crain’s - nxtbook media

TRENDING DOWN:Paid sick days will add$80,000 to StephenWerther’s annual costsat Wink fashionboutiques.

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Not just paid sick days. Rash of regs jacks up costs, stifles growth

Verizon topull 1,100downtownworkers

BY CHRIS BRAGG

Verizon plans to permanently relocateabout 1,100 workers from its down-town corporate headquarters toBrooklyn by the end of this summer, amove the company says was spurred inpart by the threat of rising water inlow-lying lower Manhattan.

“Our 140 West St. building is in aflood zone,” Verizon managementwrote to employees in an early Febru-ary memo. “Our goal is to give you astate-of-the-art facility and avoid hav-ing to, again, send you to a temporarywork location if and when severeflooding occurs.”

Twice in the past two years—after

BY MATT CHABAN

For six decades, a luxury-car show-room with a distinctive swoopingramp stood at the corner of ParkAvenue and East 56th Street. De-signed by Frank Lloyd Wright, it wasthe first of only three New York proj-ects by the modernist master.

In six days late last month, the deal-ership was destroyed.

“The loss of a Frank Lloyd Wright,it’s a national tragedy,” said SimeonBankoff, director of the Historic Dis-tricts Council. Like so many in New

See VERIZON on 9

Two floods in two yearsforce Brooklyn move, but telecom’s HQremains in Manhattan

See WRIGHT on Page 20

Landmarkcall speedsdemolitionFrank Lloyd Wrightshowroom quicklyrazed after notice

CRAIN’SNEW YORK BUSINESS

Feeling the squeeze

®

APRIL 15-21, 2013 PRICE: $3.00

MOTORCYCLE

MADNESS

hits Brooklyn ashipsters hit theroad PAGE 21

REPORT SMALL BUSINESSStartups compete over biz-plan pitches;other entrepreneurs tap tax breaks P. 13THE LIST Largest events/trade shows P. 15

REPORT SMALL BUSINESS

67%DECLINE INPROFIT in 2012at MichaelSinensky’s sixbars inManhattan

“Unfortunately, small business-es don’t have much political clout,”Mr. Werther said.

Business owners like Mr.Werther are feeling betrayed thesedays.Despite lip service from may-oral candidates and other politi-cians about small business beingthe city’s—and the country’s—

Speaker Christine Quinn andlabor leaders had hammered out adeal that would require thousandsof small businesses to offer work-ers five paid days off a year.For Mr.Werther, that means an additional$80,000 after he’d already budg-eted an extra $140,000 to complywith the new federal health insur-ance mandate.

BY ALI ELKIN

Stephen Werther woke up March29 to discover the cost of doingbusiness in New York had risenagain. Next year, the owner ofWink fashion boutiques will shellout around $220,000 before hesells a single sundress.

The night before, City Council See SQUEEZED on Page 16

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2 | Crain’s New York Business | April 15, 2013

NO CREDIT CHECKS. The City Coun-til is trying to bar employers from us-ing credit checks during the hiringprocess. The move follows the city’sadoption of two other far-reachinglaws: one that bans discriminationagainst the unemployed and anotherthat requires paid sick leave. ...MEDIACOMPANIES’ DATA PROBED.Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters andNews Corp.’s Dow Jones & Co. areamong those being investigated onhow they transmit government datato investors. The insider-tradingprobe by the FBI and SEC focuseson how private economic data are re-leased. … CORRUPTION CRACKDOWN.After a slew of corruption cases in-volving state and citylawmakers, Gov. An-drew Cuomo pro-posed new laws tohelp prosecutors goafter public officials.The measures wouldincrease penalties forbribery and fraud , re-form the state’s cam-paign finance system,and make it a misde-meanor for any pub-lic employee to fail toreport bribery. … DIVERSITY DATA GOPUBLIC. AIG, Bank of New YorkMellon and U.S.Bancorp are the lat-est financial firms to give in to pres-sure from mayoral candidate andCity Comptroller John Liu to releaseworkforce-diversity data. GoldmanSachs and MetLife did the same a

year ago. While companies are re-quired to tell the government whatpercentage of their workforce arewomen and minorities, few make theinformation public. Mr. Liu, whooversees more than $127 billion ofpension funds, has been proddingcompanies that the city invests in. …BIKE TOUR CAN RIDE. A judge ruledthat TD Five Boro Bike Tour’s or-ganizer, the nonprofit Bike NewYork, does not need to pay the citynearly $1 million for police andtraffic-control services for the 40-mile tour.The city will likely appeal.… CASH FOR FOURSQUARE.The loca-tion-based social-media app got $41million from private-equity fund Sil-

ver Lake Partnersand four venture-capital firms.Foursquare report-edly had been run-ning low on cash af-ter revenues totaledonly $2 million in2012. … SPIDEYBATTLE ENDS. Thedispute between pro-ducers and formerdirector Julie Taymorof Spider-Man: Turn

Off the Dark is over after the sidesagreed on profits, copyright claimsand artistic credit for the $75 millionmusical. Ms. Taymor, who filed suitin 2011 after getting fired by the pro-ducers, is expected to get millions ifthe show prospers. … AÉROPOSTALESCANDAL. Ex-merchandising chief

Christopher Finazzo was chargedwith conspiring with Long Island-based T-shirt vendor South Bay Ap-parel to get higher prices on graphicT-shirts. He allegedly received $25million from South Bay for directingmore than $350 million in businessits way. … NETS LOSE NO. 1 FAN.Jay-Z is selling his stake, reportedlyworth roughly $350,000, so he canbe a sports agent. … MET LANDSMORE CUBISM. Cosmetics tycoonLeonard Lauder donated $1 billionin cubist paintings to The Metro-politan Museum of Art.

—amanda fung

vol.xxix,no.15,april 15,2013—Crain’s New York Business (issn 8756-789x) is published week-ly, except for double issues the weeks of July Fourth, Labor Day and Christmas, by CrainCommunications Inc., 711 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at NewYork, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Crain’s NewYork Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, MI 48207-2912.for subscriber service: Call (877) 824-9379. Fax (313) 446-6777. $3.00 a copy, $99.95 oneyear, $179.95 two years. (GST No. 13676-0444-RT)©Entire contents copyright 2013 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

Weiner would be a player,if he decides to play

In an interview with The New York TimesMagazine last week, disgraced ex-Rep.Anthony Weiner (right) described the effects

his “sexting” scandal had on his marriage andcareer, and revealed, for the first time, his interestin throwing his hat in the mayor’s race.

How would a Weiner candidacy change the current dynamics? With universal namerecognition thanks to both his scandal and his media-grabbing reputation, and $4.3 million leftover from an aborted run for mayor in 2009, Mr. Weiner would instantly catapult to the top tier ofcandidates if he chooses to run.

But political experts are split on whether he should, and if he does, whether he has any chanceof winning. Each of the four major Democratic candidates dismissed Mr. Weiner’s possiblecandidacy with a polite wave, while their operatives offered spin on how his entrance would hurteveryone’s chances but their own.

Meanwhile, his marriage to Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin appears as strong as ever, andaccording to The Wall Street Journal, he’s been earning more than he did while in Congress byhelping “a variety of businesses” navigate the legislative process. Under city campaign financerules, Mr. Weiner has until June 10 to declare. —andrew j. hawkins

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‘New York is agiant machine,and food is the

fuel’ —Max Crespo, founder of

pizza truck NeapolitanExpress, in opposition to anew city law that wouldlimit where food trucks

can park

STORIES TO WATCH THIS WEEKApril 15:Citigroup reportsfirst-quarter 2013earnings.

April 17: The Tribeca Film Festivalbegins.

April 18: SeaGlass,a new aquatic-themed carousel atthe Battery, to topoff to fanfare.

April 18: CityCouncil committeemeeting on makingnew taxicabs acces-sible to the disabled

MANAGING EDITOR’S NOTE

MotorbizcyclesThree years ago, I had just beenlaid off and my marriage wasending when I test-drove amotorcycle in Williamsburg.“Youknow, people will think you’rehaving a midlife crisis,” a friend ofmine said. At 35, I felt a littleyoung for a crisis. “I’ll only buy thebike if I feel safer riding it than I doa bicycle,” I assured him.The

Kawasaki KZ440 felt safer than a bicycle because ona motorcycle, I rode with traffic, not alongside it.Themotorbike cost $1,000 and immediately sucked mein. I was not the only one. As Cara Eisenpress reportson 1, motorcycle registrations in New Yorkhave soared, and creative tinkerers have risen up tocater to the growing number of riders. Typical,really: Entrepreneurs follow their passion, preferringa calling to a career.They take it as far as they want to,and usually complain only when the road getspotholed by government micromanaging (see AliElkin’s Page 1 story for more on that). I’ve metriders—and with a 30-year-old motorcycle,mechanics—of all types, been invited to join aChristian motorcycle gang (though I’m Jewish) andonce had a burly Harley-Davidson owner help meget my bike out of hock. I thanked him for helpingout a stranger. “No problem,” he said. “You’ve got twowheels and an engine.That’s all I needed to know.”

Jeremy Smerd

HOORAY!THE LONG-DELAYED CitiBike shareprogram is scheduled to debut in Maywith 300 stations in Brooklyn andManhattan.

IN THE BOROUGHS-------------------------- 3IN THE MARKETS----------------------------------4THE INSIDER -----------------------------------------------6CORPORATE LADDER --------------------8OPINION --------------------------------------------------------10STEVE HINDY------------------------------------------11GREG DAVID--------------------------------------------11REAL ESTATE DEALS-------------------12REPORT:

SMALL BUSINESS---------------------13THE LIST---------------------------------------------------------15CLASSIFIEDS -----------------------------------------16NEW YORK, NEW YORK----------21SOURCE LUNCH--------------------------------22OUT AND ABOUT ------------------------------23

THIS WEEK IN CRAIN’S

BUSINESS PEOPLECurator John Flynn foundtime between expeditions toput together the AmericanMuseum of Natural History’snew exhibit on whales. P. 7

CORRECTIONS

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. invited media to cover the arraignment of19 employees of Chinatown’s Abacus Federal Savings Bank. The bank’s employeeswere chained together at the discretion of court officers. Those facts were misstated inthe April 8 “Big trouble, little Chinatown bank.” Also, Chief Assistant District AttorneyDaniel Alonso’s name was misspelled.

In Interpublic Group of Cos.’ new lease at 1400 Broadway, the landlord, W&HProperties, was represented by Scott Klau and Erik Harris of Newmark Grubb KnightFrank. The term of the lease was 11 years. The landlord’s name and brokers, as well asthe term of the lease, were misstated in the April 8 Bare Bones.

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OY VEY!A MAN DRESSEDas the belovedSesame Streetcharacter CookieMonster in TimesSquare wascharged withpushing and cursingat a 2-year-old withwhom he posed for a photo over a $2 tip.

The next Billyburg?Low rents lure ownersto hip Mott Haven

BY ANNIE KARNI

The 30-seat dining room at Ceetay,an Asian fusion restaurant thatopened last month on BrucknerBoulevard in the Mott Haven sec-tion of the Bronx, could easily passmuster in a trendy neighborhoodlike Williamsburg. Mason jars dou-ble as light fixtures, and the menu isfilled with oddities like “maple andeggplant beef.”

Across the street, three entrepre-neurs have just signed a lease to opena coffee shop that will double as atapas bar at night. One block away,first-time restaurateurs MichaelBrady and Charles Said are cele-brating the first anniversary of theirrestaurant and bar, the Clock. Fromthere, patrons have a clear view ofthe “Grand Opening” sign thathangs in the window of the newprint shop across the street.

Welcome to a slice of the bor-ough that ranks as the city’s fastest-growing breeding ground for newbusinesses.Between 1991 and 2011,the Bronx saw a quadrupling in thenumber of new business incorpora-tions to 4,690, according to a study

Bronxcheers forbiz growth

IN THE BOROUGHSBRONX

BY DANIEL GEIGER

Billionaire landlord Peter Brant hada simple message for Prada when itcame time for the high-end Italianretailer to renew the lease for its styl-ish SoHo flagship recently: Pay up.

To stay in its Rem Koolhaas-designed store on the corner ofBroadway and Spring Street, Pradadid so in spectacular fashion.In Feb-ruary,it agreed to shell out more than$1,000 per square foot for its 10,000-square-foot space, the first four-dig-it rent for a retail store ever recordedsouth of midtown,and proof positiveof SoHo’s emergence as a global des-

tination.“Tenants want an

alternative to the up-town market,” saidJoseph Sitt,who ownsproperties in mid-town as well as SoHo.“There is no goodbrand that comes toNew York City fromanywhere in the worldthat now thinks theycan be in only one orthe other.”

With its shopper-clogged sidewalks andgrowing reputation asone of the city’s capi-tals of cool, SoHo is taking its placealongside Fifth Avenue, MadisonAvenue and Times Square as a must-have location for retailers. Last year,Tiffany & Co., famed for its FifthAvenue flagship, opened a 7,000-square-foot location at 97 Greene St.,

between Prince andSpring streets.

In the comingweeks, Balenciagaplans to follow suit,opening a shop a blockaway at 148 Mercer St.Other luxury brandsthat have settled inSoHo in recent monthsinclude Stella Mc-Cartney, Versace andYves Saint Laurent.

“For a long time,there were brandsthere because it waship and it was sexy, butthey weren’t necessari-

ly making a lot of money,” saidMichael Glanzberg, a retail brokerwith Sinvin Real Estate, which spe-cializes in the SoHo market. “Nowthere are a lot more shoppers whocome and really spend,not just a few

See SOHO on Page 20

SoHo joins the top tier asretail rents cross $1K mark

April 15, 2013 | Crain’s New York Business | 3

Who needsmidtown? Shopsshell out for squarefootage in chic nabe

‘Tenantswant analternativeto uptown’

See BUSINESSES on Page 9

BY AARON ELSTEIN

As a crowd waited outside St. Francis College on awindy Brooklyn night before a Democraticmayoral debate, one of the candidates, John Liu,seized the chance to do some classic retailcampaigning. He shook hands with the chilly folks

in line, chatted with a protester in a RichardNixon mask and pounced when five middle-

school-age students shyly asked to meetthe city comptroller.

“What’s your favorite topic?”Mr. Liu asked

the kids.“Biology! Did you

know if you crackopen an egg, you’ll see a

little squiggly white thing againstthe yolk? That’s the nucleus.The next

time you make scrambled eggs, look forthat before you start scrambling.”

“Are these your students?” he asked a woman watchingthem. “They’re brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant microbiologists.”

“Did they tell you about the whale?” the teacher asked.“Marine biologists!” he gushed.A whale is very much on Mr. Liu’s mind nowadays, but

not the kind the teacher was thinking about.In his role as a trustee of the New York City employee

pension system, he’s helping lead a campaign to persuadeJPMorgan Chase to strip Chief Executive Jamie Dimon ofhis role as chairman after the bank

STATS AND THE CITYBROOKLYN HEALTH CARE: The city’s most populous borough faces criticalhealth challenges, according to a new community-needs assessment.

24.8%PORTION OF RESPONDENTS reporting high blood pressure orhypertension. Brownsville/E. Flatbush led with rate of 39.6%

50%RESPONDENTS who had visited an emergencyroom within the past two years

1MBROOKLYNRESIDENTS covered by public insurance, or 40% of the borough’s population

19.9%RESPONDENTS who have asthma. Greenpoint andBrownsville/E. Flatbush each had rates of 30%+

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ADDICTED TO NUMBERS? GET A DAILY DOSE AT @STATSANDTHECITY

3BROOKLYN HOSPITALSthat have gone bankruptsince 2005. Interfaith,the latest, had debts of $341M

1.3%INVESTMENTRETURN on cityemployees’ $43Bpension fund forfiscal year endedJune 30, 2012

See COMPTROLLER on Page 19

Sources: “The Need for Caring in North and Central Brooklyn,” BrooklynPerinatal Network; publicbankruptcy filings

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John Liu cuts to the ChaseThe city comptroller takes onJamie Dimon despite—or

because of—his own troubles


Russia is coming,Russia is coming

IN THEMARKETS

“The Russian government istaking steps to modernize andchange regulations after a decade oftalking about it,” Alexey Yakovitsky,CEO of VTB Capital, an investmentbank that sponsored the meet-and-greet at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel,assured the audience.

A few hardy souls are defyingthe exodus and investing in the oil-and mineral-rich nation. U.S. in-vestors bought $49 billion worth ofRussian debt last year, more thandouble the previous year’s total,Andrey Solovyev, VTB’s global headof debt capital markets, said in aninterview with Crain’s. Russianbonds offer higher yields thanmany other kinds of emerging-market debt, which of course re-flects the risk of putting money in acountry where investors fear thegovernment could change the rulesof the road at any time.

Still, a stream of officials fromRussia’s central bank, FinanceMinistry and stock exchange didtheir best to make the case they are

becoming more welcoming to out-side investors.

One particularly helpful reformthat may be coming down the pikeis a change in the law that says it’sillegal for managers of Russianpension money to post losses in anygiven year. If they do lose money,the fund managers have to dip intotheir own pockets to make up thedifference, even if that means sell-ing their houses or other personalpossessions.

Of course, no pension fundmanager in his or her right mindwould risk investing in stocks whenthe stakes are so high, and Russiangovernment officials said they rec-ognize the situation is hinderingdevelopment of the nation’s equitymarket.

Deputy Finance Minister AlexeyMoiseev said fund managers maysoon be given five years to recouplosses before they have to pay up.

“Before making things perfect,”one attendee told the dignitaries,“could you make them better?” �

74%THE DECLINE in the value of bitcoins asof midday Friday. The virtual currencypeaked at $266 a coin last Wednesday,

a day before the Winklevoss brothers, early investors inFacebook, revealed a large position. After that news, the world’sleading bitcoin exchange halted trading for 12 hours to settledown the frenzied market, but speculators still fled for the exits.

Family-owned supermarketsdig in as Fairway preps IPO

BY LISA FICKENSCHER

As Fairway Market readies its initialpublic offering, which is expectedthis week, competitors are watchingclosely to see how much money the12-store chain will raise, part ofwhich will be used for its expansionplans.

But at least some grocers—thescrappy, family-owned businessesthat have survived for several gener-ations (and are similar to Fairway inthat way)—are confident that theirstores will weather yet another foodbehemoth’s ambitions.

There are about a half-dozen ofthese grocers left in the city, includ-ing Morton Williams, WestsideMarket and D’Agostino.They haveoutlasted the invasion of GrandUnion, Pantry Pride and Food Fare,which are either defunct or nolonger operate in the city, and theyhave withstood the onslaught overthe past decade of high-end gour-met supermarkets Trader Joe’s,Whole Foods and Fairway.

“They are the top families in thecity and they are doing well, beatingback these Goliaths,” said MitchellKlein, vice president of Krasdale, aBronx-based wholesale grocer.

While they are not impervious totheir competitors,the families say thekey to their longevity is their hands-on approach to every aspect of theirbusiness, their nimbleness to react toshifting market conditions—and,quite simply, hard work.

“I work six days a week, and I’m 73 years old,” said MortonSloan, co-owner with other familymembers of the 11 MortonWilliams stores. The business’sroots date back to the 1950s, whenMr. Sloan’s father and uncle ownedseveral Associated supermarkets.Mr. Sloan cut ties with the inde-pendent chain nearly 10 years ago,when he developed the MortonWilliams brand.

The competition, he added, “haspecked at us. It’s annoying and hashad its effect, but all of our stores areoperating profitably.”

In fact, the chain is opening its12th location next year, is negotiat-ing a lease for a 13th, and last yearopened its most ambitious store, onWest 57th Street, where it countsamong its neighbors the RussianTea Room and Carnegie Hall.

