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The City's Worst Illegal* Hotel

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The City's Worst Illegal* Hotel 20150216-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 2/13/2015 7:08 PM Page 1 GOTHAM GIGS DESIGNER GENES 3rd-gen owner Eric Villency CRAIN’S® NEW YORK BUSINESS PAGE 6 VOL. XXXI, NO. 7 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM FEBRUARY 16-22, 2015 PRICE: $3.00 TWIN INNS? The conjoined 15 and 19 W. 55th St. property generates more complaints of illegal hotel activity than any building in the city. buck ennis THE CITY’S WORST ILLEGAL* HOTEL *According to lawsuits and a review of city complaints. Crain’s checks in to check it out lobby who hands out apartment which 10 units are occupied by New room on Hotels.com. “Not good.” makeover since he bought it for $60 BY LISA FICKENSCHER keys after confirming visitors’ Yorkers who have called the place The Branson, it turns out, is ac- million in 2013.To tenants and city names on a list. Photo ID or proof home for decades. tually two buildings,at 15 and 19 W. officials, the 65-unit complex has The Branson at Fifth does not offer of reservation is not required. “Nice neighborhood if you don’t 55th St., that are joined by a com- earned a notorious distinction, one your typical hotel experience.There Tourists are sometimes surprised mind the dirty looks from tenants mon basement and a single owner: that has put it in the crosshairs of is no concierge, bellhop or front to find that they have in fact rented who tell you that this is not a hotel,” real estate developer Salim Assa, New York’s beleaguered effort to desk—just a doorman in a narrow a room in an apartment building, in wrote one guest who reserved a who has been giving the property a See HOTEL on Page 19 REPORT How Weight Watchers became HEDGE FUNDS the most heavily shorted stock Loeb, Icahn and Ackman Time-tested method rific they looked after slimming abandoned the company’s weight- ride cash wave down. Instead, the ad told viewers loss regime in droves.During the past PAGE 11 may be superior, but that overeating is understandable three years, attendance at meetings because food tastes good. has plunged by 35%. That consumers won’t bite “It’s time to take back con- has slimmed revenue at the trol,” the ad said, and 75% Manhattan-based company BY AARON ELSTEIN DECLINE in the 07 Weight Watchers assured company’s stock by a sixth, and its stock has 5 us it is there to “help with price in the past shed 75% of its value. On Super Bowl Sunday, Weight the hard part.” three years So what happened to Watchers International debuted a Ironically, help is exactly the diet world’s most cred- commercial. Gone were such what Weight Watchers itself needs ible brand? In many ways, Weight celebrities as Jennifer Hudson and right now. Indeed, its kinder, gentler Watchers is reeling from the same Jessica Simpson showing how ter- marketing comes after dieters have See WEIGHT WATCHERS on Page 20 NEWSPAPER 71486 01068 0 20150216-NEWS--0002-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 2/13/2015 7:02 PM Page 1 EDITOR’S NOTE Bus-capades FYICRAINSNEWYORK.COM One of my earliest mentors in management was Gloria Scoby, a veteran Crain Communications A tale of two Inc. executive based in Chicago. Longtime readers of Crain’s New indictments York Business might remember police officer’s indictment for Gloria as the publisher of this the shooting death of an Glenn Coleman newspaper in the late 1980s, unarmed man in Brooklyn parachuted in during a rough patch A contrasted sharply with the absence of until she recruited Ed Koch’s one in last year’s case of Eric Garner, deputy mayor for economic development, Alair who died when police in Staten Island Townsend, to take her place. Gloria hightailed it back put him in a chokehold and pressed to her hometown in the heartland. “Hire people who him face-down against the pavement. ap images are smarter than you,” she would advise when I was a Both victims were black. ¶ Brooklyn young editor at Crain’s Chicago Business in the 1990s. District Attorney Kenneth Thompson expressed satisfaction with the indictment in Akai Gurley’s “There’s never a shortage of them, and their work will death in a darkened public-housing stairwell, noting that although the officer did not intend to kill make you look brilliant.” Gloria’s managers also had anyone, he did fire the fatal shot “when there was no threat.” Doubts have arisen about whether to—had to!