows how it could appear with the taller residential buildings that would be allowed under the proposed rezoning. | NYC pLANNING
NOTABLE LEADERS IN REAL ESTATE
The 78 Notable Leaders in Real Estate showcased here are generating innovative ways to design, create and market residential and commercial property. The real estate sector is as dynamic as New York City itself. Almost 50,000 people move to the city every year. And the commercial sector is contending with the ups and downs of the pandemic and, now, return -to-office edicts by employers.
The honorees named here represent New York’s premier landlords, overseeing strategic partnerships and prioritizing sustainability and energy-use reduction. They are founders of advisory boards, recipients of prestigious accolades and sought-after mentors.
Methodology: To qualify, candidates needed to work in the New York metropolitan area, serve in senior leadership roles at residential or commercial real estate firms and demonstrate innovation and creativity. We also sought individuals who exude passion for their communities and are involved in philanthropic endeavors, mentorship or diversity initiatives.
Read on to meet the professionals making New York a magnet for businesses and families alike.
Paul Amrich Vice chairman, CBRE
Paul Amrich is vice chairman at commercial real estate services firm CBRE. He represents landlords and financial organizations and organizes lease renewals and expansions for businesses across New York City. As chairman of CBRE’s investor leasing advisory board, Amrich works with industry representatives to elevate the organization’s landlord advisory practice across all markets.
During the pandemic, he conducted live property tours over Zoom, which restarted leasing interest and reinvigorated the brokerage community after months of quiet. Amrich was honored with a leadership award by the real estate division of the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation in 2016. He also co-chaired the Creative Artwork for Kids’ annual gala in 2023.
Hannah Bomze
Founder and chief executive officer, Casa Blanca Real Estate
Hannah Bomze is founder and chief executive officer of Casa Blanca Real Estate, a boutique brokerage with a 75% female staff. Prioritizing gender equity in her work, Bomze aims to create a collaborative culture in which agents strive to work cohesively rather than competitively. With a deep understanding of the home-buying process, her accomplishments include selling an off-market penthouse at 20 Greene Street for $35.8 million and helping Casa Blanca develop financial tools tailored to help first-time buyers. Bomze is a founding member of the StreetEasy Agent Advisory Board, an invitation-only forum in which topics relevant for the New York State real estate community are discussed and debated.
Zachary Bernstein
Partner, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
Zachary Bernstein is a partner at law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. He advises real estate owners and developers on high-profile development and land-use matters in New York City, including government approvals, the purchase and sale of development rights and analysis of development potential. Through his work as a land-use attorney, Bernstein has successfully obtained approvals of waterfront public access areas. He is a board member of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, which advances research and debate on housing, and a member of the zoning and design committee for the Real Estate Board of New York.
Taryn Brandes
Founder and chief executive officer, Brand Urban
Taryn Brandes is founder and chief executive officer of the real estate advisory and brokerage company Brand Urban. Brandes launched the company’s landlord division in 2020 and currently oversees its tenant and landlord advisory divisions. In these roles, she acts as a strategist for growth-stage restaurants and lifestyle retailers while also providing brokerage and consulting services to a lineup of clients, including Iconiq Capital, Urban Edge and other institutional developers looking to reposition assets in upgraded retail and hospitality experiences. Brandes is a committee member of New York City Hospitality Group and a planning committee member of the UJA-Federation of New York’s Real Estate Executives.
Varuna Bhattacharyya
Partner, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner
Varuna Bhattacharyya, a partner at the law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, represents a roster of diverse borrowers and lenders at all levels of the capital stack and across every asset class. In her role as adviser, she helps financial institutions and real estate funds through the finer points of loan construction and other leveraged financings, both in local markets and nationwide. Bhattacharyya also serves as a mentor in BCLP’s real estate women’s group; heads the women’s board for the firm’s New York office; and sits on its recruiting committee. She prioritizes the furtherance of diversity in her industry as a board member and development director of the Asian American Bar Association of New York.
Robert Braverman
Principal and managing partner, Braverman Greenspun
As principal and managing partner of the law firm Braverman Greenspun, Robert Braverman provides day-to-day legal advice to clients and is lead counsel in complex litigation. Spearheading the continued growth of his New York-based firm, he oversaw the acquisition of another practice, Finder Novick Kerrigan; the combined workforce now represents more than 300 condominium and cooperative buildings in the tri-state area. Braverman has published articles in the New York Law Journal and sits on the Hofstra University School of Law Career Services alumni committee. He also volunteers as a member of the planning committee for Spirit of Hope, an annual real estate industry event that raises money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Buwa Binitie
Founder and chief executive officer, Dumas Collective
Buwa Binitie is founder and CEO of Dumas Collective, a Blackowned group of companies focused on social impact through real estate development, acquisition and property and construction management. Under Binitie’s leadership, Dumas Collective has trademarked the term “luxury affordable housing” to represent the belief that there need be no compromise on the quality of one’s living situation, regardless of income. Toward that end, the firm’s development division, Dantes Partners, recently entered a partnership with the New York City Housing Authority and the New York City Housing Development Corp.; the initiative, Permanent Affordability Commitment Together, will renovate low- and middle-income housing throughout the city. Binitie speaks regularly at industry events.
Lee Brodsky Chief executive officer, BEB Capital
As chief executive officer of the real estate investment firm BEB Capital, Lee Brodsky is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction of the entire business, not least the execution and management of partnerships. He also heads up all asset management-related functions and serves on the investment committee, which is a successful driver of BEB Capital’s growing real estate and investment portfolio. Brodsky’s recent accomplishments include launching his firm’s credit fund and establishing a team charged with prioritizing workplace sustainability and energy reduction. He is a board member of various organizations, including Mobile Health, the Greater New York chapter of the ALS Association and the Alzheimer’s Foundation.
September 18, 2023 | CrAIN’S NeW YOrK bUSINeSS | 23
Isaac Buchler
Vice president, Kushner
Isaac Buchler serves as vice president of commercial for the real estate developer Kushner, where he oversees the company’s office, retail and hospitality portfolio. He has also been charged with organizing and managing tenant relations, leasing, project management, capital projects and strategy. Some of his notable work includes two Jersey Shore projects: the redevelopment of Monmouth Mall, now known as Monmouth Square, and the expansion of the retail effort at Pier Village. Additionally, Buchler sits on the boards of multiple community charities, is a nationally registered EMT and, for the third year running, participated in Bike4Chai, a cycling event benefiting children and families affected by illness, crisis and loss.
Allison Chiaramonte
Co-founder, ATelier Team at Compass
Allison Chiaramonte is cofounder and principal of the ATelier Team at Compass.
Alongside her partner Tania Friedland, Chiaramonte has closed more than $1.5 billion in sales over the course of her career and has been consistently ranked among the top 1.5% of Realtors nationwide since 2019.
Chiaramonte’s accomplishments include representing the purchasers in two of the Upper East Side’s largest townhouse sales in the past two years, as well as the sale of 895 Park Avenue, Penthouse A, in 2021.
Chiaramonte serves as the New York City regional head of Women of Compass, a role in which she hosts many of the organization’s events.
Bianca D’Alessio
Managing director, Nest Seekers International
Bianca D’Alessio, a managing director at the global real estate brokerage Nest Seekers International and founder of the firm’s Masters Division, advises on preconstruction development, branding, marketing and strategic positioning for condominium and luxury rentals. D’Alessio has worked on thousands of deals worth more than $2 billion and has built a team of nearly 50 brokers. She has also expanded her portfolio to include international assets. Outside of her day-to-day role, D’Alessio serves as a business coach for young entrepreneurs and agents entering the industry; is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York’s new development committee; and sits on the alumni advisory board of Babson College.
NOTE WORTHY
Tawan Davis Founder and chief executive officer, The Steinbridge Group
Tawan Davis is founder and chief executive officer of The Steinbridge Group, spearheading the investment firm’s efforts to support the growth and wellbeing of local communities through its bankrolling of quality affordable housing. His recent accomplishments include launching a program with PNC Bank designed to foster an increase in homeownership, growing Steinbridge’s activecontrolled development pipeline to nearly $500 million and leading “Open House On Wheels,” an interactive event for first-time home buyers in partnership with Fierce Realty Corp. Davis has served on the boards of Harlem Hospital, the New Horizons Children’s Advocacy Group and the New York Urban League.
100-plus years
Pierre Debbas Co-managing partner, Romer Debbas
As co-managing partner of the boutique real estate law firm Romer Debbas, Pierre Debbas focuses on the purchase and sale of both commercial and residential real estate in New York City. Notably, he and co-founder Michael Romer have led their firm into the top five of The Real Deal’s ranking of all New York City real estate law firms. During the pandemic, Debbas helped create online real estate education platforms, and over the past year he conceived the Real Estate Center 4 Success, which will soon provide more education and learning tools to the city’s real estate community. Debbas sits on the board of the Global Fund for Widows.
Craig Deitelzweig President and chief executive officer, Marx Realty
As president and chief executive officer, Craig Deitelzweig is leading the growth of Marx Realty by concentrating on value-added office investments in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. Deitelzweig’s notable work includes the completion of a top-to-bottom renovation at 545 Madison that raised occupancy to close to 100% from near 40% when Marx Realty took over the asset. He also guided the launch of the firm’s MarxMobile concept, which has given the tenants of 10 Grand Central access to an on-demand luxury rideshare option. Deitelzweig is also an Urban Land Institute mentor and sits on the advisory boards of Tulane University, Shadow Ventures and Merchants National Properties.