The industry as a whole faces significant challenges. Drugstorechains regularly outbid supermar-kets for large spaces—about 10,000square feet—and carry more andmore grocery items.Meanwhile, thesuperstores continue to proliferate.About six years ago, MortonWilliams sold a store at West 26thStreet and Eighth Avenue when theowners learned that Whole Foodswould be moving in a block awayand that Costco had purchased anentire block nearby. “High rentshave created an impediment to ourgrowth,” said Mr. Williams, addingthat all of his leases have at least 10years to run.

Westside Market, established in1965 and owned by the Zoitas fam-ily, is also looking at new locations.There are four stores on the WestSide of Manhattan and one in NewJersey. Chief Executive GeorgeZoitas, 30, is eyeing the East Side.“My goal is to have a presence allover Manhattan,” he said.

Grocers boostamenities to take onnew upscale rivals

by Aaron Elstein

Back in 2007, the government of Russia declared itsgoal was to make Moscow into an internationalcenter of finance.That plan got stalled by the global

market crash a year later. Another reason it didn’t get out ofthe gate is that wealthy Russians have yanked at least $120billion out of the country over the past two years and parkedit in places like Switzerland, the U.K. or Cyprus.

Amid that backdrop, it was interesting to see an entourageof Russian finance officials, bankers and corporate leadersdescend upon New York last week and try to persuade acrowd of Wall Street pros to invest in their country.

See FAMILY on Page 20

GOING PUBLIC: Fairway is expanding rapidly. al

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N O F E E F O R E L E CT R O N I C D E P O S I TS

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Exclusively for Businesses with combined deposits balances of $100,000 or more.

During Mr.Bloomberg’s dozenyears in office, the billionaire exec-utive has preferred to advance hisagenda through his agencies ratherthan get the blessing of a some-times prickly legislature.The may-or’s detractors, however, attributethe different tack on the new meas-ures to his recent setbacks in court,and say that his most lasting ac-complishments, like the smokingban, have come by passing bills.

“It’s pretty clear that you reallyshould go through the City Coun-cil in basically all these situations,”said Robert Bookman, an attorneywell known for representing smallbusinesses before city agencies.

In early March, a state-courtjudge upended Mr. Bloomberg’sattempt to restrict the size of sug-ary drinks, ruling that doing sowithout council approval would“eviscerate” the idea of separationof powers between branches of citygovernment. The administrationhas appealed the decision.

The plastic-foam and tobaccobans could well face lawsuits if theypass, but observers say Mr.Bloomberg’s track record showsthat council-approved proposalshold up better in court than thosedone unilaterally—a notion thatthe administration disputes.

A 2002 ban on smoking inrestaurants and bars went throughthe council and survived in court.By contrast, the soda ban and alivery-cab street-hail measure werestymied by judges. Mr. Bloomberghad pushed his livery-cab billthrough the state Legislature afterresistance to it surfaced in thecouncil. A judge ruled it was a citymatter requiring council sign-off.

“Anybody who finds a lack ofsuccess in their initiatives by goingaround the City Council is going tobe more likely to go to the council

in the future,” said Michael Woloz, aspokesman for the MetropolitanTaxi Cab Board of Trade, whichfought the livery-cab bill in court.

A spokesman for Mr.Bloomberg dismissed as “quitefaulty” the idea that laws sanc-tioned by the council fared better.Rules requiring restaurants to postcalorie counts and letter grades andto avoid using trans fats were put inplace administratively.

“All these measures had heavyopposition from industry,” thespokesman said. “If they thoughtthey could block it in court, theywould have tried. In fact, not beingsued shows they did not think theyhad even the slightest legal groundto stand on.”

The restaurant industry did sueover calorie counts, forcing a slightchange in the requirement.

Council approval does notmake policy changes bulletproof.Some legislation it passed, includ-ing a 2004 equal-rights law, hasbeen overturned, the Bloombergspokesman noted.

In January, a federal judge up-held a Bloomberg regulation is-sued through the Department ofHealth requiring parental consentbefore a mohel can orally drawaway blood from an infant duringcircumcision—an Orthodox Jew-ish tradition that risks infectionfor the infant. In court, oppo-nents of the regulation arguedthat it violated their FirstAmendment right to expresstheir religious beliefs.

Now, in the wake of the rulingoverturning Mr. Bloomberg’s sodarestriction, opponents of the cir-cumcision regulation are preparingan appeal with a different argu-ment: that the mayor is overstep-ping his authority by not taking themeasure through the council. �


Crain’s Insider, our award-winning politics newsletter, is now a blog. Read it every day at www.crainsnewyork.com/insider

Book marketing’s next chapter

BY MATTHEW FLAMM

Book publishing has been famouslyslow to embrace technology,but someindustry executives are hoping it’snever too late to change. Taking apage from the tech community,an in-dependent publisher and a top talentagency will announce Monday thatthey have joined forces to host thefirst-ever publishing “hackathon.”

The aim will be to inspire pro-grammers, designers and entrepre-neurs to develop an app, widget orwebsite that solves the riddle of howto expose potential book buyers totitles they didn’t know they wanted.The issue has become a critical onefor publishers as they face the de-cline of brick-and-mortar book-stores, whose displays have longbeen the single most important wayto discover a book.

Popularity contestThe 36-hour Publishing Hacka-

thon—launching May 18 at co-working space The Alley NYC—willalso borrow from American Idol. Ateam of judges will choose three tofive finalists for a presentation later in

the month at BookExpo at the JavitsCenter, where the panel will includeJennifer Rudolph Walsh, head of theliterary department at William Mor-ris Endeavor, which is helping thePerseus Books Group organize thehackathon.Stephen Evans,a directorat the prominent Silicon Valleyprivate-equity firm Silver Lake—apart-owner of WME—will also pre-side, as will PerseusChief Executive DavidSteinberger.

The winner will re-ceive $10,000 and thechance to pitch the so-lution over breakfastwith superagent AriEmanuel, co-CEO ofWME.

“There’s a need forbook publishing tohave a little more con-nective tissue to greatminds and technolo-gy,” said Jay Mandel, apartner at WME.“This is a really effi-cient, smart, fun, coolway to go about it.”

Surveys by indus-try researcher CodexGroup have shownthat a hefty percent-age of consumersbrowse throughbookstores evenwhen they’re using e-readers or buying print books on-line. Digital retailers, on the otherhand, tend to attract buyers whoknow what they want.

“There is a lot of concern overhow to solve the digital discoveryproblem,” said Mr. Steinberger.“The key question is whether [thesolution] is going to come from in-side or outside the industry.”

New sitesA number of sites aimed at the

discovery problem have launchedrecently, includingBookish, which isbacked by several ma-jor publishing houses.Meanwhile, Amazonjust bought the No. 1book-community siteGoodreads, raisingsuspicions that thegiant e-tailer and fast-growing publisherwants to dominate thebook discovery field.

But the hackathon’sorganizers say theevent is not just aboutreplacing what’s beinglost.They want to seizeopportunities publish-ers never had before toconnect books andconsumers throughsmartphones and otherdevices.

“What a hackathontries to do is promoteexcitement around aproblem,advertise that

there is unclaimed land and get digi-tal settlers excited about it,”said RickJoyce, chief marketing officer atPerseus. “This is valuable space.” �

Industry sponsors‘hackathon’ to findbest way to exposecustomers to books

Will thesolution‘come frominside oroutside theindustry?’

—David Steinberger

THEINSIDERby Chris Bragg

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This time, mayor defers to council

Two recent initiatives from Mayor MichaelBloomberg—banning stores from using plastic-foamfood containers and displaying cigarettes—are

notable not just as new branches of the mayor’s majorpublic-health policies, but also because Mr. Bloomberg issubjecting them to City Council approval rather thanramming them through administratively.

LISTEN to a discussion at CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts


Having a whale of a careerNo bones about it: John Flynn lives for adventure

John Flynn made an unexpected discovery at6,000 feet above sea level: whale bones.The pre-Ice Age fossils he and his team found in theChilean Andes in 1986 helped determine the ageof the mountain range, but like many importantscientific advances, the breakthrough didn’t comeeasily. Snow fell as his team ran out of food. ¶ “Itwas very tough conditions,” said Mr. Flynn, theFrick curator of fossil mammals at the AmericanMuseum of Natural History. ¶ New Yorkerswon’t need to endure extremes to see whalebones. Mr. Flynn, a Westchester native with twochildren, co-curated “Whales: Giants of theDeep,” an exhibition that opened last month incooperation with the Museum of New ZealandTe Papa Tongarewa. A skeleton of a sperm whaleabout 20 feet longer than a standard school bushangs above the show. Visitors have anopportunity to crawl through a narrow opening

in a life-size replica of a blue whale’s heart, whichis roughly six feet high and 10 feet wide. ¶ Mr.Flynn, who holds four Ivy League degrees, is anatural teacher and is the head of the museum’ssmall graduate school. In one part of the exhibit,featuring a series of skeletons that illustrate howwhales evolved from land to sea mammals, heenthusiastically points out the subtle changes inthe various skeletons—how one is missing a limband another has a fin in its place. ¶ The 57-year-old still finds time for adventure, traveling at leastthree months a year to conduct research, whichincludes examining the brain size of socialanimals. On one trip, he found the oldestmonkey skull in the New World, at a Chilean sitenear where Darwin conducted research. He hassurvived two helicopter crashes while onexpedition. “I didn’t tell my wife about one for sixmonths,” he said.

GOTHAM GIGS

Curatorhassurvivedtwo coptercrasheswhile onexpedition

Forbes Media: JackLaschever, 53, waspromoted topresident of ForbesConferences, anewly createdposition. He waspreviously chiefmarketing officer.

Tom Davis, 48, was promoted to chiefmarketing officer. He was previouslyvice president, sales and marketing.Sociomantic: J.B. Brokaw, 36, joinedthe advertising and marketing firm aspresident of North Americanoperations. He was previously chiefrevenue officer and chief client officerat iProspect.Green Carrot: Javier Perez-Karam, 33,joined the media and entertainmentcompany as chief executive anddirector, a newly created position. Hewas previously a producer atOmnicom Media.Lyst: Steven Klooster, 38, joined thepersonalized online shopping site aschief operating officer, a newlycreated position. He was previouslyan associate at Warburg Pincus.

OpenSky: Paul Vogel,40, joined theonline socialshopping companyas chief financialofficer. He waspreviously globalportfolio managerat Andor Capital.

New York University: Trevor Morrison,41, will join the university as the deanof its law school, effective June 1. Heis currently Liviu Librescu professorof law at Columbia University, wherehe is also faculty co-director of theCenter for ConstitutionalGovernance and faculty co-chair ofthe Hertog Program on Law andNational Security.Governors Island Alliance: Susan CareyDempsey, 64, joined the nonprofit asexecutive director. She was previouslyexecutive vice president at ChangingOur World Inc.TCA Global Fund Group: JamesClements, 44, joined the financial firmas executive director, a newly createdposition. He was previously seniorvice president of advisory andplatform services at Icon Investments.

Rose AssociatesInc.: Maria Masi,42, joined the realestate firm asmanaging director.She was previouslydevelopmentdirector atAvalonBay

Communities Inc.Duff & Phelps: Christopher Gregory, 39,was promoted to managing director atthe financial advisory and investmentbanking firm. He was previouslydirector.Tomas Stefanowski, 38, was promotedto managing director. He waspreviously director.Ekaterina Timaeva, 38, was promotedto managing director. She waspreviously director.HBR Consulting: Darren Marriott, 43,was promoted to senior director at theprofessional services firm, a newly

EXECUTIVE MOVES

B U S I N E S S

PEOPLE

See EXECUTIVE MOVES on Page 8

$52.4MAmount StatenIsland residents

are owed inunclaimed funds

Source: Office of the State Comptroller

SKULL SESSION:John Flynn co-curated the AmericanMuseum of NaturalHistory’s new“Whales: Giants ofthe Deep” exhibit.

—theresa agovino

buck

enn

is

created position. He was previouslydirector.Matter Inc.: ErinWeinberg, 45, joinedthe public-relationsfirm as deputymanaging director, anewly createdposition. She waspreviously managingpartner at TaylorGlobal Inc.Corporate Resource Services Inc.:Thomas Clarke, 55, was appointeddirector. He will continue as a boardmember at Reis.NowThis News: Frank Kavilanz, 39,joined as senior vice president forstrategy and business development. Hewas previously vice president of strategyand business development atNBCUniversal News Group.Marsh & McLennan: Diane Giles, 57, waspromoted to senior vice president at theinsurance brokerage and risk-management firm. She was previouslyvice president.Matt McCabe, 43, joined as senior vicepresident. He was previously seniorcounsel at the U.S. House ofRepresentatives Committee onHomeland Security.Sonobi Media: Paul DeBraccio, 55, joinedthe digital advertising platform as vicepresident of national sales. He waspreviously director, ad sales mediasolutions, at Expedia.DDG: Michael Ferry, 37, was promoted tosenior vice president at the real estatecompany. He was previously vicepresident.William Kluczkowski, 32, was promotedto vice president. He was previouslysenior associate.Andrew McKessey, 35, was promoted tocontroller. He was previously assistantcontroller.David Ridoutt, 33, was promoted tosenior construction manager. He waspreviously project manager.Angela Lo, 30, joined as constructionmanager. She was previously projectmanager at I. Grace Co., CommissionedPrivate Residences Inc.McKissack & McKissack: Brian Lyons,53, joined the construction company asexecutive vice president of at-riskconstruction. He was previously projectexecutive at Pavarini Construction.

Grant Thornton: NigelSmith, 48, joined theaccounting firm asfinancial servicesadvisory leader. Hewas previously leaderof the NorthAmerican financialservices management

consulting practice at Accenture.HSBC Global Asset Management (USA)Inc.: Michael Wright, 48, joined thefinancial firm as head of institutionalsales, North America. He waspreviously director at AXA InvestmentManagers.Scarola Malone & Zubatov: RobertShansky, 66, joined the law firm as ofcounsel. He was previously of counsel atJones Day.Citi: Joshua Moskowitz, 39, joined thebank as senior project manager on itsglobal public-affairs team. He waspreviously vice president for corporateaffairs and business development atGlobal Strategy Group.

—eva saviano

CORPORATE LADDER

CONTINUING A CAREER OF FIRSTSLINDA ADDISON has been the first to do a lot of things: first female editor of the Texas Law Review, first woman on the U.S.executive committee of law firm Fulbright & Jaworski. On July 1, when the firm combines with the Norton Rose Group tobecome Norton Rose Fulbright, the third-largest practice in the world, Ms. Addison, 61, will be the first chair of its newglobal dispute-resolution and litigation practice, as well as a member of the firm’s global executive committee.

“Linda is an exceptional trial lawyer, one of our best litigators,” said Fulbright’s chairman, Ken Stewart. “Hersubstantive knowledge of dispute resolution and her leadership skills made her uniquely qualified for thisposition.”

Ms. Addison successfully represented General Electric last year in one of the first Dodd-Frank whistleblower casestried in the U.S, one of many high-profile cases she’s tried in her three decades with Fulbright.

“I never thought I was appointed [to the U.S. executive committee] because I was a woman. I know other people did,”said Ms. Addison. “I know I got it because I deserved it. I wish other people had broken these barriers first, but I amused to being the only woman in a room.”

Continued from Page 7

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EXECUTIVE PROMOTIONS

The fastest way to get an announcement intoCrain’s is to submit online. Fill out the form at www.crainsnewyork.com/section/executive_moves. The Executive Moves columnis also available online.


EXECUTIVE MOVES

—EVA SAVIANO

IN THE BOROUGHS BRONX

by the Center for an Urban Future.“Entrepreneurs big and small

were realizing this was an untappedmarket,” said the center’s executivedirector, Jonathan Bowles,who not-ed that adding to that momentum isthe borough’s rapid populationgrowth in recent years.

Others attribute the boom toeverything from some of the city’slowest rents forcommercialspace to, para-doxically, theborough’s highunemploymentrate. Joblessnessin the Bronxstands at 14.1%,far above thecitywide aver-age of 10.1%,according to themost recent,non-seasonallyadjusted statis-tics from thestate Labor Department.

“Because of the high unemploy-ment rate, people feel it’s the righttime to start something,” said JoseMade, a loan consultant at AccionUSA, which during the past yearalone has provided microfinancingto 14 small business owners in theBronx. “They have nothing to loseand something to gain.”

The bulk of the new enterprisesin the Bronx are not the cutting-edge tech companies launching inareas like Brooklyn’s Dumbo or

Manhattan’s Flatiron district. Up inthe Bronx, the newbies run thegamut from bars, barber shops and99-cent stores to accountants, beerbrewers and home-based day-carecenters. But the bottom line is thesame as it is anywhere else: a newcrop of enterprises producing jobs,services and products for area resi-dents, and income for fledgling en-trepreneurs.

Bronx entrepreneurs are also ben-efiting from an influx of people whohave been priced out of Manhattanand are looking for the closest afford-able thing.Mott Haven—in particu-lar, a small slice bordered by 138thStreet and Bruckner Boulevard tothe north and south, and St. Ann’sAvenue and Third Avenue to the eastand west—is a prime example.

“There’s an evolving demo-graphic of people who are movinginto the Bronx because they can’t af-ford Manhattan or Brooklyn,” saidMarlene Cintron, president of theBronx Overall Economic Develop-ment Corp. She boldly predicts thearea around Mott Haven’s ClockTower building will morph into “thenew Williamsburg.”

Bargain pricesWhat’s helping to draw a crowd

is low prices. The average sale priceof a one- or two-family house inMott Haven last year was $250,000,according to Jonathan Miller, presi-dent of Miller Samuel real estate ap-praisers. That is a mere fraction ofthe average in Harlem, the closestManhattan neighborhood, where

one- and two-family homes rangefrom $1 million to $2 million.

“It’s worth the swim,” said Mr.Miller.

Similarly,rents for retail and com-mercial space in the Bronx are amongthe lowest in the city.In Mott Haven,

retail rents can be as low as $1,600 amonth for a 350-square-foot shop,according to business owners.

“I’m paying one-tenth of what Iwould pay to rent the same space inManhattan,” said Amir Chayon, anIsraeli-born actor who is co-ownerof Ceetay.

Ms. Cintron also offered a rela-

tively new reason the South Bronxcould make a play for the tech start-ups as well.

“We’re better elevated,” she said,contrasting that to low-lying por-

tions of the Manhattan’s Silicon Al-ley that lost power for days as a resultof flooding caused by SuperstormSandy. “This is where the future is.Tech companies won’t lose power.”�

BY PETER MOSKOWITZ

Susannah Drake and her team at ar-chitecture firm Dlandstudio werethinking about surges, sea levels andgreen infrastructure long before Su-perstorm Sandy.

One of Ms. Drake’s projects is asoon-to-be implemented “spongepark” near the Gowanus Canal thatabsorbs storm water and toxic streetrunoff before they have a chance tomake their way into the sewer systemor the canal. She has also spent thepast two years advising different partsof the city government on waterfrontdevelopment and climate change.

When Sandy brought NewYork’s vulnerabilities to public at-tention,Ms.Drake figured the busi-ness calls would come raining down.

She was wrong. “[After Sandy]I’ve been [quoted] by The New YorkTimes [and was on] BBC News. I’ve

been on German television threetimes, but I haven’t seen it turn intoclients,” she said. “It’s somewhatfrustrating, because we are experts.”

Small and midsize architecturefirms say they’ve tried to carve out aniche as go-to experts for the greenideas that are likely to be funded bySandy recovery money. They’verethought their business models andattempted to forge connections withcity agencies and large firms thatmight contract out to them. That’s led many of the firms to gain prominence.

