Crains New York - November 26, 2012 - (Page 3)

IN THE BOROUGHS QUEENS Above the flooded plain Preventive measures help new high-rises survive superstorm BY ANNIE KARNI DIY IN NYC: Bre Pettis took do-ityourself culture to its next step: a printer that makes everyday objects. buck ennis MakerBot on the move 3-D printing is coming to the masses—and the industry’s biggest manufacturer is in Brooklyn BY MATTHEW FLAMM Just the notion of a desktop three-dimensional printer—which can turn out chess pieces, for instance, by layering heated plastic filament—has a fanciful, Willy Wonka ring to it. But perhaps the strangest thing about the budding 3-D printer industry is that its biggest manufacturer sits in an old brewery building in Brooklyn, and its leading figure is a do-it-yourself enthusiast and former middle-school art teacher with no engineering background. Ever since Bre Pettis launched MakerBot Industries in 2009 with a printer that had to be assembled from a kit, he has dreamed of producing a professional-quality device that nontechies could use and ordinary people could afford. He believes he has gotten there with the Replicator 2, which works straight from the box and sells for $2,200—far below the cost of a professional-grade 3-D printer, which starts at $10,000 and can go as high as $1 million. Released in September, the company’s fourth-generation machine creates bigger objects with finer layers than its predecessors, and is aimed at designers, hobbyists and “people who like to make stuff,” Mr. Pettis said. Confident See MAKERBOT on Page 26 Mission unmoored in Coney Island Tiny soup kitchen walloped by Sandy tries to recover. Many groups in same boat BY THERESA AGOVINO Over the course of six days after Superstorm Sandy, scores of volunteers at Brooklyn’s Coney Island Lighthouse Mission tossed contaminated food, ripped moldy plywood from the walls, and hauled out rusted appliances. With the demolition nearly complete,the mission faces a more vexing problem:where to find the roughly $100,000 needed to rebuild the decimated food pantry and soup kitchen that serves 4,000 people a month.The mission, which has an annual budget of $293,000, has no reserve fund or wealthy board members to prop it up, and insurance will cover only a fraction of the expenses. “If we don’t get the money, I won’t be able to rebuild, and that’s the bottom line,” said the Rev. Vincent Fusco, who started the mission in 2004 and runs it along with a small nondenominational church located in the same space. He’s trying to salvage the nonprofit as he tries to fix up his own Rockaway, Queens, home, which was also badly damaged in the storm. Mr. Fusco’s dilemma is shared by hundreds of tiny, storm-damaged nonprofits that have managed to play central roles in their communities despite running on shoestring budgets. Now there’s a fear they may get lost in the shuffle as See MISSION on Page 25 buck ennis NO ENDOWMENT, NO POWER BOARD: The Rev. Vincent Fusco is trying to salvage the Coney Island Lighthouse MIssion. Sandy’s high tide receded, and the buildings on the waterfront in Long Island City stood like sentries on the coast—dry, fully inhabited and powered up almost as though no superstorm had ever occurred. While many businesses and residences in this low-lying neighborhood in western Queens suffered major damage after taking on about five feet of water, new high-rise residential buildings, as well as the development site at Hunter’s Point South, rode out the storm with little or no damage. The success of these new development projects on the shore—all of which have sprung up over the past six years—is a powerful example of how smart waterfront development can ACREAGE OF withstand rising Hunter’s Point seas and brutal South storms. And they underscore how cost-effecRESIDENTIAL tive planning for UNITS to open a deluge had alin 2014 at ready begun the Queens long before development site Sandy triggered a new round of panicked disFEET above sea cussions about level of high-rises multibillionthat withstood dollar sea walls, Hurricane Sandy floodgates and buried power lines. “We deliberately brought all of our building sites up to at least nine feet—that’s 1.5 feet above the flood plain,” said Jon McMillan, director of planning for the developer TF Cornerstone, which has constructed seven high-rise condominium and rental buildings near the water, on the northern edge of Long Island City.The last two high-rises that will complete the development, known as EastCoast, are under construction. Legally, developers can build as low as 7.5 feet above sea level, as measured from Sandy Hook, N.J. But TF Cornerstone chose to build higher with disaster scenarios like Sandy in mind, Mr. McMillan said. “That was the first thing that worked well for us,” he said. “The water never even got to the ground floor.” The EastCoast buildings, which will include 3,500 units when complete, were also built without basements. “Basements are usually for utilities and mechanics that make a 30 900 9.5 See ABOVE on Page 26 November 26, 2012 | Crain’s New York Business | 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - November 26, 2012

Crains New York - November 26, 2012
IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
OPINION
ALAIR TOWNSEND
GREG DAVID
SMALL BUSINESS
REPORT: REAL ESTATE
THE LIST
REAL ESTATE DEALS
CLASSIFIEDS
FOR THE RECORD
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - November 26, 2012