Crain's New York Business, March 11, 2024

PULLING THE PLUG

The city says no more Uber or Lyft vehicles are needed after a surge in licenses issued for electric-vehicle cabs

After issuing thousands of new licenses to cabbies for electric vehicles, the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission says it is hitting the brakes.

TLC o cials declared in a new review of driver permits, which was quietly published on its website March 1, that “additional forhire vehicle licenses are not needed at this time.” e determination sides with the New York City Taxi Workers Alliance, which opposes additional electric vehicle licenses for Uber, Lyft and other eet drivers; a TWA lawsuit

By | Caroline Spivack

to block new electric vehicle plates is now essentially moot.

“ e rush on EV licenses generated by the opening and subsequent pause on applications led to rapid growth in the number of EVs across the TLC eet,” the TLC report states. As of early February, TLC data shows that the city has more than 9,500 licensed electric for-hire vehicles — roughly 7,800 of which, or 82%, were issued over the last year.

Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, argues that “the TLC

has already done damage to the drivers by allowing so many new vehicles.”

Desai pointed to TLC data showing that in December 2023 the number of Uber and Lyft vehicles active daily increased by roughly 13% year-over-year. In December 2023 individual drivers had 7% fewer trips compared to December 2022, she said.

“ e fact that drivers are earning less trips means that they have to work longer hours,” Desai

See TAXI on Page 22

REAL ESTATE

This could be the year that New York City puts limits on broker fees.

PAGE 2

HEALTH CARE

NYC nets half of all women’s health tech funding in the U.S.

The city also saw a fth of female tech deals in 2023, became a hub in the sector, report says

By Amanda D’Ambrosio

New York City was home to a fth of all women’s health tech deals that occurred in the U.S. last year, cementing the city as a hub for up-and-coming rms focused on pregnancy, fertility and reproductive health, according to a report released by Deloitte last month.

e ve NYC-based women’s digital health companies that reached deals in 2023 raised a combined $256 million — half the total raised by companies across the U.S., the data shows.  Jennifer Radin, principal of life sciences and health care at Deloitte, said that the city’s progressive workplace culture and large health care industry makes it more attractive to women’s digital health startups. Health care makes up 16% of the city’s GDP, she added. “No other urban setting had nearly that number of deals,” Radin, who co-authored the De-

BY THE NUMBERS $256M

Amount raised by NYC-based women’s digital health companies in 2023

loitte report, told Crain’s Success among women’s digital health rms largely bucks a trend of declining funding in the digital health sector since the pandemic. But despite the 27% national funding decline in overall health tech funding between 2022 and 2023, investments in women’s health innovation grew by 5%, the Deloitte report found. Radin said that although that growth seems small, it signals optimism for entrepreneurs seeking solutions for women in medicine, who are already underrepresented.

Experts say that the burgeoning women’s digital health sector in New York is not only due to a rich network of investors, but also the massive health care infrastructure. e city has more than 200 hospitals and a large workforce of physicians, nurses, technicians and

CHASING GIANTS

FiDi startup Salt Labs has a bold plan for employee retention.

PAGE 3

GOTHAM GIG

From writing a ‘notorious’ column to being a city press aide. PAGE 23

Gina Bartasi founded Kindbody to make fertility treatment more accessible. BUCK ENNIS

This could be the year NYC addresses broker fees

Most of the City Council backs a bill that would shift them from tenants to landlords. The real estate business is fighting it.

By Nick Garber

Attempts to ban broker fees have sputtered in New York City in recent years. But a bill that would prevent tenants from having to pay the loathed fees stands a decent chance of passing this year thanks to strong support in the City Council, although the real estate industry is mobilizing against it.

When signing a lease, tenants in New York City routinely have to fork over about 15% of their annual rent to the broker that listed their apartment. The practice is not common in other cities, and it amounts to another cost for tenants in an era of eye-watering rents.

The bill, by Brooklyn lawmaker

council but was never allowed to receive a committee hearing — a prerequisite for a bill to ever go up for a vote. Ossé and his allies attribute this to fierce opposition from the powerful Real Estate Board of New York, which represents thousands of brokers and argues it would jeopardize their incomes.

“This bill would basically make our broker-fee system replicate how the broker industry works in every other city in this country,” Ossé said in an interview.

“Our members add significant value to the home search process for renters and will fight for fair compensation for their hard work.”

Reggie Thomas, REBNY’s senior vice president for government affairs

Chi Ossé, would not ban the fees outright, as state regulators tried to do in 2020 before being spurned by the courts. Instead, Ossé’s bill would require the fees to be paid by whoever hired an apartment’s broker — most often the building’s landlord.

When Ossé first introduced the bill last year, it accrued support from a majority of the 51-member

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Mark

Ossé reintroduced the bill recently in hopes of passing it this year, and more than half of council members have again signed on as co-sponsors — ranging from progressives to more conservative lawmakers like Bob Holden of Queens. Notably, Julie Menin, the new chair of the council’s Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection, has already committed to holding a hearing, she confirmed to Crain’s Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ office declined to say if the speaker, who largely controls the legislative process, has a stance on the bill. Mayor Eric Adams said he would “look into the bill” after being asked by Crain’s at a March 5 press conference.

“I was a former real estate agent, and so I know how important it is to get paid,” he said, referring to a part-time job he apparently held years ago. “A lot of time is spent showing people apartments or houses, so we need to make sure we get it right.”

REBNY’s tactics last year included sending Ossé a letter against the bill signed by 1,000 agents and brokers, enlisting its members to write op-eds against it, and circulating memos to lawmakers arguing the legislation would force landlords to pass on the new costs to tenants. In a statement, Reggie Thomas, REBNY’s senior vice president for government affairs, said the group believes the bill would “threaten the livelihood” of brokers.

“Our members add significant value to the home search process for renters and will fight for fair compensation for their hard work,” Thomas said.

‘There was no deal’

The circumstances of the bill’s demise last year remain in dispute. The committee overseeing the bill was chaired by Bronx lawmaker Marjorie Velázquez, who has acknowledged that she opposed holding a hearing on it. The Daily News reported last year that Velázquez stalled the bill at REBNY’s behest, a perception that two current lawmakers echoed to Crain’s this month. But Velázquez, who lost her re-elec-

tion bid last year and now works for the nonprofit Tech:NYC, denied that claim.

“There was no deal with anyone,” Velázquez told Crain’s. “It was my job to speak to lots of organizations that had an interest in legislation before my committee, both for and against. It was an interesting bill, but it was my view that the council needed more time to evaluate a major change that would have impacted tens of thousands of brokers and millions of renters.”

In any case, two council members told Crain’s that REBNY’s opposition to the bill has been more muted in the early weeks of 2024 than it was last year — although that could change once a hearing date is set. Manhattan council member Keith Powers said the pushback to Ossé’s bill has also been milder compared to 2019, when Powers aroused strong opposition from REBNY by introducing his own bill that would have capped broker fees at one month’s rent.

“People have gotten more acquainted and educated with this issue since I first raised it,” Powers said. “The current version of the bill in the council is pretty simple for the public to understand that the person who’s bringing the broker into the transaction should be the person to pay for it.”

Powers’ 2019 bill stalled in committee amid opposition from REBNY. Then, in early 2020, the New York Department of State made waves by announcing that brokers’ fees would be eliminated based on a novel interpretation of the state’s 2019 rent-reform laws — but the ban was struck down by a judge after REBNY filed suit. Ossé, who represents Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, argues his bill would hold up against potential legal challenges since it does not restrict the fees themselves.

Ossé’s office has also sent a memo to council members “correcting” what it called inaccuracies in REBNY’s arguments against

the bill. Rejecting REBNY’s claim that tenants would end up paying for the shifted fees, Ossé points out that nearly half of the city’s housing stock is rent-stabilized, meaning it would be illegal for landlords to raise rents based on the bill. (Stabilized apartments often come with staggering broker fees, including an Upper West Side unit whose $20,000 fee made headlines in 2022.)

Any rent hikes to market-rate apartments would be spread out over an entire 12- or 24-month lease, Ossé’s office argues, which is less burdensome than paying the entire fee up-front. Plus, more broadly, Ossé contends that rents in New York are governed by market forces, not relatively smallscale costs like broker fees.

“The market is dictated by what tenants can pay,” he said. “If landlords wanted to increase rent anyway, they probably would.”

Brokers themselves have voiced mixed opinions on the importance of fees. While some have predicted rent hikes if Ossé’s bill passes, another broker told Gothamist last year that she already urges landlords to pay her commission, since prospective tenants are deterred by the costs. Broker Michael Corley told Curbed last year that he support-

ed Ossé’s bill as a way of cleaning up an unruly system, although he added that rents would likely go up modestly in the short term.

New this year, Ossé’s bill enjoys support from several labor unions: the powerful union DC37, which represents 150,000 city employees, as well as the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and the Committee of Interns and Residents.

Ossé, the council’s youngest member at age 25, has promoted the bill in a slickly produced video posted to social media, in which he alludes to “big money” having defeated the legislation last year.

If the bill passes, it would mark a turnaround from the 2019 City Council push and would be one of REBNY’s biggest defeats since the state’s landmark 2019 tenant protections were enacted over the industry’s staunch opposition. This year, REBNY is gearing up to push hard in Albany for new development incentives to spur more construction; Ossé, unlike some fellow progressive lawmakers, has echoed those calls to build more overall housing to reduce rents, in addition to enacting tenant protections.

“My response to our housing crisis is yes-and,” he said. “We need all hands on deck.”

Dan

C. Cerullo III

A majority of City Council members support a bill that would force whoever hires a broker to pay the broker’s fees. The Real Estate Board of New York is mobilizing against the legislation. | BUCK ENNIS

Brooklyn City Council member Chi Ossé is pushing a bill that would shift the burden for broker fees from tenants to landlords. | GERARDO ROMO/NYC COUNCIL

FiDi startup Salt Labs has a bold plan for employee retention

The upstart: Salt Labs

Airlines reward loyal fliers with miles, and many retailers grant points to shoppers. Jason Lee is hoping thousands of employers will soon be rewarding their workers with Salt.

His Financial District-based startup, Salt Labs, has created a new loyalty program that he says will help employers retain hourly wage and contract workers. An employee who joins the rewards program and downloads the Salt Rewards app earns one "Salt" for every hour on the job, which they can redeem for rewards ranging from experiences like NASCAR tickets to education benefits like online tutoring or investments such as a treasury bond.

"By putting that in the hands of the employee, all of a sudden, she starts to feel recognized and validated, like she's earning something that is on top of or separate from her traditional paycheck," says Lee, who is the company's co-founder and CEO.

Most employers fund the program at the level of 10 to 20 cents per Salt. They also pay Salt Labs a monthly fee to maintain the program on their behalf, based on factors such as number of participants. Lee would not disclose how much his company charges for the service.

Salt Labs, which launched last year and has raised $18 million to date, has 10 employers on board, including Canton, Ohio-based Incept, which has handled customer experience outsourcing for companies such as Microsoft, Ford and Honda.

The reigning Goliath: Workhuman

Employee recognition platform provider Workhuman reaches more than 7 million users in 180 countries employed at companies such as Cisco, Moderna and LinkedIn. The privately held company, with a dual headquarters in Dublin and Framingham, Mass., reported revenues topping $1 billion in 2023.

How to slay the giant

Lee and his co-founder, CTO Rob Law, aren't new to the world of hourly workers. DailyPay, their first startup — founded in 2015 — enabled millions of employees at companies like McDonald's, Target and Dollar Tree to control the timing of their pay.

Incept owner and CEO Sam Falleta started offering the rewards program to his 190 hourly employees at the start of January. "The Salt Labs philosophy is very similar to the one we have, which is, 'How do you instill a feeling of worthiness into hourly employees in a way that is genuine and doesn't just look like a gimmick to buy somebody's loyalty?'" he says.

It's too early to tell if the program will boost retention, says Falleta, but it has so far enjoyed a 67% adoption rate. And he's getting good feedback — employees say "mining salt" makes work more satisfying and even motivates them to work additional hours, he says.

In fall 2022, about six months after stepping down from his role leading DailyPay, Lee went on a sort of national listening tour, seeking inspiration for his next venture. As part of his market research efforts, Lee hit bars in cities across the country including Memphis, Cincinnati and Nashville, where he'd spend the afternoon nursing a Coke and chatting with wage workers about their frustrations. He interviewed employers about their concerns as well.

He soon identified a need. Employers were desperate to reduce employee turnover, but raising wages in a tight labor market didn't seem to help. Hourly employees, meanwhile, said they found little meaning or satisfaction in their work.

Lee came up with the idea for Salt — an alternate currency that employees would earn in addition to their base wage.

The investors who backed DailyPay agreed to fund the new venture. "There's this massive gap that needs to solved," says Logan Allin, managing partner and founder of Fin Capital, which led the startup's $10 million pre-seed investment round last April. "And I think Salt has that opportunity. There's nothing else like it on the market."

At the same time, Allin adds, the program is not so novel that it could alienate potential users. "It's very familiar, in

the sense that people are used to rewards programs. So they've kind of crossed that bridge, and created that familiarity and that trust," he says.

