20110801-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 7/29/2011 7:50 PM Page 1 INSIDE WHICH NY COMPANIES TOP STORIES HAVE THE Run, Forest, run: BIGGEST CASH Feds, Icahn take CUSHIONS? aim at pharma firm ® PAGE 15 PAGE 3 Stalled building VOL. XXVII, NO. 31 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM AUGUST 1-7, 2011 PRICE: $3.00 sites linger across Top cop city flashes PAGE 2 THE Corporate donors writing big checks badge of to charities again PAGE 4 biz cred In Flushing, a bid to RACE Schneiderman tries become the Penn Station of Queens to allay fears that he’s NEIGHBORHOODS, PAGE 4 another Spitzer Why Ray Kelly BY SHANE DIXON KAVANAUGH shouldn’t be mayor IS ON The swagger was familiar to New GREG DAVID, PAGE 11 York’s business community when state Sen. Eric Schneiderman campaigned for state attorney general last year.The Schools go all out hard-charging, labor-backed, Upper West Side liberal ran to the left to win for right to build the Democratic primary. He called for expanding the office’s powers, which applied sciences many businesspeople believed were al- ready too extensive. campus in NYC “We thought it was the second coming of John Liu,”said one business insider, referring to the left-leaning BY DANIEL MASSEY city comptroller. Or much worse— See STATE’S TOP COP on Page 23 BUSINESS LIVES After the city’s bedrock financial sector tanked in 2008,Bloomberg administration officials met with hundreds of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, GOTHAM GIGS chief executives and community leaders and in- Historic farmer P. 25 structed them to come up with a “game changing” Hospital ● ANNE FISHER idea for the local economy. Business advice for The result of that brainstorming is at hand:Top ads: They’re women, by women P. 25 applied sciences schools from around the world are scrambling for the city’s blessing to build a campus ● MOVERS & SHAKERS here. When Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a everywhere You gotta sell a lot of mid-July speech about the competition at a Crain’s Italian ices to drive a conference, Cornell University sent at least 30 rep- Bentley P. 26 resentatives, including trustees and its president. Local med centers on ● GAEL GREENE Miss The mayor hopes the plan will propel New York Lily’s rainbow P. 27 past Silicon Valley as the world’s leading tech center, track to spend $80M a development that would define his legacy.City of- on bragging this year ficials call the contest an “Erie Canal moment” that could wean the city off Wall Street, transform the INDEX economy and create 22,000 jobs over 35 years. BY GALE SCOTT While that may be overstating things—the NEIGHBORHOOD JOURNAL _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _4 city’s offer of land on Roosevelt Island, Governors It’s enough to make a New Yorker look THE INSIDER _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _8 Island or at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and up to $100 forward to getting sick. VIEWPOINT _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _10 million for infrastructure is relatively modest—the From billboards along the West FOR THE RECORD _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _18 contest has created worldwide buzz. Side Highway, to 60-second commer- Already, 27 institutions have formally expressed cials on prime-time TV, to full-page REAL ESTATE DEALS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _19 CLASSIFIEDS interest, and within two weeks of the release of the displays in newspapers and magazines, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _20 parameters for the project,several top applied sci- the city is awash in advertisements HOT JOBS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _25 ences institutions said they would submit pro- from hospitals touting their superla- EXECUTIVE MOVES _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _25 posals by the October deadline. tive care, brilliant physicians and THE WEEK AHEAD _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _27 “We believe this is a once-in-a-lifetime op- grateful patients. Even a trip to the See THE RACE on Page 23 See HEALTHY on Page 23 ELECTRONIC EDITION NEWSPAPER 20110801-NEWS--0002,0003-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 7/29/2011 7:53 PM Page 1 IN BRIEF IT TURNS OUT DIAMONDS ARE MANHATTAN’S BEST FRIEND, TOO. DIAMOND AND JEWELRY Whole lot of holes i businesses throughout the city generate more than $24 billion in economic impact annually, and diamonds rank as the state’s No. 1 export, Greenburger,chief executive of Time Eq- New York Building Congress, which re- according to a report commissioned by the Two years after uities.“We just secured the site and decid- cently reported that industry employ- 47th Street Business Improvement District. ed to wait until conditions improved.” ment was at a nearly 13-year low in the The city’s diamond district is home to 4,100 market bottom, 646 In 2009, when the city’s Department first quarter. businesses that together employ more than of Buildings began compiling a list of 22,000 people, 69% of them immigrants, the sites stuck on city’s stalled construction sites, that 13-acre lot Difficult financing report estimates. was on it. It is still on the list, one of about Banks’ unwillingness to make con- list of stalled projects 650, many of them in hot neighborhoods struction loans is a key piece of the picture. TWO LEGENDARY CITY RESTAURANTS—LE like lower Manhattan and Willamsburg, Borrowers without extensive track records BERNARDIN AND ‘21’ CLUB—WILL GET BY AMANDA FUNG Brooklyn. and their own cash to put into a project are makeovers in August. Le Bernardin closed this Restarting work requires banks to find out of luck, experts said. But even estab- past weekend and will reopen Sept. 9 after a In the spring of 2008, Time Equities be- new developers, owners to restructure lished players like Time Equities acknowl- renovation, while ‘21’ Club is building a 10-seat gan demolishing the three buildings at 50 debt, new investors to inject cash into edge that it’s tough to get funding. bar called Bar ‘21’ during its annual summer West St. to make way for a $600 million, projects—or some combination of those. “Financing markets are getting a little hiatus, Aug. 12 through Labor Day.The 62-story hotel and residential develop- Experts say the process will probably take better, but the larger the project, the more former speakeasy will have bar stools for the ment. Several months later, Lehman longer than it did after the last big real es- difficult it is,” Mr. Greenburger said. first time and serve beer on tap. Brothers—and the financial markets— tate downturn in the early 1990s. In other cases, lenders or special ser- crashed and the project was put on hold. “It’s hard to be optimistic when the list vicers—brought in to represent creditors EXTELL DEVELOPMENT CO. HAS REACHED A “Market conditions were too unstable of stalled sites is still so stubbornly high,” after a loan default—are delaying DEAL TO SECURE A $700 MILLION CON- to proceed at the time,” said Francis said Richard Anderson, president of the workouts in the hope that the struction loan from Bank of America Corp. for a $1.3 billion skyscraper already rising on West 57th Street, sources said. Extell broke ground early last year without a loan for what will be the tallest residential building in the city, a 1,005-foot tower across from Carnegie Hall that will include a Park Hyatt Hotel and about 135 apartments. Neither Extell President Gary Barnett or Bank of America commented. n BY THE NUMBERS Weekly shift of the city’s economy é GOLD AND DUNKIN’ DONUTS did famously last week. Almost everything else suffered amid more signs of a faltering recovery and political gridlock. 4.6% 1T 2.4% Drop in WATT-HOURS NYC RISE in weekday Bloomberg/ used in 4-day subway ridership Crain’s NY Stock heat wave; equals in March, vs.