CAN a YANKEE CHANGE STRIPES? with Attendance and Sales Revenue Tanking, Staten Island Yankees President Will Smith Is Looking to Create a New Brand PAGE 16
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CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS NEW YORK BUSINESS® JUNE 12 - 18, 2017 | PRICE $3.00 CAN A YANKEE CHANGE STRIPES? With attendance and sales revenue tanking, Staten Island Yankees President Will Smith is looking to create a new brand PAGE 16 KNEADING PROFITS AT AMY’S BREAD P. 8 THE LIST New York’s largest engineering rms P. 10 THE CITY’S AFFORDABLE- HOUSING KING P. 13 VOL. XXXIII, NO. 24 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM NEWSPAPER P001_CN_20170612.indd 1 6/9/2017 6:18:23 PM JUNE 12 - 18, 2017 CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS FROM THE NEWSROOM | JEREMY SMERD | EDITOR IN THIS ISSUE A clear objective 4 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 5 HEALTH CARE EVEN BEFORE THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION proposed cut- Health 6 WHO OWNS THE BLOCK insurers ting up to $370 million next year from the budget of the New want to hike York City Housing Authority, the agency overseeing 177,700 7 REAL ESTATE premiums. 8 SPOTLIGHT Will Cuomo low-income apartments was facing an epic funding crisis. To let them? help fill its $17 billion repair backlog, it has turned to devel- 9 VIEWPOINTS opers to build mixed-income apartment towers on its land. 10 THE LIST NYCHA last month selected Fetner Properties to develop FEATURES the first building in its NextGen Neighborhoods program: a 47-story, 344-unit tower on 92nd Street at First Avenue. Half 13 PRICE OF SUCCESS of the units would be considered affordable and inte- 16 MINOR HEADACHES grated into the building so as to be indistinguishable What’s the objective? from the market-rate ones. Of those 172 apartments, Adding affordable 20% would go to New Yorkers making $24,500 or less. “ The plan calls for a community facility with a public units or fixing up soccer field on its roof. Most important, Fetner would Housing Authority pay $25 million for a 99-year land lease. Half of that would go to repair Holmes Towers next door, where property? residents would get dibs on 25% of the low-rent units. P. 24 Still, this win-win is not enough for politicians. “It has to be 100% affordable,” Sabra Lewis said Upper East Side Councilman Ben Kallos. He claimed NYCHA is getting short- 24 GOTHAM GIGS changed, though the project was bid on competitively. Hal Fetner, president and CEO of Fetner Properties, visited our newsroom last 25 SNAPS week precisely because he was trying to ward off those kinds of slings and arrows. 26 FOR THE RECORD Fetner says 100% affordable is doable but would come with a big caveat: “Then the 27 PHOTO FINISH entire project has to be subsidized and NYCHA won’t get the $25 million,” he said. CORRECTIONS “What’s the objective? Affordable housing or fixing NYCHA’s property?” NYPD street stops dropped 95%, to 22,563, in Washington’s proposed cuts are a reminder that new affordable housing must 2015, from 191,185 in 2013. The 2013 figure largely pay for itself. The de Blasio administration gets this, which is why its afford- was misstated in Data Point, published June 5. able housing program focuses on mixed-income developments, as reporter Rosa Cornell Tech will open three buildings in September. Goldensohn details on page 13. That fact was unclear in “Cornell Tech starts up,” published June 5. Now the administration has decided to set aside more precious NYCHA land for the development of 100% affordable housing. These projects must either rely more on subsidies or define affordability upward to serve New Yorkers who make more money. Yet they will do little for the agency’s capital shortfall. NYCHA says it is doing this in areas where land costs are low and therefore the returns from mar- ket-rate development would be marginal. But certainly the land is not worthless. This is a missed opportunity that NYCHA cannot afford. Kallos says he will kill the Fetner deal if it comes before the council. Fortunately, ON THE COVER because it is subject to federal review, it won’t. PHOTO: BUCK ENNIS DIGITAL DISPATCHES CONFERENCE CALLOUT Go to CrainsNewYork.com DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JUNE 23 REGISTER Every year CRAIN’S FASTEST- Crain’s identifies the GROWING COMPANIES best employers in > New York City. If you Each year Crain’s recognizes love working at your the New York–area companies company, let us know. with the highest three-year To register your firm or to revenue growth rate. Public learn more about the fea- and private companies with ture, go to bestplacestoworknyc.com. There at least $10 million in is a $199 registration fee, and the deadline revenue are eligible. is June 30. Go to CrainsNewYork.com/ BestPlaces to see our previous honorees. To submit a company, go to CrainsNewYork.com/Fast50. ■ SIGN UP Stay on top of business news by subscribing to our email newsletters. From the Morning 10, which lands in your Vol. XXXIII, No. 24, June 12, 2017—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for double issues the weeks of June 26, July 10, July 24, Aug. 7, Aug. 21 and Dec. 18, by Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third inbox by 8 a.m., to our 4 p.m. Daily Alert, Ave., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send our newsletters have you covered. All our address changes to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit, MI 48207-2912. newsletters are free, with the exception For subscriber service: Call 877-824-9379. Fax 313-446-6777. $3.00 a copy, $99.95 one year, $179.95 two years. of Health Pulse. (GST No. 13676-0444-RT) ©Entire contents copyright 2017 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. BUCK ENNIS 2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | JUNE 12, 2017 P002_CN_20170612.indd 2 6/9/17 7:33 PM WHAT’S NEW JUNE 12, 2017 AGENDAIn showdown over mayoral control, de Blasio wise to call enemies’ bluff emember when elected officials and candidates routinely called for government to be run more like a business? Fifteen years ago then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg took that to heart, persuading Albany to try mayoral control of the city’s public Rschools for a six-year period. To no one’s surprise, a direct line of authority from the schools chancellor to the mayor worked a lot better than having A LESSON policies flow from seven Board of Education members appointed by six LEARNED: politicians. Albany politics could This is why successful businesses are run by chief executives who are harm the held accountable for results, not micromanaged by factional appointees school system the way it doing the bidding of their own politically ambitious masters. has hurt the Albany initially renewed mayoral control without batting an eye. Even subways. though not all of Bloomberg’s reforms worked, it made sense that some- one elected by voters citywide should be responsible for the public schools of democracy (ahem)—would have introduced a bill, held hearings and and have the authority to run them without having to trade favors to as- heard testimony from experts. semble board majorities for every policy change. It is foolish and irresponsible to take a hostage without having a Plan B But since Bill de Blasio became mayor in 2014, Senate Republicans if the ransom is not paid. The Republicans’ political strategy is clearly have repeatedly taken mayoral control hos- to wrangle concessions for charter-school tage, threatening not to extend it unless they Senate Republicans are holding backers and other supporters that would get to tinker with the way schools are run. not get through the state Legislature on De Blasio has grown less inclined over effective school governance hostage their own. The way we see it, though, the the years to jump through all the hoops put and offering no alternative pressure is on the GOP to continue mayoral up by the Senate majority or to make con- control because otherwise it would plunge cessions that would weaken his and future mayors’ authority over city the school system into absolute chaos. schools. He has realized that, no matter what he gives them, Senate Re- We already have enough chaos in the subway system, which commut- publicans will keep coming back for more. But he has probably also fig- ers are starting to blame on state legislators’ failure to adequately fund it. ured out that the Republicans are bluffing—that their poker hand doesn’t With their control of the upper chamber perpetually fragile, Senate Re- contain a school-governance plan that would pass the Assembly, let alone publicans have picked a bad time to threaten schools with a similar fate. actually be effective. If they did, we assume that they—as earnest stewards They ought to take a more businesslike approach. — THE EDITORS FINE PRINT The Department of Sanitation last year collected 23,000 tons of food and yard waste through composting programs covering 300,000 residents and 722 schools, agencies and institutions, The New York Times reported. Sounds like a lot, but it amounted to just 2% of organic waste collected by the agency, which is scaling up the effort. It aims to eventually collect 155,000 tons a year. BY GERALD SCHIFMAN STATS 25 WORDS OR LESS GRADES PENDING THE CITY COUNCIL is expected to soon pass legislation requiring letter grades for street AND THE CITY vendors, who are shut down by health inspectors at a higher rate than are “If we are not brick-and-mortar restaurants. helping people, Portion of 2016 cart we should go the % inspections resulting 3.5 in shutdowns f--k home.