Lawmakers weigh options as borough jails inch forward
Rikers Island’s climbing population sets off alarm bells with its closure deadline rapidly approaching
BY NICK GARBERBy now the city was supposed to be well on its way to closing the dysfunctional Rikers Island jail complex. But as the process stalls under Mayor Eric Adams, a group of lawmakers wants to force City Hall’s hand by pushing through
a plan that would drive down the facility’s population.
Rikers Island’s population stands at nearly 6,000—well above the target of 3,300 that the city needs to reach by 2027 to t detainees into a set of four smaller, borough-based jails that are intended to replace Rikers. As the population has stag-
nated and even risen in recent months, Adams has openly cast doubt on the legally binding closure plan put in place by his predecessor, Bill de Blasio.
Despite neighborhood opposition, work has slowly progressed on the new jails. Demolition is underway on lockups in Manhattan’s Chi-
natown, Downtown Brooklyn and Kew Gardens, Queens, where new jails will then be built, according to weekly updates posted by the city. Excavation has begun for the new Bronx jail in Mott Haven.
But the city’s recent admission
SMALL-BIZ SURVIVORS
Checking in on familyowned businesses that have thrived across generations
BY OLIVIA BENSIMONFloor-to-ceiling shelves of candy and chocolates adorn the walls of Economy Candy on Rivington Street in Manhattan, and a smell of sweetness permeates the air. Foot-tra c has been on the rise as the weather warms and more tourists visit the shop, a welcome relief for Mitchell Cohen and Skye Green eld Cohen, the husband-wife pair that runs the shop.
“My parents came in for the rst time in years, and they were saying they couldn’t count the number of di erent languages they could hear in the store,” said Mitchell Cohen, referring to Jerry and Ilene Cohen—the second-generation owners who ran Economy Candy after Morris “Moishe” Cohen opened up the shop in 1937.
Not all shops were so lucky; the pandemic devastated such small businesses nationwide, and in the city, 4,000 closed permanently in the rst few months of shutdowns, according to data from the city comptroller’s o ce. An audit from the comptroller found that the city’s Department of Small Business Services was not diligent enough in ensuring equitable distribution of Covid-19 assistance to businesses in need, putting many of the storefronts that create the city’s character into further crisis.
Crain’s checked in with a handful of small businesses whose generation-spanning presence has
City to destroy waterside Queens restaurant that played a bit part in a de Blasio-era scandal
BY NICK GARBER
Did you dream of owning the shuttered waterside restaurant in Long Island City that played host to countless weddings and nearly got former Mayor Bill de Blasio indicted?
If so, too bad: Months after putting the former Water’s Edge property up for auction, the city has pulled the listing and decided instead to destroy the barges on which it sits, Crain’s has learned.
For nearly a half-century starting in 1980, Water’s Edge was a sought-after venue for its luxe menu and sweeping views of the Midtown skyline. Its home was a pair of 2-story, city-owned barges docked in the East River near Vernon Boulevard.
But its owner, Harendra Singh, became embroiled in a lease battle with the city, which said that by 2014 he owed $1.2 million in rent and other fees related to the upkeep of the pier where the barges are docked. As he struggled to hang on to his space, Singh hosted two fundraisers at Water’s Edge, one in 2011, the other in 2013, for de Blasio, then the city’s public advocate, during de Blasio’s campaign for mayor.
De Blasio’s campaign paid nothing for the events at the time, authorities later said—making them an illegal free gift from Singh to the future mayor. Singh was arrested in
2015 in connection with a bribery scheme involving public o cials on Long Island, including then-Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, who was convicted of corruption and is serving a 12-year sentence. Singh was a star witness in the case. For de Blasio, Singh testi ed that he had hosted the events “in exchange of help, you know, at Water’s Edge, getting the lease extended and getting the pier issue resolved,” the Daily News reported.
‘Pulled from auction’
Water’s Edge closed in 2015 following Singh’s arrest, and the city nally evicted the business from the barges in 2020. In November 2022 came the news that the city had listed the barges for auction at
restaurant—which hosted Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley’s wedding reception in 1985—now strewn with furniture and covered in gra ti. It had a blunt assessment of the venue’s condition: “Poor.”
e city gave people until December 2022 to submit bids. But it’s unclear whether anyone had the chance. In response to a request for updates by Crain’s, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services said last month that the barges were “pulled from auction after we determined that in [their] state the vessels could not be soundly moved.”
“We have placed an order to have the barges destroyed e ciently and ethically,” Anessa Hodgson, a department representative, said in an email.
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just $15,000, using the same online platform that it uses to sell o discarded desk chairs, light bulbs— and, last year, an old Staten Island Ferry boat.
A winning bidder would need to pay out of pocket to tow the barges away safely, the city said. e listing included photos showing the decrepit interior of the once-grand
REAL ESTATE
Once the city secures funding for the demolition, it will take at least eight months to destroy the barges and clear the debris, Hodgson said. When de Blasio took o ce in 2014, his aides indeed worked to help Singh resolve his lease dispute, according to emails released during the government’s case against the restaurateur. As for the free fundraisers, Singh fabricated bills for the two events years later, in 2015, after the city’s Campaign Finance Board opened an investigation, the Daily News reported.
Singh, who cooperated with federal prosecutors following his arrest, later testi ed that he had told de Blasio about an illegal scheme to raise money for the mayor’s political allies using fake, “straw” donors to get around contribution limits. De Blasio responded, “Do whatever you got to do, but I don’t want to know,” Singh testi ed. Federal prosecutors ultimately opted against charging de Blasio, although the Manhattan district attorney later said de Blasio’s actions had been “contrary to the intent and spirit of the laws.”
Singh pleaded guilty to bribery charges—including a charge for trying to bribe an unnamed city ofcial. But his sentencing, rst scheduled for 2017, has been
pushed back for years without explanation, the news outlet e City reported in the fall.
Without the barges, it’s unclear what the future holds for the pier, which opened to the public for the rst time in 2016 following a renovation. at year the city’s Economic Development Corp. solicited bids to build commercial space and housing on two sites that include the Water’s Edge property, ultimately choosing the developer TF Cornerstone to construct a 1.5 million-square-foot mixed-use project.
But little progress has apparently been made since then, as the project ran into community opposition for its size and dearth of a ordable units. ■
Elizabeth Crowley to replace Lou Coletti as Building Trades leader in early May
BY EDDIE SMALL CROWLEY, a former member of the City Council, will take the reins from Coletti, who is planning to start his own consulting rm.
Lou Coletti will retire from his longtime position as president of the Building Trades Employers Association during the rst week of May and will be replaced by Elizabeth Crowley, a former member of the City Council who will be the rst woman to lead the organization.
Crowley worked as a union restorative painter on city landmarks before representing Queens on the City Council from 2009 to 2017. She plans to focus on making the construction industry more diverse and the city’s buildings more environmentally friendly as the incoming leader of the city’s largest association of contractors, an organization that dates back to 1903.
“We have more work to do growing minority- and women-owned businesses and also diversifying the industry—getting more women into the trades,” she told Crain’s.
A ordable housing will be a top priority for the BTEA under Crowley as well, she said, stressing the need to make sure the city is building it quickly and with well-paying union jobs. Crowley said she plans to work with city and state leaders to push for zoning changes that will make it easier to build these types of residential projects, and she described the current lack of a ordable housing as one of the biggest problems facing New York.
“It has not been built union, nor has it been a ordable, and we are in a crisis,” she said. “Our city is in a crisis with young people not being able to a ord and families not being able to a ord proper housing.”
Moving on Coletti has led the BTEA for more than 20 years and plans to start his own consulting rm after stepping down from the organization. His new company will focus on reducing development and construction
costs in the city. Coletti cited rising construction costs as the biggest change the industry had seen during his time as BTEA president in a previous interview with Crain’s
“I look forward to seeing Elizabeth’s leadership and vision continue to advance the BTEA,” Coletti said in a statement. “It has been an honor to lead this organization, see it grow and make a positive impact on the lives of so many people who work in the construction industry.”
Crowley represented District 30
in Queens, which includes the borough’s Ridgewood, Maspeth and Glendale neighborhoods, on the City Council and was narrowly defeated by the current councilman, Bob Holden, in 2017. She has run for multiple other o ces since then, losing an extremely tight primary for Queens Borough President in 2021 to Donovan Richards and a primary for a state Senate district representing parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens in 2022 to Kristen Gonzalez. ■
“WE HAVE PLACED AN ORDER TO HAVE THE BARGES DESTROYED EFFICIENTLY AND ETHICALLY”
THE FORMER Water’s Edge restaurant in Long Island City, as it appears today
Den Outdoors wants to make building a cabin as easy as buying a car
The Rhinecliff, Dutchess County-based startup provides homebuilders with design plans and connects them to contractors
The upstart: Den Outdoors
Mike Romanowicz never imagined he would get into the home construction business. After studying political science at Rutgers, he spent 15 years in tech, helping startups design software applications.
“But I felt this existential gap,” the 41-year-old says. “I’d done a lot on the screen but didn’t have much to show for it.”
Several years ago he set out to build a home for his family in the Catskills, overlooking the Hudson River. “I was like, ‘I’ll be able to gure this out,’ ” he says of the project. “But I was really surprised by the complexity of it.”
Complex it was—but also satisfying. After all those years designing digital products, building a cabin felt enormously ful lling. His next idea: streamlining the process of building a cabin by providing plans for upscale cabins and connecting customers with contractors.
e result is Den Outdoors, based in Rhinecli , Dutchess County. It has so far assisted with 64 housing builds, mainly in the U.S., and in February it launched a full-service option that will oversee the home construction process for customers, from land selection to xture installation.
One of the company’s earlier customers was Michael Penchansky, a South Orange, New Jersey, tech executive who wanted to build a vacation home that he could rent on Airbnb for extra cash. After buying a plot of land in Hunter in New York’s Greene County, he discovered local architects were charging $15,000 to $30,000 for a suitable home design.
Penchansky and his wife instead opted for Den’s 1,600-square-foot, four-bedroom, Barnhouse design, one of the company’s most popular options. e $3,000 plan set included detailed specs, and Den worked closely over the phone with Penchansky on modi cations. It also assisted the homebuilder when it had questions about construction requirements.
e build took about six months, Penchansky says, and the resulting $600,000 house has rented on Airbnb every week
since it hit the market in October, commanding up to $700 a night. “We’ve only had the opportunity to stay there once,” he says of himself and his family.
The reigning Goliath: Lennar Homes
From its founding in 1954 as a local Miami homebuilder, Lennar is the second-largest home construction company in the U.S. It is active in 26 states; its 2022 revenue topped $33 billion on 66,399 new home deliveries.
How to slay the giant
Romanowicz self-funded the startup during its rst year in beta mode. He worked with architects and customers to design distinctive vacation homes that stood out in the market. e small, minimalist Scandinavian- and Japanese-inspired plans appealed to city dwellers looking to build a vacation home for themselves that would also perform well on Airbnb.
“ e incumbent competitors had just standard American architecture—nothing novel or interesting,” Romanowicz says.
Den launched in the summer of 2020 with just ve designs, but the cabin plans were a hit—it sold 808 sets in the rst year. e distinctive designs generated a big community of Den design bu s, whose ideas helped shape additional layouts.
Den initially sold complete cabin kits for about $25,000 that included all the construction materials needed to build a 120-square-foot A-frame. But despite selling about 40 kits to customers across the U.S., the enterprise turned out to be a bad business. Complicated sales and service demands made it di cult to scale, and the business model confused potential investors. “ ey were like, ‘Which direction are you going?’ ” Romanowicz recalls. “ ‘Are you going to sell wood or are you going to sell pixels?’ ”
Den scrapped the idea to explore a new opportunity: Hundreds of customers were asking for help nding a good homebuilder to construct the plans they had purchased. Why not connect customers to a homebuilder and other
service providers?
“It was a no-brainer for us,” Romanowicz says.
e resulting platform, BuiltBy Den, walks buyers through land acquisition and the home plan and option selection processes, provides permitting guidance and connects the buyers with a lender and a builder. A Den construction manager oversees each project. e platform also provides customers with real-time construction progress updates.
Although the BuiltBy plans are con gurable, the specs are largely decided by the Den design team, which results in a home build that costs about half the time and money of a custom build, Romanowicz says. Prices range from $200,000 for a 500-square-foot accessory dwelling to more than $700,000 for a 1,900-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bath “modern farmhouse.”
e new initiative caught investors’ attention—Den recently closed on $3 million in seed funding.
“Anytime you have a product where customers are banging on your door and saying, ‘Hey, we want this,’ and there’s money to be made is a space where there’s a win-win,” says Ryan Morgan, managing director of Crossbeam, a venture capital rm that, with Gutter Capital, participated in the February seed round.
Building a home can be terrifying, Morgan says, adding: “But it should be as easy as buying a car. Someone needs to make it that easy, and we think Den is the group.”
The next challenge
BuiltBy Den is launching in the Hudson Valley, where the startup has relationships with several builders on board to build Den homes, and Romanowicz is planning to construct a model home later in the spring in Rhinebeck. After that the company will launch in additional metropolitan areas that have already proved popular with the Den crowd, including Asheville, North Carolina, along with spots in Texas and the Paci c Northwest. ■
Anne Kadet is the creator of Café Anne, a weekly newsletter with a New York City focus.
Ad exec moves away from the neighbors he satirized
Richard Kirshenbaum, who lampooned wealthy residents in an Observer column, lists his Upper East Side duplex
BY C. J. HUGHESRichard Kirshenbaum, an advertising executive who handled marketing for Target and other major companies before going on to gently mock the wealthy and powerful in newspaper columns, is looking to leave his affluent uptown enclave behind.
The founder of Kirshenbaum Bond and Partners listed his duplex co-op on Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side for $12.85 million on April 4.
