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VOL. XXX, NO. 15 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM

CRAIN’SNEW YORK BUSINESS®

APRIL 14-20, 2014 PRICE: $3.00

Louboutins likethese giveconsignmentshops a leg up P. 25

Demolitionfreeze maycover 80%of the city

BY JOE ANUTA

A politician’s proposal to protect thethousands of older buildings in NewYork that face demolition each year hastriggered a backlash not just amongpowerful developers, but also amongconstruction unions and advocates foraffordable housing who fear the meas-ure could drasticallycurb residential con-struction in the city.

The storm beganon April 4 at aprotest outside thestately, likely-to-be-razed Rizzoli book-store on West 57thStreet, when Man-hattan BoroughPresident GaleBrewer pledged todo more to preventsuch losses in the fu-ture. She offered tointroduce a bill thatwould require a 30-day review by theLandmarks Preser-vation Commissionof any demolitionpermit filed for abuilding over 50 years old. The meas-ure would apply to nearly 80% of thecity’s structures and 91% of those inManhattan, according to city data.

“We’ll see what we end up with—it’s possible we could go older than 50years,”Ms.Brewer allowed in a follow-up email responding to a questionfrom Crain’s. She said she has invitedthe Real Estate Board of New York andthe Landmarks Conservancy to sit

Brewer bid to protectbuildings over age 50frightens developers,construction unionsand housing advocates

See DEMOLITION on Page 24

REPORT SMALLBUSINESS Tech startupstarget pet owners P. 18

THE LISTLargest SBAloans P. 17

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KIDSBY AARON ELSTEIN

In late 2006,a U.S.Coast Guard pi-lot named Nelson Brandt was in-vited for dinner at the home ofsomeone who had once been one ofthe city’s most successful retailers,Nobody Beats the Wiz co-founderMarvin Jemal.

Mr. Brandt, who helped rescuepeople after hurricanes and chasedown drug smugglers, had startedinvesting his family inheritance inMr. Jemal’s ventures a year earlier.He was impressed that two servants helped prepare the feast at his busi-ness partner’s large house in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood. ButMr. Brandt, who had lost his father as a young man and whose marriagehad fallen apart, was most struck by how Mr. Jemal seemed worshippedby the large and loving family seated around the table.

“He was truly the king of hiscastle,” Mr. Brandt recalled. “I re-member him putting his grandsonon his knee and saying, ‘I’m goingto teach you everything I know.’Hehad everything I wanted.”

And Mr. Brandt had somethingMr. Jemal wanted: the $20 millionhe’d inherited from his father, whoowned several Broadway theaters,movie houses and hotels.What Mr.Brandt didn’t know was that Mr.Jemal had been unable to repeat hissuccess at Nobody Beats the Wiz,had filed for personal bankruptcy

in 2005, and needed to finance his comeback. He sweet-talked Mr.Brandt into investing virtually all his inheritance into a series of disas-trous ventures that left the career military man nearly penniless.

“I grew up not knowing much about the real world,” said Mr. Brandt,

aatt ssttrruugggglliinngg ttoo rreeppeeaatt tthheeiirrddiissccoouunntt--cchhaaiinn gglloorryy ddaayyss

MARVIN JEMAL He failed to find thenext big thing after the retailer he co-founded, Nobody Beats the Wiz, wentbankrupt. He was indicted in Februaryfor bank fraud and money laundering,and is fighting the criminal charges.

STEPHEN JEMAL He helped overseethe building of numerous Nobody Beatsthe Wiz stores, then tried to buildwaterfront condos in Brooklyn before thefinancial crisis stymied him. Investorlawsuits allege he wasn’t nearly aswealthy as he claimed.

DOUGLAS JEMAL A successful realestate developer in Washington, D.C.,he was convicted of defrauding alender in 2006 but sentenced to onlyfive months of probation in recognitionof his community works.

LAWRENCE JEMAL The formerpresident of Nobody Beats the Wiz nowruns Manhattan-based clothingmarketer ICER Brands. ICER stands for“integrity, customer, excellence,respect”—the same credo used atNobody Beats the Wiz.

JEMAL BROTHERS: TRIALS, TRIBULATIONS

See WIZ KIDS on Page 23

AGING STRUCTURESNumber of build-ings constructedbefore 1965, andpercentage oftotal buildings

New York City654,420 (80%)Manhattan 37,157 (91%)Brooklyn233,828 (88%)Queens272,020 (87%)Bronx66,190 (79%)Staten Island45,225 (40%)Source: NYC Departmentof Finance

2 | Crain’s New York Business | April 14, 2014

JUDGE ACCEPTS SAC’S GUILT. A fed-eral judge approved SAC CapitalAdvisors’ guilty plea.Steven Cohen’shedge fund will pay $1.8 billion to re-solve criminal and civil probes intoinsider trading—the largest suchsettlement in history. SAC will beplaced on probation for five years andwill employ a compliance consultant.… DIMON’S BIG PAYDAY. JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon wasawarded $20 million in compensa-tion last year, nearly double his 2012pay and the most of any bankingchief in New York City. Most of hispay was in restricted shares, many ofwhich have not yet vested. Mean-while, the bank saidfirst-quarter profitsfell 19% on lowerfixed-income tradingand mortgage rev-enue. JPMorgan wasthe first bank to re-port first-quarterearnings. … COM-CAST, TWC BAND TO-GETHER. Comcastand Time WarnerCable defended their$45 billion mergerlast week before theSenate JudiciaryCommittee, whichquestioned whetherthe deal would bene-fit customers. Criticssaid the combinedcompany would have nearly 40% ofthe nation’s broadband market. AComcast executive argued that there

is plenty of competition, and themerger would not increase customerbills. … HEALTH CHIEFS DEPART.New York state Health Commis-sioner Dr. Nirav Shah is steppingdown May 4 to join the Kaiser Foun-dation Health Plan in Southern Cal-ifornia.He had been in his post since2011. Separately, Kathleen Sebelius,the U.S. secretary of Health and Hu-man Services, resigned. The formerKansas governor oversaw the trou-bled rollout of Obamacare.PresidentBarack Obama’s budget chief, SylviaMathews Burwell, replaces her. …CITY COUNCIL BOOSTS SPENDING.The City Council plans to increase

its fiscal 2015 budgetby 10%,to $56.9 mil-lion, six times therate of inflation. Theadditional funds willbe used to draft morelegislation, increasethe body’s oversightand investigativefunctions, and ex-pand individual dis-trict offices. …RESTAURANT IN-SPECTOR GADGETS.City restaurant in-spectors may be re-quired to wear acamera—potentiallythe pricey GoogleGlass—during in-spections, according

to a bill introduced last week byCouncilman Vincent Ignizio. Thebill aims to level the playing field for

restaurateurs looking to dispute theirinspection reports. … ID IDEA. TheCity Council introduced a bill thatwould allow undocumented immi-grants to obtain municipal ID cardsthey could use to access city services.It would be the largest such programin the country. … J&R RECHARGES.Consumer electronics retailer J&RMusic and Computer World willfind itself without a brick-and-mor-tar store for the first time in its 43-year history. It closed its block-longstring of shops on Park Row on April10. J&R’s owners plan to redevelopthe site and open some sort of elec-tronics business in 2015.

Cuomo meets a formidable foe

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (right) isknown as an extremely savvypolitical operator. But last week,

at least, the governor more than met hisequal in Southern District U.S. AttorneyPreet Bharara (left). ¶ After Mr. Cuomo announced that he would disband the MorelandCommission—an investigative body he formed in 2013 to probe corruption in the Legislature—Mr. Bharara, who has built a reputation for pursuing Albany wrongdoing, said his office wouldtake over outstanding cases. ¶ The federal prosecutor did not even rule out looking into the actions ofMr. Cuomo, whose administration is said to have interfered with Moreland probes that came tooclose to the governor’s political allies (contentions the governor’s office denied last week). “Peopleshould take very, very seriously any suggestion that there was either influence or interference,” Mr.Bharara said in a radio interview. ¶ Mr. Bharara has proved deft at snaring corrupt New Yorklawmakers, though many of those cases were built through informants and wiretaps sprung onunsuspecting politicians. ¶ Mr. Cuomo, who promised to clean up Albany during his 2010 run forgovernor, can’t be happy about an unexpected attack by a high-profile prosecutor during anelection year.

ap im

ages

FYICRAINSNEWYORK.COM

‘Is he going tocontinue to belate? If he is,

there’s nohope for him.… If he is on

time, then he’sbeginning to

become amanager’

—Former Mayor RudyGiuliani, on Mayor Bill deBlasio’s chronic tardiness

STORIES TO WATCH THIS WEEKApril 14: PulitzerPrize winners areannounced.

April 17: GoldmanSachs is expected toreport a 23%decline in 1Q earnings.

April 18: NationalArchives releasesdocuments fromBill Clinton’sadministration.

April 20:High-frequencytrading firm Virtumay beginmarketing its IPO.

—chris bragg

EDITOR’S NOTE

Box populiAn appalling fact: Metro New Yorkis home to 30 of the country’s 50lowest-scoring hospitals in suchmedical metrics as hospital-borneinfections, patient-readmissionrates and the quality of dischargeinstructions for departing patients.The average wait time in anemergency room is 27 minutes inthe U.S., 37 minutes in New York

state and 72 minutes in Brooklyn. Our typicalhospital sucks, to use a nonclinical term, and a majorreason is that too many board members, executives,physicians, union chiefs and bureaucrats refuse tothink outside the hulking boxes that have housed somuch of the city’s health care delivery system formore than a century. Crain’s hosted a conference lastweek on the financial challenges facing New Yorkhospitals. Our keynote speaker was private-equityinvestor Adam Blumenthal of Manhattan-basedBlue Wolf Capital Partners. He ingeniously likenedmatters to the U.S. steel industry of the 1970s, whichstruggled to transition from giant integrated millsbuilt in the Andrew Carnegie era to more responsiveand economical mini-mills that now account formost of the steel production in this country. So, too,must New York shift from general hospitals tonetworks of outpatient facilities. Consider thoselengthy Brooklyn waits: “Every time somebody’swaiting in the emergency department for care, that isdemand,” Mr. Blumenthal said. It’s unmet demand,in about half the cases, for urgent yet nonemergencycare that could be better delivered at clinics closer topatients’ real lives, where the tab can be just 10% ofwhat’s grotesquely overcharged though a hospitalER.This was the model behind Blue Wolf ’s recentbid, made with the Brooklyn Hospital Center, torestructure the failed Long Island College Hospitalcampus.Their proposal lost out to a Pied Piper’scollective whose top-scoring bid magically promises a“full-service hospital” on the Cobble Hill site.Thinking inside the box, again.What a massive wasteof community health care resources, as medically andmorally wrong as it is economically indefensible.

Glenn Coleman

—emily laermer

IN THE BOROUGHS-------------------------- 3IN THE MARKETS----------------------------------4REAL ESTATE DEALS -----------------------5THE INSIDER -----------------------------------------------6OPINION --------------------------------------------------------10GREG DAVID--------------------------------------------11REPORT-----------------------------------------------------------15CLASSIFIEDS -----------------------------------------20NEW YORK, NEW YORK----------25SOURCE LUNCH--------------------------------26

THIS WEEK IN CRAIN’S

GOTHAM GIGSChad Freilino’s coffee shopsare airport oases. P. 8

40 UNDER 40 CORRECTIONS (SEE PAGE 23)

VOL.XXX,NO.15, APRIL 14,2014—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789x) is published week-ly, except for double issues the weeks of June 23, July 7, July 21, Aug. 4, Aug. 18 and Dec. 22,by Crain Communications Inc.,685Third Ave.,New York,NY 10017.Periodicals postage paidat New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to:Crain’s New York 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 2014 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.

HOORAY!

A WEB VIDEOof a rat in acrowded A

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within hoursof its posting.

STEPHENCOLBERT willsucceed DavidLetterman ashost of CBS’ LateShow, increasingthe odds that theprogram willremain in NewYork.

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ages

BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS

Mayor Bill de Blasio has nevernamed his favorite consultancy, buttake a quick glance at his adminis-tration: He has made four major

hires with ties to HR&A Advisors,a 30-year-old real estate and policyadvisory firm.

Carl Weisbrod, his city plan-ning commissioner, was most re-cently a partner at the firm. FirstDeputy Mayor Anthony Shorris

worked there briefly in the early1990s. Shola Olatoye, the mayor’spick to run the New York CityHousing Authority, was there formore than seven years. And SmallBusiness Services CommissionerMaria Torres-Springer is married

to one of the firm’s partners, JamieTorres Springer.

If that weren’t enough to estab-lish HR&A as the city’s “it” firm,Alicia Glen this month pegged herfirst speech as deputy mayor on a

The chosen consultancyHR&A Advisors is city’s ‘it’ firm, funneling alumni to top de Blasio administration posts

Lower property pricesfuel influx of youngerresidents, retailers

BY KERRY MURTHA

Next stop, Woodside.Long known for nothing much

in particular, this quiet, low-riseQueens neighborhood of mostlymiddle-class Irish residents is be-coming a hot commodity for an in-creasingly common New York kindof refugee.

“Younger folks are being pricedout of more popular neighborhoodsand are following the subway lines[deeper into the boroughs] to findaffordable housing with an easycommute to the city,” said MichaelTortorici, vice president ofManhattan-based Ariel PropertyAdvisors. “Woodside is part of abroader citywide trend.”

Price hikes in newly trendyQueens neighborhoods like LongIsland City and Astoria are sendingyoung professionals streamingeastward into Woodside’s tree-lined streets. There, apartmentrents are nearly 25% below those inLong Island City, which until re-cently was billed primarily as acheap, convenient alternative toManhattan.

Woodsidedraws anew crowd

IN THE BOROUGHSQUEENS

BY THERESA AGOVINO

Since being released from prisonthree months ago, Louis Rivera hasfound an apartment,landed a job andstarted applying for college. It’s a seachange for the 19-year-old, who wasincarcerated for about two years forattempted burglary and had a histo-ry of dealing drugs, running with agang and stealing. He credits a ther-apy program at Rikers Island provid-ed by the Osborne Association andFriends of Island Academy for help-ing him get his life on track.

“I realized that I could have abetter life,” said Mr. Rivera. “I

learned to forgive myself for what I’ddone and others for hurting me.”

Mr. Rivera’s therapy was paid forby an unusual funding mechanismknown as a social-impact bond—aninnovation that’s becoming more

prevalent in New York social-serviceand philanthropic circles. An-nounced by the city in 2012, Rikers’therapy program, aimed at reducingjuvenile recidivism, was the nation’sfirst social-bond initiative.

Last December, New York intro-duced the first state-led plan in theU.S. It also aims to keep ex-offendersout of prison. The recently passedstate budget earmarked $30 millionfor additional social bonds, and lastmonth the state announced that fourprograms are under consideration forfunding. Three are slated to workwith New York City residents.

In a social bond, a governmentagency sets goals to fix a problem,andtaps an outside expert to enlist a non-profit to meet the objectives and raisemoney from private and philanthrop-ic investors to fund the initiative.Thegovernment only repays investors ifthe program succeeds. If a programdesigned to reduce hospitalizations,for example, achieves its goal, in-vestors will be paid with the moneysaved on patient care.

“These pay-for-success pro-grams make a lot of sense because

See SOCIAL-IMPACT on Page 24

‘Social-impact bonds’catch onas philanthropic funding tool

See CHOSEN on Page 24

April 14, 2014 | Crain’s New York Business | 3

Latest state budgetearmarks $30 millionfor expansion of theinvestment vehicles

STATS AND THE CITYVROOM, VROOM: Thousands will pull up to the Javits Center April 18 for the114th annual New York International Auto Show. The 10-day event willfeature nearly 1,000 vehicles and more than 60 never-before-seen cars.

1,001HORSEPOWER of theBugatti Veyron (pictured),the most powerful car at theshow this year. That’s morethan seven times that of the2013 Nissan NV200 taxi

40%PORTION of 2013’s 1M totalattendees who were women

$263MAMOUNTof economic

activity, in direct and indirectspending, generated by

the 2013 Auto Show

86FLOOR of the Empire StateBuilding’s observation deck,

which will display a 2015 FordMustang during the show. Ford is marking the car’s 50th anniversary

303,939TOTALnumber

of spots at 1,913 Department ofConsumer Affairs-licensed parkingfacilities in the city

‘We are payingfor results, not just the process’

JOHN ALSCHULERsaid his firm sharesthe mayor’s valuesand has a benttoward public service.

See WOODSIDE on Page 14

ADDICTED TO NUMBERS? GET A DAILY DOSE AT @STATSANDTHECITY

by Nicholas Wells

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Sources: New York International Auto Show, MotorWeek, Autoweek, NYC OpenData

4 | Crain’s New York Business | April 14, 2014

915 Broadway, New York, NY - Southwest Corner of 21st Street & Broadway

1) Source: mta.info. 2) Findings from a study completed by BFJ Planning on Saturday October 26th, 2013 & Wednesday October 30th, 2013. Research was obtained from sources considered reliable but no representation is made by ABSPartners Real Estate LLC or any of its affiliates as to their completeness or accuracy. *Licensed RE Associate Broker,All information is from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors or omissions of any magnitude, withdrawal frommarket, or changes in terms, all without notice. Brokers employment and payment only by written agreement.

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Soaring 19 ft ceilings and double height glass storefront Close proximity to major subways

Floor Area Ground: 8,000 sf* Mezzanine: 3,800 sf*(Reasonable Divisions Considered)

Frontage55 feet on Broadway95 feet on 21st Street

Vintners hope to cork wine glut

IN THEMARKETS

and other affordable labels, said lastweek that wine sales would grow inthe low- to mid-single-digit rangethis year because of pricing pressures.

Simply put, there’s a glut of de-cent wine on the market—andNew York is part of the reason.During the past decade, grape har-vests in the state have grown by20%, according to the New YorkWine & Grape Foundation, and injust the past three years the numberof wineries has leaped by 30%.

Relief may be on the way forwinemakers, though.Between 2008and 2011, regulators in Europe of-fered subsidies for farmers to growfewer grapes and drain the conti-nent’s “wine lake.” Sure enough,wine production in France fell bynearly 17% in 2012 and in Spain by11%, according to the InternationalOrganization of Vine and Wine.

“In 2016, the supply of wine willfall below demand for the first timesince records have been kept,” saidKevin Parker, a former head of assetmanagement at Deutsche Bank

who owns a winery in southernFrance called Chateau Maris.

While Mr. Parker waits for sup-ply and demand to balance out, hesays he’s finding a growing audi-ence for his wines,which have beenrated as high as 93 (out of 100) byleading trade publications and aremade without pesticides.

Making wine using traditionalmeans has its challenges.It takes upto seven years to get adequate yieldsfrom vineyards accustomed toboosts from man-made fertilizers,Mr. Parker said. To prevent rabbitsfrom devouring the fruit, hischateau’s staffers trap the bunnies,liquefy them and spray the soupyremains around the fields. Thesmell keeps other rabbits away.

Lest that approach to pest controlput off ecologically aware New Yorkwinemakers,Mr.Parker assured thatmany of France’s top vintners alsogrow grapes using earthy biodynam-ic methods but aren’t keen to talkabout it. “To a lot of them, it stillsounds cuckoo,” he said. �

NYC law opposed by banksexpected to move forward

BY CHRIS BRAGG

Now that Mayor Bill de Blasio hasappointed his finance commission-er, a law passed two years ago forc-ing banks to publicize their effortsto help poor New Yorkers is on trackto take effect, advocates say.

The Responsible Banking Act,which was passed by the City Coun-cil in 2012 over former MayorMichael Bloomberg’s veto,was nev-er implemented by Mr.Bloomberg’sadministration, and supporters re-solved to wait for his successor. Un-der Mr. de Blasio, the Departmentof Finance has yet to finish creatinga panel needed to carry out the lawby publishing an annual report onhow banks that take city deposits aremeeting the credit needs of cityneighborhoods.

But the Department of Financeis now expected to do so with the ap-pointment last week of Commis-sioner Jacques Jiha, according toJaime Weisberg of the Associationfor Neighborhood and HousingDevelopment, a backer of the legis-lation. “Mayor Bloomberg didn’tsupport it, and then you had new

leadership in place, but we’rethrilled that they’re going forwardwith it,” Ms. Weisberg said.

The city currently invests its bil-lions in cash deposits in some 30banks, which are chosen based ontheir financial soundness. But thelaw, which came in the wake of theOccupy Wall Street movement, re-

quires the banks to provide detailedinformation about their branch lo-cations, foreclosures and loan mod-ifications, among other data.

The information is to be pub-lished on the Department ofFinance website and can be used forconsideration by Mr. de Blasio, Mr.Jiha and Comptroller ScottStringer, in deciding where to de-posit the city’s money.The law doesnot require the city to move its de-posits to higher-ranked banks.

The policy is intended to en-courage banks to offer more servic-es in poor neighborhoods, and Mr.de Blasio’s administration has sig-naled that it intends to go forward.In late March, the city’s Law De-partment filed an amicus brief stat-ing it had changed its position on asuit filed by the New York BankersAssociation to overturn the law.TheBloomberg administration had sup-ported the lawsuit. The associationclaims that state and federal lawsregulating banking prevent the cityfrom doing so, while supporters saythe city law does not amount to reg-ulation.

The de Blasio administration’samicus brief states that the city isseeking vendors that will allow it toimplement the Responsible Bank-ing Act. Hiring a contractor willtake some five and a half months,the brief states. A de Blasio spokes-woman did not immediately returna request for comment. �

Want city’s deposits?Financial institutionsmust quantify effortsto serve the poor

by Aaron Elstein

At the second New York State Wine, Beer, Spirits andCider Summit last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomoannounced he is dedicating $6 million to marketing

the state’s producers of wine and other fine adult beverages.Certainly it’s worth raising a glass to the high quality ofFinger Lakes Rieslings, but in truth these are challengingtimes in the wine world.