Salt Labs raised a second, $8M seed round in December 2023 led by Midtown-based Third Prime Ventures.

Rather than test the concept through employers, Salt Labs launched a pilot program directly to hourly workers in San Juan — a city occupied by just about every chain retailer and restaurant under the sun.

Last spring, it set up a kiosk at the local mall to explain the program to the hourly wage folks who worked and shopped there, encouraging them to download the app. A wide range of workers from large retailers like Walmart, Home Depot and Lowes, to gig-economy workers and smaller service-based companies signed up. Since there were no employers involved, Salt Labs funded the rewards program directly.

Participants shared the program on social media. Salt Labs soon had 75,000 users in Puerto Rico — along with promising results to share with employers. Participants were staying at their jobs 56% longer and were 50% more likely to pick up an additional shift, according to Lee. They also said they felt more satisfied with their job and financially secure.

Findings from the six-month pilot also spurred some tweaks before the formal launch in November. Workers loved tracking and accumulating their hours in the app so much, for example, that Salt Labs added a feature — akin to a Fitbit counter — that constantly updates to display how much Salt the employee is earning.

The next challenge

Once Salt is established as an alternative currently among hourly and 1099 workers, says Lee, the possibilities are endless. Salt Labs could work with brokerage houses to accept Salt to fund retirement accounts, or with retailers and restaurants to accept the currency as payment. "Fundamentally, we now have a new store of value," says Lee.

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

Anne Kadet

Salt Labs co-founder and CEO Jason Lee (center) launched the company last year. It has raised $18 million in funding. BUcK ENNIS

WHO OWNS THE BLOCK

An already-revitalized pocket of Long Island City prepares to join a BID

Once home to gum and bag factories, Thomson Avenue today courts schools and government, which have shown durability in weak office market

By C. J. Hughes

Long Island City’s business improvement district is set to explode its reach this year, doubling both its geographic size to about 10 linear miles and its budget to more than $2 million in collected assessments a year.

Paying what is essentially an extra layer of taxes may daunt some property owners. And indeed, some communities have rejected BIDs in part for this reason. Jackson Heights, for example, in 2017 rejected a proposed BID over fears of gentrification.

But in Long Island City, where the bigger BID seems to have the blessing of real estate interests, landlords appear to be betting the added costs will lead to cleaner streets and better marketing.

In a way, improvements have already happened, especially east of Sunnyside rail yards in the expanded BID zone. Consider Thomson Avenue, which once produced weapons systems, paper bags and gum but now embraces education and government, two sectors that have shown durability in the currently weak office market.

“The street is a great story of reinvention,” said Randall Briskin, a vice president at the Feil Organization; its building at 30-20 Thomson Ave. enjoyed a significant 210,000-square-foot, multifloor deal by LaGuardia Community College in January.

Not all is rosy, of course. Hybrid work trends have helped empty out stylish conversion projects, just like what has happened at offices in other business districts. And those vacancies come despite the fact that the area’s asking rents of $40 per square foot are less than half of what more established business districts seek. Less-redeveloped 47th Avenue is also not as in demand, brokers say, despite being just one block away.

But the enclave within an enclave can still seem leaps and bounds better off than decades ago.

Long Island City’s enlarged BID, which is part of the Long Island City Partnership economic development corporation, was proposed in 2021 and is expected to activate in July.

Overall, the city has a total of 76 BIDs, which were conceived at a time when municipal services were strained and neighborhoods struggling. The first, covering Brooklyn’s Fulton Mall, launched in 1976; Little Italy is now mulling what could be the 77th. Some of the larger, wealthier and more powerful versions maintain the Grand Central area, Times Square and Union Square.

30-35 THOMSON AVE.

Overlooking Sunnyside Yards and its rumbling Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road trains is this 2-story, postwar building, which has been home to a Janovic paint and wallpaper store for decades. But in April, the store will relocate a few blocks away to 32-02 Queens Blvd. Leslie Tabet owns No. 30-35, whose zoning would likely support a much larger structure. At the same time, the next-door triangular lot that contained a gas station in the 1970s and is currently owned by Accel Motors is also vacant after a black-car service closed. Together they could represent a 56,300-square-foot parcel in a neighborhood that has been awash in development.

30-20 THOMSON AVE.

The Feil Organization bought this 7-story, 530,000-squarefoot former battery factory from Oaktree Capital Management in 2000 for $104 million in a package deal with next-door 30-30 Thomson, records show. Early on, Feil stocked it with students. The DeVry Institute of Technology, part of a for-profit college chain, arrived in 1998, and by the time the school shuttered the location in 2014, DeVry controlled a 210,000-square-foot berth. LaGuardia, a major real estate force, took over DeVry’s lease for new classrooms and in January renewed the lease for another 10 years. The balance of the space in the building, which is 100% occupied, is rented by three high schools, including an outpost of the Bard Early College program, an affiliate of upstate Bard College that offers two years of college prep for 9th and 10th graders. Adorned with a tower and colorful tiles, No. 30-30 was once a Chiclets gum factory until 1981, when it closed and laid off 1,600 workers. The sweet spot for Feil at the address has been city agencies, which have helped prop up the leasing market at a time of persistently high vacancy rates. But Feil was not able to entice the city’s School Construction Authority to renew, and the agency will soon decamp for Savanna-owned 1 Court Square before its lease ends, leaving a 300,000-square-foot hole at the 650,000-square-foot, atrium-lined prewar site in its wake. The New York Police Department and the Department of Transportation are also tenants.

30-30 47TH AVE.

Another full-block prewar site with connections to a department store — in this case, Macy’s, which reportedly stored furniture and furs there through the 1970s — this 10-story, 1.2 million-square-foot hulk is also enjoying a second act as an office. Called the Factory, No. 30-30 has tenants like organ donation advocate LiveOnNY and a pair of apparel companies, J.Crew and Ralph Lauren. The latter has a photo studio there, which Ralph Lauren expanded from 19,000 square feet in 2016 to 55,000 square feet in 2023. Since 2015, Macy’s has also had a photo studio there for catalog shoots. In 2006, a group led by Mark Karasick’s 601W Companies bought the building from Helmsley-Spear for $35.1 million. But Karasick later declared bankruptcy and surrendered the deed to current landlords Atlas Capital Group, Square Mile Capital and Invesco Real Estate. (Atlas helped create the bigger BID.) No. 30-30 currently has 15 availabilities, the largest measuring 78,000 square feet, according to a brochure. The building offers a handful of casual restaurants and shuttles to Court Square and other subway stops.

31-10 THOMSON AVE.

To understand how sharply the area has pivoted from its industrial days, it may help to consider the evolution of LaGuardia Community College. In 1971, the school opened its first location at this site, which churned out trucks in the 1920s before becoming a factory where military contractor Sperry Rand made navigation systems in World War II. In the 1980s, LaGuardia expanded into next-door 31-28 Thomson, a former paper bag factory, before reinventing the block of 31st Place between the two parcels into a lawn- and sculpture-dotted courtyard. The school’s high-profile presence also includes 29-10 Thomson, a biscuit factory turned telephone plant turned Gimbels warehouse that LaGuardia purchased for $52 million in 1998. Classrooms line the 9-story, 64,000-square-foot building today. One of the 25 schools that are part of the City University of New York system, LaGuardia enrolls 18,000 students, 95% of whom receive financial aid. Full-time tuition for city residents is $4,800 per year.

31-36 QUEENS BLVD.

This oddly-shaped parcel, which sits at the spot where Queens Boulevard begins its long and loud march across the borough, was snapped up in 2006 for $1.8 million by prolific hotel developer Sam Chang. He built a six-story, 23,000-square-foot structure that operated as a Days Inn at a time when Long Island City vied to become a lower-cost alternative to Manhattan for tourists. But the site is currently serving as a homeless shelter, according to a woman who answered the phone there in March. It’s not the first Long Island City hotel to welcome the homeless in recent years, as city contracts have provided steady streams of income amid reduced tourism. As remote work has hollowed out boardrooms, some office buildings have also switched gears, like nearby 47-11 Austell Place, a warehouse-turned-office building owned by Cannon Hill Capital Partners that became a migrant shelter in the fall. (City officials had to create a new emergency exit in the boiler room first.) Chang, meanwhile, appears to be exiting the lodging business. Among his flurry of deal-making was the December sale of a trio of hotels in Manhattan for more than $200 million.

45-55 VAN DAM ST.

A trace of the neighborhood’s bluish-collar past endures at this blip of a corner site, home to the Van Dam Diner, where the Malonoukos family has been serving omelettes and waffles to diners on swiveling stools since 1971. It opens at 6 a.m. Arnold Levien, who developed industrial buildings in the area, completed its 2,700-square-foot building in 1965, according to the city register. Levien’s children sold the site for $975,000 in 2010 to a limited liability company, Van Dam Realty, linked to the Malonoukos family, which means a tenant is now in control of their business’s address. City officials put the market value of the low-slung site at $650,000, which means it could likely sell for twice that, though a skinny 100-by-30-foot lot might present jigsaw-like challenges.

31-00 47TH AVE.

Built in the 1920s as a warehouse for the Gimbels department store chain, this five-story, 573,000-square-foot full-block site transitioned to office uses in the 1980s; a building owner in that era was developer Larry Silverstein. Back then, Brazilian designer Carlos Falchi, famous for handbags made of alligator skins, apparently had so much sway upon being recruited to the site that he convinced the owners to slap his name on the facade. Falchi died in 2015, but No. 31-00 is still called the Falchi Building today. In 2012, the Chetrit Group sold the property for $81 million to the developer Jamestown, which hoped to recreate its success with Manhattan’s Chelsea market by installing a food court and tech-minded businesses. Indeed, the Doughnut Plant chain opened a production space and cafe, while Uber and Lyft became upstairs tenants. The formula at least helped Jamestown unload the site just four years later to Savanna for a hefty $257 million. A $35 million renovation followed, including a lobby revamp. But the site is now pocked with 14 office and retail vacancies, according to Savanna, with spaces ranging from 2,000 to 62,000 square feet. CBRE’s Mitchell Arkin, who handles leasing, had no comment.

30-20 THOMSON AVE.

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Democrats’ redistricting advantage may still hold

The bigger takeaway is that New York’s process is broken. The Legislature and the governor have an opportunity to x it for 2032.

New York’s congressional districts are, at last, nalized. What a long, strange trip it’s been.

For the second time in two years, voters will encounter altered congressional seats. e Democrat-run Legislature drew districts that don’t di er much from what the bipartisan independent commission proposed and are, in turn, based mostly on the lines crafted by a court-appointed special master in 2022. is time the map won’t change again until 2032.

Two years ago, Democrats loudly denounced the special master’s lines, which negated their attempted gerrymander. In the end, though, their vision for mapmaking closely resembles what he crafted.

Sound to Westchester.

e hope was to engineer a map that would automatically give Democrats control of the House and elevate Hakeem Je ries, the Brooklyn congressman and House minority leader, to the speakership. at didn’t happen.

But if you want a Democrat-controlled House in January 2025, all hope is not lost.

What does this all mean? Democrats throughout America who dreamed of an aggressive New York gerrymander that could easily ip the House will walk away disappointed. In New York City, Nicole Malliotakis’ Staten Island and southern Brooklyn-based district will not become more liberal; the map won’t rope in Park Slope. e Long Island district now held by Tom Suozzi — and formerly belonging to George Santos — will not become a safe Democratic seat by taking a leap across the Long Island

First, understand that Je ries and the state Legislature did not want to lose another court battle. In 2022, Republicans defeated the proposed Democratic districts by ling a lawsuit claiming they ran afoul of the nebulous anti-gerrymandering clause in the state constitution. A Republican judge in upstate New York was then able to undo the gerrymander by appointing an independent expert to draw completely new districts.

At the time, Democrats were outraged because the map undid the gains they thought they had secured — no more Staten Island-toPark Slope House seat — and did not take incumbency into account.

Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney were thrown together into a single Manhattan district and were forced to wage a bitter primary against each other. Nadler ended up triumphing.

lose, and Democrats nd a way to defeat Marc Molinaro in the Hudson Valley, they will likely have locked up their majority for 2025. e greater takeaway from all this is that New York has a broken redistricting process. is is, rst and foremost, the fault of Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former governor, who claimed he wanted to end gerrymandering in New York but instead created what we have now: a bipartisan commission that can be overridden by the state Legislature. At the time, Cuomo hoped it would be the Republican-run state Senate countering the in uence of progressive Democrats.

With that dust settled, Democrats came to understand that tweaking the special master’s map — and not radically overhauling it — was the best way to avoid another legal ght. ey also likely saw that the map, derided at rst, o ered relatively neutral terrain that, in a presidential year, could still be favorable to them.

Democrats were able to add more Joe Biden voters to Brandon Williams’ Syracuse-area district, making it more likely the freshman Republican will lose in November.

ey were also able to shore up Suozzi by roping in Democratic turf in Su olk County.