But money hasn’t followed.Many small firms don’t have themanpower to navigate the complexprocurement process;others say thatthe work is slow to come becausefundamental revisions to codes gov-erning buildings in flood zones havenot yet been made.

Cook+Fox is a firm best knownfor designing the Bank of AmericaTower at 1 Bryant Park, one of themost environmentally friendly sky-scrapers in the world. ArchitectChris Garvin said the only work related to Superstorm Sandy so farhas been retrofitting projects nearthe water, and consulting with past

clients who have asked him to forti-fy their waterfront propertiesagainst another Sandy-like storm.

Mr.Garvin said he doesn’t expectto get any big projects for a while.

“The design part isn’t that hard,”he said. “It’s an economic issue anda code issue. It’s going to take time.”

Mr.Garvin,along with dozens ofarchitects,volunteers his time advis-ing the Building Resiliency TaskForce, a group set up by MayorMichael Bloomberg and CityCouncil Speaker Christine Quinnin the aftermath of Sandy that’s ex-pected to issue building recommen-dations early this summer.

Time to rethinkUntil then, the architectural in-

dustry will remain in a holding pat-tern. Developers still don’t know ifor how far up they’ll have to raisetheir waterfront properties,whetherboilers will need to be moved out ofbasements, or whether the city willbuild something like a seawall thatwould render individual propertyprotections less important. Andnew federal flood insurance mapshave yet to be finalized.

“There’s a level of uncertaintyright now,” said Kate Orff, a partnerat SCAPE Studio, which specializesin designing landscapes that incorpo-rate elements of the wilderness intothe built environment. “We all needto be working off the same ‘zero,’ andright now that’s a shifting target.”

While the holding pattern isn’t

ideal for business, for some archi-tects it has provided breathing roomto rethink their business models.

Tricia Martin, a principal at envi-ronmentally friendly WE Design inBrooklyn,has spent some of her timesince Sandy figuring out ways tomake her business more visible togovernments and contractors.

She knows her firm is too small tograpple with major infrastructureprojects, but she’s hoping to make aname for herself before the bulk oflarge-scale work gets underway.

“I’m putting together a marketingfolder, an e-brochure, and reachingout to the leaders in this work,” Ms.Martin said.“I think the big questionis how to you position yourself … sothat at least my name and my face and

identity are part of theconversation.”

But for others thestorm was less a mar-keting opportunitythan a reminder thatlanding big city con-tracts is hard.

“I’ve been trying toget a [city] Depart-ment of Design andConstruction contractsince I started my firmin 2004,” said ChadSmith,of DesBrisay &Smith Architects,which does environ-mentally friendly workfor individuals andsmall businesses.

Mr. Smith has resorted to win-ning subcontracts from nonprofits.

A spokesman for the EconomicDevelopment Corp., which over-sees many of the city’s largest con-struction projects, said the EDCawards contracts based on the mer-its of a firm’s proposal, not its size.

But Ms. Drake of Dlandstudiosaid small firms can’t afford to spendtime and money submitting re-sponses to city requests that oftentake months or years to get, and shefears that when the Sandy contractsfinally roll in, she’ll be left out.

“The procurement process is sobroken,”she said.“If you’re not alreadypart of the system and you’re expect-ing to get work out of Sandy, I don’tthink that’s going to happen.”�

Businesses blossom


COOL CROWD: A new sushi restaurant onBruckner Boulevard has loads of company.

BROOKLYN

S. B’klyn bike pathset to roll again Repairs on a South Brooklyn bikepath flooded by Hurricane Sandyare underway after the Parks De-partment awarded a $2 millionemergency contract to a Queensconstruction company. The path,which runs along Shore Parkway,will reopen by Memorial Day, intime for the hordes of local runners,bikers and pedestrians to use it thissummer.

The contract covers a 2.5-milestretch in Bath Beach, east of theVerrazano Bridge. Repairs includeputting in new railings and resurfac-ing the area where floodwatersbreached the seawall. But some lo-cal leaders are calling for more com-prehensive fixes to the path, whichhas been damaged repeatedly bystorms.

“We need further mitigation toprevent any water from entering theBelt Parkway,” said Marnee Elias-Pavia, district manager of Commu-nity Board 11, who argues for a re-built seawall to protect both thepath and the parkway. “That’s what

we’ve been advocating for,but that’sa big project.”

—cara eisenpress

BRONX

Toxic fumes maypave way for farmAfter an almost five-year-long bat-tle waged by community activists,Barretto Point Park in the HuntsPoint section of the Bronx will getanother 1.2 acres of waterfrontproperty.

Last month, the Department ofEnvironmental Protection said itwill spend $436,000 on a six-monthenvironmental remediation of theland that was used most recently asa staging area for work on the HuntsPoint sewer plant. In 2008, local res-idents sued the city over toxic fumesallegedly emanating from the plant.In the settlement, the city agreed toclean up the land next to the park.

“If we don’t get together to or-ganize things, we won’t accomplishanything,” said Wanda Salaman,ex-ecutive director of South Bronx ad-vocacy organization Mothers on theMove, who was part of the groupthat sued the city. After the remedi-ation is finished, the land will beturned over to the Parks Depart-ment. Ms. Salaman said she wantsto use it to start an urban farm.

—anika anand


FROMAROUNDTHE CITY

4,690NUMBER of newbusinessesincorporated inthe Bronx in 2011

$250KAVG. PRICE of 1- or 2-familyhome in MottHaven last year

14.1%BOROUGHjobless rate

Firms promote theirgreen expertise, butrecovery moneyhasn’t poured in

Architects don’t yetsee Sandy buildup

SOAKED: One of Susannah Drake’s projects at Dlandstudio is a“sponge park,” meant to curb pollution of the Gowanus Canal.

Entrepreneurs‘feel it’s theright time tostart something’

anni

e ka

rni

OPINION

A fter years of candidates fundraising andjockeying for position, the race for mayorof New York City is kicking into highgear. With the business community noless worried about who will succeedMichael Bloomberg, several recentstorylines bear watching.

On the Democratic side, City Council Speaker ChristineQuinn saw her lead in the polls decline for the first time, justas an independent anti-Quinn campaign surfaced with anasty television ad and a $1 million budget. Her 5-point dropin one survey presages a tightening of the race. Because Ms.Quinn had positioned herself as the most Bloomberg-likecandidate in the primary, the increasing pressure on her bodesbadly for businesspeople, as she tends to tack left in response.Recent examples include her support for bills mandating paidsick leave, letting job applicants sue employers andestablishing an inspector general for the police.

Another intriguing development is former Rep. AnthonyWeiner’s potential return to the race, which he abandoned—along with his congressional seat—in 2011 when he wascaught “sexting” and falsely denied it. Before the scandal,Mr. Weiner had demonstrated some innovative thinkingabout how to run the city.The question now is whethervoters can take him seriously again—assuming he asks themto. If so, he could give the other Democrats a much-neededkick in the pants. But after his humiliating episode and twoyears off the political grid, he must earn back people’s trust

and articulate a rationale for running.Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, neck and neck with

former Comptroller Bill Thompson for second in the polls,has doubled down on his strategy of being the liberalalternative to Ms. Quinn. He blasted her almost daily forholding up the sick-pay legislation, then lamented that hercompromise bill exempted too many businesses. Mr. deBlasio has been so aggressive that Ms. Quinn blamed himfor the attack ad, though she soon softened that accusation.For businesses against mandatory sick pay, the silver lining isthat Mr. de Blasio’s full-throated support did little for his

poll numbers.Comptroller John

Liu, meanwhile, hasenthusiastic supportersbut too few of them tolift him to double digitsin the polls.That’sgood news fortaxpayers who don’twant to pay the soaringcost of public-

employee benefits Mr. Liu so assiduously defends.The Democrats, for all their shortcomings, at least

understand city government.The only Republican candidatewho seems to is former Deputy Mayor Joseph Lhota.Theothers are trying to figure it out as they campaign. One thingthey are likely to learn is that voters demand better.

The mayor’s race heats up

Under pressure,front-runnerChristine Quinntacks left


HANDS OFF ABACUS BANKIn America, it is important tocatch the little fish, especiallyones that do no harm. Why?Because it makes for greatheadlines and adds to thestatistics. Rarely are the big fishcaught, such as the banks thatcaused the financial meltdown.

The little fish are targetedbecause they are defenseless.Just look at the case of AbacusBank (“Big trouble, littleChinatown bank,” April 8).

To draw a similar analogy:Rather than go after murderers,crooks and reckless drivers,police target ordinary citizensfor petty driving infractionsbecause they are an easy mark.

Such is democracy in thiscountry, where common senseis out the window.

—john ngaiRego Park

OLD CAN BE GREEN, TOOA study presented in yourarticle “Landmark battle turns

green” (March 25) claims thatreplacing New York’s olderbuildings with new towers willcreate significant energysavings. Yet that claim is notsupported by the facts.

Energy-usage data on largebuildings reported to the cityover the past two years revealthat buildings constructed 40 to100 years ago are often goodenergy performers. As for the“energy-oozing” 47-year-oldbuilding at 675 Third Ave. citedin the article, it actually uses lessenergy per square foot thanmany buildings built recently tonew energy codes or voluntarygreen programs, according topublic data. In fact, the city hascollected, analyzed and publiclyposted this type of buildingenergy information atwww.nyc.gov/ggbp for exactlythis purpose—to help real estatestakeholders and policymakersmake smart and informeddecisions based on the facts.

There are many goodeconomic reasons for the higherenergy-usage intensities of new

buildings. But tearing down oldbuildings for questionableenergy-efficiency benefits issimply not good policy.

—andrew burrDirector, Building Energy

Performance PolicyInstitute for Market

Transformation

WEINER’S BACKAs a former constituent ofAnthony Weiner (Crain’s onlinepoll, April 10), I’m veryconflicted. Several years ago, Iactually wrote in my nameagainst him when I votedbecause I witnessed him actinglike a jerk! Having said that, hehas always done really, reallywell for my neighborhood nomatter what political positionhe was in.There’s my conflict.Do I want someone who doesgood for my neighborhood butis of questionable character? Ifyou think about it, aren’t mostpoliticians?

—tina graySheepshead Bay

CRAIN’S ONLINE POLL

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CRAIN’S WELCOMES SUBMISSIONS to its opinion pages. Send letters to [email protected]. Send columns of 475words or fewer to [email protected]. Please include the writer’s name, company, address and telephone number.

FOR THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS:Go to www.crainsnewyork.com/poll to have your say.

29%Yes

9%Yes

50%No

12%No

CRAIN’SNEW YORK BUSINESS

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711 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017-4036editorial phone: 212.210.0277fax 212.210.0799Entire contents ©copyright 2013 Crain Communications Inc.All rights reserved. ®CityBusiness is a registered trademarkof MCP Inc., used under license agreement.

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SHOULD ANTHONY WEINER STAYIN THE PUBLIC SPOTLIGHT?Yes. He should run for mayor this year, and letthe voters decide. Yes. He should skip the mayor’s race but easehis way back into public life. No. He needs to get a real job. It’s too soon forhim to return to politics. No. He should go away and never come back.He’s finished.

Date of poll: April 10345 votes

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$13 billion, and it lost almost $1 billion.

This does not mean the depart-ment store is dead. Here in NewYork, Terry Lundgren has provedthat with Macy’s. It is probably themost underreported business storyof the past few years.

Let’s start with the history. Mr.Lundgren was named CEO of whatwas then known as Federated De-partment Stores in 2003. Two yearslater, he pulled off a merger withMay Department Stores, creating aretailer that spanned the country.He then navigated one of the trick-iest transformations in retailing:changing the venerated regionalchains he now owned,such as the fa-mous Marshall Field’s of Chicago,into one brand—Macy’s.

It wasn’t easy to overcome thenostalgia that surrounded those

names, but he did it with care and afair amount of humility (somethingMr. Johnson lacked). His customersare at the upper end of the middlemarket, although his Blooming-dale’s unit aims for the lower end ofthe luxury market.

His strategy is now the conven-tional wisdom of retailing experts:Carry as much exclusive merchan-dise as possible and compete veryaggressively on price. His twist hasbeen that despite the commitmentto a national brand, local managersare given flexibility to adjust theirofferings as needed.

The numbers are impressive.Sales at Macy’s rose to $26.7 billionfor the fiscal year ended Feb. 2, a17% increase in the past four years,which included the Great Reces-sion.Profits have quadrupled in thattime, to $1.3 billion. Macy’s stocktraded last week at about $45 ashare, its highest level in four years,almost eight times where it stood inOctober 2009 and pennies from itsall-time high in 2007.

This has all been done prettymuch out of the spotlight. I couldn’tfind a single good corporate-strategy piece on the company in theleading sources of business news, al-though Bloomberg last week usedMacy’s as the counterpoint in its sto-ry of all that went wrong at Penney.

Mr. Lundgren has assumed amore important role in New Yorkbusiness circles in recent years; he’snow co-chairman of the Partnershipfor New York City. Politicians takebusiness leaders seriously only whenthey are very successful.

With the difficulties faced by the city’s previous über-CEO,JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon,recognition of Mr. Lundgren’s ac-complishments couldn’t come at abetter time.

Forget Penney; lookat Macy’s success

W hen the desperate directors of J.C. Penneyfired their chief executive this month, theyadmitted that their effort to reinvent thedepartment store had failed miserably.They had hired Ron Johnson away from

Apple, where he had made the i-maker’s stores the envy of all,and told him to do the same for Penney. Instead, he alienatedthe chain’s customers, its sales declined by a quarter last year to

GREG DAVID

Neighborhood Speeds for Neigh-borhood Streets Act (A.4327),whichwould install speed cameras in 40 lo-cations near schools, has the supportof the majority of the city’s delegationin the state Assembly as well as theCity Council.It is a prime initiative ofthe Bloomberg administration.

It is being blocked by state Sens.Marty Golden and Simcha Felder,both from Brooklyn, and SenateCo-President Dean Skelos fromLong Island.

Last year, 274 people died inNew York City traffic crashes. Themost frequent cause of traffic deathswas drivers violating the speed lim-it. Yet in 2012, the Police Depart-ment issued four times as many tick-ets for illegally tinted windows as for

speeding. In only 10 of the city’s 74police precincts was more than onespeeding ticket issued per day.

I have yet to read that tinted win-dows caused a casualty on city streets.

The only regular NYPD speedtrap that I am aware of is on the BeltParkway, before or after the Ver-razano Bridge. This well-knowntrap seems to have conditioned driv-ers to obey the limit. Every now andthen, you see some knuckleheadbuzzing by at 70-plus miles perhour. Inevitably, he gets nabbed.Enforcement works. But does any-one believe the city is going to hiremore traffic cops?

Explaining his opposition, Mr.Golden, a Republican and formerpolice officer, told Michael Powell of

The New York Times that cameraswere intrusive.He would prefer morespeed humps, flashing yellow lightsand stop signs. There are speedhumps on my block in Brooklyn.Speeding cars seem to delight inslaloming over these moguls, racingto the next corner even when thestoplight is red.

Mr. Felder’s top priority in Al-bany was to get the state and city topay for the busing of yeshiva studentsafter 4 p.m.His district is dominatedby Orthodox Jewish voters whosechildren attend yeshiva. Messrs.Felder and Golden got that legisla-tion approved, despite oppositionfrom Mayor Michael Bloombergand Gov.Andrew Cuomo.It will costthe city $5.6 million this year.

Mr. Powell reported that in thepast three years, nearly 60 pedestri-ans have died in traffic accidents inthe districts of these two senators.Transportation Alternatives safetyadvocates monitored traffic in Ca-narsie, Brooklyn, with a radar gunfor eight hours recently. Theyclocked 194 drivers exceeding thespeed limit by at least 10 mph—more than the 163 speeding ticketsissued in that precinct last year.

It’s hard to imagine New YorkCity without sprinkler systems, andsomeday, when traffic deaths ap-proach zero, we’ll wonder how weever lived without speed cameras.

Steve Hindy, co-founder and president ofBrooklyn Brewery, writes a monthly opinioncolumn for Crain’s New York Business.

STEVE HINDY

Give green light to speed cameras

Imagine if the New York City firefighters’ union sudden-ly came out against sprinklers in buildings because theyresulted in a loss of jobs for firefighters. Imagine if thefirefighters insisted that only they should put out fires,not mechanical sprinklers.

I cannot help but think of this analogy when confronted bythe New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association’s op-position to a speed-camera pilot program for the city. The

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In recent months, downtown Manhattan has seen an influx of tenantsfrom the pricier uptown latitudes of midtown, and more recentlymidtown south, who are eager to take advantage of downtown’s low-er rents.

At the same time,as the case of Loeb Holding Corp.demonstrates,many downtown tenants are keen to stay put for much the same reason.Thefinancial firm recently inked a lease for 22,000 square feet, half of the 40-story tower’s 14th floor, at 125 Broad St.

Under the lease, Loeb will move in for 15 years and 10 months at rentsin the $30s per square foot. The firm will move over from 61 Broadway.

The deal is notable for Mack-Cali, the New Jersey-based REIT that

REAL ESTATE DEALS

125 Broad becomesa downtown darling


owns nearly half of the 1.3 million-square-foot tower. Law firm Sulli-van & Cromwell owns the bulk ofthe remainder. The new lease fillsthe final pocket of the roughly580,000 square feet that Mack-Calicontrols at the property.

During the recession in 2009 and2010, all of the space became vacantwhen leases expired for several long-time tenants, including Citibank,which left behind 385,000 squarefeet. But as interest has picked up inlower Manhattan, occupancy has

BARE BONES

425 LEXINGTON AVE.ASKING RENT; TERM:Undisclosed; 20 years

SQUARE FEET: 595,000

TENANT; REPS: SimpsonThacher & Bartlett; LewisMiller and Ken Rapp ofCBRE Group Inc.

LANDLORD; REP: HinesU.S. Core Office Fund; in-house representation

BACK STORY: Theinternational law firmrenewed its lease for 26floors in the 31-storybuilding across East 43rdStreet from the ChryslerBuilding.

28 & 40 W. 23RD ST.ASKING RENT; TERM:$64 per square foot; 10 years

SQUARE FEET: 220,000

TENANT; REPS:AppNexus; Mark Weissand Rob Eisenberg ofNewmark Grubb KnightFrank

LANDLORD; REPS: 23rdStreet Properties; MichaelCohen and Andrew Roosof Colliers International

BACK STORY: The digitalfirm extended its leaseand added 130,000square feet. It will moveinto the new space in thethird quarter.

277 BLEECKER ST.ASKING RENT; TERM:$300 per square foot; 10 years

SQUARE FEET: 630

TENANT; REP: StudioManhattan; Ava Kim ofOxford Property Group

LANDLORD; REP: 277Bleecker; SteveRappaport of Sinvin RealEstate

BACK STORY: Theleather-goods store willdecamp to the WestVillage from South StreetSeaport, where the site ofits old store will beredeveloped.

bounced back dramatically at 125Broad St.

Mark Ravesloot, a broker atCBRE Group Inc.who has handleddeals in the building for Mack-Cali,has filled the space during the pastyear and a half with tenants includ-ing AXA Insurance and Continen-tal Casualty Co.

Mr. Ravesloot attributed the ac-tivity not only to the building’s lowrents,but also other perks offered byMack-Cali. “One of the advantagesthat we had was that Mack-Cali hasthe resources to take on the con-struction work for tenants and buildgreat space,” he said.

Mr. Ravesloot representedMack-Cali in the deal with Loeb,in partnership with CBRE brokerPete Turchin. Bob Savitt, chief ex-ecutive of the real estate brokerageand ownership company SavittPartners, worked with CBRE bro-ker Scott Bogetti to representLoeb.

