TECH Race is on to bring broadband to outer boroughs PAGE 3 POLITICS Queen’s DA race is bellwether for city’s Democratic establishment PAGE 3 CRAINSNEWYORK.COM | JUNE 17, 2019 | $3.00 REAL ESTATE Rent regs will cripple PAGE 12 affordable housing, developers warn BY DANIEL GEIGER egislators in Albany proposed sweeping reforms to the state’s rent regulation rules with the Lgoal of creating the strongest pro- tections in a generation for a ord- able housing in the city. But many large developers say the new laws come with a terrifying consequence: ey could scuttle major development projects that would have created thousands of a ordable units. Already one major developer in the city has suggested it will cancel plans to raise a cluster of apartment buildings on the Astoria waterfront. e Durst Organization, which owns millions of square feet of commercial and residential space in the city, had planned to erect 2,500 apartments in seven build- ings at Hallets Point—including hundreds of a ordable units. e rm now says the work will cease after having recently nished the rst building at the $1.5 billion development. “It can’t be built,” a Durst spokes- omen are asking, man said. Are we nally on Another big builder, who is in the process of developing a prominent STRENGTH IN the cusp of real apartment tower in Brooklyn, said change? the laws would cause him to shift Since the previous Crain’s his focus away from the city. W “We’ll nish what we’re doing NUMBERS Most Powerful Women list in here, but we’re not looking at new Female-powered workplace trends are 2017, the #MeToo movement deals in New York anymore,” said has continued to shake the the developer, who said he didn’t driving real progress for women want to be identi ed at a moment foundations of power, from when he feels builders are being BY AMY CORTESE Hollywood to Capitol Hill. villainized by politicians and tenant activists. “We’re going to do our JPMORGAN CHASE’S Mary Callahan Erdoes, Marianne Lake and Jennifer Piepszak are harbingers of change. See CHANGE on page 12 BUCK ENNIS See RENT REGS on page 4 VOL. 35, NO. 24 © 2019 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. GOTHAM GIG THE LIST ROBOTICS NEW YORK’S CLASSES HELP TOP HOSPITALS KIDS COPE WITH PAGE 10 NEWSPAPER TRAUMA PAGE 35 P001_CN_20190617.indd 1 6/14/19 7:18 PM IN CASE YOU MISSED IT History books DATA POINT Ride-hail cap mimics e Landmarks Preservation THE CENTER FOR AN URBAN Commission bestowed landmark system Uber sank status to the Strand Bookstore FUTURE REPORTED THAT TECH building in the East Village. e AND CREATIVE EMPLOYMENT LAST WEEK, WHEN MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO announced news comes to the dismay of that a ban on new ride-hail-vehicle licenses will be owner Nancy Bass Wyden, who IN BROOKLYN INCREASED extended for a second year, it was seen as a response to said the higher costs of xing 175% IN THE PAST DECADE— trac congestion and a shot in the arm for drivers. and maintaining her building Before the cap, drivers were struggling to stay aoat in associated with the designation MORE THAN DOUBLE THE an ever-rising sea of vehicles ghting for fares. could kill her business. But the cap might give some drivers new nancial RATE IN MANHATTAN. worries. Stick a fork in it e moratorium could create an asset akin to taxi e iconic Four Seasons restau- medallions, which became expensive and tightly con- rant plated its last power lunch the 1990s, named Russell Granet trolled until competition from Uber helped collapse BUCK ENNIS June 11. e 60-year-old eatery, president and CEO. e former their value. Vehicles with Taxi and Limousine Commis- which introduced its seasonal acting president of Lincoln Center sion licenses no longer must compete with new Brooklyn College and a part-time computer technician; menus to the United States in the takes over for Cora Cahan, who licensees. Licenses secured before the ban could be he drives Uber Black to make the additional money he 1950s, had been in the Seagram held those roles for 29 years. leased at exorbitant rates to drivers with no other way needs to support his wife and two children. Had the Building before losing its lease in to get one. mayor let the moratorium expire, Hussein could have 2016. Business did not recover Mad money Indeed, that might be happening already: Some eet obtained a TLC license for his personal vehicle, driven after it reopened last year at East Digital media company Maven of operators have raised their rates, with the increases it for Uber and stopped leasing the Inniti—saving 49th Street and Madison