Vulnerable lawmakers

ey did not tinker much with freshman Mike Lawler’s Westchester and Hudson Valley district or Anthony D’Esposito’s Nassau County seat. But both rst-term lawmakers are very vulnerable because Biden is expected to carry both districts, as he did in 2020. If Williams, Lawler and D’Esposito all

Democrats who run the state Legislature, along with Gov. Kathy Hochul, now have a chance to actually x all of this for 2032. ey can pass a constitutional amendment to create a genuinely independent redistricting commission, modeled on e orts in California, Arizona and Michigan, and get politics completely out of mapmaking. New York voters shouldn’t have to endure any more redistricting sagas.

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

Developer sued over alleged defects at 5th Ave. condo unit

By C. J. Hughes

Luxury developer Michael Shvo, who helped create the top-selling, Aman-hotel-branded condo at 730 Fifth Ave., on Billionaires Row, is facing some disgruntled customers at a similar building down the street.

ing, and bedroom closets are much bigger than advertised, blocking ceiling lights, according to court lings.

Filed March 4 in Manhattan Supreme Court, the suit also names the shell company that o cially developed the building, an entity that previously included the Turkish rm Bilgili Group. But Shvo is also called out speci cally, and in somewhat harsh terms for a suit of this type, for apparently reneging on promises made in text messages that some problems would be xed.

“We went above and beyond our obligations to accommodate a buyer who raised minor issues.”

Shvo spokesman in a statement

John and Diane Goodman have sued Shvo for alleged construction defects in their one-bedroom unit at Mandarin Oriental Residences, New York, a new, 69-unit development at 685 Fifth Ave. Home for years to Gucci’s New York agship store, 685 Fifth, at East 54th Street, has converted upper oors once used for o ces into high-end apartments, sales of which are expected to pull in $343 million, according to the project’s o ering plan.

e Goodmans, who are among the rst buyers to move into the building after closing on their $6.1 million unit in December, claim that millwork in their home is warped, stone counters are miss-

“Defendant Shvo’s interactions with plainti were characterized by unprofessionalism to an alarming degree, including the use of foul language, refusal to acknowledge errors and outright toxic conduct,” says the suit, which is seeking around $1 million in damages, costs and fees, including for money the Goodmans allegedly lost in the stock market because they spent it on a new home instead.

For his part, Shvo told Crain’s the Goodmans are acting in bad faith and escalating what should be a routine matter.

“We went above and beyond

our obligations to accommodate a buyer who raised minor issues,” a Shvo spokesman said in a statement. “After agreeing to make the requested changes — which they admit were not required and not addressed at closing — we never heard back from the buyer. We remain committed to taking any reasonable steps to ensure they are satis ed.”

e Goodmans bought their unit, No. 18A, which has a combined living and dining room, two terraces and about 1,000 interior square feet, o plans in November 2022 before it was completed.

Struggling city sales

It’s one of a dozen apartments that have sold and closed at the 69-unit, 29-story building, or slightly more than 15% of the total in three years, according to the city register. Amid high interest rates, home sales have struggled in the city in recent months, depressing activity and prices. e median sale price for co-ops and condos in Manhattan in 2023 was $1.15 million, according to Douglas Elliman, versus $1.19 million in 2022.

Prices at 685 Fifth, a prewar site with new oors added on the roof level, start at $2.5 million or

around $5,000 per square foot, around the price Shvo achieved at Aman New York Residences, a conversion of the Crown Building at West 57th Street.

Shvo and Bilgili, which is headed by Serdar Bilgili, bought the upstairs portion of 685 Fifth in 2018 for $135 million. e following year CIM Group provided a $120 million construction loan for the property, which despite its name does not have an onsite hotel, though there is a Mandarin Oriental hotel at Columbus Circle. But after a falling out with Shvo, Bilgili exited the 685 Fifth project in 2021, according to a source familiar with

the separation.

And the Shvo spokesman had no comment about whether Shvo has a new partner for the development.

Amenities at No. 685 include a private restaurant from star chef Daniel Boulud and an outdoor pool, plus 24-hour, hotel-style concierge service, according to marketing materials. e building’s ground-level retail space, which is owned by Brook eld, meanwhile, includes an outpost of Coach and other stores.

Adam Glassman, the Goodmans’ lawyer, did not return a call for comment.

Ross Barkan

Democrats in the state Legislature, such as Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, should learn from the messy redistricting saga and create a genuinely independent redistricting commission, writes columnist Ross Barkan. | NYS SENATE MEDIA SERVICES

685

HEALTH CARE

Making health care personal

Embracing our commitment to New Yorkers

KAREN IGNAGNI CEO EMBLEMHEALTH

Ignagni is recognized as one of the most influential people in health care for her policy reform work and for expanding EmblemHealth’s presence in NYC’s medically underserved communities.

EmblemHealth has been serving New Yorkers for almost 90 years, and our model is unique.

Helping people achieve better health is our mission. This requires rejecting a one-size-fits-all strategy and approaching individuals holistically and personally.

Improving health requires assessing an individual’s physical, mental and social situation. Our team is trained to address gaps in care, which lead to significant disparities across New York State. We take a neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach and work with community-based organizations to address health inequities. We also screen for loneliness, which was first recognized as a major crisis during the pandemic, and we are working with our clinical partners to reward value-based efforts to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and emergency room visits. By addressing gaps in care and

partnering closely with our large network of doctors and hospitals, we help our members get the right care in the right setting. But when someone you love is facing a health crisis, it is personal and you need someone to help. At EmblemHealth, we meet this challenge in four ways:

• We have established “neighborhood” health care centers in every borough and on Long Island. We welcome individuals from the neighborhood to drop in for face-to-face help with key challenges that stand in the way of better health: food, housing, transportation and more. We offer wellness classes and educational resources and help make medical appointments, all free of charge to the community.

• Our award-winning AdvantageCare Physicians (ACPNY) team services more than 500,000 New Yorkers with same-day and next-day appointments, primary care and specialty services,

providing whole-person health. ACPNY offices are in some of the most underserved areas of New York. Our care team members are proud that they live in the communities they serve and mirror the unique demographics of their neighborhoods.

• Our WellSpark Health team delivers the coaching support individuals need to prevent and manage chronic illnesses, address burnout and live healthier lives.

• Our care management teams are particularly skilled to serve New Yorkers because we are New Yorkers. This means asking our neighbors the right questions – such as whether they are feeling sad, lonely or need help paying for their groceries – and knowing how to help support them with resources in their community. It also means tracking when our members are due for checkups, tests or prescription refills and understanding how the traditions of

the diverse cultures in our city impact how and whether individuals are comfortable asking for help making appointments, talking to their doctors or understanding complex treatment plans. Our goal is to provide the assistance our members need, in ways they are willing to accept and from people they trust.

We are continuously learning about issues in the communities we serve by partnering with community leaders and organizations. This helps us develop programs that work. As a NYC-based plan, we have created an infrastructure for the people who live and work here along with the generations of their families who are our members. Putting people first is what we do every day. Our approach is tailored, and it is personal.

EmblemHealth, we go beyond coverage to support the health of communities.

Sending the National Guard into the subway sends the wrong message to New Yorkers

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s announcement

March 6 that New York would deploy the National Guard and the state police to check bags for weapons in the subway was certainly surprising. The move comes in the wake of an uptick in transit crime.

Yes, crime is up 13% year to date in the subway system, driven mostly by grand larceny, or theft without force. An example of such a crime would be someone having their pocket picked after falling asleep on the train. Crimes of this nature are not usually committed with a weapon — nor are the high-profile incidences of riders being pushed onto tracks. That calls into question the need for the National Guard to conduct bag searches at what will likely be a notable expense to taxpayers.

As reporter Caroline Spivack noted in a recent article, past surges of police in the subway have come at a cost: The NYPD went from spending $4 million on overtime pay for subway security in 2022 to $155 million in 2023. That money last year produced a 2% drop in major subway crimes, including murder, rape and robbery. There were 2,089 major crimes in the subway in 2023, reduced from 2,137 in 2022, NYPD data shows.

No one would argue that security in the

PERSONAL VIEW

subway is a bad thing, especially late at night. But this level of heightened vigilance seems like a vast overreaction. Calling in the National Guard sends a message that the subway system is an unsafe, unsavory place to be, and the transit system should be avoided at all costs. Is that the correct message to be sending riders as the MTA looks to fully rebound from the pandemic and serve as an attractive option to get drivers to give up their cars?

Additional NYPD officers assigned

Mayor Eric Adams is also taking a very “tough on crime” posture with the subways, recently ramping up the NYPD’s presence with 1,000 additional officers assigned to patrol the system. The governor’s recent move seems to be an elevation of this tack. But both leaders would do well to remember that there can be too much of a good thing. A few officers patrolling a  local station can make the riders there feel safe. A platoon of officers and National Guardsmen can make those same riders feel as if they are in a war zone.

Conversely, rather than spotlighting Adams and Hochul as cracking down on crime, such extreme measures can actually

send the message that the wardens have lost control of the jail, so to speak.

As Danny Pearlstein, spokesman for the Riders Alliance, a group that advocates for subway and bus riders, put it: “Deploying troops to subway entrances will more likely increase the perception of crime among people who don’t ride public transit than protect the millions of riders and workers on platforms and trains each day.”

Added Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union:

“A sweeping surveillance state and biased broken-windows policing won’t deliver security.”

Addressing increases in subway crime is essential so that New Yorkers can get to and from work and home safely. But scare tactics that could keep New Yorkers out of the subway — or make them feel afraid while using it — are not the right way forward. Our state and city leaders can still be tough on crime while taking a measured, thoughtful approach.

Albany can give NYC powerful tools for building

It can be a frustrating affair to get things built in New York City. Layers of bureaucracy and reams of red tape regularly cause even the simplest project to take far longer and cost much more than projected.

Anyone who has renovated a bathroom or put in a new kitchen knows that no two construction projects are alike, with drastic variation in size, complexity and scope. Why wouldn’t we give ourselves all the available tools to do our big capital projects — investing in our cultural institutions, public housing and hospitals, protecting our city from climate change  — smartly and efficiently?

works project from start to finish.

They also improve minorityand women-owned business participation by enabling the city to consider a builder’s track record and approach to engaging MWBEs when awarding a contract. The tools provide more opportunities to bring MWBE subcontractors on board early in the process.

Getting projects done faster and under budget means that more critical public works projects can be built. It also means more jobs. And, of course, it means that all New Yorkers have more public works to use and enjoy.

That may seem noncontroversial, and it should be.

Empowered by landmark legislation passed by the state in 2019, the New York City Department of Design and Construction has already completed its first ever design-build project: a garage and community space in Kew Gardens.

The project was completed in two years — less than half the “normal” projected construction timeline under a design-bidbuild model — and saved nearly $13 million compared to that model.

3 basic reforms

Fortunately, Mayor Eric Adams, in the spirit of his City of Yes economic development plan, is spearheading a suite of common-sense solutions to expedite construction across the five boroughs. Now, Albany needs to act.

Progressive design-build and construction manager-build are tools deployed with enormous success in cities and states across the country, as well as by other public owners here in our city. These tools accelerate completion by selecting a team of designers and builders to deliver a public

Especially since the current system overcomplicates the process. Doing each step sequentially — design, bid and construction — adds years and cost to every project. It also cuts the builder out from the design phase, sometimes leading to fully designed projects that aren’t readily constructible — which adds even more time and cost. Construction manager-build and design-build allow these steps to happen in parallel, fostering collaboration, drastically cutting schedules and improving the quality of the final product.

As someone who annually approved a city capital budget of more than $60 billion as a member of the City Council, I can only imagine how much progress would have been made if this process were implemented back then.

Libraries across the city often languish with construction delays and long closures associated with having multiple different construction projects under one roof at the same time — problems that can be avoided with construction manager-build, where a single manager oversees all the tradespeople and creates a sensible phasing plan that gets doors reopened sooner. Even the simplest project, upgrading the

Juniper Park track and field, took six years to complete, only reopening this past fall after having been approved in 2017.

It’s no wonder that cities across the world are lapping us when it comes to the speed of completing critical infrastructure projects.

How can New York City hope to compete as a global capital if even the most straightforward projects run more than double the projected cost and years over schedule?

That’s why the organization that I represent, the Building Trades Employers’ Association of New York, supports Mayor Eric Adams’s embrace of design-build and construction manager-build.

But we need Albany to act, expanding the methods of constructing capital projects, reauthorizing joint bidding, and ultimately reconstituting the City’s Department of Design and Construction as a new authority.

Getting projects done faster and under budget means that more critical public works projects can be built.

These are not new and untested concepts. By passing these three basic reforms, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature would give New York City powerful new tools to succeed.

BUCK ENNIS

Elizabeth Crowley is president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers’ Association.

Say yes to the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity

New York City faces a dire affordable housing crisis that poses profound challenges to creating a more livable city that is open, accessible and welcoming to all. New Census data shows the city’s rental vacancy rate is at its lowest point in more than 50 years and that, for far too many low- and middle-income New Yorkers, rental costs are a significant burden consuming 30% or more of their income. This affordability crisis threatens to make it impossible for middle class New Yorkers — the nurses, teachers, small-business owners, artists and cultural workers who make our neighborhoods thrive — to live here.

istrations’ housing plans that resulted in piecemeal decision-making and eroded community support for changes to familiar neighborhoods.

