Crain's New York - March 18, 2013 - (Page 3)

Infor out for Oracle and SAP No. 3, PE-backed biz software maker sees new NYC base as key to market-share gains BY MATTHEW FLAMM Business software giant Infor had several reasons for moving its headquarters to the Flatiron district from suburban Atlanta last year, not the least of them being that New York City is a nice place to visit. Built from acquisitions of more than 60 companies serving sectors ranging from manufacturing to hospitality, Infor wanted to be where its customers were likely to travel for business or pleasure, so there would be more chances of meeting with them face to face. Infor was also planning to radically redesign the user interface for its applications and thought the city, with its mix of tech startups, ad agencies and design shops, would be the best place to find cutting-edge designers. Both assumptions have proved correct—and then some. On the day last spring that Infor announced its move, the company heard from 132 customers who wanted to stop in. And since October, when it moved into its 30,000-square-foot headquarters at 641 Sixth Ave. (between West 19th and 20th Streets), Infor has hired close to 80 designers for its in-house studio, Hook & Loop.That’s more than it had counted on for its entire first year. The company is now negotiating for another 20,000 square feet—space it MEET, GREET, HIRE: CEO Charles Phillips finds more client face time and design help here. buck ennis See INFOR on Page 28 IN THE BOROUGHS BROOKLYN Greenpoint goes crazy over Girls Hit HBO series draws flocks of tourists for better and for worse BY MATT CHABAN Ever since Café Grumpy opened in 2005, the coffee cognoscenti have been trekking to its orangeawninged storefront in the onceunheralded land of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. During the past year, though, a new wave of pilgrims drawn by an entirely different kind of devotion has been sweeping in. “We’re here because it’s in Girls, and we wanted to check it out,” said Natalie Hawken. She had come to the coffee shop, along with friend Jess Pike, all the way from Australia. “It’s become such a phenomenon everywhere,” Ms. Pike said. Girls, the hit HBO show based on the travails of four postcollege friends making their way in the big city, is boosting foot traffic on Manhattan and Nassau avenues and Franklin Street, Greenpoint’s main drags, and is pumping cash into the local economy courtesy of 17 days of on-location shooting each season.But some longtime residents fear that it is also drawing more people into the neighborhood and emboldening more landlords to See GOING on Page 9 Builders, insurers stepping up effort to dismantle scaffold law Contractors seek repeal of statute they say jacks up construction costs BY MATT CHABAN In the next few months, contractors’ bids are due for the planned $1.5 billion replacement of the Goethals Bridge linking New Jersey and Staten Island. An innovative publicprivate partnership is expected to yield major cost savings on the span’s construction,with one gaping exception—premiums for construction insurance.They alone are expected to total tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars,more than double the tab for identical coverage on similar projects on the far side of the Goethals in the Garden State. The culprit is the so-called scaffold law, a 19th-century New York state statute that critics charge artificially balloons the cost of insuring workers on construction projects. “Think of how much cheaper The new Tappan Zee could see a $400 million insurance bill bridge tolls would be if you didn’t have to spend all that extra money on insurance,” said Kevin Dolan, a senior vice president at Alliant Insurance Services. He points to another bridge in the making just up the Hudson, the new Tappan Zee. On that $3.9 billion project, he predicts the insurance bill could soar as high as $400 million, with roughly half that sum being attributable to the scaffold law. Armed with those sorts of figures, general contractors and insurance companies are redoubling their long-running efforts in Albany to repeal the law, the only one of its kind still on the books in the United States. Adding fuel to that drive is a spike of anywhere from 200% to 400% in insurance rates starting around the second quarter of 2012, according to internal numbers from the Associated General Contractors of New York. As a result, construction insurance now accounts for as much as 12% of the total cost of building in the state, up from 3% a few years ago. To help press their case, contrac- STATS AND THE CITY AN ENCOURAGING BRONX TALE: The economics of New York City’s northernmost borough are improving, new statistics show. 115 13.4% NET MIGRATION GAIN in the Bronx for JAN. 2013 BRONX JOBLESS RATE, the year ended July 1, 2012, a milestone down from 13.6% a year ago. It was compared with decades of loss the only borough to see a dip 4,690 STARTUPS in the Bronx in 2011, the most in the city, and up from 1,159 in 1991 64.9% RISE IN GOV’T FUNDING for the Bronx’s New York Botanical Garden between 1991 and 2008, to $12.2M 78 PROPERTIES in a one-mile part of Grand Concourse landmarked in 2012, one of the biggest historic districts in the Bronx Sources: NYC Dept. of City Planning, The New York Times, NYS Dept. of Labor, Center for an Urban Future, New York Botanical Garden, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission ADDICTED TO NUMBERS? GET A DAILY DOSE AT @STATSANDTHECITY See SCAFFOLD on Page 28 March 18, 2013 | Crain’s New York Business | 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's New York - March 18, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
OPINION
STEVE HINDY
GREG DAVID
REPORT: REAL ESTATE
real estate deals
THE LIST
FOR THE RECORD
CLASSIFIEDS
SMALL BUSINESS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crain's New York - March 18, 2013