CNYB 09-15-08 A 1 9/12/2008 7:42 PM Page 1 TOPSTORIES CABLE NEWS: TOWERS OF Stung by high food BABBLE costs, caterers —Valerie Block pass along the pain on the media Page 13 PAGE 2 ® Jumpsuits spring into the spotlight as retailers seek the VOL. XXIV, NO. 37 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2008 PRICE: $3.00 season’s must-buy DESPERATE TIMES PAGE 3 Serena Williams could score more Losers abound NY banker comes points this fall NEW YORK, NEW YORK P. 6 in Lehman’s fall to rescue WaMu REPORT Workers, landlords, New chief will face REAL ESTATE shareholders and subprime mortgage, customers at risk; credit card losses; rivals stand to gain buyout possible BY AARON ELSTEIN BY DANIEL MASSEY FINANCIERS turn decidedly last week, Lehman Brothers it’s late in the game and the stingy as ranks thin P. 22 Holdings Inc. shares plunged undersized point guard just got DEVELOPERS learn to play 77% as the firm posted the handed the ball. by new rule book P. 23 biggest loss in its 158-year histo- Alan Fishman,who starred on ry and investors scoffed at the re- NO ONE is the hardwood at Brooklyn’s Eras- BUILDERS get the cold buying CEO shoulder P. 24 covery plan laid out by Chief Ex- mus Hall High School and ecutive Richard Fuld. Richard ALAN FISHMAN will Brown University, last week was Fuld’s try to bring WaMu Lehman’s demise as an inde- recovery back from the brink. named chief executive of belea- pendent firm is a virtual certain- plan. guered Washington Mutual. He bloomberg news BUSINESS LIVES ty.And with an acquisition by an- buck ennis now needs the equivalent of a COSMETIC CHANGES other firm likely to result in four-point basketball play in the Face-llifts cutbacks rivaling those seen at final seconds to bring the nation’s fall with Bear Stearns Cos. after J.P.Mor- largest thrift back from the brink. economy; gan Chase absorbed it, the fallout The former president of Inde- injectibles will be staggering. pendence Community Bank is get a big Topping the list of losers are both well-known and well-re- boost Lehman’s 25,000 employees, spected in Brooklyn for his man- P. 37 roughly a quarter of whom work agement skills and charitable in New York. Last year, the firm’s work. But with losses from sub- global payroll totaled nearly $10 prime mortgages and credit cards billion, which works out to an av- stacking up, and WaMu shares AT DEADLINE erage of $332,000. trading below $3 for the first time Employees, who own 30% of since 1990, the 62-year-old FIRST THERE WAS CLIENT 9. their firm’s stock, have already banker faces the challenge of a NOW THERE’S HOSPITAL seen their wealth shrivel drasti- lifetime. Friends and former col- Executive 2. As speculation cally, with the 95% drop in leagues say he’s the perfect man swirls around the identity of See LOSERS on Page 8 See NY BANKER on Page 8 the hospital executive named charts: lindström bekka in the criminal complaint against Assemblyman Antho- ny Seminerio, industry insiders say the scenario outlined in the complaint closely matches the NYC steps up work in rare diseases situation at MediSys Health Network.They believe that Hospital Executive 2 may be tients are plagued by disfiguring David Rosen, chief executive Research can lead tumors of the nervous system. of Jamaica, Brookdale and to other medical Called neurofibromatosis, it is Flushing hospitals, which commonly referred to—though make up MediSys. Mr. Rosen advancements erroneously—as Elephant Man’s did not respond to requests disease, the subject of a 1980 film for comment. about 19th-century Londoner BY GALE SCOTT John Merrick, who was exploited KATIE HOLMES, WHO IS as a medical curiosity and forced to MAKING HER BROADWAY researchers at New York Uni- make a living as a sideshow freak debut in the upcoming Arthur versity Langone Medical Center because of his disfigurement. See AT DEADLINE on Page 2 are closing in on a treatment for a As a result of NYU’s research, a rare genetic disease in which pa- clinical trial of a promising drug to treat the illness is about to begin. “This is the first time in hundreds 37 of years there has been anything 5 new for treating this devastating disease,” says NYU’s Dr. Matthias Karajannis, a pediatric oncologist whose team is leading the national buck ennis trial. NEWSPAPER DR. MATTHIAS KARAJANNIS, a pediatric oncologist at New York University Langone Medical See NYC on Page 8 Center who studies the rare genetic disease neurofibromatosis, examines a young patient. 