Crains New York - August 27, 2012 - (Page 46)

Morning board meeting Continued from Page 45 SOURCE LUNCH: by Amanda Fung MICHAEL NAMER three years, his clients have gotten older and more corporate. His students are now often in their 50s and include doctors, lawyers, bankers and senior executives. Local businesses are making it easy for them. Boarders Surf Shop is just one of several in the area that rents lockers so commuting surfers don’t have to lug their boards back and forth to the city. Mr. Cullen recalled one of his school’s clients who would arrive for a 6 a.m. lesson in a pinstriped suit with The New York Times folded under his arm. He’d pull his wet suit and surfboard from his locker and carefully stow his jacket and slacks. After his lesson, he’d take a quick shower, re-don his suit and head for the office. Last year, he got to be so good that he no longer needed lessons, but he’s kept up his prework surfing routine, Mr. Cullen said. “You’d never think, ‘Oh, I could go surfing and then come back and do an operation.’ ” As popular as the Rockaways have become, they’re still a bit of an open secret. “People actually don’t believe it when you say, ‘I’ve been surfing in the city,’ ” said 32-yearold Sjoerd Nikkelen, a weekend surfer and project leader with the Boston Consulting Group. More students with suits There are plenty, though, who are in the know. Mr. Cullen said ‘Having a surfboard doesn’t mean I’m on vacation’ that five years ago, he taught about 25 people a week, and now his school gets as many as 200 students a week. Of those, about 35 are of the suit-wearing variety, he estimated. Compare that with five years ago: “We wouldn’t get 35 of those in a year,” he said. At 6 a.m. on an average day, there are about 25 people in the lineup (surfer lingo for the crowd of Bigger crowds “Urban surfing is a real phenomenon,” said Dr. David Colbert, 49-year-old founder of the New York Dermatology Group and a rider of Rockaway waves for the past 10 years. When he first started surfing, the Rockaway beaches were nearly deserted. “Obviously, it’s markedly changed and developed,” he said. Dr. Colbert still marvels at how accessible the Rockaways are. A WAVE OF SHOPS THE SURGING POPULARITY OF SURFING at the Rockaways may mean there’s more competition for the best waves, but it’s been a boon to local entrepreneurs. “Our business grows each year,” said Steve Stathis, co-owner of Boarders Surf Shop, now in its eighth year on 92nd Street. In addition to selling the standard beach fare, Boarders offers storage lockers where commuting surfers can store their boards and gear. Mr. Stathis recently took over the retail space next door, which doubled his store’s size. He’s up to 122 lockers, all of which are occupied, and is running a wait list. Boarders isn’t the only game in town. This year, Lock N Surf, another storage facility, opened up around the corner, and Breakwater Surf Co., which sells surf and beach gear, opened about a mile down the road. There’s also the Rockaway Beach Surf Shop, which has been around for decades. The surfing-lesson business is taking off as well. New York Surf School has seen a spike in the number of people taking classes, Skudin Surf recently expanded to the Rockaways from Long Beach, L.I., and Locals Surf School hung out its shingle this past March. Of course, surfing works up an appetite, so a slew of Boardwalk concessions have popped up to cater to the hungry. Rockaway Taco opened in 2008 with a single employee. The business has increased yearover-year and now employs 30 people, said co-owner Andrew Hand. Last year also saw the arrival of La Joya de Ceren, a nearby Salvadoran restaurant transplanted from the Bronx. Last summer, Mr. Hand and his partner founded the Rockaway Beach Club, a conglomeration of beachfront concessions. Several of them share a single building at 96th Street, in a kind of beachfront food court, including Rockaway Tacos as well as burgers, pizza, ice cream, a lobster shack, a fry shack with chocolate-dipped bananas and a bar. There’s a burger stand in a shack at 86th Street and another selling Venezuelan food and ice cream up at 106th street. Boarders opened a boardwalk outpost at 96th Street that rivals the size of its original store, just four blocks away, where it rents umbrellas, beach chairs, surfboards and bikes. —MONIQUE EL-FAIZY 46 | Crain’s New York Business | August 27, 2012 people in the water waiting for a wave), and about 15 of those are locals, Mr. Cullen estimated. When the waves are good, that number nears 100, and about 60 of those are commuters. Proximity to Manhattan is a big part of the lure for the corporate crowd,but so is the feeling of escape. The beach at the Rockaways is a true urban getaway. “It’s in the city, but it’s not of the city,” Mr. Price said. “It’s this incredible antidote to the rest of New York that very few people key into. … There’s something about being in the middle of New York City with dolphins swimming by. It sort of blows your mind.” After an hour or so in the water, Mr. Price feels refreshed. “I find when I’m driving back into the city, I’m mentally calm, even dealing with traffic,” he said. “I feel less stressed in my working life.” “You’re really in a completely different zone,” concurred Dennis Bron, a 31-year-old engagement manager with McKinsey & Co., who introduced Mr. Price to the sport. “There’s nothing I could compare it with.” While the waves may induce a sense of zen, there’s no forgetting you’re in the city. “You can still see the skyline of New York,” Mr. Nikkelen said. “The Rockaways don’t feel like nature, to be honest; they still feel like the city.” And for Mr. Nikkelen, the very fact of surfing among constant reminders of