While blockbuster sales of ultra-expensive Bordeaux andBurgundy still make news, the bellwether Liv-Ex Fine Wine100 Index has fallen by 31% since the summer of 2011.Auctioneers like Sotheby’s and Acker Merrall & Condit saw a15% drop in wine sales last year, according to BloombergNews. Constellation Brands, which sells Robert Mondavi

24%INCREASE in “active mobilecustomers” at JPMorgan Chaseduring the past year. In all,

16.4 million customers visit their Chase accounts viatheir phones or tablets. A total of 35 million do soonline, a 9% gain over last year.

Jacques Jiha’sappointment asfinance chiefsignals city’sshift on the rule

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Previously scattered across severalspaces throughout the building,Fact-Set will consolidate on three fullfloors—7,10 and 11—under the newlease. All told, the tenant will haveabout 102,000 square feet. FactSetcommitted to the space for 15 yearsfor rents in the $60s per square foot.

Glen Weiss, Vornado’s New Yorkdirector of leasing, said the landlordhas been better able to hold onto thetenants it has, while also attractingnew firms to fill the building’s emptyspace, now that it has begun a majorinternal renovation of the property.

Just as it did with 1290 SixthAve., Vornado is doing a lobby re-furbishment at 90 Park Ave. as part

of a broader building improvementthat could cost $30 million or more.

Vornado, in partnership with SLGreen, also is spending millions re-constructing a new lobby at 280 ParkAve. That soon-to-be-completedproject features a two-story, glass-clad entrance that is now one of themost eye-catching portals on the av-enue and has generated leasing buzz.

Joe Cabrera, a broker formerly atCushman & Wakefield who recentlyjoined Colliers International, repre-sented FactSet in the deal.Mr.Weiss’leasing team at Vornado, includingexecutives Josh Glick and AndrewAckerman, represented the landlordin-house.

Vornado does itagain at 90 Park

Med clinic cornersmore Harlem space A medical clinic recently expandedits footprint by 50%, to 3,700 squarefeet, on the ground floor of 345 W.145th St., at the corner of Edge-combe Avenue. The deal is just thelatest in a series by a retail brokerageteam that has done much to upgradethe retail tenants along a block in thehistoric Sugar Hill section ofHarlem.

In the latest transaction, SugarHill Medical Plaza signed on for 15years at the base of Hillview Towers,a midcentury, 236-unit co-opapartment building,where the retailrent was $120 per square foot.Thatprice is one of the highest retailrents in the area, according to Dou-glas Elliman’s Faith Hope Consolo.

“It’s a great location,” said Ms.Consolo, who represented both thetenant and the co-op along with col-league Joseph Aquino. “The cornergives them visibility from bothsides.”

The medical facility, which isconnected with several major hos-pitals in the area, already had 2,200square feet in the middle of theblock along West 145th Street.Business was good enough that thetenant not only renewed its lease,but added more than 1,500 squarefeet by taking over the next-doorcorner unit in the property, in amove that Ms. Consolo said de-lighted the co-op’s board.

The Douglas Elliman team hadbeen commissioned a few years agoby Hillview Towers to spruce up theretail in the building, which Ms.Consolo did by boosting the quali-ty of many of the ground-floor ten-ants. Among other things, the teamswapped out a down-market liquorshop for a higher-end wine store.

Sugar Hill Medical Plaza plansto open its expanded space this fall.

—joe anuta

WORK DOESN’T STOP JUST BECAUSE THE BATTERY DOES. Just because you remembered to bring your phone doesn’t mean you remembered to charge it. That’s why we’ve put a USB port at every seat on every long-haul international fl ight, so it can stay powered for the whole trip. Because when it comes to power, why let a little thing like 30,000 feet stand in the way?

#KEEPCLIMBINGNY

USB cords not included.

REAL ESTATE DEALS

April 14, 2014 | Crain’s New York Business | 5

Two years ago, the city’s second-largest landlord, Vornado Real-ty Trust, was facing large vacancies at 1290 Sixth Ave. It reactedby installing a grand, multimillion-dollar lobby clad in whitemarble, along with other, less visible improvements. In themonths that followed, it leased the bulk of the empty space.

Now Vornado is employing a similar strategy at another midtown officetower it owns, 90 Park Ave., and achieving similar results. FactSet Research,a financial-data firm,has renewed its lease at the 41-story,1 million-square-foot building, which takes up the entire block-front between East 39th andEast 40th streets.

1250 WATERS PLACE,BRONXASKING RENT; TERM: $45per square foot; 10 years

SQUARE FEET: 1,500

TENANT; REPS: Dunkin’Donuts; Daniel McVeigh andKathy Zamechansky of KZARealty Group

LANDLORD; REPS: SimoneDevelopment; in-house representationby Josh Gopan and Joseph Kelleher

BACK STORY: The national coffeechain will take retail space in one of theHutchinson Metro Center’s two newestbuildings.

BARE BONES

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—daniel geiger

By that point, insiders say, Mr.de Blasio will need to have resolvedmost of 150 outstanding municipallabor contracts, lest the issue bepushed back another year. “In thenext 100 days, he’s got to settle thelabor contracts,” said Doug Muzzio, aBaruch College political-scienceprofessor. “Delay that, and he’s go-ing to tick off a lot of the work-force. It’s got to be the No. 1, 2 and3 priorities.”

Mr.de Blasio also would do wellto focus on helping residents af-fected by Superstorm Sandy, whohave gotten little assistance fromcity government. Near the end ofhis speech, the mayor did note thathe was directing $100 million infederal funds—that had been slat-ed to go elsewhere—toward recov-ery, and that he had put a leader-ship team in place.He pledged thatevery home destroyed by Sandywould be rebuilt.“He’s got to movequickly and decisively there,” saidMr. Muzzio.“It’s symbolic, and it’sa real litmus test.”

Two months also remain in thelegislative session in Albany. Dur-ing his first 100 days, Mr. de Blasiowas bruised by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’srefusal to pass a dedicated tax to

fund the pre-K plan and by a fightover charter schools.

One priority will be attemptingto get the Legislature to allow thecity to add cameras to catch speed-ing motorists, a key part of themayor’s plan to eliminate trafficdeaths.

Mr. de Blasio also will focus onpriorities he and the like-mindedCity Council can control. Thatcould include expanding “livingwage” mandates at city-subsidizedprojects and codifying greater re-quirements for affordable housingin new developments.

“The key over the next 100 dayswill be setting and reachingwinnable goals on issues, likewages and housing, that are bothbrand issues for him and popularwith voters,” said Democratic con-sultant Evan Thies.

But one liberal housing group’smost optimistic forecast of themayor’s forthcoming inclusionary-zoning plan estimated it wouldproduce 32,000 affordable units,just 16% of the mayor’s goal, un-derscoring that Mr. de Blasio willneed money to make good on hispromises. Said Mr. Thies, “It’s allabout the budget.” �

One hundred days into his mayoralty, Bill de Blasiolast week delivered what he had billed as a majorspeech. Yet media accounts of his remarks harped

on the mayor for saying little about anything new that hewill be doing in the next 100 days.

It is likely, though, that Mr. de Blasio in the spring and early summer will venture beyond his belovedprekindergarten expansion, which after three months hasbegun to wear out listeners. Pre-K fatigue was evident thismonth when he crashed Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen’s speechabout technology: He received polite applause rather thanthe standing ovation a similar audience had given him lastfall, and then stultified the gathering with his umpteenthpre-K stump speech.

Affordable housing, traffic safety, Sandy recovery and cityspending figure to increasingly dominate his agenda in thecoming weeks. His housing policy is slated to be unveiledMay 1, and the city’s fiscal plan must be done by July 1.

For more information, contact Adrienne Yee at 212-210-0739 or crainsevents@crainsnewyork.com

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6 | Crain’s New York Business | April 14, 2014

The mayor’s next 100 days

THEINSIDERBy Chris Bragg and Erik Engquist

Firms bid to fill tech jobs gap

BY MATTHEW FLAMM

The Flatiron School, which aims tofill a gap in computer-science edu-cation by teaching novices how tocode, is moving onto the next stagein its own development. The two-year-old startup announced lastweek that it had raised $5.5 millionin its first funding round.

The news came just as SanFrancisco-based tech recruitingservice Hired announced that it wasopen for business in New York. Thecompany offers a “curated, two-sidedauction marketplace”—that is, it vetsboth engineers and the firms thatwant to hire them—as one solutionto the same problem that Flatiron isaddressing: filling the increasingnumber of tech-related job openings.

Lower Manhattan-based Flat-iron will use its new financing to im-prove teacher training and teachingmethods, and “continue building acredible alternative to traditionalhigher education,” according to lastweek’s announcement. The for-profit school has placed newly mint-ed programmers at firms rangingfrom The New York Times to startupsVenmo and Artsy,at salaries rangingfrom $70,000 to more than$100,000, said co-founder andPresident Adam Enbar.

The investment round was led by

blue-chip venture-capital firmsCRV and Matrix Partners, and in-cluded BoxGroup—a seed-stage

investment company run by Tischfamily scion David Tisch—and an-gel investors.

About 150 students have gradu-ated from Flatiron’s $12,000 12-week courses in iOS coding and Webdevelopment since October 2012.Graduates have ranged in age from19 to 48, and included investmentbankers and construction workers.

The curriculum is developedwith feedback from employers.Thatarrangement has helped Flatironplace nearly 100% of its graduates injobs,according to Mr.Enbar.The fi-nancing round is part of a plan formaintaining that success rate whilethe school improves on its model.

“Most companies get to a pointwhere they raise money to speed upgrowth,”Mr.Enbar said.“We’re rais-ing money to slow down, so we don’thave to grow by admitting thousandsof students, but can actually invest ininfrastructure and software andteacher training in order to developbetter educational programs.”

Mr. Enbar added that the schoolis looking for solutions to a commonproblem nationwide: a shortage ofcomputer-science teachers.

“What we’ve realized is that tak-ing a programmer and turning theminto a teacher is way harder than tak-ing a teacher and teaching themhow to code,” he said. “We arespending a lot of time thinkingabout how we can recruit and trainthe best teachers we can.”

Hired also has ambitious plansfor New York—and for presenting

Flatiron School,Calif. recruiting bizboost NY efforts

$49,402 Doormen’s average salary (notincluding tips) in 2018 under a new dealbetween landlords and union 32BJ SEIU

‘We’re spendinga lot of timethinking abouthow we canrecruit the bestteachers we can’

See TECH TALENT on Page 22

THE FLATIRON SCHOOL announced it hadraised $5.5 million in its first funding round.

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Time offTuition assistance

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Health care

Yes!

Not the same old grindChad Freilino’s specialty coffees perk up fliers

Chad Freilino parlayed his degree in chemistryfrom Bucknell University into a career makingspecialty coffees. Bean acidity, water filtration,coffee-ground coarseness:These are just some ofthe granular details needed for his job as directorof coffee for OTG, which operates restaurants,bars and cafés at LaGuardia, JFK and eight otherairports. ¶ Mr. Freilino, 30, oversees a brew crewof 60 who churn out 9,000 cups of java a day atthe 10 airport cafés. “Our baristas have to learnabout the origin of the beans, their brewing style,whether we are using paper or metal mesh orperforated mesh, and how to adjust the coarsenessof the beans we are grinding,” Mr. Freilino said. ¶OTG hired Mr. Freilino in 2011 to develop acoffee program to beat Starbucks and Dunkin’Donuts at the airports where OTG runs some200 sit-down restaurants and its WorldBeancafés, which have grown 30% since 2012. ¶ Mr.

Freilino’s baristas are required to serve customerswithin 90 seconds of an order being placed. “Mostof our customers come to us after they’ve justgone through security, and they might be agitatedfrom the experience,” Mr. Freilino said. “It’s anurgent environment, so we have to be fast.” ¶After college, Mr. Freilino moved to Portland,Ore., where he worked for coffee roaster CaffeVita buying sustainably grown beans directlyfrom farms. His most formative experience wasdeveloping and teaching a barista trainingprogram with a nonprofit that helps homelesskids. By the time he left Portland for New York,he had trained nearly 100 teens. ¶ “I feel like Ilearned way more than the kids did,” he said.“That experience translates well into how thecoffee industry touches so many lives, includingthe farmers who grow the coffee.”

—lisa fickenscher

GOTHAM GIGS

‘Customerscome afterthey’ve justgonethroughsecurity,and theymight beagitated’

Opera Solutions:Bernhard Nann, 52,joined the dataanalytics companyas chief executive.He was formerlychief technologyofficer at Fair IsaacCorp.

BlackRock Inc.: Rob Goldstein, 40, waspromoted to chief operating officer atthe asset-management firm. He waspreviously senior managing directorand head of institutional clientbusiness.Topps Co.: John Mueller, 51, joined thetrading-card and entertainmentcompany as chief financial officer. Hewas previously chief financial officerat XO Group.AOL: William Pence, 51, joined thedigital-media company as global chieftechnology officer. He was previouslychief operating officer at WebMD.NYC Economic Development Corp.:Michael Schlein, 53, joined the cityagency’s board as chairman. He ischief executive at Accion.JPMorgan Chase & Co.: MichaelHaberman, 43, joined the financial-services firm as head of the Northeastregion for the JPMorgan ChaseFoundation. He was previouslypresident at Pencil.KPMG: John Cassil, 50, joined theaudit, tax and advisory services firm asprincipal. He was previously presidentat Arise Consulting.

Gilbane Building Co.:Ian Walby, 51,joined theconstruction andprogram-managementcompany as seniorproject executive.He was previously

general superintendent at LendLease.Carlton Group: Navish Chawla, 32,joined the real estate investment-banking firm as chief investmentofficer. He was previously portfolioasset manager at MadisonInternational Realty.Bob Hasan, 49, joined as senior vicepresident of asset management. Hewas previously senior asset manager atGE Capital Real Estate.Rebekah Flig, 33, joined as director ofmarketing and public relations. Shewas formerly vice president ofbusiness development at MissionCapital Advisors.

Marketing Werks:Julie Schweigert, 37,was promoted tosenior vicepresident of clientservice at theconsumer-engagement firm.She was previously

vice president of client service.Turner Construction Co.: CharlesAvolio, 49, was promoted to vicepresident and general manager at theconstruction-management firm. Hewas previously vice president andoperations manager.Tom Stachowiak, 58, was promoted tovice president and general manager.He was previously vice president andoperations manager.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

B U S I N E S S

PEOPLE110%

Growth in number of VCdeals for NY-area

human-resources techstartups in 2013

Source: CB Insights

HIS CUPS RUNNETHOVER: ChadFreilino’s baristaspour out 9,000coffees a day at LaGuardia(pictured), JFK andother airports.

8 | Crain’s New York Business | April 14, 2014

buck

enn

is

Chris Zegler, 53, was promoted to vicepresident and general manager. He waspreviously vice president and operationsmanager.STV: Christopher Cerino, 41, was promotedto vice president at the engineering andarchitectural firm. He will continue asstructural-engineering director.Vinny Kissoon, 49, was promoted to vicepresident. He was previously chiefestimator in the constructionmanagement division’s controls group.Michael Tumulty, 56, was promoted tovice president. He was previously seniorassociate.Food & Wine: Alex Vallis, 30, waspromoted to digital director of themagazine. She was previously digitalfeatures editor.James Maikowski, 30, was promoted toart director. He was previously associateart director.

Rudin ManagementCo.: Kevin Daly, 42,joined the real estatecompany as vicepresident ofcommercial leasing.He was previouslysenior director atCushman &

Wakefield.Tradition Energy: Robert Kane, 53, joinedthe energy-management firm as energyadviser. He was previously seniorbusiness-development manager atReflective Energy Solutions.Spector Group: Brad Blythe, 51, joinedthe architecture firm as senior designer.He was previously senior projectdesigner and associate at SwankeHayden Connell Architects.Anthony Campusano, 33, joined as asenior architect. He was previously anassociate at Sawyer | Berson.David Beauchamp III, 32, joined as aproject architect. He was previously aproject manager at TPG Architecture.Sharif Anous, 23, joined as a juniorarchitect. He was previously a juniorarchitect at SLO Architecture.Marks Paneth:Christopher Cacace, 53,was promoted topartner in charge ofthe theater, media andentertainment groupat the accounting firm.He was previously apartner.Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architectsand Planners: Wendy Andringa, 46, waspromoted to associate at the architecturefirm. She was previously senior designer.Holwell Shuster & Goldberg: JohnDiMatteo, 53, joined the law firm as apartner. He was previously a partner atWillkie Farr & Gallagher.

Fox Rothschild: MitchelHill, 46, joined the lawfirm as a partner. Hewas previously apartner at SeyfarthShaw.Hoffmann Architects:Bradley Carmichael, 31,was promoted to

senior engineer. He was previouslyproject engineer.Collective: Allyse Slocum, 27, joined theadvertising agency as director of productmarketing. She was previously product-marketing and customer-intelligencemanager at Yodle.Park Central Hotel New York: JasminAcevedo, 39, joined as director of business-travel sales. She was previously area salesmanager for Morgans Hotel Group.

—nazish dholakia

CORPORATE LADDER

EDUCATING FUTURE BUSINESS LEADERSROBERT CHERSI, who graduated from the Lubin School of Business at Pace University 30 years ago, is coming full circle. InMarch, he became the executive director of the school’s Center for Global Governance, Reporting and Regulation. The schoolwas established in 2012 to prepare future business leaders for the global regulatory labyrinth that has become more oneroussince the financial meltdown of 2008.

Mr. Chersi will grow its flagship Certified Compliance and Regulatory Professional program for financial auditors, lawyers,consultants and executives, especially those in risk management. Mr. Chersi cites the Dodd-Frank act, which numbers 828pages, as evidence of the increasing complexity of financial regulations. Because the statute makes provisions for additionalred tape, the rule-making is far from over. “We want to be responsive to the needs out there, which are changing as theindustry changes,” said Mr. Chersi, 52. “The financial industry is arguably more regulated than ever.”

Formerly the chief financial officer of Fidelity Investments, Mr. Chersi succeeds John Alan James, the center’s inauguralexecutive director, who will become chairman emeritus of the center. “The understanding from the outset was that one of myfirst responsibilities was to find my successor,” said Mr. James. “I consider him to be a godsend.”

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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.

April 14, 2014 | Crain’s New York Business | 9

—NAZISH DHOLAKIA

OPINION

The Port Authority board faces a hugedecision at its April 23 meeting: whetherto alter its agreement with SilversteinProperties for the construction of 3 WorldTrade Center. Naysayers charge thatSilverstein is asking for a better deal thanit got in 2010, when the authority, city and

state provided $390 million in backstop financing.They alsowarn that the authority is deviating from its core duty ofmaintaining the area’s transportation infrastructure.

But the renegotiated deal now ready for a board votewould not impair the Port Authority’s ability to carry outthat mission—and even may improve it.

Here’s the quandary: Despite recently finding an anchorprivate-sector tenant to occupy 515,000 square feet in theskyscraper, Silverstein can’t get a construction loan to erectthe 80-story tower. So the developer wants authoritybacking for $1.2 billion in tax-exempt bonds to help financethe speculative office building.

The Port Authority would gain the right to foreclose onthe 3 WTC property within 90 days if Silverstein defaults.That is no small benefit, as the agency would get a $2 billionasset for half-price. Silverstein also would have to secure$450 million in private financing, up from $300 million inthe current deal; those investors would further encourage thedeveloper to fill the tower rather than continue holding outfor sky-high rents at the World Trade Center complex.

This is hardly a better deal for Silverstein Properties.

Rather, it is the only deal the developer can make tocomplete the project on time and secure the legacy of itsprincipal, 82-year-old Larry Silverstein. And the PortAuthority is now poised to realize big benefits.

The new bonds, backed by the right to foreclose, wouldreplace $200 million in riskier financing that the agencysigned on for under the 2010 deal.The authority would alsoreap $329 million in cash. And the influx of tenants wouldincrease ridership on its money-losing PATH system andsales at new retail developments tied to the trade center andtransit hub.The Port Authority would become more able,

not less, to fulfill itsmission of investing inthe region’s bridges,tunnels and othertransportationinfrastructure.

Fears that 3 WTCwould create a glut ofoffice space, depressingrents at the complex,are overblown. Leasing

activity downtown is heating up. And tenants would notoccupy the tower before 2019, by which time the authority’ssignature building, 1 World Trade Center, should be full.

By approving the deal at its board meeting next week, thePort Authority would strengthen its financial position andenhance the promising future of lower Manhattan.

New WTC deal is a good one

A chance for thePort Authority tostrengthen itselfand downtown

10 | Crain’s New York Business | April 14, 2014

BAN IVORY SALESAfter passing a state budget(The Insider, April 7), ourAlbany leaders have severalother critical issues remainingbefore them in the current leg-islative season—including onethat, surprisingly, is about acrime occurring both in ourstate and in Africa.

In February, AssemblymanRobert K. Sweeney introduceda bill (A. 8824) to ban the saleof ivory. Studies have indicatedthat the U.S. is the second-largest commercial ivorymarket after China, and NewYork City serves as one of thelargest sales hubs. Perhaps thatis why New York votersrecognize our state needs todiscourage this trade, which isresponsible for the loss of anestimated 35,000 elephantsglobally each year. Forestelephants could go extinctwithin 10 years.

A new poll indicates thatmore than 80% of New Yorkersfavor a permanent statewide ban

on ivory sales.The support cutsacross all demographic groupsand political affiliations. Let’sget this done this year and helpsave these extraordinary animalsbefore it’s too late.

—john f. calvelliExecutive VP for public affairsWildlife Conservation Society

THERE IS SUCH A THING AS A BAD QUESTIONWhy ask Lance Jay Brown, thepresident of the AmericanInstitute of Architects’ NewYork chapter, “Do you think weshould reconsider some of thelandmarking that’s been done?”(“Architect searches globe fornew ideas,” April 7.) Why notask him how the buildingindustry is going to provide the200,000 units of affordablehousing sought by the deBlasio administration, aquestion with more relevanceto practicing architects?

Instead there is a journalisticoverreach to shoehorn a biasedcommentary on landmarking

into the paper. Good for Mr.Brown for not rising to the bait,and stating: “Is asking thecitizens of New York whetherhistoric districts should beremoved so there can be morehousing a good question? I don’tthink it is.” I wish that Crain’sfelt the same way.

—simeon bankoffExecutive director

Historic Districts Council

A BURDEN ON BUSINESSRe “Without rules, sick-leavelaw leaves biz in dark” (CrainsNewYork.com):This new law,however ambiguous, affects meas a small business owner. I can’thelp but wonder if the annualrevenue and profitability ofbusinesses were considered atall when structuring the law.

It’s difficult enough to growa small business in New YorkCity, where the cost of everyadditional hire presents a riskybalance to maintaining theprofitability required to justify

CCRRAAIINN’’SS OONNLLIINNEE PPOOLLLL

Elephants in the roomCCOOMMMMEENNTTSS

CRAIN’S WELCOMES SUBMISSIONS to its opinion pages. Send letters to letters@crainsnewyork.com. Send columns of 475words or fewer to opinion@crainsnewyork.com. 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.

74%Disapprove

26%Approve

See COMMENTS on Page 12

CRAIN’SNEW YORK BUSINESS

editor in chief Rance Crainpublisher, vp Jill R. Kaplan

EDITORIAL

editor Glenn Colemanmanaging editor Jeremy Smerddeputy managing editors Valerie Block,

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reporter/videographer Ken M. Christensennews producer Emily Laermerweb producer

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HOW DO YOU RATE BILL DE BLASIO’S FIRST 100 DAYS IN OFFICE?I approve. In a short time, Mr. de Blasio has managed to secure funds for freeprekindergarten, and he is trying to make the city better for all its residents.

I disapprove. The mayor botched the charter-school debate, wants to ban carriage horsesand will eventually run this city into the groundwith his liberal policies.Date of poll: April 9194 votes

apim

ages

April 14, 2014 | Crain’s New York Business | 11

Now the Citizens Budget Com-mission has taken on the union’scentral contention,showing that thevast majority of city teachers aremaking more money than they didin 2008—some a lot more.

Teachers are paid not based onthe quality of their work or even thedifficulty of their jobs (two key cri-teria in the private sector), but onlyon their educational credentials andtheir years of service.They get moremoney if they have a master’s degreeand if they complete 30 credits inaddition to their M.A.

They also get what are called“step increases” annually for theirfirst eight years and five more timesin their careers. And to be precise,their last overall increase was in May2009, under the expired contract.

The CBC cites three pretty typ-ical, if hypothetical, examples.

A new teacher (given the name

“Mark Thackery”) was hired with aB.A. in May 2008 and completedhis master’s degree in May 2011.Hewas originally hired at $43,362, andnow makes $58,630—or 29% morethan his pay after the last generalincrease.

A teacher with some experience

(called “Carrie Bliss”) made$58,639 in May 2009, based on hermaster’s and six years of experience.Since then, she has completed the30 additional credits to reach thehighest educational level and has re-ceived three step increases. Her payis now $78,885—or 35% higher.

The experienced teacher(named “Connie Brooks”) wasmaking $85,426 in May 2009 with18 years of experience and the mas-ter’s, plus 30 credits. Still, she hasreceived two additional increases,and her compensation has reachedthe maximum of $100,049,up 17%.

The only teachers who have notgotten a penny more are those whowere maxed out already, with a mas-ter’s plus 30 credits and 22 years ofexperience. The CBC estimates nomore than 9,500 UFT members fallinto this category and says that atleast some of them have retired.(There are roughly 75,000 teachersin the city’s public-school system.)

The UFT wants $3 billion inback pay,which it says is justified be-cause other city workers received 4%raises in 2009 and 2010, while itsmembers did not. But then again,they did get pay hikes.

Teacher union’s payclaim flunks math

This is a story about pay in the public sector and theprivate sector.

Last month, the United Federation of Teach-ers issued a report claiming an exodus of its mem-bers to the suburbs for higher-paying jobs and

calling it the result of teachers having gone without a pay raisesince their contract expired in 2008. The math in the union’sreport was more than a little suspect.

GREG DAVID

financial projections, and you mustbe accountable to yourself and yourinvestors. But business is aboutmuch more than that. When Tomand I started raising money,most in-vestors asked good questions aboutour projections,which, truth be told,were aspirational at best.

After a while, I realized they werereally sizing us up. They were askingthemselves if we had what it took tostart a business.They were fascinatedby my years as a Middle East corre-spondent. Some later said they fig-ured if I could survive six years in war-torn Beirut, I could probably figureout how to sell beer in New York City.

People often ask me if I am sur-prised at how big Brooklyn Brewery

has become. What really has sur-prised me about our business is theextent to which it has depended onpersonal relationships and trust.

We endured many tough times inour first 15 years. Occasionally, oursuppliers—the people selling us la-bels, bottles and ingredients—al-lowed us to delay paying them be-cause we simply did not have themoney to do so. Had they demand-ed faster payment, we would haveended up in bankruptcy.These goodpeople believed in us and believedwe would pay them when we could,and we did. Had we asked them tolend us $100,000 or more at the out-set, I am sure they would have toldus to take a hike.But, in a pinch,they

let us delay payment of $100,000.Milton Glaser, the legendary de-

signer of the I � NY logo, becameour designer because he liked us andour audacious plan to start a brew-ery in New York.Milton has becomemy most trusted adviser. He has agreat knowledge and affection forthe city of New York. And havingco-founded New York magazine,and watched businesses come andgo over the past 50 years, he has anose for opportunity.

Similarly, there were many retail-ers who believed in us and in our firstbeer, Brooklyn Lager. In 1988, noone had ever heard of “craft beer.”Despite the strong flavor of thatbeer, the import pricing and the lackof advertising, these retailers fea-tured it. People like Joe Marino atAmerican Beer and Felice, andGlenn Kirby and the late EddieDoyle at Teddy’s Bar and Grill, JoeMcFeeley at Santa Fe Grill andBuzzy O’Keefe at the River Café andthe Water Club. They pushedBrooklyn Lager, because they likedthe idea of a local beer,and they likedus.And of course,people bought thebeer and came back for more.

They don’t teach that in businessschool.

Steve Hindy, co-founder of the BrooklynBrewery, is author of The Craft BeerRevolution: How a Band ofMicrobrewers Is Transforming theWorld’s Favorite Drink, to be publishedApril 22 by Palgrave Macmillan.

STEVE HINDY

Here’s what business is really all about

Iwas a journalist for 15 years before starting BrooklynBrewery in 1988 with my neighbor Tom Potter,a bankerwith an M.B.A. I had no business experience beyondwinning some sales contests when I was a teenager;Tomdidn’t have much more than that.

Many people think business is about counting nickels anddimes and studying balance sheets and profit-and-loss state-ments. And it is. You must have a credible business plan with

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The NYC Department of Design and Construction, the City Agency tasked to reconstruct/rehab City-owned buildings, seeks an Associate Commissioner for Public Buildings - Client Programs (Libraries,Cultural Facilities, Police, Fire, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Sanitation, PlaNYC, Courts,Correctional Facilities, Environmental Protection, Parks, Pass-throughs/Grants). Reporting to the DeputyCommissioner, the selected candidate will oversee the project management of the division’s portfolio,working in coordination with the Associate Commissioner of Architecture and Engineering/TechnicalServices. This includes accountability for the division’s capital construction project portfolio, valued inexcess of $6 billion; supervising a staff of 320 engineers, architects, and construction professionals; and interacting with other agencies, community boards, and elected officials.

Essential Skills:Candidate must have six years of full-time paid experience as a licensed engineer or architect, two plusyears’ experience as manager of a major business unit within a multi-divisional A/E organization (publicor private). Familiarity with Local Laws pertaining to Green Building/LEED standards and requirements isrequired; LEED AP certification is preferred. Experience with Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) andBuilding Information Modeling (BIM) is a plus.

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18 years +17%Source: Citizens Budget Commission

legislators recognized that the worldhas changed, that companies andjobs historically anchored to NewYork are increasingly mo-bile, and they took impor-tant action to address theproblem.

There are advocacygroups that decry thechanges in the state code asa “giveaway” to Wall Street,but that is simply not thecase.There are about as many losersamong financial institutions as thereare winners under the new formula,which is why Mr. Cuomo recom-

mended the slight decrease in thecorporate rate in order to make theoverall impact of the change more

manageable for all affectedfirms.

The inefficiencies ofthe old tax structure forboth the state and taxpay-ers are illustrated by thefact that 20% of all corpo-rate income taxes werecollected pursuant to au-

dit.The new code is more transpar-ent and fair, and compliance is farmore straightforward.

The revised code is designed to

encourage headquarters companiesto stay and expand in New York.This action is timely,because gover-nors and mayors from as close asNew Jersey and Connecticut and asfar as Florida, Texas and Coloradoare actively courting major employ-ers with tax advantages designed tolure jobs and business operationsaway from our state.

It is noteworthy that Albany ac-complished the kind of smart, prac-tical corporate-tax reform that haseluded our hopelessly divided feder-al government, despite almost uni-versal recognition that convolutedbusiness-tax codes are contributingto the slow pace of economic growthin the country.

One sour note is that unless NewYork City decides to conform to thestate reforms, businesses locatedhere will still be subject to the oldprotocol for city taxes.Mayor Bill deBlasio could send a great signal tothe business community by indicat-ing his willingness to explore cityadoption of the reforms, recogniz-ing that any lost revenue would haveto be made up somewhere else.

Kathryn Wylde is president and CEO ofthe Partnership for New York City, abusiness group that represents the city’slargest private employers.

Among the unheralded accomplishments of the$138 billion budget that was adopted earlier thismonth in Albany is a set of reforms in state busi-ness taxes that put New York on stronger groundfor attracting and retaining good jobs.

For too long, the state coasted on the underlying power ofNew York City’s vibrant economy, spending freely and ignor-ing competitive pressures.This year,Gov.Andrew Cuomo and

KATHRYN WYLDE

OPINION

the additional expense. And tothink that this regulation goes intoeffect after 80 hours are worked—just two 40-hour workweeks!

This does not create a nurturingenvironment for small businessowners, and creates an opportunityfor abuse by new hires.The de Bla-sio administration should be solicit-ing more feedback from a variety ofbusiness owners.

—heide lee

CULTURAL ‘EQUITY’While Joan K. Davidson’s Feb.10 op-ed (“Arts & de Blasio:goals for lively scene”) affirms themayor’s “tale of two cities”campaign theme, the notionof a divided city goesbeyond the wealthy and the have-nots. Creativity is not limited tothe big institutions; it belongsto every individual andmanifests itself in every cornerof our great city, especiallycommunities of color. Now is thetime to invest in cultural equity; thatis, all forms of creative expressionalready existing in our communitiesbut underfinanced and under-recognized.

We are aware of the great artists

who emerged from communities ofcolor without support systems. Buthow many “could-haves” did notbecause of the lack of resources?Too many to count. A subclass of1,200 arts nonprofits has limitedaccess to foundations and corpora-tions. How many have budgets foradequate staffing, benefits and facil-ities? These are the 99-percenterswho carry forth our legacies, givevoices to our communities and ar-tistically interpret our lives.

Cultural equity in a city as cul-turally diverse as oursseems to be a forgot-ten concept. Ironically,there isn’t a 1-per-center who isn’t an ad-vocate for multicultur-alism, as they defineit. It’s time for a new

voice that resonateswith equity and support of

our diverse communities.Ms. Davidson’s recommenda-

tions have been made in someform or another over the years.What has been woefully lackinghas been their applicationthroughout the city. Equity and ac-cess need to be in the forefront.

—bill aguadoThe writer is a former executive dir-

ector of the Bronx Council on the Arts.

CCOOMMMMEENNTTSS

Continued from Page 10What state budgetmeans for business

20%PORTION OF NYSCORPORATE TAXcollected via auditbefore the budgetdeal simplifiedthe tax code

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istock

should expand the city’s use of dataand analytics and change policies toencourage the same in the privatesector.

One opportunity to better usedata is in employment services.While New York City’s tech indus-try is booming, growth has beenstunted in middle- and low-wagesectors.To address this, Mr. de Bla-sio has announced plans to central-ize data from city job-placementsystems, which could ease jobsearches for the city’s nearly 700,000unemployed workers.This is a goodfirst step, but there are many more

innovative uses of data that can bebrought to bear for the unemployed.For example, a number of private-sector matching systems,such as theones used by AfterCollege andrecent LinkedIn acquisitionBright.com, are using analytics tomine résumés and job descriptions.These take in data on everythingfrom degrees and previous employ-ers to experience and skill require-ments, and output recommenda-tions that match job-seekers withemployers.The city should examinethe implementation of similar data-mining programs to increase effi-

ciency and placement rates.Data and analytics could also as-

sist the mayor on public safety anddisaster preparedness. Informationis imperative in disaster response forresidents and first responders, andNew York collaborated successfullywith the data-science community inthe wake of Hurricane Sandy toprovide real-time flood predictionsand map out the areas where volun-teers were needed most.

However,data can also be used toprevent crises from occurring in thefirst place. For example, investiga-tions around the natural-gas explo-sion that killed eight in East Harlemin March have fingered flaws inNew York’s antiquated gas mains.Data analytics can be used proac-tively to identify such weak infra-structure and help mobilize re-sources to the most urgent projects.Developers are already using his-toric disaster data and a registry ofinfrastructure complaints through-out the city to build a risk model forpotential fires, a project catalyzed byseveral apartment blazes in 2011.This effort should be expanded toother areas of city infrastructure.

Unfortunately,the city’s opennesstoward data has not extended to thePolice Department. The NYPD hasbeen reluctant to release granular

crime data,though it could be used toimprove department efficiency andcreate value in sectors from real estateto economic development. The cityshould consider adopting the Sun-light Foundation’s recommendationsfor releasing crime data, which in-clude reducing restrictions on access,listing all related data sets in human-and machine-readable formats, andtaking measures to ensure data qual-ity and privacy. These steps would

enable more initiatives like the city’scurrent crime-data programs,such asthe audio-based gunshot-detectionsystem ShotSpotter and the gang-targeting Operation Crew Cut,which utilizes social media andinformation on previous violentcrimes and gang activity to target in-vestigations.

Finally, analytics can improve

educational opportunities. High-school graduation rates slipped forthe first time in more than a decadelast year, illustrating the need forcontinued improvement and policyreform.

The city should strive to makeschool data and student educationinformation easily available to ad-ministrators and other authorizedpersonnel to better allocate teachingand disciplinary resources. Mr. deBlasio has opposed one such dataconsolidation system but should re-consider. Given the city’s educa-tional needs, it is crucial that the cityembrace education analytics to bet-ter assess student performance, tai-lor instruction to individual studentneeds and engage parents in thelearning process.

New York City has a thrivingdata community and one of thestrongest open data portals in thenation. A comprehensive data strat-egy would build on past successes,improve the city’s economic and so-cial well-being, and help city gov-ernment better meet the needs of itscitizens.

Travis Kote and Jordan Misra researchdata policy at the Center for DataInnovation, a nonprofit that studies the use of information.

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg helped trans-form New York into one of the most innovativecities in the nation, using data to reduce fire fatali-ties, enhance relief efforts following HurricaneSandy and find the source of sewer back-ups,

among other examples. Mayor Bill de Blasio can build on thislegacy to boost economic growth, public safety and education,improving the lives of all New Yorkers.To do so, Mr. de Blasio

TRAVIS KOTE AND JORDAN MISRA

Big data can bea big help to city

How the mayorcan useanalytics to aidNew Yorkers

IN THE BOROUGHS QUEENS

That influx of new residents, inturn, is drawing the attention of de-velopers. With demand for apart-ments rising and people with moremoney to spend moving in,landowners are rising to the baitand are putting up condo and apart-ment buildings—three of them inthe past two years. What helps isthat Woodside’s land prices are lessthan half those of areas like Astoria,according to Eric Benaim, presi-dent of Long IslandCity-based residentialbroker Modern Spaces.Among other things,that makes it easier fordevelopers in Woodsideto undercut their closer-in rivals on rent whilestill reaping a healthyprofit.

Selling out quicklyOne of those new

projects is the immod-estly named Icon 52, a66-unit property at 52-05 Queens Blvd. The building’sone- and two-bedroom apartmentshave monthly rents starting at about$1,700 and $2,500, respectively—and they went quickly. Opened inearly February, it took all of sixweeks for the “no vacancy”sign to goup, according to Mr. Benaim, whorepresents the landlord, the TsiloGroup.The units feature hardwoodfloors and 9-foot ceilings, plus suchamenities as a virtual doorman, and

a landscaped rooftop deck repletewith chaises longues and a barbecuegrill.

That combination of attractivespace and affordable rent is hard tofind, admitted 33-year-old Macy’sexecutive Sharif Fayache, whosnatched up one of the last one-bed-room apartments at Icon 52 a fewweeks ago after a fruitless months-long search from Cobble Hill,Brooklyn, to Astoria.

“I’ve heard a lot of good thingsabout the neighborhood’snightlife, too,”said Mr.Fay-ache.

Woodside also boasts abig advantage over water-front sections of Long Is-land City, not to mentionGreenpoint and Williams-burg in Brooklyn, whichuntil recent years were pri-marily industrial.Woodsidewas built and settled as aresidential area, one thatdrew mostly Irish immi-grants and their children.As a result, it is an estab-

lished community with all thethings that go with it: well-regardedschools, low crime and a good, af-fordable housing stock.

True, Woodside lacks much inthe way of woods or even grass, butit can and does lay claim to being thehome of two-acre Doughboy Plaza,which, despite its unassumingname, features four handball courts,two basketball courts, a children’spool and a playground. In 2003,

Doughboy was rated among the top20 parks in the entire city by thenonprofit New Yorkers for Parks.

In a neighborhood where bigchanges have been relatively few inrecent decades,many longtime shopand restaurant owners are noticing ashift in their clientele.

At a local favorite watering hole,Sinners and Saints—one of eightIrish pubs along a six-block strip ofRoosevelt Avenue—Irish patronsstill predominate, but regulars war-ily report that more 30-somethingsuits and hipsters are joining theircrowd.

‘A lot of new faces’“We’re seeing a lot of new faces,

and we expect to see more,” said JayChowdbury, a bartender at the 20-year-old bar, which is best knownfor its pints of beer and spicy wings.“As it is, we are packed on the week-ends.”

New retailers are turning up, too.An Ottomanelli & Sons Italian-style café opened in the past fewmonths on Roosevelt Avenue.Nearby at Woodside Terrace—anew eight-story, 96-unit condo de-velopment at 63-14 QueensBlvd.—space on the ground floorhas gone to such new arrivals asDeals by Dollar Tree, the Wine andLiquor Market and several smallfranchised restaurants.

Theo Kontis, director of com-mercial real estate broker HarvestInternational, based in New HydePark,L.I.,said he’s leased 85% of the

Woodside draws a new crowd

BROOKLYN

Better schooling at half the priceBasis Independent Brooklyn is re-cruiting students for its initial classthis September in Red Hook.In do-ing so, the operator of a dozenschools around the world—but ofonly two pending facilities in theU.S.—has a couple of key advan-tages. Its classes are among thehighest-rated private-school curric-ula in the world, and the annual tu-ition it will charge,at $23,500 a year,is a bargain compared with the$40,000-plus common for Manhat-tan elite schools.

Such pluses, however, have notstopped some Red Hook residentsfrom opposing the school on thegrounds that it will lead to furthergentrification of the neighborhood.School executives point out thattheir building will rise on a parkinglot on Columbia Street between theRed Hook ball fields and the AddedValue farmers’ market that other-wise could have been the site ofsomething far worse. More impor-tant, Mark Reford, the chief execu-tive of Basis, insists that schools likehis are something everybody needsmore of.

“I think that the chil-dren of Brooklyn andNew York City deserve aworld-quality, focusedliberal-arts education,and I know their parentsdeserve a private-schooltuition that is more af-fordable,” said Mr. Re-ford. “Unless we committo upgrading our scienceand math-based curricu-la in this country, we willcontinue to fall behindthe rest of the world inpreparing our children

for the challenges of the 21st-centu-ry global economy.”

—bilal iftikhar

QUEENS

Rentals out, condosin at RKO Keith’sPlans to build a residential toweratop the old RKO Keith’s Theatrein Flushing are finally moving for-ward and indeed are doing so on agrander scale than originallyplanned. In a powerful sign of howmuch stronger the Flushing markethas grown in recent years, the 350rental apartments envisioned by theoriginal developer will now be con-dos instead.

“The market in Flushing haschanged from three or four yearsago,” said a spokesman for JK Equi-ties, which purchased the propertyfrom the previous owner in Decem-ber for $30 million. The 17-storybuilding, located at 135-35 North-ern Blvd., will also have 23,000square feet of retail and 385 parkingspaces. The only drawback is thatnew developers don’t plan to breakground until early next year. “Theyhave to file for all the permits andget everything in order,” said thespokesman. He added that becausethe building, which was built in1928, is landmarked,the new devel-oper will also need to create a pro-tective shell over the lobby to pre-serve it during construction.

—marine cole

Continued from Page 3

FROMAROUNDTHE CITY

14 | Crain’s New York Business | April 14, 2014

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NEW SHOW ENTIRELY: Movie theater will morph into condos.

available 19,000 square feet atWoodside Terrace during the pastyear at asking rents of about $37 persquare foot.

