TOP STORIES LIVING Restaurants crack LARGE down on diners Entrepreneur who drink too much parties on his PAGE 3 ® penthouse deck Stewart Airport Page 34 will need some heavy lifting if it’s going to fly VOL. XXIII, NO. 7 WWW.NEWYORKBUSINESS.COM FEBRUARY 12-18, 2007 PRICE: $3.00 PAGE 9 The historic pursuit READY TO ROLL of diversity coming Foreclosure together for 2008 race TVpilots hit filings soar ALAIR TOWNSEND, P. 13 Voters oppose record number Spitzer’s plans for in boroughs health care cuts Production work fills studio stages; THE INSIDER, PAGE 14 state and city tax credits a big draw Crain’s revisits Loose mortgage- top entrepreneurs; BY MIRIAM KREININ SOUCCAR lending practices largest SBA-backed come back to haunt next month, Glenn Close will star in her first television loans in NY area pilot. She plays a famous litigator who works on high-pro- homeowners SMALL BUSINESS, P. 19 file cases in New York, in a still untitled legal drama for FX. The episode, to be filmed at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, BY TOM FREDRICKSON is one of at least 10 pilots shooting in New York City this BUSINESS LIVES spring, a record number for the city. a rapid rise in foreclosure rates “We used to be lucky to get one or two pilots,” says Alan could cost thousands of mostly MEAN low- and middle-income New STREETS Suna, president of Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, Yorkers their homes. Tough calls Queens.“Now almost every one of our stages is spoken for.” The number of homes in fore- for parents See TV PILOTS on Page 8 closure rose 18% in the last six when city months of 2006 compared with the kids go out same period of 2005, according to on their own data from RealtyTrac. More wor- PAGE 31 risome is the fact that filings tabu- lated by Profiles Publications show buck ennis that 100 homes in both Brooklyn BAD DEAL: Mabel Robinson and Walter and Queens are entering the fore- Pagan refinanced their Brooklyn home closure process each week—dou- but now are having difficulty keeping up. ble the numbers of a year ago. “The numbers here are going AT DEADLINE QUIET ON THE SET up by the week,”says Jessica Davis, in the early 1990s.” NUMBER OF PRODUCTION DAYS IN NEW YORK CITY president of Profiles Publications, Though the increase in New TECHNOLOGY SALARIES IN THE which tracks foreclosure figures. York compares with a nationwide NEW YORK METROPOLITAN area 14,898 19,309 23,321 31,570 34,718 “The last time I saw it this bad was See LOCAL on Page 8 rose 4.7% last year to an 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 average of $80,006 as the Source: NYC Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting sector continues to rebound, according to a survey by Dice IN FRONT OF THE CAMERAS: Glenn Close (left) and Brooke Inc., which runs a tech jobs Shields are starring in television pilots that will be shot in New York City in the next few weeks. Overheated market Web site.The salary hikes trailed increases of 5.7% in Silicon Valley and 7.7% in Los Angeles. threatens landlords THE STATE IS SEEKING A NEW in city history. ADVERTISING AGENCY to Drive to buy means As it turned out, the sale price reinvigorate its “I Love New hasty due diligence, for 666 Fifth wasn’t a record that York” campaign.The account would stand for long. is held by Eric Mower and topsy-turvy returns The $7 billion spinoff of eight Associates, whose three-year of Equity Office Properties Trust’s deal expires in March. A New York buildings—part of The spokesman for Mower says BY JULIE SATOW Blackstone Group’s $23 billion ac- that the move was “not quisition of the real estate invest- unexpected” and that the firm real estate dealmaker Scott ment trust—is the latest capstone will likely bid for the new Latham knows what it takes to buy in a frenzied market. However, contract. Gov. Eliot Spitzer a skyscraper these days: Be quick concern is growing within the in- See AT DEADLINE on Page 2 on the draw, have a lot of cash and dustry that in the race to submit gettyimages don’t sweat the small stuff. winning bids, too many potential “The people making deals in buyers are conducting only curso- this market aren’t dotting every i or ry due diligence.In addition,many ON THE WEB crossing every t,”says Mr.Latham, successful bidders are paying far Read Crain’s FORTY UNDER FORTY an executive director at Cushman more interest on their mortgages profiles and view video interviews & Wakefield Inc. His team bro- than they are generating in income ELECTRONIC EDITION online. An archive can be found at kered the $1.8 billion sale of 666 from their buildings. www.newyorkbusiness-risingstars.com. Fifth Ave. in December—the “It is absolutely worrisome,” NEWSPAPER biggest commercial property sale See MARKET on Page 8 IN HIS COURT: After a long absence, George Ball has returned to AT DEADLINE the city