20160606-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 6/3/2016 7:31 PM Page 1 CRAINS Pols’ sinking poll numbers P. 11 | New York’s largest architecture firms P. 12 | Secret score of a Broadway hit P. 17 CRAINS ® JUNE 6-12, 2016 | PRICE $3.00 NEW YORK BUSINESS THEY CHOSE VOL. XXXII, NO. 23 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM YELLOW Why an immigrant family from Bangladesh represents the taxi 0 71486 01068 5 23 industry’s best shot at taking on Uber PAGE 14 NEWSPAPER 20160606-NEWS--0002-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 6/3/2016 7:32 PM Page 1 JUNECRAINS 6-12, 2016 FROM THE NEWSROOM | BARBARA BENSON IN THIS ISSUE Signing off after 20 years 3 AGENDA Hudson Yards ON MAY 21, 1996, Crain’s Health Pulse launched as a one- 4 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT opens amid questions page fax about the health care business in New York. In 5 REAL ESTATE those early days, we worried whether insurers, hospitals, 8 WHO OWNS THE BLOCK physicians and companies would generate news to fill the 9 HEALTH CARE page. But Pulse soon became the industry bible. 10 ASKED & ANSWERED When Pulse hit its 20th anniversary a few weeks ago, I 11 felt it was time to step down as its founding editor and VIEWPOINTS consider new challenges. As I prepare to pass the baton 12 THE LIST when the new Pulse editor starts— FEATURES and is introduced to readers—June 20, I’ve reminisced We’ve chronicled about those 20 years. We’ve chronicled many journeys as 14 CHOOSING TAXIS luminaries changed jobs, retired, died or were even jailed many journeys as 17 THE BOOKS OF MORMON for bribery. None of Pulse would have been possible without luminaries changed the trust so many sources have placed in Crain’s. jobs, retired, died Those of us with an institutional memory of New York P. 10 health care view these decades as a period of tremendous or were even jailed JESSICA LAWRENCE change. Various attempts at reforms were chronicled by for bribery QUINN their acronyms. Before DSRIP—the state’s current $8 billion Medicaid reform—there was the $1.5 billion F-SHRP program to fund hospital restructuring in 2006, when a commission headed by private-equity investor Stephen Berger made its controversial recommendations to close hospitals. The state’s hospital financing system was replaced by deregulated prices, but 24 GOTHAM GIGS today many hospitals’ finances remain shaky—an instability that has triggered 25 SNAPS years of hospital bankruptcies and a morgue of closed facilities. Among them are 26 FOR THE RECORD St. Vincent’s, Long Island College Hospital, Parkway and Peninsula. 27 PHOTO FINISH The fragmented hospital system has consolidated. New York Hospital merged with Presbyterian Hospital. Long Island Jewish combined with North Shore CORRECTION ultimately to become the behemoth $8.7 billion Northwell Health system of today. The last name of Governors Ball fan JOHN ROLFE was mis- I asked Dr. Jack Rowe, who helped orchestrate the short-lived Mount Sinai- spelled in “Battle of the Band Promoters,” published May 30. NYU Health merger as president of Mount Sinai and later ran Aetna from 2000 to 2006, for his thoughts on these past two decades. His answer surprised me. “Much more is the same than different,” he said. “Change has been very slow.” Our recent headlines about the downsizing of Mount Sinai Beth Israel might well have run in 1996. There long has been less demand for hospitals, but New Yorkers have resisted this reality. Manhattan has six hospital beds per 1,000 residents, compared to a national average of less than three beds. ON THE COVER Whatever my next move, I look forward to observing how the city’s health PHOTO: BUCK ENNIS care changes in the coming decades. I’ll be sure to read about it in Crain’s. DIGITAL DISPATCHES CONFERENCE CALLOUT JUNE 16 Go to CrainsNewYork.com READ CRAIN’S BUSINESS A Manhattan site on the west side of BREAKFAST FORUM Eighth Avenue between West 45th and West 46th streets owned by developer Gary Barnett Shola Olatoye, chair of the is the likely home of the first Hard Rock Hotel New York City Housing Authority, in the Northeast. will discuss her plans ■ to cut costs, Two-time Academy Award-winning actress increase revenue Cate Blanchett, in her Broadway debut, and clear a will star in Andrew Upton’s adap- $17 billion repair backlog. tion of Anton Chekhov’s The > Present, which will begin preview NEW YORK performances ATHLETIC CLUB on Dec. 17. 