—daniel geiger

Looks still countat Chrysler The tried-and-true blocks aroundGrand Central Terminal have longdrawn tenants looking for greattransportation links—more thanthose looking to make any sort of

bold statement. Inopening its first NewYork office, the D.C.-based law firm LewisBaach, however, man-aged to get both greattransit links and a boldaddress. The firm has inked a four-year lease for 3,900 square feet on

the 32nd floor of theChrysler Building, whereasking rents are in the$60s per square foot.For the newcomer, thesilver-topped, 83-year-old Art Deco

spire was the perfect choice.“Optics were important to them,”

said Scott Galin, a principal at Han-dler Real Estate Organization who,along with colleague Darell Handler,represented Lewis Baach in the lease.

Gregory Conen, a leasing exec-

utive at Tishman Speyer, the ownerof the Chrysler Building, arrangedthe deal in-house on behalf of thelandlord.

—daniel geiger


S M A L L B U S I N E S S

The perfect pitch

BY LORI IOANNOU

Four years ago,Amanda Allen and Ro-bard Williams discovered an over-looked niche in the $19 billionwedding-registry market while theywere planning their own nuptials.There were plenty of registries run by

Startups flock tobusiness-plancompetitions to wincash and publicity

Facing bigger billsfrom Uncle Sam,owners tap into tax breaks

Tax hikeinspiresfancyfootwork

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REPORT

big, mass-market retailers, but therewasn’t a similar,one-stop Web destina-tion that sold the products they reallyloved from local stores and artisans.

Itching to turn that idea into a busi-ness, Ms. Allen quit her job as a bankexaminer and enrolled in FordhamUniversity’s graduate business schoolprogram to incubate NewlyWish.com.The stars aligned in 2009 when Ms.Allen entered the Baruch College &Merrill Lynch EntrepreneurshipCompetition, which was open to stu-dents from other campuses.

She won $30,000 in seed money inthe eight-month contest.As part of it,

she got free consulting support fromexperts at SCORE (Service Corps ofRetired Executives), a nonprofitmentoring organization. She foundout how to incorporate the business,launch a functioning website andsnare retailers.Ms.Allen tapped whatshe learned to enter business-plancompetitions throughout the area—and won the 2010 Pace Pitch Contestand then the 2012 Women 2.0 PitchNYC Startup Competition.

All told, she walked away with$70,000 in prize money and extrabonuses like free office space at Tech-

$2MTOTAL PRIZE MONEY fromNY state business-plancompetitions

21NUMBER of business plancompetitions, NY state(out of 231 in U.S.)Source: Bizplancompetitions.com

BY JUDITH MESSINA

Hurricane Sandy put a temporarykibosh on a planned new Linda theBra Lady store at Third Avenueand East 80th Street, but ownerCarl Manni expects to open therethis year and depreciate much ofthe build-out cost up front.

“In 2013,we expect to be prof-itable,and we’ll get the write-off,”he said.

Mr. Manni, whose businessbrought in $7 million in revenueslast year, isn’t alone in working toreduce his tax bill by taking ad-vantage of tax credits and fast-track depreciation schedules thatCongress extended for a year un-der theAmericanTaxpayer Re-lief Act of2012.

Smallbusinesseswith$400,000 ormore in prof-its could be staring down a 2013 taxhike as a result of the higher taxesushered in by the eleventh-hourdeal that created the law.

“Those making under$400,000 averted the higher tax,but plenty of small business own-ers are going to be at [the higher]39.6% bracket,” said BarbaraTaibi, a tax partner at consultingand accounting firm Eisner-Amper. “A lot of people filing taxreturns now are not feeling any ofthis.Next April the hit will come.”

Even those who dodge thespeeding income-tax bullet mayfeel the pain, depending on theirbusinesses’ structure, thanks torising taxes on investment incomeand the tab for Obamacare.

“It’s a big concern,” said JudeCoard, tax partner at accountingfirm Berdon. “Not only have fed-eral taxes gone up, but state taxesin the past few years have alsogone up.”

See PERFECT PITCH on Page 14 See TAX HIKE on Page 14

INSIDE THE LISTS NYC’s largest publicevents and trade shows PAGE 15

‘In this era of the lean startup ... thesecompetitions are like rocket fuel’—Professor Bruce Bachenheimer, Pace University, Page 14

79%OF SMALLBUSINESSESwant major tax reformSource: U.S. Chamber of Commerce

BOWLED OVER:NewlyWish’s Amanda Allenwon $30,000 in seed moneyto start her business, whichserves as a wedding registryfor local stores such asBrooklyn’s Greenhouse.



Space in Chelsea.Part of her prize inthe Women 2.0 contest was a meet-ing with Internet pioneer Marc An-dreessen at his venture firm’s office inMenlo Park, Calif., in February. Headvised her to “scale” the business toreach a broad audience and intro-duced her to other New York areacompanies that could help.

Record turnouts“It was the critical feedback I got

from mentors I met at competitionsthat was the most valuable elementfor my company’s growth,” said Ms.Allen, who is trying to raise $1 mil-lion in venture capital.

Searching for cash, connectionsand exposure, contestants like Ms.Allen are expected to fuel recordturnouts for local business-plancompetitions hosted everywherefrom New York City business schoolsto public libraries as the contest sea-son heats up this spring.Already,300people have signed up for BaruchCollege’s SmartPitch Challengescheduled for June 6,a doubling fromlast year. Columbia Business Schoolreports a 50% increase in submissionsto its contests since 2011.

The increased interest reflects sev-eral years in which corporate down-sizing led to a boom in entrepreneur-ship among students, as well asprofessionals reinventing their ca-reers as business owners.A tight cred-it market left some young companieslooking for creative financing—andfueled the rise of serial competitors.While many contests are open to stu-dents and alumni of particularschools, others, like the QueensStartUP Plan Competition adminis-tered by the Queens Business Libraryand the NYC Economic Develop-ment Corp.’s Next Idea Competi-tion, are open to the community,sparking widespread interest.

“In this era of the lean startup,when entrepreneurs must continu-

ously refine their business models ina fast-moving marketplace, thesecompetitions are like rocket fuel,”said professor Bruce Bachenheimer,director of entrepreneurship at PaceUniversity’s Lubin School of Busi-ness, which hosts its own business-plan competition.

At the same time, the advent oflow-cost technology has made itmore affordable to launch the kindof scalable ventures that tend tocatch the eye of judges, many ofwhom are angel investors and ven-ture capitalists.

“I love the fact that I gain insightinto the next generation of newideas emanating from the break-through thinkers at the businessschools,” said Dan Bernstein, ajudge for Columbia University’s A.Lorne Weil Startup Pitch Compe-tition and managing partner of Mil-lennium Technology Value Part-ners, a New York venture-capitalfund that has invested in Twitter,Facebook and Tumblr.

The contests aren’t for every en-trepreneur. The bar for winning isvery high. Mr. Bernstein has seenpitches from students who alreadyhave patents and prototypes in hand.Meanwhile, the time commitmentcan be substantial. Many contestsstretch over several rounds spanningmonths. Serial competitor MichaelDwork, CEO of VerTerra Ltd., aLong Island City, Queens-basedcompany that makes environmen-tally friendly dinnerware, said he hasnoticed a high dropout rate amongfellow contestants because many be-come overwhelmed with the workinvolved in creating a winning entry.

That said, high-profile contestscan put a winning startup on themap.“Their real value lies in gettingexposure to potential investors, andfeedback from potential customersand other key people who can helpyou succeed,” said Mr. Dwork, whoearned his M.B.A. from Columbia

Business School.He should know. He won first

place and “fan favorite” in the Out-rageous Business Plan Competitionat Columbia in 2007, walking awaywith $14,000. He placed second inthe DFJ East Coast Venture Chal-lenge the same year, earning theright to an investment of more than$100,000. He also raised more than$1.7 million in equity investment in2007. (Mr.Dwork also won the firstannual Crain’s New York BusinessPerfect Pitch Competition at Co-lumbia Business School in 2010.)

The credibility that came fromwinning helped him attract nearly$2 million in venture capital fromDFJ Gotham Ventures, ChazenCapital Partners and angel investorsfor a minority stake in the business.The company now services suchculinary groups as the James BeardFoundation, StarChefs and Saveurmagazine for their events.

Hot spot Bogota Latin Bistro, aneight-year-old Pan-Latin/Colom-bian restaurant and bar near the newBarclays Center in Park Slope,Brooklyn, probably would not haveexisted if founders Farid Ali and hisbusiness partner George Constanti-nou hadn’t entered and won theBrooklyn PowerUP competition,according to Mr. Ali.

‘Bragging rights’Over the four months in 2003

that they participated in the contest,hosted by the Brooklyn Business Li-brary, they learned the basics ofbusiness strategy and got a $20,000prize—$10,000 in cash and$10,000 worth of branding,market-ing, legal and office-supply assis-tance.This helped them weather theflood of rejections from bankers andreal estate agents that ensued.

“It gave us bragging rights and theconfidence to pursue our businessplan, since expert judges like PaisleyDemby of PBN Consulting [a well-

known New York startup guru] vali-dated our concept,” Mr. Ali recalled.Just six months after the contest, theywere able to secure a $100,000 work-ing capital loan from HSBC to buyequipment and secure a lease. Theprofitable business pulls in about $3.5million in revenue a year.

Some contestants in business-plan competitions come full circleand become backers of the next gen-eration of startups. Tribeca VenturePartners’ Somak Chattopadhyaywas a contender in the MIT $50KCompetition while an undergradu-

ate in 1998. Today he is a judge forthe Pace Pitch Contest, where hemet competitor Rob Caucci, thefounder of SpaceSplitter, a platformfor college roommates that helpsthem manage expenses like sharingthe rent. He is currently evaluatingthe venture, which is piloting itstechnology at Pace, for seed capital.

“My experience as a contestantmade me appreciate the value of theseevents,” Mr. Chattopadhyay said.“That’s why I decided to be a judge.It’s my way of giving back to the en-trepreneurial community.” �

Delivering the perfect pitchContinued from Page 13

Not all businesses are worriedabout rising tax bills. For some,dogged by weak sales, taxes are al-most an afterthought. Higher up ontheir lists of concerns are the still-tough economy,and cramped accessto capital and rising costs, includingthe new health care mandates.

“They want more assurance themarket will be consistent and theycan plan for the future, because theyknow they have to increase their rev-enue to pay for new investment,”said Frederick Davis, a tax manag-ing partner at Mitchell & Titus, aCPA and consulting firm.

Rosina Rubin, chief financial of-ficer of limousine company AttitudeNew York, is homing in on taxes.She had held off buying any newcars for the profitable company,which had $6.3 million in revenuefor 2012,until she knew if the bonusdepreciation approved by Congressin 2008 would be extended. While

she’s not about to invest in 17 newcars, something she did 18 monthsago when 100% bonus depreciationwas in effect, she plans to buy at leastfive or six now that she can write off50% of the cost in the first year, re-ducing her taxable income.

“The bonus depreciation doesn’thurt and certainly makes it a less scary

thing to do,” Ms. Rubin explained.“The fact that [we don’t] know what[Congress] is going to do next yeardoes encourage [us to say], ‘Let’smake sure we get the max this year.’ ”

In the face of looming tax hikes,Bruce Eckfeldt,founder and chief ex-ecutive of Cyrus Innovation, a prof-itable Manhattan-based software de-

veloper with sales of $5.6 million in2011, has taken advantage of NewYork state research and developmenttax credits on software systems andproducts.“[Without them] we’d haveless money to reinvest in the compa-ny, and that would affect growth,” hesaid.

Interest in expansionOver the years, the subject of

changing from a limited liability cor-poration, where business income istaxed as the owner’s personal income,to a C corporation, where businessprofits are taxed separately, has comeup,he said.For now,he’s sticking withan LLC.

“At some point, if the numbersbecome significant, we would startlooking at it,” said Mr. Eckfeldt.

The passage of the tax agreementmeans that small business owners atleast know now what to expect.“We’ve seen renewed interest in ex-pansion with companies looking atacquiring some things,” said Bar-bara Taibi, a tax partner at consult-ing and accounting firm Eisner-Amper. “I’ve seen a lot more activity

in the tristate area.”But lowering tax bills via credits

and depreciation means businesseshave to sink money into their plantsand equipment in the first place.Like Mr. Eckfeldt, Andy Musci,president of Altel Systems Inc., acommercial integrator of audio andvideo systems in Brewster, N.Y., hasalso been going after state R&Dcredits for developing the customsolutions that are required for al-most every project he does.

Well known in sound circles, Al-tel worked on the recent renovationof the Juilliard School and AliceTully Hall and is building the digi-tal signage and public-address sys-tem for the World Trade Centersubway information hub.

In the past, Mr. Musci took ad-vantage of bonus depreciation tobuy new vehicles. He’d like to do soagain, but margins have been thin.Sales in 2012 were just over $4 mil-lion, but during the past year and ahalf he’s had to lay off five people.

“We haven’t had the cash flow toinvest in property and equipment,”he said. �

Tax hike inspires fancy footwork Continued from Page 13

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?BUSINESS-PLAN COMPETITIONS in New York have served as a launchpad formany successful entrepreneurs. Here are a few:

� SHAZI VISRAM. The founder of Happy Family Brands wasrecently asked to speak at the White House to inspire otherentrepreneurs who want to build socially responsiblebusinesses. That’s because her profitable company makesorganic superfoods for babies and toddlers now sold in morethan 30 countries. This year, Visram expects to hit $100million in sales thanks to a following at such retailers asWhole Foods, Target and Amazon.com. No wonder she won crowd favorite atColumbia’s Outrageous Business Plan Competition nine years ago.

� DENNIS CROWLEY. The co-founder of Foursquare got the ideafor a social-networking service for mobile devices that couldhelp him and his friends figure out where to hang out moreoften while attending NYU’s Interactive TelecommunicationsProgram. He teamed up with fellow student Alex Rainert andpitched it at the New Venture Competition and made it to thesemifinals. The startup, called Dodgeball, was acquired byGoogle in 2005 for an undisclosed amount. Afterward, Crowley, along withNaveen Selvadurai, developed a second version of the service, calledFoursquare, in 2009. Today, the company’s free app has more than 30million users worldwide. Revenue last year was $2 million.

� JEREMY MILLER. Recognizing a need to help the 30 millionU.S. consumers with flexible spending accounts managetheir money, Mr. Miller came up with FSAStore.com, abusiness idea pitched at Columbia’s Outrageous BusinessPlan Competition in 2009 that won second place. Thefollowing year he entered and won the school’s OdysseyCompetition. Since then, the company has closed tworounds of venture capital totaling $2.8 million and partnered with more than100 FSA administrators. It now has more than 50,000 customers andforecasts a tripling of its seven-digit revenues by year’s end. The key tosuccess, he says, was the unbiased feedback from judges, potential investorsand entrepreneurs who attended the event.

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PLANNING AHEAD:Carl Manni at Lindathe Bra Lady is movingahead on plans toopen a new store toget a tax break.

—LORI IOANNOU

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THELIST

NYC’s Largest Public Events & Trade ShowsRanked by number of attendees in 2012

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PUBLIC EVENTS

On Nov. 1, JeanneFleming received twophone calls. The firstwas from the mayor’soffice, telling her that

the Village Halloween Paradewould be postponed because of Su-perstorm Sandy. The second wasfrom the transplant center. Herson—ill for several years—could re-ceive his kidney that same day.

“I had to make a decision,” saidMs. Fleming, the parade’s artisticand producing director,who has runthe show for about 30 years. “Thetransplant center said my son wouldget another kidney soon, so wepassed on this one.”

That was, of course, before theevent was completely canceled. Herson did eventually receive his kidneytransplant—from a fellow paradevolunteer—but the event is still re-covering. The parade—whichranked second last year on Crain’slist of top public events, with 2 mil-lion attendees—opted out of get-ting cancellation insurance becauseit had run for 38 consecutive years.“We’ve done the parade in rain, andwe did it after 9/11,” she said.

The organization is still workingto recoup losses, including moneyspent on floats that were never used,and she anticipates it may be diffi-cult to persuade sponsors to return.

Events throughout the city werecanceled because of Sandy,and evenmore were otherwise affected. It re-minded many about the need fordisaster planning.

At the International Hotel,Motel + Restaurant Show (No.9)—which ran from Nov. 10 to 13—at-tendance dipped 15% from 2011, to24,095, thanks to the storm.

The warehouse where exhibitorshad shipped some products and theorganization was storing materialshad flooded. About 25 groups couldnot exhibit because of harm to eithertheir materials or corporate offices.

“We were also dealing with a lotof perceptions from out-of-townvisitors about what the city lookedlike,” said Phil Robinson, vice pres-ident and group show director forHospitality Management Group,which runs the event.

Though Mr. Robinson doesn’texpect the storm to have a lastingimpact on the convention, Ms.Fleming is less sure about the pa-rade, and said that it is looking intonew ways to raise money, like acrowdfunding campaign.

—emily laermer

THE SCOOP

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TRADE SHOWS

PIPE DREAM: A Halloween Parade reveler



economic backbone, entrepreneursare reeling from a slew of new rulesand regulations enacted at every lev-el of government. Obamacare andpaid sick leave are both slated to gointo effect in 2014.Last month, statelegislators increased New York’sminimum wage. Additionally, theCity Council enacted the nation’sbroadest statute giving prospectiveemployees the right to sue for not be-ing hired. And last week, the councilheld a hearing on a bill that would baremployers from using credit checksin hiring.Together,the new measureshave heightened anxiety for employ-ers already dealing with the high costand bureaucratic hurdles of doingbusiness in New York City.

‘Insensitive’ officials“Individually, each is enough to

make us question doing business,but all at the same time?” saidMichael Sinensky, who owns sixbars in Manhattan, including thepopular Village Pourhouse. “Itblows my mind how insensitive theelected officials can be to not realizethis.”

While the smallest firms receiveexemptions in the sick-leave bill and

tax credits to pay for Obamacare,employers of a certain size, especial-ly retailers and restaurants withmore than 50 employees, are too bigto benefit andtoo small to eas-ily absorb thecosts, ownerssay.

“We didn’tmake $500 mil-lion this year,”said JeremyMerrin, ownerof Havana Cen-tral restaurants.“It’s a differentkind of a busi-ness. I don’tthink anyone ingovernment istaking that intoaccount.”

The veto-proof sick-daysproposal appliesto businesseswith at least 20employees starting next year and ex-pands to cover firms with at least 15employees in 2015. Each employeewould get up to five paid days off.

Supporters of the measure say al-

lowing sick workers to stay homewill be good for business. “Whensomeone’s sick and gives it to every-one else, it takes three or four weeksfor it to pass,” said Taj Lawler, gen-eral manager at the Murray Hill lo-cation of Hummus Kitchen. Sup-porters also believe that restaurantworkers will not abuse the policy be-cause a paid day off means they losetheir bread and butter: tips.

The benefits may be hard to cal-culate; the costs, however, are not.Wink’s Mr. Werther has about 80employees at three stores in NewYork City. Five days a year comesout to about $1,000 per employee.

Mr. Sinensky will pay $100,000more in wages to give his approxi-mately 250 employees paid days off.While his revenue is growing—to$20 million in 2012,with an expect-ed increase of 50% in 2013—NewYork profits are not. Because of rentincreases, fines and other fees, Mr.Sinensky saw his Manhattan profitdecline 67% last year, he said.

“We’re not looking to grow inNew York anymore,” said Mr.Sinen-sky,who is looking across the Hudsonto New Jersey, where he’s opened orinvested in five businesses in the pasttwo years, creating 500 jobs.

Mr. Merrin, meanwhile, hasopened his two newest locations inWestchester and on Long Islandand said he is not interested inadding to his two original New YorkCity outposts.

