20110509-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 5/6/2011 9:14 PM Page 1 REPORT SMALL BUSINESS LAWSUITS ON THE MENU: Labor actions against restaurants are costing owners millions of dollars to settle P. 13 SELL your tax deductions? P. 14 ® HOW TO raise prices P. 16 INSIDE VOL. XXVII, NO. 19 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM MAY 9-15, 2011 PRICE: $3.00 TOP STORIES 9/11 TEN YEARS LATER Park Ave. Armory is gunning for city’s culture vultures MICHAEL GROSS, PAGE 2 Reimagining the skyscraper How the census was botched— How safety needs transformed FORM VS. FUNCTION: and billions lost Some critics worry that the business of building in NY revisions to the design PAGE 2 for 1 WTC will make it look and feel like a Designers cut out BY THERESA AGOVINO bunker at street level. of garment district Architect David Childs lost a colleague in the attacks of Sept. 11, a PAGE 2 calamity he watched unfold from his office nearby.Mr. Childs, tapped al- most two years later to design the signature skyscraper at the new World Crain’s list: NY’s top Trade Center, had that memory always in his mind as he grappled with a conundrum that has bedeviled construction professionals over the past money managers decade: how to build an office tower that is safe PAGE 18 These stories are part and secure yet doesn’t look and feel like a bunker, of a continuing series. and that is economically viable. Full coverage is at “It had to be a proud gesture to our re- crainsnewyork.com/ silience,” said Mr. Childs, a consulting design tenyears. partner at Skidmore Owings & Merrill. “It had to be a great place to work,and it had to be safe.” One World Trade Center must be worthy of its place on the skyline,and serve as a symbol of the city’s rebound from tragedy and as a marker for the nearby memorial.And,given its inevitable allure as a target,the 1,776-foot tower must be among the safest skyscrapers in the United States. The attacks changed how New York’s prominent office towers are de- signed, built and protected. Police, fire officials and security experts now BUSINESS LIVES See SKYSCRAPERS on Page 23 GOTHAM GIGS Spring cleaning made easy P. 25 Downtown resolve ● ANNE FISHER Even strong companies can use a trim P. 25 gets a boost ● MOVERS & SHAKERS CEO engineers a “suddenly hit home,” he said. It re- building boom P. 26 Growth, more than minded him of Sept. 11 and its af- ● GAEL GREENE crows Bin Laden’s death, termath, when he was forced to about Red Rooster P. 27 close his Mail Boxes Etc. store on spurs neighborhood Greenwich Street for seven weeks. The attention prompted by Bin Laden’s demise “dredged up a lot of INDEX BY LISA FICKENSCHER memories and stress from that time in my life,” Mr. Wightman said. IN THE MARKETS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _4 The news of Osama bin Laden’s As the 10th anniversary of the NEW YORK, NEW YORK _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _6 death stunned Joseph Wightman, attacks approach, many New York- REAL ESTATE DEALS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _9 a shopkeeper in lower Manhattan. ers are girding for a rush of emo- FOR THE RECORD _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _19 But his happiness on learning the tions.Bin Laden’s death accelerated CLASSIFIEDS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _20 news early on May 2 had been re- that process and triggered unpleas- placed with anxiety by the time he ant memories for many who were in HOT JOBS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _25 arrived at work. lower Manhattan a decade ago and EXECUTIVE MOVES _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _25 As Mr. Wightman walked past still work or live there. THE WEEK AHEAD _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _27 the World Trade Center site,it was At the same time,they are more WHAT HE’S READING _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _27 swarming with television trucks, hopeful about the neighborhood helicopters and crowds. The scene and their livelihoods than they have been in a while. For one thing, they are encour- Greg David on NY’s post-9/11 economy P. 11 aged that construction work on the new WTC has finally begun. Julie Menin on keeping downtown vibrant P. 11 “I’m not as frustrated as I was, The Insider: Federal, state anti-terror subsidies because there has been progress,” ELECTRONIC EDITION said Jeff Galloway, a Battery Park aren’t keeping pace with city’s growing tab P. 8 City resident whose apartment NEWSPAPER See DOWNTOWN on Page 23 buck ennis 20110509-NEWS--0002,0003-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 5/6/2011 9:01 PM Page 1 COMMENTARY Costly census d Guns and Evidence grows Roses that count was botched; billions hese are bad times for good causes.Cul- ture, in particular, has taken a hit. Its at stake for NYC donor base “looked at its wallet and had to get more choosy,”according to Mar- BY DANIEL MASSEY cia Stepanek, an adviser at New York University’s Heyman Center for Philanthropy. So, American flags flew last week from T one- and two-family brick homes with arts groups have had to get more creative. Even the neatly manicured front yards in census august Metropolitan Museum of Art has stooped to tract 46, block 1,000 in Bay Ridge, discounting, hawking 15-month memberships for Brooklyn. Bikes rested atop stoops, dogs barked from behind closed doors, the price of 12. exists (most re- and cars filled every parking space. It’s hard to cently posted to Despite these signs of life on 81st imagine a more Iraq). Its mem- and 82nd streets between Third and forbidding phil- bers commis- Fourth avenues, the 2010 census anthropic back- sioned opulent recorded 53 vacant housing units drop for New rooms from the there—52 more than in 2000. York’s only new era’s leading ar- Across the middle-class Brooklyn arts institution in chitects and in- neighborhood, the census reported a recent memory. novative design- 179% increase in empty units,to 4,118. Which is proba- ers, including But residents, real estate agents, the bly why Elihu Louis Comfort area’s councilman and city officials say Rose, of the gen- MICHAEL Tiffany, the that is not the reality on the ground. erous but public- GROSS Herter Brothers “You can’t find any apartments for ity-shy real estate and the young rent,” said George Yakobic, a broker dynasty, grabbed Stanford White. associate at Century 21 DeMasi Re- me recently to talk about the Those rooms, faded but still alty in Bay Ridge. “They’re all occu- Park Avenue Armory, that glorious, surround the unob- pied. There’s no way on earth that red-brick mammoth be- structed, 55,000-square-foot many houses are vacant.” tween East 66th and East central hall, a marvel of in- Similar surges in empty units were 67th streets that most of us dustrial design. recorded across southern Brooklyn know, if at all, as the gloomy So far, $69 million has neighborhoods including Benson- home of art and antiques been spent to stabilize, clean hurst (up 248%) Dyker Heights shows. and study the building. Mr. (319%) and Brighton Beach (143%), It’s not an A-list cause like Rose,a military historian and See CENSUS on Page 24 buck ennis the Met, but it soon could be. NYU adjunct associate pro- Mr. Rose is the chairman of fessor,displays his passion for the armory’s 501(c)(3). And the armory as he shows off its he is following Ms. Tiffany-designed Veterans Stepanek’s prescription for Room. “If the Met had this eleemosynary success to- wall, they’d build a wing day—or,as she put it:“It’s not around it,” he said. Fashion firms flee just about dollars.