Crains New York - March 25, 2013 - (Page 3)

Landmark battle turns green Best fate for many energy-inefficient glass towers may be the wrecking ball BY ANNIE KARNI BY ADRIANNE PASQUARELLI On a recent Sunday, Peter Davis counted 70 street carts—from cupcake vendors to sellers of cellphone cases—lining the seven blocks of Broadway between Canal and Houston streets. During the summer months, he has seen that number more than double, resulting in overcrowded sidewalks, overpowering food smells and a constant din. “This is one of the highestpriced areas in the city, and it looks like crap,” said the artist and ceramics teacher, who has lived in the neighborhood for 35 years. “We’ve reached the tipping point.” Increasingly, others in the area are rallying to his cause. In January, local Community Board 2 sent a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, urging him to examine the streetvendor congestion issue on Broadway and to resurrect a long-dormant regulatory panel to crack down on scofflaws. In recent weeks, some City Council members have also stepped up and persuaded the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to BIGGEST LOSER: Forty-seven-year-old 675 Third Ave. leaks heat like a sieve, as these thermal images, captured last week, suggest. See BINGEING on Page 9 As gambling revenues surge, casino plan may be risky bet NY’s racinos net more taxes than NJ, Nevada venues; competition coming BY CHRIS BRAGG With the New York Legislature wrapping up its annual budget battle, the proposed legalization of gambling will take center stage as casino operators, legislators and communities tussle over the billions of dollars and thousands of jobs it would spawn. But a key fact is being overlooked, some observers say: New York’s antiquated system of electronic gaming is actually the envy of tax collectors nationwide, and the proposed creation of up to seven new casinos around the state could upset that dynamic. “You don’t want to kill the golden goose,” said Alan Woinski, the author of a popular gambling industry newsletter he writes for consulting firm Gaming USA. ‘You don’t want to kill the golden goose,’ one expert says Unbeknownst to many, New York’s nine racinos generate more tax revenue from gambling than Nevada and New Jersey combined. While those two states are home to casino meccas Las Vegas and Atlantic City, New York taxes racinos—horse-racing tracks featuring armless slot machines and other electronic games instead of human dealers—at a stratospheric 67% rate. By contrast, New Jersey taxes casinos at 9.25%, and Nevada takes just a 6.75% cut. Nearly half of the New York revenue, or about $1 billion, is budgeted for school aid this year. “New York has two racinos alone right now”—in Queens and Yonkers—“that make more money for the state than anywhere in the country,” said Mr. Woinski. While racinos get by with comparatively little overhead, developers of destination casino resorts have much higher up-front and operating costs, and thus insist on lower tax rates. In New York, they would likely seek to pay no more than 35%, STATS AND THE CITY CAR TALK: The 2013 New York International Auto Show opens on March 29 and runs until April 7 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. 1,000 NUMBER of vehicles on display at the 2012 New York International Auto Show 1M+ 10.375% 18.375% TAX RATE on parking services in all five boroughs (in Manhattan, the rate applies only to residents) TAX RATE on parking services in Manhattan for nonresidents ATTENDANCE at the 2012 show 12.7% PORTION of retail sales in New York state that come from auto dealerships bloomberg news See MIDTOWN on Page 40 Vendors bingeing on B’way Locals want city to roll back proliferation of pushcarts in SoHo buck ennis Developers and other backers of a massive plan to rezone east midtown have a new and surprising arrow in their quiver: a green one. A report by an environmental consulting group has concluded that the city’s dozens of midcentury glass-sheathed skyscrapers, with a total of tens of millions of square feet of office space, are so wildly energyinefficient that it would be better for the environment to bulldoze them and start over. Even allowing landlords to replace their aging, inefficient towers with larger ones—the fastest way to incentivize them to do just that— would leave less of a carbon footprint than maintaining and running the buildings as they are, concluded the report. Its findings fly in the face of the mantra long touted by preservationists that the energy expended in demolition, carting away rubble and rebuilding far exceeds that required to keep a historic building in place. “Preservation folks have created the legend that keeping a building is more sustainable than demolishing it,” said architectural historian and consultant George Thomas, who has lectured at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. “What this report says is dramatically new.” For the real estate interests back- IN THE BOROUGHS MANHATTAN Sources: Greater New York Auto- mobile Dealers Association, National Automobile Dealers Association, New York State Dept. of Taxation and Finance ADDICTED TO NUMBERS? GET A DAILY DOSE AT @STATSANDTHECITY See CASINO on Page 40 March 25, 2013 | Crain’s New York Business | 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - March 25, 2013

In the Boroughs
In the Markets
Real Estate Deals
The Insider
Business People
Opinion
Alair Townsend
Greg David
40 Under 40
Classifieds
For the Record
Small Business
New York, New York
Source Lunch
Out and About
Snaps

Crains New York - March 25, 2013