Crains New York - July 16, 2012 - (Page 1)

CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS ® VOL. XXVIII, NO. 29 IAN SCHRAGER HAS SOME NEW IDEAS HE’D LIKE TO SHARE PAGE 3 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM JULY 16-22, 2012 PRICE: $3.00 WEISS WORK—AND THEY CAN GET IT: Flintlock Construction’s Andrew Weiss (crouching, left) and brother Stephen Weiss (right) have nine 20-storyplus building projects in Manhattan. EDC will restructure to lobby legally Despite probe, city concludes projects don’t get built without help from friends BY DANIEL MASSEY After its illegal lobbying led to a settlement earlier this month with the state attorney general, the city’s Economic Development Corp. is not giving up trying to influence legislative decisions surrounding land use. Quite the opposite: It is restructuring so that its lobbying activities will no longer be against the law. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman found that EDC illegally lobbied the City Council to win approval of its Willets Point and Coney Island redevelopment projects.It also played a behindthe-scenes role in the illegal lobbying of two nonprofit organizations. See EDC on Page 22 How the Weiss brothers built NY’s dominant nonunion contractor BY DANIEL MASSEY Last month, a boom truck lifted hundreds of metal studs toward the top of a 27-story hotel under construction at Lexington Avenue and East 45th Street. Blocks away, a backhoe clawed into the earth on West 42nd Street, digging a hole for a 37-story hotel. Just to the south, on West 30th Street, workers unloaded steel rods that will reinforce the concrete structure of what will be a 22-story Courtyard by Marriott. Construction of three 20-plus-story buildings in the city within a few blocks of each other might seem to be no big deal. But all three hotels are being built by Flintlock Construction Services—and all three are being built using nonunion labor. A decade ago, it would have been virtually unheard of for a nonunion firm to land even one job in Manhattan of 20 stories or See FLINTLOCK on Page 23 The Outsiders buck ennis Fat lady? She’ll have to wait New York City Opera stages a dramatic financial turnaround BY MIRIAM KREININ SOUCCAR Just six months ago,the New York City Opera came close to a tragic end. Now the 68-year-old opera company is triumphing with its new act. This spring, in the first season after its departure from Lincoln Center, it presented 16 performances of four operas at a number of venues. Every show sold out. And despite months of negative press and contentious labor negotiations, the nonprofit met its fundraising goal, bringing in $11.5 See CITY OPERA on Page 22 NEWSPAPER THE LIST TOP MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS P. 17 REPORT SMALL BUSINESS A way to get big-firm employee benefits P. 15 http://WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - July 16, 2012

Crains New York - July 16, 2012
In the Boroughs
In the Markets
The Insider
Business Peopl
From Around the City
Opinion
Greg David
Real Estate Deals
Report: Small Business
For the Record
Classifieds
Source Lunch
Out and About
Snaps

Crains New York - July 16, 2012