20140519-NEWS--0001,0027-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 5/16/2014 7:05 PM Page 1 CITY’S IRISH BARS ARE DRYING UP Changing tastes take heavy toll CRAIN’S® NEW YORK BUSINESS PAGE 3 VOL. XXX, NO. 20 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM MAY 19-25, 2014 PRICE: $3.00 REPORT TECHNOLOGY That’s the SUSAN LYNE of AOL Brand Group way the tax breaks BONITA COLEMAN STEWART of Google crumble When well-capitalized tech firms get state backing and ho-hum CATHERINE LEVENE startups move to Ohio of Artspace BY THORNTON MCENERY Two promising New York startups an- VIVIAN ROSENTHAL nounced major expansion plans last of Snaps week.Both are e-commerce companies that plan to hire around 400 employees. Both received taxpayer subsidies. But their vastly different fates high- lighted the chal- lenges facing STAY & GO companies that Two tax subsidies launch in New last week showed York but can’t how states pick grow here, and winners and losers. amplified criti- GWYNNIE BEE of Queens will get a cism of New 60% tax break on York’s approach a $13M payroll to picking win- and create 400 ners by using tax jobs at a 200,000- subsidies. sq.-ft. facility in Ohio but lay off 42 Etsy,a darling workers here. of New York’s emerging tech 400 scene, received a 340 $5 million state credit to add 340 WomenWomen jobs by 2019. The company had previously all but promised to stay in New toto watchwatch inin York, with Chief Executive Chad ETSY of Brooklyn Dickerson said it will expand by more than 340 telling an audito- jobs by 2019 for a rium of Brooklyn $5 million NY tax techies last break that will help NYtechNYtech month that “Etsy it lease up to 16 women reshaping city’s media, could only exist 200,000 sq. ft. e-commerce, venture capital, fashion, in Brooklyn.” Etsy has received $91.7 million in buck ennis heath care industries and more P. 14 venture capital since it launched in 2005, facilitated the sale of $1 billion worth of goods last year and has em- 20 WHY BOTHER 5 ployees who tend to be well educated WITH COLLEGE and highly paid. Economic-develop- ment officials justified giving the com- WHEN YOU CAN CODE? Kids pany a subsidy in part for its symbolic jump-start lives as programmers meaning: a sign that the state is will- ing to fight to help high-profile start- NEWSPAPER and entrepreneurs P. 29 See TAX BREAKS on Page 27 71486 01068 0 20140519-NEWS--0002-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 5/16/2014 5:59 PM Page 1 EDITOR’S NOTE ‘Carnival’ cruise FYICRAINSNEWYORK.COM So, Alec Baldwin. He got off easy—at least that was my first reaction to the images of the NYC team wants another temperamental actor in handcuffs shot at Summer Olympics after cops stopped him for bicycling against traffic on lower ill New York City make another run Summer Olympics Fifth Avenue. He’s a “salmon,” in at hosting a ? ¶ Bill de Blasio cycling parlance, guilty of pedaling Mayor and Gov. Glenn Coleman AndrewW Cuomo upstream in a downstream lane. were asked that question last “New York City is a mismanaged week after the governor confirmed that he is carnival of stupidity,” a defiant Mr. Baldwin tweeted considering a proposal for the 2024 Games. Mr. after his release, describing a hostile hometown Cuomo also said his staff has had “preliminary” “anxious to criminalize behavior once thought discussions with the mayor’s office. ¶ The idea newscom Dan benign.” Er, hardly “benign” to the pedestrians you of a new bid was floated by the main architect of the city’s failed 2012 Olympics bid, Doctoroff Michael Bloomberg could’ve clipped and crippled had you continued to , former deputy mayor for and now chief executive of Bloomberg merrily roll along just outside their curbside lines of LP.¶ Both politicians were vague in their responses, but the governor said he “looked forward” vision. I love my city’s recent bike-lane expansions, to discussing the matter with Mr. Doctoroff, while the mayor described “the history of the but I loathe my fellow cyclists who ride the wrong Olympics” as “a mixed bag” for cities. ¶ Mr. Doctoroff ’s plan reportedly focuses on developing way without a care in their self-absorbed worlds. the 167-acre rail yard in Sunnyside, Queens, that could be converted to thousands of housing Stone them, I say, for they are among the worst kinds units after the Games—an idea that is presumably meant to appeal to Mr. de Blasio’s signature But the mayor may not be the of street criminals in New York, violating the policy to create affordable housing (see Greg David, Page 13). ¶ only one cool to the Big Apple’s hosting the Summer Games common-sense codes of conduct we all must follow . In 2005, when New York applied to each day if 8 million people are