The prewar apartment, No. 4/5A at 955 Fifth Ave., features five bedrooms, five and a half baths and direct Central Park views. There’s also a living room with a fireplace, a library with a fireplace and a formal
THE HOME FEATURES
$12.85M
LISTING PRICE for No. 4/5A at 955 Fifth Ave.
But in the decades that followed, the firm, which was known for irreverent campaigns, such as handing out dollar bills adorned with client-branded stickers, had a roster that included Target, Moët and Chandon, and BMW. A version of Wendy, the red-headed face of the eponymous fast-food chain, was reportedly a brainchild.
The agency MDC Partners bought a majority stake in the firm in 2004 and completed its acquisition in 2010.
FIVE BEDROOMS, FIVE AND A HALF BATHS AND DIRECT CENTRAl pARK VIEWS
dining room in the home, which is the result of a combination of two separate units.
Kirshenbaum and his wife, Dana Geier-Kirshenbaum, a former entertainment publicist, bought No. 5A for an unknown price in 1994, according to tax records. They added downstairs No. 4A for $4.5 million in 2008, records show.
The 18-story building, near East 77th Street, is from the 1930s. It has only about two apartments per floor. It once counted Hollywood icon Robert Redford as a shareholder.
In 1987 Richard Kirshenbaum and Jonathan Bond founded Kirshenbaum Bond with apparently jus t a single client, Thomas Cole.
REAL ESTATEKirshenbaum is chief executive of Swat by Kirshenbaum, a soup-tonuts branding studio that has a venture-capital arm. “I go against the herd,” Kirshenbaum told Crain’s in 1999 after being selected as a 40 Under 40 honoree. “If everyone is going one way, I go the other.”
“Isn’t That Rich?” a column that Kirshenbaum penned for several years in the 2010s for the Observer in which he lampooned the lifestyles of his similarly well-off neighbors (although strategically never sourcing quotes by name), was later turned into a book.
“Paid friends. Pot dealers draped in Dolce. Divorce settlements that include the Birkins at their current retail price,” is how an official blurb on Amazon describes the book.
Nikki Field, the Sotheby’s agent who is marketing the co-op, did not respond to an email requesting comment. ■
No relief for city’s renters as spring apartment-hunting season arrives
BY EDDIE SMALLRents across the city are continuing to set records with the arrival of the spring apartment-hunting season.
The median rent in Manhattan hit $4,175 in March, up 2% from February and 12.8% year over year, according to the latest report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel. The report said the median rent as well as the net effective median rent, at $4,124, set records. The latter figure means tenants are still paying historically high prices even when factoring in concessions such as months of free rent.
But these lofty prices don’t seem to be keeping tenants out of the
market. There were 4,863 new leases signed in March, the second-highest total on record for that month and up significantly from the 4,037 leases signed in February, according to the report. The number of apartments on the market also went up year over year for the fifth month in a row, rising from 4,532 to 6,366, the report says.
The story was similar in Brooklyn and northwest Queens, even as overall prices remained lower in the outer boroughs than in Manhattan.
The median rent in Brooklyn climbed to a new high for March at $3,493, up month over month and year over year, while the net effective median rent hit its sec-
ond-highest level on record at $3,459, according to the report. Tenants still signed 2,114 new leases last month, a record for March, while listing inventory rose to 3,746 apartments, up 25.2% year over year.
In northwest Queens, the median and net effective median rents were both the second-highest in history at $3,300 and $3,265, respectively. Tenants signed 497 leases, a record for the month, and there were bidding wars at more than 1 in 5 apartments, the highest level in more than two years of keeping track, according to the report. Listing inventory reached 526 apartments, up month over month and year over year. ■
Paris vote raises questions on e-scooters in New York
In the popular imagination, history is treated as a single march forward. One policy leads to another, a change becomes permanent, and a society accelerates into the future. Undoing change is not supposed to happen, exactly. Especially if the evolution is linked to environmental concerns.
But in Paris last week, voters overwhelmingly decided they didn’t want rental electric scooters in their city any longer. The referendum will soon be acted on by the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, who is otherwise beloved in transportation and urbanism circles. In 2021 she drew international headlines for her proposal to remove more than half of Paris’ car parking spaces and turn the ChampsÉlysées into a “fantastic garden.”
The ban was all the more ironic because Paris had originally been an e-scooter trendsetter: App-based rentals were legalized there in 2018. Parisians can still own e-scooters when Hidalgo implements the results of the referendum; they simply won’t be able to rent them any longer, cutting down drastically on their number in the streets.
New York, for now, is moving in the opposite direction. Mayor Eric
RIKERS
FROM PAGE 1
Adams recently announced that, starting in the summer, e-bikes and e-scooters will be allowed in city parks. Given how enthusiastically political leaders here have embraced electric micromobility, there was little surprise in the announcement. Considering that the souped-up bikes and scooters can go everywhere else, why not allow them on park drives and greenways?
It is notable, though, where Paris, an electric micromobility pioneer, is headed. New Yorkers could eventually force a course correction. Such a move would be years away—the state Legislature legalized the small electric vehicles, in part, to benefit delivery workers, many of them undocumented immigrants—and would be fraught, given how closely e-bikes and e-scooters are tied to the greening of the city. The idea is that, with enough usage, people can be pulled out of their dangerous, polluting automobiles.
The Parisian e-scooter referendum was couched in safety concerns. Three deaths and 459 injuries were attributed to e-scooters in Paris last year, compared with one fatality and 353 injuries in 2021. Parisian pedestrians came to dislike the number of scooters speeding
saving the city $1.3 billion per year, thanks to their lower population and better staffing ratios.
“If we’re serious about closing Rikers Island, these are the investments that are required for us to do it,” said Restler, who represents northern Brooklyn.
Varied receptions
across the city. Before the referendum was held, Hidalgo had already forced the scooter companies to cap the speed of their vehicles at 20 kmph or 12.4 miles per hour.
New York, having championed the growth of e-bikes and e-scooters, faces a different dilemma. For pedestrians, the vehicles can be irksome—how many cyclists and joggers in Prospect Park, Central Park and elsewhere really want electric vehicles speeding past them all summer?—but the real danger lies in the proliferation of unsafe e-bike batteries. Uncertified lithium ion batteries can produce fires that are very difficult to put out. Used bike batteries thrown down trash chutes are also a serious fire hazard.
More regulation is needed
Far more regulation is needed, as well as a way to make app delivery companies responsible for the cost of safe equipment. But the Paris referendum raises unsettling questions for the many New York transit and environmental advocates who enthusiastically support both e-bikes and e-scooters. If a city like Paris wants to turn back the clock to a world before 2018, what does this mean for New York, exactly? Are the upsides of electric vehicles worth their downsides?
The proliferation of e-bikes and e-scooters has not meant a city free of automobile use. There’s no evi-
dence that the legalization of either has persuaded a significant number of New Yorkers to stop driving. The roadways remain congested. And now pedestrians face new obstacles, as e-scooters compete for precious space in the cityscape.
There’s an argument to be made that New York should follow Paris. If champions of electric micromobility are most concerned about car usage, they can support efforts to rapidly pedestrianize the parts of Manhattan that shouldn’t see any private automobile use. They can support resident parking permits and a reduction in the number of freely available parking spaces. And they can focus their attention on bolstering bus and subway service
Restler and Riley’s plan could be passed through regular legislation.
so public transportation is far more attractive than hopping a speeding scooter across Midtown.
Quick takes
● Will the Democrats in the state Legislature finally implement a plan for the public financing of elections statewide? The budget (now late) will tell us, along with where their priorities really lie.
● A federal judge in Manhattan approved a settlement to a class-action lawsuit that forces the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to equip 95% of subway and Staten Island Railway stations with elevators or ramps—but with a timeline of 30 years, it’s difficult to celebrate all that much. ■
Holding the mayor’s feet to the fire, City Council members Kevin Riley and Lincoln Restler released a plan last week that they say would reduce Rikers’ population by releasing certain detainees, expanding access to supportive housing and mental health programs, and speeding up case processing.
Their plan would cost the city about $300 million a year, including $100 million to ramp up a supervised release program and $117 million for housing for people released from custody. In addition, the case-processing arm of the plan calls for a $135 million funding boost for the city’s struggling public defense organizations, aimed at improving staff retention to avoid delaying cases.
Restler contends the plan would end up saving taxpayer dollars. It already costs the city $556,000 to incarcerate a single person for a year, according to a city comptroller analysis, and the commission charged with brainstorming the Rikers closure has estimated that the borough-based jails will end up
The new jails have gotten a largely negative reception in the neighborhoods designated to receive them. The opposition has been strongest in Lower Manhattan, where activists and elected officials argue that demolition of the existing “Tombs” and construction of the new 22-story jail could endanger businesses and worsen air quality.
The 19-story jails planned for the Bronx and Queens both faced lawsuits, each of which was eventually dismissed. Unlike the other borough-based jails, the Bronx facility is not being built on the site of an existing jail, instead being constructed atop a former city Police Department tow pound more than a mile away from the borough’s courthouse complex near the Grand Concourse.
A relative exception has been Downtown Brooklyn, whose more muted opposition has been credited to the neighborhood’s familiarity with the decades-old Brooklyn Detention Center.
“We’ve had 70 years of this detention center operating, so I think neighbors have been accustomed to coexisting with this facility,” Res-
GERARDO ROMO/NYC COUNCIL MEDIA UNIT
tler, who represents the neighborhood, told Crain’s last year.
Budget timing
It is no accident that the plan is being introduced in the middle of the city’s budget season, and Restler said he hoped much of the funding could be included in the city’s next financial plan. That could be a tough sell, given the strained fiscal picture that the Adams administration has painted. But the City Council’s official response to the mayor’s budget also included funding demands, such as opening more hospital beds for people in custody and expanding a key supportive housing program. Beyond funding, other parts of
They endorse a bill by City Council member Carlina Rivera, who represents Manhattan, that would set up review teams to identify people in custody who could be safely released.
Rikers’ population had been steadily falling at the time the city passed its plan to close the complex in 2019, dropping to a low of less than 4,000 in the early weeks of the pandemic. But it has risen under Adams, who has floated the need for a Plan B if the city is unable to hit its target of 3,300.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and others have criticized the mayor for his wavering. Some critics have questioned his support for a rollback of bail reform—such as the change being pushed by Gov. Kathy Hochul as part of state budget negotiations—which they say would only result in more people being held in pretrial detention.
Mayor Adams insisted in a statement last Thursday that he would “follow the law” that mandates closing Rikers.
“The question of the jail popula-
tion being larger than the borough-based jails plan is the elephant in the room when discussing this, and I’m not going to shy away from talking about the challenges and the reality that we face,” Adams said.
“We are exploring all options that will allow us to keep our streets safe and follow the law: everything from urging the state for more funding for mental health services so people don’t end up on Rikers, to additional space, to ways we can keep the courts moving and functioning properly. We’ll review the [City Council members’] report.”
The mayor is not the only one who finds the closure plan unrealistic. A December report by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, suggested that the city could not reach the 3,300-person threshold without either overcrowding the new jails or releasing “dangerous [and] flight-prone offenders.”
But Jonathan Lippman, the former state chief judge who now chairs the commission pushing the Rikers closure, has insisted that the city has the means to meet its 2027 target.
“Changing nothing in our justice system and stepping back from closing Rikers would hurt public safety and crime victims,” Lippman wrote in a January op-ed. “With investments, proper treatment and swift justice, New York City will safely lower the jail population— and create far better outcomes for our entire city.” ■
ASKED & ANSWERED
JODY RUDIN Institute for Community Living DOSSIER
INTERVIEW BY JACQUELINE NEBERJody Rudin has loved ones who have experienced mental illness. As such, she has always been determined to ensure they know they’re not alone. That determination has poured into her role as executive director of the Institute for Community Living, which she took on in 2021. The organization serves as many as 13,000 people a year and has helped 3,500 New Yorkers avoid homelessness or hospitalization through its behavioral health and housing programs. This year the institute is seeking to expand its services, which is particularly important given that mental health crises have been on the rise among New Yorkers— and are a frequent topic of discussion among the city’s leaders. As the subject of mental health becomes a greater part of the public conversation, Rudin is looking to help stem the stigma surrounding mental illness.
How would you describe the state of mental health care in the city?
We have a fragmented system of care. There are some really strong programs for people who are experiencing mental health challenges that are trauma-informed and person-centered. But there are way too many points along the process or within the system of care where people get lost, particularly when they move in and out of other systems like jails or hospitals. So we need to build on the things that are working so that we can serve more people and so that people don't fall through the cracks.
What were your priorities over the past year to make sure New Yorkers had access to mental health care? We’ve been really trying to pivot in learning some of the
WHO Executive director, Institute for Community Living
GREW UP Great Neck, Long Island RESIDES Park Slope, Brooklyn
EDUCATION Bachelor’s in psychology and philosophy, Emory University; master of public administration, NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
FAVORITE ROUTE One of Rudin’s hobbies is running, and her favorite route takes her through Prospect Park.
PROUD MOMENT Rudin is a first-time executive director at the Institute for Community Living, having left a job at Project Renewal. “Finding the courage to step into a bigger role and meet that professional challenge and take that risk is something that I’m proud of,” she said.
lessons of the pandemic. Mental illness and mental health challenges are so very much more on the forefront in all of our lives— who doesn't have a personal experience at this point? We’ve been trying to seize on this opportunity to help to reduce the stigma and lean in and support the people we serve.
What would you say is the biggest challenge your industry faces?
Workforce issues. At ICL we have a 25% vacancy rate, and we’re no different than our colleagues providing services in the field. There is a challenge to recruiting and retaining people to do this work.
What is stopping mental health providers from paying their workers competitively?
We are largely government funded. So we need to receive cost-of-living increases from our funders. The state had implemented a 5.4% [increase] last year, which was great. And there's a lot of current
advocacy to get an 8.5% cost of living increase in both the city and state budgets, and that needs to happen. And then I think there are broader strategic discussions about how we value these jobs more in society, and how we incentivize people to go to school for social work and to go into these professions.
