At Girl Scouts' HQ, the Cookies Are Crumbling
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REPORT REAL ESTATE Partnering on big deals pays off in a big way CRAIN’S® PAGE 13 NEW YORK BUSINESS VOL. XXIX, NO. 20 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM MAY 20-26, 2013 PRICE: $3.00 Wyckoff Heights engineers comeback In 17-month drama, CEO leads Brooklyn hospital from $17M hole to $2M profit BY BARBARA BENSON On Christmas weekend of 2011, the board of trustees at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center fired its chief execu- tive and replaced him with a former parole-board chairman as part of a bold plan to avoid a forced merger with two local hospitals. Since the end of that year,when the Brooklyn-based hospital lost $16.7 million, Wyckoff has not lacked for drama. The new CEO,Ramon Rodriguez, See WYCKOFF on Page 24 Who’s At Girl Scouts’ HQ, the ahead? Do the math cookies are crumbling The mayoral race is New leadership makes waves as pension debt forces change now a numbers game of money, polls, votes The Twists and Turns ofGetting Along. an organization last month called BY THERESA AGOVINO Maybe the books should be re- The Future Is Ours that’s publicly BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS quired reading for Girl Scouts exec- -20% pressuring for change. The Girl Scouts of the USA store at utives. The leadership at the 101- DROP IN GIRL Yet the executive brought in at the With the mayoral primary a little more its Fifth Avenue headquarters offers year-old organization faces a pile-on SCOUTS end of 2011 to transform the Girl than 100 days away, the Democratic a book series carrying the tagline, of challenges that include steadily MEMBERSHIP Scouts has earned mixed reviews.Last candidates are crunching the numbers “It’s your world—change it! A Lead- declining membership, an enormous in the past 10 month, the Advertising Women of that they’ll need to get to City Hall: ership Journey.”Their colorful covers pension deficit and infighting at years New York honored Girl Scouts CEO money, poll support and, of course, beckon with titles like An Agent of some local offices. The turmoil Anna Maria Chávez for revitalizing votes.Time is also a key factor, as most Change, which promises advice on sparked a group of young Scout the iconic organization. By contrast, a candidates are trying to extend the becoming a great leader, and Amaze: staffers around the country to launch See GIRL SCOUT on Page 24 contest while one is eager to run out See MATH on Page 21 buck ennis NEWSPAPER EDITOR’S NOTE Getting it right FYICRAINSNEWYORK.COM We should have been more precise in last week’s issue when we noted— Lopez quits, but days after patriotic TV images captured the 408-foot spire topping is his career over? 1 World Trade Center—that “no ito Lopez is down, and soon will be out. office lease has been signed at the With the release of two reports site” since a huge deal was inked two detailing the Brooklyn assemblyman’s years ago with magazine company Glenn Coleman V serial harassment of female staffers and his Condé Nast. No big corporate office chamber eager to expel him, Mr. Lopez on lease, that is.The U.S. General Friday announced his resignation, effective newscom Services Administration signed on last June, adding June 20. another government occupant to a World Trade But that did not satisfy Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who said the disgraced Democrat should not Center site tenant roster that includes the City of New spend another day in office, or Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who said he would begin the York and the Port Authority, which owns 1 WTC. expulsion process Monday. Mr. Silver hopes to repair his reputation, which was tarnished by his Angry reps for the Port Authority emphasized to me flawed handling of the scandal, by showing Mr. Lopez the door. Assembly members from both last week that the tallest building in the Western parties were similarly unsatisfied with Mr. Lopez’s desired departure date. Hemisphere “is more than 55% leased about 18 Mr. Lopez’s ultimate fate may rest with his constituents: The longtime political boss said he months prior to its opening, a significant achievement would not abandon his quixotic run for City Council. in a challenging market.” Hmm. Is the glass tower half A former head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, Mr. Lopez has raised about $30,000 for his full or half empty? The result of our conversation (a bid and has deep ties with an Orthodox Jewish sect in the borough. While he may be widely polite word for the exchange) is a clarification and a reviled for his stomach-churning treatment of female staffers, he still has supporters and small correction on Page 24. Accuracy is the foundation ambitions for a second act in politics. But the curtain is closing fast. of our business at Crain’s, so we make clear in print and —andrew j. hawkins online when we have changed or corrected