Cassie Durand Executive vice president, CBRE
Cassie Durand is executive vice president at the real estate brokerage CBRE. In this role, she leads a retail leasing team that specializes in nationwide tenant representation and data-backed strategy development, implementation and rollout execution. Durand built a string of successes that made her CBRE’s top retail producer in the Americas in 2022 by using CBRE analytics to help customers hone their approaches, predict cannibalization and drive site selection. She previously sat on the board of CBRE’s Tri-State Women’s Network, and is currently involved with the Young Men’s/Women’s Real Estate Association, volunteering her time and expertise to mentor those interested in retail real estate.
Blima Ehrentreu Founder and chief executive officer, The Designers Group
As founder and chief executive officer of The Designers Group, Blima Ehrentreu has raised her interior design firm’s profile in the commercial real estate industry while prioritizing women’s empowerment, inclusivity and community impact. Under her leadership, the firm, which specializes in designing high-end spaces for commercial portfolios, was ranked 15th on Inc. Magazine’s 2021 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the New York metro area. Ehrentreu, who received a “Women on the Rise” award from the Commercial Observer, has established several philanthropic initiatives, including TDG Gives Back, which participates in local community benefit programs and serves the residents in senior living communities designed by the firm.
Ken Fisher Partner, Fisher Brothers
As co-managing partner of the real estate firm Fisher Brothers, Ken Fisher oversees the daily operations of management, construction and leasing. In all, he is responsible for a portfolio of more than 9 million square feet of commercial, residential and retail space in New York, Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas. Recently, the company completed large-scale capital improvements at 1345 Avenue of Americas and 299 Park Ave., investing $120 million and $20 million respectively in building upgrades. Outside of work, Fisher is chairman and chief executive officer of Fisher House Foundation and serves as co-chairman of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.
Alex Foster Managing partner and co-founder, Atlas Real Estate Partners
Alex Foster’s responsibilities include acquisitions financing, asset management, development and investor relations. Atlas has closed more than 50 acquisitions and development projects at a total capitalization of more than $1 billion. Working primarily but not exclusively in the southeastern United States, Foster secured a strategic investment partnership to grow Atlas’ value-added business; delivered development deals in Nashville, Tenn.; Atlanta, and Charleston, S.C., and funded and closed two value-added multifamily deals in Savannah, Ga., and Topeka, Kan. Under his leadership, Atlas also co-founded the Real Estate Sleep Out program, which has raised more than $3 million for Covenant House, a nonprofit provider of shelter and support to homeless youth.
24 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023
More than a century old, Douglas Elliman is the largest residential real estate company in New York. (U.S. News & World Report)
NOTABLE LEADERS IN REAL ESTATE
Tania Friedland
Co-founder, ATelier Team at Compass
Tania Friedland is co-founder of the ATelier Team at Compass. She and her partner are responsible for closing more than $1.5 billion in sales over the course of their careers.
Friedland’s approach, which marries an appreciation of art and design to clients’ goals, has built a business largely supported by repeat clients and referrals. Her expertise has been published in news outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the New York Post. Friedland is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York, in addition to lending her time to various autism and breast cancer organizations.
Alicia Glen Founder and managing principal, MSquared
Alicia Glen is founder and managing principal of MSquared, a national real estate impact investing and development platform. Under Glen’s leadership, MSquared surpassed $200 million in assets under management, with investments secured from major financial institutions, foundations, family offices and individual investors. Currently, the firm has more than 3,000 units of housing underway, totaling more than $1.5 billion in development value. Glen advocates for construction of mixed-income developments that offer both market-rate and affordable units. She co-chairs the Gateway Development Commission, an agency entrusted with delivering large infrastructure projects, and chairs the Trust for Governors Island.
Andrew Goldberg Vice chair, CBRE
Andrew Goldberg is vice chair at the real estate brokerage CBRE. Over more than 25 years in the industry, he has built expertise spanning landlord and tenant representation, lease negotiations and market and financial analysis. Goldberg counsels property owners and luxury brands such as Tiffany and Valentino on work ranging from flagship lease negotiations to national strategies. He is also a founding partner of Fairstead, the New York-headquartered affordable housing developer that recently teamed with Project Find and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development to open Park 79, an affordable senior housing development on the Upper West Side.
NOTE WORTHY
Jeffrey Goldberg Chief executive officer, Fairstead
Jeffrey Goldberg directs all investment and operational decision-making as chief executive officer of Fairstead, a real estate developer with expertise in sustainable housing. In the past few years, Goldberg led Fairstead in efforts to preserve existing affordable housing across the nation, earning several accolades for the company in the process. In 2022, Goldberg oversaw the creation of Fairstead Ventures, a property technology investment initiative that aims to change industry standards with its focus on energy use and decarbonization. He also led his company’s participation in the Gift of Life swab drive, a donor match screening of employees with the goal of facilitating bone marrow and stem cell transplants for individuals with life-threatening diseases.
Neil Goldmacher Chairman, Newmark
As chairman of the real estate advisory firm Newmark, Neil Goldmacher specializes in local and national tenant advisory services, with a particular focus on strategic planning and transaction services. Toward that end, he recently facilitated a 1 million-square-foot net lease for a development site on Park Avenue and negotiated a 108,000-square-foot building acquisition in Tribeca. Goldmacher is a member of the Industrial and Office Real Estate Brokers Association and the Real Estate Board of New York, sitting on its leasing brokers committee. He also serves on the board of directors of Creative Art Works, a nonprofit that helps underserved youth develop personal and professional skills through art-related opportunities in academic and non-academic settings.
John Gomes
Real estate broker and co-founder, Eklund | Gomes
Team at Douglas Elliman
John Gomes is a real estate broker and co-founder of the Eklund | Gomes Team at the real estate company Douglas Elliman. He provides leadership while fostering an atmosphere of distinction and creativity for a team that has secured more than $10 billion in residential sales and sold out more than 50 new developments since its inception. Gomes recently partnered with Architectural Digest to produce a roadshow in Mexico City that amplified the brand and expanded the pool of buyers. He has also worked with the Ali Forney Center, a community center catering to LGBTQIA+ homeless youth, helping the organization secure a site that would offer a safe space for its at-risk clientele.
DeWitt Goss
Associate market leader, Matthews Real Estate Investment Services
As an associate market leader for Matthews Real Estate Investment Services, DeWitt Goss’s primary responsibilities include the disposition and acquisition of net-leased retail investments. His notable accomplishments include successfully brokering a sale of the Pep Boys property in Queens that set a capitalization-rate record for a freestanding single-tenant net-lease property in the five boroughs. Goss is also an active participant in his company’s corporate social responsibility initiatives at the New York office, including the Plum Beach Clean Up. Outside work, he serves as the class of 2012’s alumni chair at The Buckley School, organizing events and driving contributions to the annual fund.
Joel Graber
Head of operations, Better Mortgage
As head of operations at Better Mortgage, an online mortgage originator, Joel Graber’s job is to ensure the continued successful execution of the company’s core customer-first offerings. As an example, he recently spearheaded the implementation of Better’s One Day Mortgage, a new product designed to provide customers with pre-approvals, a locked-in rate and a binding commitment letter, all within 24 hours of original contact. Graber’s civic contributions include leading the launch of the Better Opportunity Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to combating racial and gender wealth gaps in the housing industry. He is also a committed volunteer at his local YMCA.
Les Hiscoe
Chief operating officer, Shawmut Design and Construction
Les Hiscoe serves as chief operating officer of the construction company Shawmut Design and Construction. He is currently leading a 10-year growth plan focused on increasing the firm’s market share of large-scale projects and adding experts in the commercial, education, healthcare and life science sectors to the team. In his work, Hiscoe is an advocate for use of the most innovative technology and the upfront collaboration that best brings clients’ visions to life. Outside of his professional role, he is a volunteer with Rebuilding Together New York City, a board member of the Construction Industry Round Table and a guest lecturer at the Massachusetts Institution of Technology and the University of New Hampshire.
Licensed associate real estate broker, Compass
Julia Hoagland is a licensed associate real estate broker and founder of the eponymous Julia Hoagland team at the real estate firm Compass. She assists clients in strategic and advisory matters while overseeing the day-to-day operations of the employees who report to her. Hoagland is board chair of Babies and Mothers Alive, a nonprofit dedicated to improving maternal and newborn health in Uganda, and vice chair of the membership committee of Counselors of Real Estate. She has delivered presentations about the Manhattan real estate market in Hong Kong and moderated a recent panel called “Rebuilding Efforts in Ukraine” at the Counselors of Real Estate International Conference in Prague
September 18, 2023 | CrAIN’S NeW YOrK bUSINeSS | 25
Julia Hoagland
55% of millennials are interested in real estate as an investment. (First National)
Karen Hu
Executive vice president and head of development, Camber Property Group
Karen Hu is executive vice president and head of development at Camber Property Group, where she leads a diverse team committed to the creation and preservation of affordable housing. Two recent examples of the projects she shepherds to completion are a women’s intake shelter and a permanent supportive housing structure. Hu’s job often entails forging relationships with local stakeholders, nonprofit partners, residents and elected officials to build the consensus necessary to bring projects to fruition. She is a former board member of Women in Housing and Finance and a current member of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing.