What is a solution to the low health insurance reimbursement rates that your industry is subject to?
We do have a handful of programs that have not performed well financially through the pandemic largely because of staff shortages. And so if you don’t have social workers and nurse practitioners and doctors on staff to see patients and to bill and generate revenue, that creates a real finance [challenge] but also creates a service challenge. It’s a problem, and it goes back to the workforce and needing to figure out how to hire enough staff to meet the need out there and the demand for the services but also to be in a position to have the program be financially viable.
What are the mental health services
New Yorkers need most?
We as a society have never made good on the promise that followed deinstitutionalization where we moved people into the community and promised a continuum of care. And so I think that’s everything from clinics to mobile treatment teams to more inpatient hospital beds, and ultimately to permanent, affordable and supportive housing. We at ICL have seen intensive mobile treatment teams and assertive community treatment teams be particularly effective at helping people who would otherwise fall through the cracks because the teams go out looking for individuals and find them wherever they are. So investment in mobile treatment is certainly a wise investment. Ultimately, you need to be able to offer permanent stability, and that’s in the form of supportive housing. ■
City should implement Manhattan boro prez’s plan to shed unnecessary sidewalk sheds
Last month Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine put out a plan to help the city shed its sidewalk sheds in a more timely fashion. When they stay up too long, the structures, meant to keep New Yorkers safe from falling debris and equipment as repairs are done to building facades, can negatively a ect neighborhoods, hiding storefronts and serving as magnets for public urination and drug use.
e borough president’s plan notes that sca olding is up for 498 days on average. And although the sheds provide an essential service, the document says, “we must be proactive in ensuring that they are up only for the duration of time required to perform needed work or inspection safely and not used to delay repairing dangerous facades.”
Levine outlines ve strategies for making sure the sheds do not stay up longer than necessary, including providing nancial or decision-making support to buildings that need help getting repairs done and holding properties accountable when work is not nished in an acceptable timeframe. e latter strategy could include increasing nes on property owners, giving the
OP-ED
Department of Buildings emergency powers to step in and complete the work, and assisting tenants living in a building with long-term sca olding in receiving a rent abatement.
Although the borough president’s o ce does not have the authority to mandate these strategies on its own, the state and city governments and the Department of Buildings should take the plan seriously and work to implement it. Sidewalk sheds are a neighborhood blight that can make residents feel unsafe and deter foot tra c to stores and restaurants, which can appear closed down as work toils on.
And property owners who would rather put up a shed and pretend to do repairs than actually undertake them should face consequences. ese landlords should not be able to negatively a ect the quality of life in their neighborhood for years on end without having to answer for it.
If residents feel unsafe entering their building or ground- oor retail locations lose customers as a result of longstanding sidewalk sheds, a hefty ne and a rent abatement are the least they can do to make up for it.
At the time the report was released, a spokesman for the
Department of Buildings said, “We appreciate the borough president’s recommendations and look forward to reviewing his speci c proposals,” adding that the mayor is “laser-focused on reclaiming valuable public space for New Yorkers [and] strengthening oversight of longstanding sidewalk sheds.”
And the Real Estate Board of New York told Crain’s last week that it agrees there is value to updating sca old policies and
looks forward to collaborating on the issue.
Helping New Yorkers feel safe on local streets and ensuring businesses have the tools they need to reach customers are both essential to a vibrant, bustling city. e Department of Buildings and the state and local governments should take the borough president’s report seriously and hold landlords accountable for removing the blight of unnecessary sheds once and for all. ■
Congestion pricing for roads works, and the data from other cities proves it
BY MARY BARBERNew York is poised to be the rst city in the United States to implement a tolling program to combat tra c congestion and incentivize the use of public transportation.
is approach has successfully reduced tra c and improved air quality in London, Stockholm and Singapore and raised signi cant funding for public transit. While each city faces challenges, evidence shows that these programs reduce tra c, improve air quality and raise revenue to modernize public transportation.
Congestion pricing isn’t new. Given the return to prepandemic tra c, congestion pricing is more necessary than ever to reduce trafc, slash pollution and provide the funding needed to modernize trains, buses and subways throughout the region. In addition, the city and the state are developing complementary policies to
electrify trucks and incentivize freight movement with rail and maritime solutions.
As transportation is one of the state’s most polluting sectors, it is critical that New York reduce transportation emissions to improve public health. Transportation emissions directly a ect the health of millions of New Yorkers, leading to signi cant health issues, particularly in low-income and environmental justice communities.
Environmental bene ts
London implemented its congestion pricing program 20 years ago. After the rst year, tra c in the congestion pricing zone fell by 30% and continued to decrease despite a 15% increase in London’s population. Public transportation ridership and bike use increased immediately.
In 10 years the program raised more than $1.4 billion for public transportation improvements.
is signi cant reduction in vehi-
cle travel had real health and environmental bene ts from decreased carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter emissions.
In Stockholm, tra c and emissions both in and out of the congestion zone fell. In Singapore, despite population growth, tra c congestion fell, and average vehicle speeds increased signi cantly. With funding from the city’s tolling program, Singapore expanded public transit systems, increasing ridership and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
e Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s environmental assessment of New York City’s tolling program found that the city would expect successes similar to those seen abroad. Under every proposed tolling scenario, total vehicle miles traveled would fall, and the program would generate more than $1 billion per year for critically needed renovations to transit across the region.
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Congestion pricing will bene t all New Yorkers, but it is critical in overburdened communities, such as the South Bronx, where high asthma rates are driven by exposure to emissions from truck exhaust on the Cross Bronx Expressway. e Transit Mobility Review Board must ensure the program reduces emissions in these communities, and the MTA and the state have to guarantee complementary programs, such as truck and bus electri cation, are prioritized for environmental justice communities.
Congestion pricing works, and the data backs it up. It’s time for the state and the MTA to make it a reality. It must be implemented quickly with expanded zero-emission vehicle infrastructure and bus electri cation to keep New Yorkers healthy and moving again. ■
Mary Barber is director of state a airs at the Environmental Defense Fund.
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Law without enforcement is a dangerous illusion
BY MICHAEL MAZZAAs recreational cannabis rolls over New York like a thick fog, our communities are experiencing the pain that occurs when the market for an adult product is opened without proper governance.
In the absence of clear rules, the resulting chaos could cost our state more than $4 billion. While cannabis is legal, unlicensed operators still sell illegal weed and violent criminals exploit the confusion to generate massive profits.
Tax increases or bans on adult products have ripple effects. While many are designed to shape consumer behavior, they often just create illicit markets.
Case study
The tobacco market in New York provides an important case study on law without enforcement. New York leads the nation in illicit tobacco with more than 60% of all cigarettes in the state sold illegally.
you can walk into any smoke shop in New York and find illegal vapes in kid-friendly flavors available for sale.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has been criticized that her administration is failing on public safety. If our leaders want to prevent crime, instead of fueling it, it’s essential that they enforce the laws we have before they enact more laws and pour gas on the fire.
We are in the heart of the legislative session as legislators sit cloistered in Albany enacting laws with the stroke of a pen. Unfortunately, most new legislation fails to account for the full impact of the law.
OP-ED
High excise taxes in New York embolden criminals to smuggle cigarettes from low-tax states and reap profits. Yet even though a high tax has earned New York the distinction of being the nation’s capital of cigarette smuggling, the governor wants to raise the tax higher by adding another $1 per pack.
Or take the crusade against flavored tobacco. New York is one of the few states that have banned flavored vapes to combat the problem of teen vaping. While the Food and Drug Administration banned flavored e-cigarettes nationally, it left a loophole permitting disposable vapes. All the while the flood of illegal vapes from China is exploding. Laws without enforcement means today
As wholesalers, we service responsible retailers with convenience items throughout the state. We also provide a public service by collecting hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue that funds government services. We expect our government to enforce the laws its members enact and to foster an environment that sustains legitimate businesses. Many of these shady businesses selling illegal vapes aren’t legitimate retailers licensed to sell tobacco. They operate outside the law. Sen. Chuck Schumer has called on the FDA to investigate these products and the companies that sell them. Despite evidence that New York’s law enforcement community lacks the resources to police the legal tobacco and cannabis markets, the governor is still pushing for a ban on menthol cigarettes. The hypocrisy of banning flavored tobacco to protect children while celebrating the launch of a cannabis market that sells flavored marijuana and THC candy is mind-boggling.
But one thing is certain: A state-
wide ban on menthols will just inflame the criminal market in New York. Massachusetts tried it, and smuggling has skyrocketed.
Violent consequences
New York’s policymakers need to recognize that law without enforcement is a dangerous illusion. From the Prohibition era to the war on drugs, we have seen how aggressive policies to restrict use of adult products without a meaningful enforcement strategy will backfire
with violent consequences.
Before we raise taxes or ban products, let’s get the laws we already have right, provide more enforcement resources and combat the illicit market. It’s time for our elected officials to focus on sustaining an environment where legitimate businesses such as mine can thrive. ■
It’s possible to find common ground in fighting crime
BY JESSICA WALKER AND DON WINTER
Crime and public safety are among the most contentiously debated issues right now.
That is why we convened an anti-crime summit in January with key policymakers, including Mayor Adams, Manhattan District Attorney Bragg and state government representatives. The objective was to elevate the conversation on crime and move beyond the narrow issues that divide us (namely, bail reform) to identify areas where we can partner.
exodus of residents and businesses from New York.
These truths forced our summit attendees to move beyond entrenched political ideology to identify common-sense policy solutions.
Tweak previous reforms
MUST SUppOrT iNTErVENTiONS THAT DETEr REVERTING TO CRIME
The summit began with experts getting everyone on the same page. Four fundamental truths emerged: Rising crime is a serious concern for the majority of New Yorkers; workers’ fears of riding the subway and being attacked by emotionally disturbed persons are contributing to the slow return-to-office; rates of commercial shoplifting have exploded in the city, and a small number of repeat offenders are responsible for most of these crimes; and all of this is helping to drive the
First, we can address high rates of criminal recidivism by tweaking the discovery reforms enacted statewide in 2019. The law requires prosecutors to disclose all evidence to the defense earlier in case proceedings, which is onerous and has undermined public safety by causing thousands of cases to be dismissed on legal technicalities, without regard to the merit of the underlying charges.
Needed changes include requiring prejudice before dismissing a case for discovery noncompliance, requiring the defense attorney to challenge discovery violations in a timely manner, and imposing a “substantial compliance” requirement that would allow cases to move forward without having to turn over discovery items that lack evidentiary value.
Next, we can make workers feel safer by improving the mental health outcomes of emotionally
disturbed persons. We must implement Gov. Kathy Hochul’s comprehensive plan to overhaul New York’s continuum of mental health care and drastically reduce the number of individuals with unmet mental health needs. This plan includes increasing operational capacity by 1,000 beds for inpatient psychiatric treatment, creating 3,500 units of housing to ser ve New Yorkers with mental illness, increasing insurance coverage for mental health services and dramatically expanding outpatient ser vices.
Finally, we must support community-based interventions that deter offenders from reverting to a life of crime. This can be achieved by increasing the number and use of community courts and specialty courts like drug court. These courts combine conventional punishments with alternative sanctions and on-site treatment and training in an effort to break the “revolving door” cycle of crime.
In addition, we should advance Clean Slate legislation that will automatically clear a New Yorker’s conviction record once he or she becomes eligible. Previously intro-
duced legislation had deficiencies, but with appropriate modifications, it could reduce barriers to employment while ensuring criminal records are still available when people apply for certain permits, licenses and jobs that require enhanced security clearance.
Common sense measures
No matter your background or political affiliation, these are common-sense measures that all New
Yorkers can support to improve our public safety. Indeed, there is no issue that New Yorkers cannot tackle when we focus on areas of fundamental agreement. ■
Jessica Walker is president and CEO of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. Don Winter is chairman of the board of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce and founder and CEO of Encompass Media Group.
LET’S GET THE lAWS WE ALREADY HAVE riGHT AND COMBAT THE illiCiT MARKET
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
ARCHITECTURE
Cass Calder Smith Architecture + Interiors
Cass Calder Smith, founder of Cass Calder Smith Architecture + Interiors, has been elevated to the AIA National College of Fellows (FAIA). His practice spanning 30 years has offices in San Francisco and New York City. Recent projects include the Tin Building by Jean-Georges in New York (Architect of Record), residences, restaurants, and showrooms in NYC and the Hamptons, and over one million square-feet of new commercial construction in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
FINANCIAL / TECHNOLOGY
Ampla Technologies
LAW
Hodgson Russ LLP
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
EisnerAmper
TECHNOLOGY
GWI
ENGINEERING
Milhouse Engineering and Construction, Inc.
Andrew Hollweck has joined Milhouse Engineering and Construction, Inc. as Chief Regional Officer, New York. He is responsible for driving Milhouse’s business expansion in New York City and State, while ensuring high-quality delivery of services to clients. He has 27 years of experience in leading strategic communication campaigns for large public agencies and engineering design/construction industry associations. His expertise will greatly contribute to Milhouse’s continued growth and success.
Ampla Technologies is thrilled to announce the hiring of two new employees, Tui Allen, Vice President of Product, and Khang Nguyen, Vice President of Credit. Ampla, which offers digital banking and working capital solutions to growing consumer brands, has expanded its executive team during a period when many competitors are pulling back on operations; the company anticipates it will extend one billion dollars in capital to brands this year. Tui and Khang have amassed a combined 35 years of experience in fintech; before Ampla, Tui was Head of Product at Shopify Capital, while Khang served as Chief Credit Officer for Rho. The two executives will report to Anthony Santomo, CEO, and Jim Cummings, Chief Operating Officer, respectively.
Mairi K. Stewart has joined Hodgson Russ LLP as Global Head of Attorney & Law Firm Operations. With two decades of experience as an attorney and legal operations leader, Mairi brings a deep understanding of client needs to Hodgson Russ, which will be instrumental in supporting the firm’s growth and building on its platform of exceptional service throughout its nine offices. She most recently served as Head of Legal Operations and Strategic Initiatives at Stikeman Elliott LLP in Toronto.
