nb28p01.qxp 7/6/2007 6:35 PM Page 1 TOP STORIES Coining a A psychiatrist’s banking therapy revives parable Mount Sinai —Greg David on Commerce’s PAGE 2 Hill, Page 13 ® Presidential fund- raisers looking for more than access VOL. XXIII, NO. 28 WWW.NEWYORKBUSINESS.COM JULY 9-15, 2007 PRICE: $3.00 PAGE 3 Newark Airport gains cachet for international Claiborne business travelers PAGE 3 plans belt- Zeta-Jones gets hot in the kitchen with B.R. Guest’s tightening executive chef PAGE 6 Company will reduce market, compounded by a power Business with a struggle with industry titan Macy’s conscience; dependence on Inc., has forced Liz Claiborne into department stores, a corner. The firm reported a biodiesel plant shocking 65% drop in profits for grow its own brands the first quarter on a 2% dip in sales grows in New York amid disappointing fall depart- SMALL BUSINESS, P. 15 BACK TO BASICS: ment store orders. The report sent Adam Moss is hewing BY ELISABETH BUTLER CORDOVA closely to founder Liz Claiborne’s stock plummeting; Clay Felker’s editorial it hit a new two-year low of $33.24 BUSINESS LIVES formula. liz claiborne executives are ex- on May 15 before recovering to pected to announce plans to sell close Friday at $38.45. redux some of the company’s well- Mr. McComb, who declined to known brands and institute large comment for this article, recently job cuts at a long-antici- overhauled the firm’s man- pated investor meeting on agement structure by divid- New York more Wednesday. $65% ing the company into two The moves are de- DROP in profits sections: a “direct brand” reported by signed to reduce the com- Liz Claiborne division to oversee retail HOT TIME IN THE CITY pany’s dependence on de- for the first chains for Juicy Couture partment stores. New quarter and the other lines, and a A weekly guide to than vanity buy summer events for those Chief Executive William “partner brand” sector to staying in town PAGE 27 McComb is also likely to reveal manage department store labels nabbed New York magazine at the plans to grow the company’s “pow- such as Ellen Tracy. Wasserstein money end of 2003, he seemed to be er brands”—Juicy Couture, Lucky, Trudy Sullivan, a longtime Liz seems well spent as setting a new standard for vanity Mexx and Kate Spade—which are Claiborne veteran, resigned as AT DEADLINE acquisitions. primarily sold through its own president a week after Mr. Mc- magazine thrives The Lazard banker,who owned stores. Comb reassigned her to the part- WCBS-FM WILL RETURN THIS a number of trade publications,not “Post restructuring, Liz will ner brand division.She will leave in WEEK WITH a younger-skewing only paid $55 million for a title transform from a merger and ac- August to become chief executive version of the oldies format BY MATTHEW FLAMM earning only $1 million a year but quisition driven company to an or- of Talbot’s Inc. that it took off the air in June also bested Mort Zuckerman in ganic growth story,” claims Omar When the ax comes down 2005, according to an industry there is a long tradition of the dealmaking equivalent of a Staad, a Credit Suisse analyst who Wednesday, the department store insider.The station is expected rich guys overpaying for trophy sumo match. recently upgraded the company’s labels in the partner brand catego- to hire some veteran DJs. media properties. But when Wall Since then, conditions have rating to “outperform.” ry will be the target. Liz Claiborne WCBS 101.1 had been a top- Street wizard Bruce Wasserstein See NEW YORK on Page 8 A shrinking department store See LIZ CLAIBORNE on Page 8 10 station, but the audience was graying. CBS Radio flipped it to the iPod-like Jack format, which uses no DJs and mixes older songs with Morgan Stanley overhauls retail unit contemporary tunes in a random sequence. Its ratings trailed those for the oldies joined Morgan Stanley in February format. A spokeswoman for Chucks nonperformers, recruits big guns, 2006, is transforming the unit. Mr. FAST COMPANY CBS Radio declined to mends fences with investment bank Gorman has dismissed 80% of the Major brokers' assets under control comment. management team and reassigned in 2006, in millions of dollars. known for its mass-market ap- the rest.He has purged about 1,000 THE SIGFELD GROUP BOUGHT BY AARON ELSTEIN proach, selling stocks out of Sears poorly performing brokers, recruit- MERRILL LYNCH $1,600 16 HARLEM STOREFRONTS from stores. And it had been sanctioned ed top talent, expanded the product SMITH BARNEY MPL LLC for $50 million. morgan stanley’s retail broker- by regulators for rewarding brokers line to appeal to well-heeled clients, 1,200 The deal includes 35,000 age used to be a first-class embar- who peddled in-house mutual and helped close the rift between WACHOVIA 800 See AT DEADLINE on Page 2 rassment. funds with tickets to Britney Spears the firm’s brokers and investment MORGAN STANLEY The former Dean Witter was concerts. bankers. 