Ted Hunter Partner, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
As a partner at Manatt Phelps & Phillips, Ted Hunter has been instrumental in the growth of the law firm’s New York and wider East Coast real estate practice. Taking a holistic approach, Hunter finds bespoke solutions to complex deals that result in significant and positive outcomes. His recent undertakings have included leasing commercial space to Fortune 100 companies in the city; advising on the refinancing of loans; and negotiating modifications to leases and management agreements. Outside of his professional responsibilities, Hunter is a member of the New York State Bar Association, the Real Estate Board of New York and Young Real Estate Professionals of New York.
Ninve James
Senior vice president of residential brokerage services and products, Real Estate Board of New York
Ninve James is the Real Estate Board of New York’s senior vice president of residential brokerage services and products. Under her watch, REBNY became one of the first listing services in the nation to migrate to the open technology standards of the Real Estate Standards Organization web application programming interface. James, a believer in the importance of standardizing resources, has presented her views on the topic at both the Clarity MLS executive workshop and RESO’s 2023 spring conference. She is a member of the New Suffolk Civic Association and previously served as an inaugural member of News Corp Women in Leadership.
NOTE WORTHY
16%
Gary Kao
Head of New York and vice president of business development and operations, Dealpath
As Dealpath’s head of New York and vice president of business development and operations, Gary Kao has been instrumental in growing the real estate deal management platform’s reach nationwide. Currently, he leads the day-today operations governing integration and deployment of the platform, conceptualizing and navigating the paths that have kept Dealpath at the forefront of the property technology and real estate sector. During his tenure, Kao has been an integral part of several company milestones, including product launches and office openings. Beyond his professional responsibilities, Kao is involved with the Urban Land Institute.
Nabaraj KC Realtor, Telemundo Realty
As an award-winning realtor with the Queens-based agency Telemundo Realty, Nabaraj KC serves commercial, residential and rental customers. Emphasizing client satisfaction, he leverages his proficiency in five languages to successfully cater to New York City’s diverse market with its wide array of real estate needs. Outside of work, KC serves as the president of College Point Civic and Taxpayers Association. During the pandemic, he distributed more than $3 million worth of food and personal protective equipment in communities all over the city. He is also a former president of the Rotary Club of New York, Queens.
of office space nationwide was vacant in the first quarter of 2023. As of May 2023, that number in Manhattan was 17.4%. (Statista; The New York Times)
Michael Kirchmann
Chief executive officer and partner, GDSNY
Michael Kirchmann is chief executive officer and partner at GDSNY, a real estate investment and development company. He boasts more than 30 years of diversified real estate experience and has worked on projects with industry leaders such as Shell, Pfizer, JPMorgan and Four Seasons. Kirchmann is a fundraising partner for Hudson River Park and previously served on the board of Free Arts NYC. He has also lectured at a variety of institutions and organizations, including Penn State and the Architectural Association in London. During the pandemic, Kirchmann launched a GDSNY Covid relief team, which delivered meals and medical supplies to families and seniors in affordable housing.
Vice president of asset management, Olive Tree Holdings
Danielle Klapper serves as vice president of asset management at Olive Tree Holdings, a real estate investment firm, where she oversees the financial and operational performance of the multifamily units in the company’s portfolio. Klapper is always on the lookout for innovations that may further centralize and automate the systems of buildings under her purview; she also promotes usage of data mining and other technology solutions in pursuit of efficiencies. Her duties also include formulating strategic plans and sourcing vendor contracts. Outside of the office, she serves as president and board director at Israel Opportunity Energy and works with the American Technion Society, an organization that combats antisemitism.
Co-founder and chief information officer,
Rod Kritsberg is co-founder and chief information officer of the real estate investment platform KPG Funds. As such, he is engrossed in efforts to find, fund and manage architecturally significant Class B and C buildings in need of rehabilitation, transforming them into boutique Class A office spaces. One recent example: KPG Funds purchased 446 Broadway before turning the space into fully remodeled work areas and luxurious office suites. Kritsberg has also led a firmwide push to assist children in Ukraine, forging partnerships with organizations distributing medical supplies, earlychildhood development kits and other necessary items in the war-torn country.
Chief marketing officer, Brown Harris Stevens
As chief marketing officer at the luxury real estate firm Brown Harris Stevens, Matthew Leone oversees a team of more than 55 employees in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Florida. In this role, Leone has initiated two branding campaigns and launched a video content studio and a TikTok channel that plays video tours of the firm’s properties. He also launched an internal dashboard that has streamlined the administrative tasks of the firm’s agents. Outside of his professional responsibilities, Leone serves on the board of Youth Baseball of New Rochelle in an advisory capacity and is a member of The Wall Street Journal’s chief marketing officer network.
Pamela Liebman, president and chief executive officer of the luxury real estate firm The Corcoran Group, oversees 4,500 affiliated agents and employees as well as the firm’s broad range of high-impact projects. Under her watch, Corcoran has closed more than $23 billion in sales, becoming one of the primary residential real estate brokerages in Manhattan. Liebman has also launched initiatives such as the Corcoran Affiliate Network, which extended the firm’s reach and strategic vision to 10 markets across the globe in its first year. Liebman is a founding member of the Miami Dade Impact Collective as well as a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, the Chief Executives Organization and the Partnership for New York City.
26 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023
Danielle Klapper
Rod Kritsberg
KPG Funds
Matthew Leone
Pamela Liebman
President and chief executive officer, The Corcoran Group
NOTABLE LEADERS IN REAL ESTATE
Congratulations to Paul Amrich, Cassie Durand, Andrew Goldberg, Steve Siegel, Darcy Stacom, Mary Ann Tighe, and all the Crain’s New York 2023 Notable Leaders in Real Estate.
Steve Siegel Chairman
Paul Amrich Vice Chairman
Mary Ann Tighe CEO, New York Tri-State Region
Andrew Goldberg Vice Chairman
Darcy Stacom Chairman Learn more at cbre.com/newyorkcity
Cassie Durand Executive Vice President
Realizing potential in every dimension
Nicole Lockett Managing director, Genesis Companies
Nicole Lockett is managing director of the real estate development firm Genesis Companies, a creator of affordable, mixed-use and mixed-income projects. In particular, Lockett and her team are focused on revitalizing Black and brown communities while preserving their cultural integrity, often after coming up with complex financing strategies. Lockett recently partnered with the East Orange Housing Authority and The Metro Company to deliver a 60-unit affordable senior development. Across her work, she collaborates with cultural institutions, churches, and minority- and women-owned businesses to enhance diverse neighborhoods. Outside of her professional responsibilities, she serves on the boards of the New York Real Estate Chamber and New York University’s Furman Center.
Dave Lombino Managing director of external affairs, Two Trees Management
Dave Lombino is managing director of external affairs at Two Trees Management, a Brooklynbased real estate development firm. Currently, he and his team are working on The Refinery at Domino in Williamsburg’s Domino Park, where they will soon be delivering 460,000 square feet of office space, retail and on-site amenities. Lombino is also involved in the development of River Ring, a large mixed-use project anchored by a waterfront park. In his role, he seeks to forge relationships with communities, civic organizations and government stakeholders to help his firm realize their innovative projects. Lombino co-chairs the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance and is a board member of the 5Boro Institute.
Donald Manning
Executive director of real estate and management, JASA
Donald Manning is executive director of real estate and management at JASA, an agency that supports older adults in New York City. Manning has been responsible for the implementation of capital improvements worth millions of dollars in the buildings the organization manages. He has also spearheaded green-energy initiatives that help contain tenants’ utilities costs. Those improvements include revamping the technological infrastructure at JASA’s properties, including installing video intercoms, low-cost Wi-Fi and a central emergency monitoring system. Manning is a member of the New York Affordable Housing Management Association, which advocates for professional standards for affordable housing providers, and is a member of the housing committee of LeadingAgeNY.
NOTE WORTHY
$510 billion
Christopher Okada
Chief executive officer, Okada & Company
As chief executive officer of Okada & Company, a multifaceted commercial real estate brokerage, Christopher Okada serves as dealmaker, strategist, business leader and thought leader. He recently published From Fear to Fortune, a report that analyzed past commercial real estate trends in Manhattan and offered predictions for 2023 and beyond. Okada has built a substantial online presence, using social media to inform his community about his firm and the industry at large. Outside of his work, he previously served as chairman of commercial real estate at the Asian American Real Estate Association of America. Okada is a longtime volunteer and youth advocate at Our Lady of Lourdes School on the Upper West Side.
Larisa Ortiz
Managing director public nonprofit solutions, Streetsense
Larisa Ortiz is managing director of public nonprofit solutions at the creative consulting firm Streetsense, where she leads economic development engagement for municipal and nonprofit clients. Ortiz has developed tactical recommendations for business improvement district leaders in matters of marketing, branding, vacant storefront activation and equity. She also authored Preparing a Commercial District Diagnostic, an approach to strategic planning that has been deployed nationwide and which served as the framework for New York City’s Commercial District Needs Assessment tool. Ortiz is a volunteer board committee member of River Cities and Scenic Hudson and a volunteer advisory board member of the Small Business AntiDisplacement Network.