71486 01068 0 CNYB 09-15-08 A 2 9/12/2008 7:43 PM Page 1 AT DEADLINE Continued from Page 1 extinction: They’ve formed a Miller play All My Sons,is trade alliance. Approximately 25 turning out to be a bigger box- bookstores in the five boroughs office draw than theater have banded together to create observers thought. Producers the Independent Booksellers of of the drama—which starts New York City. IBNYC will previews Sept. 18—will be promote all indie bookstores, announcing today that the whether or not they’re show has $3.5 million in contributing members, with a advance sales. Though the citywide map detailing locations number pales in comparison of some 60 stores, which it plans with the roughly $10 million to distribute in hotels and other advance that Julia Roberts tourist spots.The group will also brought in for her first turn on launch what it hopes will be an Broadway two years ago in annual weeklong celebration of Three Days of Rain, it’s still independent bookselling in impressive for a play.The December. CATCH OF THE DAY: production has been dogged Caterer Paul Neuman MORE THAN 5,000 TECHIES ARE offers menu options for for weeks by gossip that ticket different budgets. sales were unusually weak for a COMING TO NEW YORK THIS play with a major celebrity. week for Web 2.0 Expo, an important trade show taking SUPPORTERS OF THE HIGH LINE place in the city for the first CLAIM THAT PRELIMINARY time.The four-day event at the revisions on Related Cos. plans Javits Center, co-produced by for the sprawling Hudson Yards O’Reilly Media and TechWeb, site may endanger preservation expects to showcase new of the elevated freight-rail line. products from 125 tech In August, the preliminary plan companies. Highlights include that Related presented to a high-profile venture capitalist community group failed to show Fred Wilson’s keynote speech a piece of the High Line known about the history of Silicon as the spur on the eastern half of Alley and a panel discussion on neff david the yard. In addition, documents starting a business in the Alley filed as part of the rezoning that features David Rose, a process reveal that one of serial entrepreneur, and Kevin Related’s towers on the western Ryan, former DoubleClick chief end of the yard would hang over executive. the High Line. Related had no Caterers bite back comment, but the Metropolitan SHERATON HOTELS IS Transportation Authority, PROMOTING ITS NEW WI-FI which owns the site, says it has service in its lobbies worldwide Food biz employs new ideas to counter price hikes an agreement with the company by making the technology to preserve the entire High available for free in Central Line, which is being turned into Park’s Sheep Meadow today BY JOYCE HANSON a park. through Sept. 30.The hotel chain is partnering with WiFi ratatouille-stuffed zucchini boats, grilled salmon, fried chicken and vegetarian NEW YORK’S BELEAGUERED Salon and Microsoft. Sheraton moussaka were a few of the items on the lunch menu last week at a corporate event prepared by INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES and PepsiCo will repeat the Manhattan-based caterer Paul Neuman. are trying an old-fashioned promotion for the entire remedy to try to stave off summer of 2009. A year ago, those same food items would have cost the client about $11 a plate. Now Mr. Neuman is charging $13, and next year he plans to raise the price another 8%. “We’re at the mercy of the markets, trying to charge prices that protect us against inflation,” THIS WEEK IN CRAIN’S says Mr. Neuman. “But we also need to make customers feel like we’re not trying to take advantage of the situation.” SMALL BUSINESS ------------------- 11 With rising food prices and volatile fuel costs cutting into profits, New York City-based food-service companies, like most businesses these days, are passing along their higher costs to VALERIE BLOCK --------------------------- 13 their clients. But price adjustments are not enough. Caterers have also been forced to take THE INSIDER------------------------------------14 See CATERERS on Page 9 WEEK IN REVIEW -----------------------16 NEIGHBORHOOD JOURNAL------------------------------------------17 Volume rises over Portable 41 THE WEEKS AHEAD ----------------18 REPORT: through. But it won’t happen quiet- is expected to urge the Federal REAL ESTATE -------------------------------19 Urban and ethnic ly, because stations targeting Communications Commission to radio stations fear African-American and Spanish- examine the system’s effect on mi- CLASSIFIEDS ----------------------------------34 language listeners have seen their nority stations. undercounting rankings decline precipitously in “What gets put in place in the BUSINESS LIVES------------------------37 preliminary surveys, while those for New York metropolitan region will HOME FRONT------------------------------39 BY MATTHEW FLAMM classic rock and Top 40 stations have become the gold standard,” says CORPORATE LADDER-------41 soared. City Council Speaker Christine arbitron plans to make its Last Tuesday, the New York Quinn.