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. LISTEN [email protected] Our podcast this week includes a discussion of the mayor and governor’s ongoing feud, insight into Vol. XXXII, No. 23, June 6, 2016—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for double issues the big bucks being made on Broadway the weeks of June 27, July 11, July 25, Aug. 8, Aug. 22 and Dec. 19, by Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes and details on the reporting of this to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, MI 48207-2912. week’s cover story. Music by SoftSpot. For subscriber service: Call (877) 824-9379. Fax (313) 446-6777. $3.00 a copy, $99.95 one year, $179.95 two years.(GST CrainsNewYork.com/podcast No. 13676-0444-RT) BUCK ENNIS ©Entire contents copyright 2016 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. 2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | JUNE 6, 2016 20160606-NEWS--0003-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 6/3/2016 7:33 PM Page 1 AGENDAWHAT’S NEW JUNE 6, 2016 Give promising food-makers a chance to get cooking slew of eager entrepreneurs have launched food businesses in the city in recent years, finding surprisingly fertile ground in a town better known for white-collar industries and retail. Supermarket chains such as Whole Foods have FLYING SOUTH? Matt and Alli- been willing to give shelf space to local and niche products. Farmers’ A son Robicelli markets have proliferated, providing another sales outlet. And in the plan to move wake of the housing-market crash and recession, food startups could their cupcake company from more easily find the space and labor they needed to sprout. Food manu- Brooklyn to facturers employed 16,000 New Yorkers in 2014, up 16% from 2009. Baltimore. But many have struggled with scaling up, which can be imperative to their survival. Experts cite a variety of factors, but the one commonly Government can fill this private-sector void—namely, a paucity of co- associated with failure—a shortage of customers—is not one of them. packing facilities that small food businesses require to fill midsize orders. Rather, the real estate market has bounced back, driving up rents as res- The few co-packers in the city typically have substantial minimums— idential developers, hotels and businesses such as bowling alleys, self- several times larger than a young business can commit to without major storage warehouses and rock-climbing centers have competed for risk. The city’s Economic Development Corp. last year requested propos- industrial properties. The labor supply has tightened. And fledgling als for a more flexible operator. It is negotiating with a respondent. food-makers inevitably confront the The EDC also has incubators for city’s confounding regulatory environ- Many popular food manufacturers young food businesses and connects ment and other challenges they are ill- entrepreneurs with other agencies and prepared to handle. have struggled to scale up. One bakery information sources, including neigh- As a result, despite loyal and growing with lines out the door closed last year borhood-based nonprofits with city customer bases, many move out of the city contracts. Would it be better if the or simply fail, as writer Cara Eisenpress industry could thrive on its own? Of documented in a Crain’s cover story last week. One bakery in the gentri- course. But some of the obstacles it must overcome are imposed by fying Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant had lines out the government—picayune regulations, overzealous enforcement, zoning door but was losing money for lack of a facility that could sustain a cater- loopholes and policies that drive up the price of market-rate housing. ing business. A $10,000 fine from the city’s Department of Health for a Given that, it is only fair that city officials do something to maintain a grease-trap violation didn’t help. The popular business closed in 2015 path to prosperity for entrepreneurs whose businesses provide quality after a five-year run. jobs and products for New Yorkers. – THE EDITORS FINE PRINT The Metropolitan Opera named Yannick Nézet-Séguin as its new musical director last week. One of his top priorities will be trying to get more people into the seats. Box office and touring revenues at the Met have declined 14% in the past five years, to about $91 million in fiscal 2015. BY GERALD SCHIFMAN STATS 25 WORDS OR LESS HOT TICKET SINCE 2008, it’s been legal to park in front of sidewalk pedestrian ramps as long as they aren’t part of crosswalks. But drivers He bilked people AND THE CITY “out of millions continued to be ticketed for parking in those spots. Fine from the city’s Department of dollars. We’re of Finance for parking in front of going to make sure $165 a pedestrian ramp Estimated number of tickets he pays it back levied each year for legally parking – New York Attorney General Eric 9K-18K in front of such ramps Schneiderman on Donald Trump.