What Central Park’s 843 acres are worth. (Loan Boss)
Damon Pazzaglini
Chief operating officer, Fetner
As chief operating officer at the real estate firm Fetner, Damon Pazzaglini is currently overseeing a trio of large-scale, ground-up projects totaling $750 million that, when completed, will have added nearly 800 residences to the city. As part of that oversight, Pazzaglini works to ensure that each project includes the amenities that matter most to residents, such as areas to support remote work and fitness centers. He has also led his firm’s efforts in establishing new strategic joint-venture partnerships with four major institutional investors over the past three years. Outside of his professional responsibilities, Pazzaglini serves on Asphalt Green’s board of directors, furthering its efforts to provide need-based scholarships and free and low-cost community fitness programs to neighborhood children and adults.
Justin Pelsinger
Chief operating officer, Charney Companies
Justin Pelsinger serves as chief operating officer at Charney Companies, a real estate development, construction and management firm. During his tenure, Pelsinger has grown the company to more than 20 employees and secured the largest residential development deal in New York City in 2021, according to The Real Deal. Currently, Pelsinger is involved in the development of approximately 350 affordable apartments. His creative approach is manifest in the firm’s unique layouts, designs and amenity packages, some of which have been conceived in collaboration with local artists. Pelsinger serves on a condo board in Long Island City and is a board member of Chabad of Long Island City.
David Picket
Chief executive officer, Gotham Organization
Under its chief executive officer, David Picket, the real estate developer, owner and property manager Gotham Organization has developed more than 5,000 housing units and more than 1.7 million square feet of urban retail. Under Picket’s watch, Gotham is currently developing more than 2.5 million square feet of housing with more than 50% affordable. Picket recently entered a partnership with Hunter’s Point Park Conservancy to build a community boathouse. Outside of the office, Picket is a founding member of Project Parachute, a coalition of owners of affordable apartment buildings, housing nonprofits and service providers that delivers rental assistance and services to New Yorkers still struggling with the effects of the pandemic.
Steven Polivy
Partner and chair of the economic development and incentives practice, Akerman
At the law firm Akerman, Steven Polivy is a partner and chair of the economic development and incentives practice. In this role, he represents developers, international investors, Fortune 500 companies, family-owned businesses and others in their efforts to secure government incentives and tax benefits for urban redevelopment and corporate relocations. Polivy is on his firm’s pro bono team, where he leads human-rights efforts, and has been advising Life of Hope, a Brooklyn-based provider of services to immigrant families and the Caribbean community, on real estate issues. He also serves as co-chair of the board of directors for JBI International.
Serene Powers
Founder and chief executive officer, Serene Powers Real Estate
Serene Powers, a licensed real estate broker, is founder and chief executive officer of Serene Powers Real Estate. She leads and mentors a team of eight licensed agents—the majority of whom are female—that has closed $25 million in sales. Powers has spurred her firm to develop integrated market strategies and to embrace the use of 3D models, video and artificial intelligence to elevate the customer experience. In her off hours, she is involved with the Coalition for Queen’s Tech Meetup and the Long Island City Partnership. She is also a founding member of the StreetEasy Agent Advisory Board, an invitation-only industry forum.
28 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023
NOTABLE LEADERS IN REAL ESTATE
Daniel Pupke
Manager of development, strategic planning and market intelligence, Reuveni Development Marketing
Daniel Pupke is manager of development, strategic planning and market intelligence at Reuveni Development Marketing. In this role, he is currently overseeing the pre-development planning of more than half a dozen condominium and multifamily projects in the company pipeline. He also supervises the governing strategy of its active sales projects. In addition, Pupke leads Reuveni’s efforts to ensure that all future projects are “pandemic-proof.” Outside of his professional responsibilities, he volunteers his time to mentor college students interested in the real estate field. Pupke is also a member of Next Generation Industry Leaders, a real estate networking group.
Frank Pusinelli
Senior executive vice president and chief operating officer, RXR
As senior executive vice president and chief operating officer of RXR, Frank Pusinelli is responsible for the marketing, leasing and operational functions relevant to the firm’s office, multifamily, storage and logistics portfolio. That includes overseeing the daily management of operating assets and major design and construction initiatives. Under Pusinelli’s leadership, the firm has been focused on executing programming, design and construction initiatives that maximize tenants’ ability to provide satisfying, holistic experiences to returning-to-office employees. He previously served on the board of the Long Island Children’s Museum and currently sits on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City.
Remy Raisner
Founder and chief executive officer, The Raisner Group
Remy Raisner is founder and chief executive officer of The Raisner Group, a real estate investment firm with a fastgrowing portfolio of distressed properties. The firm plays a significant role in the ongoing revitalization of the Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Prospect Lefferts Gardens neighborhoods. Raisner promotes client-friendly initiatives such as the use of block.a., an app that enables potential tenants to self-tour spaces. Aside from his professional responsibilities, he sits on the board of New York University’s La Maison Française and has authored numerous articles on sound urbanism and real estate for outlets such as Forbes and HuffPost.
Diane Ramirez
Chief strategy officer, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York Properties
Diane Ramirez, chief strategy officer at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York Properties, is responsible for expanding the brand’s reach, not least by seeking out and maintaining partnerships in New York City and across the globe. In addition, she co-chairs the residential brokerage board of directors at the Real Estate Board of New York, where she also serves on the board of governors. REBNY has honored Ramirez with several awards, including for her leadership and humanitarianism and for her contributions to the industry and community organizations. She has also been recognized by such organizations as Inman and the Swanepoel Power 200.
Jennifer Recine
Partner, Kasowitz Benson Torres
Jennifer Recine is a litigator and partner at the law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres. She specializes in handling the high-stakes real estate disputes of developers and hospitality companies. Recine, whose clients include BD Hotels, Crescent Heights, Maguire Real Estate and Maverick Real Estate Partners, recently defeated a motion on behalf of the Hotel Chelsea’s owner and principals in a $100 million lawsuit brought by the city of New York. This resulted in the lawsuit’s dismissal and the lifting of a longstanding construction stop-work order. Outside of her professional role, Recine volunteers her time and expertise as a pro bono litigator.
Ronnette Riley
Principal and owner, Ronnette Riley Architect
Ronnette Riley is principal and sole owner of the eponymous firm Ronnette Riley Architect. She manages project design in addition to acting as a liaison to clients on contractual matters. Riley is an active member and former chair of the national American Institute of Architects committee on design and previously served as director of AIA’s New York State chapter. She also has served as an adjunct professor at both the School of Visual Arts and the New York University Schack Institute of Real Estate. Currently, Riley is the national vice president of the Society of American Registered Architects.
Alan Rudikoff
Partner and co-owner, GDSNY
Alan Rudikoff is a partner and co-owner of GDSNY, a real estate development and investment firm, where he is responsible for originating deals, structuring investments and debt, raising institutional capital and managing risk. In his more than 30 years of diversified real estate finance and development experience, he has honed his expertise in sustainability, technological innovation and boutique office design. Rudikoff currently serves on the board of advisors for the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the Wisconsin School of Business. He also helped launch a GDSNY Covid relief team early in the pandemic, which delivered meals and medical supplies to families and seniors in affordable housing.
Stuart Saft
Partner and New York real estate practice leader, Holland & Knight
Stuart Saft is a partner and New York real estate practice leader at the law firm Holland & Knight, a position that includes cochairing the firm’s global condominium development and conversion team. (Formerly he co-chaired its hospitality, resort and timeshare group.) His accomplishments span a wide range of clients: He has obtained tax exemptions for homeless shelters and represented the boards of luxury hotels. Saft’s responsibilities extend to advising public officials at the city, state and national level. He has served as board chair of the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums for more than 35 years and chaired the New York City Workforce Investment Board for more than 12 years.
Robin Schneiderman
Managing director and director of business development, Brown Harris Stevens Development Marketing
In his role as managing director and director of business development at Brown Harris Stevens Development Marketing, Robin Schneiderman relies on his experience in zoning, equity partnerships, development site sales and inclusionary air rights to guide developers, firms, institutional investors and debt and equity brokers through acquisitions and developments. The properties in Schneiderman’s portfolio include 200 Amsterdam in Lincoln Square and The Leyton on the Upper East Side. In 2020, he led the launch of BHSDM’s research and advisory division; he continues to be involved in its expansion. Schneiderman serves on the real estate advisory board of Syracuse University.
Jessica Schoenholtz
Senior vice president of marketing and communications, Silverstein Properties
As senior vice president of marketing and communications for Silverstein Properties, Jessica Schoenholtz manages the firm’s branding, positioning, advertising, public relations, placemaking and digital strategy functions for the commercial and retail properties in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Her accomplishments include repositioning and marketing 2 World Trade Center and the rest of the World Trade Center campus. Toward that end, she ran a multi-faceted campaign to make 3 World Trade Center a recurring setting for HBO’s Succession, in addition to other events and activations that attracted new companies and encouraged existing tenants to return to their offices. Outside of work, she co-managed the 2012 congressional campaign and 2022 borough president campaign for her husband, Mark Murphy.
30 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023
NOTABLE LEADERS IN REAL ESTATE
The fifth-largest industry is the commercial real estate market in the U.S., according to IBISWorld (First
National) NOTE WORTHY
Andrew Schwartz
Co-president for the New York region, The Howard Hughes Corp.
At The Howard Hughes Corp., Andrew Schwartz serves as co-president for the New York region. After joining the real estate development and management company in 2015, he led the firm’s revitalization of the South Street Seaport area. Schwartz’s 20 years of experience in strategic partnerships, advertising campaigns and events are evident in his involvement in the launch of the summer concert series at The Rooftop at Pier 17 and in an immersive dining experience at The Malibu Barbie Café. Schwartz is a former head coach of the University of Connecticut women’s ice hockey team. He remains connected to the sport by raising awareness for disabled hockey players.