We need to build more housing and, more importantly, we need a citywide plan that sets ambitious yet achievable production goals. The city’s current housing plan, City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, would do this by eliminating outdated and overly restrictive zoning regulations. The plan would also allow for more equitably distributed housing across the city, which is in line with the principles of the Fair Housing Framework passed by the City Council. This plan is a welcome departure from previous admin-

PERSONAL VIEW

There is a lot to like in the City of Yes with its focus on solving the housing crisis through a citywide approach and with the proposal to increase density consistent with the typology of existing neighborhoods. The plan would expand the opportunity for officeto-residential conversions and encourage housing development in our thriving commercial districts and near mass transit. As hybrid work schedules are the new norm, providing incentives to expand mixed-use development is essential.

City of Yes would permit existing residential buildings to expand by as much as 20%, provided the new units are affordable. And, it would remove parking mandates from our building code. New Yorkers should welcome this shift toward using our limited spaces to house people, rather than for car storage.

While zoning reform alone will not solve the housing crisis, it is a necessary step toward creating desperately needed housing. This plan will hopefully move us

toward consensus on comprehensive guidelines for equitable development and away from fighting over one specific proposal or another.

Proposed incentives

To reinforce this citywide approach, we need a state-level housing strategy that incentivizes development allowed by City of Yes. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recently announced proposals, including a new tax incentive for affordable housing development, should receive broad support.

Above all else, as New York City moves forward with this plan, it must seek out and incorporate true input from communities that would be affected. The Department of City Planning must complement these zoning reforms with holistic plan-

ning to ensure social and physical infrastructure is developed in neighborhoods.

Ultimately, New York City needs a comprehensive approach to delivering housing and all the essential neighborhood assets that make communities thrive. City and state leaders need to implement all effective funding tools, tax exemptions and other incentives in a cohesive way to enable and encourage construction.

However, short of coordinated city and state action or a truly comprehensive plan, like the one recently unveiled by Borough President Antonio Reynoso, the City of Yes is a strong first step to growing our housing supply and to addressing the current crisis. If done correctly, the city’s plan will move us toward creating a more affordable city for the working New Yorkers who keep our city running every day.

Mother’s conviction shows need to expand ‘red flag’ laws

This month’s manslaughter conviction of Jennifer Crumbley, whose 15-yearold son Ethan killed four people and injured seven others in a 2021 Michigan school shooting, has focused attention on the obligations of family members and others who witness signs of serious mental health issues that pose a threat to the safety of the individual, his or her family, and the community around them.

The facts leading to the conviction were chilling. Crumbley and her husband, who’s facing similar charges, knew of their son’s challenges, but still bought him a gun as an early Christmas present days before the shooting. The morning of the shooting, teachers told Ethan’s parents he needed counseling after seeing drawings on his desk of a gun and bullets, and the words “blood everywhere” and “the thoughts won’t stop, help me.” But no one checked his backpack where the gun he would use later that day was located.

criminal liability underscores the importance of extending that obligation for intervention to teachers and others who are aware of red flags. Passage of red flag laws — known as Extreme Risk Protection Order laws — helps, but they are no substitute for increased education about the need for mental health professionals to intercede.

Carolyn Reinach Wolf is the director of the mental health law practice at Abrams Fensterman.

The case tells us how important it is to recognize red flags when a family member suffers from serious mental health issues, substance abuse or other psychological challenges. Enabling them only prevents moving forward with treatment and positive interventions that could protect the individual, family members and the broader community.

The fact that Jennifer Crumbley faced

In my mental health legal and clinical practice, where I work with families facing challenges posed by a family member in the throes of mental health challenges, substance use disorder and related diagnoses of symptoms, I will now be asking if there are any weapons in the house, and whether those weapons are securely stored beyond the reach of the person in crisis.

It must be said that stigmatizing people with mental illness is an insidious societal canard. People with mental illness are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. But it is also true that mental health issues and substance abuse disorders can increase the risk of violence.

It is that balancing act — between an individual’s rights and the mental health challenges that justify overriding those rights — that makes this such a difficult decision, though less so for a minor than for an adult.

New York is one of 21 states with ERPO

laws allowing family members, police or mental health professionals to petition courts to remove guns from the home. New York’s law was strengthened after the 2022 massacre at a Buffalo supermarket where the perpetrator had threatened a mass shooting; he had been released from a hospital without an order barring him from owning or buying a weapon.

Law limitations

In a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, last October that left 18 people dead, police said they were limited in their ability to take

guns from the shooter under that state’s less powerful “yellow flag” law that requires they meet face-to-face with the person in crisis.

We know the availability of a weapon, combined with identified mental health issues of concern, can lead to violence or more likely an attempted suicide. If weapons are not easily accessible, it gives time to intervene, and hopefully divert thoughts of violence or the escalation of those thoughts.

And early intervention can allow the afflicted person, and his or her loved ones, to start the process of rebuilding his or her life.

Elizabeth Goldstein is president of the Municipal Art Society of New York.

Panelists discuss the City of Yes housing plan at New York University’s Furman Center. From left, architect Vishaan Chakrabarti; Mayor’s Office Executive Director for Housing Leila Bozorg; City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams; Gotham Organization’s Bryan Kelly; and moderator Vicki Been. | GErarDO rOMO / NYc cOUNcIL MEDIa UNIT

The manslaughter conviction of a Michigan mother underscores the importance of extending the obligation to identify mental health red flags beyond family members, writes Carolyn Reinach Wolf of Abrams Fensterman. | MIG_r/FLIcKr

ACCOUNTING

UHY

UHY announced that Jie Chen has been promoted to Partner.

Jie has dedicated more than 15 years to serving the personal tax, estate planning, and financial needs of family groups, closely held businesses, and high-net-worth individuals for both domestic and international clients. She advises non-US individuals worldwide regarding tax and estate planning considerations when owning assets in the United States.

ACCOUNTING

UHY

ACCOUNTING

UHY

ACCOUNTING

Withum

CONSTRUCTION

Swinerton

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

HITT

Vice President Andre Grebenstein was promoted to Office Leader of HITT New York.

With his leadership, HITT’s local team of 50+ will expand construction capabilities providing exceptional quality, service & support to clients in New York, New Jersey & Connecticut. He has 30+ years’ construction experience in the tri-state & nationally, joining HITT in 2020. He has a proven record of high-end, fast-track financial, law firm, medical, office, biotech, pharma, industrial & mission critical projects.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

CrossCountry Consulting

CrossCountry Consulting is pleased to announce that Nadeem Ahmed has been appointed Partner in its national Private Equity practice to focus on the convergence of technology and the CFO function at mid-market portfolio companies. A handson M&A leader with over 20 years of experience across the transaction lifecycle, he has deep expertise in infusing analytics and data-driven decision-making into an organization’s business processes to drive revenue growth and increase operational efficiency.

UHY announced that Charlene Lee has been promoted to Principal. Charlene has more than a decade of experience in auditing both public and private companies. Her experience covers a variety of industries, with a concentration in mutual/hedge/private equity funds, biotechnology, telecommunication, alternative energy, and manufacturing. She specializes in internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) and SOX compliance.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

KeyBank

UHY announced that Matthew Maroney has been promoted to Principal. Matt has a decade of tax and accounting experience providing tax planning and tax compliance services to a variety of privately held businesses and highnet-worth individuals. He specializes in U.S. tax planning for immigration and expatriation, inbound and outbound business ventures, resolving IRS penalties for delinquent foreign informational filings, and other issues related to cross-border transactions and investments.

KeyBank has named Jason Litwak as Director, Public Sector, managing relationships and financial solutions for government entities, educational institutions, and other public sector organizations to meet their unique needs.  His extensive experience includes seven years as Director of Government Affairs for Con Edison, as well as positions with the Mayor’s Office of the City of New York and in the New York State Assembly. Litwak holds a JD from Albany Law School and BA from Univ. of Buffalo.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Weaver

LAW

Latham & Watkins LLP

Rachel Blitzer has been elected a partner at Latham & Watkins LLP in New York. A member of the Intellectual Property Litigation Practice and Litigation & Trial Department, she represents clients in technically complex cases relating to trade secrets, patent infringement, copyright, breach of contract, business torts, and antitrust disputes.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

West Monroe

Brad Esporrin, CPA, joins Weaver with more than 25 years of experience, primarily in the asset management industry. He focuses on providing tax consulting and compliance services for private equity funds, fund of funds, private credit funds, venture capital funds, and hedge funds. He has vast experience with U.S. Tax Forms 1065 (including Schedules K-1/K-3), 1120, 8804, 1042, 8621, 8865, 5471, 1120-F, and 8858.

Carolyn Gusick has been promoted to Managing Director, Product Experience & Engineering Lab. She blends her product management expertise with her background in utilities to deliver digital solutions. She enjoys working with creative and engineering teams and seeing the impact digital products bring. For a large utility, she supervised an intranet launch for 15,000+ employees that was selected as a top Intranet by the Nielsen Norman Group. She joined West Monroe in 2016.

Jeremy Meisel joins Withum as a principal on the Not-for-Profit and Education Services Team with over 20 years of experience. He is a trusted advisor to clients, helping them succeed by keeping them informed about current laws and regulations, providing useful insights to the nonprofit industry and helping them with their mission. His expertise includes financial and compliance audits, including single audits. He also serves on the board of directors of the Mid-Island Y JCC on Long Island.

LAW

Latham & Watkins LLP

Swinerton, an industry-leading general contracting firm, appoints Jay Quackenbush as Director of Construction for its New York division, leveraging his $1.5 billion New York City construction expertise. His background of successfully delivering projects and managing teams upwards of 150 professionals, makes him well-suited to oversee logistically challenging builds. In his role, Quackenbush will enhance operations, expand services, and maintain Swinerton’s growth trajectory in diverse markets.

LAW

Latham & Watkins LLP

Gail Neely has been elected a partner at Latham & Watkins LLP in New York. A member of the Capital Markets Practice and Corporate Department, she advises clients on a variety of complex regulatory and corporate matters, often in connection with securities offerings, and with a focus on broker-dealer regulatory matters and US state securities laws.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Radius Global Infrastructure

Bill Berkman, CoChairman and CEO of Radius Global Infrastructure has announced his departure from the company 14 years after he first invested and co-founded what stands today as one of the world’s top telecommunications infrastructure firms. The departure comes nearly a year after the announcement of the sale of Radius for a value of $3 billion. Radius has been a market leader in aggregating real property interests for wireless telecommunications cell sites and other types of critical digital infrastructure real estate for over a decade. In his next venture, Berkman plans to work toward building a new platform focused on securing key elements of the digital infrastructure necessary to support the expansion of data centers and AI.

Zachary Rowen has been elected a partner at Latham & Watkins LLP in New York. A member of the Securities Litigation & Professional Liability Practice and Litigation & Trial Department, he represents clients in M&A-related litigation, securities litigation, corporate governance, and other complex commercial litigation matters.

your success with promotional products!

Likely casino license front-runner Resorts World unveils plans for $5 billion, 2-million-square-foot Queens project

By Nick Garber

The owners of the small-scale Resorts World casino at Queens’ Aqueduct Racetrack unveiled their $5 billion proposal for a fullfledged casino license on Feb. 29, promising a 2 million-square-foot project that would include a larger hotel and deepen its relationship with a powerful labor union.

Resorts World, owned by the Malaysian conglomerate Genting, has long been seen as a front-runner for one of the three lucrative downstate licenses since it already operates an electronic gambling facility with machine-run game ta-

though complete proposals will only become available once the state-run application process actually opens up.

Those applications are expected to finally come due sometime this spring, once the state’s Gaming Facility Location Board finishes answering questions posed by applicants. The selection process will then take place over the ensuing months.

Despite their potential front-runner status, Resorts World and Genting have still spent heavily on efforts to secure support from the elected officials who will help decide who wins each license.

Resorts World, owned by the Malaysian conglomerate

Genting, has long been seen as a front-runner for one of the three lucrative downstate licenses.

bles and video slot machines. Insiders have predicted it will gobble up one of the licenses along with the similar Yonkers-based “racino” Empire City, leaving only one license truly up for grabs — although rival bidders have tried to dispel that belief.

Resorts World executives said Feb. 29 that their proposal, situated a short distance from JFK Airport, would get underway as soon as this year — a potential strength as it competes against other bids that would need to be constructed from scratch. The company is among the last of the 11 known casino contenders in and around the city to go public with its plans, al-

Genting has contracts with seven different lobbying firms in the city and state, records show, including leading firm Bolton-St. Johns.

The company pointed Feb. 29 to their deep ties to the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, a hotel and casino workers’ union that is playing a leading role in the process. The existing facility is the union’s largest single employer, an asset as it vies for a license.

The company is well-connected in other respects. Timothy Pearson, a top aide to Mayor Eric Adams, held down a second job as an executive at the casino until critical news reports prompted him to step down from Resorts World in August 2022. And Adams himself landed in ethical hot water during his days in the state Senate in 2010, when a watchdog report found he had used “exceedingly poor judgment” by socializing with Aqueduct lobbyists — and taking campaign donations from an executive — shortly before the Legislature

picked it for a license.