EisnerAmper has named Jennifer Sklar and Dean Peterson as international tax partners. Jennifer specializes in tax planning and advises on crossborder tax planning and foreign information reporting obligations. She analyzes the impact of U.S. income tax treaties with foreign jurisdictions on cross-border transactions, including sourcing rules, withholding tax obligations and benefits provision limitations. Dean provides comprehensive tax consulting services, advising clients on cross-border transactions, international tax planning, tax treaty matters, PFIC reporting, investments tax, and restructuring/legal entity rationalization. His prior experience includes M&As, foreign tax credit optimization and U.S. international tax compliance.
Audience insights technology company, GWI has appointed Carolyn Everson & Zillah Byng-Thorne as Non-Executive Directors. Everson previously served as President of Instacart and VP of Global Business at Meta and brings 28+ years of experience in consumer tech & media. Byng-Thorne joins GWI with over 20+ years of experience in executive roles in the tech sector, spanning digital media, e-commerce, gaming, and recently retired as Chief Executive of Future Plc. The two new board members will support GWI’s ambitious growth plans as the company focuses on further developing its SaaS platform,expanding past 52 markets & enhancing its data which represents 2.7B+ consumers globally & provides a much-needed alternative to traditional market research.
HEALTHCARE / INSURANCE
Cigna Healthcare
Cigna Healthcare named Jamie Jones GM for NY/NJ group employer business overseeing clients with 500+ employees.
GM Jeff Berardo oversees clients with under 500 employees. An 18-year Cigna veteran, Jamie is responsible for driving market growth by creating customer value and ensuring that local market strategy, product and network offerings meet evolving customer and client needs. He’ll work with the markets’ network leaders, medical executives and others to advance community outreach.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC leader on the lasting benefits of mentorship
INTERVIEW BY RAINA LIPSITZBig Brothers Big Sisters of NYC, founded in 1904, is the country’s first and the city’s largest youth-mentoring organization.
Alicia Guevara, the first woman to lead the organization, says she feels incredibly privileged to serve young people and advance diversity, equity and inclusion in her professional life. The businesses most likely to succeed at recruiting and retaining talented, diverse staff are those with “a willingness to embrace [employees] in their fullness,” she says. As a mother of two young children, she understands the need for and is proud of having created policies that offer much-needed support to her staff members and their families.
Guevara spoke with Crain’s about how mentorship can yield profound and lasting benefits for mentors and mentees alike.
BBBS of NYC pairs “Littles” (young people from ages 7 to 22) with “Bigs” (adult mentors). How do adults benefit from these relationships?
The benefits to the mentors are tremendous. Very often I’ll hear mentors say they get so much more out of the program than they give. Ninety-six percent of the volunteers in our workplace mentoring program say that they made a meaningful difference to the young people they mentored. There’s also a tremendous direct impact to them in terms of business benefits. Research has found that employees reported almost 30% higher career and job satisfaction when their companies support mentoring, compared to those that don’t. It certainly contributes to increased job retention, and many of our mentors find it increases access to promotion as well.
Takeaway for business professionals
BBBS of NYC serves 2,532 young people across all five boroughs. Roughly 97% of the young people it serves identify as people of color. After being paired with a mentor, 97% advance to the next grade, and 93% are accepted into college.
POWER MARKS
EMPLOYEES 100
ON HER RÉSUMÉ Chief executive officer, Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC; executive director, Part of the Solution; executive vice president and chief operating officer, Brooklyn Children’s Museum; executive director, Year Up New York
BORN Manhattan
GREW UP Fordham, Bronx
RESIDES Riverdale, Bronx
EDUCATION Bachelor’s in political science and history, Columbia University; executive education certificate in nonprofit management, Columbia University Business School
BREAKING THE MOLD Guevara is the first woman to lead BBBS of NYC in its 119-year history.
How do you find the right mentors for the young people who request them?
I would define the right mentor as someone who is caring, compassionate and invested in making a consistent commitment in the life of a young person, someone who’s committed to igniting potential and investing in the inherent potential of others, especially young people. Our ideal mentors have a readiness to enter into a relationship and a readiness to listen, to coach and to express empathy. Beyond recruitment, Big Brothers Big Sisters also extends support and training through our qualified staff. We have youth-development professionals who understand the demands and the experiences of our mentors and are able to very thoughtfully match them with Littles who have similar career interests and aspirations.
What does power mean to you, and how does it connect to BBBS of NYC’s mission?
To me, power is exercising the influence and the license to make a difference. And that’s precisely what we do by investing in a mentoring relationship. What we offer the mentor is an opportunity to ignite potential for the mentee, and for the mentee, what we offer is their own Big, through whom they can lean into their own inherent potential and power.
Do the people paired through Big Brothers Big Sisters stay in touch?
Our matches stay together for a little over three years on average, and it’s not unusual to find pairs who have been
together for decades, where the young person serves as the best person in the Big’s wedding or the Big is there for all of the major milestones in that young person’s life, everything from graduation to entering college to signing their first apartment lease and accepting their first job offer.
What can Bigs do to make their Littles feel comfortable and eager to engage?
The first is to listen. And to ensure that mentorship continues to be a vehicle through which young people can feel safe and receive a sense of security, especially in the workplace, where that sense of safety and security can mitigate the isolation that sometimes surfaces in a professional environment. I ask our mentors to be open to what our Littles are interested in exploring and not have the expectation that they’re going to do it exactly the way [they] did. The invitation is to stand with that young person and explore opportunities alongside them.
Besides a lack of mentors, what are the biggest obstacles to success for the
young people you serve?
For many of the young people that we serve, access and opportunity have been limited by systemic obstacles. And what mentorship offers is a leveling. Mentorship creates equity in a way that increases access and opportunity for young people. What a young person gains through mentoring is another member in their circle who is committed to them, who believes in them and believes in their potential. That experience can be so incredibly grounding and boosting for one’s self-confidence and belief in self.
What do young people get from mentors that they can’t necessarily get from their families?
Our families are very much part of the experience. We see the mentors as a complement to the family unit. Often our Littles are the “first” in their families: They may be first-generation Americans or first-generation high school graduates or college students. And so they may not have someone in their immediate family who can serve as a reference through their personal experience.
Mentors typically have more power than mentees. How can organizations ensure that mentees get as much out of the relationship as mentors?
It’s about centering the young person and ensuring that there is a commitment to center the interests, the needs, the aspirations, the goals, the challenges of the person being mentored. For mentors, entering the relationship with an awareness that there is so much for them to learn creates a leveling and increases equity in the relationship. Having that awareness really shifts whatever preconceived power dynamic may have been there. Our most successful relationships are not predicated on a savior complex; quite the contrary, the most successful relationships are those where our Little and the Big enter on equal footing.
Do you think mentorship is more effective when mentors and mentees share a racial and either an ethnic or gender identity or both? Why or why not?
I think that it is critically important that each of us sees reflections of ourselves in the roles that we aspire to. And for young people in particular, it is important that they see reflections of themselves and their diverse identities in positions of authority and success. That said, what’s most important in a mentoring relationship is that there be identified commonalities, identified shared interests, whether or not those span race- or gender-based identities. And it’s equally important that when those [shared identities] aren’t there, there will be other shared interests to anchor [the relationship]. ■
TOP-PAID HOSPITAL EXECUTIVES AND DOCTORS
Ranked by fiscal year 2021 cash compensation
TOP-PAID EXECUTIVES
TOP-PAID DOCTORS
TOP-PAID EXECUTIVES TOP-PAID DOCTORS
SOURCE: 2021 Forms 990 of New York area hospitals and health systems and SeeThroughNY. Area includes the city’s five boroughs plus Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties in New York and Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Union counties in New Jersey. Research by Amanda Glodowski and Zachary Smith. Total cash compensation includes base compensation, bonus and incentive compensation and other reportable compensation from the organization and related organizations. Other compensation includes nonreportable compensation, deferred compensation, retirement plan benefits, health care benefits and other fringe benefits from the organization and related organizations. Hospital employee compensation may not include medical school pay. Individuals may have additional titles. SERP-supplemental executive retirement plan. Notes on top-paid executives: 1 - Received $10,615,775 in a supplemental executive retirement plan and $1,146,250 in non-qualified deferred compensation plan and $954,528 in unvested benefits. 2 - Received $6,233,954 in a supplemental executive retirement plan and $1,176,000 in non-qualified deferred compensation plan and $954,528 in unvested benefits. 3 - Compensation included $380,219 in supplemental nonqualified retirement plan and $998,220 in supplemental nonqualified retirement plan as reported on W2. 4 - Participated in a supplemental executive retirement plan, contributing $4,269,178 and in a long-term incentive plan, contributing $734,467. 5 - Received $701,991 in a supplemental executive retirement plan based on multiple years of service. 6 - Compensation included $29,836 in supplemental nonqualified retirement plan and $886,058 in supplemental nonqualified retirement plan as reported on W2. 7Severance pay of $3,846,400 is included. 8 - Gragnolati received $74,902 in additional Basic Long Term Disability, Supplemental Long Term Disability, Life Insurance and Long Term Care and $1,056,002 in SERP credits and $421,486 in SERP distributions. 9 - Received $3,750,513 in a supplemental executive retirement plan and $405,315 in non-qualified deferred compensation plan and $433,500 in unvested benefits. 10- Davis was termed on June 30 and received $1,777,441 in a supplemental executive retirement plan and $382,664 in non-qualified deferred compensation plan and $135,3258 in unvested benefits. 11 - Received $2,001,371 in a supplemental executive retirement plan and $543,750 in non-qualified deferred compensation plan and $578,625 in unvested benefits. 12 - Received $2,696,632 in a supplemental executive retirement plan based on multiple years of service, of which $2,106,332 was accrued in prior year’s 990s as deferred compensation. 13 - Received $2,184,428 in a supplemental executive retirement plan and $475,000 in non-qualified deferred compensation plan. 14 - Received $2,021,189 in a supplemental executive retirement plan and $170,000 in non-qualified deferred compensation plan and $170,000 in unvested benefits. 15 - Received $2,696,632 in a supplemental executive retirement plan based on multiple years of service, of which $2,106,332 was accrued in prior year’s 990s as deferred compensation. 16 - Klein was termed $1,073,126 as part of a deferred compensation agreement. 17 - Lee received $742,308 in severance pay. 18 - Received $885,004 in a supplemental executive retirement plan based on multiple years of service. 19 - Received $396,703 in non-qualified deferred compensation plan and $198,930 in unvested benefits. Left organization in Sept. 2021.
Affordable senior housing from Breaking Ground heads to Jamaica
BY EDDIE SMALLBreaking Ground is moving forward with plans for an a ordable senior housing building in Jamaica.
e supportive housing giant recently led plans with the Department of Buildings for a 173-unit project at 97-10 Sutphin Blvd. in the Queens neighborhood, which has lately seen an in ux of development. e project will span about 151,000 square feet, and it will stand 15 stories or 163 feet tall.
Bernheimer Architecture is the ar-
tion. e balance of homes will be for seniors at or below 50% of the area median income, or $46,700 for an individual, and 30% will be reserved for the homeless.
e site is now home to a single-story public facility, and demolition permits have not been led for it yet, according to city records.
Breaking Ground, a nonpro t, focuses on developing supportive and a ordable housing in addition to providing outreach programs for social services and health care. It operates more than 4,500 housing units and has more than 1,000 in its development pipeline, according to the organization’s website.
THE NONPROFIT PLANS TO START CONSTRUCTION ON THE ROUGHLY $140 MILLION PROJECT IN AUGUST
chitect of record.
e project will include an ambulatory health facility on the cellar and ground oors in addition to the residential units.
Breaking Ground plans to start construction on the roughly $140 million project in August and nish in 2025, according to the organiza-
e nonpro t just recently celebrated residents moving into a ordable housing at 1101 and 1089 President St. in Crown Heights as part of the long-awaited and contentious Bedford Union Armory redevelopment. In June the nonpro t opened its rst passive house project, meaning a building using up to 75% less energy than similar structures. e 152unit development called Betances Residence is in Mott Haven.
Jamaica has been experiencing a boom in development in recent years. Developers are expected to add 10,000 apartments to the neighborhood by 2026, and the Chetrit Group and Joel Weiss, among other major players, are planning projects for the neighborhood that span more than 300,000
square feet with hundreds of residential units.
Jamaica recently became home to Good Grades, the rst legal marijuana dispensary to open in Queens. ■
The REBNY Annual Honoring NYC Civic Leaders
The Real Estate Board of New York Annual brings together top developers, owners, brokers and major public officials to connect with one another, exchange insights, and celebrate the invaluable contributions they collectively make to New York City. During the event, REBNY announces its award honorees.
This year REBNY is proud to announce its 2023 honorees, an incredible group of New Yorkers at the forefront of the city’s real estate industry and civic leadership. These outstanding men and women have demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to supporting a great city and its residents, communities and economy.
The Bernard H. Mendik Lifetime Leadership in Real Estate Award
Barry M. Gosin, chief executive officer of Newmark Group Inc., has led the business that operates as Newmark, one of the world’s leading commercial real estate advisory firms, since 1979. He guides the firm’s national and global expansion initiatives and oversees all facets of its day-to-day operations. Gosin led Newmark’s initial public offering in 2017 and the company’s spinoff from BGC Partners Inc. in 2018 after he guided the sale of Newmark in 2011. He has led Newmark in the acquisition of more than 50 companies and the increase in annual revenues of over 1100%
The CEO is a member of the board of directors’ executive committee for the Partnership for New York City, and a member of the board of governors’ executive committee for the Real Estate Board of New York.
Gosin is a Pace University trustee. He received the university’s Leaders in Management award in 2006.
He is a graduate of Indiana University.
Presented to REBNY members who have displayed exceptional service to the real estate industry and professional accomplishments over the course of distinguished careers.
