Crain's Endorses for Mayor Surf's Still up in The
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CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS NEW YORK BUSINESS® OCTOBER 30 - NOVEMBER 5, 2017 | PRICE $3.00 NEXT STOP STATEN ISLAND The once-forgotten borough is poised to make a huge economic leap thanks to a slew of big developments. Coverage starts on PAGE 15 CRAIN’S ENDORSES FOR MAYOR P. 3 THE LIST Largest Commercial Property Managers P. 12 SURF’S STILL UP IN THE ROCKAWAYS P. 23 VOL. XXXIII, NO.44 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM NEWSPAPER P001_CN_20171030.indd 1 10/27/17 7:10 PM OCTOBER 30 - NOVEMBER 5, 2017 CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS FROM THE NEWSROOM | JEREMY SMERD | EDITOR IN THIS ISSUE Staten Island royalty 4 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 5 POLITICS New York RICHARD AND LOIS NICOTRA have been married 38 years, must invest 6 ASKED & ANSWERED but they’ve had a love aair with Staten Island all their lives. in resiliency 7 REAL ESTATE planning “We’re proud that we’re New Yorkers,” Richard, 64, said when before the I visited the Nicotra Group’s oces this summer in the West 8 CONFERENCES next big storm Shore neighborhood of Bloomeld. “We’re more proud that 10 VIEWPOINTS we’re from Staten Island. We want to make it a better place.” 12 THE LIST Staten Island is oen described as the forgotten borough. FEATURES e Nicotras see it as a place where anything is possible, but they bemoan the island’s haphazard development and archi- 15 STATEN ISLAND RISING tecture of low expectations. “So much of Staten Island is built without much thought,” Richard said. I was treated like at is changing thanks to big dreamers like the Nicotras garbage by most of and supportive public ocials who see the borough as an “ inexpensive land of big possibilities. Leaving Staten Island the landlords. I said that day, I counted the transformative projects underway if I ever became a that are the focus of this week’s cover story: the state’s landlord, I’d treat my largest lm and TV studio, the city’s rst outlet mall, a 3.5 P. 21 JASON DIMATTEO million-square-foot Amazon fulllment center and the tenants like kings whimsical (yet endangered) New York Wheel project. 21 GOTHAM GIGS e Nicotras are Staten Island’s largest private commer- 22 SNAPS cial landlords. On Oct. 4 they broke ground on what will be the borough’s biggest oce building: an 8-story, 330,000-square-foot, LEED-certied, class A structure 23 PHOTO FINISH at the old Port Authority Teleport site near the Goethals Bridge. It’s the Nicotras’ CORRECTION 12th property. “Staten Island is putting itself on the map,” said James Prendamano, Compensation in 2015 was $333,164 for a managing director at Cassandra Properties. Each of the new projects faces its own Barbara Picower and $1,024,345 for Judith Rodin. These amounts were misstated in The List challenges, but if all succeed they will create thousands of jobs. published Oct. 16. e Nicotras are less ashy than most wealthy New Yorkers. (Crain’s estimated their portfolio to be worth around $600 million in 2015, a gure the Nicotras dis- pute.) Richard buys his suits at Men’s Wearhouse. His one luxury is a $100,000 Mercedes s550. e couple have poured their resources into making their proper- ties nicer. Flowers and sculptures adorn their premises. “We don’t have children, we don’t have business partners,” Richard said. Lois, 62, added: “Our employees are our children.” ey invest in their community full-heartedly, even if their largesse is not David Geen–size. All prots from a café at a Nicotra Group Teleport property are donated CONFERENCES P. 8 (almost $650,000 so far). eir newest Corporate Commons building was designed PHOTO: BUCK ENNIS Denise Richardson with a rooop farm to supply a ground-level restaurant (whose prots will go to Staten Island charities). It’s all part of a mission rooted in their rst success: a frozen yogurt business started in 1976. “I was treated like garbage by most of the landlords,” Richard said. “I said if ever became a landlord, I’d treat my tenants like kings.” DIGITAL DISPATCHES NOV. 16 Go to CrainsNewYork.com CONFERENCE CALLOUT HEALTH CARE SUMMIT: READ A brash billboard PAYING FOR DIABETES put up along California THIS FALL’S health care summit Route 101 by a veteran will feature medical, business of the New York tech and political leaders on the front scene, Andrew Rasiej, lines of New York’s $21.5 billion is trying to convince diabetes crisis. Speakers include Silicon Valley workers, Brooklyn Borough President frustrated a stiing work culture, to Eric Adams, who reversed his move here. diabetes through lifestyle changes. ■ Irish bookmaker Paddy Power handicaps SHERATON the city’s chances of landing Amazon’s TIMES SQUARE second national headquarters. 