“We’ve had a lot of interest frombakeries, cafés and restaurant fran-

chises whose owners recognize themarket share to be had here,” saidMr. Kontis. “It’s a dense neighbor-hood with more than 12,000 hous-ing units in less than a one-square-mile radius, and it’s growing.” �

jay

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BAR NONE: New folks crack a longtime Irish bastion on Roosevelt Avenue.$1,700AVERAGE RENTfor 1-bedroomapartment

12KHOUSING UNITSin 1-mile radius

$60KAVERAGE annualincome

April 14, 2014 | Crain’s New York Business | 15

S M A L L B U S I N E S S INSIDE The List New York area’s largestSBA-guaranteed loans PAGE 17

Pet projects Tech firms unleash a litterof new products for digitally savvy animallovers PAGE 18

To snag the best employees, some firms find it’s worthwhile to offer big-company-style compensation packages

buck

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REPORT

31.8% PORTION of private-sectoremployees’ compensationdevoted to benefits, includinghealth care, in the NY metroarea, Dec. 2012 to Dec. 2013

1.8% INCREASE in total compensationcosts that private-sector employerspaid for their workers in the NY metroarea, Dec. 2012 to Dec. 2013$24,440 AVERAGE total cost of benefits

per private-sector employee,including health care,retirement and leave, for the NY metro area in 2013

Big benefits on a small dime

APPWAY’S DinaFernandez (center)has found thatgenerous benefitsattract top talent.

BY ELIZABETH MACBRIDE

When Appway decided to open an office in Manhattan in2011, the Zurich-based firm brought its European bene-fits sensibility along.

Employees get basic health care for $42 a month, andthe company contributes 6% of workers’ salaries to 401(k)plans regardless of whether they contribute anything.

“We believe in Switzerland’s generous benefits, respectand dignity for all employees, and a strong emphasis onwork-life balance,” said CEO Hanspeter Wolf, by email.

The company, which makes workflow-managementsoftware for financial-services firms, needs the benefits toattract talent, too: With 100 global employees, it aims todouble its 10-person staff in New York this year.The mar-ket for software engineers in the city is tight, and Appwayseeks only top candidates. See BIG BENEFITS on Page 16

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

16 | Crain’s New York Business | April 14, 2014

REPORT SMALL BUSINESS

About 10% of prospective hires makeit past the initial assessment, saidDina Fernandez, office manager.

Hiring is picking up in New YorkCity-based small businesses, whichmeans the talent war is as well. In a hypercompetitive market forskilled workers, a well-crafted ben-efits package is crucial.

Larger companies know this:They spend more on benefits, as apercentage of total compensation,than small firms. According to theBureau of Labor Statistics, busi-nesses with more than 100 workersspent 33% on benefits in 2013, ver-sus 26% for smaller companies. Ex-perts say the key to making sure yourdollars aren’t wasted is knowingwhich benefits your employee de-mographic values most.

In Appway’s case, workers aretypically in their 30s and 40s—at anage when the cash value of benefitstends to be important.“This isn’t myfirst rodeo,” said Ms. Fernandez,who manages the company’s bene-fits programs. She says Appway’semployees do add up the dollars,with the health care and 401(k) con-tribution being the biggest per-suaders, and other benefits, such asmoney for a gym membership, car-rying weight, too.

Of course, many small businessowners would like to offer betterbenefits but can’t easily afford them.Rising costs mean that Cadillacbenefits now feel like Rolls-Royce

plans to them.The employers in theNew York metro area who respond-ed to consulting firm Mercer’s 2013National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans spent$13,345 last year on health care ben-efits per employee, asking workersto contribute about $140 a month.(The smallest firm had 250 employ-ees.) Not many small businesses canafford to spend that much.

Other benefits, such as a 401(k)plan, can also be costly,with adminis-trative costs that run as high as 0.75%of the total assets in a plan,on top of afew thousand dollars in other fees.Tokeep 401(k) fees down, owners maytry to get proposals from at least threekinds of companies that administerthe plans,such as a bank,an independ-ent benefits firm or an insurer, saidJohn Carnevale, CEO of Boston-based Sentinel Benefits & FinancialGroup,an employee benefits consult-ing firm with a large presence in NewYork City that focuses on companieswith fewer than 1,000 employees.

Here are some other ideas for designing a big-company benefitspackage as a small business:

� TALK TO YOUR EMPLOYEES. Whetheryour process is formal—such as asurvey—or informal, like a series oflunches, ask your employees whichbenefits they value most.“Frame theconversations as trade-offs,” saidJulie Stone, senior consultant withTowers Watson, a professional-

services firm focused on improvingcompanies’ performance. The an-swers may surprise you. When Ms.Stone’s firm started consulting for alarge retailer with a presence in NewYork City that had a lot of turnover,Towers Watson discovered that theemployees didn’t care that muchabout the 401(k) or the health plan:The problem was that they didn’tfeel in control of their scheduling.Though a new scheduling systemcost money, instituting it enabledpeople to pick their own shifts andturned the company’s retentionproblem around, Ms. Stone said.

As a small business, you have anadvantage over big companies: few-er people to survey and closer rela-tionships with your employees.

� SHOW YOU CARE. Small firms be-come more competitive with biggerrivals by being very thoughtfulabout choosing a plan and addingsome ancillary benefits, particularlyones focused on health. Studiesshow one of the key drivers for en-gagement and retention is whetheremployees feel their employer caresabout their health and well-being,according to Ms. Stone.

Sometimes, benefits outside atraditional health plan can go a longway. Appway, for instance, offers ahealth discount program with re-duced rates on fitness clubs, nutri-tion counseling and smoking cessa-tion.Some employers sponsor sportsteams and running or walking

competitions. Large employers areadding biometric screenings to theirplans, according to Ms.Stone. If youhave a younger,gadget-happy work-force, an Up bracelet from Jawbone,which monitors daily habits, mightserve the same emotional purpose.

� EMPHASIZE CHOICE. You can giveemployees more varied health careoptions by joining a marketplace.Among those operating in New Yorkare Manhattan-based HealthPass;Mercer Marketplace; the BrightChoices exchange,operated by Tow-ers Watson’s Liazon, based in Ar-lington, Va.; and, of course, New York State of Health—the market-place mandated by Obamacare.Marketplaces offer a selection ofplans; employees make their ownchoices on how to spend a set contri-bution from employers.

� STAY ON TOP OF TRENDS. Amongthose catching hold among largercompanies, according to Ms. Stone,are supplemental life-insuranceplans, long-term disability plans,and pet and vision insurance. Alsopopular are group legal plans, whichoffer benefits for seeking advice onwriting wills and critical-illnesspolicies, among others. The lattertypically pay out lump sums to cov-er costs, including deductibles, thatthe company health plan leaves un-covered.

Just as with health insurance,owners can pay all or part of the costof other insurance benefits, most ofwhich are relatively inexpensive(disability is one exception).

� MAKE THEM OWNERS. If you’re a fast-growing company and your employ-ees have an ambition that matchesyours, your equity and/or profit-sharing plan may be even more at-tractive than old-fashioned benefitslike health plans and 401(k) match-es. To create a competitive plan, setaside about 10% to 20% of the equi-ty in your company to give out toemployees in the form of equity, saidBob Greene of Manhattan-basedContour Venture Partners, a ven-ture-capital firm. If you want to be

particularly generous, set aside alarger portion.

It doesn’t cost much to set up anequity plan, because lawyers will of-ten do the work for a very low fee inhopes of becoming company coun-sel. If you run a family-owned firm,you may not be aiming for the kindof exit that makes equity appealing,such as an IPO or buyout. But aprofit-sharing plan can serve thesame purpose. The costs are similarto those in a 401(k).

� OFFER A HEALTHY 401(K) MATCH. Anirony of the benefits world is thatone of the most valuable benefitsyou give your employees—a 401(k)plan, sometimes with a match—isone of the least appreciated. Ahealthy match may help attract thefinancially savvy: On average, com-panies with 49 or fewer employeesoffered a 3.2% contribution to401(k)s in 2011, and companieswith 50 to 99 employees offered2.6%, according to Chicago-basedPlan Sponsor Council of America.Typical contributions are about thesame in New York City,except in thefinance industry, where they arehigher, according to Mr. Carnevale.

� SIMPLIFY SAVING. Once your em-ployees are on board, it may help tokeep them if you make the act of sav-ing for retirement as painless as pos-sible,with as many automated plans,target-date funds and index-fundoptions as possible. “After 25 yearsin this business, I know that partic-ipants don’t really want to pick theirinvestments. I always go back tomaking sauce: I don’t want you todeliver the oil, the spices and thetomatoes to my table,” Mr.Carnevale said.“People get frustrat-ed, and they don’t participate.”

Especially if your workforce isyounger, employees may have a hardtime grasping the idea that a $500-a-month contribution now couldmake the difference between beingold and poor or retiring comfort-ably. Adding a financial-educationcomponent to your retirement plancould bring some of the rewardhome to employees. �

Big benefits, small budgetContinued from Page 15

TREATING TECHNOLOGY AS A PERKBRING-YOUR-OWN-DEVICE (BYOD) policies, in which employees can use theirown phones and tablets at the office, are increasingly popular benefits,especially for younger workers, HR experts say. The Gartner Group, a Stanford,Conn.-based research and consulting firm focused on information technology,found in a recent survey that 38% of companies plan to stop providingdevices such as mobile phones to workers by 2016.

The best systems allow employees to access everything they need to do theirjobs in the cloud, whether they are home or on the road, experts say.

However, putting the technology in place to do this can be costly at asmall business. Perhaps not surprisingly, large and midsize companies areleading the pack in implementing these policies, according to Gartner’sresearch.

Implementing a BYOD policy is likely to get easier in the next few years, asbig companies target small firms with new products that support this goal.

For instance, Apple offers a small-business support center to helpcompanies integrate iPhones and iPads into their operations. Meanwhile,Brother, a maker of printers and scanners whose U.S. operations are based inBridgewater, N.J., now offers a mobile app that lets workers securelydownload, print and scan business documents from anywhere.

“If you have a document that you want to get into the system somehow,once you’ve scanned it in, you then have the ability to manipulate thedocument on your device, and then you have this document that can be sentsomewhere,” said John Wandishin, vice president of marketing for Brother.

—ELIZABETH MACBRIDE

PASSION FOR SUCCESS.

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THELIST

NY Area’s Largest SBA-Guaranteed LoansBiggest loan approvals in fiscal 2013, ranked by total amount

SBA/CDC Third-party lender/ Third-party lender’sBorrower/location Total loan amount share of loan Borrower’s business type certified development company or 7(a) lender1 share of loan

Shine Electronics Co. $13,081,000 $5,431,000 Telephone apparatus Wilshire State Bank $7,650,0001 Long Island City, Queens manufacturing Empire State Certified Development Corp.

UD OP 46th Street $13,000,000 $5,000,000 Dental office Wilshire State Bank $8,000,0002 Manhattan Empire State Certified Development Corp.

RVM Enterprises Inc. $12,000,000 $5,000,000 Business support service Bank of America $7,000,0003 Manhattan Empire State Certified Development Corp.

Michael K $10,931,000 $4,931,000 Men’s clothing store Citibank $6,000,0004 Manhattan Empire State Certified Development Corp.

Eclectic/Encore Properties Inc. $10,215,000 $4,608,000 General rental center Wells Fargo Bank $5,607,0005 Long Island City, Queens Empire State Certified Development Corp.

Hotel BPM $10,003,000 $3,503,000 Hotel and motel The National Republic Bank of Chicago $6,500,0006 Sunset Park, Brooklyn Empire State Certified Development Corp.

A.S. Diamonds Inc. $9,902,000 $4,467,000 Jewelry wholesaler Bank of America $5,435,0007 Manhattan Empire State Certified Development Corp.

Foodfest Depot $9,292,000 $4,192,000 Grocery wholesaler Chase Bank $5,100,0008 Mott Haven, Bronx Empire State Certified Development Corp.

Jungle City Studios $6,833,000 $3,083,000 Sound-recording studio HSBC Bank USA $3,750,0009 Manhattan Empire State Certified Development Corp.

Ken Moadel, M.D., P.C. $6,733,000 $3,038,000 Physicians’ office Bank of America $3,695,00010 Manhattan Empire State Certified Development Corp.

Jesco Lighting Inc. $5,012,000 $2,262,000 Commercial and industrial East West Bank $2,750,000 11 Port Washington, Nassau County lighting Empire State Certified Development Corp.

22nd Street Restaurant Group $5,000,000 n/a Restaurant n/a n/a12 Manhattan Noah Bank

Cosmic Realty $5,000,000 n/a Hotel and motel n/a n/a13 Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Country Bank

Good Fortune Supermarket Group $5,000,000 n/a Grocery wholesaler n/a n/a14 Maspeth, Queens NewBank

Madelaine Chocolate Novelties Inc. $5,000,000 n/a Chocolate and confectionary n/a n/a15 Far Rockaway, Queens manufacturing Newtek Small Business Finance Inc.

Parsons Hospitality $5,000,000 n/a Hotel and motel n/a n/a16 Jamaica, Queens Hanmi Bank

Patkin Holding $5,000,000 n/a Hotel and motel n/a n/a17 Ozone Park, Queens NewBank

RM Bakery $5,000,000 n/a Commercial bakery n/a n/a18 Maspeth, Queens Square 1 Bank

AVA Pork Products Inc. $4,979,500 $2,247,000 Meat processor Bethpage Federal Credit Union $2,732,50019 Hicksville, Nassau County Empire State Certified Development Corp.

Remote Diagnostic Imaging $4,936,100 n/a Diagnostic imaging center n/a n/a20 Manhattan United Midwest Savings Bank

Flatlands Hospitality $4,800,000 n/a Hotel and motel n/a n/a21 East New York, Brooklyn Hanmi Bank

Bread Alone Inc. $4,740,250 $2,139,000 Food manufacturing Ulster Savings Bank $2,139,00022 Lake Katrine, Ulster County Empire State Certified Development Corp.

Bluedata International Institute $4,512,000 $2,262,000 Educational support service Morgan Stanley Bank $2,250,00023 Manhattan Empire State Certified Development Corp.

C-Town Supermarket $4,506,000 $2,056,000 Supermarket Capital One Bank $2,500,000 24 Williamsburg, Brooklyn Empire State Certified Development Corp.

Murray’s Free Roaming Chicken Inc. $4,500,000 n/a Poultry processing n/a n/a25 South Fallsburg, Sullivan County Noah Bank

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s New York district includes New York City and Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Suffolk, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties. Ratings are for the fiscal year endedSept. 30, 2013. The top 25 loans were approved either under the 504 loan program or the 7(a) loan program. The 504 loan program provides growing businesses with long-term fixed-rate financing for major fixed assets, suchas equipment, land and buildings. The 7(a) loan program is the SBA’s most-used nondisaster financial assistance program to small businesses because of its flexibility in loan structure, variety of loan proceeds uses and avail-ability. In cases of tied figures in the total loan amount, borrowers are listed alphabetically. n/a-Not applicable. 1-The certified development company listed for each loan is the CDC that handled the loan processing (504 loansonly). Source: U.S. Small Business Administration

LOAN CLIMATEIMPROVESIN A SIGN of an improvingenvironment for local smallbusinesses, the total value of SmallBusiness Administration-guaranteedloans to New York companies rose to$772 million in fiscal 2013 from$723 million in fiscal 2012.

The largest such loan was $13.1million to Shine Electronics Co., acellphone and computer refurbishingcompany based in Long Island City,Queens, made by Wilshire StateBank and the Empire State CertifiedDevelopment Corp., a nonprofit thatfacilitates small-business loanapplications. That was one of seventhat exceeded 2012’s largest loan of$9.7 million.

Lenders’ willingness to makelarger loans reflects borrowers andlenders taking greater advantage ofan increase, to $5 million from $2million, in the amount guaranteed bythe SBA, said Bernard Paprocki,acting regional administrator for theNew York district. The hike took effectOct. 1, 2010, as part of the SmallBusiness Jobs Act.

“There’s a lot more interest inlenders doing larger deals withbigger economic impact,” said Mr.Paprocki.

Noah Bank, a Pennsylvania-based institution with branches inNew York and New Jersey and totalassets of $252 million, provided twoof the top loans. Michael Reinhard,president of Noah, said the bank isable to sell the portion of the loanguaranteed by the SBA to otherinvestors in the secondary market.The added liquidity allows the bankto then make further loans.

“Today, premiums are historicallyvery high, so it’s immediate revenuefor the bank,” Mr. Reinhard said.

Armed with a $12 million loanfrom Bank of America and theEmpire State Certified DevelopmentCorp., RVM Enterprises (No. 3 onCrain’s list), a fast-growingManhattan-based data-management firm, was able toconsolidate its two locations into32,000 square feet at 40 Rector St.,according to Executive ChairwomanCheryl Brunetti. “The SBA loanallowed us to secure space and hireapproximately 60 new employees,”she said. The company now employs140 people.

While the increase in total loanvolume is a good sign for the localeconomy, banks remain cautiousabout lending, noted Mr. Paprocki.“It would be good if small businessescould be borrowing without the SBA,”he said.

THE SCOOP

—NICHOLAS WELLS

18 | Crain’s New York Business | April 14, 2014

BY ANNE FIELD

It started as a lark.About three years ago, Matt

Meeker was happily working for aventure-capital firm, running an in-cubator for early-stage technologycompanies. From time to time, healso would pop into pet stores to see

if he could find aspecial treat forHugo, his GreatDane. Discour-aged by the se-lection he en-countered, Mr.Meeker decidedto do some re-search and seewhat was avail-able online. Tohis surprise, hefound “literallythousands” ofunique products,

many of which he thought Hugowould love.

That’s when the idea hit him:Surely there were other dog loverslike him who were willing to pay toprovide their pets with a little extrajoy. He talked to Henrik Werdelin,a friend and fellow pooch enthusi-ast, and they decided to start an e-commerce business on the side.They would sell an online subscrip-

tion service called BarkBox thatwould curate,package and ship box-es with four to six treats and toys fordogs. Soon after they started theirbusiness, they enlisted Carly Strife,another pal and canine lover, to jointhem.

Health-monitoring gadgetsMuch to their surprise, demand

skyrocketed almost immediately.After about six months, Mr. Meek-er decided to leave his job and de-vote himself full-time to the compa-ny. Now the Manhattan-basedbusiness has 38 employees, and Mr.Meeker predicts 2014 revenue willbe $30 million, up three times fromthe year before, though the compa-ny isn’t profitable yet. “It wasn’t ourintention to get big, but we realizedwe’d found a great opportunity,” hesaid.

BarkBox is part of a mini-explosion of technology startups inNew York focused on pets.Offeringeverything from devices for re-motely monitoring a pooch’s healthto social networks for critter own-ers, these companies, some of whichare just a few months old, are takingadvantage of two simultaneoustrends.

The first is a growing interest inpets, nationally and locally. Ameri-cans spent $55.7 billion on their petsin 2013, and that number is likely tohit about $60 billion this year, ac-cording to the American Pet Prod-ucts Association. While regionalnumbers are hard to come by, “de-mand is growing in the New Yorkarea, too,” said Patricia Jones,founder of Paws PR, a Woodside,

Queens-based marketing andpublic-relations firm that targetsproducts and services for pets.

The second is the increase intechnology startups. In fact, thanksto the area’s tech boom, “New Yorkmay be the perfect incubator for thistype of company,” said Ms. Jones.“As the tech industry has grown, sohas its intersection with pet busi-nesses.”

In addition, New York City it-self, along with other urban centersattracting professionals, is a partic-ularly promising market. For onething, there’s a critical mass of po-tential customers with the discre-tionary income to buy these prod-ucts and services. Also, according toMr.Meeker,most of BarkBox’s cus-tomers are women who have de-layed marriage and starting a familyto get settled in a career.

“Their attitude toward their petsis more like a traditional love for hu-man children,” said Mr. Meeker,who, like many other startupfounders, used the term “pet parent”instead of “owner” to describe hiscustomers, as well as himself.

Of course, the fact that pet devo-tion has reached what may be an all-time high doesn’t guarantee success.Startups must contend with theusual costs of doing business in NewYork. And there may be a finite de-mand for fancy gadgets and gizmosfor pets.

Those realities haven’t discour-aged Mike Maione, a former equi-ties trader. The owner of two ShibaInus, a breed of small huskies, wascrazy about animals. When he waslaid off from his job at Banco Espíri-

to Santo in 2012, Mr. Maione start-ed exploring the possibilities. “I feltthe pet-services industry was a greatplace to be,” he said.

Investors pay attentionWhat he came up with was the

idea to create a social network forpeople with pets, allowing them toshare information, photos andideas, and to find groomers, vets andother providers in their area. Nam-ing it Hi Pancake! after a pooch heused to see in a dog park on week-ends, he took his app live about fivemonths ago. It now has about 5,000users, mostly in New York.

Mr. Maione, who is based inManhattan, is now working on hisrevenue-generation strategy. Itshould include advertising and part-nerships with online pet pharmacies

and other providers, as well as withpet adoption centers.

Not surprisingly, many startupsin this niche have succeeded at at-tracting money. Mr. Meeker and hiscolleagues,for example,raised about$6.7 million in two venture-capitalfunding rounds.

The four co-founders ofManhattan-based FitBark, whichsells a device that attaches to a dog’scollar and permits owners to moni-tor their pet’s health remotely,launched a Kickstarter campaignlast July and reached their goal of$80,000 in 27 hours. The product,which can be preordered for $69 andwill eventually retail for $99, shouldstart shipping this spring. “The re-sponse showed that we’re makingsomething people want,” said co-founder Michael Chiang. �

Entrepreneursattract digitally savvyanimal lovers withnew products

New pack of tech startupstargets ‘pet parents’

1.1MNUMBER OF PETdogs and cats inNew York City

33%APPROXIMATEPERCENTAGEof New York Cityhouseholds withdogs or cats as petsSource: New York Economic DevelopmentCorp., 2012

The New York Attorney General will discuss: • Settlements reached with major banks, health care companies and “patent trolls” • Plans to reform nonprofit organizations • Negotiations with smartphone manufacturers to add anti-theft technology

Meet Eric Schneiderman New York Attorney General

Photo Credit: Buck Ennis

Sponsored by:

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Thursday, April 24, 2014New York Athletic Club180 Central Park South8:00–8:30a.m. Networking Breakfast8:30–9:30a.m. Program

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You must be pre-registered to attend this event. No refunds permitted.