The impact of the employee dis-crimination bill passed over MayorMichael Bloomberg’s veto in Marchis also worrisome, business ownerssay. The law says in part that a jobapplicant’s unemployed status can-not be taken into account. In hisveto explanation, the mayor said theprovision is rife with potential fornuisance lawsuits. To protect him-self, Mr. Werther said he will startrecording interviews.

Just posturingCarl Calo, who owns Ace Ban-

ner Flag & Graphics, said long gapsin employment can sometimes be ared flag, and not being able to askabout the gap puts the applicant ata disadvantage.

“A lot of this is just political pos-turing,”Mr.Calo said.“[Politicians]make people think they’re doingsomething for them but in realitythey’re not.”

The state minimum wage thatwill ultimately increase to $9 anhour will be felt even by businesseswith few low-wage workers,accord-ing to Mr. Merrin.

“I don’t have any problems withthe minimum wage, but it raises the

tide for everything,” Mr. Merrinsaid. “Whatever the increase is inthe minimum wage, you’ve got tokind of figure that your salaries aregoing to go up.”

Under the Affordable Care Act,businesses with 50 or more full-timeemployees will be required to eitherprovide coverage or pay a tax. Mr.Lawler, the general manager atHummus Kitchen who supportspaid sick days, said the cost “couldreally bankrupt a restaurant.”

Owners will do what it takes tosurvive, and that could mean cut-ting hours. “No one will be fulltime,” he said. “That’s what restau-rants will do.”

Mr. Werther provides coveragefor his full-time employees, but doesnot consider 30 hours a week to befull time, which is the definition un-der Obamacare. The law will costhim about $140,000 and could meanless coverage for each employee.

“I consider offering health careto my full-time employees one ofthe most important achievements asan employer,” Mr. Werther said.

Now what was supposed to helphis employees is likely to cost them.“This new health care law is goingto force me to pass more of the ex-pense of health care coverage to myemployees,” he said. �

Squeezed by regs at every level

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Notice of Qual. of Suvretta Partners,LP, Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY)8/1/12. Office loc.: NY County. LPorg. in DE 10/19/11. SSNY desig. asagent of LP upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNYshall mail copy of proc. to Att: AaronCowen, 950 Third Ave., 24th Fl., NY,NY 10022. DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE19808. Cert. of LP on file: SSDE,Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901.Name/addr. of each gen. ptr. avail. atSSNY. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qual. of Pura Vida FundsGroup GP, LLC, Auth. filed Sec’y ofState (SSNY) 8/29/12. Office loc.: NYCounty. LLC org. in DE 7/27/12.SSNY desig. as agent of LLC uponwhom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail copy ofproc. to Att: Efrem Kamen, 1350 Aveof the Americas, 28th Fl., NY, NY10019. DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE19808. Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE,Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901.Purp.: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qual. of 1515 BroadwayOwner LLC, Auth. filed Sec’y ofState (SSNY) 2/1/13. Office loc.: NYCounty. LLC org. in DE 1/31/13.SSNY desig. as agent of LLC uponwhom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail copy ofproc. to NRAI, 111 Eighth Ave., NY,NY 10011, the Reg. Agt. upon whomproc. may be served. DE off. addr.:160 Greentree Dr., Ste. 101, Dover,DE 19904. Cert. of Form. on file:SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qualification of Skill CapitalAssociates LLC. Authority filed withNY Dept. of State on 3/29/13. Officelocation: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.:733 3rd Ave., 15th Fl., NY, NY 10017.LLC formed in DE on 3/18/13. NY Sec.of State designated agent of LLCupon whom process against it may beserved and shall mail process to: c/oCT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave.,NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whomprocess may be served. DE addr. ofLLC: Corporation Trust Co., 1209Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801.Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. ofState, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE19901. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF New YorkGulf LLC. Articles of Organizationfiled with the Secretary of State ofNew York (SSNY) on 1/14/2013.Office location: NEW YORK County.LLC formed in Delaware on 5/18/2012.SSNY has been designated as anagent upon whom process against itmay be served. The Post Office addressto which the SSNY shall mail a copyof any process against the LLC servedupon him/her is: 7014 13th Avenue,Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY, 11228. Theprincipal business address of the LLCis: 544 5th Ave, Suite H238, NewYork, New York, 10001. Delawareaddress of LLC is: 1521 ConcordPike #301, Wilmington, DE, 19803.Certificate of LLC filed with Secretaryof State of DE located at: 401 FederalStreet - Suite 4, Dover, DE 19901.Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF MOW &AYW LLC Arts of Org filed with Secyof State of NY (SSNY) on 4/2/13.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated as agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC toprincipal business address: 35 E.85TH STREET, APT 11E, NY, NY10028. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of LF FAMILYASSOCIATES, LLC. Arts. of Org. filedwith Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on11/30/12. Office location: SuffolkCounty. SSNY designated as agent ofLLC upon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail processto the LLC, 101 Warren St., Apt. 2940,NY, NY 10007. As amended by Cert. ofCorrection filed with SSNY on 01/11/13,the office location is in County of NY.Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Barney Investments, L.P. filed an App.for Authority with the Department ofState of NY on 3/21/2013. Jurisdiction:TX, and the date of its formation is10/1/2007. Office location in NYS: NewYork County. The Secretary of Stateof NY (“SSNY”) is designated as agentupon whom process against it maybe served. The address to which theSSNY shall mail a copy of such processis: c/o Barney GP, LLC, David Sultan,Mgr., 201 E. 79th St., Apt. 14L, NY NY10075. The address in its jurisdictionif required or the office address: 4265San Felipe #1100, Houston TX 77027.A copy of the Articles of Organizationmay be obtained from TX Sec’ty ofState, 1019 Brazos St., Austin TX78701. The list of names and addressesof all general partners is availablefrom the SSNY. The purpose of theLP is any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of BHINVESTMENTS FUND, L.L.C.Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY(SSNY) on 02/21/13. Office location:NY County. LLC formed in Delaware(DE) on 01/11/13. Princ. office of LLC:655 Third Ave., 11th Fl., NY, NY 10017.SSNY designated as agent of LLCupon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail processto the LLC at the princ. office of theLLC. DE addr. of LLC: CorporationService Co., 2711 Centerville Rd.,Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts.of Org. filed with Secy. of State, Stateof DE, Dept. of State, TownsendBldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qual. of 245 West 25thStreet Building Owner LLC, Auth. filedSec’y of State (SSNY) 12/18/12.Office loc.: NY County. LLC org. in DE12/10/12. SSNY desig. as agent of LLCupon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail copy ofproc. to NRAI, 111 Eighth Ave., NY,NY 10011, the Reg. Agt. upon whomproc. may be served. DE off. addr.:160 Greentree Dr., Ste. 101, Dover,DE 19904. Cert. of Form. on file:SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qualification of BlueMeridianCapital, LLC. App. for Auth. filedSecy. of State of NY (SSNY) on3/5/13. Off. loc.: NY County. LLCformed in Delaware (DE) on 1/17/13.SSNY designated as agent of LLCupon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail processto: 280 Park Avenue, 5th Fl., NY, NY10017. DE address of LLC: c/oCorporation Service Company, 2711Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington,DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed DESecy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste.4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: anylawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of ArtBond LLC.Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of Stateof NY (SSNY) on 03/15/13. Officelocation: NY County. Princ. office ofLLC: 66 Crosby St., #6D, NY, NY10012. SSNY designated as agent ofLLC upon whom process against itmay be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to Corporation Service Co.,80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OFCharney Research LLC. Articles ofOrganization filed with Secretary ofState of NY on 12/13/12. Officelocation: NY County. SSNY designatedas agent upon whom process may beserved and shall mail copy of processagainst LLC to principal businessaddress: 1133 Broadway, Ste 1321, NY,NY 10010. Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF RevInMoTSQ LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secyof State of NY (SSNY) on 2/8/13.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated as agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC to:187 Wolf Rd, Albany, NY 12205.Principal business address: 555 8thAve, Ste 902, NY, NY 10018.Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OFHARLEM CORAL LLC. Arts of Orgfiled with Secy of State of NY (SSNY)on 3/19/13. Office location: NYCounty. SSNY designated as agentupon whom process may be servedand shall mail copy of processagainst LLC to principal businessaddress: 210 W 146 ST APT 6G NYNY 10039. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of Aredlo RealtyCompany, LLC, Art. of Org. filed Sec’yof State (SSNY) 12/31/12. Officelocation: NY County. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail copy of process to Cheryl YoungCarswell c/o Donald Hamburg,Golenbock Eiseman Assor BellPeskoe, 437 Madison Ave., NY, NY10022. Purpose: any lawful activities.



5NUMBER OFDAYS of paid sickleave due nextyear to employeesat businesseswith staffs of 20or more

$1KANNUALCOST PEREMPLOYEEof five paid sickdays at the Wink fashionboutique

$140KTHE COST OFOBAMACARE to Wink ownerStephen Werther



Notice of Formation of Bronx B DebtLLC, Art. of Org. filed Sec’y of State(SSNY) 11/19/12. Office location: NYCounty. SSNY designated as agentof LLC upon whom process againstit may be served. SSNY shall mailcopy of process to Bluestone Group,40 Rector St., Ste. 1500, NY, NY10006. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Barney GP, LLC filed an App. forAuthority with the Dept. of State of NYon 1/30/2013. Jurisdiction: TX and thedate of its organization is: 10/1/2007.Office location in NYS New YorkCounty. The Secretary of the State ofNY (“SSNY”) is designated as agentupon whom process against it may beserved, the address to which the SSNYshall mail a copy of such process is:c/o David Sultan, Mgr., 201 E. 79thSt., Apt. 14L, NY NY 10075. Addressmaintained in its jurisdiction is: 4265San Felipe #1100, Houston, TX77027. The authorized officer in itsjurisdiction of organization where acopy of its Certificate of Formationcan be obtained is: TX Sec’ty ofState, 1019 Brazos St., Austin TX78701. The purpose of the companyis: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of TSI Avenue A,LLC. Authority filed with NY Dept. ofState on 4/3/13. Office location: NYCounty. Princ. bus. addr.: 5 Penn Plz.,4th Fl., NY, NY 10001. LLC formed inDE on 3/19/13. NY Sec. of Statedesignated agent of LLC upon whomprocess against it may be servedand shall mail process to: c/o CTCorporation System, 111 8th Ave.,NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whomprocess may be served. DE addr. ofLLC: c/o The Corporation Trust Co.,1209 Orange St., Wilmington, DE19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec.of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE19901. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LIMITEDLIABILITY COMPANY. NAME: STORY2 SLEEP, LLC. Articles of Organizationwere filed with the Secretary of Stateof New York (SSNY) on February 27,2013. Office location: Kings County.SSNY has been designated as agentof the LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail a copy of process to the LLC to,I. MURREY TARGOWNIK 1180Avenue of the Americas, Suite 853, NY,NY 10036. Principal business address:449 Kings Highway, Brooklyn, N.Y.11223. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of ROSA CAP LLCArts. of Org. filed with the Sect’y ofState of NY (SSNY) on 1/4/2013.Office location, County of New York.SSNY has been designated as agentof the LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail process to: Klestadt & Winters,LLC, 570 Seventh Ave, 17th Flr., NYNY 10018. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of MORNINGSIDEASSOCIATES LLC. Arts. of Org. filedwith Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on03/27/13. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated as agent of LLCupon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail processto c/o The Brodsky Organization,LLC, 400 W. 59th St., NY, NY 10019.Purpose: Any lawful activity.


Notice of Formation of 22w11 LLC.Arts. of Org. filed Secy. of State ofNY (SSNY) on 3/1/13. Office location:NY County. SSNY designated asagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail process to: 1301 Ave. of theAmericas, Floor 41, NY, NY 10019.Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Name of LLC: Adoro Lei, LLC. Arts.of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State:2/22/13. Office loc.: NY Co. Sec. ofState designated agent of LLC uponwhom process against it may beserved and shall mail process to: c/oBusiness Filings Inc., 187 Wolf Rd.,Ste. 101, Albany, NY 12205, regd.agt. upon whom process may beserved. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qual. of PVF - AB, LP, Auth.filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 8/31/12.Office loc.: NY County. LP org. in DE8/27/12. SSNY desig. as agent of LPupon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail copy ofproc. to Att: Michael Van Biema, 745Fifth Ave., 14th Fl., NY, NY 10151.DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711 CentervilleRd., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. ofLP on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg.,Dover, DE 19901. Name/addr. ofeach gen. ptr. avail. at SSNY. Purp.:any lawful activities.

Notice of Qual. of 305 East 61stHoldings LLC, Auth. filed Sec’y ofState (SSNY) 12/17/12. Office loc.:NY County. LLC org. in DE 11/13/12.SSNY desig. as agent of LLC uponwhom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail copy ofproc. to NRAI, 111 Eighth Ave., NY,NY 10011, the Reg. Agt. upon whomproc. may be served. DE off. addr.:160 Greentree Dr., Ste. 101, Dover,DE 19904. Cert. of Form. on file:SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Notice of formation of LLC. Name:FlipIntros LLC. Arts. of org. filed withSec. of St. of NY (SSNY) 3/8/13. Officeloc. NY County. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNYshall mail copy of process to: TheLLC, 201 W 72nd St, 8I, NY, NY10023. Purpose: Any legal purpose.

Notice of Qualification of 200 WEST72 BUILDING SERVICES LLC.Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY(SSNY) on 03/08/13. Office location:NY County. LLC formed in Delaware(DE) on 03/08/13. Princ. office of LLC:810 7th Ave., 40th Fl., NY, NY 10019.SSNY designated as agent of LLCupon whom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail process toc/o Corporation Service Co., 80 StateSt., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr.of LLC: 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400,Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts. of Org.filed with Secy. of State, DE, 401Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Application For Authority of OwensRealty Network, LLC. filed withSecretary of State of NY (SSNY) on2/4/13. Office location: NY County.LLC formed in FL on 2/4/10. SSNYdesignated agent upon whom processmay be served and shall mail copy ofprocess against LLC to: Davis &Davis, LLP 675 West End Ave, Suite1B, New York, NY 10025. Principalbusiness address of LLC: 228 NorthPark Ave, Suite L; Winter Park, FL.Articles of Organization filed withSecretary of State of FL located: 400S Monroe St, Tallahassee, FL 32399.Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of KIPU MANAGE-MENT LLC. Arts. of Org. filed Secy.of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/21/13.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated as agent of LLC uponwhom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail process to:715 W. 180th St., Basement, NY, NY10033. Purpose: any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF JMCFunds LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secyof State of NY (SSNY) on 3/1/13.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated as agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC toprincipal business address: 55 FifthAve, Ste 1807, NY, NY 10003.

Notice of Qualification of Stoli Group(USA), LLC. Authority filed with NYDept. of State on 2/28/13. Officelocation: NY County. LLC formed inDE on 2/1/13. NY Sec. of Statedesignated agent of LLC upon whomprocess against it may be servedand shall mail process to: c/o NixonPeabody LLP, 437 Madison Ave., NY,NY 10022, principal business address.DE address of LLC: 615 S. DuPontHwy., Dover, DE 19901. Cert. of Form.filed with DE Sec. of State, P.O. Box898, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: alllawful purposes.

STAGE LEFT PARTNERS, LLC.Articles of Organization filed5/29/2012. Location: NY County,New York. SSNY designated asagent of LLC upon whom processmay be served. Address for mailingcopy of process: 805 Third Ave, 8thFl, New York, NY 10022. Purpose:any lawful purpose. Perpetuity.

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION ofGotham Street LLC. Authority filedwith Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on2/28/13. Office location: NY County.LLC formed in DE on 2/15/13. SSNYdesignated as an agent upon whomprocess may be served and shall mailcopy of process against LLC to: 100West Rockland Rd, Montchanin, DE19710. Principal business address: 160Greentree Dr, Ste 101, Dover, DE 19904.DE address of LLC: 160 GreentreeDr, Ste 101, Dover, DE 19904. Cert ofLLC filed with Secy of State of DElocated: 401 Federal St, Dover, DE19901. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of 2 RectorStreet (NY), LLC. Authority filed withSecy. of State of NY (SSNY) on3/21/13. Office location: NY County.LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on3/20/13. SSNY designated as agentof LLC upon whom process againstit may be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to: The LLC, 6922 HollywoodBlvd., Ste. 900, Los Angeles, CA90028, also the principal office.Address to be maintained in DE: 2140Dupont Hwy, Camden, DE 19934. Artsof Org. filed with the DE Secretary ofState, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of GENESISNEIGHBORHOOD PLAZA II, L.P.Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of Stateof NY (SSNY) on 07/10/07. Officelocation: NY County. Princ. office ofLP: c/o Genesis Neighborhood PlazaII Apartment, Inc., 5 Hanover Sq.,17th Fl., NY, NY 10004. Latest dateon which the LP may dissolve is12/31/2058. SSNY designated asagent of LP upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNYshall mail process to c/o HELP USAat the princ. office of the LP. Theregd. agent of the company uponwhom and at which process againstthe company can be served isGenesis Neighborhood Plaza IIApartments, Inc., c/o HELP USA, 5Hanover Sq., 17th Fl., NY, NY 10004.Name and addr. of each generalpartner are available from SSNY.Purpose: Any lawful activity.

MANHATTAN DAILY LIFE LLC, adomestic LLC, Arts. of Org. filedwith the SSNY on 2/13/13. Officelocation: New York County. SSNYis designated as agent upon whomprocess against the LLC may beserved. SSNY shall mail process to:Terri Amerkick, 80 John St., Apt. 4I,NY, NY 10038. General Purposes.

BOCHINGO LLC, Arts. of Org. filedwith SSNY on 02/22/13. Off. Loc.:New York County, SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail a copy of process to: The LLC,109 Lafayette St. #804, New York,NY 10013. Purpose: to engage inany lawful act.

Notice of Formation of GHB MANAGEMENT LLC. Arts. of Org.filed with Secy. of State of NY(SSNY) on 03/22/13. Office location:NY County. SSNY designated asagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail process to the LLC, 512 E. 81stSt., Ste. 1W, NY, NY 10028. Purpose:Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF ZhongLun Law Firm LLC. Arts of Org filedwith Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on4/1/13. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated as agent uponwhom process may be served andshall mail copy of process againstLLC to principal business address:340 Madison Ave, 19th Fl, NY NY10173. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of YORKSPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND II-A,L.P. Authority filed with Secy. of Stateof NY (SSNY) on 03/19/13. Officelocation: NY County. LP formed inDelaware (DE) on 02/22/13. Princ.office of LP: 767 Fifth Ave., 17th Fl.,NY, NY 10153. SSNY designated asagent of LP upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail process to c/o York SpecialOpportunities Fund II GP, LLC at theprinc. office of the LP. Name andaddr. of each general partner areavailable from SSNY. DE addr. of LP:c/o Corporation Service Co., 2711Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington,DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed withSecy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Village JV 516East 13th LLC, Art. of Org. filed Sec’yof State (SSNY) 1/2/13. Office location:NY County. SSNY designated asagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail copy of process to Kushner Co.,666 Fifth Ave., 15th Fl., NY, NY10103. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qual. of Pura Vida OnshoreFund One, LP, Auth. filed Sec’y ofState (SSNY) 8/29/12. Office loc.:NY County. LP org. in DE 7/27/12.SSNY desig. as agent of LP uponwhom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail copy ofproc. to Att: Efrem Kamen, 1350 Aveof the Americas, 28th Fl., NY, NY10019. DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE19808. Cert. of LP on file: SSDE,Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901.Name/addr. of each gen. ptr. avail. atSSNY. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Creative Juice Lafayette Street, LLCfiled an App. for Authority with theDept. of State of NY on 2/28/2013.Jurisdiction: DE and the date of itsorganization is: 11/7/2012. Officelocation in NYS: New York County. TheSecretary of the State of NY (“SSNY”)is designated as agent upon whomprocess against it may be served, theaddress to which the SSNY shall maila copy of such process is: c/o HudsonYards Catering LLC, 640 West 28thSt., 8th Flr, NY NY 10003. Addressmaintained in its jurisdiction is: 2711Centerville Rd. Ste. 400, Wilmington,DE 19808. The authorized officer inits jurisdiction of organization wherea copy of its Certificate of Formationcan be obtained is: DE Sec’ty ofState, 401 Federal St., Dover DE19901. The purpose of the companyis: any lawful act.