—have an excellent No. 2 in place, a Staten Island DA Daniel Donovan pushed as hard for an indictment in the case of Mr. Garner, who second-in-command who could truly take command was also unarmed and appeared not to pose a threat in a cellphone video of the incident. ¶ After the in a second. “God forbid you should be hit by a bus,” Staten Island decision, Mayor Bill de Blasio refrained from criticizing the grand jury or Mr. she would explain. God forbid. I have not been hit by Donovan, but commented about warning his own son about his encounters with cops.The remarks that proverbial bus, but allow me to drive a truck triggered a backlash from police unions.The mayor was even more cautious after the Brooklyn through this metaphor and say I’ve decided to pull the indictment, declining to comment other than to offer his sympathies to Mr. Gurley’s family. vehicle to the side of the road so I can officially hand —andrew j. hawkins over the steering wheel to Jeremy Smerd, my most BIG SPEECH. During her first State of in New York City. It costs $500 a excellent No. 2 these past few years. Jeremy becomes the City address, Council Speaker month, a far cry from the $3,000 HOORAY! No. 1 with our next issue as the newly elevated Melissa Mark-Viverito called for the monthly price tag normally attached ROCKAWAY WILL GET a $480 million creation of a city office to enforce la- to gigabit service. … TAX TRADES. cash infusion from FEMA to repair and executive editor of Crain’s New York Business, while I rebuild three miles of boardwalk bor laws, something currently policed Since at least 2011, Bank of America damaged by Superstorm Sandy. take on a new role as editor at large to help him and by the Department of Consumer Af- Corp. has been using a government- his newsroom in the transition. I think Gloria would fairs and the state Department of La- backed U.S. banking unit to finance approve. Jeremy will lead our editorial team as we bor. She also called for more protec- controversial trades that helped clients expand our online presence and reinvent our print tion of industrial and manufacturing avoid taxes,according to internal doc- zones and vowed to reduce fines on uments. The strategy was used to at- offerings.The changes to come in 2015 and beyond small businesses. … RESTLESS NEST. tract hedge-fund clients to the bank’s should prove exciting for our audiences. Crain’s New Less than a day after Twitter an- European investment-banking unit. ap images York Business has been around a long time—2015 nounced it had acquired SoHo-based … FUNDS FOR FASHION. The city will marks its 30th year as a weekly newspaper—and I’ve Niche—a startup that helps connect allocate $15 million to fashion compa- OY VEY! video makers with advertisers—for nies—triple the current level—to pay been fortunate to be its editor or managing editor for $30 million, reports surfaced that the for scholarships, internships, grants WET WIPES are increasingly the past six years. What a ride. It’s time to enjoy the social-media giant is looking to ex- and loans.Local retailers can now par- being used view from my new seat on this bus. pand its New York City foothold. It is ticipate in the city’s Made in New York instead of toilet looking for 60,000 square feet here,on program. … $4B DEAL. Blackstone paper and are clogging the city’s top of the 140,000 square feet it leased Group will buy a 50% stake in six sewer system. in midtown south last buildings from RXR The City THIS WEEK IN CRAIN’S year.… CHEESESTEAK Realty, including the Council is OVER CHEESECAKE. ‘It’s a grand considering a Starrett-Lehigh crackdown. New York City lost istockphoto IN THE BOROUGHS-------------------------- 3 caper. You talk Building. RXR, the bid to host the which will continue IN THE MARKETS----------------------------------4 2016 Democratic Na- to strangers, operating the proper- tional Convention to ty, will use the pro- $600M RIVAL. E-commerce site THE INSIDER -----------------------------------------------5 ask them Philadelphia, a blow ceeds to build mixed- Jet.com, which aims to take on Ama- BUSINESS PEOPLE ---------------------------6 to Mayor Bill de Bla- anything, type use developments. … zon, raised $140 million in a funding REAL ESTATE BRIBERY OPINION-------------------------------------------------------------8 sio. The event is ex- round led by Bain Capital Ventures, pected to generate an it up. … It RING. Fifty people, boosting its valuation to $600 million. GREG DAVID ------------------------------------------------9 economic impact of beats working’ including 16 city em- … JOAN RIVERS’ PENTHOUSE. The late REPORT: WALL STREET -----------11 $300 million. ... — ployees and 22 prop- comedian’s 5,100-square-foot Upper FINALLY, FASTER New York Times columnist David Carr, erty managers, were East Side triplex was listed for sale at THE LIST ---------------------------------------------------------13 INTERNET. Brooklyn who died Thursday at 58, busted for bribes to- $28 million. … IN MEMORIAM. Long- NEW YORK, NEW YORK REAL ESTATE-------------------------------------------15 Fiber rolled out its gi- on journalism taling $450,000 to time 60 Minutes correspondent Bob gabit broadband serv- have permits expedit- Simon was killed in a West Side car David Bennett’s Gotham SMALL BUSINESS--------------------------15 ice in Industry City,which is 20 times ed, complaints dismissed and stop- crash.
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