Crains New York - July 16, 2012 - (Page 3)

IN THE BOROUGHS QUEENS LI City rises to top for bakers Upper-crust outfits mix it up in low-cost, close-in neighborhood BY AMANDA FUNG Decades after the hulking Silvercup Bakery was transformed into a major film and television studio and the famed Fink Bakery was vacated due to bankruptcy, Long Island City is back in business as New York City’s breadbasket, a place where the air is heavy with yeasty aromas. This summer, Amy’s Bread, the outfit that elevated humble baking to a public art form with its glasswalled kitchen in Manhattan’s trendy Chelsea Market, will join a dozen bakers that have flocked to the Queens neighborhood in the past decade. Amy’s is shifting its main production facility to a new ESTIMATED 33,000number of square-foot commercial space on 34th bakers operating in LIC Street in Long Island City, one block south TONS of bread from its longbaked daily at time Chelsea Tom Cat, the Market area’s largest baker neighbor Eleni’s New York, which set up its PASTRY CHEFS cookie-makand cake-makers ing factory in employed by Lady M Confections LIC seven istock years ago. All come for the same reasons: cheaper rents; open, one-story spaces; and proximity via the Queensboro Bridge and Midtown Tunnel to clients and retail shops in Manhattan. “We are excited to be in Long Island City,” said Amy Scherber, owner of Amy’s Bread, who will move 120 employees to the new facility. Being just across the East River from midtown indeed has plenty of advantages. Tom Cat Bakery Inc. proved that 25 years ago when it became the first of the new wave of bespoke bakers to fire up their ovens in LIC, initially in a tiny 1,300square-foot warehouse. Today, Tom Cat is the neighborhood’s top cat, boasting $30 million in revenue and 250 employees working in a 40,000square-foot factory on 10th Street near the Queensboro Bridge. It’s just down the street from Lady M STATS CHECKING IN: Ian Schrager wants to regain his status as the largest private hotelier in New York City. “I’m still ambitious,” he said. 12 22 30 Ian Schrager goes Public Celeb hotelier ‘in contract’ to build two NYC hotels under new brand BY LISA FICKENSCHER Ian Schrager checked out of the New York hotel scene amid the financial crisis in 2010 when he divested his stake in the Gramercy Park Hotel. Now he’s staging a comeback. The legendary hotelier said he is “in contract” to build two Manhattan-based Public hotels, the value-oriented brand he launched in Chicago in October 2011.The deals replace a canceled project announced last year to open a Public at 855 Sixth Ave. in Herald Square with Durst Fetner Residential. “At one time, I was the largest private hotelier in the city,” Mr. Schrager said last week in his roomy Greenwich Village office. “I wouldn’t mind achieving that status again. I’m still ambitious.” Though Mr. Schrager declined to divulge many details, he confirmed that the hotels will be new buildings. He added that other properties could land in Williamsburg and Coney Island—neighborhoods the East Flatbush, Brooklyn, native has become enamored with in recent weeks. The latest activity comes on top of a deal he inked with Marriott International to help design its Edition hotel brand. Construction to convert the landmark Clock Tower building at 5 Madison Ave. begins later this year. Mr. Schrager, who turns 66 on Thursday, probably would have gotten heartburn if someone had told him earlier in his career that he’d be the architect of two hotel chains. The godfather of the boutique hotel was disdainful of anything that smacked of cookie- He’s eyeing Williamsburg and Coney Island, too cutter corporate, touting instead the individuality of his properties such as Morgans, the Paramount and the Royalton with their one- of-a-kind appeal. That was before Bill Marriott made him a lucrative offer in 2007 he couldn’t refuse: to design Edition, Marriott International’s first boutique-hotel brand. Marriott could have tapped anyone for the job but chose Mr. Schrager because he was a pioneer in that category, whose ideas have been copied by everyone from Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ W hotels to, well, Marriott. Edition is meant to be an answer to W. Mr. Schrager has developed about 15 one-off hotels during his career—none of which he still controls today. In the case of the Gramercy Park Hotel, that property took a hit during the downturn when it defaulted on a loan. “Getting involved with Marriott gives Ian institutional crediSee SCHRAGER on Page 23 buck ennis See LI CITY on Page 11 July 16, 2012 | Crain’s New York Business | 3

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