15 YEARS LATER up from the ASHES an Insider’S Guide to the Revitalized World Trade Center Site P
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CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS NEW YORK BUSINESS® SEPTEMBER 5 - 11, 2016 | PRICE $3.00 GROUND ZERO 15 YEARS LATER UP FROM THE ASHES An insider’s guide to the revitalized World Trade Center site P. 12 CALLED TO BEAR WITNESS Joe Daniels reflects on his 11 years as head of the 9/11 museum P. 14 1 WTC FOR SALE The Port Authority wants out of real estate. But selling its top asset won’t be easy P. 16 VOL. XXXII, NO. 36 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM NEWSPAPER P001_CN_20160905.indd 1 9/2/16 6:38 PM SEPTEMBER 5 - 11, 2016 CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS FROM THE NEWSROOM | JEREMY SMERD IN THIS ISSUE Where was Trump on 9/11? New York 4 AGENDA considers 5 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT expanding WHENEVER A SOURCE claims to have the makings of a block- its medical 6 INSTANT EXPERT marijuana buster story, my ears perk up even as my BS meter climbs program to 11. That was the case recently when a source told me she 7 HEALTH CARE knew where Donald Trump was on Sept. 11, 2001, and it 8 SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT was not, as the presidential candidate claims, in New York. 9 TECHNOLOGY Trump said at a rally in November that he watched from his 10 VIEWPOINTS Trump Tower terrace on Sept. 11 as people jumped out of 11 THE LIST the World Trade Center—four miles downtown. The source, who did not want her name used because FEATURES she feared being targeted by Trump supporters, saw his re- 12 UP FROM THE ASHES marks and offhandedly said to her daughter-in-law: “Well, I know he didn’t 14 MEMORY KEEPER I know he didn’t see that happening from his window be- see that happening 16 SELLING 1 WTC cause he wasn’t even in New York. He was in Florida with “ Neal and Tolly.” from his window Her friends Neal Travis—founding editor of the New because he wasn’t York Post’s Page Six—and his wife, Tolly, were at Trump’s Palm Beach getaway, Mar-a-Lago. The source says she even in New York. knew this because Neal called her from Florida after the He was in Florida attacks and asked whether there was any information about when planes would be allowed to land in the city again. Neil said, “Here’s Donald; talk to him,” she recalled to me last week. “Then I just P. 45 heard this brusque voice going, ‘Have you heard anything?’ And I’m thinking, ‘Why MACK MOZÉ are you asking me?’ I told him the same thing: I saw something in the [New York] Times about easing up on plane traffic.” 45 GOTHAM GIGS The article she saw, published online on Sept. 13, 2001, announced that commer- 46 SNAPS cial air traffic had resumed that morning “on a case-by-case basis.” If Trump were in Florida on 9/11, Sept. 13 would have been the first day he could have returned 47 PHOTO FINISH to New York. Indeed, the first visual evidence I’ve seen of Trump in New York City post-9/11 was on Sept. 13, 2001. He gave an interview near Ground Zero to a Ger- man television station. Crain’s looked into the source’s claim, but Neil Travis passed away in 2002 and we were unable to reach Tolly, who the source said does not remember the details of that day clearly. We compiled a list of aircraft owned by Trump or his businesses and sent the information to FlightAware. The flight-tracking company told us that none of those planes were in Florida at that time. Journalists have exposed Trump’s lies during the campaign. New Yorkers rightly take umbrage at the idea that he would tailor the history of those days to advance ON THE COVER his own narrative about himself. But previous reports of Trump being in Chicago PHOTO: BUCK ENNIS on Sept. 11 have been discredited. And definitive evidence proving that he was not in New York on that tragic day seems to be as elusive as info showing that he was. DIGITAL DISPATCHES OCTOBER 25 Go to CrainsNewYork.com CONFERENCE CALLOUT READ British Airways CRAIN’S FAMILY is paring back its BUSINESS SUMMIT business-class-only > Family businesses make up the heart and service from London soul of New York’s economy. Making to New York. them work, however, is not easy. Join n Members of health us as we explore how these businesses care union ll99 SEIU have have managed to survive and grow already started picketing DYNAMIC DUO: Tren’ness through the generations. NYU Langone Medical Center over potential Woods and her father, pay cuts even though their contract does Kenneth, together run SHERATON NY not expire until 