The Harry B. Helmsley Distinguished New Yorker Award
During her remarkable career of more than three decades in commercial real estate, Mary Ann Tighe has been at the forefront of the transformation of New York’s skyline. She has played a catalytic role in the rezoning that is strengthening and renewing East Midtown, the westward expansion of Midtown, the rebuilding of downtown after 9/11 and the revitalization of Times Square.
Tighe, who has conceived, structured and negotiated virtually every form of deal, has been responsible for more than 120 million square feet of commercial transactions. Her deals have anchored more than 14.4 million square feet of new construction in the New York region.
The Kenneth R. Gerrety Humanitarian Award
With trusted relationships with leading real estate executives and multinational clients around the world, John C. Santora is one of the commercial real estate industry’s most experienced global executives.
Santora, chairman of the New York tristate region at Cushman & Wakefield Inc., previously was president of the tristate region. In that position he was responsible for executing the firm’s strategic plan for the region. He has been with Cushman & Wakefield for more than 40 years. He was a member of firm’s board of directors for more than 20 years. Earlier in his career he was the firm’s global chief operating officer and its chief integrating officer. Before that, Santora was CEO of North America, the firm’s largest global operating region.
& Wakefield Inc.
MARY ANN TIGHE Chief executive officer, New York tristate regionShe has been chief executive officer of CBRE’s New York tristate region since 2002. She is a nine-time winner of Real Estate Board of New York’s Deal of the Year Award for ingenious brokerage. For a three-year term starting in January 2010, she was chairman of REBNY, the first woman to hold the position in its then 114-year history.
He is a past fellow of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York’s Directory Advisory Board and a member of the board of trustees for Local 32BJ Health and Benefit Funds.
Santora attended New York City Community College and the College of Staten Island.
Presented to REBNY members who have displayed exceptional service to the real estate industry and professional accomplishments over the course of distinguished careers.JOHN C. SANTORA Chairman, New York tristate region Cushman
Recognizes REBNY members’ outstanding service to the community.
The John E. Zuccotti Public Service Award
After learning he has Lou Gehrig’s disease, Dan Doctoroff recently stepped down as chairman and CEO of Sidewalk Labs.
Doctoroff founded Sidewalk Labs in 2014 with Google founder Larry Page. It is Alphabet’s pioneering urban innovation company that provides products and services that integrate smart design with cutting-edge technology to improve urban life.
With the diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Doctoroff will focus on scaling up Target ALS, the organization he founded in 2010. Target ALS funds research by cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral teams to discover promising approaches to accelerate scientific progress into clinical trials.
Founder and chairman
Target ALS
From 2008 to 2014, Doctoroff was president and CEO of Bloomberg LP, a provider of news and information to the global financial community. Before joining Bloomberg, he was New York’s deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding. With Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he led the city’s economic resurgence after 9/11.
Before joining the Bloomberg administration, Doctoroff was managing partner of the private-equity investment firm Oak Hill Capital Partners. While there, he founded NYC2012, the organization that led efforts to bring the Olympic Games to the city.
The George M. Brooker Management Executive of the Year Award
Recognizes individuals within the management area. Winners display outstanding professionalism in property management, civic achievement and contribution to the real estate industry.
Among her many responsibilities as an executive managing director of Douglas Elliman Property Management, Elly Pateras oversees a team of account executives who are responsible for managing more than 60 of the finest buildings in New York City, including many notable addresses on Fifth and Park avenues.
In the past year Pateras represented Douglas Elliman while working with the Realty Advisory Board on the contract negotiations with Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union.
Before joining Douglas Elliman in 1999, Pateras was vice president and director of management of R.A. Cohen & Associates Inc., where she was responsible for developing the company’s coop and condominium business and supervising the management of the ownership’s real estate holdings.
She has served on the Real Estate Board of New York for 19 years. She was the recipient of the 2008 Management Executive of the Year Award.
DAN DOCTOROFF
This award is presented to a New Yorker who has displayed exceptional accomplishments and service in the public’s interest.ELLY PATERAS Executive managing director Douglas Elliman Property Management
The Louis Smadbeck Memorial Broker Recognition Award
Honors a REBNY broker with personal and professional integrity, leadership and prominence in the brokerage community and participation in REBNY’s committees.
Rick Marek brings more than four decades of New York City commercial real estate experience with him to Helmsley Spear LLC. He is dedicated to advising tenants in the city’s office market.
Before joining Helmsley Spear and working briefly at Avison Young, Marek spent 15 years as president and co-founder of the Vortex Group, a boutique commercial real estate advisory company. At 21 and almost immediately after receiving an MBA from Syracuse University, Marek began a 34-year career at Julien J. Studley Inc.
RICK MAREK
Vice chairman, Helmsley Spear LLC
The Helmsley Spear vice chairman has been an active member of the Real Estate Board of New York since the beginning of his career. He chaired REBNY’s Plaza Committee for 22 years and sat on group’s commercial board of directors for two terms. He has been on REBNY’s board of governors since 2015.
Marek co-founded the DirectEffect research program at Rockefeller University in 1992. He has been a trustee of Educational Alliance, a member agency of the United Jewish Appeal, for more than 20 years.
The Young Real Estate Professional of the Year Award
Presented by the Young Men’s/Women’s Real Estate Association to a member whose skills, integrity and ethics have contributed to his or her profession and the community.
During his 25-year career, acclaimed sales broker James Nelson has been involved in at least 500 property and loan sales totaling more than $5 billion.
At Avison Young, where he is principal and head of tristate investment sales in New York City, Nelson leads a group of three dozen professionals in the sale of multifamily, office, development and retail properties.
Noteworthy clients include the Archdiocese of New York, the Carlyle Group, JPMorgan Chase and Vornado.
His accolades include being named to Commercial Observer’s Power 100 list and receiving the Real Estate Board of New York’s Deal of the Year Award and a CoStar Power Broker Award.
Nelson, a serial real estate investor, has launched two real estate funds with total capitalizations of more $350 million. He is passionate about helping others achieve real estate success and offers training through his podcast, “The Insider’s Edge to Real Estate Investing.” He lectures at Columbia, Fordham, New York University, Wharton and his alma mater, Colgate.
Mary Ann.
CBRE congratulates Mary Ann Tighe for being honored with REBNY’s Harry B. Helmsley Distinguished New Yorker Award. You’ve earned this accolade through a lifetime of exceptional accomplishment and countless contributions to making New York City a better place.
–Chairman Emeritus, Real Estate Board of New York
–Board member, The Lung Cancer Research Foundation
–Co-Chair, Business Committee, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
–Co-Chair, Real Estate Council, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
–Vice Chair, Columbia University Real Estate Development Advisory Board
–Trustee, St. Patrick’s Cathedral
–Trustee, Archdiocese of New York
–Board member, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
–Board member, The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center
cbre.com
JAMES NELSON Principal and head of tristate investment sales Avison YoungA fight over a gas station in suburban Queens suggests the limits of emailing leases
BY C. J. HUGHES
Sometimes email just won’t do.
In a case with possible implications for commercial landlords across the city, a justice in state Supreme Court in Queens County says a property owner shouldn’t have emailed a lease to his tenant, a Mobil gas station he was trying to evict, because its contract spelled out using more formal registered mail instead.
As a result, the Mobil seems to have scored a crucial victory in its fight to remain at 164-05 Union Turnpike, a busy corner in the Hillcrest neighborhood.
“Defendant has not established that it gave notice in the manner required by the lease,” Justice Leonard Livote wrote March 23 in a narrow decision that killed an attempt by the landlord, Richard W. Burr, to
throw out a lawsuit brought by the Mobil’s owner, Alliance Energy, to stop the eviction.
Lease terms
In September 1992 Alliance signed a 30-year lease for the Union Turnpike site, where the rent is currently $15,945 a month. Under the terms of the lease, Burr had to offer Alliance a right of first refusal if he wanted to install another tenant on the site, which is next to a Burger King and across from a bank in a suburban-style area, court documents show.
That happened in the summer of 2021, when Burr let Alliance know he had a new tenant lined up to pay $18,000 a month and emailed Alliance a copy of the new lease to prove it.
It’s what happened next that is at the root of the dispute. Alliance claims it responded to Burr’s email indicating that it wanted to stay on the site until the end of the lease, in 2022, and then extend it for an additional 20 years, although there were some details to be hammered out first.
But Burr took that qualified yes as a rejection of the lease’s strict terms and moved to evict, saying Alliance would need to be out by November 2022, documents show. That’s when Alliance sued Burr, alleging he had not kept up his end of the bargain.
Although Burr, a Georgia resident who has owned the site since the early 1990s, tried to get Livote to dismiss the lawsuit, Alliance attorney Howard Kingsley argued that Burr was the one who was not playing fair.
Kingsley pointed to language in the original lease from 1992, before the widespread use of email, that said Burr should have sent the new tenant lease by registered mail, which tracks a package through the postal system and provides proof of receipt. Also, Burr’s lawyer sent the email, and not Burr, another viola-
tion of the 1992 agreement, Livote said.
Hector Roman, Burr’s attorney, said that he had no comment while weighing next legal steps, which could include litigation.
Honoring a contract
Kingsley was not immediately available for comment. But in a
statement from his firm, Rosenberg and Estis, he essentially said a contract must be honored even if it seems old-fashioned.
“This decision is a reminder that words matter,” Kingsley said. “Parties must choose their words very carefully because those very words will govern the relationship and cannot be changed later.” ■
“THIS DECISION IS A REMINDER THAT WORDS MATTER
WITH ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES GROWING more urgent, there has never been a more fitting time to recognize the individuals and organizations that are driving progress toward and raising standards around sustainability.
Prioritizing environmental goals is the right thing and smart business, especially in the crucial battle for talent. In a recent national survey, nearly twothirds of respondents were more likely to apply for jobs at companies committed to sustainable practices.
Crain’s is proud to showcase the sustainability pacesetters propelling New York—and the world—toward a greener future. The 50 individuals who made this list are pioneers in their fields, driving innovation and advocating for sustainability in the areas of energy, nonprofit organizations, real estate, technology and finance, among others.
To qualify for the honor, candidates needed to work within the New York metropolitan area as executives in senior leadership roles or lead sustainability initiatives at large companies. In addition to having had a measurable environmental impact, the candidates needed to make significant industry contributions and have involvement in civic, philanthropic, mentoring, diversity or other community work.
Read on to learn how these honorees advance the crucial mandate of sustainability.
Michelle Armstrong
Head of philanthropy, Ares Management Corporation
Executive director, Ares Charitable Foundation
At the the global alternative investment manager Ares Management Corporation, Michelle Armstrong is head of philanthropy. In addition, she is executive director of the Ares Charitable Foundation. In the latter role, Armstrong helps accelerate equality of economic opportunity by awarding grants for signature and employee-directed initiatives. Besides overseeing Ares’ employee engagement programs to foster team members’ volunteerism, she leads Climate-Resilient Employees for a Sustainable Tomorrow, an initiative that seeks to close the gap between the demand for a skilled green workforce and the number of people prepared for these opportunities. Armstrong is a director at ALTFinance, a nonprofit that helps diversify the alternative investment management industry.
Donnel Baird
Founder and CEO
BlocPower
As founder and chief executive officer of the climate technology company BlocPower, Donnel Baird is responsible for closing deals with various partners. Baird fundraises for company growth and electrification projects and helps to expand the climate tech ecosystem nationwide. Under his leadership, BlocPower signed two city-scale electrification projects and trained several thousand city residents for green economy jobs. Baird’s dedication to sustainability led Ithaca, New York, to become the first U.S. city to commit to decarbonizing its entire building stock. Baird previously worked on former President Barack Obama’s green buildings initiative for the Department of Energy. He frequently advises government executives on climate change and building a green economy.
Lee Ballin Audit and assurance managing directorDeloitte & Touche
Deloitte & Touche’s Lee Ballin plays a key role in addressing clients’ sustainability challenges. That’s part of Ballin’s work as an audit and assurance managing director for sustainability and environmental, social and governance. He also works on developing and implementing sustainability strategies and nonfinancial reporting disclosures. With more than a decade of experience at the intersection of sustainability, business and finance, Ballin provides thought leadership to businesses, financial institutions, regulators and nongovernmental organizations. He advises clients on managing ESG risks and integrating ESG strategies with business objectives. Ballin is active in the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program.
Helene Banks
Co-chair, M&A and corporate advisory practice groups
Cahill Gordon & Reindel
At Cahill Gordon & Reindel, Helene Banks co-chairs the mergers-andacquisitions and corporate advisory practice groups. In guiding the firm’s environmental, social and governance matters, Banks led Cahill’s partnership with S&P Global Sustainable1 division in their collaborative creation of Novata, a company that provides benchmarking data and ESG reporting for private companies. She is the first female partner in Cahill’s corporate practice and the first chair of its women’s initiatives committee. Banks created the firm’s women attorney leadership program. She chairs the board of directors of the New York Women’s Foundation.
Tanya Barnes
Co-managing partner of sustainable growth private equity
J.P. Morgan Asset Management
As co-managing partner of sustainable growth private equity at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Tanya Barnes oversees the sustainable growth private equity team within J.P. Morgan Private Capital, a growth equity and private credit investment platform. In 2021 her team launched its first private-equity strategy focused on investing in growthstage private companies that drive resource efficiency and climate adaptation across a range of industries; they are researching community solar companies that seek to expand renewable energy to places with barriers to access, such as low-income and indigenous communities. Barnes is a board member and committee chair of sustainability for Arcadia, a technology firm empowering companies to monitor and mitigate their carbon impact.