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REPORT SMALL BUSINESS

PAMPERING POOCHES:BarkBox, co-founded byMatt Meeker, ships boxeswith four to six treats andtoys for dogs.

buck

enn

is

April 14, 2014 | Crain’s New York Business | 19

NEW IN TOWN

Companies that would like to have detailsof openings published should submitdescriptions following this format toMSingleton@crainsnewyork.com, with“New in Town” in the subject line.

● Docklands789 Franklin Ave., BrooklynThe seafood restaurant soft-opened inCrown Heights. Dishes include chilisteamed mussels and lobster mac andcheese. Oysters from the raw bar are freeduring happy hour, Wednesdays throughSundays.

● Eastwick Communications225 W. 34th St., ManhattanThe 22-year-old marketing and public-relations firm opened a New York officein midtown. The Silicon Valley-basedcompany relocated four staffers to West34th Street to serve its East Coastclients.

● Savoury489 Columbus Ave., ManhattanThe Indian restaurant opened on theUpper West Side. Dishes includescallops in coconut tamarind sauce, andyogurt-marinated lamb chops. Thespace features a lounge and cocktail barin the front and dining-room seating inthe rear.

● Seasoned Vegan55 Saint Nicholas Ave., ManhattanThe Southern-style vegan restaurantopened in Harlem. Vegan-ingredientdishes include “tuna” on a roll, “chicken”and waffles, BBQ “riblets,” and “fish”and chips.

COMPANY MOVES

Companies that would like to have detailsof recent moves published should submitdescriptions following this format toMSingleton@crainsnewyork.com, with“Company Moves” in the subject line.

● Grey Dog49 Carmine St., ManhattanThe varied-menu café opened a newlocation in the West Village aftershutting its original location on the same street. It serves its signaturepancakes, omelets, salads andsandwiches. Its three other locations are in lower Manhattan.

● Red Hook Lobster Pound16 Extra Place, ManhattanThe seafood restaurant opened a newlocation in the East Village. Dishesinclude lobster rolls, lobster Capresesalad and clam chowder. The originallocation is at 284 Van Brunt St.,Brooklyn.

● Variety Cafe146 Wyckoff Ave., BrooklynThe coffee and tea house opened a thirdoutpost in Bushwick. The owner plansto move his coffee-roasting operationthere. Offerings include espresso andbreakfast pastries.

● Wild340 Bedford Ave., BrooklynThe gluten-free pizza restaurantopened a location in Williamsburg. Itserves pies like pear and Gorgonzola,

and spicy prosciutto. Other dishes onthe menu include eggplant rigatoni,curry quinoa salad and a vegan kalecupcake. Its existing location is in theWest Village.

BANKRUPTCIES

The following listings are selected from the most recent available filings by companies seeking bankruptcy protectionin the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Information was obtainedfrom U.S. Bankruptcy Court recordsavailable on Public Access to CourtElectronic Records. Listings are inalphabetical order.

● Neel Nadia Hamid Habib Associates Inc.65 N. Central Park Ave., Hartsdale, N.Y.Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcyprotection on April 1. The filing citesestimated liabilities of $100,001 to$500,000 and estimated assets of $0 to$50,000. The creditors with the largestunsecured claims are the InternalRevenue Service, owed $50,000;JPMorgan Chase legal department,owed $50,000; and the New York StateDepartment of Taxation and Finance,owed $25,000.

● SCI Engineering241 W. 30th St., ManhattanFiled for Chapter 11 bankruptcyprotection on March 25. The filing citesestimated liabilities of $1,000,001 to$10 million and estimated assets of$50,001 to $100,000.

● Surroundart Storage63 Flushing Ave., QueensFiled for Chapter 11 bankruptcyprotection on March 19. The filing citesestimated liabilities of 1,000,001 to$10,000,000 and estimated assets of$1,000,001 to $10 million. The creditorswith the largest undisputed unsecuredclaims are Adir Tech, owed $60,985.02;RBS Collection, owed $36,131.94; andSunbelt Rentals, owed $34,302.30.

GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOPPORTUNITIES

Following are selected contractopportunities recently announced by NewYork City agencies. To learn how to sellgoods and services to city government,visit www.nyc.gov/selltonyc. For asearchable database of current procurementnotices, visit www.nyc.gov/cityrecord.Listings are alphabetical by category anddepartment.

CONSTRUCTION SERVICES● Department of Design and ConstructionSeeks competitive sealed bids by 11 a.m.on May 1 for Safe Routes to Transit,Phase III, Bronx. Bid documents areavailable for download at www.nyc.gov/buildnyc. Paper documents canbe obtained for $35, payable by check ormoney order to the Department ofDesign and Construction. To makeinquiries, contact Emmanuel Charles at (718) 391-2200 or charlesem@ddc.nyc.gov.

● Department of Homeless ServicesSeeks competitive sealed bids by 11 a.m.on May 12 for roof replacement andfaçade repairs. A mandatory prebid

conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. onApril 23 at 357 Marcus Garvey Blvd.,Brooklyn. To make inquiries, contactAnthony Salako at (212) 361-8445 orasalako@dhs.nyc.gov.

● Housing AuthoritySeeks competitive sealed bids by 11a.m. on May 6 for exterior restorationand roofing replacement. Biddocuments are available for downloadat www.nyc.gov/html/nycha/html/business/sellingtonycha.shtml orcan be picked up at 90 Church St.,Manhattan, for $25 in the form of acheck or money order payable toNYCHA. An optional prebidconference is scheduled for 10 a.m. onApril 18 at 387 Lafayette Ave.,Brooklyn. To make inquiries, contactVaughn Banks at (212) 306-6727 orvaughn.banks@nycha.nyc.gov.

● School Construction AuthoritySeeks competitive sealed bids by 10a.m. on April 25 for surveillancecameras at four schools in StatenIsland. The project range is $1.07million to $1.13 million. Biddocuments are available for a $100 feepayable by credit card, check or moneyorder to the New York City School Construction Authority.Prequalification by the SCA isnecessary. To make inquiries, contactEdison Aguilar at (718) 472-8641 oreaguilar@nycsca.org.

GOODS AND SERVICES● Department of Parks & RecreationSeeks competitive sealed bids by 3 p.m.on April 25 for block pruning inBrooklyn. To make inquiries, contactMelissa Marx at (212) 830-7979 ormelissa.marx@parks.nyc.gov.

● Economic Development Corp.Requests proposals by 4 p.m. on April 30for broadband infrastructure and high-speed Internet expansion in IndustrialBusiness Zones. Consultant must design,launch, implement and maintain fiber-optic network in one or more of thefollowing zones: Greenpoint/Williamsburg, north Brooklyn,southwest Brooklyn or Long Island City, Queens.To make inquiries, contactMaryann Catalano at (212) 312-3969 or connectibz@nycedc.com.

● Housing AuthoritySeeks competitive sealed bids by 10 a.m on April 24 for maintenancepainting of apartments at the Grant Houses in Manhattan. Bid documentsare available for download atwww.nyc.gov/html/nycha/html/business/business.shtml. A $25fee is required for nonelectronic bids,payable by check or money order toNYCHA Finance Department. Tomake inquiries, contact Erneste Pierre-Louis at (212) 306-3609 orerneste.pierre-louis@nycha.nyc.gov.

REAL ESTATE DEALS

Companies that would like to have details of their recent transactions appear in these listings should email descriptionsfollowing this format to MSingleton@crainsnewyork.com, with “Real estatetransaction” in the subject line, or enterthem online at crainsnewyork.com/submitadeal. Deals are listed in order ofsquare footage.

COMMERCIAL● Thomson Reuters signed a 72,000-square-foot lease at Waterfront CorporateCenter II in Hoboken, N.J.The mediagiant will relocate 450 employees fromits Times Square headquarters to itsexpanded space, now totaling 93,000square feet.The tenant was representedby Joseph Cabrera and Tim Kuhn, then

with Cushman & Wakefield.Thelandlord, SJP Properties, was representedin-house by Peter Bronsnick.

● Relativity Media has signed a 10-year lease for 16,900 square feet at 315Park Ave. South. The 10-year-oldBeverly Hills, Calif.-based filmdistributor and music publisher willoccupy the second floor at Spear StreetCapital’s 20-story building. The tenantwas represented by Chris Mongeluzoand Eric Zemachson of NewmarkGrubb Knight Frank. The landlord wasrepresented by Mark Mandell, EthanSilverstein and Scott Silverstein ofCushman & Wakefield. Relativity will pay rent in the mid-$60s persquare foot.

RETAIL● BNB Hana Bank signed a 20-yearlease for 9,500 square feet at 309 FifthAve. in Koreatown, Manhattan. Thebank, which largely serves Korean-American business owners, will relocatein September. The ground floor at theDylan, a 34-story luxury residentialtower, has asking rents of $200 persquare foot. The tenant was representedby Soon Rhee of First New York RealtyBrokers. The landlord was representedby RFR Realty.

STOCK TRANSACTIONS

Following are recent insider transactions atNew York’s largest publicly held companiesfiled with the Securities and ExchangeCommission by executives and majorshareholders. Listings are in order oftransaction value. The information wasobtained from Thomson Reuters.

● Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.(REGN)Sanofi purchased 613,890 shares ofcommon stock at prices ranging from

$300.28 to $316.49 per share betweenMarch 27 and March 28, in atransaction worth $189,613,536. It nowindirectly holds 20,018,100 shares.

● Time Warner Cable (TWC)Glenn A. Britt, director, sold 30,000shares of common stock at pricesranging from $136.42 to $136.86 onMarch 26, in a transaction worth$4,094,487. On the same day, heexercised options on 30,000 shares at$45.15 per share, in a transaction worth$1,354,500. He now directly holds177,571 shares.

Robert D. Marcus, chief executive, sold16,000 shares of common stock at$137.29 per share on March 25, in atransaction worth $2,196,704. He nowdirectly holds 61,281 shares.

● Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP)Carlos A. Rodriguez, president andchief executive, sold 29,464 shares ofcommon stock at prices ranging from$77.14 to $77.23 on March 31, in atransaction worth $2,275,050. On thesame day, he exercised options on 24,650shares at prices ranging from $40.28 to$49.52, in a transaction worth$1,096,447. He now directly holds120,085 shares.

● CBS Corp. (CBS)Douglas P. Morris, director, sold 34,886shares of common stock at $64.75 pershare on March 24, in a transactionworth $2,258,897. He now directlyholds 40,694 shares.

● Children’s Place Retail Stores Inc.(PLCE)Jane T. Elfers, president and chiefexecutive, sold 25,037 shares ofcommon stock at $49.85 per share onMarch 31, in a transaction worth$1,248,095. She now directly holds360,866 shares. �

ABOUT THIS SECTIONFOR THE RECORD is a weekly listing of information from the public recordthat can help businesspeople in the New York area find opportunities,potential new clients and updates on competitors.

To ask questions or get more information on this section, contactCrain’s research department at cnyb-research@crainsnewyork.com.

DEALS ROUNDUPTRANSACTION SIZE

TARGET/SELLERS (IN MILLIONS) BUYERS/INVESTORS TRANSACTION TYPE

FOR THE RECORD

Avincis Mission Critical $2,700.0 Babcock International Group plc SB M&AServices Holdings,S.L.U./Kohlberg KravisRoberts & Co. (Manhattan),InvestIndustrial

Maker Studios Inc./ $950.0 The Walt Disney Co. SB M&AUpfront Ventures,SingTel Ventures (Pte) Ltd.,Time Warner Investments(Manhattan), NorthgateCapital Group, YouTube,Greycroft Partners(Manhattan), CANAL + SA,Daher Capital, Lakestar

Nordion Inc./Scopia $766.1 Sterigenics International Inc. SB M&ACapital Management(Manhattan), Luxor CapitalGroup (Manhattan),Greywolf CapitalManagement, River RoadAsset Management

Etrawler Ltd. (unknown $624.0 BC Partners; Insight Venture FB M&Amajority stake)/ECI Partners Partners (Manhattan)

TAG Gewerbeimmobilien- $408.4 Apollo Global Management SB M&AAktiengesellschaft/ (Manhattan) (80%)TAG Immobilien AG

Alta Mesa Investment $350.0 Highbridge Principal Strategies GCIHoldings Inc./Not disclosed (Manhattan)

Trinity Walk Wakefield Ltd./ $264.1 Orion Capital Managers SB M&AAREA Property Partners(Manhattan), ShepherdConstruction Ltd., SovereignLand Ltd.

Canadian International Oil $180.8 Riverstone Holdings (Manhattan) GCICorp./not disclosed

Selected deals announced for the week ended March 29 involving companies in metro NewYork. SB M&A: Strategic buyer M&A represents a minority or majority acquisition of existingshares of a company without the participation of a financial buyer. FB M&A: Financial buyerM&A represents a minority or majority acquisition of existing shares of a company with theparticipation of a financial buyer. GCI: Growth capital investment represents new moneyinvested in a company for a minority stake. source: capitaliq

20 | Crain’s New York Business | April 14, 2014

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF JupiterHighway, LLC. Arts of Org filed withSecy of State of NY (SSNY) on1/17/14. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC toprincipal business address: 150 West28th St, Ste 402, NY NY 10001.Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF PipsticksLLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy ofState of NY (SSNY) on 2/7/14. Officelocation: NY County. SSNY designatedagent upon whom process may beserved and shall mail copy of processagainst LLC to: Northwest RegisteredAgent, 90 State St, Ste 700, Office 40,Albany, NY 12207. Principal businessaddress: 80 Varick St, 10B, NY, NY10013. Purpose: any lawful act.

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES

BX PROPERTIES MANAGERS LLC,a domestic LLC, filed with the SSNYon 2/19/14. Office location: New YorkCounty. SSNY is designated asagent upon whom process againstthe LLC may be served. SSNY shallmail process to The LLC, c/o YucoManagement, 200 Park Ave., 11thFl., NY, NY 10166. General Purpose.

Notice of Qualification of AEFRESEARCH ASSOCIATES, LLC.Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY(SSNY) on 02/27/14. Office location:NY County. LLC formed in Delaware(DE) on 02/20/14. Princ. office of LLC:888 Seventh Ave., 42nd Fl., NY, NY10019. SSNY designated as agent ofLLC upon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail processto c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC),80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 2711Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington,DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy.of State of DE, John G. Townsend Bldg.,401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of SchiresonAssociates, LLC. Fictitious Name:Schireson Associates, LLC, ofDelaware. Authority filed with Secy. ofState of NY (SSNY) on 2/25/14. Officelocation: New York County. LLCformed in Delaware (DE) on 1/29/14.SSNY designated as agent of LLCupon whom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail process to:3 Columbus Circle, 22nd Fl., NY, NY10019. Address to be maintained inDE: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste. 101,Dover, DE 19904. Arts of Org. filedwith the DE Secy. of State, 401Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of Sunset ParkDebt LLC, Art. of Org. filed Sec'y ofState (SSNY) 12/11/13. Office location:NY County. SSNY designated as agentof LLC upon whom process against itmay be served. SSNY shall mail copyof process to Bluestone Group, 225Broadway, 32nd Fl., NY, NY 10007.Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qualification of TASHTEGOCAPITAL PARTNERS, L.P. Authorityfiled with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY)on 03/03/14. Office location: NYCounty. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on02/18/14. SSNY designated as agentof LP upon whom process against itmay be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to David Halliwill, 410 ParkAve., Ste. 530, NY, NY 10022. Nameand addr. of each general partner areavailable from SSNY. DE addr. of LP:c/o Corporation Service Co., 2711Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE 19808.Arts. of Org. filed with DE Secy. ofState, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION of 33Peck Slip Acquisition LLC. Authorityfiled with Secy of State of NY (SSNY)on 2/18/14. Office location: NY County.LLC formed in DE on 11/6/13. SSNYdesignated agent upon whom processmay be served and shall mail copy ofprocess against LLC to: c/o CSC, 80State St, Albany, NY 12207-2543.Principal business address: c/o CSC,2711 Centerville Rd, Ste 400,Wilmington, DE 19808. Certif. of LLCfiled with Secy of State of DE: 401Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901.Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION of 33Peck Slip Holding LLC. Authorityfiled with Secy of State of NY (SSNY)on 2/18/14. Office location: NY County.LLC formed in DE on 11/15/13.SSNY designated agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC to:c/o CSC, 80 State St, Albany, NY12207-2543. Principal businessaddress: c/o CSC, 2711 CentervilleRd, Ste 400, Wilmington, DE 19808.Certif. of LLC filed with Secy of Stateof DE: 401 Federal St, Ste 4, Dover,DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of AmpereSolar Owner III, LLC. Authority filedwith Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on3/10/14. Office location: New YorkCounty. LLC formed in Delaware (DE)on 3/4/14. SSNY designated as agentof LLC upon whom process against itmay be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to: c/o Corporation ServiceCompany, 80 State St., Albany, NY12207-2543. Address to be maintainedin DE: 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400,Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts of Org.filed with the DE Secy. of State, 401Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qual. of Alpha4X OnshoreFeeder Fund LP, Auth. filed Sec'y ofState (SSNY) 5/2/13. Office loc.: NYCty. LP org. in DE 4/30/13. SSNYdesig. as agent of LP upon whomprocess against it may be served.SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to Att:Manuel Mejia-Aoun, 1040 Ave of theAmericas, NY, NY 10018. DE off. addr.:CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Wilmington,DE 19808. Cert. of LP on file: SSDE,Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901.Name/addr. of each gen. ptr. avail. atSSNY. Purp.: any lawful activities.

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NOTICE OF FORMATION OF HUDSONSURGICARE, L.L.C. Arts of Org filedwith Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on12/26/13. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC toprincipal business address: 281Broadway, 2nd Flr, NY, NY 10007.Purp.: any lawful act.

THE PORT AUTHORITY OF NY & NJREQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR PERFORMANCE

OF EXPERT PROFESSIONAL BROKER/RETAIL MANAGEMENTSERVICES AT THE PORT AUTHORITY BUS TERMINAL ON AN

“AS-NEEDED” BASIS DURING 2014 TO 2017The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is seeking to identify firms interested inresponding to a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Performance of Expert ProfessionalBroker/Retail Management Services at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on an “as-needed”basis during 2014-2017.

RFP #37313 may be obtained online at http://www.panynj.gov/business-opportunities/bid-proposal-advertisements.html?tabnum=6. Addenda to the RFP, if any, will be postedat this site. Monitor the advertisement on the web site to ensure your awareness of any changes.

If you have any technical problems accessing the documents online, email us ataskforbids@panynj.gov or call us at (201) 395-3405 for assistance. Your email shouldinclude the RFP number, your firm name, email address, contact person, mailing address,and phone number.

It is currently anticipated that proposals shall be due by 2:00 PM on April 30, 2014 or asotherwise indicated in the document. Proposals must have the RFP Number and fulllegal firm name clearly indicated on the outside package.

Send Proposal(s) to: The Port Authority of NY & NJ, Attn: RFP Custodian, ProcurementDepartment, 2 Montgomery Street, 3rd Floor, Jersey City, NJ 07302.

PUBLIC &LEGAL NOTICES

Notice of Qualification of COURTNEYONE MANAGER LLC. Authority filedwith Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on03/19/14. Office location: NY County.LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on03/11/14. Princ. office of LLC: 1720Post Rd., Fairfield, CT 06824. SSNYdesignated as agent of LLC upon whomprocess against it may be served.SSNY shall mail process to c/oCeruzzi Properties LLC at the princ.office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: c/oCorporation Service Co., 2711Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington,DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed with DESecy. of the State, Div. of Corps., JohnG. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St.,Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose:Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF 3Dream,LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy ofState of NY (SSNY) on 1/17/2014.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC toprincipal business address: 150 West28th Street, Ste. 402, NY, NY 10001.Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of CalvaryManager LLC. Arts. of Org. filed withSecy. of State of NY (SSNY) on3/28/14. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated as agent of LLCupon whom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail process to:The LLC, 826 Broadway, 11th Fl., NY,NY 10003. Purpose: any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OFPinkhasov & Associates, PLLC. Arts ofOrg filed with Secretary of State of NY(SSNY) on 1/9/14. Office location: NYCounty. SSNY designated agent uponwhom process may be served andshall mail copy of process againstPLLC to principal business address:260 Madison Ave, Ste 204, NY, NY10016. Purpose: any lawful act.

LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY.Notice of Formation of LimitedLiability Company (LLC). Name: FIACORONA HOLDINGS, LLC. Articlesof Organization filed by theDepartment of State of New York on:03/06/2014. Office location: Countyof New York. Purpose: any and alllawful activities. Secretary of State ofNew York (SSNY) designated as agentof LLC upon whom process againstit may be served. SSNY shall mail acopy of process to: 115 Broadway,Suite 302, New York, NY 10006.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF 888 CAFELLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy ofState of NY (SSNY) on 10/22/13.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated agent upon whom processmay be served and shall mail copy ofprocess against LLC to: c/o TORKIANGROUP 1650 Broadway, Ste 910, NY,NY 10019. Principal business address:1265 Broadway, NY, NY 10001.Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of COREY S.SCURLOCK, M.D., MEDICAL ADVO-CATE, PLLC. Arts. of Org. filed withSecy. of State of NY (SSNY) on03/19/14. Office location: NY County.Princ. office of PLLC: 224 W. 18thSt., Apt. 8A, NY, NY 10011. SSNYdesignated as agent of PLLC uponwhom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail process toc/o Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse &Hirschtritt LLP, Attn: Brian A. Haskel,Esq., 900 Third Ave., NY, NY 10022-4775. Purpose: Practice of medicine.