as chairman of Sanders Morris, a Continued from Page 1 continue to dominate business Houston-based has proposed spending television. Says Gary Carr, investment bank that’s $16 million on marketing, director of broadcast at growing here. advertising and tourism in the TargetCast: “I don’t think the fiscal year beginning April 1, up world needs another business from $11 million. Mr. Spitzer channel. But I wouldn’t bet will not appear in the ads, unlike against [Fox News Chairman] his predecessor, George Pataki. Roger Ailes.” Mower is the 11th agency to run the famous campaign since CAFÉ ST. BARTS, THE it debuted in 1977. RESTAURANT at St. Bartholomew’s church on Park SHARES OF FORTRESS Avenue and East 51st Street, INVESTMENT GROUP, the first will get a $2.1 million hedge firm to go public, doubled renovation when Sodexho Inc. in their first day of trading begins managing the eatery in Friday, closing at $31. On April.The giant Gaithersburg, Thursday, the Manhattan-based Md.-based food service provider company raised $634 million by will upgrade the restaurant’s selling 34.3 million shares at interior—there is also an $18.50 each—the top end of the outdoor eatery—by adding air fund’s estimated range of $16.50 conditioning and other to $18.50 per share. improvements.The restaurant will likely be renamed when the THE ALLIANCE FOR THE ARTS IS renovation is completed DEVELOPING an online resource sometime in the fall. that will provide information about cultural nonprofits.The THE THURGOOD MARSHALL Citywide Cultural Database will ACADEMY in Harlem is set to feature economic impact and receive $5 million for a new other financial data, as well as facility, the largest private buck ennis information about educational contribution ever for a public programs.The city is school in Harlem. The funds contributing more than will be donated by the Bradford $1.5 million to the project, which Swett Charitable Foundation will start operating in the fall. and distributed by the Abyssinian Development Corp. Ex-Streeter’s bounce MEDIA BUYER REACTION TO THE The money will pay for the LAUNCH of Fox Business construction of a state-of-the- Channel is ranging from art building—set to be George Ball’s back, unscathed by former firms’ scandals skeptical to intrigued. But given completed by 2010—with the success of Fox News enough space and resources to Channel, no one is saying that accommodate 325 K-6 BY AARON ELSTEIN CNBC and Bloomberg will students. ■ george ball, who ran Prudential-Bache Securities in the 1980s—when the brokerage firm perpetrated the biggest swindle in Wall Street history—is back. CORRECTIONS “I would have regretted it had Prudential marked the end of my career,” says the 67-year-old The Pfizer pharmaceutical plant recently slated to close is on Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn, on the Williamsburg/Bedford-Stuyvesant border. Its location was misstated in the Jan. 29 chairman of Sanders Morris Harris Group Inc., a Houston-based investment bank that is “Neighborhood Journal.” enjoying a growth spurt in New York. “I still enjoy playing the game.” Mai House is located at 186 Franklin St. The address was misstated in “Table Talk” on Feb. 5. Among bankers, brokers and regulators of a certain age, Mr. Ball’s name is instantly recognizable. He served as the No. 2 executive at E.F. Hutton from 1980 to 1982.Three years after he left, THIS WEEK IN CRAIN’S See EXECUTIVE RETURNS on Page 11 ALAIR TOWNSEND -------------------12 THE INSIDER------------------------------------14 NEIGHBORHOOD Thriving local papers draw JOURNAL------------------------------------------15 WEEK IN REVIEW -----------------------16 talks to buy the News Corp., others Bronx Times Re- REAL ESTATE DEALS--------------18 buy up community porter, sources say. 33 REPORT: SMALL The Bronx paper chains; will they puts out six editions BUSINESS --------------------------------------19 lose local flavor? that target most of the borough. CLASSIFIEDS ----------------------------------28 Neither the Post BY MATTHEW FLAMM nor the Bronx Times THE WEEKS AHEAD ----------------29 Reporter would com- BUSINESS LIVES------------------------31 there is one corner of the news- ment. paper industry where circulation is “The Post’s weak- CORPORATE LADDER-------33 rising, ad revenue is growing, and ness is that its sales tend to LOCAL NEWSPAPERS --------------------------- the Internet bears no relation to the LIVING LARGE 34 offer unique content and be concentrated in Man- grim reaper: weekly community advertising opportunities. hattan,” says newspaper EXECUTIVE MOVES--------------34 35 newspapers. analyst John Morton. BOB LAPE---------------------------------------35 “My display advertising grows “This is a way to expand 10% a year,”says Michael Schenkler, problems at the New York Post, its advertising footprint.” vol.