Jennifer Bernstein
CEO and William C. Steere Sr. President
New York Botanical Garden
Jennifer Bernstein is responsible for the New York Botanical Garden’s efficient and sustainable functioning. Bernstein, who was named the organization’s chief executive officer and its William C. Steere Sr. President in 2021, has launched efforts to help NYBG refresh and rejuvenate its educational offerings, improve its historic landscapes and bolster its plant science research capabilities for years to come. Under her leadership, NYBG introduced tools and techniques to reduce its carbon footprint, better control invasive species, cultivate healthy and resilient soils and improve the habitat for native wildlife. Bernstein is a director of the Lehman College Foundation board and a member of the Women’s Forum of New York.
Sarah Bratton Hughes
SVP and head of sustainable investing American Century Investments
Sarah Bratton Hughes drives and executes the sustainable investing strategy for American Century Investments. The senior vice president and head of sustainable investing is also responsible for management of its environmental, social and governance investment research platform and active ownership practices. Bratton Hughes is at the center of the firm’s ESG expertise, which includes implementing firmwide research and training, innovating assessment tools, managing engagement and proxy voting protocol, and driving sustainable investment initiatives and product development. She is a member of Women in Social Finance, a private organization that fosters connection, advancement and collaboration for women in the industry.
Michael A. Capasso President Green Asphalt
At Green Asphalt, a leader in recycled asphalt pavement materials, Michael A. Capasso spearheaded the purchase of six barges, which allow materials to be moved via waterways, thus reducing carbon emissions from material transport via trucking. The company owner and president champions sustainability by advocating for the use of 100% recycled asphalt mixes on public works projects and by adding electric or hybrid vehicles to the company fleet to reduce its carbon footprint. Capasso is a member of YPO. As a member of Mayor Eric Adams’ Capital Process Reform Task Force, he expresses the concerns of the city’s heavy civil contractors.
Myrrh Caplan
National vice president of sustainability
Skanska
As national vice president of sustainability at Skanska, a development and construction firm, Myrrh Caplan leads the group’s national sustainable initiatives. She specializes in earning LEED Platinum and other certifications for projects while she works toward holistic objectives spanning equity, environment and economy. In addition to leading Skanska’s community and investment initiatives, Caplan serves as Leadership in Environmental Design consultant and adviser on national projects. Notably, she spearheaded the integration of LEED standards within the Penn Station widening as part of the Moynihan Train Hall project. Caplan is a committee chair on the U.S. Green Building Council. She is on the Local Law 97 advisory committee in the city.
Iskender ‘Alex’ Catto Chief sustainability officer
Greenberg Traurig
Iskender “Alex” Catto is chief sustainability officer, co-chair of the energy and natural resources practice, and chair of the power industry projects and restructuring practice at the law firm Greenberg Traurig. Catto oversees the design and implementation of the firm’s sustainability program in 44 offices around the globe, and he advises clients on complex corporate matters, including asset acquisitions, project development, mergers and restructurings. He instigated Greenberg Traurig’s goal of making its global offices net carbon neutral with respect to office energy usage—a goal the firm met in 2020. The Legal 500 has recognized him as a leader in energy law.
Adam Cohen Co-founder and chief technology officer NineDot Energy
At NineDot Energy, a renewable energy semiconductor manufacturer, Adam Cohen identifies ways to improve the city’s power grid by developing communityscale clean energy resources. In the past two years, the company’s co-founder and chief technology officer launched the first Tesla Megapack, a community-scale battery storage project, and helped build an extensive pipeline of energy projects. Cohen, who is focused on building energy systems that make the power grid more sustainable, is a member of several energy-related organizations, including the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium, the New York Solar Energy Industries Association and the Coalition for Community Solar Access.
Laura Corb
Senior partner and leader of sustainability practice McKinsey
& Company
Laura Corb drives McKinsey & Company’s expertise, insight and capabilities to help clients across the region in the quest to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, with a focus on meaningful progress by 2025 and 2030. The global management consulting firm’s senior partner, who is also the leader of its sustainability practice for North America, champions new initiatives that accelerate sustainability, including projects such as the Global Decarbonization Hub, which will invest $100 million in driving asset decarbonization programs. Corb, a member of McKinsey’s global social responsibility council, is a frequent speaker at sustainability events. She is on the board of trustees of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Fiona Cousins Americas region chair Arup
In her nearly four-decade tenure at Arup, a global sustainable development consultancy, Fiona Cousins has guided energy analysis for the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency, among other projects. Arup’s Americas region chair is responsible for delivering solutions to help usher in a net-zero future for Arup and its clients. She works to accelerate digital transformation, delivering innovative solutions for an equitable built environment. Cousins is an adviser on critical climate legislation; she co-chaired the carbon accounting working group to provide counsel on the city’s Local Law 97. Cousins volunteers at Common Pantry’s East Harlem food pantry.
THE SIZE OF THE GLOBAL GREEN TECHNOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY MARKET WAS VALUED AT $10.32 BILLION IN 2020, AND IT WAS PROJECTED TO REACH $74.64 BILLION BY 2030.
(ALLIED MARKET RESEARCH)
Michael Daschle SVP Brookfield Properties
Michael Daschle leads Brookfield Properties’ national sustainability program for more than 70 million square feet of office properties in major markets nationwide.
Daschle, the senior vice president of the company’s U.S. office group, co-chairs the company’s global renewable energy advisory committee. Daschle led efforts to execute the region’s first purchase of 100% renewable electricity at 1 Manhattan West—the first purchase of its kind in Brookfield’s U.S. office portfolio. Recently, he completed a national clean energy procurement strategy development effort. Daschle is a member of several committees and associations committed to clean energy and sustainability.
Chloe Demrovsky
President and CEO
Disaster Recovery Institute
International
Chloe Demrovsky is the first female president and chief executive officer of Disaster Recovery Institute International. The nonprofit helps organizations worldwide prepare for and recover from disasters by providing education, accreditation and thought leadership in business continuity, disaster recovery, cyber resilience and related fields. Demrovsky has overseen the launch of numerous valuable initiatives, designed the organization’s international market development strategy, and built a relationship with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. She is a senior Forbes contributor and has been a commentator for various news outlets. Demrovsky has presented on global risk at events on five continents.
Luke Falk
SVP
The Related Cos./energyRe
At energyRe, an independent New York company focused on solving complex challenges and providing clean energy solutions, Luke Falk is a senior vice president who is responsible for the development of Clean Path NY, the largest renewable energy project in the history of the city and state. At The Related Cos., Falk’s energy practice includes responsibility for developing distributed and renewable energy generation projects, including a number of cogeneration plants and the largest energy storage system in the city. He has been responsible for improving the energy performance and resilience of new and existing developments. In this capacity Falk led the design of more than a dozen LEED-certified buildings representing more than $10 billion in capital investment.
Karen Fang
Managing director and global head of sustainable finance Bank of AmericaKaren Fang is driving efforts to achieve Bank of America’s goals of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and deploying $1.5 trillion in sustainable finance by 2030. The bank’s managing director and global head of sustainable finance recently took on leadership of the Just Energy Transition Partnerships with Indonesia and Vietnam. That initiative seeks to help those countries transition to renewable energy. In addition, she led the structuring of the bank’s third Equality Progress Sustainability Bond, a $2 billion issuance that advances economic opportunities for marginalized populations. Fang is a founding member of the 1t. org U.S. steering council. She is involved in several international alliances and task forces focused on climate transition and sustainability.
Arturo GarciaCostas
Program officer, local, national and international environment
New York Community Trust
At the New York Community Trust, Arturo Garcia-Costas has supported grants addressing sustainability issues, such as school bus electrification, offshore wind power and the phase-out of the city’s fossil fuel-burning “peaker plants.” As the foundation’s program officer for environmental grantmaking, Garcia-Costas leads efforts to support a sustainable and just transition from coal in Central Appalachia. He is on several boards, including those of Friends of the Earth and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Garcia-Costas co-chairs the NYC Green Relief & Recovery Fund and the Green Leadership Trust, a network of people of color on environmental organization boards.
As a visionary with a steadfast commitment to green innovation, you enthusiastically embrace cutting-edge research and far-reaching educational initiatives that promote environmental justice.
You have answered the clarion call to fight the climate crisis — one of the most urgent causes of our time — by overseeing the launch of the $75 million President’s Innovation and Excellence Fund, which is supported by philanthropic gifts. This investment enhances externally funded research on campus in many areas, including climate science and clean energy. Under your dedicated leadership, the university’s stature continues to grow: Stony Brook is taking its place as a global convener at the forefront of climate solutions through its role as a recently named finalist to become the anchor institution for a climate solutions hub on Governors Island.
E orts such as these position Stony Brook as a shining example of an institution serving the needs of our community and beyond, today and in the future.
Russell Gong
Co-founder and president
Cabinet Health
Russell Gong is co-founder and president of Cabinet Health, a sustainable health care brand that helps individual customers eliminate up to a pound of plastic annually and hundreds of pounds of plastic throughout their lifetimes. Under the leadership of Gong and his co-founder, Achal Patel, the company has developed patented compostable pill packages through an ethical and transparent supply chain. In 2022, Cabinet Health donated $500,000 in aid to communities in crises. It has also partnered with the Celiac Disease Foundation to support the needs of the celiac community with gluten-free medicine offerings. Gong is a U.S. army officer in the Connecticut Army National Guard.
Aleks Gosiewski
Co-founder and chief operating officer
Keel Labs
Aleks Gosiewski is co-founder and chief operating officer of Keel Labs, a sustainable materials company addressing highly-polluting systems of textile production through aquaculturebased technologies and the company’s flagship innovation: Kelsun, a seaweed-based yarn. She is in charge of supply chain logistics, business strategy and managing internal human relations. Gosiewski, who was recently spotlighted in Forbes’ list of “30 Under 30,” is driving development of Keel Labs’ business and its research to scale production. Outside of work, she is on the alumni board of her alma mater, the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she mentors undergraduate students.
Michael Hollis Director of urban farms Services for the UnderServed
Michael Hollis is director for the urban farms program at Services for the UnderServed (S:US). In running the program, which uses horticulture as a tool for improving wellness, Hollis has scaled it from four Brooklyn gardens with nine participants to a citywide program that engages more than 600 participants annually. Hollis restarted activities which had been suspended due to Covid-19, and has expanded the scope of the urban farms program so that it plays a stronger role in community food security. As a professional member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association, he teaches regularly about regenerative agriculture in urban environments.
Roel Huinink President and chief executive officer
JFKIAT
As president and chief executive officer of JFKIAT, the company managing Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Roel Huinink leads the management team and executes strategic plans.
Under his leadership, Terminal 4 became the first pre-existing terminal nationwide to be awarded LEED Platinum certification for operations and maintenance. Huinink has implemented innovative programs, such as the purchase of 5,000 gallons of sustainable aviation fuels to reduce aviation pollution and lower greenhouse gas emissions with Delta Air Lines, as well as the implementation of Oscar, an AI waste management system that scans waste and directs people on how to properly dispose of it.
B.J. Jones President and chief executive officer
Battery Park City Authority
As president and chief executive officer of Battery Park City Authority, where he leads operations, B.J. Jones has launched ambitious sustainability, affordability and resiliency measures. He has issued a roadmap to make Battery Park City carbon neutral by 2050, extended affordable housing protections, completed flood protection measures as part of the Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency effort, and launched a neighborhood zero-waste initiative. Boasting more than 25 years of public sector experience, Jones sits on the board of the Frederick O’Reilly Hayes Prize Foundation and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and New York University.
Samara Karasyk President and chief executive officer Hudson Square Business Improvement District
As president and chief executive officer of the Hudson Square Business Improvement District, Samara Karasyk has worked to create more resilient communities through the Hudson Square Standard tree program, which uses a tree pit design to retain excess stormwater. This helps to relieve the city’s overburdened sewers and mitigate flooding. Karasyk led completion of the program, which planted or retrofitted approximately 15 trees per every Hudson Square block, reducing carbon emissions, producing more oxygen and significantly cooling the neighborhood. She has also advocated for the creation of plazas to reduce vehicular traffic and emissions. Karasyk is an executive board member for the Brooklyn Arts Council.
Yasemin Kologlu Design principal
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
As a design principal at the architectural, design and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Yasemin Kologlu works on efforts to transform the building industry’s response to the climate crisis. As founder and leader of her firm’s climate action group, she has spearheaded Skidmore’s commitment to accelerating the decarbonization of the built environment through design projects and research initiatives. She has also worked on a firmwide platform for monitoring energy performance and carbon impact. Kologlu, who has helped shape government policies on carbon and energy, serves on the Carbon Leadership Forum steering committee and the American Institute of Architects New York’s honors committee.
Oliver Libby
Co-founder and managing partner
H/L Ventures
As co-founder and managing partner of H/L Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to sustainable investments, Oliver Libby oversees engagement with the company’s limited partners and portfolio. He has managed investments from companies benefiting people and the planet, including Sorcero, Sealed and Group Black. As a result, Libby has become a thought leader and influencer in the impact investing and social entrepreneurship world. He serves on the board of directors of Tech:NYC and on the advisory board of Diversity VC, and he co-founded the Resolution Project, a nonprofit group that supports undergraduate students looking to start their own social ventures.
Sydney Mainster
Vice president of sustainability and design
management
The Durst Organization
Sydney Mainster is vice president of sustainability and design management for the Durst Organization, a family-run real estate company. She works closely with teams to ensure sustainability criteria are met, implementing guidelines and best practices across all aspects of sustainability, including energy, water and materials. Recently, Mainster played a role in developing a new apartment tower in Queens that met LEED Platinum status; she is currently overseeing efforts to have another building become LEED Gold certified. She serves on boards for nonprofit sustainability groups, including the Building Energy Exchange and the New York League of Conservation Voters.
Jessica Matthews
Global head of sustainable investing
J.P. Morgan Private Bank
Jessica Matthews, global head of sustainable investing for J.P. Morgan Private Bank, has led development and execution of its sustainable investment platform, which includes more than 140 funds available to clients globally across a range of asset classes and environmental and social themes. Matthews also played an important role in launching the Global Impact Fund to Private Bank clients, which targets three investment themes: inclusive growth, climate solutions, and health and wellness. She serves on the board of the Resolution Project and is a member of the advisory committee on investor responsibility at the University of Virginia Investment Management Company.
