20110425-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 4/22/2011 7:54 PM Page 1 INSIDE Vive TOP STORIES Le Donald Building buyers —Michael Gross settle for less than on Trump for president—really! whole ball of wax ® Page 2 PAGE 2 Urban Outfitters’ bell-bottom blues VOL. XXVII, NO. 17 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM APRIL 25-MAY 1, 2011 PRICE: $3.00 PAGE 2 Univision Labor ready to score with has Target cable sports in its network PAGE 3 sights Citi again tops BofA, but only With one eye on as a less bad U.S. Walmart, workers bank campaign to organize IN THE MARKETS, PAGE 4 No. 2 big-box retailer Belgian frites truck coming to town BY DANIEL MASSEY NEW YORK, NEW YORK, P. 6 The target is now Target. Though even the prospect of Wal- mart laying stake to ground in the city has elicited howls from organized labor and its allies in government,fellow big- box retailer Target has managed to es- tablish a firm foothold in the city with- out so much as a peep of opposition. Late last week, however, the 23,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 filed for a union election at a Target store in Valley Stream, L.I., a stone’s throw from Queens. It was the opening salvo BUSINESS LIVES in what Local 1500 officials say will be an aggressive, extended campaign to GOTHAM GIGS See UNION on Page 31 Michael Feinstein plays house on East Side P. 33 jonconrad.net ● ANNE FISHER on how daily meetings can work for team-building P. 33 AIG’s new, ● MOVERS & SHAKERS Cousin Brucie writes SCIENCE FRICTION book on classic rock P. 34 $822M ● GAEL GREENE dines at Marc Forgione P. 35 Local universities beef up engineering and headache tech, but Mayor Bloomberg has his own plans INDEX Insurer faces suit versities to become national, if not international, THE INSIDER _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _8 BY JUDITH MESSINA technology players.They are pouring billions of dol- from former exec for NEIGHBORHOOD JOURNAL _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _9 lars into engineering and applied science pro- unpaid compensation VIEWPOINT _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _10 The Varick Street incubator operated by the grams—hiring faculty, building new facilities and SMALL BUSINESS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _12 Polytechnic Institute of New York University fairly launching initiatives that promise to sharpen their bustles as the young businesses that rent space for entrepreneurial chops. BY AARON ELSTEIN CLASSIFIEDS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _29 HOT JOBS $300 a month per seat cram as many bodies as they “[We are trying] to bring New York City to the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _33 can into each cubicle. CB Insights, a technology re- point where it competes with Silicon Valley and Two years ago, insurance giant EXECUTIVE MOVES _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _33 search company,one summer shoehorned nine peo- Boston,” said Jerry Hultin, president of NYU-Poly. American International Group out- THE WEEK AHEAD _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _35 ple into a space set up for four. It remains to be seen whether such efforts can raged the nation when it paid $165 WHAT HE’S READING _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _35 The NYU-Poly site, established in partnership make New York City a world-class technology hub, million in bonuses to traders in the di- with the city, is one prong in an effort by local uni- See SCIENCE FRICTION on Page 14 vision that had run up such titanic loss- es that AIG would have sunk without $182 billion in bailout assistance. REPORT EDUCATION The company has largely healed the wounds since then. Chief executive BACK FROM THE WAR VETS FIND ASSISTANCE Robert Benmosche has returned AIG ... BUT ALSO SOME CRITICS P. 13 to profitability,and the U.S.Treasury is preparing to sell off its 92% stake in the P. 15 insurer as soon as next month. NEWSPAPER M.B.A.’s BIGGEST NY AREA PROGRAMS See AIG on Page 32 20110425-NEWS--0002,0003-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 4/22/2011 7:56 PM Page 1 COMMENTARY Bell-bottom Trump blues for Le Français Urban his column is proud to be the first, any- where in the world, to endorse Donald Outfitters Trump for president … of France. You laugh, but think about it. They call French President Nicholas Sarkozy Retailer loses touch T“Sarko L’Américain.” Why not “Don Le Français”? with its young shoppers They also call Sarkozy “President Bling-Bling.” Trump’s got him beat hands-down there. Sarkozy though. For the BY ADRIANNE PASQUARELLI dumped a fantastic wife to marry a fashion model. year ended Jan. 31, Urban post- Trump did that, It’s time he The death grip that teenagers and ed $2.3 billion in 19 $2.3B 3% too, exchanging took this farce 20-somethings have on their skinny net sales, a 17% NO. OF NYC NET SALES DROP Ivana for Marla seriously. Thus, jeans is proving a pain for Urban Out- year-over-year STORES in the for the fiscal in earnings Maples. France. fitters Inc.Last year,the Philadelphia- rise. Investors Urban year ended for fiscal Then, just to Watching the based retailer began stocking wide- are still con- Outfitters, Jan. 31 fourth quarter, be sure we got the unavoidable legged bell-bottoms on the shelves of cerned. Since Anthropologie ended Jan. 31, point that he’s Trump on TV its namesake and Anthropologie January, the virile, he did it these past few stores, and shoppers have so far shares, now and Free People compared with again, trading in days, it’s striking shunned the fashion-forward looks. trading at about divisions a year earlier one model for how French he “They changed the merchandise, $32, have lost another. He may has become. and the consumer doesn’t seem will- over 11% of not have Hun- MICHAEL Sarkozy hates ing to adopt it as quickly,” said Mar- their value, while the share prices of oversized tops that had been popular garian blood like Islamists so garet Whitfield, a retail analyst at competitors, such as Abercrombie & for several years with recent runway Sarkozy, but he’s GROSS much that he Sterne Agee & Leach. Fitch and Gap Inc., have held steady looks, such as wide-legged trousers married to a banned the veil; or risen. and skintight shirts. The company Slovenian super- Trump imagines Droopy sales Additionally, Stephen Murray, has since marked down the ’70s-style model. Same neighborhood, our Hawaiian-born president Same-store sales are drooping as a who was president of the Urban Out- merchandise just to get it off the right? is an Islamist. The macho result.The company,which has 19 Ur- fitters division for just a year, resigned floor. That said, Mrs. Trump Sarkozy led the world into ban Outfitters, Anthropologie and this month to join a shoe retailer. No. 3, Melania Knauss North Africa, took care of Free People stores in the city,including “They may have more of a difficult Not ready for wide-legged styles Trump, is no Carla Bruni- business in Ivory Coast and is a 32,000-square-foot Urban Outfitters time improving their trends in “Customers are not yet ready,”said Sarkozy, and her chosen ex- now sending ground advisers on Fifth Avenue and West 43rd Street, women’s,” said Paul Lejuez, a retail Betty Chen, a retail analyst at Wed- tracurricular activity—a jew- to Libya. Last week,Trump, a has reported that same-store sales in its analyst at Nomura Securities Interna- bush Securities Inc., noting that the elry collection called Melania captain of cadets at military fiscal first quarter,which ends April 30, tional Inc. “It certainly doesn’t help company has also done little to help Timepieces & Jewelry, sold school, told ABC’s George were trending down by the low single- that their president just left.” shoppers adjust.