Louboutins like these give consignment shops a leg up CRAIN’S® NEW YORK BUSINESS P. 25 VOL. XXX, NO. 15 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM APRIL 14-20, 2014 PRICE: $3.00 Demolition Nobody beats the freeze may cover 80% of the city Brewer bid to protect buildings over age 50 frightens developers, construction unions and housing advocates BY JOE ANUTA A politician’s proposal to protect the thousands of older buildings in New York that face demolition each year has triggered a backlash not just among powerful developers, but also among construction unions and advocates for affordable housing who fear the meas- ure could drastically curb residential con- AGING struction in the city. STRUCTURES The storm began Number of build- KIDS on April 4 at a ings constructed protest outside the before 1965, and stately, likely-to-be- percentage of at struggling to repeat their total buildings razed Rizzoli book- New York City store on West 57th 654,420 (80%) Street, when Man- hattan Borough Manhattan discount-chain glory days President Gale 37,157 (91%) Brewer pledged to Brooklyn do more to prevent 233,828 (88%) such losses in the fu- Queens JEMAL BROTHERS: TRIALS, TRIBULATIONS “He was truly the king of his ture. She offered to 272,020 (87%) BY AARON ELSTEIN castle,” Mr. Brandt recalled. “I re- introduce a bill that Bronx MARVIN JEMAL He failed to find the DOUGLAS JEMAL A successful real member him putting his grandson would require a 30- 66,190 (79%) In late 2006,a U.S.Coast Guard pi- next big thing after the retailer he co- estate developer in Washington, D.C., on his knee and saying, ‘I’m going day review by the Staten Island lot named Nelson Brandt was in- founded, Nobody Beats the Wiz, went he was convicted of defrauding a to teach you everything I know.’He Landmarks Preser- bankrupt. He was indicted in February lender in 2006 but sentenced to only 45,225 (40%) vited for dinner at the home of had everything I wanted.” vation Commission Source: NYC Department for bank fraud and money laundering, five months of probation in recognition of Finance someone who had once been one of and is fighting the criminal charges. of his community works. And Mr. Brandt had something of any demolition the city’s most successful retailers, Mr. Jemal wanted: the $20 million permit filed for a Nobody Beats the Wiz co-founder STEPHEN JEMAL He helped oversee LAWRENCE JEMAL The former he’d inherited from his father, who building over 50 years old. The meas- Marvin Jemal. the building of numerous Nobody Beats president of Nobody Beats the Wiz now owned several Broadway theaters, ure would apply to nearly 80% of the the Wiz stores, then tried to build runs Manhattan-based clothing Mr. Brandt, who helped rescue waterfront condos in Brooklyn before the marketer ICER Brands. ICER stands for movie houses and hotels.What Mr. city’s structures and 91% of those in people after hurricanes and chase financial crisis stymied him. Investor “integrity, customer, excellence, Brandt didn’t know was that Mr. Manhattan, according to city data. down drug smugglers, had started lawsuits allege he wasn’t nearly as respect”—the same credo used at Jemal had been unable to repeat his “We’ll see what we end up with— investing his family inheritance in wealthy as he claimed. Nobody Beats the Wiz. success at Nobody Beats the Wiz, it’s possible we could go older than 50 Mr. Jemal’s ventures a year earlier. had filed for personal bankruptcy years,”Ms.Brewer allowed in a follow- He was impressed that two servants helped prepare the feast at his busi- in 2005, and needed to finance his comeback. He sweet-talked Mr. up email responding to a question ness partner’s large house in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood. But Brandt into investing virtually all his inheritance into a series of disas- from Crain’s. She said she has invited Mr. Brandt, who had lost his father as a young man and whose marriage trous ventures that left the career military man nearly penniless. the Real Estate Board of New York and had fallen apart, was most struck by how Mr. Jemal seemed worshipped “I grew up not knowing much about the real world,” said Mr. Brandt, the Landmarks Conservancy to sit by the large and loving family seated around the table. See WIZ KIDS on Page 23 See DEMOLITION on Page 24 15 5 REPORT SMALL THE LIST BUSINESS Tech startups Largest SBA target pet owners P. 18 loans P. 17 NEWSPAPER 71486 01068 0 EDITOR’S NOTE Box populi FYICRAINSNEWYORK.COM An appalling fact: Metro New York is home to 30 of the country’s 50 lowest-scoring hospitals in such medical metrics as hospital-borne Cuomo meets infections, patient-readmission a formidable foe rates and the quality of discharge Andrew Cuomo