Crains New York - January 14, 2013 - (Page 1)

CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS VOL. XXIX, NO. 2 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM ® CUOMO’S CASINO FLIP Governor does a ‘180,’ sending gambling lobbyists scrambling BY CHRIS BRAGG A year ago,Gov.Andrew Cuomo made the centerpiece of his State of the State address an ambitious plan to legalize casino gambling in New York.A $4 billion convention center in Queens was to be built next to the Aqueduct racino, which seemed certain to become the city’s first full-fledged casino. In the 2013 iteration of the speech last week, the governor reversed himself. He said casinos in the city would undermine the goal of drawing Gotham’s 52 million tourists upstate. The first three gambling venues he eyes for the state now appear destined for north of the metropolitan area. MEANWHILE, IN JAVITSVILLE ... Waving g’bye to guv’s bulldozer notions Page 38 See CASINO on Page 38 GOTHAM GIGS FROM BOMBS TO BIKES Combat engineer puts the pieces back together PAGE 8 JANUARY 14-20, 2013 PRICE: $3.00 Repairs on the Verizon Telecom’s $1B worth of Sandy damage could offer silver lining for company BY MATTHEW FLAMM Nearly three months after Superstorm Sandy knocked out power in lower Manhattan, 160 Water St. is its own little ghost town, vacant since seawater filled its basement the night of Oct. 29. But the emptiness of the 24- story building means more than just the absence of tenants like the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp.Sliced-off copper cables from the Verizon phone system hang from the telecommunications “frame room” walls, its floor still puddled in water.When 160 Water St. reopens next month, the frame room will remain empty. All the phone and data switches have been moved to a closet on the second floor, where streamlined fiber-optic cables will connect to tenants’ phones and computers.There won’t be a copper cable in sight. That’s good news for Verizon 300K POUNDS OF copper wire destroyed by Sandy have been removed and replaced with high-speed fiber-optic cable Communications and, potentially, its customers downtown. Building by building, and block by block in the underground area around its Broad Street central office,Verizon has been modernizing its infrastructure as part of the biggest repair project in its history. So far, workers have removed 300,000 pounds of copper cable destroyed by Sandy and installed miles of fiber-optic cable in its place. It’s been a logistical operation worthy of a minor war, with the See VERIZON on Page 37 REPORT REAL ESTATE Happy 100th birthday, Grand Central! P. 19 The latest signs of the Times (Square) P. 19 Plus: Meet this year’s REBNY honorees P. 28 NEWSPAPER darren thompson http://WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - January 14, 2013

Crains New York - January 14, 2013
In the Boroughs
In the Markets
The Insider
Business People
Opinion
Greg David
Small Business
Report: Real Estate
The List
Classifieds
New York, New York
Source Breakfast
Out and About
Snaps

Crains New York - January 14, 2013