700 It was also far less profitable “We have positive momentum,” UBS 700 than rivals Merrill Lynch or Smith Mr. Gorman says. “There’s much 28 AMERIPRISE 500 5 Barney, and legions of investors still to do, but we’re ahead of where prayed that John Mack would sell I thought we’d be when I started.” A.G. EDWARDS 400 the division when he took the helm Things will get a lot harder, ELECTRONIC EDITION at the firm two years ago. though. Much of the group’s RAYMOND JAMES 200 No one talks like that anymore. progress in the past 17 months has Source: Bank of America Retail chief James Gorman, who See MORGAN STANLEY on Page 10 NEWSPAPER 71486 01068 0 CNYB 07-09-07 A 2,3 7/6/2007 6:16 PM Page 1 AT DEADLINE Continued from Page 1 first round of institutional Mount Sinai square feet at 2331-2349 funding.The software Frederick Douglass Blvd. and developer, which has a product 112-118, 250 and 301-303 W. that lets advertisers track and 125th St. Retailers in the analyze their online spending buildings include BMS Fine and performance, will use the recovery Shoe Store and CapUSA. money to enhance the software, Sigfeld is partnering with which it plans to introduce later Kimco Realty Corp. to rebuild this year.The financing was led CEO effects turnaround, spending the corner location on Frederick by Fred Wilson’s venture capital Douglass. Eugene Giscombe, firm, Union Square Ventures, for talent and refocusing resources president of brokerage and Pequot Ventures, an arm of Giscombe Henderson, hedge fund Pequot Capital represented MPL in the deal. Management. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST WILL THE NORTH SHORE-LONG ISLAND HAVE GROSSED MORE THAN JEWISH HEALTH SYSTEM will $423 million on Broadway build a $200 million women’s when it closes its 13- hospital funded by board year run on July 29. Chairman Saul Katz, president The musical, Disney of the Mets and Sterling Theatrical’s first on Equities.The Katz Women’s Broadway, is the Hospital will be built on both No. 6 longest- the North Shore and LIJ running show of campuses and will include a total all time. It renovation of North Shore’s will be maternity facilities.The new replaced at building will have a labor and the Lunt- delivery unit with eight Fontanne Theatre by a new diagnostic and treatment spaces, Disney production, The Little 14 labor-delivery-recovery Mermaid. rooms, seven preoperative- recovery spaces, and four BY GALE SCOTT RESERVATIONS FOR OFF-AIRPORT operating rooms for cesarean PARKING—up to two miles away sections. four years ago, Mount Sinai Medical from the terminal—have Center was in a downward spiral. doubled for New York’s major AT LEAST FIVE WALL STREET The proud teaching hospital and medical airports since the attempted ANALYSTS HAVE DOWNGRADED attack in the United Kingdom Hilton Hotels Corp. since the school complex on Manhattan’s Upper East on June 30, according to market closed Thursday, saying Side was battered by bad publicity over AirportParkingReservations that it is unlikely to fetch a bid deaths in its liver transplant program. .com.Travelers are trying to superior to that made by private avoid delays caused by extra equity firm Blackstone Group. Patient numbers were down because of security—including random Last week, Blackstone made STEPPING UP: suburbanites’ general reluctance to travel vehicle searches.The firm, in Hilton a cash offer of “We were into the city after the Sept. 11 attacks. And it Suffield, Conn., reports that $20.1 billion, or $47.50 a share. staring into the was clear that the center’s merger with New nationwide bookings have Hilton shares closed Friday at abyss,” says Dr. Davis, who ran York University Medical Center was failing: spiked to 2,000 a day. $45.71. Analysts said the stock the psychiatry doesn’t offer much return, even department Staff members were starting to leave. MANHATTAN STARTUP CLICKABLE if the deal does close in the before being In January 2003, Kenneth Davis, then the HAS RAISED $3 MILLION in its fourth quarter, as expected. I named medical school dean new dean of the medical school, also agreed and CEO. See CEO BRINGS on Page 9 THIS WEEK IN CRAIN’S neff david 29 NEW YORK, NEW YORK----------6 THE INSIDER------------------------------------11 REAL ESTATE DEALS--------------11 Second all-city real estate f VIEWPOINT-----------------------------------------12 GREG DAVID ------------------------------------13 hattan office tower.Now the fund has New York City deals.