Matthew Schwartz
Co-chief executive officer, The Domain Companies
Matthew Schwartz founded The Domain Companies with his co-chief executive officer, Chris Papamichael, and shares with him the oversight of development activities and overall operations. Over the past 20 years, Schwartz has been involved in more than $3 billion of development and capitalization across several sectors. He is a member of the business school council at Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business and sits on the boards of The Ideal Village, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Arts Council of New Orleans and Tulane Hillel. Under his watch, Domain’s community development program, MyCommunity, has consistently supported dozens of local nonprofits, including North Brooklyn Angels, God’s Love We Deliver and the Ali Forney Center.
NOTE WORTHY
The first hotel
Carlo Scissura
President and chief executive officer, New York Building Congress
As president and chief executive officer of the New York Building Congress, Carlo Scissura promotes economic development, infrastructure investment and job creation throughout the construction industry. Toward that end, he recently helped launch the Infrastructure Action Council. Previously, Scissura advocated for the record $6.88 billion grant for the Gateway Tunnel project. He chairs the Federation of Italian-American Organizations, for which he is currently overseeing construction of the Italian Cultural and Community Center. Scissura also serves on the boards of the New York City Regional Economic Development Council, Salvadori Center and Friends of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
Kyle Scott
President, Serhant. Ventures, Serhant.
At the real estate company Serhant., Kyle Scott is president of Serhant. Ventures, which focuses on “the marketplace of tomorrow.” That role has Scott drawing from his decade of work as a digital and broadcast producer to devise innovative offerings that elevate the prowess of the firm’s agents. Scott entered real estate in 2019 while developing Ryan Serhant’s bestselling book, Sell It Like Serhant, into a digital course; he continues to create educational and engaging content even as he supports other divisions of the company with his technological direction. Scott is a member of the Cornell University Council and an ed-tech mentor at the accelerator StartED, advising entrepreneurs on how to scale and monetize ideas.
NOTABLE SPOTLIGHT with Kenneth Walsh, Jr.
Growing through the power of personal connections
Having grown up in the real estate management business, what’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned in this role that your previous experience didn’t prepare you for?
to select solutions that demonstrate those characteristics.
As a fourth-generation real estate executive, Kenneth Walsh, Jr. has gained a ground-up understanding of commercial real estate asset management throughout his 25-year career in New York City. He previously managed major NYC landmark buildings, including the home of the New York Stock Exchange, as property manager at Vornado Realty Trust. Now, as director of operations at Adams & Co. Real Estate LLC, Walsh steers the firm’s commercial portfolio toward a sustainable future by investing in buildings as well as people.
Walsh also supports multiple non-profit organizations throughout the region— providing fundraising support to the Boy Scouts of America, the Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center, and the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which provides mortgage-free homes to families of fallen first responders. Walsh serves on the board of Colin Courageous, which has raised over $600,000 for the Children’s Tumor Foundation.
The most surprising thing I’ve learned is how small the NYC real estate world can be. Everyone knows each other, no matter the size of your business. Word of mouth plays a big role in determining my future connections and how long those connections last. It’s important to me that I always conduct myself in a manner that will allow my colleagues to recommend me as a good business partner.
How do you balance innovation with tradition as a fourth-generation real estate asset management executive?
Like many CRE executives, I regularly evaluate many property technology (proptech) products, but rarely implement any. Few of them meet the needs of Adams & Company, which are to facilitate communication— not replace it. I also partner with my engineers and contractors to determine which new materials and processes will best serve the 100-yearold properties I manage. I value solutions that bolster a property’s longevity and stability, and I’m careful
You manage a workforce of more than 100 employees with an average tenure of 12 years. What’s the key to retaining good people?
My staff know that I value their contributions to the success of the business. I want them to be honest with me and share their ideas and concerns. I want to empower them to make decisions confidently on their own and feel supported. I strongly believe you can only be as good as the people you surround yourself with, and my investment in the growth of my staff throughout their tenure brings great value to Adams & Company.
What are some recent sustainability initiatives you’ve directed at Adams & Co., and why are these initiatives important to you and the company?
LED lighting retrofits, natural gas conversions, and HVAC upgrades have been some of the capital improvements I’ve made to our portfolio. I work with several excellent consultants and advisors who recommend the best ways to guide my portfolio toward energy sustainability for the long term. With
these important steps, we encounter as few surprises as possible and maintain a steady return to our investors. I also provide training to my building staff so they can implement daily sustainability efforts.
What’s the best leadership lesson you’ve learned that you’d share as advice with other leaders?
Surround yourself with good people and value their opinions and input, whether you agree or not. Be present to the people you are leading. Answer their calls, texts, or emails right away. Demonstrate that you respect them by showing up—in-person, professionally, and courteously every time. Make sure they know you care about them. I’m always humbled and gratified by how often I see these efforts returned to me, and I believe this attitude is what makes me successful.
September 18, 2023 | CrAIN’S NeW YOrK bUSINeSS | 31
built in the U.S. was at 115 Broadway in New York City. Opened in 1794, the 73room City Hotel is considered an early instance of commercial real estate at scale.
Sponsored Content
(Encyclopedia.com)
Tamir Shemesh
Licensed associate real estate broker, Nest Seekers
International
At Nest Seekers International, Tamir Shemesh leads the eponymous team he created in 2003, overseeing a diverse range of real estate operations throughout New York City. As a licensed associate real estate broker and a 25-year veteran of the industry, he guides clients through transactions and formulates tailored real estate strategies that generated $200 million in sales in 2022 and that have already surpassed that amount this year. Shemesh volunteers for Belev Echad, an international organization dedicated to helping veterans navigate medical, educational and professional decisions. Shemesh also donates to a number of nonpro ts and serves as a mentor to budding real estate agents.
Kunle Shoyombo Chief investment of cer, Basis Investment Group
As chief investment of cer at Basis Investment Group, Kunle Shoyombo oversees investment sourcing and analysis, production, asset management and capital market activities. Calling on 30 years of experience working in various capacities in debt and equity, he has helped to close more than $35 billion in real estate transactions. Alongside other members of senior management, Shoyombo also develops and maintains the company’s investment goals and strategies, capital-raising initiatives and asset allocation. Outside of work, Shoyombo mentors young professionals in the industry and is involved in community activities such as coaching youth baseball and basketball teams. He has served as treasurer and a trustee of GGC, a nonpro t in Jersey City.
NOTE WORTHY
Stephen Siegel Chairman of global brokerage, CBRE
Ryan Simonetti Chief executive of cer and co-founder, Convene
(Indeed)
THE CRAFT OF setting the bar for the industry
As CBRE chairman of global brokerage, Stephen Siegel provides counsel on real estate matters to major corporations and property owners. In the past 18 months, he completed numerous signi cant leases involving well-known entities such as CBS Broadcasting and Yahoo. In 2022, Siegel helped Apollo Global Management expand its space while reducing its rent with innovative thinking that included installing a private elevator. He is an active philanthropist involved with the Gift of Life Marrow Registry, National Jewish Health and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Siegel’s work has also garnered honorary doctorates and recognition from a variety of organizations, including Yeshiva University and the CollegeBound Initiative of the Young Women’s Leadership Network.
As chief executive of cer and co-founder of Convene, an operator of hospitality-driven sites, Ryan Simonetti oversees the company’s growth, real estate strategy and operations. Recently, Simonetti secured a strategic investment that allowed Convene to expand further, into London and San Francisco, while continuing to grow its presence in New York City. Toward that end, he has incorporated 16 new venues into the company’s portfolio, making it the largest provider of premium meeting and event venues in the U.S. and U.K. Outside the of ce, he actively supports CoreNet Global, serves on the board of New York’s Regional Planning Association and is co-founder and chairman of Ease Capital, a multifamily real estate digital lending platform.
For nearly two decades, Chief Marketing Officer Matthew Leone has honed the craft of expertly marketing a world-class real estate brand that empowers agents and their individual brands. In addition to serving on the WSJ CMO Council and Leading RE Executive Advisory Board, Matthew oversaw the buildout of the highly successful nationwide Mastery of the Craft campaign. The 50+ member internationally recognized, award-winning marketing team helped BHS agents achieve the #1 highest average sale price in the nation, setting the bar for the entire industry.
NOTABLE LEADERS IN REAL ESTATE
New York City | Hamptons | Connecticut | Palm Beach | Miami | New Jersey | Hudson Valley CONGRATULATIONS FOR BEING NAMED TO THE MOST NOTABLE REAL ESTATE LEADERS LIST BY CRAIN’S NEW YORK BrownHarrisStevens.com
Mastery of the Craft. It’s Timeless.
70% Fewer than threequarters of American real estate agents think their salaries are suf cient for their cost of living.
Todd E. Soloway
Partner and executive committee member, Pryor Cashman
Todd E. Soloway serves as a partner, executive committee member, litigation group co-chair and head of the hotel and hospitality group and real estate litigation practice at the law firm Pryor Cashman. With more than 30 years of experience, he is a trusted adviser to leaders in the hospitality, real estate and real estate finance industries.
