20111003-A--0001-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 9/30/2011 7:41 PM Page 1 INSIDE GREG DAVID: TOP STORIES WHY SO MANY NY CEOS LOVE Michael Gross tries NJ’S CHRIS to refinance. Good CHRISTIE luck with that, pal ® PAGE 2 PAGE 11 VOL. XXVII, NO. 40 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM OCTOBER 3-9, 2011 PRICE: $3.00 Gotham’s greatest natural resource? Its immigrant entrepreneurs PAGE 2 The latest challenge PARKING, for downtown B’klyn PAGE 2 It’s a new chapter for Random House LOTS PAGE 3 City’s ancient rules force Henry Kravis wants BY JEREMY SMERD a bigger piece of his developers to overbuild, Avalon Fort Greene, a new 42-story luxury building bankers’ business but reforms could fill near downtown Brooklyn’s mass-transit hub, de- IN THE MARKETS, PAGE 4 votes two stories and 256 parking spaces to one of empty spaces its most elusive residents: the automobile. The building is well-occupied, but the garage is BUSINESS LIVES half-empty.The same is true down the street at 80 DeKalb Ave. Nearly all of the building’s 365 apart- ments are filled, but only half of its 126 parking spaces are leased. “The reason people live at Avalon Fort Greene is to be close to mass transit, not to own a car,” said Fred Harris, senior vice president at developer See PLENTY OF PARKING on Page 24 istockphoto GOTHAM GIGS Can’t sleep? Snoring woes? She can help P. 27 Unions join ● Residential REITs ANNE FISHER Buy criminals’ stuff, fulfill your civic duty P. 27 Occupy ● ride the downturn MOVERS & SHAKERS New York Public Wall Street Library’s new chief P. 28 Cash-rich investment trusts buy, build ● GAEL GREENE Lincoln Ristorante surprises P. 31 in NYC as underfinanced developers lag Left warms hands Avalon and the nation’s other at protesters’ fire to BY AMANDA FUNG largest residential real estate in- INDEX vestment trusts—Equity Residen- bloomberg news advance its causes ZELL’S A-POPPIN’: Sam Zell’s Equity This summer, AvalonBay Com- tial and UDR Inc.—are on a tear in THE INSIDER Residential ended a two-year local buying _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _8 munities Inc. began work on the the Big Apple. At a time when hiatus last year with a $475M purchase. BY DANIEL MASSEY NEIGHBORHOOD JOURNAL _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _9 site near the High Line in Chelsea most New York developers are un- VIEWPOINT _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _10 where it will erect a towering 691- able to line up financing for new It’s been a tough run lately for local FOR THE RECORD _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _12 unit apartment building. Mean- projects, the big REITs—national got caught in the downturn and unions and left-wing interest while, in downtown Brooklyn, the players with deep pockets and the were forced to sell assets,” said groups. Despite their usual rallies, REAL ESTATE DEALS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _13 company is finalizing plans for ability to refill them by issuing Haendel St. Juste, an analyst at lobbying and advocacy campaigns, CLASSIFIEDS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _20 Avalon Willoughby, an 800-unit publicly traded shares—are ag- Keefe Bruyette & Woods. “Pub- they have failed to get an extension EXECUTIVE MOVES _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _27 luxury-rental complex just a few gressively snapping up existing licly traded REITs continued to of the millionaire’s tax and have THE WEEK ON THE WEB _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _30 blocks from the 631-unit property properties and building new devel- have a competitive advantage.” been battered by layoffs, budget THE WEEK AHEAD _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _31 in Fort Greene that it leased up opments. The New York City market is cuts and concession bargaining. earlier this year. “Highly leveraged private guys See REITs on Page 23 Meanwhile, a ragtag collection of no-name protesters is generat- ing a media avalanche and world- wide buzz with a leaderless, ad hoc REPORT HEALTH CARE “occupancy” of Wall Street. Prognosis for insurance premiums next year: The city’s experienced agitators ELECTRONIC EDITION have taken notice.They are prepar- 5% to 15% increases. And that’s the good ing to join the Occupy Wall Street protest this week, sensing an op- NEWSPAPER news. PLUS Top health insurers PAGE 14 See UPSTAGED on Page 26 20111003-A--0002,0003,0007-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 9/30/2011 7:58 PM Page 1 COMMENTARY Driver of NYC biz: i Home loan far from Ace in the hole et’s call the bank that holds my co-op loan Ace.I don’t want to call it by its real name. After all, it holds my co-op loan. In May,I got a call from an Ace loan officer. He said rates were low—under L5%!—and suggested we refinance. I said sure. Little did I know I’d set myself up for a summer in Great Recession banking hell. I warned the loan officer that my income was er- ratic. As an au- penses. As our thor, I get paid loan officer ex- when I start a plained, Ace had book and again inexplicably be- when it’s finished, gun subtracting and the things them from our take more than a net incomes a year to complete. second time. NEILA GRANZOTI RUDDEN: The No problem, he Which made me Brazil native started a swimwear said: My wife’s wonder why I line two years after moving here. buck ennis income alone was was getting regu- enough for a re-fi. MICHAEL lar offers from tiful bodies and people who know So in June, GROSS Ace for preap- City mulls how SMALL BUSINESS what a swimsuit should look like,”said Ace took a $395 proved credit 33-year-old Ms. Rudden. application fee cards—and a call to help the 48% funds from her father,a banker in their Her company, which has three from my checking account, from another of its loan sales- native land. full-time and four part-time employ- and my wife and I hurriedly men, suggesting a re-fi. Ap- of owners who Ms. Rudden’s 4½-year-old firm, ees,is on track to more than double its pulled together the necessary parently, someone at Ace diNeila Brazil, is headquartered in revenues this year to $750,000. paperwork—two years of tax thought our credit was good. are foreign-born Manhattan and has a factory in Brazil Ms. Rudden is one of nearly returns for ourselves and our Finally in September in which she holds a stake. It sells its 70,000 foreign-born entrepreneurs in businesses, investment state- (when the rate on conven- BY CARA S. TRAGER brand-name line to 86 shops across the New York City. That represents al- ments and the like. tional loans had dropped to country, including Intermix in New most half of all small business owners We were told we had to 4.25%, even lower than the Just two years after arriving in New York, and produces private-label mer- here—a surprisingly large share that move fast. Although we’ve rate we were seeking), Ace York City, Brazilian-born Neila chandise for chains such as Marshalls. underlines the important role that im- borrowed only about a third of made a counteroffer: a loan Granzoti Rudden started her own “Swimwear is one of the first migrants play in creating jobs and our apartment’s value,it’s still smaller than the one we’d swimwear line. The entrepreneur fi- things we wear in Brazil, and when spurring economic growth. Accord- a sizable loan, and Congress asked for that fell conve- nanced it with her savings and with you think of Brazil,you think of beau- ing to an analysis of U.S. Census data had just declined to extend the niently beneath the new jum- upper limit on what are called bo limit.Neither one of us felt “conforming loans”—those inclined to cough up the cash that Ace can sell off to the fed- to make up the difference.