Avenue. Seattle bought eStreet for ranging from $25 to $50 per week, according to two enough to pay the $2,000 rent on his family’s home. $16.5 million. e nancial infor- drivers and a leasing company executive. “I am paying for a car I don’t need,” Hussein said, No. 1 on the Deuce mation company, co-founded by Making matters worse, some drivers now are paying adding that some weeks he has to dip into his savings. New 42nd Street, a nonprot that CNBC host Jim Cramer in 1996, for two cars at once: their personal car, not licensed for Uber and Lyft have temporarily stopped signing up helped restore theaters during the went public 20 years ago. use as a for-hire vehicle, and one with TLC plates they new drivers, because the more their drivers cruise revitalization of Times Square in — Chris Kobiella are leasing or renting to pick up fares. around without passengers, the more fare money the Uber driver Hussein (who didn’t want his last name companies must share with them, under a new used) is among them. He is leasing a 2019 Inniti QX60 minimum-wage rule. Still, about 1,000 drivers quit CORRECTION SUV with TLC plates for $560 per week, including insur- every month. When Uber and Lyft start on-boarding ■ There are 694 affordable apartments out of 2,775 units planned by three Lower East Side ance, while paying $680 per month for his 2018 Toyota again, and new drivers start looking for cars, the eets projects. The numbers were misstated in “Tower foes’ disregard for zoning laws is the height of Rav4. He’s a full-time computer science student at will be in charge. — Matthew Flamm irresponsibility,” published June 10. Vol. 35, No. 24, June 17, 2019—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for double issues Jan. 1, June 25, July 9, July 23, Aug. 6, Aug. 20 and Dec. 24, 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 changes to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, PO Box 433279, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9681. 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 2019 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. BUSINESS UNINTERRUPTED. Spectrum Business keeps your business running with over 99.9% network reliability.§ CALL 855-339-9668 or visit business.spectrum.com §99.9% reliability based on average HFC Availability, January 2018 - December 2018. Services subject to all applicable service terms & conditions, which are subject to change. Restrictions apply. Call for details. © 2019 Charter Communications, Inc. 2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | JUNE 17, 2019 P002_CN_20190617.indd 2 6/14/19 6:12 PM TECH THE BATTLE FOR BROADBAND Atop buildings and under streets, enterprising rms are bringing superfast internet to small businesses BY MATTHEW FLAMM BUCK ENNIS ntil a couple of years ago, the nonpro t Cases, paying Spectrum cable $840 a month for 50-megabit service. A nesses wind up in areas that lack robust broadband infrastruc- which provides alternatives to incarceration, was xed-wireless provider—beaming microwave signals from a ture. paying $860 a month for 10 megabits-per-second rooftop—added bandwidth at both locations at the monthly “ e tra c kept going up, and the [service] could not keep broadband service delivered through a copper rate of about $700 for 100 megabits per second. abreast of it,” said Quinn Cushing, Cases’ chief technology cable to its Downtown Brooklyn headquarters. As the nonpro t continued to expand, it neared the point o cer. at kind of speed is enough to stream movies on Net ix but where it needed faster internet than it could a ord. at is an e organization eventually found a solution, and both lo- Unot enough to manage the group’s online databases, video increasingly familiar situation in the city, as employment in cations now boast Cadillac-level service at Honda prices: a conferencing and web-based training sessions. the outer boroughs grows faster than in Manhattan, Brooklyn At its Harlem location, Cases was doing only a little better, becomes a leading center for technology jobs, and more busi- See BROADBAND on page 6 POLITICS Queens DA race raises red ags for business Strong showing by Democratic socialist would empower AOC BY WILL BREDDERMAN Amazon’s withdrawal—on its Ocasio-Cortez, and Borough Presi- Democratic boss Joseph Crowley heels again. dent Melinda Katz, a mainstream last June and the dislodging of other ill all of Queens succumb e June 25 Democratic primary Democrat backed by the party’s moderate Democrats in the fall. to the progressive tide? for Queens district attorney county organization.