Notice of Qual. of Central Park GroupWP Private Equity XI, LLC, Auth. filedSec’y of State (SSNY) 7/3/12. Officeloc.: NY County. LLC org. in DE7/2/12. SSNY desig. as agent ofLLC upon whom process against itmay be served. SSNY shall mailcopy of proc. to 805 Third Ave., NY,NY 10022. DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE19808. Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE,Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901.Purp.: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of BottegaClinton LLC, Art. of Org. filed Sec’y ofState (SSNY) 1/4/13. Office location:NY County SSNY designated asagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNYshall mail copy of process to 79Clinton St., NY, NY 10002. Purpose:any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of 1667 NelsonAvenue Debt LLC, Art. of Org. filedSec’y of State (SSNY) 12/5/12. Officelocation: NY County. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail copy of process to 2447 ThirdAve., Bronx, NY 10451. Purpose: anylawful activities.

Notice of Formation of 1535 TaylorHoldings LLC, Art. of Org. filedSec’y of State (SSNY) 12/4/12.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated as agent of LLC uponwhom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail copy ofprocess to Bluestone Group, 40Rector St., Ste. 1500, NY, NY 10006.Purpose: any lawful activities.

NWG ADVISORS, LLC Art. Of Org.Filed Sec. of State of NY 12/14/2012.Off. Loc.: New York Co. CorporationService Company designated asagent upon whom process against itmay be served. SSNY to mail copyof process to The LLC, c/oCorporation Service Company, 80State Street, Albany, NY 12207.Purpose: Any lawful act or activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF FuelResources Edventure Division LLC. Artsof Org filed with Secy of State of NY(SSNY) on 12/26/12. Office location:New York County. SSNY designatedas agent upon whom process may beserved and shall mail copy of processagainst LLC to principal businessaddress: 38 E. 21st. St., Apt. 9, NY,NY, 10010. Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF JMCAsset Management LLC. Arts of Orgfiled with Secy of State of NY (SSNY)on 3/11/13. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated as agent uponwhom process may be served andshall mail copy of process against LLCto principal business address: 55Fifth Ave, Ste 1807, NY, NY 10003.

Notice of Formation of The NamdexGroup, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed Secy.of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/14/12.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated as agent of LLC uponwhom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail process to:The Namdex Group, LLC 44 WallStreet, 12th Fl., NY, NY 10006.Purpose: any lawful activity.DONDA MEDIA LLC, Arts., of Org.,

filed with NY Sec. of State(“SSNY”) 02/08/2013. Office in NewYork County; SSNY designatedagent for service of process withcopy mailed to Pryor Cashman LLP,7 Times Square, New York, NY10036, Attn: Brad D. Rose, Esq.;All lawful business purposes.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF KCCraft LLC. Arts of Org filed withSecy of State of NY (SSNY) on1/22/13. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated as agent uponwhom process may be served andshall mail copy of process againstLLC to principal business address:342 E 8th ST, NY, NY, 10009.Purpose: any lawful act.

432 PARK 50C, LLC, a domestic LLC,Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on1/14/13. Office location: New YorkCounty. SSNY is designated asagent upon whom process againstthe LLC may be served. SSNY shallmail process to: The LLC, 432 ParkAve., Unit 50C, NY, NY 10016.General Purposes.




NOTICE OF FORMATION OF JattiaLLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy ofState of NY (SSNY) on 9/25/12.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated as agent upon whomprocess may be served. PO addressto which SSNY shall mail copy ofprocess against LLC: US CorpAgents, Inc., 7014 13th Ave, Ste 202,Bklyn, NY 11228. Principal businessaddress: 395 S End Ave, 23K, NY,NY 10280. Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OFELVIDGE CONSULTING, LLC.Articles of Organization filed withthe Secretary of State of NY (SSNY)on JAN 18 2013. Office location:NEW YORK County. SSNY hasbeen designated as agent uponwhom process against it may beserved. The Post Office address towhich the SSNY shall mail a copy ofany process against the LLC servedupon him/her is: 15 BROAD STREET,UNIT 3522, NEW YORK, NY 10005.The principal business address of theLLC is: 15 BROAD STREET, UNIT3522, NEW YORK, NY 10005.Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qual. of PVF - AJ, LP, Auth.filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 8/31/12.Office loc.: NY County. LP org. in DE8/27/12. SSNY desig. as agent of LPupon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail copy ofproc. to Att: Michael Van Biema, 745Fifth Ave., 14th Fl., NY, NY 10151.DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711 CentervilleRd., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. ofLP on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg.,Dover, DE 19901. Name/addr. ofeach gen. ptr. avail. at SSNY. Purp.:any lawful activities.

Notice of Qualification of APOLLOADVISORS (MHE), LLC. Authority filedwith Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on02/28/13. Office location: NY County.LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on02/26/13. Princ. office of LLC: Attn:John J. Suydam, 9 W. 57th St., 43rdFl., NY, NY 10019. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail process to the LLC at the addr.of its princ. office. DE addr. of LLC:c/o Corporation Service Co., 2711Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington,New Castle Cnty., DE 19808. Arts. ofOrg. filed with The Secy. of State ofthe State of DE, Dept. of State, Div.of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg.,401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Sanjay Patel,MD PLLC. Arts. of Org. filed Secy. ofState of NY (SSNY) on 1/24/13. Off.loc.: NY County. SSNY designatedas agent of PLLC upon whomprocess against it may be served.SSNY shall mail process to: RodinLegal, P.C., 151 Lexington Ave., Ste.3E, NY, NY 10016. Purpose: practicethe profession of medicine.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF Twitcast,LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy ofState of NY (SSNY) on 10/23/12.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated as agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC toprincipal business address: 340 SLemon Ave, #6151, Los Angeles, CA91789. Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF 6PSGroup, LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secyof State of NY (SSNY) on 10/23/12.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated as agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC toprincipal business address: 340 SLemon Ave, #6151, Los Angeles, CA91789. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of Vendata LLC.Authority filed with Secy. of State ofNY (SSNY) on 2/20/13. Office location:NY County. LLC formed in Delaware(DE) on 5/21/12. SSNY designated asagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNYshall mail process to: The LLC, 40Fulton St., 11th Fl., NY, NY 10038,also the principal office. Address tobe maintained in DE: The CorporationTrust Company, Corporate TrustCenter, 1209 Orange St., Wilmington,DE 19801. Arts of Org. filed with theDE Secretary of State, 401 FederalSt., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: anylawful activities.

Notice of Formation of 14 OverlookLLC. Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept.of State on 2/28/13. Office location:NY County. Sec. of State designatedagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served and shallmail process to the principal businessaddress: c/o Bessemer Trust, 630Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10111, Attn: WilliamWeber. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qual. of 305 East 61st LLC,Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY)12/17/12. Office loc.: NY County. LLCorg. in DE 11/13/12. SSNY desig. asagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail copy of proc. to NRAI, 111 EighthAve., NY, NY 10011, the Reg. Agt.upon whom proc. may be served. DEoff. addr.: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste. 101,Dover, DE 19904. Cert. of Form. onfile: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of ABRIEL MGSLLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. ofState of NY (SSNY) on 03/15/13.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated as agent of LLC uponwhom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail process toc/o Friedberg Pinkas PLLC, 767Third Ave., 31st Fl., NY, NY 10017.Purpose: Real estate.

NOTICE OF APP. FOR AUTH. ofGetting Out Our Dreams Management,LLC, a foreign LLC. App. for Auth.filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 8/23/2012.LLC organized in DE on 8/16/12. NYoffice location: New York County.SSNY designated as agent of LLCupon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail copy ofprocess: 1790 Broadway, 20th Fl,New York, NY 10019, Attn: R. Cohen,princ. ofc. address of LLC. Purpose:any lawful activities.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LesArtisans Partners LLC. Arts of Orgfiled with Secy of State of NY (SSNY)on 10/9/12. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated as agent uponwhom process may be served andshall mail copy of process against LLCto principal business address: DongYang 212 W 91st St Apt 716, NY NY10024. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of MNH SUB I,LLC. App. for Auth. filed Secy. ofState of NY (SSNY) on 3/8/13. Off. loc.:NY County. LLC formed in Delaware(DE) on 12/10/12. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail process to: 1303 Avocado Ave.,#200, Newport Beach, CA 92660. Theregistered agent upon whom processmay be served: National CorporateResearch, Ltd., 10 E. 40th St., 10thFl., NY, NY 10016. DE address ofLLC: 615 S. DuPont Hwy., Dover, DE19901. Arts. of Org. filed DE Secy. ofState, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE19901. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of CERESMARKETING LLC Arts. of Org. filedwith the Sect’y of State of NY(SSNY) on 1/3/2013. Office location,County of New York. SSNY hasbeen designated as agent of the LLCupon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail processto: 41 Perry St. #3C, NY NY 10014.Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of Wicked TourManaging Partner LLC. Authority filedwith NY Dept. of State on 3/19/13.Office location: NY County. Princ. bus.addr.: 100 Universal City Plz.,Universal City, CA 91608. LLC formedin DE on 4/10/02. NY Sec. of Statedesignated agent of LLC upon whomprocess against it may be served andshall mail process to: c/o CT CorporationSystem, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011,regd. agent upon whom process maybe served. DE addr. of LLC: c/o TheCorporation Trust Co., 1209 OrangeSt., Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. ofForm. filed with DE Sec. of State,401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Notice of Qualification of OrchardSquare Partners GP, LLC. Authorityfiled with NY Dept. of State on12/18/12. Office location: NY County.LLC formed in DE on 11/7/12. NYSec. of State designated agent ofLLC upon whom process against itmay be served and shall mailprocess to: National CorporateResearch, Ltd. (NCR), 10 E. 40th St.,10th Fl., NY, NY 10016, regd. agentupon whom process may be served.DE addr. of LLC: NCR, 615 S.DuPont Hwy., Dover, DE 19901. Cert.of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State,401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.Purpose: any lawful activity.

STAGE LEFT-SOUNDVIEW RG I, LLC.Articles of Organization filed5/29/2012. Location: NY County, NewYork; SSNY designated as agent ofLLC upon whom process may beserved. Address for mailing copy ofprocess: 231 E 48th St., Apt 2, NewYork, NY 10017. Purpose: any lawfulpurpose. Perpetuity.

Notice of Qualification of Orley LLC.Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY(SSNY) on 2/21/13. Office location:NY County. LLC formed in Delaware(DE) on 3/29/11. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whomprocess against it may be served.SSNY shall mail process to: c/oNational Registered Agents, Inc., 111Eighth Ave., NY, NY 10011, also theregistered agent. Principal officeaddress: 648 Broadway, Ste. 1003, NY,NY 10012. Address to be maintainedin DE: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste. 101,Dover, DE 19904. Arts of Org. filedwith the DE Secretary of State, JohnG. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St.,Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose:any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of PGHManagement LLC. Arts. of Org. filedwith Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on3/19/13. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated as agent of LLCupon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail processto: 104 Charlton St., #6E, NY, NY10014. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation ofBrandthropologie Consulting, LLC.Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. ofState on 3/15/13. Office location: NYCounty. Sec. of State designated agentof LLC upon whom process against itmay be served and shall mail processto: 220 E. 57th St., Apt. 19A, NY, NY10022, principal business address.Purpose: all lawful purposes.

TOWER SEVENTH, LLC, a domesticLLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNYon 12/19/12. Office location: NewYork County. SSNY is designated asagent upon whom process againstthe LLC may be served. SSNY shallmail process to: c/o PF FinancialServices, Inc., 708 Third Ave., 19thFl., NY, NY 10017. General Purposes.

Notice of Formation of KinographStudios, LLC. Arts of Org filed withSecy of State of NY (SSNY) on2/15/13. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated as agent uponwhom process may be served andshall mail copy of process againstLLC to principal business address:798 Osprey Point Circle, Boca Raton,FL 33431. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of C-BridgeCapital Partners Holdings LLC.Authority filed with NY Dept. of Stateon 12/13/12. Office location: NYCounty. Princ. bus. addr.: 300 N. MainSt., Ste. 402, Greenville, SC 29601.LLC formed in DE on 12/12/12. NYSec. of State designated agent of LLCupon whom process against it may beserved and shall mail process to: c/oCT Corporation System, 111 8th Ave.,NY, NY 10011, regd. agent upon whomprocess may be served. DE addr. ofLLC: Corporation Trust Co., 1209Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801.Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. ofState, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE19901. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF AaronFarenback-Brateman LLC.Articles of Organization filed with theSecretary of State of NY (SSNY) on2/07/2013. Office location: NEWYORK County. SSNY has beendesignated as agent upon whomprocess against it may be served.The Post Office address to which theSSNY shall mail a copy of anyprocess against the LLC servedupon him/her is: 1546 2nd Avenue,Apt 4B, New York, NY 10028.The principal business address of theLLC is: 1546 2nd Avenue, Apt 4B,New York, NY 10028. Purpose:any lawful act or activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF SMTNYLLC. Articles of Organization filedwith the Secy of State of NY (SSNY)on 08/06/2012. Office location: NEWYORK County. SSNY has beendesignated as agent upon whomprocess against it may be served.The Post Office address to which theSSNY shall mail a copy of anyprocess against the LLC servedupon him/her is: The LLC 59 East72nd Street #3C, New York, NY10021 The principal businessaddress of the LLC is: 59 East 72ndStreet #3C, New York, NY 10021.Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF RehashLLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy ofState of NY (SSNY) on 3/25/13.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated as agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC toprincipal business address: JamesCalhoun, 40 Waterside Plaza 7M, NY,NY 10010. Purpose: any lawful act.

CITY PRACTICE GROUP OF NEWYORK, LLC, a foreign LLC, filed withthe SSNY on 3/20/13. Office location:New York County. SSNY is designatedas agent upon whom process againstthe LLC may be served. SSNY shallmail process to: The LLC, 336 E. 86thSt., NY, NY 10028. General Purposes.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF P.Glia,LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy ofState of NY (SSNY) on 1/10/13.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated as agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC toprincipal business address: 1825Madison Ave, Ste 7i, NY, NY 10035.Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of CCK NYWaste-Away Service, LLC. Arts. of Org.filed with NY Dept. of State on 3/27/13.Office location: NY County. Princ. bus.addr.: 707 N. Wildwood, Elkhart, IN46515. Sec. of State designatedagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served and shallmail process to: c/o CT CorporationSystem, 111 8th Ave., NY, NY 10011,regd. agent upon whom process maybe served. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF TesslerEvents, L.L.C.. Arts of Org filed withSecy of State of NY on 2/4/13. Officelocation: NY County. SSNY designatedas agent upon whom process may beserved and shall mail copy of processagainst LLC to principal businessaddress: 229 East 5th St. #6 NY, NY10003. Purpose: any lawful act.

Coolabah Ventures LLC - Arts. of Org.filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY)on 1/16/13. Office location: New YorkCounty. SSNY designated as agentof LLC upon whom process againstit may be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to c/o Ganfer & Shore, LLP,360 Lexington Ave., 14th Fl, NY, NY10017. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of CITY EXTRAPRESIDENTIAL, LLC. Arts. of Org.filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY)on 02/27/13. Office location: NYCounty. Princ. office of LLC: 200Madison Ave., 5th Fl., NY, NY 10016.SSNY designated as agent of LLCupon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail processto Attn Mr. John A. Gacinski at theprinc. office of the LLC. Purpose:Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF VMPGROUP, LLC. Articles of Organizationfiled with Secretary of State of NY(SSNY) on 10/25/12. Office Location:NY County. SSNY designated asagent upon whom process may beserved and shall mail copy ofprocess against LLC to principlebusiness address: 1500 Broadway,Suite 2013, NY, NY 10036. Purpose:Any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of Map-Tac-LLC.Articles of Organization filled withSecretary of State of New York(SSNY) on 1/22/13. Office location: NYCounty. SSNY has been designatedas an agent upon whom processagainst the LLC may be served. Theaddress to which SSNY shall mail acopy of any process against the LLCis to: Eric Tanner, 245 E. 44th St.New York, NY 10017. Purupose: Anylawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of JEMS NEWYORK REALTY LLC. Arts. of Org. filedwith Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on03/26/13. Office location: NY County.Princ. office of LLC: 88 Rivington St.,NY, NY 10002. Latest date on whichthe LLC may dissolve is 12/31/2035.SSNY designated as agent of LLCupon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail processto the LLC at the addr. of its princ.office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qual. of 245 Partners LLC,Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY)12/13/12. Office loc.: NY County. LLCorg. in DE 12/5/12. SSNY desig. asagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail copy of proc. to NRAI, 111Eighth Ave., NY, NY 10011, the Reg.Agt. upon whom proc. may be served.DE off. addr.: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste.101, Dover, DE 19904. Cert. of Form.on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover,DE 19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qual. of Atika CapitalManagement GP LLC, Auth. filedSec’y of State (SSNY) 9/28/12.Office loc.: NY County. LLC org. inDE 9/26/12. SSNY desig. as agent ofLLC upon whom process against itmay be served. SSNY shall mailcopy of proc. to Att: Brad Farber,1965 Broadway, Apt. 8D, NY, NY10023. DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE19808. Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE,Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901.Purp.: any lawful activities.

lost $6 billion in a derivatives tradenicknamed the “London whale.” Thenonbinding proposal won 40% ofshareholder votes at the bank’s annu-al meeting last year,and if it receives amajority at next month’s meeting, itwould not only be a stiff rebuke to Mr.Dimon, it would also enhance Mr.Liu’s stature as one of the nation’smost influential investors.

The battle comes at a useful timefor Mr. Liu, who faces unfavorablepublicity as his former campaigntreasurer is scheduled to be tried thisweek for allegedly conspiring tofunnel money to his mayoral bidthrough straw donors.

‘Nothing personal’The criminal case has damaged

Mr. Liu, who has not been charged,far more than earlier criticism byMayor Michael Bloomberg andbusiness leaders that the comptrol-ler has politicized his office by favor-ing labor groups in pension-fundmatters, audits and prevailing-wagerulings. Victory in the crusadeagainst Mr. Dimon would surelyhelp the politician from Queens tapinto public anger at giant banks.

However, the potential benefit toMr. Liu’s statutory constituency—the pension plans and their 237,000retirees—is harder to say. What isclear is that the funds don’t havenearly enough socked away to meettheir obligations to former teachers,police officers or firefighters, andthat years of academic research indi-cate the link between Mr. Liu’sbrand of activism and improved in-vestment performance is tenuous atbest. Still, Mr. Liu argues that wag-ing war with the likes of Mr. Dimonis a vital tool for helping the pensionfunds’ portfolios.

“Each and every campaign isabout enhancing our long-term val-ue as shareholders,” he said beforeheading into the mayoral debate.“It’s about holding our shares anddoing everything we can, using ourvoice as shareholders, to help en-hance long-term shareholder value.”

He added that his investor cam-paign is “nothing personal againstJamie Dimon.”