Jason McCalla
Senior vice president of operations
Silverstein Properties
As senior vice president of operations for Silverstein Properties, Jason McCalla specializes in cost savings, technology implementation and strategic planning. He recently helped secure $458 million in green bonds for the refinancing of 7 World Trade Center. Thanks in part to McCalla’s work, Silverstein Properties was selected to be on a team of leading New York real estate developers working toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state by 85% by 2050. McCalla is chairman of the Bronx Alumni Achievement Foundation and serves as a board member on the New York Energy Consumers Council and the Youth Shelter Program of Westchester.
Maurie McInnis President
Stony Brook University
In her role as president of Stony Brook University, Maurie McInnis’ push to provide high-quality and affordable education to students has led to a diverse student population. She emphasizes energy-efficient initiatives at Stony Brook, and supports faculty members as they use research grants to study managed wastes and recyclables. The institution and its faculty are also working to revive the aquaculture potential of Shinnecock Bay. Outside of her work for the university, McInnis is involved with Yale’s institutional policies committee, as well as with the boards of the Long Island Association and Accelerate Long Island.
Domenic Monopoli
Chief executive officer
Filco Carting
Domenic Monopoli has grown Filco Carting into one of the largest recycling and waste firms in North America. As chief executive officer, Monopoli is responsible for innovating and implementing the company’s vision, which prioritizes industry-leading service and safety standards. He also oversees the company’s programs, which aim to educate team members, customers and communities on leading sustainability and recycling practices. During the pandemic, Monopoli led Filco Carting in feeding 350 Brooklyn residents in need. In addition, the company has been donating backpacks at the beginning of the school year, turkeys and food at Thanksgiving, and toys for children in communities in need for decades.
Crystal Ng
Senior associate and director of sustainability
Curtis + Ginsberg Architects
As a senior associate and director of sustainability at Curtis + Ginsberg Architects, Crystal Ng has worked to demonstrate that affordable and mixed-use housing can be highly sustainable, thereby helping New York meet its commitment to decarbonize its building stock. Over the past year, Ng has led the architectural firm in the design and development of 14 certified, energy-efficient, all-electric developments, with more on the way. She also leads the firm’s sustainability committee, researching and developing best practices and deploying a suite of software tools. Ng regularly shares her expertise on sustainable, restorative and resilient design through speaking engagements, and she volunteers her time with nonprofits such as Van Alen Institute and Urban Design Forum.
GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS HAVE DROPPED 19% IN THE CITY SINCE 2005. (NYC.GOV)
Spencer Orkus President of Development + Partner
L+M Development Partners
As president of Development + Partner at L+M Development Partners, Spencer Orkus leads the real estate development firm’s new construction projects in the New York metropolitan area, as well as housing preservation efforts nationwide. Orkus initiated and guided the firm’s use of sustainable housing practices within its portfolio, and also created a new sustainability department focused on underperforming assets. Orkus is currently chair of the policy committee for the New York State Association for Affordable Housing and is on the advisory board for the New York Housing Conference. He previously served on the board of directors for Harvest Home Farmer’s Market, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing access to fresh produce in low-income communities.
Achal Patel
Co-founder and chief executive officer Cabinet Health
As co-founder and chief executive officer of the sustainable healthcare company Cabinet Health, Achal Patel has worked to create a refillable and compostable medicine system along with co-founder Russell Gong, thus providing an impactful solution to the growing plastic waste crisis. Cabinet Health has developed patented compostable pill packages made of 100% earth-digestible materials, also piloting a prescription medicine program that is currently able to fulfill dozens of different prescriptions without single-use plastic. In 2022, the brand donated $500,000 worth of aid to communities experiencing crises. It previously partnered with the Celiac Disease Foundation to better support the needs of the celiac community
Raymond “Rusty” Pomeroy Special counsel
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
As special counsel at the law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, Raymond “Rusty” Pomeroy advises on internal sustainability operations.
Pomeroy also helps clients mitigate environmental risk in commercial real estate, financing, commodities, and mergers and acquisitions. Recently, he advised on significant pieces of New York City climate legislation banning gas in new buildings, and was instrumental in helping set goals to achieve a responsible shift to renewables. Pomeroy guided the launch of his firm’s podcast, called “The ESG 411,” which addresses issues related to complex environmental, social and governance focused on the legal and regulatory aspects. He leads pro bono efforts for projects supporting the
Jeffrey Rios Partner and co-director of energy + performance AKF
At AKF, Jeffrey Rios is a partner and co-director of the energy + performance group, a team of engineers dedicated to energy efficiency and sustainable solutions for both new and existing buildings. Rios was instrumental in the engineering firm’s first-place win in the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s Real Time Energy Management program, in which entrants proposed solutions for positively affecting or accelerating the electrification and decarbonization of New York buildings. He leads internal presentations and training programs at AKF regarding zero-net energy design and other sustainability topics. Rios is also a member of AKF’s diversity, equity and inclusion committee.
IN A RECENT SURVEY, 54% OF RESPONDENTS SAID SUSTAINABILITY FACTORED INTO THEIR DECISIONS TO WORK REMOTELY (HANDSHAKE)
Sara Rosner Director of environmental research and engagement
AllianceBernstein
Sara Rosner is director of environmental research and engagement on the responsible investing team at the global assetmanagement firm AllianceBernstein. Rosner focuses on investor education to support teams and clients in their efforts to integrate material environmental risks and opportunities into their decisions. In addition, she spearheaded the development of Climate Academy, a series of climate change training modules from Columbia University professors. Rosner is a financial literacy volunteer with the High Water Women Foundation, where she teaches low-income students how to manage money effectively and responsibly with the goal of achieving more secure financial futures.
Emily Rubenstein
Deputy commissioner of resiliency and sustainability
New York State Office of General Services
Emily Rubenstein is deputy commissioner of resiliency and sustainability at the New York State Office of General Services. Rubenstein and her team provide technical assistance and policy guidance to state agencies and authorities as they work to meet New York’s nation-leading climate goals. Currently, they are helping the state convert its entire light-duty fleet to zero-emission vehicles by 2035, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85% statewide by 2050, and to adapt state assets and operations to the increasing impacts of climate change. She is a member of the Urban Land Institute New York, and was an Aspen Environment Forum scholar.
Marina Severinovsky
Head of sustainability for North America Schroders
As head of sustainability for North America at the investment management firm Schroders, Marina Severinovsky leads a team focused on sustainability and environmental, social and governance integration for the firm’s investments across the continent. Her role entails ongoing collaboration with senior investment managers on market strategy, client communications, product development, sales and investment management. Severinovsky also works to educate the broader industry by authoring white papers and articles, leading media and client roundtables, making conference appearances and regularly engaging with the media. She is a member of the alumni community for both the Columbia College undergraduate program as well as Columbia Business School.
Marc Siegel
EY Americas ESG and corporate reporting thought leader, finance accounting advisory services EY
Marc Siegel serves as EY Americas ESG and corporate reporting thought leader for financial accounting advisory services at the professional services giant EY. Through reports, articles, webcasts, media interactions and participation at industry forums, he contributes to the dialogue around the ways companies tell their sustainability-value story to investors. A certified public accountant in New York, he advocates for transparent communication between organizations that prepare financial and sustainability reports and capital markets. Siegel also monitors evolving U.S., European and global regulatory requirements, and provides strategic considerations for compliant sustainability reporting. He is a former member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board.
Zachary Steinberg
Senior vice president of policy
Real Estate Board of New York
As senior vice president of policy, Zachary Steinberg leads the Real Estate Board of New York’s (REBNY) policy work on issues including taxes, budget, labor, sustainability, building operations, economic development, construction and real estate market conditions. In the area of sustainability, Steinberg has guided successful advocacy for the development of new renewable resources to help owners reduce carbon emissions, including the Clean Path NY project and the Champlain Hudson Power Express. He has also worked with local leaders to inform New York City’s new construction building decarbonization mandate. Steinberg oversees and manages REBNY’s sustainability committee and is a board member of the Building Energy Exchange.
ServicesfortheUnderServed congratulates
MichaelHollis
2023NotableLeaderinSustainability
AsS:US’UrbanFarmsDirector,MichaelHollis managesoneoftheregion’slargesttherapeutic horticultureinitiatives,overseeingadiverseurban agriculturalprogrammingatover70locations throughoutNewYorkCity.Alongtimefoodjustice advocate,Michaeliscommittedtoincreasingfood securityinthecommunitiesservedbyS:US.
TheS:USboard,staffandourcommunity join incongratulatingMichaelon thiswell-deservedrecognition! www.sus.org
Brian Steinwurtzel is co-chief executive officer and principal at GFP Real Estate. He oversees all aspects of the firm’s operations with a focus on new investments, development and project management.
Steinwurtzel also leads the firm’s sustainability efforts: GFP Real Estate has deployed new energy-saving technologies portfolio-wide, including wireless thermostats, energy efficient lighting and sensors that monitor energy use with the aim of increasing efficiency. Under his leadership, GFP Real Estate worked on the office-toresidential conversion of a 1-million-square-foot space in the Financial District.
Steinwurtzel currently serves on the board of the Downtown Alliance.
Jilly Stephens Chief executive officer City Harvest
Jilly Stephens is the chief executive officer of City Harvest, New York’s first and largest food rescue organization. Last year, City Harvest rescued more than 91 million pounds of food that would otherwise have gone to waste.
Notably, Stephens spearheaded the renovation and opening of City Harvest’s Cohen Community Food Rescue Center in 2022. This new facility allows the organization to be more energy-efficient and extend the cold chain thanks to the addition of new freezer and cool rooms, including four flex rooms to maintain fresh produce. She currently serves on the board of Feeding New York State and is the former board chair of the national advisory council of Feeding America.
Susie Teal Partner CookFox Architects
Boasting two decades of experience, Susie Teal became a partner at the architectural studio CookFox Architects in 2021. She is involved in operations, staffing, and business development, and she recently co-authored the studio’s five-year strategic plan. Teal also leads its mission and culture executive committee, overseeing internal initiatives for material transparency. Recently, she served as lead designer for 378 West End Avenue, a residential preservation and expansion project, which kept hundreds of tons of materials out of the waste cycle. She is a member of the firm’s social justice leadership group, which facilitates mentorship at CookFox Architects, and has spoken on panels at Greenbuild, a community for green building professionals.
Camelia Tepelus
Executive director
Morris Park Business Improvement District
Camelia Tepelus is the inaugural executive director for the Morris Park Business Improvement District, which was established in 2019. Under her leadership, 16 new businesses opened on Morris Park Avenue at the height of the first pandemic year, resulting in a local business boom. In addition, Tepelus helped Morris Park Avenue set up the largest beautification and horticulture program for a Bronx business district, including bi-annual seasonal plantings, hundreds of community events, and revitalized community gardens. Tepelus serves as chair of Bronx Community Board 8’s environment and sanitation committee and was a 2020 New York State Senate “Woman of Distinction” honoree.
Auro Trini Castelli Partner, strategy and sustainability
Product
Auro Trini Castelli serves as strategy and sustainability partner at Product, which makes and markets products for a sustainable future. Under Trini Castelli’s leadership, the agency has helped clients like GoodRx, Post Consumer Brands and Pagaya future-proof their businesses by embracing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. He is currently on his way to becoming a certified chief sustainability officer through an executive professional program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since 2015, Trini Castelli has been a delegate and speaker for the United Nations and the United Nations Global Compact, where he has helped brands embrace the power of sustainability. He is a frequent contributor to publications like Ad Age, Little Black Book and The Drum, writing about sustainability-related topics.
Laura Vulaj
Senior vice president of sustainability and hospitality SL Green Realty Corp.
Laura Vulaj is senior vice president of sustainability and hospitality at SL Green Realty Corp. She is responsible for developing and implementing the firm’s environmental, social and governance strategy and sustainability initiatives; expanding its hospitality program; and directing and managing third-party operations for Summit One Vanderbilt. Under Vulaj’s leadership, SL Green Realty Corp. developed a decarbonization roadmap that outlined operational excellence, emissions avoidance, decarbonized energy and embodied carbon reduction. She also organized the launch of Food1st, a charity focused on delivering meals to emergency workers and New Yorkers in need and is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York’s sustainability committee.
Timothy Wilkins
Global partner for client sustainability Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
As a global partner for client sustainability at the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Timothy Wilkins advises clients, policymakers and regulators in their efforts to tackle environmental, social and governance issues affecting business and society. Wilkins co-authored “A Legal Framework for Impact,” providing analysis on how far the law permits institutional investors to invest for sustainability impact. He also leads the global sustainability leadership group at Freshfields, championing training, development and enactment of firmwide ESG initiatives. Wilkins also co-founded the New York Circular City Initiative, a collaboration of more than 20 business leaders, government officials and experts on helping the city transition to a circular economy.
John Woelfling Principal Dattner Architects
A principal at the architectural firm Dattner Architects, John Woelfling leads the company’s residential work, designing large-scale, urban affordable housing that embodies environmental responsibility and resident wellbeing. Under Woelfling’s leadership, the firm has developed specialized expertise in designing and building sustainable multifamily buildings; his commitment to sustainability and innovation has resulted in the completion of 961 new units of affordable housing for New Yorkers. Woelfling is also the founder of his firm’s sustainable practice group, which researches and shares strategies for improving occupant health and equity. In addition he is an advisory board member of the New York Housing Conference.
Daniel Zarrilli
Special advisor for climate and sustainability
Columbia University in the City of New York
Daniel Zarrilli is the special advisor for climate and sustainability at Columbia University, where he is supporting creation of its climate school and advising on pathways for achieving the university’s decarbonization goals. Zarrilli works with university leadership and the office of environmental stewardship on sustainability strategies across Columbia’s campuses. These include emission reduction, the transition to renewables, sustainable design, transportation, water conservation and capture, responsible materials management and establishing Columbia as a sustainability leader. Zarrilli served as the Columbia partner for Climate Week NYC for the past two years and serves on the executive committee of the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate.
