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CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS NEW YORK BUSINESS Midtown East’s biggest landlords P. 6 | NYU’s answer to Cornell Tech P. 12 | Local bakers on the rise P. 26 CRAINS NEW YORK BUSINESS® SEPTEMBER 11 - 17, 2017 | PRICE $3.00 WORDS AND DEEDS VOL. XXXIII, NO. 37 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM Candidate Bill de Blasio pledged bold changes that would benet “all New Yorkers.” Our annual Stats and the City issue examines how well Mayor de Blasio delivered on those promises PAGE 14 NEWSPAPER P001_CN_20170911.indd 1 9/8/17 4:13 PM TWO • NINETY • TWO MADISON AVENUE Owner: Exclusive Leasing Agent: CN018347.indd 1 8/31/17 12:33 PM SEPTEMBER 11 - 17, 2017 CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS FROM THE NEWSROOM | JEREMY SMERD | EDITOR IN THIS ISSUE No longer just an island 4 AGENDA 5 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT THIS WEEK MARKS the ocial opening of Cornell Tech’s 6 WHO OWNS THE BLOCK A new tool campus on Roosevelt Island and a major milestone in the could help evolution of New York’s tech sector. If you haven’t been to 7 REAL ESTATE you save 8 ASKED & ANSWERED money on the campus yet, go. (You can now get there by ferry, in addi- medical bills. tion to the F line and the tram.) 9 HEALTH CARE I was there a few weeks ago to see the rst three build- 10 VIEWPOINTS ings on the 12-acre campus, which has turned the island FEATURES into a destination. ese buildings—the House, a luxurious apartment tower for students and faculty; the Bridge, which 12 NYU’S TECH EXPANSION has spaces for both instruction and collaboration; and the 14 STATS AND THE CITY Bloomberg Center, an academic building funded in large In the six years it 24 STEERING UBER part by the former mayor—total 850,000 square feet. took Cornell to build 26 CARB KINGS OF NEW YORK Michael Bloomberg can claim ownership of the entire enterprise. It was his administration, aer all, that con- its campus, the city’s ceived of the project in 2010 as a way to improve the city’s tech sector has P. 31 ability to compete in the global economy. His hypothesis grown by leaps and JUNIOR VOLPE was right: A school focused on creating commercially vi- able innovations and partnering with the private sector bounds could turn our educational industrial complex into a cre- ator of local jobs rather than an exporter of talent. Now the future is here. In the six years it took for the rst phase of Cornell’s tech- nology campus to come to fruition, New York’s tech scene has grown by leaps and bounds. Employment increased by 46,900 jobs, or 57%, since 2010, making the sec- 31 GOTHAM GIGS tor the city’s fastest-growing, according to a report last week by state Comptroller 32 SNAPS omas DiNapoli. And these are high-paying jobs—averaging $147,300 annually. 33 FOR THE RECORD e endeavor seemed to create a virtuous cycle. Other universities upped the 34 PHOTO FINISH ante, with Columbia and NYU making major investments of their own, as senior reporter Matthew Flamm details on page 12. e de Blasio administration has sup- CORRECTION ported the industry too, though with much less fanfare. In December it pledged Karen Geer has a Master of Laws in environmental law. The type of degree was misstated in Asked & $100 million to seed a life-sciences campus it said it hopes will “serve as an insti- Answered, published Sept. 4. tutional anchor for the life-sciences industry, much as Cornell Tech serves as an anchor for applied sciences and engineering.” Now the question on everyone’s minds is whether New York has a chance of landing the big kahuna: Amazon, which announced last week that it wants to open a second headquarters for as many as 50,000 employees (see ICYMI, page 5). Every North American city wants Amazon. And New York should pursue the opportunity with all the assets it can marshal. As with the applied-sciences project, the city that wins will get more than bragging rights. It will get a company that has the size and ON THE COVER inuence to transform an economy. Even one as big as New York’s. ILLUSTRATION: DARREN THOMPSON DIGITAL DISPATCHES CONFERENCE CALLOUT SEPT. 19 Go to CrainsNewYork.com CRAIN’S ARTS AND CULTURE BREAKFAST NOMINATE On Nov. 27 our 20 JOIN CRAIN’S and a panel of Under 20 list will recognize cultural leaders, including Whitney the New York area’s youngest > Donhauser, president of the business brains. Let us know Museum of the City of New York, who you think should for a discussion of the be included. Go to CrainsNewYork most-pressing issues facing the .com/20Nominate. Meet our arts