The bank, though, is treating itthat way. Board members have beendispatched to back their leader andremind shareholders that since Mr.Dimon became chairman in 2006,JPMorgan’s stock has returned 15%,compared with a 41% drop for itspeer group. Even after swallowingthe whale loss, the bank generated arecord $20 billion in profits lastyear—as much as General Electricand General Motors combined.

Mr. Liu’s anti-Dimon argumenthas two planks: that CEO andchairman jobs should be separatedbecause it’s a conflict for top execu-tives to report to boards that theyalso run; and that better board over-sight might have protectedJPMorgan investors from the mas-sive whale loss.

“We’ve seen excesses and,at best,faulty judgment calls made atJPMorgan Chase,” said Mr. Liu.

City comptrollers have a longhistory of using the office and the$130 billion pool of pension money

it helps oversee to enhance their po-litical stature. (The strategy has itslimits:Abe Beame is the only comp-troller to be elected mayor. Mr. Liu’spredecessor,Bill Thompson,lost the2009 mayoral race but is runningagain.) The office’s shareholdercampaigns date back to at least themid-1980s, when the office was atthe vanguard of a movement to di-vest shares from South Africa-connected companies to protest thatnation’s apartheid policies.

Over the years, the office’s tacticshave been adopted by other publicand labor-affiliated pension fundsthat have tried to use their clout asshareholders to press companies forchanges in everything from who sitson boards to having corporations ar-ticulate policies on environmentalmatters, minority hiring and other

social or economic issues.Mr.Liu’s aides say he has focused

on the largest companies in the pen-sion system’s portfolio and em-barked on fewer activist campaignsthan his predecessors. Still, sinceMr. Liu became comptroller threeyears ago, the city pension planshave sponsored 30 shareholder res-olutions, according to consultingfirm Georgeson, twice as many asany other public pension fund.

That campaigning leads to criti-cism from business groups that Mr.Liu is using his office and the pensionfunds’heft to advance issues of polit-ical importance to him.For example,under Mr. Liu, the pension fundshave sponsored eight resolutionsasking companies to disclose theirpolicies on political contributions.

Making an impact“Political spending is clearly a big

issue in society today,” said Jim Cop-land, a senior fellow at the Manhat-tan Institute. “But it’s not at all clearto me how it’s hurting shareholders.”

Political or not, Mr. Liu’s effortshave made an impact. Last week, hisoffice persuaded AIG and Bank ofNew York Mellon to divulge howmany women and minorities theyhire. Goldman Sachs and MetLifeagreed to do so last year, after thecomptroller began pressuring them.It’s important the companies disclosehard numbers “instead of makingblanket claims,” Mr. Liu said.

He is also a major player in grittyboardroom battles. Last year, for in-stance, the comptroller’s office per-suaded investors to vote off two direc-tors at Chesapeake Energy after theformer CEO was found to be takingout undisclosed loans that hadn’tbeen vetted by the board. (Only onedirector left, demonstrating the limi-tations of nonbinding votes.)

Still, evidence is scant that share-

holder campaigns like Mr. Liu’s im-prove returns for the pension funds.Though there have been dozens ofstudies on the subject, identifyingreform-minded investors’ impact onstock performance has been elusive.

“There’s no research that wouldconvince you one way or the other,”said Jill Fisch, a University of Penn-sylvania Law School professor.

Underperforming benchmarksThis much is clear: The city pen-

sion plans have struggled during thetenure of Mr. Liu, who, in fairness, isjust one of many officials overseeingthe city’s five employee pensionplans, each of which has its ownboard. A Liu plan to streamline theirmanagement was blocked by unionsthat stood to lose clout.

Two of the largest pensionplans—the $46 billion fund for re-tired teachers and the $43 billionone for city employees—generatedinvestment returns of 1.9% and1.3%, respectively, in the fiscal yearthat ended last June 30,according totheir annual reports. The funds’“policy benchmarks” called for a 3%return, and the Standard & Poor’s500 generated a 3.8% return duringthe period. The funds have alsounderperformed their benchmarksover the past three and five years,butthe city employee fund is exceedingits benchmark this year.

After the market’s rally over thepast several months, the comptrol-ler’s office said returns over 10 yearsnow exceed the 7% annual returntarget set by the city’s chief actuary,who lowered it from 8% last year.

The funds’ managers attributedlast year’s subpar performance tochallenges in the stock portion ofthe portfolios—a headwind that lotsof big pension funds faced.The me-dian public pension-fund return lastyear was a meager 1.1%, accordingto research firm Wilshire Associ-ates. (The New York State Com-mon Retirement Fund, whose soletrustee is state Comptroller ThomasDiNapoli,had a 6% return in the fis-cal year ended March 31, 2012.)

For city retirees, here’s the moreworrying figure: Their pensionfunds’ assets are less than two-thirdsof their liabilities. The city employ-ees’plan has only 64 cents on hand forevery dollar of commitments,and theteachers’ plan has only 59 cents.Theaverage state pension plan has 74cents for every dollar in liabilities,Wilshire reports. Contributionsfrom the city to the funds have risensharply in recent years to compensatefor the shortfall—necessitating cityprogram cuts—but the persistentgap suggests additional contribu-tions will be needed or future work-ers’ benefits will have to be reduced.

Mr. Liu has argued against cut-ting benefits, predicting that tax-payers’ contributions will level off inthe next few years as the funds sta-bilize. But the longer their returnslag,the larger the problem will be forthe next mayor. If city services areslashed further, issues like JamieDimon’s titles will be the last thingon voters’ minds. �

Comptroller cuts to the ChaseContinued from Page 3

Hurricanes Irene and Sandy—flooding in the 32-story skyscraperhas forced Verizon to move its em-ployees.

The permanent move, however,has some concerned business own-ers claiming that the telecom giantis turning its back on the flood-prone neighborhood, a charge thecompany denies.

“I reject the notion that we’refleeing lower Manhattan,” said aVerizon spokesman. “We’ve spentbillions of dollars rebuilding down-town.”

Local leaders upsetMany of the 1,100 workers are

call-center employees, the Verizonspokesman said. After Sandy ren-dered the building inoperable, em-ployees at 140 West St. were forcedto fan out to other offices in NewYork, New Jersey and Westchester.The company’s downtown build-ing has reopened, but unions saidmany of their members have not re-turned.

“Part of this is a business-continuity type of thing, which welook at after a disaster like that,” theVerizon spokesman said. “Likeevery other service provider,we’re ofcourse interested in continuity ofservice.”

Verizon said an unspecifiednumber of employees would remainat the lower Manhattan office—which can accommodate 1,500workers—though union leaders be-lieve it will be mostly a skeleton crewof field technicians. Some employ-ees from other Verizon offices mayfill the empty space, but the compa-ny could not say how many.

The prospect of having fewerworkers in the area has upset localbusiness leaders and politicians.Julie Menin, a candidate for Man-hattan borough president whoserved on the board of the LowerManhattan Development Corp.,said the company had received atleast $185 million in taxpayermoney from the entity to rebuilddowntown.

“Verizon is trying to break itsword to the lower Manhattan com-munity, working families and NewYork’s taxpayers,” Ms. Menin said.

After 9/11, when the Verizonbuilding sustained heavy damagefrom the collapse of the neighboringWorld Trade Center, the companyspent three years and $1.4 billion re-building its historic Art Deco head-quarters. Eleven years later, disasterstruck again on Manhattan’s south-west tip: The storm surge from

Sandy crashed through the build-ing’s windows, flooding its base-ments and caking its ornate lobbywith mud.

Newer buildings fared muchbetter during the storm. Across thestreet, Goldman Sachs’ headquar-ters went unscathed, as did the for-mer World Financial Center (nownamed Brookfield Place) nearby.

The decision to jump to down-town Brooklyn surprised employeesbecause the company again began torebuild its 32-story skyscraper, up-grading its underground infrastruc-ture to better deal with the next ca-tastrophe.

One union local representingthe downtown workers has a clearmotivation to stop the employeetransfers. The Manhattan-basedchapter of the CommunicationsWorkers of America would lose toits Brooklyn affiliate the dues ofmore than 450 workers.Local 1101President Keith Purce says Veri-zon’s goal is to slash costs by con-solidating as many workers as pos-sible, as it cuts back on the ranks ofits management, and said Verizonmay be looking to sell all or part ofthe building, as it has done with anumber of other Manhattan prop-erties.

Verizon said it is not selling thebuilding or moving its corporateheadquarters.

The subsidies, which were pro-vided to help downtown recoverfrom 9/11, do not appear to compelthe company to keep workers down-town,union officials said,but oppo-nents hope public pressure willcompel a change in course.

Effect on local businessThe Finance Committee of

Community Board 1 in lower Man-hattan recently passed a resolutionagainst the move, and the CWArounded up 200 petition signaturesfrom local businesses opposing it.The company declined an invitationto make its case at the communityboard meeting.

Damien O’Brien, the owner ofLilly O’Briens, a restaurant and bartwo blocks away from Verizon head-quarters, said his business wouldsuffer if workers decamp.

“Verizon got its millions to comeback downtown after 9/11, and nowthey’re using Sandy as an excuse tomove away,” said Mr. O’Brien,whose business was shut down fordays by the storm. “I could move,too. But I won’t.” �

Verizon moves workersContinued from Page 1


Pension-fundreturns havelagged duringMr. Liu’s tenure



FLOODWATER ispumped out of theVerizon buildingthree days afterSuperstorm Sandyhit.

new

scom

York, he had no idea the space waseven gone.

The end came suddenly and un-expectedly. On March 22, theLandmarks Preservation Commis-sion called the owners of 430 ParkAve. to tell them the city was con-sidering designating the Wrightshowroom—until January, thelongtime home to Mercedes ofManhattan—as the city’s 115th in-terior landmark. Three days later,the commission followed up with aletter. Both went unanswered.

Instead, on March 28, the build-ing’s owners, Midwood Investment& Management and OestreicherProperties, reached out to anothercity agency, the Department ofBuildings, requesting a demolitionpermit for the Wright showroom.The permit was approved the sameday, sealing the showroom’s fate.

By the following week, workershad arrived and removed every lasttrace of a space that some architec-tural historians say inspiredWright’s most celebrated New Yorkwork, the Guggenheim Museum.

Seldom noticedThe city has lost an architectural

gem, albeit a small and seldom-noticed one. Almost no one saw itgo. Even if someone had, there is al-most nothing that could have beendone to stop it.

And yet this quiet disappearancealso raises the question of whetherthere was anything worth saving.“I’m surprised, but I’m not,” saidDavid Hoffman, an executive man-aging director at brokerage Cassidy

Turley, who arranged Mercedes-Benz’s last lease for the space, in2001. “It was notable solely becauseit was designed by Frank LloydWright, but it wasn’t the Guggen-heim; it wasn’t monumental.”

Ironically, it was the LandmarksCommission’s good intentions, anda disconnect between it and the De-partment of Buildings, that doomedthe dealership.

In August, the commission re-ceived a request to consider land-marking the showroom from Doco-momo Tri-State, a preservationgroup focused on modernist build-ings, and the Frank Lloyd WrightBuilding Conservancy. The com-mission decided to wait until Mer-cedes vacated the space to proceed.

Part of the reason was that an in-terior-landmark designation can begranted only to a public space, andthere had been a long-running de-bate in the preservation communityabout whether the showroom wasactually anything but private prop-erty. Also, the commission had littlereason to believe Midwood andOestreicher would take the actionthey did.The delay proved fatal, butthe outcome was likely inevitable.

The commission is loath to des-ignate a landmark without the own-er’s support, because the landlord,not the city, is ultimately the stew-ard of the space. In the case of theauto dealership, the steward simplyhad other plans.

Representatives for both Mid-wood and Oestreicher declinedmultiple requests for comment.

“Regrettably, the showroom wasdismantled before the formal public

designation process could begin,” acommission spokeswoman said. “Itis disappointing that the owners inthis case demonstrated a disregardfor the process.”

That process, however, is fa-mously cumbersome. The commis-sion cannot “calendar” a property—the first step in the landmarkingprocess, and the point at which theDepartment of Buildings is notifiednot to allow work to be done on thepotential landmark—until Land-marks has done sufficient research,which typically involves outreach tothe owner. In the interim, the land-lord is free to request demolitionpermits, and there is almost nothingeither city agency can do to stopthem.

The Wright showroom is justone of several such cases in recentyears.

Back when the Madison SquareNorth Historic District was pro-posed in 2000,the owners of the for-mer ASPCA headquarters at 50Madison Ave. removed much of thebuilding’s Beaux Arts ornamenta-tion,with the Department of Build-ings’ blessing.The owners had plansfor a multistory addition to create aluxury apartment building, and theydid not want their work to be sub-ject to the commission’s whims.Thetactic worked, and the property wasleft out of the district. Taking a dif-ferent tack, the Institute of Interna-tional Education closed a confer-ence center designed by Finnisharchitect Alvar Aalto in 2008, thuscreating a private space exempt fromlandmarking.

Motivations for doing such endruns around landmarking are clear.

“I can’t think of too many ownerswho would be grateful to receive aphone call from the Landmarks

Commission when they’re about todo work on a building, which couldstop their ability to make that in-vestment and increase the value ofthe building,” said Stephen Spinola,president of the powerful Real Es-tate Board of New York.

People were shockedIn the case of the Wright show-

room, the architect who worked onthe demolition permits corroboratesthe city’s timeline of the destructioncoming shortly after the commis-sion had reached out to the land-lords. Silviu Zahara, of architecturefirm the Belea Group, said he hadreceived the job three weeks ago,buthe also insists he had no idea thespace was crafted by one of the na-tion’s most revered designers. “Thedrawings I got were from an archi-tect I’d never heard of,” he said.“Actually, it wasn’t a great-lookingspace.”

To be sure, this was one ofWright’s lesser works. Mr. Bankoffof the Historic Districts Councilsaid that when he mentioned it tocertain in-the-know colleagues,they were shocked to learn there wasa Wright hiding in plain sight onPark Avenue.

Even the renowned architecturecritic Ada Louise Huxtable waslukewarm on the showroom. “Thespiral ramp motif … which was to beso beautiful an element in theGuggenheim, is employed here,though far less effectively, in part be-cause of the low ceiling and partlybecause the cramped, abrupt turn-ing motion all too clearly recalls theramps of multifloor parkinggarages,” she wrote in a 1966 book.

Still, the showroom has itsmourners.

“It’s outside our scope as an insti-

tution, so we don’t know what to doabout [the demolition],but it’s pret-ty bad,”said Richard Armstrong,di-rector of the Guggenheim.

Some question whether there wasany Wright worth saving, since thespace was renovated twice, first in1982 and again in 2001. The meritsof the space would have been consid-ered at the Landmarks Commission.

“That’s a debate we should havehad,and could have had,but now wecan’t” because of the demolition,said Vin Cipolla, president of theMunicipal Art Society.“That’s whatthe landmarking process is for.”

Margery Perlmutter, a memberof the Landmarks Commission,wasshocked to learn about the loss of theshowroom.

“All it takes is a savvy landlordand a smart tenant to do somethingspecial with that space,” she said.“How many boutiques can claim tobe inside a Frank Lloyd Wright?None that I know of, unless youcount the Guggenheim gift shop.”

Just how much of an asset thespace’s pedigree could have been toa retailer will now never be known.But Faith Hope Consolo, a retailbroker at Douglas Elliman and aself-professed fan of Wright,has herdoubts.

“It means nothing to a new re-tailer; they couldn’t care less,” shesaid.Instead,she estimates that hav-ing a blank slate to work with couldadd hundreds of dollars per squarefoot to the value of the lease, espe-cially given the location, a block offbusy 57th Street.

“Of course, under the law thelandlords had the right to do this,”Ms.Consolo said.“I just wish they’dhad the same respect for FrankLloyd Wright as they did for theirown rights.” �

Wright is wrongedContinued from Page 1

D’Agostino, founded in 1932, isrun by Nicholas D’Agostino III, andoperates 13 upscale stores in Manhat-tan. Mr. D’Agostino did not returncalls for comment, but industry ex-perts say the chain is holding its own.

Big investments“They are not growing the way

they were,but they are solid and sus-taining their business,” said super-market consultant Burt Flickinger.D’Agostino owns at least a couple of

the buildings in which its stores arelocated, according to severalsources.

The other family-run grocers in-clude Zabar’s,with one longtime lo-cation on the Upper West Side,which it owns, and Citarella, withthree stores in Manhattan run by theGurrera family, which bought thebusiness in 1983.

To keep up with companies suchas Fairway and Whole Foods thatoffer a veritable smorgasbord ofcooked meals and fresh salads, all of

the families have made significantinvestment in prepared foods,building kitchens in their stores,hiring chefs and offering in-storedining areas.

“We are competing with restau-rants to a large extent,” said Mr.Sloan. Several of his locations offerdining areas. Morton Williams’ topchef, who develops all the recipesand menus at the stores, is a gradu-ate of the Culinary Institute ofAmerica. The Second Avenue storenear the United Nations, for exam-ple,offers an extensive variety of hotand cold dishes including sesametuna fillets, jumbo shrimp salad anda fresh sushi bar with a dedicated

chef.Similarly, each Westside Market

outpost has its own kitchen, wheremost of the recipes are developed byMr. Zoitas’ mother, Maria. The lo-cation at West 97th Street andBroadway, which opened last year,devotes the most space to preparedfoods—30% more than the otherWestside Markets.

Open to experimentationThese smaller businesses can

also experiment more easily thantheir big corporate counterpartscan. About two weeks ago, theZoitases began making their ownGreek yogurt, but will carry it on a

limited basis until Ms. Zoitas canfigure out how to make it more effi-ciently, said her son.

“It takes 12 hours to make,” hesaid.“We want to get the productiondown before we do a full-scalelaunch.”

Joseph Fedele, a veteran grocerwith past ties to both Fairway andFreshDirect, believes the family-run grocers will not be squashed bytheir larger competitors.

“These family businesses that aremicromanaged will survive,” hesaid, adding, “as long as they owntheir buildings or have a long-enough lease so the landlord is notgoing to quadruple their rent.” �

Family supermarketsContinued from Page 4

hundred dollars, but thousands onluxury items.”

The influx is sending both rentsand building prices skyrocketing toheights that would have beenunimaginable only last year—indi-cations of SoHo’s new status as thecity’s hottest retail market.

A report two weeks ago from realestate services firm Cushman &Wakefield found that rents in SoHohad jumped nearly 35% in the firstquarter alone, to an average of $423per square foot—by far the biggestincrease recorded in any major retail

market in the city.The gains were even more re-

markable on SoHo’s busiest streets.In the past year, rents on Broadwayhave soared by more than 50%, to$756 per square foot. On PrinceStreet between Wooster Street andBroadway, SoHo’s priciest block,rents did better, ballooning 65%, to$850 per square foot on average.

‘Historic’ move“This is historic,” said Michael

O’Neill, a retail broker at Cushman,noting that since the end of the re-cession, rents in the neighborhood

have far outstripped those set at thegiddy peak of the boom in 2007.

Retail broker Cory Zelnik cred-ited the more than 50 milliontourists who now flock to the cityannually for much of SoHo’s mete-oric rise, the same group whose vo-racious appetites for everythingfrom silk scarves to iPads pushedrents through the key $1,000 markin 2008 in Times Square, and sever-al years earlier on Fifth Avenue.

“SoHo is world-renowned at thispoint, and tenants have begun tounderstand that and pay according-ly,” said Mr. Zelnik.

With all that going for them,area landlords have unshackledtheir ambition and are boldly quot-ing four-digit rents for their best

properties. The owners of 120Prince St., a seemingly modest two-story, red-brick property, are aimingfor rents as high as $1,200 per squarefoot when space becomes availablethere starting next year.