Notice of Formation of SKYLABSMEDIA LLC. Arts. of Org. filed withSecy. of State of NY (SSNY) on03/28/14. Office location: NY County.Princ. office of LLC: 16 E. 34th St.,15th Fl., NY, NY 10016. SSNY designated as agent of LLC uponwhom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail process toCorporation Service Co., 80 StateSt., Albany, NY 12207-2543.Purpose: Social media marketing,digital media, communications &public relations and branding.

Notice of Formation of Recast 431Warren Street, LLC. Arts. of Org. filedwith NY Dept. of State on 11/26/2013.Office location: NY County. Princ. bus.addr.: 1 MetroTech Ctr., Brooklyn, NY11201. Sec. of State designatedagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served and shallmail process to: 131 W. 24th St., Apt.2, NY, NY 10011, Attn: Betsy Jacobs,regd. agent upon whom process maybe served. Term: until 11/24/2063.Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Name of PLLC: Carol L. GoldsteinDC PLLC. Arts. of Org. filed with NYDept. of State: 2/21/14. Office loc.:NY Co. Sec. of State designatedagent of PLLC upon whom processagainst it may be served and shallmail process to: c/o Business FilingsInc., 187 Wolf Rd., Ste. 101, Albany,NY 12205, regd. agt. upon whomprocess may be served. Purpose:practice chiropractic.

Developer(Citadel LLC – New York, NY) Dvlp sftwre sys thatsupport Global Rates Systematic Trading team.F/T. Reqs Masters degr in CompSci, Engnr’g, InfoNtwrk’g, or rel quant field & 1 yr of exp in the joboffered or front office app dvlpmnt w/ finantrad’g products such as Rates, Energy, & Equities.In lieu of Master’s degr & 1 yr as stated, will accptBachs degr or foreign equiv & 5 yrs exp as statedabove. All stated exp must incl: progrm’g in C++,SQL, Sybase, XML, & Python in a Unix/LinuxEnviron; provid’g Obj Oriented Analysis, Dsgn &Progrm’g; & wrk’g w/ finan enterprise sys in C++.Resumes: ER/LW, Attn: R-0202, Citadel LLC, 131S Dearborn St, 32nd Fl, Chicago, IL 60603.

POSITION AVAILABLE

Notice of Qualification of CHELSEARESTAURANT OWNER LLC. Authorityfiled with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY)on 03/27/14. Office location: NYCounty. LLC formed in Delaware (DE)on 03/19/14. SSNY designated asagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail process to c/o Morrison CohenLLP, Attn: Y. David Scharf, Esq., 909Third Ave., 27th Fl., NY, NY 10022. DEaddr. of LLC: c/o Corporation ServiceCo., 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400,Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts. of Org.filed with Secy. of State, Div. ofCorps., John G. Townsend Bldg.,401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of Guterman-CPW Partners, LLC. Authority filedwith Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on3/25/14. Office location: New YorkCounty. LLC formed in Delaware (DE)on 3/24/14. SSNY designated asagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail process to: 1721 Breakers WestBlvd., West Palm Beach, FL 33411.Address to be maintained in DE: 160Greentree Dr., Ste. 101, Dover, DE19904. Arts of Org. filed with the DESecy. of State, John G. TownsendBldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE19901. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Doppio Hudson Street LLC. Arts. ofOrg. filed with Secy. of State of NY(SSNY) on 09/17/13. Off. loc.: NewYork Co. SSNY des. as agent of LLCupon whom process may be served.SSNY shall mail process to 24Clinton Ave., Huntington, NY 11743.Purpose: General.

REQUESTS FOR PROPOSALS

Notice of Qualification of GREENLANDLA METROPOLIS DEVELOPMENT ILLC. Authority filed with Secy. of Stateof NY (SSNY) on 03/19/14. Officelocation: NY County. LLC formed inDelaware (DE) on 02/27/14. SSNYdesignated as agent of LLC uponwhom process against it may beserved. SSNY shall mail process toGreenland US Holding Inc., 515 S.Figueroa St., Ste. 17F, Los Angeles,CA 90071. DE addr. of LLC: 2711Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington,DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed withSecy. of State of State of DE, DEDept. of State, Divs. Of Corps., JohnG. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St.-Ste.4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose:Any lawful activity.

Qualification of Blackstone TacticalOpportunities Fund – I L.P. Authorityfiled with the Sect. of State of NY(SSNY) on 3/13/14. Office Loc: NYCounty. LP formed in DE on 2/25/14.SSNY has been designated as agentof LP upon whom process against itmay be served and shall mail processto: 345 Park Avenue, NY, NY 10154. DEaddress of LP: 200 Bellevue Pkwy, Ste210, Wilmington, 19809. Name/addr.of genl. ptr. avail from SSNY. Cert. ofLP filed with DE Sect. of State, 401Federal St, Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901.Purpose: any lawful activity.

CURL UP AND DYE BAR LLC, Arts.of Org. filed with the SSNY on01/17/2014. Office loc: NY County.SSNY has been designated as agentupon whom process against the LLCmay be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to: 243 18th St., NY, NY10011. Reg Agent: Debra Derecola,85 8th Ave., Apt #5U, NY, NY 10011.Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

THE QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARYREQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR:

1. Annual Independent Audit Services2. Internal Audit Services

The Queens Borough Public Library, located in Jamaica, New York is seeking to identify firmsinterested in responding to a Request for Proposals (RFP) for (1) Annual Independent AuditServices and (2) Internal Audit Services.

RFP 0414-01 - Annual Independent Audit Services and RFP 0414-2 - Internal Audit Services are available on-line at: http://www.queenslibrary.org/services/purchasing/solicitations

If you have any technical problems accessing the documents on-line, email us atsolicitations@queenslibrary.org or call 718-990-8684. Your email should include theRFP number in the subject as well as your firm name, email address, contact information,mailing address and telephone number.Proposals are due by 2:00 PM May 9, 2014. Proposals must have the RFP number and fulllegal firm name clearly indicated on the outside of the package. Send Proposal(s) to: TheQueens Library, Attn: RFP Purchasing Department, 2ND Floor, 89-11 Merrick Boulevard,Jamaica, NY 11432.

A VALID PHOTO ID IS REQUIRED TO GAIN ACCESS INTO THE BUILDING IFYOU ARE HAND DELIVERING YOUR PROPOSAL(S).

Soom America LLC Arts of Org filedwith NY Sec of State (SSNY) on 3/5/13.Office: New York County. SSNY des-ignated as agent of LLC upon whomprocess may be served. SSNY shallmail process to: J P AccountingCompany LLC, 34 W 27th St, #301,NY, NY 10001. General Purposes.

Notice of Formation of ZHU LAW FIRM,PLLC. Arts. of Org. was filed withSSNY on 2/26/14. Office location: NewYork. SSNY designated as agent ofLLC whom process against may beserved. SSNY shall mail process to:1501 Broadway, 12th Fl. #12127,New York, NY 10036. Purpose: toengage in the practice of Law.

April 14, 2014 | Crain’s New York Business | 21

Notice of Qualification of EAM 40Meadow Lane LLC. Authority filedwith NY Dept. of State on 12/24/13.Office location: NY County. Princ. bus.addr.: 600 Madison Ave., 17th Fl.,NY, NY 10022. LLC formed in DE on6/19/13. NY 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. DE addr. of LLC: 1209Orange St., Wilmington, DE 19801.Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. ofState, P.O. Box 898, Dover, DE19903. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF BUTLERRIDE, LLC. Arts of Org filed withSecy of State of NY (SSNY) on2/6/14. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC toprincipal business address: 212-1448th Ave, Bayside, NY 11364.Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF Phillips& Pfau, LLP. Arts of Org filed withSecy of State of NY (SSNY) on11/7/13. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLP toprincipal business address: 817Broadway, 10th Floor, NY, NY 10003.Purpose: practice of law.

Notice of Formation of: CullodenGroup LLC. Articles of Organizationfiled with the Secretary of State ofNY on 11/05/2013. Office location:New York 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: 40 East 89th Street,Suite 12F, New York, NY 10128. Theprincipal business address of theLLC is: 40 East 89th Street, Suite12F, New York, NY 10128.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF SHRINATHJI KRUPA LLC. Arts of Orgfiled with Secy of State of NY (SSNY)on 10/31/13. Office location: NYCounty. SSNY designated agent uponwhom process may be served andshall mail copy of process againstLLC to principal business address:Hemal Sheth, 238 Lafayette St., NY,NY 10012. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of PARKCHOCOLATE 275 LLC. Arts. of Org.filed with Secy. of State of NY(SSNY) on 02/28/14. Office location:NY County. Princ. office of LLC: c/oEmmet, Marvin & Martin LLP, Attn:Robert Carver, 120 Broadway, 32ndFl., NY, NY 10271. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNYshall mail process to the LLC at theaddr. of its princ. office. Purpose:Any lawful activity.

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PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES

Notice of formation of 163 BleeckerStreet, LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secyof State of NY (SSNY) on 2/7/14.Office location: NY County. SSNY hasbeen designated as agent of the LLCupon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail processserved to: 1500 Broadway, 22nd, NY,NY 10036. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of TP-HFAcquisition, LLC. Authority filed withNY Dept. of State on 10/24/13. Officelocation: NY County. LLC formed inDE on 3/19/13. NY Sec. of Statedesignated agent of LLC upon whomprocess against it may be served andshall mail process to the principalbusiness addr.: 280 Park Ave., 41stFl., NY, NY 10017. DE addr. of LLC:Corporation Service Co., 2711Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington,DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DESec. of State, Townsend Bldg., Dover,DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qual. of Rhone MusicHoldings, LLC, Auth. filed Sec'y ofState (SSNY) 10/15/13. Office loc.: NYCounty. LLC org. in DE 2/16/12. SSNYdesig. as agent of LLC upon whomprocess against it may be served.SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to 250West St., Apt. 6D, NY, NY 10013. 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 Qualification of LYRICTHEATRE, LLC. Authority filed withSecy. of State of NY (SSNY) on04/26/13. Office location: NY County.LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on04/11/13. NYS fictitious name: LYRICBROADWAY, LLC. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail process to c/o Herrick, FeinsteinLLP, Attn: J. Rogers, 2 Park Ave., NY,NY 10016. DE addr. of LLC: c/oNational Registered Agents, Inc., 160Greentree Dr., Ste. 101, Dover, DE19904. Arts. of Org. filed with JeffreyW. Bullock, DE Secy. of State,Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St.,Ste. 3, Dover, DE 19901. As amend-ed by Cert. of Amendment filed withSSNY on 06/28/13, the addr. of theprincipal place of business of theLLC is: 214 W. 43rd St., NY, NY10036. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Formation of Hannah BlumenthalDesign, LLC filed with the Secy. ofState of NY (SSNY) on 12/17/13.Office loc.: New York County. SSNYdesignated as agent of LLC uponwhom process against it may beserved. The principal business loc.and address SSNY shall mailprocess to is 175 Varick St., 8th Fl.,New York, NY 10014. Mgmt. shallbe by one or more members.Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of ROMARKLABORATORIES, L.C. Authority filedwith Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on2/25/14. Office location: New YorkCounty. LLC formed in Florida (FL) on10/24/94. SSNY designated as agentof LLC upon whom process againstit may be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to: c/o National RegisteredAgents, Inc., 111 Eighth Ave., NY, NY10011, also the registered agent.Address to be maintained in FL:3000 Bayport Dr., Ste. 200, Tampa,FL 33607. Arts of Org. filed with theFL Secy. of State, 2661 ExecutiveCenter Circle, Tallahassee, FL 32301.Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qual. of Alpha4X AssetManagement, LLC, Auth. filed Sec'y ofState (SSNY) 5/14/13. Office loc.: NYCounty. LLC org. in DE 11/9/12. SSNYdesig. as agent of LLC upon whomprocess against it may be served.SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to Att:Manuel Mejia-Aoun, 1040 Ave of theAmericas, NY, NY 10018. DE off. addr.:CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Wilmington,DE 19808. Cert. of Form. on file:SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE19901. Purp.: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qualification of TASHTEGOMANAGEMENT COMPANY LLC.Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY(SSNY) on 03/03/14. Office location:NY County. LLC formed in Delaware(DE) on 02/18/14. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail process to David Halliwill, 410Park Ave., Ste. 530, NY, NY 10022.DE addr. of LLC: c/o CorporationService Co., 2711 Centerville Rd.,Wilmington, DE 19808. Arts. of Org.filed with DE Secy. of State, 401Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF BETTERBROKERS, LLC. Articles of Organizationfiled with Secretary of State of NY(SSNY) on 1/21/14. Office location: NYCounty. SSNY designated agent uponwhom process may be served andshall mail copy of process againstLLC to principal business address:15 W. 72nd St., #17M, NY, NY10023. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Bad BoyTouring OpCo LLC. Arts. of Org. filedwith Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on03/13/14. Office location: NY County.Princ. office of LLC: 1710 Broadway,NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated asagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail process to Corporation ServiceCo., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Bad BoyProductions OpCo LLC. Arts. of Org.filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY)on 03/13/14. Office location: NYCounty. Princ. office of LLC: 1710Broadway, NY, NY 10019. SSNYdesignated as agent of LLC upon whomprocess against it may be served.SSNY shall mail process toCorporation Service Co., 80 StateSt., Albany, NY 12207-2543.Purpose: Any lawful activity.

THE LAW OFFICE OF GRISELBLANCO-OBREGON, LLC, a domesticPLLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNYon 12/12/13. Office location: New YorkCounty. SSNY is designated as agentupon whom process against the PLLCmay be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to: The LLC, 221 E. 89th St.,#1A, NY, NY 10128. Purpose: Law.

Notice of Qualification of Arhaus, LLC.Authority filed with NY Dept. of Stateon 3/3/14. Office location: NY County.LLC formed in DE on 12/19/13. NYSec. of State designated agent of LLCupon whom process against it may beserved and shall mail process to: AllanC. Churchmack, 7700 Northfield Rd.,Walton Hills, OH 44146, principalbusiness address. DE address of LLC: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 Shubertand Booth Cumming, LLC. Arts. OfOrg. filed with NY Dept. of State on3/5/14. Office location: NY County.Sec. of State designated agent of LLCupon whom process against it maybe served and shall mail process to:c/o Gilbert Hoover, IV, The ShubertOrganization, Inc., 234 W. 44th St.,NY, NY 10036, principal businessaddress. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qual. of Agosto I Capital, LLC,Auth. filed Sec'y of State (SSNY)7/11/13. Office loc.: NY County. LLCorg. in DE 7/10/13. SSNY desig. asagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail copy of proc. to Att: Ed Bosek,1330 Ave of the Americas, 6th Fl., NY,NY 10019. 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 QUALIFICATION ofTake-2-Productions, L.L.C. Authorityfiled with Secy of State of NY (SSNY)on 1/31/14. Office location: NY County.LLC formed in MO on 8/5/1998. SSNYdesignated agent upon whom processmay be served and shall mail copy ofprocess against LLC to principalbusiness address: 1906 Wyandotte,Kansas City, MO 64108. Cert. of LLCfiled with Secy of State of MO: 600West Main St, Jefferson City, MO65101. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of ESHGM 2014,LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. ofState of NY (SSNY) on 03/12/14.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated as agent of LLC upon whomprocess against it may be served.SSNY shall mail process to the LLC,One Morton Sq., Apt. 9CW, NY, NY10014. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF NY ShineLLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy ofState of NY (SSNY) on 10/21/13.Office location: NY County. SSNYdesignated agent upon whom processmay be served and shall mail copy ofprocess against LLC to: NorthwestRegistered Agent, 90 State St, Ste 700,Office 40, Albany, NY 12207. Principalbusiness address: 29 King St, Apt 1d,NY, NY 10014. Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF TriangleJ Fund I LLC. Arts of Org filed withSecy of State of NY (SSNY) on2/20/14. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated agent upon whomprocess may be served and shall mailcopy of process against LLC to: c/oJD Stettin, 152 W. 57th St, Flr 53, NY,NY 10019. Principal businessaddress: 259 W 70th St, #2R, NY, NY10023. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of NFF NewMarkets Fund XXXIV, LLC. Arts. ofOrg. filed with NY Dept. of State on2/24/14. Office location: NY County.Sec. of State designated agent ofLLC upon whom process against itmay be served and shall mailprocess to: Nonprofit Finance Fund,70 W. 36th St., 11th Fl., NY, NY10018, principal business address.Purpose: any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF AJ CityProperty LLC. Arts of Org filed withSecy of State of NY (SSNY) on1/16/14. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC to:247 W. 38th St, Ste. 404, NY, NY10018. Principal business address:419 W. 145th St, NY, NY 10031.Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of CREDITSUISSE NEXT INVESTORS, LLC.Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY(SSNY) on 02/24/14. Office location:NY County. LLC formed in Delaware(DE) on 09/20/13. Princ. office of LLC:11 Madison Ave., NY, NY 10010. SSNYdesignated as agent of LLC upon whomprocess against it may be served. SSNYshall mail process to the LLC at theprinc. office of the LLC. DE addr. ofLLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 2711Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington,DE 19808. Arts. of Org. filed with DESecy. of State, Div. of Corps., JohnG. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. -Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose:This entity will make investments.

Notice of Formation of Quik ParkMorton LLC. Arts. of Org. filed withSecy. of State of NY (SSNY) on2/24/14. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated as agent of LLCupon whom process against it maybe served. SSNY shall mail processto: The LLC, 247 W. 37th St., NY, NY10018. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of 122 OwnersLLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. ofState of NY (SSNY) on 2/26/14. Officelocation: NY County. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail process to: c/o Office ofLawrence E. Fabian, Esq., 437 FifthAve., Ste. 801, New York, NY 10016.Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of BOROASSOCIATES LLC. App. for Auth.filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY)11/12/13. Office location: NY County.LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on10/18/13. SSNY designated as agentof LLC upon whom process againstit may be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to: c/o Botsaris Morris RealtyGroup LLC, Attn: Guy Morris, 358Fifth Ave., Ste. 902, NY, NY 10001. DEaddress of LLC: c/o United CorporateServices, Inc., 874 Walker Road, Ste.C, Dover, DE 19904. Cert. of Form.filed with DE Secy. of State,Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901.Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Recast 24-26Park Place, LLC. Arts. of Org. filedwith NY Dept. of State on 11/26/2013.Office location: NY County. Princ. bus.addr.: 1 MetroTech Ctr., Brooklyn, NY11201. Sec. of State designatedagent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served and shallmail process to: 131 W. 24th St., Apt.2, NY, NY 10011, Attn: Betsy Jacobs,regd. agent upon whom process maybe served. Term: until 11/24/2063.Purpose: all lawful purposes.

The professional limited liability com-pany name is Sander Rabin H+JurisPLLC. The Articles of Organizationwere filed with the NY Secretary ofState on March 13, 2014. ThePLLC’s office is in WestchesterCounty. Business Filings Inc is desig-nated as the PLLC’s agent for serv-ice of process at 187 Wolf Rd Suite101 Albany NY 12205. The PLLC ismanaged by a manager. The purposeof the PLLC is to practice law.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF TheLanger Syringe, LLC. Arts of Org filedwith Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on3/10/14. Office location: NY County.SSNY designated agent upon whomprocess may be served and shallmail copy of process against LLC to:Finkelstein Platt LLP, 11 Broadway,Ste 615, NY, NY 10004. Principalbusiness address: 933 Fifth Ave NY,NY 10021. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of qualification of NYC FashionProduction Fund, LLC. Arts of Orgfiled with Secy of State of NY (SSNY)on 12/6/2013. Office location: NYCounty. LLC Formed in DE on11/13/13. SSNY designation agentupon whom process may be servedand shall mail copy of processagainst LLC to: Corp. Serv., Co. 80State St, Albany, NY 12207-2543.Principal business address: 1700Broadway, 19th Flr NY, NY. Cert. ofLLC filed with Secy of State of NY:401 Federal St., Ste 3, Dover, DE19901. Purpose any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of CB-GAA LLC.Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of Stateof NY (SSNY) on 03/21/14. Officelocation: NY County. Princ. office ofLLC: c/o Hotel Edison, 228 W. 47thSt., NY, NY 10036. 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. Purpose: Anylawful activity.

Tru Dynamic Group LLC. Arts of Orgfiled with Secy of State of NY (SSNY)on 2/4/2014. Office location: NewYork County. SSNY designated agentupon whom process may be servedand shall mail copy of processagainst LLC to: 134 W. 29th Street11th Floor, New York NY 10001.Principal business address: 134 W.29th Street 11th Floor, New York NY10001. Purpose: any lawful act.

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Notice of Formation of Sparrow BySeymour & Paul, LLC, Art. of Org. filedSec'y of State (SSNY) 11/26/13. Officelocation: NY County. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shallmail copy of process to Dorothy Weber,494 Eighth Ave., 6th Fl., NY, NY 10001.Purpose: any lawful activities.

22 | Crain’s New York Business | April 14, 2014

an alternative to traditional re-cruiters. Its official launch comesmore than three months since it be-gan a trial phase here, and found itsbusiness growing faster than it hadat its home base in San Francisco.

More than 600 engineers, prod-uct managers and other tech profes-

sionals have sought jobs on the site,and more than 100 companies haveused it for recruiting.

“The adoption has been ab-solutely staggering,” said co-founder Matt Mickiewicz. “Thenumber of companies participatingin the first 60 days took six monthsto achieve in San Francisco. I think

ultimately New York will be a muchbigger market just because of the fi-nance and media industries, whichare all actively seeking engineeringtalent.”

The company,which launched asDeveloperAuction.com in 2012,takes only about 5% to 10% of theengineers and others who apply, andis also selective about which compa-nies it works with, Mr. Mickiewiczsaid. During the course of a typicalweeklong auction, companies bid

privately on a candidate,and the lat-ter eventually chooses several firmsto consider from the dozen or so thatare likely to have made offers.

Hired is set up to be transparentfor both sides, which, Mr. Mick-iewicz argues, is not the case with atypical recruiting firm.

