20160229-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 2/26/2016 8:18 PM Page 1 So many mouths to feed P.6 | Health care price check P.9 | THE LIST: Top office leases P.14 CRAINS ® FEBRUARY 29-MARCH 6, 2016 | PRICE $3.00 NEW YORK BUSINESS Rikers Island Reimagined Innovative ideas to turn the infamous island into a New York destination P. 16 VOL. XXXII, NO. 9 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM 09 5 NEWSPAPER 71486 01068 0 OFFICE CONDOMINIUMS FOR SALE AT 633 THIRD AVENUE UNITS AVAILABLE FROM 4,538 SF NEAR GRAND CENTRAL STATION Time Equities, Inc. is pleased to offer the 9th fl oor for sale as a commercial condominium in one of Manhattan’s premier Offi ce Condominium buildings. The offering is a total of 32,513 RSF divisible to 4,500 RSF increments. Each unit offers an extremely effi cient footprint conveniently located next to Grand Central. EAST 41ST STREET Unit A Unit B Unit C 10,734 RSF 5,549 RSF 5,895 RSF TEL.CL. WC #1 STAIR #3 STAIR #2 DUCT SHAFT FIRE STAIR #4 STAIR #1 TOWER DUCT WOMEN SHAFT MEN ELEVATOR LOBBY PIPE SHAFT DUCT SHAFT ELEC. CL. FREIGHT LOBBY THIRD AVENUE Unit E Unit D Sold 4,538 RSF 5,795 RSF EAST 40TH STREET 9TH FLOOR Call or email for more information: Brandon Medeiros (212) 206-6161 www.teioffi cecondos.com [email protected] Nadja Galloway (212) 206-6017 [email protected] 20160229-NEWS--0003-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 2/26/2016 7:49 PM Page 1 FEBRUARYCRAINS 29-MARCH 6, 2016 FROM THE NEWSROOM | JEREMY SMERD Paper (and plastic) trails IN THIS ISSUE 4 AGENDA TWO FAMILY BUSINESSES: One will make it to the next 5 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT generation; the other will not. The difference? One grows in 6 SPOTLIGHT New Jersey,while the other ran out of room in New York. 7 RETAIL Wonder Woman Imperial Bag & Paper Co. and Borax Paper Products are of Wall Street’s 8 ASKED & ANSWERED ambulance biz the kind of New York area companies that most people have goes belly-up 9 HEALTH CARE never heard of, but that nonetheless work behind the scenes 10 to help restaurants and other businesses serve New Yorkers. WHO OWNS THE BLOCK That plastic salad bowl you’re eating out of? The paper bag 11 REAL ESTATE used to carry it to your desk? 12 VIEWPOINTS Chances are one of these two companies supplied it. It’s harder for the 14 THE LIST Both had been growing in recent years, a result of independent to be industry consolidation. Imperial’s growth has been “ FEATURES especially dramatic. The company ranked No. 67 on in this ever- 16 COVER STORY Crain’s largest private companies list last year, with $350 consolidated 24 GOTHAM GIGS million in revenue. Imperial planned for growth. The company in 2014 moved into a Jersey City logistics facility business 25 SNAPS with more than a half-million square feet. 26 FOR THE RECORD Borax, meanwhile, was squeezed into two warehouses in Hunts Point in the 27 PHOTO FINISH Bronx. It had $83 million in revenue and was growing. It needed more room, but, with its lease expiring, couldn’t find it in that borough, let alone another one. Space, of course, is at a premium in New York City, especially for distribution companies moving tons of products. It can be found, if you get creative enough. One option for manufacturing, as we explore starting on Page 16, is Rikers Island. Then Imperial CEO Robert Tillis called. He had been a paper shopping-bag manufacturer but got out of the business in the face of global competition. He became a distributor when he bought Imperial in 2007; that same year his son, Jason, came into the business. The duo have bought nine companies in as many P. 24 MIMI LIEN years. The latest was Borax, in a deal that closed last week. “It’s harder for the independent to be in this ever-consolidated business,” CORRECTION ERIC FISHER recently joined law firm Binder & Schwartz as a Tillis, 61, said. “Even if you buy $900,000 from a vendor, they don’t return your partner. His surname was misspelled in the Feb. 8 Executive calls.” Moves. Marc Borak, now the former president of Borax, was at the helm of a second- generation business that also employed his brother-in-law, his daughter and his nephews. The day after the deal closed, Borak, 68, was on his way to Florida, retired. The idea of moving to New Jersey affected his decision. “We would have had to displace 75% of our workforce,” he said. Jason Tillis, Imperial’s 33-year-old president, is already looking ahead. “We’ve invested a ton in technology; we’ve built for the future,” he said. “Borax ON THE COVER had not. They basically ran out of time.” ILLUSTRATION BY: TOM FOTY DIGITAL DISPATCHES CONFERENCE CALLOUT MARCH 15 Go to CrainsNewYork.com CRAIN’S ARTS AND READ Brooklyn Brewery CULTURE BREAKFAST says it is scouting for as much as 60,000 square feet BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH? Nah! in the borough. Its longtime Join Crain’s and New York’s facility in Williamsburg leading artistic directors for a serves as a plant, tasting > tell-all discussion about the state room and retail shop. The of the city’s culture business. Brooklyn Navy Yard and Panelists include Ty Jones of the Industry City are seen as Classical Theatre of Harlem. suitable new spots. CON EDISON Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes sold 4 IRVING PLACE The New Republic to liberal publisher Win McCormack, an Oregonian writer and 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. founder of Brooklyn-based literary quarter- [email protected] ly Tin House. The deal caps a tumultuous Vol. XXXII, No. 9, February 29, 2016—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for double year and a half for the 102-year-old publi- issues the weeks of June 27, July 11, July 25, Aug. 8, Aug. 22 and Dec. 19, by Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third Ave., cation. New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address LISTEN changes to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, MI 48207-2912. to a discussion of Rikers Island’s For subscriber service: Call (877) 824-9379. Fax (313) 446-6777. $3.00 a copy, $99.95 one year, $179.95 two years. future: what should be done, what could be (GST No. 13676-0444-RT) accomplished. CrainsNewYork.com/podcast ROLNRWR.O,BUCKBROOKLYNBREWERY.COM, ENNIS ©Entire contents copyright 2016 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. FEBRUARY 29, 2016 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 3 20160229-NEWS--0004-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 2/26/2016 7:50 PM Page 1 AGENDAWHAT’S NEW FEBRUARY 29, 2016 Closing Rikers is feasible—and easier than fixing the decrepit complex t’s fun to fantasize about what Rikers Island could become if there weren’t a jail complex there, as we do beginning on Page 16. But the situation on Rikers today is deadly serious. Thousands of New Yorkers, many of them young, are being Isteered in exactly the wrong direction by their incarceration at Rikers. They are assaulted by fellow inmates and correction officers, isolated from family members and hardened rather than helped—receiving lit- tle in the way of treatment or services that would reduce their BAD SIGN: Rikers Island chances of being arrested again. Weapons are smuggled in or fash- has long been ioned from objects ripped from the aging buildings. a disaster for About 85% of Rikers’ 7,800 detainees are simply awaiting their day detainees, staff and in court, during which time they often lose their jobs, housing and visitors. other connections with their communities. Many serve more time at Rikers than they would if convicted, which pressures them to cop inmates with signs of mental illness could be diverted to treatment. To pleas whether they are guilty or not. The city spends $300 million a house the rest, existing detention facilities in Brooklyn, Manhattan and year shuttling people to and from the the Bronx could be expanded and island, including security costs. Experts have outlined the steps modernized, and a new one built in City Council Speaker Melissa Queens to replace one that has closed. Mark-Viverito has rightly said that needed: bail reform, faster processing With these changes, fewer correction closing Rikers is worth pursuing now, of arrests, mental-health screening officers would be needed, so their union and has formed a commission to and new local jails will fight change any way it can. Already it examine how it might be done. is spreading the notion that neighborhood Though Mayor Bill de Blasio pointed jails put New Yorkers at risk, which is out that the city lacks the money or the facilities to relocate Rikers’ absurd. We already have three of them. If anything, they make population, the speaker’s goal is actually quite achievable. communities safer because correction officers travel in and out of the jails. Experts have already outlined the necessary steps. Faster processing Pushing to close Rikers will accelerate changes that reduce crime, after arrests could reduce by thousands the number of beds needed ease suffering and save cash. It will require money and resolve, but systemwide. Bail reform could eliminate the need to detain people who fixing Rikers and its corrupt, violent culture would be harder. And once are not a danger to society, and other methods could be employed to Rikers is razed, we can get to the fun part: making the island into ensure they appear for their court dates.