The existing Resorts World complex became New York City’s first casino when it opened in 2011, a decade after the concept was approved by the state Legislature.

New York moved to legalize downstate casinos in large part to tap into their huge expected tax revenues. Resorts World is drawing heavily on that logic in its pitch — the company describes itself as the state’s largest taxpayer and says its existing facility has generated more than $4 billion for the state’s public schools.

A 2021 state-commissioned study by Spectrum Gaming Group projected that a full-fledged Resorts World casino would receive between $1 billion and $1.2 billion in annual revenues by 2025. The lower-revenue scenario would occur if one of the licenses goes to a casino in northeast Queens: the site of New York Mets owner Steve Cohen’s Citi Field bid.

Since state officials will consider each proposal’s potential for economic development when deciding on the licenses, Resorts World is seen as a direct competitor to Cohen, with the two sites sitting about six miles from each other.

Convention, retail space

Rival bidders have also tried to puncture the perception that Resorts World and Yonkers’ Empire City are shoo-ins for two of the three licenses. Manhattan State senator Liz Krueger, a vocal casino skeptic who has multiple proposals in her district, told Crain’s last year that lobbyists for another bid in Coney Island had argued against choosing the two racetracks.

“One made the argument that

it’s foolish to imagine that Resorts World in Queens should get one of the three licenses, because they’re already so big and making so much money that it would almost be a waste of a license to just let them get even bigger,” she said.

Resorts World said its project would also entail retail, restaurants, convention space and a 7,000-seat concert hall, in addition to the 350,000-square-foot casino. Another 1,600 hotel rooms would be built in addition to the 400room Hyatt Regency JFK Airport already at the racetrack site. The company also described plans to eventually build housing and parkland on its Queens property, but that proposal is separate from the casino process — relying instead on the upcoming renovation of Long Island’s Belmont Park racetrack that will shift all downstate horse racing there and free up space near Aqueduct.

The promised $5 billion investment is smaller than some of the recently revealed plans, such as

Related’s $12 billion Hudson Yards proposal and Cohen’s $8 billion plan next to Citi Field.

Winning a downstate casino license would allow Resorts World to significantly expand its offerings from racetrack betting and electronic gambling to games like poker and blackjack. Like some other bidders, the company plans to draw on celebrity firepower to sell its proposal, announcing partnerships on Feb. 29 with the Queensborn rapper Nas and the chef Marcus Samuelsson.

“Since we opened in 2011, we have been proud to work with New York City and state and the local community to deliver thousands of good-paying union jobs; billions of dollars in tax revenue to New York’s schoolchildren; and true partnership to hundreds of local non-profits,” said Robert DeSalvio, President of Genting Americas East, in a statement. “With the advent of the newly imagined Resorts World New York City we can, and will, do far more.”

Former Playboy Club on East 59th likely to become headquarters, shopping site for luxury watch retailer

By Eddie Small

The former home of the Playboy Club on East 59th Street will likely be home to the headquarters of a luxury watch company by next year.

Avi Hiaeve, founder and CEO of the high-end timepiece and jewelry firm Avi & Co., won a foreclo-

cords and his attorney, Avely Hart. The company plans to use the building for its corporate offices and a retail location, Hart said.

“It’s probably going to be opening sometime in 2025 because they’re looking to upgrade the façade of the building a little bit,” he said. “This will be their headquarters. There’s a lot of high-end brands and stores in the area, so I think that was the idea.”

The building is not very far from where Prada and Kering (Gucci and Balenciaga’s parent) recently agreed to buy their properties rather than lease the space.

sure auction for the building at 5 E. 59th St. with a bid of roughly $26.7 million, according to property re-

Indeed, the building is not very far from 724 Fifth Ave. and 715-717 Fifth Ave., where luxury retailers Prada and Kering (parent company of Gucci and Balenciaga) recently agreed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to buy their respective properties rather than lease the space. The Related Cos. is also planning a project with

luxury retail space nearby at 625 Madison Ave.

Founded in 2009, Avi & Co. is currently based at 15 W. 47th St. in Manhattan. The firm has a Miami location as well.

Foreclosure sale

Real estate investment firms

BentallGreenOak and Capstone Equities had partnered to buy 5 E. 59th St. in 2015 for $85 million. United Overseas Bank filed a foreclosure lawsuit against the property in November 2021, claiming it had defaulted on three loans, according to property and court records. The foreclosure sale was originally supposed to happen in August but did not ultimately take place until mid-January, according to Hart.

Representatives for BGO, Capstone and United Overseas Bank

did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

The property, located between Madison and Fifth avenues, spans about 57,000 square feet and

stands 9 stories tall, according to the commercial real estate database CoStar. It was built in 1960 and renovated in 1984, the database says.

A rendering of the expanded Resorts World complex under the full-fledged casino proposal by its owner, Genting | rESOrTS WOrLD

Mayor’s business-boosting zoning plan advances to final stage, with tweaks made based on feedback

By Nick Garber

Mayor Eric Adams’ sweeping business-boosting rewrite of zoning laws advanced to the final stage of its public review on March 6, as officials announced they had changed parts of the plan in response to feedback.

The proposal, known as City of Yes for Economic Opportunity, would generally loosen rules that limit where businesses can be based and how large they can grow. It includes more than a dozen rule changes, such as allowing “clean” manufacturers like 3-D printers and breweries to operate in regular commercial districts, letting life-science labs expand more easily near hospitals, and making it easier to open a business in a vacant storefront.

The City Planning Commission voted 11-1 to advance the plan on March 6, following weeks of feedback from neighborhood community boards. It now heads to the

main competitive, to stay a place where you can make it.”

Under the plan, the expansion of light manufacturing in commercial strips across the city would equate to an area the size of Manhattan. Like many of the 18 proposals, officials say it is an example of how New York’s 1961 zoning code — crafted in an era of filthy factories and prejudiced ideas about certain kinds of businesses — has grown outdated. Existing manufacturers would also be allowed to expand more easily by loosening size restrictions — a change that would especially benefit film studios, construction firms and food producers, the city says.

“Zoning should not tell you what kind of job you can do in your own home or whether you can stand up and dance to music at a restaurant.”

Dan Garodnick, city planning director

City Council, which will either pass or reject the plan sometime in April or May.

“Zoning should not tell you what kind of job you can do in your own home or whether you can stand up and dance to music at a restaurant,” said City Planning Director Dan Garodnick in a briefing last week. “Unfortunately, there are too many examples like this, and that’s why we need to take action for New York to re-

Other provisions would remove what officials call “arbitrary” distinctions between different kinds of commercial districts, such as rules that allow bicycle sales but not bicycle repairs in the same location. A Prohibition-era restriction against dancing in some commercial areas would likewise be nixed, as would a rule that forces businesses such as dance studios and clothing rental shops to occupy upper floors of a building instead of at street level.

The plan has won support from business groups, including business improvement districts and four of the city’s five chambers of commerce. But a majority of the city’s community boards have voted symbolically against the plan in recent weeks, with many objecting to the likely proximity of residential and commercial uses — a preview of resistance the package could face in the City Council.

In response to that criticism, Garodnick announced changes to

the plan last week. A rule that would allow businesses to open on the upper floors of mixed-use buildings has been changed to avoid any potential loss of housing; the plan would now ban the conversion of housing into commercial space. A proposal enabling people to operate businesses such as barber shops or realty offices inside their own homes has been tweaked to cap the space put to commercial use at 1,000 square feet.

Corner stores

The plan would pierce the residential-commercial binary in other ways, including by creating a pathway for corner stores to open in residential areas through a permit process. Another policy that prevents storefronts in historic districts from being reoccupied after they have been vacant for

more than two years would be eliminated.

Gail Benjamin, one of the City Planning commissioners, said March 6 that she was concerned by the prospect of letting more businesses open up inside apartment buildings, unless it were paired with more regulation on the types of businesses being permitted.

“At minimum, I think we should have some kind of registry so that people in the building, as well as the owners, are aware that a business exists in this location,” said Benjamin, who nevertheless voted to advance the plan.

Life sciences, seen by the Adams administration as a major source of future job growth, would benefit from another provision allowing laboratories to open in all commercial areas — removing a constraint that has prevented some hospitals and

universities from expanding their lab space.

The Economic Opportunity package is one of three zoning-code rewrites that the Adams administration is advancing separately under the “City of Yes” banner. The most consequential, which would loosen restrictions on housing growth, is under review and will also face a City Council vote later this year, while another rewrite focused on climate-friendly construction was approved in December.

The Adams administration initially said last year that the Economic Opportunity plan would include a measure to legalize future casinos. The state is in the process of licensing casinos within the five boroughs. But after talks with the City Council, the Adams administration decided to advance that casino policy separately.

FBI raids home owned by a top aide to Mayor Eric Adams

By Nick Garber

Federal agents on Feb. 29 searched a Bronx home owned by a top aide to Mayor Eric Adams, an FBI spokesperson confirmed. The search came amid a federal investigation into Adams’ campaign fundraising practices and reports of potential misconduct by the aide, Winnie Greco.

The FBI “carried out law enforcement activity” at the Gillespie Avenue home in Pelham Bay on Feb. 29, an agency spokesperson said. Agents were seen carrying boxes of files from the home into waiting vehicles, according to reports from the scene. The agency has not commented on the nature of the search.

Greco was placed on leave Feb. 29 from her position as Adams’ director of Asian affairs, which pays

$100,000 per year, a City Hall spokesperson said Feb. 29. The mayor’s office has not been contacted by the FBI about Feb. 29’s search, an administration official said.

City began probe in Nov.

Greco has worked under Adams for years, serving as an unpaid liaison to the Chinese community during his time as Brooklyn Borough President before joining his mayoral administration. Feb. 29’s raid came three months after the news site The City reported that Greco had solicited what appeared to be illegal “straw” donations to Adams’ 2021 campaign, and allegedly pressured one man into doing renovations at her Bronx home in exchange for a City Hall job.

Following the reports, the city’s Department of Investigation began a probe into Greco in November.

“Our administration will always follow the law, and we always ex-

pect all our employees to adhere to the strictest ethical guidelines,” City Hall spokesman Fabien Levy said Feb. 29. “As we have repeatedly said, we don’t comment on mat-

ters that are under review, but will fully cooperate with any review underway. The mayor has not been accused of any wrongdoing.”

Greco acquired the Gillespie Avenue home for $850,000 in October, city records show.

Adams himself has said little about the allegations into Greco’s behavior, but has pledged repeatedly not to interfere with the DOI probe.

The mayor is also facing what appears to be a wide-ranging federal investigation into his fundraising, including whether his campaign conspired illegally with the Turkish government. Adams has not been accused of wrongdoing, but the FBI seized his phones in November and raided the Brooklyn home of his top fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, earlier that month.

The Adams administration’s City of Yes for Economic Opportunity plan would lift decades-old restrictions on where businesses can operate, affecting everything from manufacturing to dance studios and bike repair shops. | BUCK ENNIS

Winnie Greco (right) was placed on leave Feb. 29 from her position as Mayor Eric Adams’ director of Asian affairs, after federal agents searched a home she owns. | CAROLINE

RUBINSTEIN-WILLIS/MAYORAL PhOTOGRAPhY OFFICE

GrowNYC, which runs composting program at farmers markets, to lay off 54 employees as mayor ends contract

By C. J. Hughes

The green bins for food scraps that line farmers markets may be curbed permanently.

GrowNYC, the environmental nonprofit contracted by the city to run its composting program at the popular markets, will let go of 54 employees involved in the program in May, according to a new state layoff notice.

The layoffs, which represent the

coffee grounds at dozens of locations across the five boroughs, was targeted in November by Adams as he sought to reduce each agency’s budget by 5% to handle the high costs of the migrant crisis. Adams has recently reversed himself in some cases, however, in the face of stronger-than-expected tax revenues, though he has so far not relented about GrowNYC.

“We continue to lobby the city to re-fund the program so New Yorkers can have more accessibility for composting,” said Chelsea Connor, the spokeswoman for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents the affected employees.

“We continue to lobby the city to re-fund the program so New Yorkers can have more accessibility for composting.”

Chelsea Connor, the spokeswoman for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union

bulk of the composting staff, are happening, the filing said, because Mayor Eric Adams has cut the program’s $3 million budget and terminated its contract.

Backed by money from the Department of Sanitation, the program, which allows New Yorkers to drop off discarded produce and

The program did receive an anonymous donation in December to allow it to hang on for a few more months. But that money runs out in June, and no other rescue funds have materialized, so GrowNYC is proceeding with the assumption that its payroll will have to be slashed, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The job losses come as the city works to meet a self-imposed dead-

line of 2025 to establish curbside composting across the city to stem climate change, which is exacerbated by the methane gases produced by food rotting in landfills. And getting the food to the landfills has been costly. Last year the city spent $470 million sending waste to landfills. The curbside program, which will be mandatory once fully up and running, costs around $20 million a year, at least so far.

But the curbside version has been slow to roll out. And the

farmers market drop-off bins have been heralded by advocates as a vital interim measure and a stopgap for those whose landlords may lag in setting up bins for their scraps at apartment buildings.