2018. Sylvia’s Restaurant TIMES SQUARE n Simon Property Group Inc. and General 8 a.m. to noon Growth Properties Inc. won an auction for [email protected] the assets of Aéropostale. The new owners plan to keep 229 of the bankrupt retailer’s Vol. XXXII, No. 36, Sept. 5, 2016—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for double issues the weeks of June 27, July 11, July 25, Aug. 8, Aug. 22 and Dec. 19, by Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third stores open. Ave., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send n address changes to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, MI 48207-2912.For After delays, Extell Development landed subscriber service: Call (877) 824-9379. Fax (313) 446-6777. $3.00 a copy, $99.95 one year, $179.95 two years.(GST No. a $500 million loan for its 815-unit condo 13676-0444-RT)©Entire contents copyright 2016 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. project One Manhattan Square. BUCK ENNIS SEPTEMBER 5, 2016 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 3 P003_CN_20160905.indd 3 9/2/16 6:39 PM AGENDAWHAT’S NEW SEPTEMBER 5, 2016 No business district should be an island unto itself ew York City has a spotty record predicting the future. Take downtown Brooklyn: Back in the 1980s, city o cials and business leaders saw it as a place to capture the back-o ce jobs that were leaving Manhattan for cheaper locales out- Nside the city. e result was MetroTech, built as an insular complex with its own security force because the developer feared white-collar employees would be afraid to work there. In 2004, city planners tried again, rezon- ing downtown Brooklyn to attract o ce towers. ey got towers, all right, MIX IT UP: but only residential ones. It was another mis re, but like MetroTech, which Rezoning downtown has been a jobs anchor, the rezoning had bene ts, providing housing in Brooklyn could a transit-rich area. e upshot: Developers were able to pivot as tastes spur more commerical changed to favor projects integrated with surrounding neighborhoods, not and residential isolated from them. development New York is an old city that must constantly evolve. It is crucial to fa- cilitate development that accommodates the business and lifestyle trends mixed-use is the key. It’s hard to imagine Hudson Yards’ combination of of today and in the future. On that front, the signs are promising that city o ces, housing, retail and green space alongside the cleaned-up Hudson planners have learned their lesson. Instead of prescribing solutions, they River becoming dysfunctional or dated, especially with a new subway sta- are encouraging developers to come up with their own. e result is more tion at one end and citywide ferry service ramping up on the other. of the mixed-use neighborhoods New Yorkers prefer. Look at lower Man- ere’s more to come. City planners just released a long-awaited proposal hattan: A er the devastation of Sept. 11, 2001, rather than re-create the for midtown east that should yield transit improvements, wider sidewalks, nancial district of decades past, the city adopted a live-work-play model, 16 new skyscrapers and modernization of the district’s outdated o ce build- generating a mix of residential, commer- ings, with apartments composing up to cial, recreational and cultural uses. e The city’s new zoning plans rightly give 20% of what’s built. Not everyone wants neighborhood is shaping up to be stron- to live in midtown, but those who do ger than it ever was, buzzing with activi- developers tools to create communities could have a walkable commute, taking ty at all hours rather than turning into a where New Yorkers can live, work and play pressure o the overburdened subways. ghost town on weeknights and weekends. And a pending downtown Brooklyn re- e remaking of the West Side is also zoning should trigger the commercial looking like a winner, with the High Line becoming wildly popular and towers that the last one didn’t, letting more people work close to home. e Hudson Yards expected to extend that rebirth to the water’s edge. Again, bottom line is that things are looking up. — THE EDITORS FINE PRINT New York City gets high marks when it comes to minority business ownership, but it’s by no means the best, according to the latest census data. At least 20% of businesses are owned by minorities in one- third of the most populous metro areas nationwide, with 25.7% in the New York metro area. But the city lags Los Angeles, Miami, San Jose, Houston, Riverside, Calif., San Antonio, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.