Cause and effectThe owners, a group that in-

cludes Crown Equities, CenturionPartners and Imperium Capital,have a lot riding on their ability toget such big numbers. Last year,they bought the 2,000-square-footproperty for a whopping $20 mil-lion.

Similarly, Mr. Sitt and anotherSoHo landlord, Jeff Sutton, pur-chased a rundown two-story retailbuilding at 529 Broadway last year

for $150 million with a goal of rede-veloping it into a glass box that willcommand rents rumored to be ashigh as $1,600 per square foot. Sev-eral tenants, which include Nike,sources say, have already shownsome interest in the space that sitson one of the busiest corners inSoHo: the intersection of Broadwayand Spring Street.

For Karen Bellantoni, a retailbroker at RKF, the current boomhas an all-too-familiar ring. Shenotes that rents have shot up sever-al times since the former industrialarea drew its first art-gallery ten-ants four decades ago, only to crashto earth.

“At some point, reality is going tocatch up,” Ms. Bellantoni said. �

SoHo enters top tierContinued from Page 3


INSIDESource LunchLuckyRice expandsfoodie fest PAGE 22Out and AboutCelebrating the DukePAGE 23

BY CARA EISENPRESS

When The Shop Brooklyn opens in Bushwick this summer, itsmotorcycle workbenches will be dwarfed by the venue’s otherofferings: a barbecue pit, a retail shop and a 5,000-square-footwarehouse for concerts and parties. ¶ “It’s the style, the fashion, themusic, the food, the drinks,” said owner Dan Lyle. “Everything.” ¶Motorcycle culture is booming in Brooklyn, and new businessesare revving up to cater to the growing cadre of riders. Registrationsin the borough are up 22% since 2007, according to the

Department of Motor Vehicles, almost double the increase in registrations citywide. ¶ The Shopwill join nearly a dozen motorcycle garages that have opened in neighborhoods like Red Hook,Williamsburg, Bushwick and Gowanus in the past five years. Most of them focus squarely onrepairs, yet they satisfy a social purpose: bringing together a group of like-minded Brooklynites, andforming the backbone of a resurgent community. ¶ While there remain redoubts of Harley-loving,Hells Angels-affiliated bikers in the city, the latest crop of shops

Brushing up on new talentWatching the contemporary-artmarket soar can be dishearteningfor those without millions toinvest in a Pollock or a Rothko(below). But a trio of longtime artcollectors are trying to create afund that will give aspiringinvestors a chance to find the nextbig star for a mere $25,000.

Peter Hort and two partners areattempting to raise $10 million forContemporary Art Collection Inc.,which will buy and sell worksfrom emerging artists—a strategythey say will allow for greaterappreciation than a focus onestablished names.

Mr. Hortand his familyare well-knowncollectors ofemerging artwho have hadsome successspotting talent.Through a

nonprofit they started, the RemaHort Mann Foundation, they havemade grants to several emergingartists who have gone on tobecome important, includingKehinde Wiley and Keltie Ferris.However, Mr. Hort stresses thatthis will be separate from hisfamily’s activities. “We want tohelp change how people invest inart,” said Mr. Hort. “I think we arefilling a niche.”

—theresa agovino

Oyster Bar shellsout for birthday Grand Central Terminal’s famedOyster Bar & Restaurant willcelebrate its 100th anniversary onApril 19, just months after thestation’s Feb. 2 centennial bash.

The subterranean eatery isamong a rarefied handful in thecity with such longevity, includingDelmonico’s, Peter Luger andKeens.To mark the occasion, theOyster Bar will throw a gala event,including a cocktail hour, dinner,live music and a silent auctionbenefiting the American Cancer

Society. Patrons will pay $119.13—a nod to the restaurant’s 1913launch. Celebrity chef SaraMoulton will be on hand, alongwith radio personality ShelliSonstein of Q104.3’s Jim Kerr Rock& Roll Morning Show.

“We wanted to separate theterminal celebration from ours,”said chef Sandy Ingber.

The restaurant will serve its100 millionth oyster at the event,he predicts. “We currently sell atleast 5,000 oysters each day,” hesaid. Mr. Ingber, who has workedfor the restaurant for 23 years andhas been its executive chef since1996, will offer a $20.13 fishspecial each week for the rest ofthe year. A cookbook of therestaurant’s signature dishescomes out in September.

—lisa fickenscher See MOTORCYCLE on Page 22

HELLUVA TOWN


7,332

9,415

2007 2012

ROLLINGMotorcycle registrations,Brooklyn

CAP LEADIN KO:caption readout KOgo here and here andhere and here

THE ART OFMOTORCYCLEMAINTENANCE:Chris Lessler, owner ofmotorcycle-clothingstore Union Garage,left his full-time job tolearn motorcyclemechanics.

Source: NY Department of Motor Vehicles

Vroom!Motorcycle culture booms in Brooklyn as hipsters get hooked

Danielle Changlaunched LuckyRicethree years ago inNew York as a way toconnect up-and-

coming restaurateurs with foodies, inthe process helping to spark thegrowth of food festivals in the city.This year, the Asian culinary extrav-aganza goes national. LuckyRiceNew York runs April 28 to May 5 be-fore heading to Los Angeles in Au-gust,San Francisco in September andLas Vegas and Miami in October.

What accounts for LuckyRice’s growth?China’s rising economy, increasedtravel and immigration. China is ontarget to be the No. 1 tourist destina-tion for Americans in 2020, surpass-ing Europe.There’s a greater willing-ness to find out what Asian culture is.Hence the place we’re sitting in today.It’s an homage toSzechuan flavor, whichAmericans are only nowbecoming aware of, eventhough it’s a flavor that’svery traditional.

So is LuckyRice aboutproviding an authenticexperience? I don’t really like “authen-ticity.” It doesn’t alwaysmean quality. DannyBowien [the chef and own-er of Mission Chinese] isnot even Chinese; he’s Ko-rean.On our culinary coun-cil we have a lot of Asianchefs, like Masaharu Mori-moto and David Chang.But we also have Frenchchefs, like Daniel Boulud,and Spanish chefs, like JoséAndrés,each of whom addsa unique contribution toAsian culinary culture.

I wouldn’t say come toLuckyRice to taste themost authentic Asian food in Amer-ica. I’d say come to LuckyRice so youcan see how Asian culture has takenon myriad forms through food anddrink.

The people coming to our eventsare more cultural explorers trying outnew restaurants and cocktails andflavors, as opposed to people whowant to cook a good meal in 30 min-utes for a family of four.

Chinese food has definitely adapted tothe American palate.

That’s a huge part of the story. As weexpand to different cities,LuckyRiceitself takes different forms.

If I say the word “fusion,” you’ll cringe.Fusion got a bad rep in the ’80s.There was really bad food. Likewasabi and mashed potatoes. Fusionitself is not a bad thing. Most Chi-nese dishes are fusion because it’s anancient civilization. If you thinkabout the spice trade, there were a lotof outside influences.

How will LuckyRice differ elsewhere?We’ve been testing all these markets.In Miami we took over the SohoHouse. By the pool we served Bom-bay Sapphire East,which is one of ourpartners. Chef Douglas Rodriguezhad a Cuban-style roasted pig.On thebeach there were ceviche and crudostations. It was all very Chino Latino.

How much are tickets?Fifty dollars to $250.We’llhave 10,000 ticketed con-sumers this year.

Do restaurants pay?They don’t.We select them.We act like culinary cura-tors. And they participatefor the marketing value.

It’s really through corpo-rate sponsorships that weare able to produce theevents on the level that wewant them to be.That’s thelittle-known dirty secret—well, it’s not a dirty secret—it’s a little-known fact aboutthe event-production busi-ness. Events are so costly toproduce that ticket revenuesdon’t cover production.

What’s your revenue?It’s not large.This is a smallentrepreneurial business.

What’s next? I really like the five markets we’re in.They represent a diverse slice ofAmerica and the role that Asian foodplays in it.

Sounds like fun.It is fun. I was born in Taiwan andspent a lot of time in China. Myfamily is there. I’ve always wantedto create a platform to share theAsian culture I grew up with in away that wasn’t pigeonholed onlyfor Asians. �


LuckyRice fest goesagainst the grain

Motorcycle culture boomscater to young riders with hipstertastes for vintage Japanese andretro European models. The bikesand their parts are affordable,abundant and easily available onCraigslist. That makes it simplerfor do-it-yourself mechanics toturn them into café racers—thedrop-handlebar style of 1960sBritain that is in vogue—whilethey hang out at gear shops andcommunity garages that cater totheir trendier tastes and styles.

“Café racer is synonymous withhipster,”said Dan Rose,a partner atDutch company Rev’it, which sellsfunctional, fashionable clothing atUnion Garage, a gear store thatopened in fall 2012.

Most of the garages remain fo-cused on the most important task:keeping bikes safe and in good re-pair. They accommodate severaldozen bikes, whose owners pay toprotect their rides from bad weath-er and parking tickets during thewinter season.The shops also offerworkbenches, professional toolsand mechanics to guide tinkering.

Nearly 100 members pay for 24-hour access to Vax Moto’s garageon Third Avenue in Gowanus.Justin Walters, the owner, said helikes giving riders the opportunityto work on their own bikes. Theneighborhood’s abundance ofwarehouse space made it easy forhim to find the 10,000-square-footgarage, just ahead of Whole Foods-led gentrification.

In at the right time“I got in right on the cusp of ma-

jor change,” said Mr. Walters.So did two other garages near-

by: Machina Cycles, on NinthStreet, and Brooklyn MotorWorks, on Van Dyke Street in RedHook. Both opened in 2010.

In Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Moto on North 10th Street andMotogrrl on Metropolitan Avenueboth offer storage space, work-benches and a social scene.

Garage memberships withworkshop time run around $200 amonth. Entry-level vintage Hon-das cost at least $1,500. In otherwords, picking up the hobby is notcheap. But steady work during thewarm months and a full garage dur-ing the winter, coupled with rea-sonable rents, allow the businessowners to eke out a living.

“In Brooklyn, I can get a space

that I can afford, to develop a newconcept,” said Mr. Lyle of TheShop Brooklyn.“[Riding motorcy-cles] was a hobby when I started,and I was screwing around. But Icould never have done that in Man-hattan. It’s economics.”

The Brooklyn shops and garagesdon’t sell new bikes. Establishing adealership is too big an investmentin a borough where real estate pricesare rising even in offbeat neighbor-hoods. Dealerships Ducati SoHoand BMW in Manhattan, andHarley-Davidson of Long IslandCity, Queens, sell new bikes, butmost young Brooklyn-based ridersprefer cheaper vintage alternatives.

Bike sharing is also catching on.For $108 monthly memberships,riders can reserve a motorcycle on-line for the day or the week atJupiter’s. Owner Chris Miles is ex-

panding the four-year-old pro-gram into a beta version of aZipcar-like service so motorcycleswill be available to members atgarages around the city. So far, Mr.Miles said, 40 users have signed upfor the 2013 riding season.

For Mr. Miles, Mr. Lyle andother business owners, the idea isthat if you’re on two wheels, you’repart of the community—in whichcase you’re a potential customer foreducation, sales, repairs and garagerental, especially if you’re new tothe scene.

Mentoring ‘program’At many of the garages, experi-

enced riders will mentor new ones,teaching them bike mechanics andsafety. “It’s not about experience orinexperience. I love people who arenew,” said Joonil Park, an instruc-tor at the Motorcycle Safety Schoolin Williamsburg.“If you ride some-thing with two wheels and an en-gine in it, we’ll encourage you.”

Some of the more seasoned rid-ers worry that the newest bikersprize style over safety, wearing T-shirts instead of armored jackets orbuying low-quality helmets. Yetthe number of motorcycle acci-dents in the city has stayed steadyin the past five years at 1,200 peryear, despite the growing ridership.

Even those who get into thescene for the style—or the barbe-cue—usually fall in love with bik-ing itself, whether as a way to avoidthe subway or a means to cruise outof the city on the weekends.

“They’ve all been bitten by thebug,” said Chris Lessler, the ownerof motorcycle-clothing store UnionGarage in Red Hook, who left hisfull-time job at a startup to learnmotorcycle mechanics before heopened his store.“It’s a generation ofpeople who want to do somethingwith their hands. If you get an olderbike—up ’til 1980—it’s easy to workon and easy to maintain.”

With so many new shops, statusis conferred quickly. Moto Borgo-taro, a repair shop for vintage Euro-pean bikes next door to Mr.Lessler’sUnion Garage, opened on UnionStreet in 2008. Borough bikers re-vere Moto Borgotaro owner PeterBoggia for having apprenticed undera famed mechanic in New Orleans.Owners who want repairs waitmonths to get their bikes fixed at hisshop. The shop, now a stalwart onthe scene, is considered more exclu-sive than newcomers and its me-chanics more serious.

That whiff of exclusivity onlyadds to the renegade flavor of Brook-lyn’s motorcycle scene. Even Mr.Lyle,who plans to welcome all com-ers at The Shop, acknowledges that.

“The city’s not that friendly tomotorcycling,” he said. “But thatlends itself to being cool, due to theinherent outlaw nature of motorcy-cling.Guys like that taste of being anoutlaw even if they’re totally not.” �


‘They’ve all been bitten by the bug’

WHERETHEYDINEDMISSIONCHINESE FOOD154 Orchard St. (212) 529-8800missionchinesefood.com/nyAMBIENCE: FauxChinese fast-foodentryway opens toa dining anddrinking area withdive-bar décorand the Ramoneson the radio.WHAT THEY ATE: � Smashedcucumbers, redcabbage leaves,Taiwanese clams,salt-cod fried rice,mapo la mian,thrice-cookedbaconTOTAL: $84.76,including tip

SOURCELUNCH:DANIELLE CHANG

by Jeremy Smerd

INSIDE TIP: Chef Danny Bowien was bornin Korea. He was adopted and grew up inOklahoma. He’s new to cooking Asian food.

GETTING IN GEAR

Full-face helmet

$100DMV road test

$200

Motorcyclesafety course

$350Schott leather jacket with armor protection

$500

buck

enn

is

Rev up Crain’smotorcycle slide show at

www.crainsnewyork.com/galleries


BLAIR ZUCHER, VANS STEVENSON and SURI KASIRER at ANight With Daniel Boulud to benefit Citymeals-on-Wheels. TheApril 7 event raised more than $550,000 for the nonprofit,which delivers meals to the city’s elderly population.

DANIEL BOULUD, ROBERT GRIMES and ALIX BOULUD at the Citymeals-on-Wheels dinner.

SNAPS Culinary elite support Citymeals-on-WheelsOUT ANDABOUT

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, TO SATURDAY, APRIL 27Salute one of the 20th century’s musicalgiants at the DUKE ELLINGTON FESTIVAL.Performers include the Jazz at LincolnCenter Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis(right) and Michael Feinstein. Therewill also be a free preconcert festival inthe Atrium on Thursday, April 25, at6:30 p.m., featuring live music, art dis-plays and tastings. The event is at theRose Theater and the Allen Room atFrederick P. Rose Hall at Broadway and West 60th Street. Tickets start at $30and can be purchased by calling (212) 721-6500 or visiting www.jalc.org.

CULTURE FIXTHURSDAY, APRIL 18, TO SATURDAY, APRIL 20See films alfresco at the TRIBECA DRIVE-IN, a freeoutdoor movie screening presented by the TribecaFilm Festival. It will kick off with a viewing ofAlfred Hitchcock’s The Birds on Thursday.Screenings are at Brookfield Place, WorldFinancial Center Plaza. Admission is at 6 p.m.,with screenings starting at dusk. For moreinformation, visit www.tribecafilm.com.

SATURDAY, APRIL 20, AND SUNDAY, APRIL 21Get ready to burn your taste buds off at the NEWYORK CITY HOT SAUCE EXPO, an artisanal expofeaturing more than 50 vendors. It will include achicken-wing contest and bloody Mary mix-down. It runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 110 KentAve., at North Eighth Street, in Brooklyn.Tickets are $10 for the general public and $100for VIP admission. For more information, visitwww.nychotsauceexpo.com.

CAREER BUILDERSWEDNESDAY, APRIL 17Learn about how newtechnologies have influencedmedia at PAIDCONTENT LIVE 2013BY GIGAOM. Speakers includeDavid Karp, founder and chiefexecutive of Tumblr, and JacobWeisberg, chairman and editorin chief of Slate Group. It startsat 7:30 a.m. at the Time & LifeBuilding, 1271 Sixth Ave.,between West 50th and West51st streets. Individual ticketsstart at $1,295. For moreinformation, visitevent.gigaom.com.

THURSDAY, APRIL 18Learn how to create a safeworking environment at theWORKPLACE VIOLENCEPREVENTION CONFERENCE,hosted by Allied SecurityServices and the Academy ofCritical Incident Analysis. Thefree event starts at 8 a.m. at JohnJay College, 524 W. 59th St.,between Amsterdam and WestEnd avenues. For moreinformation, visitwww.alliedbarton.com.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR… WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, TO SUNDAY, JUNE 16FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 13 YEARS, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will return toLincoln Center for the Performing Arts for a seven-performance run that will includeseason premieres and repertory favorites. The opening program will feature anencore performance of the ballet Petite Mort. Performances are at the David H.Koch Theater, 20 Lincoln Center Plaza, Columbus Avenue at West 63rd Street.Tickets start at $25. For more information, visit www.lincolncenter.org.

FUNDRAISERSTUESDAY, APRIL 16Raise money to help repair a Sandy-ravagedarea at the MADISON AVENUE REBUILDS STATENISLAND BENEFIT. Organized by leaders in theadvertising industry who are also StatenIsland natives, the event will raise funds to fillthe gaps that FEMA and flood insurance didnot provide. Featured are a three-hour openbar, a silent auction and raffles. The event is at6:30 p.m. at the Ainsworth, 122 W. 26th St.,between Sixth and Seventh avenues. Ticketsare $125. For more information, visitwww.madisonaverebuildssi.com.

SUNDAY, APRIL 21Honor victims of the Sept. 11 terroristattacks at the first 9/11 MEMORIAL 5KRUN/WALK AND FAMILY DAY, featuringhonorary chair Jon Stewart. Proceeds willbenefit the 9/11 Memorial. The run/walkwill tour important places in Sept. 11 history,like “Point Thank You,” where peoplegathered along West Street to cheer andthank rescuers. It starts at 9 a.m. at Pier 57 inHudson River Park at West 15th Street. Theentry fee is $40 for adults and $25 forchildren ages 13 to 17. For more information,visit www.911memorial.org/5K.

OPENINGTUESDAY, APRIL 16See one of the great portraits of the17th century: Diego Velázquez’spainting of DUKE FRANCESCO ID’ESTE at the Metropolitan Museumof Art. This is the first time thepainting has traveled to the UnitedStates, and its arrival will coincide

with theopening ofthe NewEuropeanPaintingGalleries. Itwill be ondisplaythrough July14 at the

museum, 1000 Fifth Ave., at 81stStreet.The museum is open Sunday,Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Friday andSaturday from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.Recommended admission is $25 foradults, $17 for seniors, $12 forstudents and free for members andchildren. For more information, visitwww.metmuseum.org.

by Emily Laermer and Miriam Kreinin Souccar

ALAN and SUSAN PATRICOF at the OpportunityNetwork benefit on April 8. The evening raisedmore than $950,000 to help high-achieving,low-income high-school and college students.

See more of this week’s Snaps online at CrainsNewYork.com/galleries.

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TIM O’NEAL LORAH, PAUL TYRRELL, KATE WEINSTEIN and JENNIFER ZIMMERMAN at BaileyHouse’s 30th-anniversary gala on March 28. The event raised $500,000.

DON’T MISS SALUTING THE DUKE

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