Free compost

Last year alone the program reportedly diverted more than 4,000 tons of food from landfills. Residents can in turn access free compost for their gardens, though

some is also used as biogas to fuel homes through National Grid.

Neither the mayor’s office nor GrowNYC had a comment by press time. GrowNYC, which was founded in 1970, the year of the first Earth Day, as the Council on the Environment, had 334 total employees in 2021, according to its most recent tax return.

Based on the filing, the last day of work for the 54 employees, who are based at 100 Gold St. in Lower Manhattan, will be May 20.

A woman drops off food scraps at a community compost collection site in Queens. | BLOOMBErG

Hochul calls on tech companies like Google, Yelp to stop listing unlicensed weed shops, also calls out lawmakers

By Debra Borchardt

Gov. Kathy Hochul last month called out social media and tech companies for helping to promote unlicensed weed stores and New York legislators for not allowing more strict enforcement.

Hochul was joined by social justice dispensary owners as she addressed the proliferation of unlicensed stores in the state. She noted that the stores are selling untested products and evading taxes.

The governor also pointed out that these outlets sell to minors and engage in fraudulent advertising.

Hochul’s big ask was for tech companies, such Google and Yelp,

“We’re calling on these platforms to do the right thing.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul

to stop listing unlicensed stores. She acknowledged that Google could argue it couldn’t know what isn’t licensed, but noted that the state could provide that information to them.

She also pointed out that some

licensed stores aren’t listed by Google, but unlicensed ones are.

“We’re calling on these platforms to do the right thing,” Hochul said.

The governor said the social media platforms are sowing confusion among consumers who believe if it is listed on Google Maps, it must be legitimate.

In response to a question about the state only providing a list of licensed stores, Hochul pledged to look into ways to provide a map to help consumers.

Wants stricter enforcement

The governor also called out state legislators for not allowing more strict enforcement laws to be passed, despite concern that stronger enforcement could be seen as a return to unfair incarceration practices.

Hochul pointed out that most of the open licensed cannabis stores belong to social justice applicants, so the illicit shops are hurting the very groups that that concern addresses.

The limited laws to enforce cannabis compliance and assessing fines are having little success, she noted. Raising the fine amounts didn’t help, and collecting the fines has been a slow, arduous process.

Hochul called on legislators to allow the state and local municipalities to help close the shops, including padlocking unlicensed stores.

“They can appeal fines and closures, but while that plays out in the courts, they will be shuttered and out of business. The padlock stays on,” she said.

Hochul didn’t directly address whether there should be a change in the cannabis regulators — a concern that has been raised around the troubled rollout — but she did say they would do a deep dive to see where they could improve.

Hochul cited the litigation that has affected the program and hurt the regulators who have tried to keep the rollout on schedule.

Hurts state, legal stores

The state, the stores, and the farmers are all paying the price of the illicit shops, the governor pointed out. The state misses out on the tax collections, and the stores miss out on the sales. The New York farmers are competing against out-of-state untested products and have limited stores to sell their products to.

Alfredo Angueira, co-founder of ConBUD, a dispensary on the Low-

er East Side, said that many legal operators face dire immediate economic harm with bankruptcy looming over their heads.

“They are undercut and outmaneuvered by illicit operators who have been operating with impunity for far too long,” Angueira said. “From marketing to store design to retail location to products, the illicit storefront market has flouted every single rule and created an unbalanced market for New York state.”

Angueira added that his dispensary is surrounded by 71 illicit stores within 1,000 feet and that

roughly equates to at least $20 million in sales.

Sandra Jaquez, president of the Latino Cannabis Association, said her group supports the governor’s efforts and urged the lawmakers to support it as well.

Retired marine Osbert Orduna, CEO of The Cannabis Place, said he represented many minority cannabis organizations in New York and they support the governor’s position. “These aren’t legacy to legal operators,” he said.

This article originally appeared in Green Market Report.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state, legal stores and farmers are most affected by illicit stores. SUSAN WATTS/OFFICE OF GOV. KAThY hOChUL

Troubled project in Washington Heights heads to bankruptcy auction

By Eddie Small

The fate of a halfway-done, mixed-use Washington Heights project on a site where developers have been trying to build for more than a decade will come down to a bankruptcy auction.

Bids for the property at 4452 Broadway, located right by the 191st Street subway station on the 1 train, will be due March 13 by 5 p.m., according to marketing ma-

The project is about 50% complete and will include groundfloor commercial space and 65 parking spots in addition to the residential units, according to the marketing materials. It was recently appraised for $56 million.

The buyer will not be required to finish HAP's project, but that option will likely make the most sense given how far along it is, according to Hilco Vice President Jamie Coté.

The buyer will not be required to finish HAP’s project, but that option will likely make the most sense, according to Hilco Vice President Jamie Coté.

terials from Hilco Real Estate, the Illinois-based financial services firm handling the process. HAP Investments, the real estate firm co-founded by Eran Polack, had long been trying to build a 7-story project with 129 apartments on the site, but the firm filed to put the site in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November.

"If they start it over they may need some new kind of approvals," he said. "There's value in the construction that's been done."

Tax break available

The project will span about 134,000 square feet overall and be eligible for the 421-a affordable housing tax break provided construction is finished by June of 2026, according to Hilco.

HAP bought the site in 2013 for $7.3 million, property records show. The company received a $52.5 million mortgage for the project from Madison Realty Capital in 2019 and planned to start construction in April of that year and finish during 2020's third quarter.

The real estate firm, which has offices in Midtown and Tel Aviv, has between one and 49 creditors on the project, including Con Edison, the New York City Transit Authority and the city Department of Buildings, according to its bankruptcy filing. It has about $31.1 million worth of liabilities on the project and lists the property itself as its only asset, with an estimated value of $56.7 million, court documents show.

A representative for HAP did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

HAP has largely focused its New York projects on residential developments in Upper Manhattan and Chelsea. It has multiple projects in Tel Aviv and Budapest as well.

Quadriad Realty had hoped to build a project on the site even before HAP got involved that could have stood up to 28 stories tall and would have required a rezoning, according to former neighborhood news site DNAinfo. HAP itself then tried to increase the size of its project to 16 stories and 241 residential units in 2015, arguing that this would be necessary for the project to make financial sense, but the plan ran into local opposition, DNAinfo reported.

Pressure mounts on Bloomberg HQ owner as mortgage comes due

By Aaron Elstein

The problem at 731 Lexington Ave. isn’t that tenants are leaving. Bloomberg LP leases 98% of the building’s office space through 2029.

The issue lies with its mortgage.

The $500 million loan for 731 Lexington comes due in June, and the building owner has asked for an extension. In recognition of the risk a deal won’t get made, Fitch Ratings lowered its outlook for the mortgage on March 4 to “negative.”

“The outlook reflects the possibility of a downgrade in the event the borrower and servicer are unable to agree upon extension terms,” Fitch said, “resulting in a value decline from a prolonged workout.”

731 Lexington is owned by Alexander’s Inc., a real estate investment trust managed by Vornado Realty Trust. Vornado declined to comment. The interest rate on the building’s floating-rate mortgage has jumped to 6.2% from 1.4% in the last two years, KBRA data show.

Located across the street from Bloomingdale’s at the corner of East 59th Street, 731 Lexington was built on the site of Alexander’s department store by developer Steven Roth, who defeated Donald Trump in an epic 1980s battle for the property. But Roth didn’t redevelop the site until 2001, disap-

pointing even his mother, who told him the vacant six-story building was an eyesore.

“My mother called me and said, ‘There are bums sleeping in the sidewalks of this now closed, decrepit building. They’re urinating in the corners. It’s terrible. You have to fix it.’ And what did I do? Nothing,” Roth recalled in a 2010 speech at Columbia University.

Other leases

“Why did I do nothing? Because I was thinking, in my own awkward way, that the more the building was a blight, the more the governments would want this to be redeveloped; the more help they would give when the time came,” he said. “And they did.”

In 2004, the 1.1 million squarefoot, 57-story tower at 731 Lexington opened its doors. The top floors are residential, and Bloomberg’s global headquarters take up most of the rest. The financial news and data colossus owned by former mayor Michael Bloomberg paid $132 per square foot in 2022 for 900,000 square feet, KBRA data show.

Bloomberg leases a similar amount of space at 919 Third Ave. and a smaller amount at 120 Park Ave. Those leases also expire in 2029.

Bloomberg declined to comment.

Another new residential project is in sight for Gowanus

By Eddie Small

Another new residential development is on its way to Gowanus, more than two years after the neighborhood's rezoning.

Developer Michael Khoo is planning a project at 557 Third Ave., located between 14th and 15th streets in the Brooklyn neighborhood, that will span about 30,000 square feet with 41 residential units, according to a recent filing with the Department of Buildings. The project will stand 6 stories and 70 feet tall and include 21 parking spots as well.

A Sunset Park-based limited li-

ability company bought the site under the name Robert Khoo in September for about $7.4 million, property records show; commercial real estate database CoStar, however, lists the property owner as Huat Khoo. Huat Khoo did not respond to a request for comment on the project by press time. The relationship between Robert and Huat Khoo was not immediately clear.

Influx of projects

The site is currently home to a 2-story industrial building spanning 10,600 square feet, according

to CoStar. Demolition permits for the site have not been filed yet. Gowanus has seen a major influx of projects since the end of 2021, when the city rezoned the

neighborhood, which former Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration estimated would bring roughly 8,000 new housing units to the neighborhood, more than 3,000 of which would be affordable.

An analysis last year from Brooklyn-focused brokerage TerraCRG found that there were 25 projects with about 6,300 overall housing units in the neighborhood's de -

velopment pipeline.

Over the summer Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a pilot replacement program for the 421-a affordable housing tax break that would apply to projects in Gowanus in an attempt to keep the rezoning on track after the original tax break expired. Under the program, the state will effectively purchase privately owned properties before leasing them back to the owners, who would pay the amount of taxes they would have owed under 421-a and resume owning the properties outright after the tax benefit period ends.

731 Lexington Ave. BUcK ENNIS

4452 Broadway. | GOOGLE MaPS

Gowanus residents sue to stop planned migrant shelter

By C. J. Hughes

A planned migrant shelter has come under fire in Brooklyn, rare pushback from a left-leaning enclave in the face of the continuing asylum-seeker crisis.

The rising 400-bed site at 130 Third St. in Gowanus, which is to be operated by Bhrags Home Care in a building owned by Liberty One Group, is the focus of a new lawsuit from some of its Gowanus neighbors.

The suit, filed Feb. 27 in Kings County Supreme Court by the Third Street Block Association, claims the city erred in approving

to open this year.

The decision “should be vacated and set aside as arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law,” says the filing, a kind of suit known as an Article 78 petition, which challenges official decision-making.

Phone messages left with Bhrags and Liberty One were not returned by press time. And the Department of Buildings and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which both have issued permits for the project, had no comment.

Third Street Block Association claims the city erred in approving the shelter in the fall because the former brewery site is polluted and also not zoned for housing.

the shelter in the fall because the former brewery site is polluted and also not zoned for housing. The suit names Bhrags and Liberty One, plus the city agencies that greenlighted the project, which is under construction and supposed

But officials have previously said that the emergency nature of the migrant crisis has allowed it to sidestep some zoning rules to create temporary and much-in-demand housing. More than 180,000 migrants have arrived in New York since spring 2022, and the city currently offers 217 sites to house them.

Amid the surge, the city has frequently turned to Bhrags for help. Indeed, the 700-employee, Brooklyn-based nonprofit, whose executive director is Roberto Samedy, has been the beneficiary of $57 million in municipal contracts since 2022,

according to data from the city comptroller’s office.

The company had revenues of $39.1 million on expenses of $38.2 million in 2021, the most recent year available in public tax records.

Meanwhile, Liberty One, which bought the 74,000-square-foot No. 130 in September for $19.5 million, according to the city register, was a major developer of homeless shelters under Mayor Bill de Blasio before the current crisis.

But the Manhattan-based firm, accused of allowing shabby living conditions at some sites, has attracted controversy. A firm principal, David Levitan, was named to the public advocate’s “worst landlords” list in 2015 for a litany of housing violations at a Bronx building, though Levitan has said he’s cleaned up the problems since then.

Opposition relatively rare

Bowing to public pressure, the city shelved plans to open a 140bed, Levitan-owned shelter located near a school in Morris Park in the Bronx in 2022. Similarly, some SoHo residents have opposed a proposal by Levitan to develop a homeless shelter for men at the site of a Wooster Street parking

garage, a plan that now appears to be paused. Public opposition to migrant shelters has so far been relatively rare. But last summer residents of a neighborhood on conservative-leaning Staten Island protested a plan to shelter migrants in a former Catholic school building. After several court battles, officials abandoned the plan in November. Brooklyn, in contrast, is generally considered more liberal.

The Third Street Block Association, a group that represents the stretch between Smith Street and the canal, has 130 members, ac-

cording to the suit, though six residents are specifically named, including the association’s president, Robert Mesnard. A message left for Christopher Rizzo, the attorney for Mesnard and the other plaintiffs, was not returned by press time.