community. past honorees at CrainsNewYork .com/20Under20. NEW YORK ATHLETIC CLUB READ Kirsten Gillibrand, New York’s junior senator for eight years, has risen 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. to national prominence. But that has not [email protected]. helped her at home: Only 49% of New Yorkers view her favorably, a Siena College Vol. XXXIII, No. 37, Sept. 11, 2017—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for double poll found. issues the weeks of June 26, July 10, July 24, Aug. 7, Aug. 21 and Dec. 18, by Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing ofces. Postmaster: Send address ■ Northwell Health is in talks to acquire changes to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit, MI 48207-2912. a slew of Upper East Side properties 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. for $300 million in order to erect a 250,000-square-foot building in their place. BUCK ENNIS SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 3 P003_CN_20170911.indd 3 9/8/17 6:08 PM WHAT’S NEW SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 AGENDAWhen businesses yield to unjustified protests, expect more of the same disturbing scenario is playing out involving a local company and an activist group that should concern every business in the city. It stems from an audit begun in December by Immi- gration and Customs Enforcement that found 21 employees Aof Tom Cat Bakery in Queens lacked authorization to work in the United States. e 30-year-old bakery had no choice but to let them go. As soon as the workers were noti ed by Tom Cat, they contacted their union representatives, who sat down with the bakery’s owners to see what could be done. Legally the undocumented workers were entitled to little or nothing, but Joyce Alston, president of Local 53 of the Bakery, Confection- ery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union, said Tom Cat gave them everything she requested. e severance o er included one week’s pay for each year of service; full pay for unused vacation, personal and sick days; and 90 days of continued health care bene ts or their cash equivalent. further (he would not o er speci cs, saying that was up to the workers). Moreover, workers who acquire legal status would be allowed to seamless- To keep pressure on the bakery, Brandworkers scheduled a rally last week ly return to their job with no loss of seniority. “ ey were, honestly, co- outside high-end restaurant Le Bernardin, a Tom Cat customer. e eatery operative,” Alston said of Tom Cat executives. She described their attitude caved before the event, suspending its contract with the bakery, and the as: “What can we do to help our people? We demonstration was moved to another Tom don’t want to lose them.” Tom Cat Bakery did right by its Cat customer, the restaurant Robert at the While this was happening, a Queens- Museum of Arts and Design. based workers’ rights group, Brandworkers, workers, but an activist group is No business wants protesters at its door, was collaborating with some of the employ- pressuring customers to cut ties but abandoning Tom Cat to avoid trouble ees in an e ort to get an even sweeter deal, is hypocritical in a city where immigrants separate from the union’s. Tom Cat resisted; compose 63% of the food workforce. In- it made no sense to negotiate two agreements. In response, Brandwork- stead of dividing the business community, these protesters and employees ers organized protests and recruited politicians to pressure and shame the should unite with businesses to ght ICE and the Trump administration’s bakery. Still, 14 of the workers accepted the robust severance package. pursuit of hardworking immigrants with clean records. Driving business But the other seven did not. Brandworkers’ leader, Daniel Gross, con- away from Tom Cat ultimately imperils its ability to employ New Yorkers cedes that Tom Cat’s o er was “nontrivial” but said it should have gone in good-paying union jobs. — THE EDITORS FINE PRINT In spite of all the National Football League’s bad press lately, nosebleed seats still command nosebleed prices. The cheapest tickets to the New York Giants home opener—a not exactly compelling Monday night matchup with the Detroit Lions Sept. 18—cost $105 on TicketIQ. Here’s an alternative: Columbia University plays Sept. 16. These Lions are perennial losers, but for $10 you can sit anywhere you want. BY GERALD SCHIFMAN STATS 25 WORDS OR LESS SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH AND THE CITY FOR THE FIRST TIME all city public school students are eligible for free “My advice to anyone lunch.