instructions for departing patients. ov. (right) is known as an extremely savvy Glenn Coleman The average wait time in an emergency room is 27 minutes in Gpolitical operator. But last week, at least, the governor more than met his the U.S., 37 minutes in New York ap images state and 72 minutes in Brooklyn. Our typical equal in Southern District U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara hospital sucks, to use a nonclinical term, and a major (left). ¶ After Mr. Cuomo announced that he would disband the Moreland reason is that too many board members, executives, Commission—an investigative body he formed in 2013 to probe corruption in the Legislature— physicians, union chiefs and bureaucrats refuse to Mr. Bharara, who has built a reputation for pursuing Albany wrongdoing, said his office would The federal prosecutor did not even rule out looking into the actions of think outside the hulking boxes that have housed so take over outstanding cases. ¶ Mr. Cuomo much of the city’s health care delivery system for , whose administration is said to have interfered with Moreland probes that came too more than a century. Crain’s hosted a conference last close to the governor’s political allies (contentions the governor’s office denied last week). “People week on the financial challenges facing New York should take very, very seriously any suggestion that there was either influence or interference,” Mr. Mr. Bharara has proved deft at snaring corrupt New York hospitals. Our keynote speaker was private-equity Bharara said in a radio interview. ¶ lawmakers investor Adam Blumenthal of Manhattan-based , though many of those cases were built through informants and wiretaps sprung on Blue Wolf Capital Partners. He ingeniously likened unsuspecting politicians. ¶ Mr. Cuomo, who promised to clean up Albany during his 2010 run for matters to the U.S. steel industry of the 1970s, which governor, can’t be happy about an unexpected attack by a high-profile prosecutor during an struggled to transition from giant integrated mills election year. —chris bragg built in the Andrew Carnegie era to more responsive JUDGE ACCEPTS SAC’S GUILT. A fed- is plenty of competition, and the and economical mini-mills that now account for eral judge approved SAC Capital merger would not increase customer HOORAY! most of the steel production in this country. So, too, Advisors’guilty plea.Steven Cohen’s bills. … HEALTH CHIEFS DEPART. STEPHEN hedge fund will pay $1.8 billion to re- New York state Health Commis- COLBERT will must New York shift from general hospitals to succeed David networks of outpatient facilities. Consider those solve criminal and civil probes into sioner Dr. Nirav Shah is stepping Letterman as insider trading—the largest such down May 4 to join the Kaiser Foun- host of CBS’ Late lengthy Brooklyn waits: “Every time somebody’s settlement in history. SAC will be dation Health Plan in Southern Cal- Show, increasing the odds that the waiting in the emergency department for care, that is placed on probation for five years and ifornia.He had been in his post since program will demand,” Mr. Blumenthal said. It’s unmet demand, will employ a compliance consultant. 2011. Separately, Kathleen Sebelius, remain in New in about half the cases, for urgent yet nonemergency … DIMON’S BIG PAYDAY. JPMorgan the U.S.secretary of Health and Hu- York. Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was man Services, resigned. The former care that could be better delivered at clinics closer to awarded $20 million in compensa- Kansas governor oversaw the trou- ap images patients’ real lives, where the tab can be just 10% of tion last year, nearly double his 2012 bled rollout of Obamacare.President OY VEY! pay and the most of any banking Barack Obama’s budget chief, Sylvia what’s grotesquely overcharged though a hospital A WEB VIDEO ER.This was the model behind Blue Wolf ’s recent chief in New York City. Most of his Mathews Burwell, replaces her. … of a rat in a pay was in restricted shares, many of CITY COUNCIL BOOSTS SPENDING. crowded A bid, made with the Brooklyn Hospital Center, to which have not yet vested. Mean- The City Council plans to increase train, frightening restructure the failed Long Island College Hospital while, the bank said its fiscal 2015 budget commuters, campus.Their proposal lost out to a Pied Piper’s first-quarter profits ‘Is he going to by 10%,to $56.9 mil- went viral fell 19% on lower lion, six times the within hours collective whose top-scoring bid magically promises a fixed-income trading continue to be rate of inflation. The of its posting. “full-service hospital” on the Cobble Hill site. and mortgage rev- additional funds will Thinking inside the box, again.