to maneuver around host the 2012 Olympics, polls showed that many New Yorkers were ambivalent about it or crowded sidewalks and subway platforms with any thought it was a bad idea. —lisa fickenscher hope of maintaining safety or sanity. Of course, there ABRAMSON OUT, BAQUET IN. The New dustry leaders who funded his cam- are the visiting packs who walk four abreast and send York Times abruptly ousted Execu- paign.The permits would have been HOORAY! tive Editor Jill Abramson, the first on top of 5,081 borough taxi permits you reeling into others when they stop in unison to THE NEW YORK RANGERS defeated the gape at the exotic sights. “Look, an Applebee’s!” But woman at the top of its masthead,be- issued by the Bloomberg administra- Pittsburgh Penguins to advance to the cause of an “issue with manage- tion.… STUY TOWN SAGA CONTINUES. NHL’s Eastern Conference finals. the worst street crime of all is a specialty perpetrated ment,” Publisher Arthur Sulzberger CWCapital, which operates Stuy- by New Yorkers who think they can walk and read Jr. said. Reports surfaced later that vesant Town-Peter Cooper Village, their smartphone screens at once. You can’t, OK? So Mr. Sulzberger and Ms. Abramson plans to foreclose on a secondary had a tense relationship, and she loan on the Manhattan complex and stop typing “LOL” while blocking my subway stairwell! “confronted top brass” about a pay formally take ownership of it. Ana- Oh, for a death penalty in this state. At the very least, gap between herself and her prede- lysts expect CWCapital to sell the we need a new recording added to the classic subway cessor Bill Keller. Times representa- property after taking control. Stuy station admonishments: “Please stand clear of the tives denied the claims.Ms.Abram- Town can fetch more than $4 billion, son was seen by some as “pushy,” an according to one report. A company OY VEY! closing door.” “No smoking, littering or radio accusation that sparked debates is already eyeing the complex: New THE playing.” “Get your damned head out of that damned about sexism. She was replaced by York-based private-equity shop BROOKLYN cellphone and look where you are going, for once.” I Dean Baquet, the former managing Fortress Investment Group is re- NETS lost in editor and the pa- portedly preparing a the closing know just the actor to hire for the voice work. CREDIT seconds to the per’s first African- ‘I will have bid. … Miami Heat, American executive SUISSE TO PAY UP. 96-94, ending editor. … TAPPAN ZEE time to get Credit Suisse Group their NBA THIS WEEK IN CRAIN’S BRIDGE, A MODEL is expected to plead season. PROJECT. President Botox’ guilty to allegations IN THE BOROUGHS-------------------------- 4 Barack Obama visit- —Barbara Walters, that it helped Amer- signing off her last episode ap images IN THE MARKETS----------------------------------6 ed the span and called icans evade taxes. on Congress to pass a of The View The bank could end THE INSIDER -----------------------------------------------8 $302 billion trans- up paying $2.5 bil- N.Y.-based Greek yogurt company REAL ESTATE-------------------------------------------11 portation bill that would repair the lion to the Justice Department and has relocated its headquarters to the nation’s roads and bridges. He tout- U.S.regulators to settle the probe.… tax-friendly state of Delaware. The OPINION --------------------------------------------------------12 ed the $3.9 billion project to replace BOOKSTORE’S NEW CHAPTER. The move is seen as a sign that the com- GREG DAVID--------------------------------------------13 the Tappan Zee as a model for get- struggling St. Mark’s Bookshop has pany is preparing to go public and ting infrastructure projects done signed a lease to move this fall to 136 comes a week after Albany said it REPORT: TECHNOLOGY----------- 14 quickly by cutting through red tape. E. Third St., near Avenue A. The wants to make yogurt New York’s of- CLASSIFIEDS -----------------------------------------20 … RED LIGHT. Mayor Bill de Blasio space is half the size of its location of ficial snack. … NEW LANDMARKS delayed plans to issue 6,000 new per- 21 years on Third Avenue between COMMISH. Planner and architect SMALL BUSINESS-------------------------- 23 mits next month for green outer- East Eighth and East Ninth streets, Meenakshi Srinivasan was named GOTHAM GIGS FOR THE RECORD---------------------------24 borough cabs, which are popular but it’s cheaper,at $6,000 a month— head of the city’s Landmarks Preser- Tom Russell’s love of live with New Yorkers who have used about a quarter of its rent now. … vation Commission. NEW YORK, NEW YORK ----------29 music has led to a job running them but opposed by yellow-taxi in- CHOBANI DITCHES NY.