But association spokeswoman Carolyn Daly suggested it’s not migrants but environmental double standards that are fueling neighbors’ concerns. City officials “are complicit with the complete lack of any testing, let alone remediation, on this site that will house New York’s neediest.”

130 Third St., Gowanus. | GOOGLE STREET VIEW

Resistance mounts to SUNY Downstate closure plan as surrounding hospitals brace for influx of patients

By Amanda D'Ambrosio

Academic leaders and health department chairs at University Hospital at SUNY Downstate are resisting a proposed shutdown of inpatient care, raising questions about whether the hospital’s financial struggles justify the elimination of services.

Several department chairs spoke out against a “transformation” of SUNY Downstate directed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in the executive budget proposal. The plan to restructure the East Flatbush teaching hospital is not yet confirmed — but early conversations indicate that it

time period.

But hospital department chairs say that neither of those reasons justify the plan to gut inpatient services at Downstate. They said that although it’s undeniable that SUNY Downstate has faced financial challenges, the hospital may in fact break even this year, noting that the hospital’s losses are consistent with other local medical facilities.

The chairs added that the hospital’s claim that a new facility would cost between $3 to $4 billion are “questionable.” The recently constructed Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital, the 350-bed facility which was formerly New York City Health + Hospitals/Coney Island, cost $923 million, they said.

“We’re going to do everything possible to stabilize the health care situation in Central Brooklyn.”

Eric Adams, New York City mayor

will shutter the main hospital building and move all inpatient care to surrounding hospitals.

University Hospital leadership said in a statement to the governor and the legislature that was shared with Crain’s on March 6 that SUNY Downstate’s transformation plan is not likely to result in better care for Brooklyn residents nor stable access to medical education — contrary to what the hospital has said. Their statement also disputed several of the reasons why SUNY has said a transformation is necessary.

SUNY Downstate says it has experienced an annual $100 million operating deficit for the last several years. Chancellor John King previously told Crain’s that less than half of the hospital’s 340 beds have been in regular use during that

“We are concerned that the core missions of Downstate — to address health care disparities that disproportionately affect our community in central Brooklyn, and to diversify the health care workforce — threaten to be undermined by this change,” the chairs said.

The concerns from hospital department chairs echo those expressed by city leaders earlier this week. New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters on March 5 that a potential shutdown of SUNY Downstate will have a “major impact,” specifically on surrounding hospitals including New York City Health + Hospitals/Kings County Hospital and Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center.

“We're going to do everything possible to stabilize the health care situation in Central Brooklyn,” said Adams, whose former senate district includes the hospital.

The state is responsible for regulating hospital closures, leaving

little decision-making power to the city. But the consequences of hospital shutdowns fall on city entities including the public hospital system, which is tasked with absorbing patients when hospitals close.

Kings County Hospital, located across the street from SUNY Downstate, will take in a bulk of the patients formerly treated at the hospital if inpatient services shutter. But it's unclear how many patients will shift to Kings County — which is already crowding, H+H CEO Dr. Mitchell Katz said in a budget hearing on March 5.

Kings County, which has 627 beds, is one of the most crowded hospitals in the H+H system, experiencing a patient census above pre-Covid levels, Katz said. Bellevue, which is expected to take in more patients once Mount Sinai Beth Israel closes, has also experienced crowding.

An expansion of Kings County Hospital is necessary to equip the hospital for an influx of patients from Downstate. Katz said that with the “appropriate amount of money” H+H will be able to build a patient ward at Kings County that can accommodate between 50 to 70 patients, as well as expand its emergency department.

Closures not favorable

“We are never in favor of hospital closures,” Katz said. “But I feel like my job is to make sure that none of my hospitals are ever overrun.”

Chris Miller, a spokesman from H+H, said that the health system is continuing to engage with its partners on the potential impacts of the transformation at Downstate. Miller did not respond to a question from Crain’s about the amount of money needed to expand Kings County Hospital.

Kings County will not absorb every patient from Downstate after inpatient services close, according to a source familiar with the situation who requested anonymity as conversations about the plan are ongoing. The average daily census of SUNY Downstate is roughly 150, and it's likely that those patients will be shifted to several surrounding hospitals.

SUNY Downstate has partnerships with hospitals including Maimonides Medical Center that it may leverage as a part of its restructuring. Additionally, the source said that elective procedures may be relocated to hospitals further away from Downstate, but did not provide the names of other hospitals where services may move.

The plan to restructure SUNY Downstate includes a proposed $500 million state investment over the next two years: $300 million to cover construction costs and $200 million for two years of operating losses. It’s expected that a cut of the

capital funding will go to Kings County Hospital to expand its patient capacity.

A spokesperson from SUNY Downstate noted that the hospital already partners extensively with Kings County Hospital, and expects to expand that partnership by increasing the capacity of the emergency department at Kings and building a new space for Downstate staff to provide clinical services on site.

SUNY Downstate launched a community engagement process to collect input from community members and health care workers on its transformation plan. The hospital will report on its findings from that process in midMarch.

Kara Fesolovich, a spokeswoman for the governor, said that under Hochul’s direction, “SUNY will continue to listen to the voices of residents as it finalizes plans to invest in and revitalize Downstate — not close it.”

$20M earmarked in subway outreach for severe mental illness

By Jacqueline Neber

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced March 6 that she has dedicated $20 million to expanding a subway outreach program for New Yorkers with severe mental illness in the city.

nect them to mental health treatment and supportive housing services and involuntarily transport people to the hospital if needed. There are currently two teams on the ground, and the $20 million will bring the total up to 10 by the end of 2025, Hochul said.

“We all know that a very small number of those people who are struggling are having a disproportionate impact on the sense of safety in the system.”

Janno Lieber, chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority

The pilot program, called Subway Co-Response Outreach Teams, pairs clinicians with police to work with people who could pose a danger to themselves or others. The clinicians can diagnose individuals, con-

Janno Lieber, the chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said at a March 6 press conference that the pilot has connected 75 people with treatment since it launched in January of this year. About three-quarters of those 75 voluntarily went into treatment, he said.

Lieber attributed the success of the program to the clinicians having the time and safety to evaluate people because they are backed up by police officers. His comments come months after Lieber

called on the city to address its mental health crisis following a subway attack that left a woman in critical condition. The pilot program, he added, improves his riders’ sense of safety when using the subway.

Sense of safety

“We all know that a very small number of those people who are struggling are having a disproportionate impact on the sense of safety in the system,” he said.

Hochul noted that the outreach teams will work alongside the city’s Safe Options Support teams, which also connect people in the subways and on the streets to mental health care and housing options. But because the subway outreach teams have police support, they will be able to reach severely ill individuals that the SOS program cannot, Hochul said. The SOS initiative, which the governor aims to expand by seven

teams working in Westchester, upstate and on Long Island with a $34 million investment, has helped more than 330 chronically homeless New Yorkers with mental illness move into permanent housing since its launch in 2022.

Beyond the pilot’s expansion, Hochul unveiled four other steps

to improve subway safety on March 6. She plans to pursue legislation that would permit transit bans for people who have assaulted others on the subway and deploy roughly 1,000 New York National Guard, State Police and transit police to check passengers’ bags.

Hochul unveiled a five-point plan on March 6 to make subways safer. | GOVErNOr hOchUL

Academic leaders and medical department chairs expressed their opposition to a govenor-directed proposal that could shutter inpatient services at University Hospital at SUNY Downstate on March 6. | cOUrTESY OF SUNY DOWNSTaTE MEDIcaL cENTEr

Ken Griffin’s development team seeks to buy air rights from landmarked St. Bartholomew’s Church for $78M

By C. J. Hughes

Historic Midtown churches keep giving.

After an earlier transaction with St. Patrick’s Cathedral, billionaire Ken Griffin and the team working to develop one of Midtown’s tallest towers have inked a contract with prewar parish St. Bartholomew’s for a big chunk of air rights.

In a deal struck last spring but revealed March 6, Griffin and partners Vornado Realty Trust and Rudin Management are in contract to purchase up to 250,000 square feet of unused develop-

ties to make sure the nonprofits are not unjustly enriching themselves.

Though the developers have not yet broken ground on 350 Park, which isn’t expected to open until 2032, they have taken several small but concrete steps in recent years toward making it a reality.

In 2022 Griffin agreed to lease the entire 1950s building now at 350 Park from Vornado while at the same time entering into a similar arrangement for 40 E. 52nd St., a Rudin-owned site next door.

Next, in 2023, Vornado and Rudin jointly spent $40 million to purchase an adjacent townhouse at 39 E. 51st St. to expand the footprint of the planned tower, which would be 1.7 million square feet.

The air rights would help pave the way for a 51-story office building for Griffin’s hedge fund, Citadel, planned for 350 Park Ave.

ment rights above low-slung St. Bart’s for $78 million, according to a new court filing.

The air rights would help pave the way for a 51-story office building for Griffin’s hedge fund, Citadel, planned for 350 Park Ave., says the document, which was filed March 6 in Manhattan Supreme Court. Churches must get court approval to sell their proper-

Then last winter the development team agreed to snap up as much as 525,000 square feet of air rights from St. Patrick’s at a cost of $164 million, before signing the current deal with St. Bart’s in May.

To develop the new 350 Park, which is being designed by Foster + Partners, Griffin could buy into a partnership with Vornado and Rudin or instead purchase their combined three-parcel site outright and go it alone. Citadel would occupy about half the new building.

Manhattan’s office market is cur-

rently struggling with a record-high vacancy rate of nearly 20%, though demand could normalize by the time of the tower’s opening.

Deal structure

Like the agreement with St. Patrick’s, the deal with St. Bart’s is structured as an option. After shelling out an initial $2 million at the contract signing, the developers must pay the Episcopal parish at 325 Park Ave. $2 million a year in 2024 and 2025, and $4 million in 2026 for the opportunity to close

on the air rights. The money spent along the way would count toward the total purchase price. But if the developers don’t make a move, the option will expire by 2027.

Air-rights transfers typically happen only between adjacent properties. But under the special terms of the 2017 rezoning of the neighborhood, which officials hoped would revitalize the office district, landmarked sites like St. Bart’s can sell air rights to projects a few blocks away. The rule also requires the Griffin

team to contribute an amount equal to about 20% of the sale price to an infrastructure fund to benefit the rezoned area, a 78-block swath around Grand Central Terminal.

St. Bart’s, a polychromatic fixture of Midtown since 1918, has availed itself of the new zoning before. In 2018 the church sold around 50,000 square feet of air rights for $15.6 million to JPMorgan Chase & Co. to help allow the bank’s new headquarters at 270 Park Ave. to reach its 1,388-foot height. It’s to open next year.

If the Griffin team purchases the maximum amount of air rights from St. Bart’s, the church, which sits at East 50th Street in the shadow of taller towers, will still have more than 200,000 square feet to possibly unload, the filing indicates.

The church, which has added a popular restaurant and wine bar in recent years, plans to spend the proceeds from the Griffin deal to repair its dome-shaped building and also help other historic churches handle pricey renovations, the filing says.

Kara Flannery, the church’s communications director, said church officials were traveling and unavailable for comment. And spokesmen for Vornado, Rudin and Griffin had no comment.

Hochul deploys the National Guard, State Police to subways

By Caroline Spivack

Roughly 1,000 New York National Guard, State Police and transit cops will deploy into the subway system to check bags for weapons, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced March 6.

The surge of law enforcement comes as crime is up 13% year-todate on the subway, and is on top of Mayor Eric Adams beefing up the NYPD’s presence last week with 1,000 additional officers assigned to patrol the system.

NYPD data shows that the uptick of crime is mostly driven by grand larceny, which is property theft

Wednesday news conference. “No one heading to their job or to visit family or go to a doctor appointment should worry that the person sitting next to them possesses a deadly weapon.”

Hochul said the bag checks will act as a “deterrent effect” for people entering the system with weapons and will overall help straphangers feel safer while riding the rails. The state will deploy 750 members of the New York National Guard, along with 250 officers from the State Police and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department.

By law, New Yorkers can refuse bag checks but can be denied entry at a station.

“These brazen heinous attacks on our subway system will not be tolerated.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul

without force, but a series of high-profile incidents have fanned some riders’ fears about safety underground. Those include three fatal shootings so far this year and a train conductor whose neck was slashed on a Brooklyn A train last week.

“These brazen heinous attacks on our subway system will not be tolerated,” Hochul said during a

Major crimes in the subway increased yearover-year in January by 45.4% — 221 incidents were reported, up from 152 — but have since dropped by 17%. Hochul said that’s cold comfort to nervous riders.

“Saying things are getting better doesn't make you feel better, especially when you've just heard about someone being slashed in the throat or thrown onto subway tracks,” Hochul said, referring to a man who was kicked onto train tracks at Penn Station on Sunday. “There's a psychological impact.”

Mayor Eric Adams, who was not at the governor's Wednesday announcement, told reporters at a media briefing Tuesday that he wants law enforcement to be "omnipresence" in the subway.