“Recruiters will have favoriteclients who give them repeat busi-ness and pay a fee for a first look,”hesaid. “At the end of the day, the re-cruiter works for the companies,not

the engineers.We’re putting the en-gineer first and foremost.”

Hired, which raised $15 millionin a Series-A financing round inMarch, has four employees in itsSoHo office. Mr. Mickiewicz ex-pects the New York team to grow toeight by the end of the year.

The company makes money bycharging a business 1% of a newhire’s salary each month for 24months. Clients include Gilt, Nas-daq and OpenTable. �

Tech talent scramble Continued from Page 6

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now 43. “I was very sheltered. I waseasy pickings for Marvin Jemal.”

He wasn’t the only one allegedlyduped. Mr. Jemal was accused ofstiffing two business partners inAsia out of more than $1 million in2009.He allegedly defrauded a bankduring the same period by providingfake invoices and shipping docu-ments for $7 million in businessloans. When Mr. Jemal filed forbankruptcy a second time, in 2011,he told creditors that his only carwas a 1972 Volvo worth $1,000. Hedidn’t mention the Porsche.

Earlier this year, the law caughtup with Mr. Jemal. The U.S. Attor-ney’s Office in Manhattan chargedthe 60-year-old with bank fraud andmoney laundering. A court hearingis scheduled for May 12.

“I cannot comment on the pend-ing indictment to which Mr. Jemalhas entered a plea of not guilty,” Mr.Jemal’s attorney, Benjamin Braf-man, said last week.“The charges inthat case, to my knowledge, havenothing whatsoever to do with Mr.Brandt’s investment in a legitimatecompany that unfortunately failed,through no fault of Mr. Jemal.”

Christopher Frey, the federalprosecutor handling Mr. Jemal’scase, wouldn’t comment.

Mr. Jemal’s story provides aglimpse into what has become ofone of New York’s most successfulfamilies in retail. Twenty years ago,Mr. Jemal and three of his brotherswere making so much money fromselling stereos, televisions, phonesand music that they explored buyingthe Baltimore Orioles. But NobodyBeats the Wiz sank into bankruptcyin 1997, and in the years since, fam-ily members have suffered businessand personal setbacks.

Marvin’s older brother Douglas,a prominent real estate developer inWashington,D.C.,was convicted attrial in 2006 for defrauding a lenderby falsifying a document and using$430,000 in loan proceeds for a dealdifferent from the one specified.Citing Douglas’ contributions tothe community, a federal judge sen-tenced him to five months’ proba-tion. Asked to comment for this ar-ticle,Douglas said,“I’m not going toanswer a thing.”

Marvin’s younger brotherStephen tried to develop waterfrontcondominiums in Brooklyn but ap-parently was stymied by the finan-cial crisis.He filed for bankruptcy in2012 and now faces two suits frominvestors who claim he overstatedhis personal fortune by more than$25 million. Stephen would notcomment for this story.

The Crazy Eddie connectionThe Jemals grew up in a small,

two-bedroom apartment in a Jewishenclave in south Brooklyn made uplargely of Syrian immigrants.Therewere six boys and two girls in the Je-mal household. Four of the sons fol-lowed in the footsteps of their fa-ther, Norman, who ran a discountretailer in lower Manhattan.

Court documents state that

Douglas Jemal and younger brotherLawrence opened a store in Wash-ington, D.C., called Bargaintown inthe mid-1960s, and then started anearby discount electronics shop.Lawrence returned to New York,and in 1976 the family opened anelectronics store in Brooklyn calledthe Wiz, evidently because that wasNorman Jemal’s favorite Broadwayshow, according to a book by a for-mer sales clerk called Selling BenCheever. As the stores grew city-wide, the name changed to NobodyBeats the Wiz.

Lawrence was president andyounger brother Marvin was execu-tive vice president, but both ran thecompany, according to Billy Wein-stein, a consultant who worked withthe retailer. Stephen’s main role wasstore construction.

Douglas sold his stake back tothe family in 1993 to focus on hisreal estate career in Washington.Lawrence, now president ofManhattan-based apparel marketerICER Brands, didn’t return callsseeking comment. (ICER is anacronym for integrity, customer, ex-cellence and respect, according to itswebsite.)

Like the now-defunct CrazyEddie,another electronics and appli-ance retailer run by a Syrian familyfrom the same part of Brooklyn,No-body Beats the Wiz succeeded with acombination of aggressive discount-ing and nonstop advertising.

Sam Antar, Crazy Eddie’s for-mer chief financial officer,describedthe companies as friendly rivals.TheJemals would even ship over certainbrands of merchandise that manu-facturers didn’t want sold at CrazyEddie stores because of aggressivediscounting, he said.

“They gave Crazy Eddie a life-line,” Mr. Antar recalled.

The two families bonded in

more personal ways, too. MarvinJemal and Eddie Antar, the head ofCrazy Eddie, shared an affectionfor dogs, for example. “I rememberMarvin buying Eddie a dog, ormaybe Eddie bought one for Mar-vin,” Mr. Antar said. “They werejoined at the hip.”

Eddie Antar didn’t return a callseeking comment.

After Crazy Eddie collapsed inan infamous 1980s accountingscandal (and Eddie and Sam Antarwere convicted of fraud), business atNobody Beats the Wiz really tookoff. By the mid-1990s, it had 2,000employees working in 94 stores and,according to a website for a compa-ny run by Stephen Jemal, annualrevenue of more than $1.5 billion.

Nobody Beats the Wiz TV adstouting one sale after another be-came pop-culture phenomena. Inone Seinfeld episode, Elaine fell inlove with a Nobody Beats the Wizpitchman.“He’s not idiotic.He’s theWiz. And nobody beats him,”Elaine said. “Nobody.”

The good times didn’t last,though. Big-box retailers like BestBuy and Circuit City muscled in,and Nobody Beats the Wiz filed forbankruptcy a few days beforeChristmas in 1997. Cablevisionbought the company a few weekslater for $80 million, only to closethe stores for good in 2003.

After Nobody Beats the Wiz’sdemise, Marvin Jemal seemed tostruggle to find the next big thing.

He and Stephen invested in acompany called TecnoZone Inter-national, which sold a device thatclaimed to block radiation fromcellphones and TV screens by creat-ing “a zone of biocompatibilitybetween you and your electronic de-vices.”The Federal Trade Commis-sion said the claim was false and in2003 ordered the Jemal brothers andanother partner to pay $85,000.Thebrothers didn’t contest the FTCcase at the time and wouldn’t com-ment on the matter.

After Cablevision shut downNobody Beats the Wiz, Marvin Je-mal tried to rekindle the magic byopening stores called the Zone. Heeven trademarked the slogan “No-body Beats the Zone.” The storesclosed in 2005, and he filed forbankruptcy the same year to shieldhis assets from creditors.

Later that year, Mr. Jemal firstmet Mr. Brandt. The Coast Guardpilot was in his early 30s at the timeand struggling to manage a fortuneleft to him by his father, who ownedthe Rialto Theatre on West 42ndStreet, among others. Mr. Brandtinvested much of his inheritance instocks, but the market’s ebbs andflows caused him so much anxietythat he couldn’t sleep at night.A col-lege buddy suggested they launch aprepaid-credit-card business. Thefriend knew someone who knewMr. Jemal, who was trying to devel-op a prepaid phone card.

‘Manna from heaven’The Brooklyn-born stereo sales-

man and the Broadway-theater heirclicked. Mr. Jemal reminded Mr.Brandt of his father, who died in1994. They had the same color eyes(blue-gray), and Marvin’s middlename, Louis, was the first name ofMr. Brandt’s father. Mr. Brandt’smarriage had recently ended,adding to his neediness.

“When Marvin talked aboutbuilding a business, he was fantasticat providing a glimmer of hope, andI’d want to hear that so bad,” Mr.Brandt recalled. “When he let mevisit his office in midtown,it was likemanna from heaven.”

Mr. Brandt invested $500,000 inMr.Jemal’s prepaid-phone-card en-terprise,which quickly went poof,asdid $2.5 million plowed into avideophone company. There weremany other ventures, such as a cell-phone company called 18 Mobile, amedia company named Cool Mediaand a vehicle called Grey GooseMarketing, which had nothing todo with vodka but rather was in-tended to stoke interest in Mr.Jemal’s projects.

Shortly after the 2006 dinnerparty at Marvin Jemal’s home, Mr.Brandt made his biggest bet yet, in-vesting $12 million in a luggagebusiness called ENE Group, whoseinitials stand for “excellence neverends.”The company was Mr.Jemal’sbiggest success since Nobody Beatsthe Wiz, generating $10 million inannual revenue and employing 20people, according to prosecutors.

The trouble was, he didn’t wantto pay for the luggage. In 2009, aHong Kong company sued ENEGroup for failing to pay for$184,000 worth of shoulder and

hand bags. A default judgment wasordered after ENE didn’t respond tothe complaint.

Similarly, in 2010,a manufactur-er in Taiwan flew to New York to de-mand $838,000 due. Mr. Jemal re-sponded by shutting down ENEGroup, according to a federal law-suit filed by the supplier that was lat-er settled. He created a new compa-ny in the luggage business calledUnderground Group and allegedlygave his nonagenarian mother 99%of it, a move that wiped out Mr.Brandt’s investment.

Mr. Brandt’s mother, too, wasroped into the struggling venture.To help ENE Group get $7 millionin bank loans, Mr. Brandt pledgedthe Florida condo she lived in as col-lateral.When $6 million of the loansdefaulted, the bank warned Mr.Brandt it would seize the property.

After that notice,Mr.Brandt andMr. Jemal met for the last time, inBryant Park in 2009. Mr. Jemal, ac-cording to Mr. Brandt, vowed toprevent the bank from taking Mr.Brandt’s mother’s home—andpromised he’d go away for good, ifMr. Brandt would just give himsome more money. Mr. Brandt’s in-heritance money was gone, but hewrote a $10,000 check to Mr.Jemal’s ENE Group from his per-sonal account. It was his last dollar.

“I thought about murder-suicide,”Mr.Brandt said.“I plannedout my trip to Jemal’s house.”

Instead,he talked to the FBI.Hismother paid off the bank with herown money so she could keep hercondo.

On the afternoon of Feb. 20,2014,Mr.Jemal was arrested at JohnF. Kennedy International Airport.Prosecutors say he diverted $3.5million of ENE Group loans for hispersonal use and provided its bankwith false financial statements. Hefaces up to 110 years in prison. AnENE associate,Mark Bernstein,haspleaded guilty.

Mr. Brandt said he’s ashamedthat he squandered his fortune, buthas moved on and is focusing on hismilitary career.At least he no longerhas to question who his real friendsare, he said. But if Mr. Jemal is sentto prison, Mr. Brandt thinks he’llvisit his old partner.

“I’d have one question for him:‘Was it worth it?’ ” �

Nobody beats the Wiz kids Continued from Page 1

April 14, 2014 | Crain’s New York Business | 23

‘I’d have onequestion forMarvin: “Was itworth it?” ’

40 UNDER 40 CORRECTIONS

Shola Olatoye managed a community-development program for HSBC. This fact wasmisstated in the March 31 40 Under 40 profile ofMs. Olatoye, chairwoman and CEO of the NewYork City Housing Authority.

Matt Salzberg ran, but did not start, a laundrybusiness at Harvard. This information wasmisstated in the profile of Mr. Salzberg, CEO ofBlue Apron.

Artsy has more than 125,000 digitized works byupward of 25,000 artists, as well as 240,000registered users and more than 200 museumand institutional partners and 1,500 galleriesthat have published works on the platform. Thisinformation was misstated in CEO CarterCleveland’s profile. The name of the companyalso has changed from Art.sy.

Melissa Stevens has three children. Thisinformation was misstated in the profile of Ms.Stevens, managing director of Internet andmobile banking at Citigroup.

IAC/InterActiveCorp is a conglomeratecomprising 150 brands. This information wasmisstated in the profile of Joey Levin, CEO ofIAC’s Search & Applications division.

The Yankees are the favorite team of nine of the40 Under 40 honorees. This information wasmisstated in a graphic.

NEARLY 100STORES and morethan $1.5 billion inrevenue in the mid-1990s, thenbankruptcy in 1997

LISTEN to a discussion at CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts

ap im

ages

it’s an opportunity to expand socialservices to people who might nototherwise get them, and is an inno-vative structure that encouragespublic-private partnerships,” saidIan Rosenblum, New York state’sdeputy secretary of education andeconomic opportunity and the pointman on social-impact bonds. “Thisway, we are paying for results, notjust paying for the process.”

Mr. Rosenblum said that in thecoming weeks, the state will beginnegotiating with the four con-tenders.He expects two or three to beselected. One program is jointlysponsored by the Children’s Aid So-ciety and the Bronx’s MontefioreMedical Center to reduce teen preg-

nancy rates and improve asthma care.The bonds will never replace pri-

vate fundraising and governmentaid, nonprofit executives say, be-cause not all social programs havequantifiable results. Experiencedcharities with a history of success aresought after for partnerships.

‘Low-risk’ effort“This is paying for us to do what

we do,” said Sam Schaeffer, chief ex-ecutive of the Manhattan-basedCenter for Employment Opportu-nities, which is running the NewYork state program for ex-offendersset up by Social Finance U.S. “It isfairly low-risk for us.”

Known as CEO, the nonprofithas a proven track record of reducing

recidivism and finding employmentfor the previously incarceratedthrough counseling and job training.That can help solve a costly problemfor the state.New York released near-ly 24,000 people from prison lastyear, and 41% of those formerly in-carcerated return within three years.It costs $60,000 annually to imprisonsomeone in New York state.

Under the terms of the agree-ment, CEO expects to work with2,000 individuals and seeks to re-duce their recidivism rate by at least8% and boost their employment rateby 5 percentage points.

If the project cuts recidivism by15% and increases employment by 5percentage points, the total public-sector savings would be $17.2 mil-lion,according to a state spokesman.Investors would be paid $15.7 mil-lion, representing a 4% annualizedreturn on their investment.

Bank of America Merrill Lynchraised $13.5 million from more than40 individuals and philanthropicfoundations to fund the five-and-a-half-year-long program.

“We were hearing from ourclients who wanted investment op-tions that would represent their val-ues,”said Liam O’Neil,managing di-rector and head of the markets groupfor Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The payoff isn’t huge:Returns oninvestment are capped at 12.5%.Mr.O’Neil expects it will likely be moremid-single digits. Meanwhile, theRockefeller Foundation agreed toguarantee 10% of the $13.5 millionso investors won’t lose everything ifthe program fails.

Challenging workIn the city’s Rikers Island

program, which was set up throughsocial-policy organization MDRC,

Bloomberg Philanthropies agreed torepay $7.2 million of the $9.6 millionput up by Goldman Sachs’Urban In-vestment Group to provide cognitivebehavioral therapy to 16- to 18-year-olds if that program fails to reduce re-cidivism. Recidivism must fall by atleast 10% for investors to be repaid.

Elizabeth Gaynes, Osborne’s ex-ecutive director, said working withadolescents at Rikers is challengingbecause time with them can be limit-ed. Yet, she said, feedback from par-ticipants has been good, and accord-ing to the city’s Department ofCorrection,the number of adolescentadmissions at Rikers last yeardropped 17%, to 3,935, from 2012.

“If the program doesn’t work, itcould affect our reputation,” saidMs. Gaynes. She doesn’t expect thatto happen, but adds that the thera-py is still helping the children. “Wearen’t doing any harm,” she said. �

Social-impact bondsContinued from Page 3

technology-sector analysis producedby the Manhattan-based company.

It’s no coincidence.Chairman and founder John

Alschuler, asked to explain his firm’srise under the de Blasio administra-tion, said he and the city’s new lib-eral mayor have a common philoso-phy. He called the alignment“unsurprising,” noting, “There is avalue in my firm for public service.”

HR&A and Mr. Weisbrod havesevered their financial ties, and it’sunclear how his work as planningcommissioner could benefit thefirm’s clients, which in recent yearshave ranged from NBCUniversal toGoogle to Citigroup.“Carl will haveto build a proverbial Chinese wall”to guard against conflicts, one realestate source said.

Others described the alignmentbetween HR&A and City Hall asorganic. “That firm attracts a lot ofpeople that have a social ethicaround their financial [consulting]skill sets,” said Vishaan Chakrabar-ti, a professor of real estate at Co-lumbia University and a partner atSHoP Architects. “So I think it’s anobvious place [for the de Blasio ad-ministration] to go to if you havethis inequity agenda.”

The firm occupies a particularspace in New York.It provides finan-

cial analysis and data for non-real es-tate players seeking to build in thecity, such as when Major LeagueSoccer recently sought to erect a sta-dium in Queens or when a consor-tium of skating enthusiasts proposeda Bronx ice complex. It contractswith city agencies to study such issuesas tax incentives and public housing.And it helps the state administer re-covery efforts in neighborhoodsdamaged by Superstorm Sandy.

HR&A also produced a studyexamining the tech industry’s grow-ing presence in Brooklyn. Theglitzy, George Soros-funded “Talk-ing Transition” tent that sprang upon Canal Street after Mr. de Blasio’selection was yet another HR&Aproduction. Roughly 30% of itsbusiness comes from government,according to the firm.

‘Shallow’ reportRelations with City Hall weren’t

always so rosy.The company’s 2006study of business subsidies for theEconomic Development Corp. wasdropped in favor of an in-house ef-fort. HR&A’s website billed the re-port as a “wide-ranging analysis ofall commercial incentive programsin New York City,”but its report was“very cookie-cutter, very shallow,”said one person familiar with it.

Mr. Alschuler, however, said the

report “didn’t match the politicalagenda of some city officials.”

“They pressured us to change it,”he said. “We don’t do that kind ofthing.”

A former EDC president, SethPinsky, refuted that claim, arguinghis agency didn’t operate that way.

“We worked a lot with HR&A,and this study doesn’t stand out inmy memory,” said Mr.Pinksy. “I do know,though, that theBloomberg administra-tion always sought data—good, bad or indifferent—to help form policy, andtherefore would not haveasked for changes to astudy’s output if it were based on rig-orous analysis.”

Critics claim HR&A has a repu-tation for giving clients the resultsthey want.The report touted by Ms.Glen portrayed the city’s technolo-gy sector as massive, but a New Yorkmagazine tech reporter ridiculedthe study’s broad definition of techworkers. Mr. Alschuler said his firmtakes its “obligation to be factuallyaccurate and precise very seriously.”

Propping his loafers up on a glasscoffee table at HR&A’s sleek, glass-walled TriBeCa office, Mr. Alschulerspoke broadly of his firm’s promotionof urban values and of cities as eco-nomic engines, but declined to spec-ulate on how Mr.de Blasio’s hiring ofhis former employees in high-levelpositions would affect his business.

“I have no notion,” he said. “Idon’t think about that.”

Yet he indicated that the loss ofMr. Weisbrod was bittersweet.“What I said to Carl when the may-or named him was that I was drink-ing Champagne with a black arm-band,” Mr. Alschuler said.

HR&A’s multidisciplinary focusgives it rivals in several industries. It

competes with real estateservice companies such asCushman & Wakefieldand CBRE as well as eco-nomic-analysis firms likeCambridge Consultingand Appleseed.AlthoughMr. Alschuler and othersat the company are regis-

tered lobbyists, he said that “if youlooked at the total income of ourfirm and asked what percentage metthe definition of lobbying, I’d say2%, 5%—a negligible number.”

That conservatively suggests an-nual revenue north of $10 million,although Mr. Alschuler would notcomment on that estimate. Staterecords show that HR&A netted$469,000 from lobbying in 2013,mostly from Major League Soccer.But the company’s lobbying incomein recent years has fluctuated wildly,from $13,000 to $1.1 million.

Mr. Alschuler employs 64 peo-ple—lawyers, architects, traffic en-gineers and others—most of whomare in the firm’s New York office. A

decade ago, a majority of HR&A’swork was New York City-focused,but it now has a more national scope,with offices in California andWashington, D.C.

HR&A’s current projects haveMr. Alschuler spending much timein Miami,where he’s working on an-other soccer stadium, this time withBritish superstar David Beckham.But while he’s bending it with Mr.Beckham, his former colleagues arewielding the levers of power fromtheir City Hall perches.

Industry veteranMr. Torres Springer, one of the

firm’s five partners,took a leave of ab-sence early last year to serve in theBloomberg administration as a post-Sandy rebuilding and resiliency ad-viser. Back at HR&A, he’s workingon contracts with the state and fed-eral governments on rebuilding, aswell as a feasibility study for SeaportCity,the Bloomberg administration’sidea to build out lower Manhattan’swaterfront to create valuable real es-tate and mitigate storm damage.

But Mr. Alschuler doubts thatthe rising tide of the de Blasio ad-ministration will lift all of HR&A’sboats, even if it has elevated a fewformer employees.He noted that thefirm has been a presence in the cityfor several decades.

“We’re not some Johnny-come-latelies,” he said. �

Chosen consultancyContinued from Page 3

down with her and discuss the pro-posal, which is still being written.

Even extending the threshold ageto 80 years,however,would still meanthat the law would cover more thanhalf the buildings in the city—andgoing back a century would still putmore than half of Manhattan’s prop-erties in the group to be reviewed.

Automatically bringing thatmany buildings under the purviewof Landmarks, which would havethe power to halt construction, hasmembers of the development com-munity—including Richard An-derson, president of the New YorkBuilding Congress—worried. He

notes many buildings with zero his-torical significance would bebrought into the fold, potentiallyslowing down one of the city’s keyeconomic engines—construction.

“Generally, replacement build-ings are an improvement, but if anexisting structure should be consid-ered a landmark, we have a processfor that,”Mr.Anderson said.“To puteverything under a blanket review—I don’t see the basis to do that.”