Recently, Soloway facilitated H.I.G. Realty Partners’ $110 million acquisition of five shopping centers in Virginia. He is an active member of Brandeis University’s board of trustees and a former president of Brandeis University’s alumni association. Soloway has been awarded the Legal Aid Society’s Pro Bono Award for Outstanding Service on multiple occasions.
Victor Sozio Founding partner, Ariel Property Advisors
As founding partner of Ariel Property Advisors, Victor Sozio is responsible for originating and executing commercial property sales throughout the five boroughs, spearheading institutional transactions and overseeing internal strategic initiatives. In the past two years, he has been a key figure in several multimillion-dollar sales of affordable housing portfolios in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn. Sozio shares his expertise as a member of the board of directors of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing and is also an active participant in commercial real estate and nonprofit organizations, including the Real Estate Board of New York, Bronx-Manhattan North Association of Realtors and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
NOTE WORTHY
$105,754
(Indeed)
Darcy Stacom
Chairman and head of New York City capital markets, CBRE
Darcy Stacom serves as chairman and head of New York City capital markets at CBRE, overseeing sales, financing, joint ventures and development transactions. She closed several notable deals in the past 18 months, including 450 Park Avenue, and 140 and 160 Riverside Boulevard. Stacom received the Louis Smadbeck Memorial Broker Recognition Award from the Real Estate Board of New York, as well as the Community Builder Award from Phipps Neighborhoods/Phipps Houses. She actively supports industry inclusion practices as co-chair of REBNY’s diversity committee and as a member of her firm’s women’s and capital markets advisory boards. Stacom is also co-chair of the New York Restoration Project board.
Andrew Steiker-Epstein Chief data officer and brokerage president, Charney Cos.
As chief data officer and brokerage president at the real estate developer Charney Cos., Andrew Steiker-Epstein initiated the firm’s affordable housing marketing division. As part of that effort, he facilitated the new-development marketing of The Green House in Long Island City, breaking price-per-squarefoot records for the city in the process. Steiker-Epstein’s innovative approach involved collaborating with the arts community to promote the property, utilizing large-scale installations by world-renowned artists to enhance marketing efforts. Active in his community, he serves as a co-op board president, is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York and serves as a volunteer Little League baseball coach.
CONGRATULATIONS BUCHLER ISAAC
September 18, 2023 | CrAIN’S NeW YOrK bUSINeSS | 33
NOTABLE LEADER IN REAL ESTATE
The average base salary for a real estate agent in New York City is 9% above the national average.
Alan Tantleff
Senior managing director and leader of hospitality, gaming and leisure, FTI Consulting
At FTI Consulting, Alan Tantleff serves as senior managing director and leader of hospitality, gaming and leisure. He has been involved in high-pro le New York City hotel insolvency cases, including The Williamsburg Hotel, Edition, Crowne Plaza Times Square and Ritz Carlton Battery Park City. He also played an in uential role in the Mark Hotel case. Tantleff was appointed chief restructuring of cer and interim president for Eagle Hospitality Trust during the pandemic, navigating complex issues and overseeing a successful bankruptcy process that yielded nearly 98% recovery for creditors. He leads FTI’s pro bono work with Friends of Fire ghters and will co-chair Cornell University’s 41st Annual Real Estate Conference.
Greg Taubin
Vice chairman, Savills North America
Greg Taubin, who has been at the real estate services company Savills for more than two decades, currently serves as vice chairman of Savills North America. Taubin achieved a record-breaking revenue year in 2022 and was the rm’s top producer in North America. Recently, he also facilitated a 287,393-square-foot lease restructuring for Tiffany & Co., extending the organization’s lease at its 200 Fifth Avenue agship location for an additional decade. He is a member of Savills’ New York advisory board and mentors young associates through a junior broker development program. Taubin serves on the board of directors of Making Headway, a foundation dedicated to the care of children with brain and spinal cord tumors.
NOTE WORTHY
Mary Ann Tighe
Chief executive of cer for New York Tri-State, CBRE
As chief executive of cer for New York Tri-State at CBRE, Mary Ann Tighe has overseen more than 120 million square feet of commercial transactions and played a pivotal role in anchoring more than 14.4 million square feet of new construction in New York. This year she was honored with the Real Estate Board of New York’s Harry B. Helmsley Distinguished New Yorker Award as well as the New York Building Congress’ Jack and Lewis Rudin Award for Service to New York City. Tighe is actively engaged in several boards and committees, including The Howard Hughes Corp., National Grid, REBNY, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Kenneth Walsh
Director of operations, Adams & Company Real Estate
As its director of operations, Kenneth Walsh is intent on guiding Adams & Company Real Estate toward stability and sustainability. He recently worked to control insurance policy costs and prevent energy benchmarking nes for the company’s portfolio. Managing a workforce of more than 100 employees, Walsh works to maintain consistent personal connections with tenants to drive retention and continued investment. Outside of work, he provides fundraising support to Tunnel to Towers, Boy Scouts of America, Fresh Squeezed Opera and the Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center. Walsh also serves on the board of the nonpro t Colin Courageous, which has raised funds for the Children’s Tumor Foundation.
Hannah Bomze
Co-founder, CEO
Casa Blanca Real Estate Serene Powers
Founder, CEO Serene Powers Real Estate LLC
34 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 18, 2023
NOTABLE LEADERS IN REAL ESTATE
35.3M square feet
The largest commercial landlord in New York City is SL Green, which has interests in 35.3 million square feet. (Metro Manhattan)
Clelia Warburg Peters
Founder and managing partner, Era Ventures
Clelia Warburg Peters is founder and managing partner of Era Ventures, a venture capital firm dedicated to investing in and fostering transformative advancements in the built environment. In this role, she leads the fund’s investment, fundraising and strategic initiatives, with a focus on empowering innovators in the property-technology space. Era Ventures has made five investments to date, including in building management disruptor PassiveLogic, next-generation home builder Welcome Homes and sale-leaseback provider Truehold. Warburg Peters currently serves on the leadership board of the memberdriven organization Urban Land Institute New York. She is also president of the board of the Gerard and Kelly Foundation.
Zach Winick
Co-president for the New York region, The Howard Hughes Corp.
As co-president for the New York region for the real estate developer The Howard Hughes Corp., Zach Winick is leading the revitalization of the Seaport neighborhood with a focus on development. Currently, that includes retaining JLL as the exclusive retail agent and CBRE as the exclusive office agent for the 10-acre neighborhood. He also secured approval for a development at 250 Water Street and entered into leases with Alexander Wang and the Lawn Club. Winick supports health and wellness nonprofits including The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and Breast Cancer Research Foundation. He also supports early athletic development by coaching youth basketball and football.
Paul Wolf
Managing principal, chief executive officer and president, Denham Wolf Real Estate Services
As managing principal, chief executive officer and president at Denham Wolf Real Estate Services, Paul Wolf guides strategic direction, manages high-profile deals and projects and unites teams across transaction, project management and development services. With a 25-year track record, he secures optimal outcomes for nonprofit clients. Wolf leverages Denham Wolf’s nonprofit database for effective marketing, targeting organizations with suitable financial capacity and communityfocused properties. He also mentors students and lectures at universities, including Columbia University, Yale University and Brooklyn College. Wolf is a longstanding board member of STREB Lab for Action Mechanics.
Jennifer Yashar
Partner, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
As a partner at the international law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, Jennifer Yashar specializes in commercial leasing transactions, representing owners, developers, financial institutions, law firms and corporations. The office leases she advised on in 2022 included long-term extensions for Fox Corp., News Corp and Brookfield Properties. Yashar’s expertise includes newconstruction leasing and leasehold condominium structures. Dedicated to the advancement of women, she co-founded Fried Frank’s women in real estate group. Yashar also sits on the board of trustees for Temple Kehilath Jeshurun and provides pro bono leasing requirement advice to nonprofits in New York City.
September 18, 2023 | CrAIN’S NeW YOrK bUSINeSS | 35
NOTE WORTHY 25-year return for private commercial real estate owned for investment purposes was 10.3%, vs. 9.6% for the S&P 500. (Investopedia)
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PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES
Notice of Formation of APEROBOT PRODUCTIONS
LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/31/2023. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served against LLC to: The Limited Liability Company 228 Park Ave S #788672, NY, NY, 10003, USA Reg
Ag.: United States Corporation Agents, INC. 7014 13th Avenue, Ste 202 Brkln, NY, 11228, USA.
Purpose: any lawful act.
Notice of Formation of MAIALE LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/16/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 37 W. 21st St., Apt. 1106, NY, NY 10010. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Qualification of WINGSPIRE CAPITAL RWL LLC
Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/12/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/16/23. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 11720 Amber Park Dr., Ste. 500, Alpharetta, GA 30009. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of Clement King Executive Counseling LLC Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/09/2023. Office Location: NEW YORK County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served against LLC to: THE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY 228 PARK AVE S #790130, NEW YORK, NY, 10003, USA Reg Ag.: UNITED STATES CORPORATION AGENTS, INC. 7014 13TH AVENUE , SUITE 202 BROOKLYN, NY, 11228, USA
Purpose: any lawful act.
RPM6800 Home Inspections Services, LLC Art. Of Org. Filed Sec. of State of NY 5/8/2023. Off. Loc.:Richmond Co. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to The LLC, 56 E. Scranton Ave., Staten Island, NY 10308. Purpose: Any lawful act or activity
Notice of Formation of OMS 30C LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/26/23. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon who process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to DGW Kramer LLP, One Rockefeller Plaza, Ste 1060, New York, NY 10020. Purpose: any lawful act.