AS OF 2021, MORE THAN 426,000 JOBS HAD BEEN CREATED OR MAINTAINED THROUGH THE NEW YORK POWER AUTHORITY’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ELECTRIC POWER PROGRAMS. (NEW YORK POWER AUTHORITY)
NEW YORK STATE HAD 1.7 MILLION GREEN JOBS IN 2019, MAKING UP 17.3% OF ITS EMPLOYMENT (VS. 18.8% FOR THE NATION OVERALL).
(STATE COMPTROLLER’S OFFICE)
POSITIONS AVAILABLE
Senior Identity Governance Engineer
positions at NBCUniversal Media, LLC in NY, NY. Design & develop
Identity & Access Management solutions for Identity Governance & Administration (IGA) systems. Position is fully remote & may be performed from anywhere in the U.S. Salary range is $170,000/yr$190,000/yr, depending upon qualifications. Send resume to: Elsbeth Velasco-Fulgencio at elsbeth.velasco@nbcuni.com, & indicate you are applying for the Senior Identity Governance Engineer (VKB23LN) opening. NBCU is an EOE.
Quantitative Research Analyst
(Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (PIMCO) – New York, NY); Mult. pos. avail. Offered salary $160,000 to $220,000. Deliver complex operational analysis that enables decision-mak’g. Produce financial & market intelligence by querying data repositories & generat’g reports. F/T. Apply w/ resume to lupe.rubalcaba@pimco.com.
Ref. Job ID: 6510222.
Princ Engr-Systems Analysis (Princ Engr CS-Systems Analysis) needed by Verizon in New York, NY. Expand and optimize flows serving as the single POC for new Bot experiences, enhancements, and issue resolution. Rate of pay: $159,163.00 – $239,000.00 per year. Must have the ability to work from home. To apply, email resume to vzapply@verizon.com.
Refer to job code DGKALV - L.
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Notice of Qualification of 182 SCHERMERHORN STREET
PROPERTIES,
LLC
Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/10/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/09/23. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Edison Properties, LLC, 110 Edison Pl., Ste. 300, Newark, NJ 07102. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of A16 STORES, LLC. Arts of Org filed with the SSNY on 1/29/23. Office: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to LLC, 2265 2nd Ave, #1, New York, NY 10035. Purpose: any lawful act.
Notice of Qualification of HYDRO ALUMINUM METALS USA, LLC
Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/24/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/24/12. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of XN CAPITAL PARTNERS LLC.
Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/6/23. Office Location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent up who process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served up him/her is: 1 Union Square, South 210, New York, New York 10003. The principal business address of the LLC is 1 Union Square, South 210, New York, New York 10003. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.
Notice of Formation of LAUREL BRAND LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 1/17/23.Office location: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC: 17350 State Hwy 249, Ste 220 Houston, TX, 77064, USA. The principal business address of the LLC is 234 E 7th ST Apt 5FW, New York, NY, 10009, USA. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.
UBERMENSCH LLC, Arts of Org filed with SSNY on 12/20/21. Off Loc: New York County, SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: The LLC,401 1st Ave Apt #19F, New York NY 10010. Purpose: to engage in any lawful act.
Notice of Qualification of 45 WEST 27TH STREET PROPERTIES, LLC
Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/10/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/09/23. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Edison Properties, LLC, 110 Edison Pl., Ste. 300, Newark, NJ 07102. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
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Notice of Formation of Stella Henson LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/10/23. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon who process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to R/A Republic Registerd Agent Services Inc., 600 Broadway, Ste 200, ALbany, NY 12207. Purpose: any lawful ac.
Notice of formation of Digital Asset Research Group LLC. Articles of organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/26/2023. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/her is 56 E 130TH ST., APT. BF, NY, NY, 10037, USA. The principal business address of the LLC is 1755 BROADWAY FRONT 3 #1040, NY, NY, 10019, USA.
Notice of Formation of NN BLOOMING STORES LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/22/2022. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 447 Broadway, 2nd Floor Suite #1535, New York, New York 10013. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process agains it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Firstbase Agent LLC 447 Broadway 2nd FL #187 NY, NY 10013.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
NOTICE OF FORMATION OF ZE3NO LLC Arts of Org filed with Secty of State of N.Y. (SSNY) on 1/6/23. Office location: NY County. SSNY desginated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC c/o Martin S. Rapaport, P.C., 18 East 48th St., 6th FL. New York, N.Y. 10017. Purpose: any lawful act.
Formation of Edward Tricomi LLC filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/17/2023. Office loc.: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The address SSNY shall mail process to 325 W. 52nd St., New York, NY 10019. Purpose: Any lawful activity
Notice of Formation of SILVER HILL MANAGEMENT GROUP, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/14/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 208 Valley Rd., New Canaan, CT 06840. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity
Notice of Formation of OPSO LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 01/09/23. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 447 Broadway, 2nd Floor Suite #1591, New York, New York 10013. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process agains it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Firstbase Agent LLC 447 Broadway 2nd FL #187 NY, NY 10013. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of Student Forever One LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/14/2023. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 447 Broadway, 2nd Floor Suite #1682, New York, New York 10013. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process agains it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Firstbase Agent LLC 447 Broadway 2nd FL #187 NY, NY 10013. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
NICOLA ANTONAZZO PHOTOGRAPHY LLC
Arts of Org filed with the SSNY on 01/23/23 .Office: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC: 9900 Spectrum DR., Austin, TX, 78717, USA. The principal business address of the LLC is 228 Park Ave S #494670, NY, NY, 10003, USA.
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Leonard East 68 LLC-Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 1/27/23. Office location: New York Co. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.
SSNY shall mail process to: c/o
Steven R. Ganfer, Esq, Ganfer Shore Leeds & Zauderer LLP,360 Lexington Ave, NY, NY 10017.
Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
Notice of formation of Immescherable Consulting LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. Of State of NY (SSNY) on 1/24/23.
Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 149 E 23rd St, #186, NY, NY 10159. P/B/A: 280 Park Ave S, #9M, NY, NY 10010.
Purpose: any lawful act.
Rupish Transport, LLC. Art. Of Org. filed with the SSNY on 2/8/2023.
Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 769 Broadway, #1158, New York, NY 10003.
Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
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Notice of Formation of JOSEPH DEFRAINE GREENWELL LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/4/23. Office Location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 603 West 148th St, Apt 10B, New York NY 10031. Purpose: any lawful act.
Notice of Qualification of VANDERBILT HEALTH CLUB LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/04/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/28/23. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Rd., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of the State of DE, c/o The DE Dept. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., P.O. Box 898, Dover, DE 19903. Purpose: Any lawful activity
Notice of Qualification of PICKS AND SHOVELS GP, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/04/23. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/10/22. Princ. office of LLC: 625 W. 57th St., Apt. 713, NY, NY 10019. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., #4, Dover, DE 19901.
Purpose: Any lawful activity
Get
To
de ned neighborhood streetscapes—from Economy Candy, to Dichter Pharmacy and Soda Shoppe in Inwood, to Katz’s Delicatessen and Russ & Daughters in Lower Manhattan, to G. Esposito & Sons Pork Store in Carroll Gardens, which survived the pandemic but bid a tearful and nostalgic farewell last week as the owners chose to retire.
“It’s been a great ride,” George Esposito said. “ is is the most amazing sendo I could ever imagine.”
e shops that remain are tasked with preserving their clientele as well as their family’s history. ey attribute making it through the pandemic tumult to a combination of community goodwill, timing and hard work.
As luck would have it, the Cohens had updated Economy Candy’s website in March 2020, before the pandemic swept through the city. In their years of business, which started with Mitchell Cohen’s grandparents in 1937, three generations of Cohens bonded with those who came into their shop. Building on people’s connection to the store and their desire to help it through tough times, the Cohens launched “Candy Care” packages, enabling them to end the rst pandemic year only 30% down from 2019’s revenue.
“Having those out there—it exposed us to a whole nation of candy lovers,” Green eld Cohen said. New Yorkers who knew Economy Candy started shipping goodies to
e expanded customer pool endured as the pandemic waned. e newfound national recognition allowed the Cohens to expand for the rst time in the store’s 86-year history with the February opening of A Taste of Economy Candy in the Chelsea Market, which they say is doing well.
Good fortune
When Manny Ramirez bought the 1943-established Dichter Pharmacy and Soda Shoppe in Inwood 16 years ago, he felt his life had come full circle. He had swept its oors and restocked its shelves as a teenager in the 1980s, and here he was again—this time dishing advice as the pharmacist behind the counter.
Ramirez remembers the di cult early months of the pandemic, the concern over his ability to keep providing for his customers and paying his sta . At least 50 longtime customers died, and not as many people were coming into the store. He said he wouldn’t have made it without the almost $80,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan that helped him stay open. en what Ramirez calls a “oncein-a-lifetime event” happened.
During its third-quarter earnings call in December 2021, Rite Aid announced it would close 63 stores “to reduce costs, drive improved pro tability, and ensure that we have a healthy foundation to grow from, with the right stores in the right locations, for the communities we serve and for our business.”
macy.”
“It’s not just ‘Give me my drugs and let me go home.’ at’s not what we do here,” Ramirez said.
He backs a Little League baseball team and hosts events for live music and poetry readings. He sells bagels, ice cream and drinks from an old-fashioned soda fountain.
To be sure, he’s still running a business with tight margins and struggling to keep up with rising property taxes and increasingly expensive hourly parking.
“In ation and rent always win,” Ramirez said. “It’s a matter of being careful how you spend your money.
support in an unprecedented time of need, he said.
Down the block at Russ & Daughters, three generations of Russes have been witness to crises in the city since the shop rst opened in 1914.
brothers to stay. “ ‘Without the Espositos, it’s nothing.’ at’s what we kept hearing,” George Esposito said.
friends isolated at home. en, those folks sent treats to other friends nationwide.
“Our internet business actually started to do decently enough to keep us a oat until we could open back up to the public,” Green eld Cohen added.
Among the closures would be the Inwood Rite Aid, which sat 400 feet away from Ramirez’s shop. As his main competition folded this past January, a sudden in ux of new customers came through his doors.
“It’s like Christmas every day,” Ramirez said.
With business booming, Ramirez is freed up to deliver on his promise of running a “community phar-
e investment in your community pays dividends, but everything else is going up right now and much faster than the return from the community.
“If I wasn’t so connected to the community,” he added, “I probably would’ve closed.”
For a city that is always changing, there’s a certain expectation that some places should be here forever. Multigenerational businesses such as Katz’s Delicatessen and Russ & Daughters, whose storefronts adorn postcards and tour books, have attained a cultural reach beyond their immediate neighborhood and have bene ted from decades of relationships and past playbooks on how to see tough times through.
“To represent something more to a larger community, whether to the Lower East Side or New York as a whole, I think that helped us stay the course in some way,” said Jake Dell, the third-generation owner of Katz’s Deli. Relationships formed with New Yorkers created a feedback loop wherein the restaurant knew it could rely on people for
“Covid became the calamity of my generation,” said Niki Russ Federman, who runs the shop with her cousin Josh Russ Tupper as the fourth-generation owners. “It was really helpful to have that perspective. We’ve always operated with this idea that Russ & Daughters should be around for another hundred-plus years. So to be able to look back and also look forward gave me that resilience to just want to persevere.”
But many business owners still felt the pinch from the aftershocks of the pandemic, which has been a reminder of how di cult it can be to survive. Some owners have had to evaluate what it will take for them to keep up, and they decided that they wanted to put themselves and their families rst.
Neighborhood casualty
e sign went up in late March, its message straightforward: “April 10th will be our last day; it’s tough to say goodbye after 100 years. We thank you for your loyalty. Love.”
ree generations of Espositos had manned the counter and kitchen at G. Esposito & Sons Pork Store, the Carroll Gardens butcher and sandwich shop that opened in 1922. For years brothers and co-owners John and George Esposito had thought about retiring, tossing the future of the store that has been in their family for generations up in the air. In ation had tightened margins, and the brothers were ready to get to the next part of their lives, having spent the better part of it working at the family business. If the children weren’t going to take over, that meant they could try to sell. ey had already sold the Court Street building that the shop was in about two years ago. But with every potential purchase came the same request.
Every potential buyer wanted the
ey tried to nd an in-between, promising to train whoever took over as owners and prepare them to take the shop to the next level. But when a compromise couldn’t be reached, they decided to close, permanently.
On their last day of business, the brothers hosted a party to toast 101 years of their family’s butcher and sandwich shop. Amid free sandwiches and Champagne, longtime customers who had become family lingered as other neighborhood residents stopped in to pay their respects and wish the brothers luck.
“Lots of people [were] coming in crying. It’s been rough,” George Esposito said of the nal days of business. Regulars were stockpiling homemade sausages and sauces; he said some customers had even bought freezers to prolong their stash.
Talk of “the end of an era” echoed on Court Street, with some joking that it would only make sense for a smoke shop to replace the storied butcher shop.
After the announcement, the shop was busy—“old days busy; ’70s and ’80s busy,” George Esposito said—as New Yorkers from all over mourned the loss of another mom-and-pop shop, the kind of place they expected to be there forever.
“Some people feel like you’re letting them down,” George Esposito said, his voice catching. “ ey come in, they’re looking at me like, are you kidding?”
For all the heartbreak that the closure brought, there was little bitterness. In between hugs and handshakes, they surveyed the scene outside the shop, touched by the number of people who came to say goodbye.
“ e love that we’ve received has been amazing, and not just about the food but also our service,” George Esposito said. “It’s always a family thing when you come in here.” ■
“INFLATION AND RENT ALWAYS WIN. IT’S A MATTER OF BEING CAREFUL HOW YOU SPEND YOUR MONEY”DELL, the third-generation owner of Katz’s Deli, says community support helps the business stay the course.