Nonetheless, with a new, pro-gressive administration in office inthe city,Mr.Anderson and others aretaking the proposal seriously.In part,that is because Ms. Brewer is a savvyand active politician with a track

record of focusing on housing andtenant issues. In fact, in 2004, whenMs. Brewer represented the UpperWest Side in the City Council, shesigned on to a similar piece of legis-lation that made its way through sev-eral hearings but didn’t pass.Amongthe outspoken opponents of thatmeasure was Landmarks itself,which cited sheer logistics.

Staff shortage“It is unquestionable that the

commission does not have the staff toimplement this bill,”said Diane Jack-ier, then director of community andgovernment affairs at Landmarks.

The problem then was that thecommission reviewed about 200 re-quests for designation each year, butthe city Department of Buildings is-sued thousands of demolition per-

mits. A large percentage of thosepermits would have triggered a re-view under the previous bill, whichalso covered buildings older than 50years, dramatically upping the de-partment’s workflow.

Things have not changed much.The commission now receivesabout the same number of requestsfor landmark status annually, in ad-dition to 11,000 applications for al-terations to landmarked buildings.

Back in 2004, Ms. Jackier point-ed out, the proposed rule addresseda widespread problem: The com-mission often found out about a his-toric structure only when it was toolate. Ms. Brewer and preservation-ists like Simeon Bankoff,head of theHistoric Districts Council, say thesame is true today.

“I’m not trying to landmark 80%

of the city,” Ms. Brewer said. “I’mtrying to spark a serious discussionand improve the landmarks processfor the benefit of all.”

A source in the City Council pre-dicted that because of its sheerbreadth, Ms. Brewer’s proposalwould be unlikely to gain traction,but noted it highlights the frustra-tion felt on both sides of the debateabout the way the landmarkingprocess in New York plays out. Infact, part of her proposal aims to fixa common complaint about thecommission: the lack of a standard-ized time frame for case hearings.

Items that are “calendared” havesat in the commission’s to-do box fordecades. That effectively puts anydevelopment on these sites and anyresolution on their landmark statusin a perpetual holding pattern. �

Demolition freezeContinued from Page 1

24 | Crain’s New York Business | April 14, 2014

GET the writers’ takes on these three stories at CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts

30%APPROXIMATEPORTION ofHR&A’s businessthat comes fromgovernmentcontracts

INSIDESource LunchMelinda Katz sets pathfor Queens PAGE 26Out and AboutThe Met’s medievalmanuscripts PAGE 27

BY MAX WILLENS

On a recent Saturday afternoon, Ali King was having trouble finding theright spring look. As her mother hovered outside a dressing room atMichael’s, a clothing consignment shop on the Upper East Side, thegrad student tried on a variety of looks: a black-and-white Chanel top,a silk top with gauzy hemlines and a soft free-moving jacket that stillhad its original tags. “I go whenever I’m in town,” said Ms. King, who isstudying at Yale. “Consignment shopping is huge now.” ¶ Ms. King, 24,is among the wave of shoppers driving a surge in New York’s luxury

consignment business. With people embracing the pragmatic, environmental and fiscal benefits ofpreworn clothing, an industry once confined to second-floor storefronts and mothball-filledboutiques is taking off. ¶ Second Time Around, the largest clothing consignment retailer in theU.S., has opened 10 locations in Manhattan alone since 2010. Annual profits at Michael’s, a NewYork consignment institution that’s celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, have been growingby double digits since 2009, store management said.

Dinner musicThe Four Seasons Restaurant,known for its wealthy clientele andimpeccable menu, is trying a littlenight music to lure a younger

dinner crowd.Argentine-

AmericansongwriterDiego Garciawill croon inthe iconic grillroom on April17 and April24 at 9 p.m.“I’m looking to

book a performer every week,”said Managing Director JulianNiccolini. “We want to bring moreexcitement to the restaurant andmore young people. The industryneeds to offer more than greatfood and service—it needsentertainment.”

He’s building on last year’sentertainment “experiment,” whenGianni Russo performed weekly forthree months, and Gloria Gaynorand Christopher Noth made cameoappearances with him.

“It was the best thing we everdid,” Mr. Niccolini said, addingthat at least 100 customers cameto the shows, which are free.

Though he’d like to book Mr. Garcia every week, he realizes the singer has a busyconcert schedule—and is notinexpensive. “We spent a prettyhigh number to bring him in,”Mr. Niccolini said, adding thathe’s seeking other musicians whomight be willing to perform forfree. Pass the hat!

—lisa fickenscher

Big leapA different kind of choreographywill go on at Ballet Hispanico thissummer. In June, the dancecompany will start an $800,000makeover of the façade and lobbyof its headquarters at 167 W. 89thSt., consisting of two carriagehouses built in the 1800s. Long-cloaked windows will be uncoveredso pedestrians can see classes, andbanners will announce the buildingas Ballet Hispanico’s home. “Weare dealing with our organization’shome; it needs to reflect that,” saidboard Chairwoman Kate Lear.

SUK Design Group was tappedfor the redesign, slated to becompleted in the fall. A $1.5million grant from the FordFoundation will cover the lobby’srenovation, fund other projects andbolster the reserve. John and JodyArnhold donated a seven-figuresum that will be used to refurbishthe façade. Ms. Arnhold was aBallet Hispanico board chair andremains active in the organization.

Once completed, the buildingwill be renamed the ArnholdCenter, while the lobby will benamed in honor of the FordFoundation. Meanwhile, BalletHispanico will perform at theJoyce Theater for nearly twoweeks beginning on April 15.

—theresa agovino

See CONSIGNMENT on Page 26

HELLUVA TOWN

April 14, 2014 | Crain’s New York Business | 25

Fashion backwardConsignment stores multiply as city shoppers

look to save money and reduce their carbon footprint

SECONDHAND: LauraFluhr (right) and TammyFluhr-Gates, the mother-and-daughter team behind60-year-old Michael’s,have seen big sales gains.

OLD IS NEW

10NUMBER OF STORES SecondTime Around has opened inManhattan since 2010

$100MEXPECTED SALES for Web-based consignorTheRealReal in 2014

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Recently inauguratedQueens Borough Presi-dent Melinda Katz hasthe city’s biggest bor-ough in her blood: Her

father founded the Queens Sympho-ny, and her mother started theQueens Council on the Arts. Ms.Katz, a talented singer herself, even-tually decided to go into politics,serving as a state assemblywomanand chair of the City Council’s LandUse Committee before her electionas borough president.Ms.Katz spoketo Crain’s about her policy priorities.

Brooklyn took off during the 12-yeartenure of former Borough PresidentMarty Markowitz. Do you want to be asimilar cheerleader for Queens?When I was running for the office,people would say,“You’ve got to makeQueens the new Brooklyn.” And Iwould say, “We’re Queens. We’re notgoing to be the new Brook-lyn;we’re going to have ourown flavor.” But on theother hand, they would sayto me, “You’ve got to keepit affordable.” Folks say tome,“I moved out of Brook-lyn to go to Queens.” Sothere’s always a balance.

How do you get the messageacross about Queens?Queens, too often, isbranded by TV and moviesin a certain way. I’ll giveyou an example: In Men inBlack, they made a joke outof the New York StatePavilion, where the disksof the pavilion were meantto be spaceships. Becausewhat else are you going todo in Queens? That’s whatthey said. But brandingQueens has to be different.We are the most ethnically diversearea in the United States, if not on theplanet. Everyone brings from othercountries their culture, their arts,their traditions, their religions. Youcan have a bagel with cream cheese onone corner and have baba ghanoushon the other one,and hummus on theother one, or mango chutney. If youcome to New York, you shouldknow—you haven’t really seen thecity until you’ve seen Queens.

What should be the motto for Queens?“The world’s borough.”

What have you been doing thus farbesides hiring a staff for your office?I decided we wanted to do everything

we could to save the New York StatePavilion. We created a war room atthe borough president’s office on ed-ucation, to deal with overcrowding,especially when it comes to pre-K.And we’re already doing the World’sFair celebration [to mark the 50thanniversary of the 1964-65 fair].

What kind of development would you liketo see in Queens? For things that are already happening,we have a task force for the WilletsPoint area; we have a task force forFlushing Commons. I’d love to seemore retail and hotels in Jamaica.Oneof my goals is also to have much moreaffordable housing there,to utilize thezoning that we put in place five yearsago, to build hotels for economic de-velopment. In Long Island City, wehave a great opportunity to leveragethe Cornell tech school that’s comingto Roosevelt Island.And for people in

their 20s, we want them tostay in Queens.

What’s it like working with thede Blasio administration?For someone like me,who’sbeen in elected office 20years, I spent the wholetime with a Republican ad-ministration. So it’s a dif-ferent atmosphere. What Ifind now from most of thecommissioners and thedeputy mayors is the open-ness to other elected offi-cials—our ideas, what wethink is best for our con-stituents. There seems tobe a team effort, more thanthere has been with theother administrations.

Do you think you’ll be moreactive than your predecessor,Helen Marshall, who was

known as being low-key?Everyone brings their own charac-teristics, but for me, if I’m home on aThursday night, it means someonescrewed up my schedule. AlthoughI’m not sure I’ve been home on aThursday night yet.

What’s your favorite place to go inQueens in your free time?I don’t do anything social;I don’t know.When we have free time, believe it ornot,my significant other,Curtis Sliwaof the Guardian Angels, and our twokids—we travel the subways a lot.A 5-year-old and a 3-year-old—they loveit.They sit there with their eyes againstthe window. And they see the entireborough of Queens. �

26 | Crain’s New York Business | April 14, 2014

Boro prez tells whyQueens is king

TheRealReal, a Web-based con-signment shop that’s on pace to domore than $100 million in sales thisyear, acquires more clothes fromNew York than anywhere else inthe world.

“It’s just like all of a sudden con-signment became really,really cool,”said Jeanne Stafford, a director ofmarketing at Second Time Around.

Unlike pawnshops, consign-ment stores do not actually pur-chase the goods they sell to con-sumers, and the items are notdonated as they are to thrift shops.The original owner of the gar-ments, the consignor, technicallyretains ownership of her items un-til the store sells them. Once thegarment is sold, money is normallysplit 50-50,and many shops will al-low customers to set a floor pricefor their items. That typically at-tracts people with more expensiveitems, which makes customer-relationship management crucial.

Personal connection“It’s all about the relationship

for me,” said Elisabeth Hughes, afashion stylist who’s been consign-ing at Michael’s for more than 15years. “It’s possible I might be ableto get more at a different store, butI just trust them so much, and theytake such good care of me. Thatmakes a difference.”

And in New York, there’s plen-ty of preowned stuff to go around.According to a recent report byBain and Co., New Yorkers don’tjust buy more luxury goods thanany other city in the world; they buymore luxury goods than people ofany country in the world. Totalspending on luxury goods in thecity in 2013 came to $21 billion, a9% jump from 2012.

For consumers, the fundamentaldraw is luxury items at prices far low-er than they’d ever get at a depart-ment store: Chanel jackets for $500rather than $2,000, or Louboutinsgoing for about $400,instead of theirnormal retail price of $1,400.

“I can tell you the price of almosteverything in my closet,” said KateHolmes, a member of the NationalAssociation of Resale Profession-als, or NARTs, and the author of Too Good to Be Threw, a

consignment-store operationsmanual that’s in its 20th edition.

It wasn’t always cool to shop forused clothing.Even though consign-ment is more upscale than a pawn-shop or a thrift store, all three busi-ness models were lumped together inthe popular imagination. All threewere thought of as, well, cheap.

“Ten years ago,” Ms. Staffordrecalled, “people would hide theirbags from Second Time Around.”

“It was not considered a classything to do,” agreed Laura Fluhr,who took over Michael’s from her

father in 1986.In the past decade, however, re-

tailers noticed a change, as theeconomy tanked and environmen-tal consciousness rose. Accordingto census data, the consignment in-dustry grew 3.7% in 2010, a yearwhen two-thirds of all Americanindustries lost jobs.

“I think that the mentality hasbeen more to maximizing the useand the value of things,” Ms. Fluhrexplained. “I don’t think it’s specif-ic to consignment. I think it’s moreof a mood and mentality change.”

Today, the thing that was oncemost taboo about consigned luxuryclothes—the fact that they are notnew—is actually a selling point.

“I like the fact that this stuff ispreowned,” said Carol Silverman, alongtime Upper East Side resident.She sees buying consigned items asmore responsible than buyingsomething new that’s been manu-factured in a sweatshop.

There’s so much merchandise togo around that Web-based busi-nesses are picking through NewYorkers’ closets as well. Julie Wain-wright, the founder and chief exec-utive of TheRealReal, says hercompany has been able to find suc-cess in several major U.S.cities.But

New York is in a world of its own.“In New York,” Ms. Wain-

wright said, “we have a model thatmay not work anywhere else.”

In most cities, small teams ofRealReal concierges fan out to thehomes of wealthy consignors, care-fully picking through closets and of-ten coming away with a handful ofitems. In New York City, there is somuch to pick up that a RealReal-owned van rolls through town allweek, grabbing garment bags fromdoormen or personal assistants.

Between New York and SanFrancisco,Wainwright says, her siteconsigns more than 1,500 items aday. “And honestly,” she continued,“we’ll be able to handle 10 times thatvolume in about three months.”

According to thredUP, a Web-based resale and consignmentstore, the expected annual growthrate of the online resale industry is16.4% through 2016.

That operational scale is key.The consignment business is, bynature, all about high turnover.“Everything is one of a kind,” saidMs. Holmes of NARTs. “If youwant a Chanel bag, you have to getthere before the other ladies do.”

Ms. Wainwright said TheReal-Real has more than 2 million mem-bers, and that 10% to 15% of themvisit the site every day.“On average,our members come every otherweek,” she continued. “There isn’tanother retail store in the worldthat has that kind of turnover.”

But Web-based consignmentoperations aren’t the only ones ben-efiting from connectivity. Brick-and-mortar shops like Michael’sare pouring a ton of energy and in-vestment into their online sales,and it’s paying off.

“We’re still a brick-and-mortarstore,” said Tammy Fluhr-Gates,Ms. Fluhr’s daughter and the headof business development atMichael’s, “but our online store isgrowing very quickly.”

Digital salesMichael’s Web storefront sells

to people from Miami to Milan,and Ms.Fluhr-Gates said sales rev-enue is expected to double this year.

Second Time Around does notdo e-commerce on its website, butMs. Stafford said its individualstores are encouraged to sell itemsvia social-media platforms likeFacebook and Instagram.

Ms. Stafford declined to dis-close dollar amounts,saying insteadthat sales from social media aregrowing week over week.

As consignment continues tobloom and competition heats up,thedeals might get even better.But con-signment is driven, more than any-thing, by an impulse to find some-thing that stands out, customers say.

“I don’t think it’s the money—New Yorkers have plenty of mon-ey,” said Tien Bui, a banker who’sbeen a longtime consignmentshopper. “It’s more the chance tofind something unique.”

“When you go into work,every-body’s wearing the same things,”she continued. “Every time you go[consignment shopping], there’s achance you’ll see something that’sbeen sitting in a closet for years.”Plus, she added, “I don’t mindwearing last year’s look.” �

Continued from Page 25

‘We have amodel that may not workanywhere else’

WHERETHEYDINEDMANDUCATISRUSTICA46-33 VernonBlvd., Long IslandCity, Queens(718) 937-1312www.manducatisrustica.comAMBIENCE:Rustic, authenticfamily-runtrattoriaWHAT THEY ATE: � Veal Bolognese� Eggplant� Salad� Branzino� Spinach pastaPRICE: $75,including tip

SOURCELUNCH:MELINDA KATZby Chris Bragg

WHO KNEW? Ms. Katz frequents the eatery,but mostly lets the owner order for her.

COURTING CONSIGNORSBECAUSE OF THE SUDDEN RISE in competition for the best designer duds, akind of arms race has broken out in the customer-relationship departmentto attract prolific consignors. “We don’t do a lot of advertising,” SecondTime Around’s Jeanne Stafford said of her company’s consignor-acquisitionstrategy. “We depend on word-of-mouth so much.”

That means providing memorable experiences that drive loyalty.Chocolates and flowers on Valentine’s Day are standard. Some storesmail handwritten thank-you notes when a consignor keeps an appointmenton a rainy afternoon. Others open up a little early (or close a little late) toaccommodate top consignors’ schedules. “They do what they want aroundhere,” Michael’s Laura Fluhr said of her most loyal consignors.

But for the biggest clients, there’s a whole different level of courting thatcomes into play. “It’s the more thoughtful things,” TheRealReal ChiefExecutive Julie Wainwright said. “One of our consignor’s nieces has a smallcookie business, and so we ordered a few thousand boxes of cookies togive to our top couple thousand consignors.”

On consignment

—MAX WILLENS

April 14, 2014 | Crain’s New York Business | 27

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The Public Theater’s SHAKESPEARE IN CENTRAL PARK

SNAPS NYC Police Foundation fundraiser rakes in $3M OUT ANDABOUT

THROUGH THURSDAY, MAY 1The Metropolitan Museum of Art isshowcasing RARE MEDIEVAL HEBREWMANUSCRIPTS from the 15th century inhonor of Passover, which begins this week.The exhibit features a Haggadah (Passoverprayer book), on loan from the JewishTheological Seminary, and an ornamentedHebrew Bible. The museum is open sevendays a week. Suggested admission for adultsis $25. For more information, visitwww.metmuseum.org.

CULTURE FIXWEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, THROUGHSUNDAY, JULY 27 OF MICE ANDMEN, starringJames Franco(right) andChris O’Dowd,opens onBroadway after about a month of previews.The revival of the play, based on the novelby John Steinbeck, is at the LongacreTheatre, 220 W. 48th St. Tickets rangefrom $37 to $147, and are available throughTelecharge. For more information, visitwww.ofmiceandmenonbroadway.com.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, THROUGH MONDAY, APRIL 21The MATA FESTIVAL OF NEW MUSIC willcelebrate instrumental music by emergingcomposers, all of whom are younger than 40.Performers and ensembles from around theworld will descend upon the Kitchen, 512W. 19th St., for shows beginning at 8 p.m.every night except Sunday, when the musicwill start at 1 p.m. Each show will feature adifferent lineup.Tickets are $20 for eachperformance. For more information, visitwww.thekitchen.org/events.

CAREER BUILDERWEDNESDAY, APRIL 16Digital design company WaleUp willhost an event called LAUNCHING YOURDIGITAL PRODUCT. The program isaimed at business owners andentrepreneurs who are trying to getan online venture off the ground orimprove an existing one. The sessionwill be held at the CarnegieConference Room, 747 Third Ave.,and will run from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m.Registration costs $10 in advance($15 at the door) and is available atwww.eventbrite.com/e/launching-your-digital-product-tickets-9868823918.

THURSDAY, APRIL 17The American Business Forum onEurope will host a talk called U.S.HEALTH CARE REFORM: WHO PAYS FORIT? WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THEECONOMY? Leading the discussionwill be Princeton professor UweReinhardt. The event will be held atthe McCann-Erickson Building, 622Third Ave. The event will go from 6p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Registrationcosts $30 and is available online atwww.abfe.biz.

DON’T MISS MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS

MARK YOUR CALENDAR… MONDAY, APRIL 28Culinary event TASTE OF THE NATION will be held at the 82Mercer conferencecenter to raise funds for Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign, whichworks to provide children and families with nutritious food. Some of the city’s best-known chefs, including Anne Burrell, Scott Conant and Alexandra Guarnaschelli,will be at the event and will have samples on hand. Tickets start at $225 and areavailable at ce.strength.org. The gala will start at 7 p.m. (6:30 p.m. for VIPticketholders) at 82 Mercer St.

FUNDRAISERS FRIDAY, APRIL 18Housing Works will host LIVE FROM HOME: ANEVENING WITH REBECCA PIDGEON.The British-American singer-songwriter-actress willperform songs from her recently releasedalbum, Blue Dress On.The event will alsoinclude a talk with actress Clara Mamet, Ms.Pidgeon’s daughter, of ABC’s The Neighbors.Tickets are $15 and benefit Housing Works’fundraising for AIDS and homelessness.Seating is first-come, first-served. Doors willopen at 7:30 p.m., and the show will start at 8p.m. Housing Works’ Bookstore Cafe islocated at 126 Crosby St. For moreinformation, visit www.housingworks.org.

MONDAY, APRIL 21The NYC Dance Alliance Foundation willhost an event called DESTINY RISING at theJoyce Theater to raise funds for its scholarshipprogram.The evening will feature perfor-mances by NYCDA alumni and the HoustonMetropolitan Dance Company, among others.Prices start at $25, and VIP tickets are $100.The event will begin at 7:30 p.m.The Joyce islocated at 175 Eighth Ave. For moreinformation, visit www.nycdance.com.

OPENINGFRIDAY, APRIL 18, THROUGH SUNDAY, AUGUST 10 The Brooklyn Museum of Art willpresent 20 years’ worth of work byprovocative Chinese artist AiWeiwei in an exhibit called AIWEIWEI: ACCORDING TO WHAT? Thework focuses on freedom ofexpression and human rights inChina and elsewhere. The museumis open Wednesday throughSaturday and is located at 200Eastern Parkway. Tickets are $15and include general admission;there is no charge for members.For more information, visitwww.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/ai_weiwei.

by Ali Elkin and Theresa Agovino

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

Dr. NEAL BAER and LENA DUNHAM at the benefitfor the Point Foundation on April 7. It raised$620,000 for the organization, which givesscholarships to LGBTQ students.

BILL GUARINELLO, DONNA HANOVER, MIKE WOODS and ABIGAIL HAWK atHeartShare Human Services of New York’s 2014 Spring Gala on March 27. The fetecelebrated the social-service agency’s centennial and raised $700,000.

KATHRYN and KENNETH CHENAULT at the WNETAnnual Gala Salute on April 1. It raised $2.7 million forWNET, parent company of New York’s two PBS stationsand operator of one in New Jersey.

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BILL BRATTON, BILL DE BLASIO and BILL RUDIN at the April 3 gala for the New YorkCity Police Foundation. The event raised more than $3 million.

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