Notice of Formation of DD KINGSBORO DEVELOPER I
LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/31/23.
Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 7 Penn Plaza, Ste. 600, NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity
Notice of Qualification of MACELLUM ADVISORS GP, LLC
Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/13/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/26/11. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of LOUIS L. SHAPIRO LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/10/22. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543, regd. agent upon whom and at which process may be served.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of BOTTLE HILL PROPERTIES LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/10/21.
Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 12 Overhill Dr., Madison, NJ 07940. The regd. agent of the company upon whom and at which process against the company can be served is U.S. Corp. Agents, Inc., 7014 13th Ave., Ste. 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of 215 SULLIVAN 5B LLC.
Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/30/23. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon who process shall be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 201 Varick St. Frnt 1 #522 New York, NY 10014.
Purpose: any lawful act.
Notice of Formation of Adaptive PQ Strategies LLC.
Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 4/20/23. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 516 E 78th Street #3-O, New York, NY 10075.
Purpose: any lawful act.
Notice of Formation of THE RUGGED CROSS FILM LLC Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 6/16/23. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served, and shall mail process to the LLC,330 W 28th St, Apt 1H NY NY 10001 Purpose: any lawful act.
Notice is hereby given that license #1353542 for beer, wine, and cider has been applied for by the undersigned to sell beer, wine, and cider at retail in a restaurant under the ABC Law at 1154 1st Ave Middle Store New York NY 10065 for on-premises consumption. UME NY INC. dba UME.
Notice of Formation of HOSPITALITY QUOTIENT, LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/18/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 853 Broadway, 18th Fl., NY, NY 10003. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Union Square Hospitality Group at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of NEW AGE HOUSE OF LIFE LLC
Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/11/23. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 1492 Park Pl 4F, BK, NY, 11213 Purpose: any lawful act.
Notice of Formation of JIT MFT 923 5TH, LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/11/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES
ARZZ 1293 BROADWAY LLC.
Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 07/25/23. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served.
SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, c/o Foster Garvey, P.C., 100 Wall Street, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10005
Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
PLAI Studio Architecture, LLC, Arts of Org. filed with Sec. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/14/2023. Office location: New York County. SSNY desig. as agent upon whom process against it may be served & shall mail copy of process to 250 Mercer St C308, New York, NY 10012. Purpose: Architecture and Design.
Notice of Formation of NN VALLEY HOLDINGS LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/24/23. Office: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 232 ELIZABETH ST. UNIT 6A, New York, NY 10012.
Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
Notice of Formation of HUDSON HEALTH LONGEVITY MANAGEMENT SERVICES LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/17/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 281 Broadway, Second Fl., NY, NY 10007. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Jonathann C. Kuo, MD at the princ. office of the LLC.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Qualification of AJAX BBC, LLC
Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/03/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/25/22. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of CVE US NY BREWERTON 108 LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/02/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 109 W. 27th St., 8th Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of SAS FAMILY ASSOCIATION LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/10/23. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served against LLC to: 1967 Wehrle Dr. Ste 1 #086, BUF, NY 14221, USA.
Purpose: any lawful act.
Formation of NEXTSTEP CAP LLC filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 6/26/2023. Office loc.: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The address SSNY shall mail process to David Gottlieb, 777 6th Ave., Apt. 16C, New York, NY 10001.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
THE BLACK LINKUP LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 03/03/23. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 775 Riverside Drive, Unit 1C, New York, NY 10032.
Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
Notice of Qualification of RP BRONX TERMINAL MARKET C, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/06/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/30/23. Princ. office of LLC: 423 W. 55th St., 7th Fl., NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal State St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: All legal purposes related to renewable energy.
Notice of Qualification of AAI UNSCRIPTED LLC
Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/02/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/31/23. Princ. office of LLC: 1359 Broadway, 21st Fl., NY, NY 10018. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of State of DE, Corp. Dept., Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of BROOKPARK STRATEGIES LLC. Arts of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY ( SSNY) on 4/1623. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon who process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 1763 2nd Ave, Ste 18P. NY, NY 10128. Purpose: any lawful activity
36 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 18, 2023 CLASSIFIEDS Contact Suzanne Janik at 313-446-0455 or email: sjanik@crain.com Advertising Section
Notice of Formation of SURGE
DIGITAL MARKETING LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/29/2023. Office
Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served against LLC to: The Limited Liability Company 228 Park Ave S. #868409, NY, NY, 10003, USA, RA: United States Corporation Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Ave, Ste 202 BK, NY, 11228, USA.
Purpose: any lawful act.
Notice of Formation of DD VELEZ KINGSBORO JV LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/31/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 7 Penn Plaza, Ste. 600, NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity
Aquarian Productions, LLC filed Arts. of Org. with the Sect'y of State of NY (SSNY) on 8/4/2023.
Office: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o The LLC, 186 Pinehurst Ave, NY, NY 10033.
Purpose: any lawful act.
Notice of Formation of FWLG LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/05/23.
Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Cohen & Cohen, LLP, 122 E. 42nd St., 4th Fl., NY, NY 10168.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES
Notice of Qualification of MACELLUM ADVISORS, LP
Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/13/23. Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/27/11. NYS fictitious name: MACELLUM ADVISORS, L.P.
Duration of LP is Perpetual.
SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Qualification of HUDSON 1705, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/03/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/29/23. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Alberto Smeke Saba, c/o CSC Coliving, LLC, 6 Saint John's Ln., 7th Fl., NY, NY 10013. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of CROWNNCURLS LLC
Arts of Org filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/22/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 401 E. 115th St, Apt 3n, NY, NY 10029. Purpose: any lawful act
Notice of Qualification of DRP SOLARIS MULTISTATE, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/11/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/06/23. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Qualification of LONGEVITY HEALTH AGENCY, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/10/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Florida (FL) on 06/16/22. Princ. office of LLC: 11780 N. US Hwy. 1, Ste. N107, N. Palm Beach, FL 33408. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 500 S. Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of HARLEM LOCKS LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/2/2023. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against to Legalcorp Solutions, LLC, 11 Broadway, Ste 615, NY, NY 10004.
Purpose: any lawful act.
Notice of Qualification of Ogden Pond Realty LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with NY Dept. of State on 3/10/22. Office location: New York County. NY Sec. of State designated agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served, and shall mail process to the LLC, c/o Baratta, Baratta & Aidala LLP, 546 Fifth Ave, 6th Fl, New York, NY 10036. DE addr. of LLC c/o Vanguard Corporate Services Ltd, 3500 S Dupont Hwy, Dover, DE 19901. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901 on 11/9/21.
Purpose: any lawful activity.
Notice of Qualification of GENIUS & POISON LLC
Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/05/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/29/23. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, PO Box 898, Dover, DE 19903.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of CVE US NY LOWVILLE 334 LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/02/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 109 W. 27th St., 8th Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Qualification of 60 CENTRAL AVENUE ENERGY STORAGE 2 LLC
Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/10/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/05/23. Princ. office of LLC: 7 Times Sq., Ste. 3504, NY, NY 10036. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of BRIX MANAGEMENT LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/01/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 1407 Broadway, 3rd Fl., NY, NY 10018. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of BREAKBEAT FILMS, LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/03/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 200 Park Ave. S, Fl. 8, NY, NY 10003. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Joshua Work at the princ. office of the LLC.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2023 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 37
Contact Suzanne Janik at 313-446-0455 or email: sjanik@crain.com Advertising Section
CLASSIFIEDS
CRAIN’S NEW YORK Crain’s is now in the app store. Tap into New York.
CLASS C
levels that they have never had before, so converting to residential makes sense,” Berley said. “Residential is so much hotter.”
As far as the eye can C
Although what constitutes a Class C is often in the eyes of the beholder, as there are no formal criteria, there seem to be at least 1,000 scattered across Manhattan, according to a review of real estate databases and property records, with several hundred peppering Midtown, especially the blocks west of Fifth Avenue that include the Garment District.
Stroll down West 37th Street, a block under consideration for rezoning to allow former manufacturing buildings to add residences, to get a feel for the state of the sector.
No. 34, a narrow, four-story, 7,200-square-foot structure, for instance, had its retail space occupied on a recent afternoon, but two office spaces upstairs, totaling 3,000 square feet, or close to half of the entire building, are empty, according to ads on the listing service LoopNet. One of the spaces, a darkened suite on the second floor, can be seen from the sidewalk.
No. 34’s owner, a shell company called 34 West 37th Street Realty LLC, whose principals could not immediately be reached, paid $1.5 million in 2004, records show. A towering, 173-room Marriott SpringHill Suites, developed in 2013, looms across the street.
Similarly, there’s 20 W. 37th St., a 12-story, 77,000-square-foot structure detailed in terra cotta that once housed lace and textile companies and was fully leased as recently as 2013 but now appears mostly vacant. Since the pandemic began, a loan backed by the property has been in default, according to the ratings service Fitch, and the mortgage appears to be in the hands of a special servicer.
Whether the building’s darkened state is a consequence of a weak market or poor management by the owner, Neuss Group, an Argentinian company that bought the building for $25.5 million in 2006, is not entirely clear. An email sent to Neuss seeking comment was not returned. But personal tragedy may have played a part. In fall 2020 company Principal Jorge Neuss murdered his wife, Silvia Saravia, before killing himself.