"When I'm on the subway system and I speak with riders, they say, Eric, nothing makes us feel safer than seeing that officer at the token booth, talking through the system, walking through the train," Adams said. "And that is what we want our officers to do ... That is how you address how people are feeling in our system."

Transit and social justice advocates were quick to express concern

that the bag checks could enable racial profiling. Danny Pearlstein, spokesman for the Riders Alliance, which advocates for subway and bus riders, said checking bags "evokes stop-and-frisk and will undoubtedly target Black and Brown riders" disproportionately.

Criticism of move

“Deploying troops to subway entrances will more likely increase the perception of crime among people who don't ride public transit than protect the millions of riders and workers on platforms and trains each day,” Pearlstein said.

Hochul should instead focus on investing the state’s resources into housing, healthcare and social services “to address the root causes of the widespread problems that exist everywhere but are uniquely visible on New York's subway,” Pearlstein added.

New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman likened the governor's policy approach to “ripping a page straight out of the Giuliani playbook.”

“These heavy-handed approaches will, like stop-and-frisk, be used to accost and profile Black and Brown New Yorkers,” Lieberman said. “Sound policy making will not come from overreacting to incidents that, while horrible and tragic, should not be misrepresented as a crime wave and certainly don’t call for a reversion to failed broken windows policies of the past.”

The deluge of officers in the subway is part of what Hochul describes as a five-point plan to boost safety in the system.

As part of those efforts, Hochul said she will pursue legislation that would permit transit bans for those who assault other passengers, an accelerated installation of security cameras on trains and a $20 million investment to expand a pilot program of subway mental health teams by 2025.

St. Bartholomew’s Church in Midtown COSTAR

The governor said the surge of law enforcement will help riders feel safer on the subway. | BUCK ENNIS

New Whole Foods model looks to an old New York favorite

By Julianne Cuba

Paying homage to a New York City staple, Amazon-owned Whole Foods Market announced March 4 that it’s venturing into the world of bodegas, planning to open what it’s calling a “quick shop” store on the Upper East Side of Manhattan sometime this year.

The new storefronts, which will range in size between 7,000 and 14,000 square feet, will cater to city dwellers looking to pick up a grab-and-go meal or last-minute

velopment at Whole Foods Market, said in a statement.

“Expanding our footprint with Whole Foods Market Daily Shop is key to our growth, fostering deeper customer connections.”

Christina Minardi, executive vice president of growth and development at Whole Foods Market, in a statement

dinner ingredient in a pinch. They’ll also offer seasonal produce, meat and seafood.

“Expanding our footprint with Whole Foods Market Daily Shop is key to our growth, fostering deeper customer connections,” Christina Minardi, the executive vice president of growth and de-

The inaugural Daily Shop location will open in roughly 9,000 square feet of space at the Regency Centers-owned 1175 Third Ave., between East 68th and East 69th streets, where the rent for retail space is an estimated $116-to$142 per square foot, according to CoStar. The building was formerly a Food Emporium. Minardi said that Whole Foods has already signed four additional leases to open daily shops all within New York City, but declined to specify exactly where. There are currently 17 Whole Foods Markets in the Big Apple, the latest of which opened at 1 Wall Street last year.  It’s not Whole Foods’ first go at a smaller venture. In 2019 the Amazon subsidiary tested a bodegalike shop in Chelsea with self-checkout kiosks to get shoppers in and out more quickly than if they strolled the aisles of the larger, full-service supermarket next door. But that location, at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 25th Street, didn’t last long — Whole Foods said that although the store saw a positive customer response, it was forced to close

during the pandemic in order to repurpose much-needed space for online orders.

Another try

Now, five years later, Whole Foods is giving it another try. But the head of the United Bodegas of America union is not exactly confident that the Austin-headquar-

tered supermarket chain will find success this time around.

“I’m surprised they are coming back a second time. We were highly critical of what they were doing back then and highly critical of what they’re doing now,” said union President Fernando Mateo.

But Mateo also said he’s not worried about the new corpo-

rate-like, mini markets encroaching on his turf.

“We’re not concerned that they’re gonna go into the communities that we serve because our communities are people-friendly. A bodega is more than just a place where you buy food and eggs,” he said. “It’s a place where you gather to speak about the community.”

A Whole Foods Market Daily Shop will range between 7,000 to 14,000 square feet. The first one is planned to open on the Upper East Side this fall. | WhOLE FOODS MarKET

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WOMEN’S

From Page 1

pharmacists — a necessary workforce to build a successful digital health firm.

“When you are selling to the medical profession, it’s necessary to have doctors on your team,” said Maria Gotsch, president and CEO of the Partnership Fund for New York City, the investment arm of the Partnership for New York City.

“There is a rich, critical mass in New York City — kind of unparalleled in the country in terms of scale and quality.”

“We’re finally building up and getting some early critical mass in life sciences that we just never had traditionally,” Gotsch said. Life science gains have supported growth in digital health, especially as more companies blend artificial intelligence technology with drug development efforts, she said.

New York is home to a number of late- and early-stage women’s health startups. Kindbody, a techbased fertility network headquartered in Flatiron, raised $100 million in a late-stage funding round led by the life sciences investment firm Perceptive Advisors last March. Pomelo Care, which provides maternal and newborn care, launched out of stealth with $33 million last June. Evvy, a company that offers vaginal microbiome testing, raised $14 million in a Series A funding round last September.

Experts say the burgeoning women’s digital health sector in New York is not only due to a rich network of investors, but also the massive health care infrastructure.

Gotsch added that the city’s overall digital health sector is well-established, but has been complemented by the growing life science industry. In 2022, New York state raised $3.4 billion in research funding from the National Institutes of Health, surpassing Massachusetts for the first time. That funding bump, Gotsch said, is a positive sign for both life sciences and digital health.

Gotsch added that success among women’s digital health companies bodes well for the future of health tech in New York City. Mature companies nearing an exit are likely planning to invest in expansions of both their products and their workforce, both of which are good for New York, she said. Once these companies go public or get acquired, employees may leave to start their own ventures — fueling long-term growth in women’s health.

TAXI

From Page 1

told Crain’s. “We would like to see legislation so that the TLC can never just lift the cap like this, where they have to come up with a process to ensure that we will not return to oversaturation.”

Drivers’ gross earnings have hovered between $1,000 and $1,300 per week, between February 2023 and January 2024, the TLC report said.

In October, taxi officials began accepting an unrestricted number of new license plates for electric vehicles. The new permits were intended to support the city’s Green Rides Initiative, which requires New York’s fleet of roughly 81,000 Uber and Lyft vehicles to convert to zero-emission or wheelchair-accessible rides by 2030.

The policy shift, however, reversed part of a cap on for-hire vehicle licenses first enacted in 2018 to prevent market oversaturation and gridlock. Driver advocates with the New York City Taxi Workers Alliance filed a lawsuit seeking to keep the cap in place, and in November, a judge temporarily blocked the TLC from accepting new applications that remains in place.

Desai said the TWA’s attorneys plan to submit a response in court based on the TLC report. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Mach-

elle Sweeting said in February that she intended to wait for the TLC to issue the annual report on the forhire vehicle market before making a ruling.

City taxi officials blame the TWA lawsuit for bringing about “a much more rapid expansion of EVs in the FHV fleet than TLC had anticipated when conducting its license review.” A crush of drivers applied for the electric vehicle plates in the grace period ahead of the court-ordered pause.

New licenses rise

Between February 2023 to February 2024, the TLC report says, the number of licensed forhire vehicles rose from 95,396 to 107,636. The new total includes 12,564 new licenses issued in the past year, of which more than 7,800 are new electric vehicle-only licenses. TLC acknowledged in the report that the growth “far outpaces” recent years, but that the city’s number of for-hire vehicles is still lower than the 120,000 licensed when TLC extended the cap on plates in 2019.

The agency still has hundreds more applications left to process. Drivers still interested in obtaining a license for a for-hire vehicle may continue to apply for permits restricted to wheelchair-accessible rides.

In a statement, TLC Commis-

sioner David Do praised the city’s boom of green for-hire vehicles.

“In less than five months, we now have the largest zero-emissions rideshare fleet in the nation,” Do told Crain’s. “We’re two years ahead of schedule on the Green Rides Initiative, and in January, for the first time New York City rideshare drivers completed more than a million zero-emission rideshare trips in a single month.”

Do added that the “private and public sectors are eagerly responding to the call for more charging infrastructure.” Among those companies is Revel. Company spokesman Bobby Familiar said, in recent months, their charging infrastructure has seen a spike in use.

“Since the Green Rides Initiative went into effect in October, we’ve seen public use at our three fast charging stations increase tenfold,” Familiar told Crain’s. He added that in February, Revel has provided an average of 396 daily public charging sessions across its sites with a peak of 495 on Feb. 17.

“There’s no question the new EV-only licenses led to this immediate uptick in charging demand,” Familiar added. “The Green Rides Initiative has made our charging network expansion essential to help thousands more rideshare drivers access emission-eliminating EVs.”

How Amy Sohn went from writing a ‘notorious’ column to city press aide

The Brooklyn writer spent decades chronicling romance and motherhood, then went to work for

Eric Adams

By | Nick Garber

These days, when reporters with questions about climate policy send an inquiry to City Hall, they’re likely to get a response from Amy Sohn, a 50-year-old Brooklynite who serves as press secretary for the Mayor’s O ce of Climate and Environmental Justice.

at might seem unremarkable were it not for the fact that Sohn is better known to most New Yorkers as a journalist, a screenwriter, the author of ve novels — including the buzzed-about 2009 satire “Prospect Park West” — and, before that, the writer of an autobiographical late-’90s newspaper column in the alternative New York Press in which she chronicled her own romantic exploits with wit and unsparing detail.

Sohn’s City Hall turn would have been hard to predict for any reader of her 1990s column, which “quickly became incredibly notorious” among a certain 20-something downtown cohort, she recalls.

“You know that expression, ‘ ere are no second acts in American lives?’ Totally not true,” Sohn said.

Raised in middle-income housing in Brooklyn Heights, Sohn was an aspiring theater actress fresh out of undergrad when she landed her famous column, “Female Trouble.” Each week from 1996 to 1999, she described clumsy irtations and unfortunate encounters that began in East Village bars,

most of which have long since closed.

Sohn remembers the period for the wave of hate mail she got from men who “projected whatever was going on in their own life on this single woman writing openly and honestly about her experiences.” She followed it up with successor columns in the New York Post and New York Magazine, and spun her writing into a novel and a TV show on Oxygen in which she starred.

Her early work was always more complicated than the raunchy, sexual confessional to which it’s sometimes been reduced. Sohn remains proud of how she documented a low-cost, easy form of socializing that has since become less feasible in New York — as well as her own deep frustrations trying to date in that world.

Freelance journalist

“What I was trying to get at was what it was like to be a young woman guring out how to navigate the world and facing a lot of really callous sel shness in men my own age,” she said. “ ere was a lot of anger, but I presented the anger as comedy, which was the only way I knew how to do it.”

After her columnist days wound down, Sohn spent the next couple of decades working in freelance journalism, and made waves in Park Slope by releasing two novels

that satirized the buttoned-up parent culture of which she was herself a member. By the 2010s, however, that creative work became less economically feasible — and Sohn began feeling trapped in the Brooklyn writers’ space where she spent her days.

Around that time, a fellow Park Slope mom — Sue Donoghue, now the city’s Parks Commissioner — told Sohn about a public-policy master’s degree she had completed. e notion of going to work in the public sector felt right to Sohn, who graduated from a Baruch College public policy program in 2022.

Soon after she wrapped up her studies, a writing-world acquaintance referred her to the mayor’s o ce job. Sohn was hired and began that September.

Sohn said her “journalistic curiosity” came in handy during her rst few 4s in City Hall, which she spent soaking up all the knowledge she could about decarbonization and energy policy.

If her early writings documented a New York City that no longer exists, her current work focuses on the city as it may exist in the future — one endangered by high waters and extreme heat. Much of her time is spent planning for this year’s release of New York’s rstof-its-kind environmental justice report, delving into the sprawling climate blueprint PlaNYC unveiled last spring, and getting

Amy Sohn

Age: 50

Grew up: Brooklyn Heights Resides: Brooklyn Heights. Sohn recently returned after a sojourn in Park Slope that inspired two of her novels.

Education: Bachelor’s in public policy, Brown University; master of public administration, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College

Two wheels: Sohn relishes her quick bike commute across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall, which she does as often as she can. Broadway baby: Before all her other adventures, Sohn was a child actress, performing in a handful of Off-Broadway plays and joining the Actors’ Equity union at age 12.

ready for the groundbreaking of a Battery Park City ood-prevention project.

After decades of writing in the rst person, it’s been a challenge to write press releases in which Sohn is only allowed to take on the voice of the city itself.

But the biggest change, she said, has been adapting to o ce culture — “literally hanging out at the water cooler and commuting” — after avoiding that lifestyle for her rst 30 years of adult life.

“I love all of it,” she said, “because I never got to do that.”

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Amy Sohn, a writer who’s now the press secretary for the Mayor’s Of ce of Climate and Environmental Justice, at The Odeon, the Tribeca bar known for its literary clientele. |