8:30 to 11:50 a.m. ■ Fourteen people were arrested in a [email protected]. Department of Investigation sting operation that targeted city building inspectors. Vol. XXXIII, No. 44, Oct. 30, 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. 19, by Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third Ave., ■ The Republicans’ tax plan could “destroy” New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing ofces. Postmaster: Send address New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. changes to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit, MI 48207-2912. For subscriber service: Call 877-824-9379. Fax 313-446-6777. $3.00 a copy, $99.95 one year, $179.95 two years. (GST No. 13676-0444-RT) ©Entire contents copyright 2017 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. BUCK ENNIS 2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | OCTOBER 30, 2017 P002_CN_20171030.indd 2 10/27/17 7:36 PM AGENDAWHAT’S NEW OCTOBER 30, 2017 NONE OF THE ABOVE Why Crain’s cannot endorse a candidate for mayor et’s dispense with any drama: We cannot endorse Bill de Blasio for re-election. Nor can we back his main opponent, Assem- blywoman Nicole Malliotakis. e incumbent is undeserving, the challenger unprepared. Le mayor’s refusal to meet with our editorial board either this year or in 2013 conveys disrespect if not disdain for the business community. It’s a missed opportunity as well because the mayor would benet from hearing employers’ concerns and could make a case that some of his policies ben- et them. Perhaps the Democratic incumbent fears that doing so would undermine his eort to be seen as the pre-eminent champion of all things progressive. As if one cannot be pro-business at the same time. Malliotakis, for her part, has done the city (and her career) a service by running when no other credible Republican would. Unfortunately she is SLIM PICKINGS: Malliotakis lacks experience and ideas, while de Blasio is so obsessed with income inequality that he fails to identify with many constitu- not ready for the job. Her career in oce consists of seven years in the pow- encies in New York City, including its business community. erless Assembly minority. Given her minimal management experience, she ought to have made her campaign one of big ideas. Yet she has proposed On the downside, the mayor’s rigid ideology constrains his vision for not a single one. Instead she has mostly criticized de Blasio, and even there the city. Having campaigned against closing failing hospitals, de Blasio has she has fallen short. She expresses reservations about his business man- been bailing out a public health system drowning in red ink rather than re- dates and spending but does not make a strong case against them. structuring it. He stubbornly opposes congestion pricing and wrecked his e major issues elicit no great insights from Malliotakis. Her solution relationship with Gov. Andrew Cuomo by demanding pre-K be funded by for homelessness is more supportive housing, which is appropriate for ad- a millionaires’ tax rather than the grant Cuomo oered. He created a sec- dicts or the mentally ill but not for the families lling most shelter beds. ond powerful enemy in Albany by leading a fruitless eort to oust Senate She would combat the drug scourge by jailing dealers longer and seizing Republicans, and now cannot get the city’s agenda, such as design-build more narcotics—a naive and failed approach straight out of the 1980s. She is authority, approved by the state. He failed to add homeless shelters and “open” to congestion pricing to ease trac and fund mass transit, but, lame- thus has spent a fortune on hotel rooms. He rightly opposed stop-and- ly, will not commit to it. frisk but wrongly claimed credit for ending it (a lawsuit largely did that The incumbent does Malliotakis is certainly before he took oce). His 10-year timeline for closing the odious Rikers not want and shall not more likable than de Bla- Island jail complex is timid. On ethics, he promised transparency yet de- sio, who is oen sanctimo- livered secrecy and also reincarnated pay-to-play, as donor Jona Rechnitz receive our endorsement, nious, arrogant, defensive, laid out in stark testimony during a corruption trial last week. but his main opponent condescending and hypo- De Blasio has beneted greatly from surging tax revenues and low critical. For a Democratic crime, which his policies did not cause (or prevent, it should be noted). He is unprepared mayor in a Democratic city has not had to close yawning budget gaps or cut programs to fund his pet presiding over record-low projects.