the surrounding metropolis, from the airplanes flying low overhead on their final approach to JFK International Airport to the bland hulks of the highrises of the Far Rockaways visible in the distance, is part of the draw. “It almost feels as if you’re not supposed to do it,” he said. “That grittiness adds to the experience.” M Turning eco-luxury into (LEED) gold Sneaking around Mr. Nikkelen isn’t the only one who feels as though he’s getting away with something. Mr. Reinhardt said he hears guys in the water saying they wouldn’t want their bosses to know they surf. Mr. Price has a friend who, if he has to take his board to work, takes great pains to sneak it up in a service elevator, hide it on a vacant floor, then walk around to a passenger elevator and enter his office normally. That caution may not be complete paranoia. Carrying a surfboard can create a certain impression. Mr. Bron used to stop at a coffee shop after getting back into Manhattan, surfboard still in tow. One day the barista introduced him to another customer as a guy who is always on vacation. “I said, ‘I worked until midnight last night. Just because I have a surfboard doesn’t mean I’m on vacation,’ ”Mr. Bron recalled. For Mr. Nikkelen, though, being able to talk about the Rockaways is half the fun. “I really like to tell people that this is possible, and shock them with a fact that they don’t know about New York,” he said. ichael Namer was heating and air systems that are more one of the first de- comfortable and quiet.So people feel velopers in the early serene in the home. 1980s to convert downtown Man- Why did you expand outside of residenhattan warehouse buildings into lux- tial into owning a restaurant and buildury apartments. Sixteen New York ing a hotel? City projects later, the founder and We try to make our condos like a CEO of Alfa Development has ven- boutique hotel. Inside the buildings we have a wellness center, tured into eco-friendly a lounge with a flat-screen luxury residential developTV, a coffee bar, free Wiment and hospitality. Fi, a pool table and a fullyMr. Namer’s latest resifitted gym and spa with dential project is Chelsea sauna, showers and lockGreen, a 51-unit condo. LE BERNARDIN 155 W. 51st St. ers.That is about the wellThough scheduled for (212) 554-1515 being of people. completion next year, it is www.le-bernardin There are very few already almost sold out. .com income-producing projUnits have gone into conAMBIENCE: Highects you can go into.We all tract for an average of beam ceilings like to eat, go to hotels and $1,600 per square foot. with twisted aluminum that have a beautiful home in The development is gives a wall in the New York City. There was Alfa’s second property in main dining room an opportunity. Hotels are its Green Collection, a ripple effect doing well right now. which started in 2007 with WHAT THEY ATE: the construction of Mr. Leaping Waters As a longtime resident of Namer’s first LEED-Gold beef, langoustine Greenwich Village, what do certified project. and Osetra caviar tartare with black you think about New York The 36-year Greenpepper-vodka, University’s expansion plans wich Village resident is in crème fraîche, in the neighborhood? the process of building his pomme gaufrette They are like a giant octofirst hotel, on Mott and Charred pus, or maybe a giant Spring streets, and is a octopus “à la plancha”; green squid. We don’t want the partner in Alison Eigholive and black character to change in teen, a restaurant in the garlic emulsion, Greenwich Village. That Flatiron district that sun-dried tomato is why different regulaopened in January. sauce vierge tions, zoning and landShellfish medley, yuzuDoes it cost more to build marks maintain that atscented custard, green luxury residential buildmosphere and scale. Our smoked bonito ings? Does it take longer to office is in the neighborbroth in a ceramic construct? hood. Our motto is histosea-urchin shell It doesn’t cost more to ry, architecture and susSauteed Dover build a green building betainability on a human sole, almondpistachiocause we build luxury scale. I love being a part of barberry golden housing. All components the community. My two basmati, brownhave to be top-of-line. boys grew up in Greenbutter tamarind Your involvement is highwich Village. vinaigrette er, and the planning takes NYU is an institution. Lychee gelée, rose emulsion, time. It does not lengthen Institutions have a pass, a raspberry sherbet the time of construction. get-out-of-jail card, with Madagascan Landmarks [Preservation chocolate Can you charge a premium for Commission] and City ganache, peanut apartments in your green Planning because of their mousse, salted caramel ice building? weight in terms of the cream No, we have to be competeconomy and money. Tab: $296.06, itive in order to be successThey can put up four including tip ful. When I say my buildbuildings that will add ing has a gold standard in energy 100,000 people into the neighborefficiency, that resonates with peo- hood and a 45-story building, and I ple. Our approach is to build a better can’t because they are institutions building. We use energy-efficient with clout. WHERE THEY DINED INSIDE TIP Executive chef Eric Ripert designed the kitchens at Mr. Namer’s Chelsea Green, the first residential development to feature the eco-friendly chef’s kitchens. http://www.le-bernardin.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - August 27, 2012

Crains New York - August 27, 2012
Contents
In the Boroughs
In the Markets
The Insider
Real Estate Deals
Business People
Corporate Ladder
Opinion
Greg David
Small Business
From Around the City
Stats and the City
Classifieds
Source Lunch
Out and About
Snaps

Crains New York - August 27, 2012