our articles. WHO’S SNOOPING ON WHOM? The from the fund to pay for obligations. But when a story involves the World Trade Center practice of newsgathering took the … STUY TOWN RENTS SOAR. Residents HOORAY! site, well, emotions so often can trump facts. Consider spotlight as Bloomberg LP apolo- of 1,300 apartments at Stuyvesant FREE EXPANDED FERRY SERVICE to Red gized for teaching reporters how to use Town/Peter Cooper Village howled Hook, Brooklyn, begins May 25 and runs the recent public reaction to plans to charge admission from Pier 11 in Manhattan to Van Brunt its ubiquitous terminals to collect data upon learning that their rents are Street. to the 9/11 museum or, last week, to surround the site on companies they cover. Govern- jumping by 20% starting July 1, even with police barriers.The Twin Towers tumbled and ment officials and banks lashed out, though their leases are not expiring. our worlds turned upside down. It has taken 12 years and JPMorgan Chase & Co. formally CW Capital, which controls Stuy requested logs of reporters’ searches. Town, won the right to hike rents in a and $14 billion to rebuild. Maybe New York has been Meanwhile, the Associated Press ac- recent legal settlement.… ANGELINA’S arguing each step of the way because getting it right is cused the U.S. government of violat- MEDICAL CHOICE. Actor Angelina deeply personal for all of us. With that spire crowning ing its First Amendment rights after Jolie started a global conversation by 1 WTC, the structure snaps into place in the skyline— federal investigators copped to seizing revealing that she had undergone a OY VEY! the phone records of reporters and ed- preventive double mastectomy after impossibly huge, improbably gorgeous, reminding SIXTEEN MEN itors.… GET YER JOBS HERE.The city’s genetic testing showed she had an were charged those of us who see it every day of what was there unemployment rate fell to 8.4% in 87% chance of getting breast cancer. with smuggling April,the lowest level in four years and However,the test,which costs $3,000, millions of before, of who was there before. People like my college dollars in housemate Carlton Francis Valvo II. California surfer. down from 8.9% a month earlier. is covered by insurance only if patients untaxed Some of the job gains already have cancer, cigarettes from Cantor Fitzgerald trader.The first 1 World Trade stemmed from the ‘Could it or if breast or ovarian Virginia. Center. Every day, dude. Every beautiful living day. employment services cancer has struck sector, indicating that happen again many of their rela- companies may be with plywood tives, particularly at a the limit is pretax. The last time the THIS WEEK IN CRAIN’S gearing up to hire young age. Scientists maximum price was raised was a more full-time em- and sandbags? at Montefiore Med- dozen years ago, when it was bumped ployees. … PENSION ical Center and Co- up from $2. … BYE-BYE, BABY MAGS. IN THE BOROUGHS-------------------------- 3 FUND HITS NEW HIGH. Absolutely’ lumbia University Meredith Corp. plans to fold Parent- —Thomas Prendergast, IN THE MARKETS----------------------------------4 New York state’s pen- have legally chal- ing,Baby Talk and Conceive magazines sion fund reached the MTA’s interim executive lenged Myriad Ge- after buying the consumer titles from THE INSIDER -----------------------------------------------6 $160.4 billion—a director, referring to the netics’ patent on the Bonnier Corp. At least 60 people will potential of a future storm BUSINESS PEOPLE ---------------------------7 record high—fueled test. … CITY be laid off as a result of the closures. by a stock-market flooding the city’s subway TWEAKING AN Meredith wants the magazines’ sub- SMALL BUSINESS ------------------------------ 9 surge. For the year stations OBSCURE LAW. The scribers to read its Parents and Ameri- OPINION --------------------------------------------------------10 ended March 31, the City Council is con- can Baby instead.… AND FAREWELL TO fund recorded an estimated 10.38% sidering raising to $10 the price limit BABS. After a TV journalism career GREG DAVID-------------------------------------------- 11 rate of return on its investments. But on items sold at corner newsstands. that has spanned more than five REPORT: REAL ESTATE-------------13 state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, The price cap currently stands at $5, decades, Barbara Walters, 83, an- the sole trustee of the fund, warned although newspapers,magazines,pre- nounced on her ABC show,The View, THE LIST --------------------------------------------------------- 15 cash-strapped local governments not paid transit or phone cards are exempt. that she will retire in 2014. NEW YORK, NEW YORK CLASSIFIEDS -----------------------------------------18 to get too comfortable borrowing Cigarettes also make the cut because —amanda fung Parents are spending DIGITAL NY ------------------------------------------------- thousands on kids’ camp 20 clothes and accessories.