Other classic Cs dotting the street include 130 W. 37th St., a four-story, 11,000-square-foot structure with dusty bay windows shoehorned between taller buildings, and 148 W. 37th St., a 14-story, 94,000-square-foot structure called the Lefcourt Central Building that’s currently marketing its 7,000-square-foot penthouse.
Death exaggerated?
Which landlords have the most exposure to a challenged building type can be tough to measure.
Some sites, purchased decades ago, appear to be owned as oneoffs or by shell companies with inscrutable levels of identity protection. But some landlords do pop up a lot in the sector. In addition to Berley’s Walter & Samuels are firms such as Adams & Co. Real Estate, which began in 1920 as a managing agent but began snapping up Midtown sites with partners in the 1950s.
Of the 22 buildings in which Adams & Co. has an ownership stake, many are Class B’s, in that they are large, stylish and renovated. The portfolio includes 463 Seventh Ave., a prewar structure with figurines carved into its façade that is 100% leased, according to Adams executives.
But Adams also controls Class C properties such as 431 Fifth Ave., a six-story structure whose occupants include a comic-book business; 42 W. 39th St., an 18-story, midblock offering once home to the online fashion firm Bluefly; and 102 W. 38th St., a nine-story building with a trimmings store in its storefront that’s across from a high-rise Marriott Residence Inn.
For their part, Adams executives say the death of Class C’s has been greatly exaggerated. Tiny tenants such as specialized accounting firms, three-attorney law practices and boutique architecture firms, say, continue to seek out modest, lower-priced addresses, according to company Principal David Levy.
And even if those companies do
eventually outgrow their digs, they’re unlikely to trade up from the $40-per-square-foot annual rent in a mid-rise for, say, a gleaming new spire in Hudson Yards that’s charging more than $100 per square foot, Levy said: “What really happens is that you go to a better building in the kind that you are used to.”
Indeed, he said, the supposed
often line only the front and back walls—are not qualities typically associated with apartments. Ex-commercial buildings in the Financial District, the site of numerous conversions in the 1990s and 2000s, on the other hand, tend to be bigger and windowed on all four sides.
There also may be major financial considerations.
“Most owners of these functionally obsolete properties have debt levels so high that they could not justify borrowing more to renovate and sell as condos,” said Mark Weiss, an executive vice chairman with the brokerage Cushman & Wakefield who handles office leasing. “The old debt plus the new debt will not be canceled out by condo sales.”
If conversions of Class C’s do happen, it will likely be because current landlords don’t try to redevelop them themselves but simply walk away.
Class C building at 144 W. 27th St. in NoMad where furriers once worked into a 24-unit condo whose units mostly have windows on just two sides.
“I lived there, I raised a kid there, and I loved it,” he said. Similar properties that have labored to stay full also could get a residential makeover, Berley said, including a pair on West 36th Street, Nos. 15 and 315.
Another possible target is 419 Park Ave. South, a prewar office tower near NoMad dealing with a 15% vacancy rate: Two of 20 floors have been empty for years. But a long-ago zoning change allows the addition of apartments to the Class C+ site, which could help Berley out of a jam. “And the views are spectacular,” he said.
“flight to quality” migration to the bluest-chip buildings of the past couple of years can sometimes seem like little more than wishful thinking by landlords who own those kinds of Class A buildings.
What may also benefit Adams’ portfolio in particular is low leverage. The company does not seem to engorge itself with debt as other landlords do, which can help ease pressure during downturns.
Debt levels
More fundamentally, critics say, the current crop of Class C’s, and even some Class B’s, for that matter, aren’t such good candidates for housing in the first place. Their compact footprints and warehouse-esque layouts—windows
“Borrowers, when losing their buildings, have to go through the stages of mourning: denial, anger, bargaining and acceptance,” Weiss said. “Now they’re in the bargaining stage.”
But other brokers and landlords, convinced that Manhattan, and its hefty 450 million square feet of office space, is far too overbuilt for the new remote-work world, seem allin on the mayor’s initiative, which could rezone more than 40 blocks, from Madison Square Park to Bryant Park, to create 20,000 homes over a decade, though the plan requires City Council approval.
Berley, for one, believes renters don’t care so much about traditional layouts. Consider the former manufacturing lofts in SoHo, which in their converted state are some of the most desirable residential real estate in New York.
And Berley might know from personal experience what works.
In the mid-1990s he converted a
Berley may be willing to say out loud what other owners are whispering in private. Mark Gindi, a broker with the West 36th Streetbased MJ Property Group, says some of the Class C landlords he regularly works with in Garment District buildings on West 36th, West 37th and West 39th streets are weighing their options.
Sometimes there isn’t a lot they can do right away. Even a single tenant who doesn’t want to move can roadblock conversion plans, he said. But those owners who embrace a “visionary shift,” Gindi said, and a new use for their faded addresses may stand to gain the most.
“If anybody can grab a Class C building and transform it into a boutique residential property, then great,” Gindi said, because the market appears to be headed in that direction anyway.
And although the costs of borrowing money to finance a redevelopment might be steep right now, which is no small consideration, the economics of the end product can for some landlords seem simple.
“Why wouldn’t I want to get $100 per square foot for apartments,” Berley said, “instead of $60 for offices?”
38 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEptEmBER 18, 2023
From page 1
Compact footprints and warehouse-esque layouts are not qualities typically associated with apartments.
REAL ESTATE SPECIAL REPORT
At left is 218 W. 37th St. Above is 144 W. 27th St. Below at left is 48 W. 37th St. All three are Class C buildings. BUCK ENNIS
Entertainment CEO on why the industry should embrace change
J.B. Miller says that in order to consistently keep audiences engaged, he and his team have to stay ahead of the latest trends.
J.B. Miller felt drawn to the entertainment industry at an early age. Whether he was auditioning for roles in musical theater, watching comedy performances or attending concerts, he would dream about building a career as an entertainer. He went
part in scriptwriting, hiring talent and planning logistics. He says that in order to consistently engage audiences, he and his team have to stay ahead of the latest trends.
ere are challenges, of course. e industry allows no room for failure because, Miller says, at the end of each event, only one metric counts: how entertaining the nal product was.
J.B. Miller says that at the end of each event, only one metric counts: how entertaining the nal product was.
through phases of wanting to become an actor, director and producer.
Now as the president and CEO of global conglomerate Empire Entertainment, which he founded in 1993, Miller works behind the scenes for companies and stars such as Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey, putting on personal events and others such as the Time 100 Gala. He works out of the rm’s SoHo o ce.
Miller says the role gives him the autonomy to dabble in a little of all his interests. He oversees the company’s projects but also takes
“As soon as it’s over,” Miller said. “ e rst thing [the client] says to you is, ‘ at was amazing. How are you going to top it next year?’”
For Miller, that means constant innovation. He and his company look to expand their research to nd out what appeals to the public. He also pushes employees to use AI and other tools to generate ideas, crowdsource, set up stage design plans and come up with efcient solutions.
“All industries are driven by innovation,” Miller said. “But I think our industry is a little bit di erent in the sense that people are looking for us to always have that innovation available to them.”
J.B. Miller
|
By
Ana Altchek
And the company’s work is paying o . Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Empire Entertainment is projected to produce $65 million in global revenue by the end of the year. e company has its headquarters in SoHo and Tokyo with a sta of about 32 employees at each location and clients around the world.
Learned to adapt
Aside from producing pop culture events, Empire also works with social and government organizations including the United Nations, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dartmouth College, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Carnegie Corp.
In the ever-changing entertainment industry, Miller has learned to adapt. Rather than resist, he nds that embracing the unexpected yields a much smoother experience and a more successful nal product.
“In our world, not only is there no consistency, but the stakes are so so high on every single thing that you do. You don’t get a second take there,” Miller said. “ e show must go on.”
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AGE 58
GREW UP Mamaroneck, Westchester County RESIDES Larchmont, Westchester County EDUCATION Bachelor of ne arts, New York University Tisch School; MBA, New York University Stern School of Business
FAMILY LIFE Miller uses his off hours to spend time with his wife and watch their 2-year-old and 5-year-old grow up and discover the world.
MUSIC FAN Miller enjoys listening to music and attending concerts in his free time. He said his favorite musicians are “Rolling Stones, if I had to choose.”
MOST MEMORABLE EVENT: Miller looks back fondly on his work on the grand opening of Atlantis, The Palm, in Palm Island in Dubai, in 2007. Miller describes it as an “iconoclastic project,” which featured what he calls the biggest building projection ever done and largest reworks display attempted.
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J.B. Miller (pointing) at the Games for Change Festival | BUCK ENNIS
GOTHAM GIGS
Crain’s New York Business is published by Crain Communications Inc. Chairman Keith E. Crain Vice chairman Mary Kay Crain President and CEO KC Crain Senior executive VP Chris Crain Chief Financial Of cer Robert Recchia G.D. Crain Jr. Founder (1885-1973) Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. Chairman (1911-1996) Editorial & Business Of ces 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017 (212) 210-0100 Vol. 39, No. 32 Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for no issue on 1/2/23, 7/3/23, 7/17/23, 7/31/23, 8/14/23, 8/28/23 and the last issue in December by Crain Communications Inc. at 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017-4024. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing of ces. © Entire contents copyright 2023 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial content in any manner without permission is prohibited. ©CityBusiness is a registered trademark of MCP Inc., used under license agreement.
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