Crain's New York - April 29, 2013 - (Page 1)

CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS VOL. XXIX, NO. 17 SECURING THE FOOD CHAIN Food Bank’s Margarette Purvis on rebuilding after Sandy PAGE 3 ® LAND RUSH WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM APRIL 29-MAY 5, 2013 PRICE: $3.00 FOR THE buck ennis NEW YORK CITY HOPE FOR LIU: Attorneys for a John Liu fundraiser say their client was the victim of an unfair sting. Corruption cases are far from closed TERRITORY! GET IT BEFORE IT’S GONE PROCURE A LOT TO BUILD ON Aggressive prosecutors could be tripped up by rarely used entrapment defense The Wild West Side! Winner bids 50% over asking price ‘There is a scarcity of good development land in Manhattan’ BY CHRIS BRAGG NEWSPAPER See ENTRAPMENT on Page 24 BY DANIEL GEIGER istockphoto It was about a year ago when Bronx Assemblyman Eric Stevenson was first offered a $10,000 bribe by a health-care-supplies salesman named Sigfredo Gonzalez. But the politician turned it down, saying he was happy to provide free assistance to Mr. Gonzalez, who was secretly recording the exchange for the government. Several months later, Mr. Stevenson was again offered money by Mr. Gonzalez, an employee of brothers Igor and Rostislav Belyanksy, who were seeking government favors as they opened social adult-day-care centers in the borough. Mr. Stevenson again declined, stating his only goal was to help the elderly. Only on the third try, when the informant dangled $10,000 in a Manila envelope during a meal last September at a Bronx steakhouse, did Mr. Stevenson bite, according to a complaint In early April, Peter Hauspurg had a buyer geared up to make what looked certain to be the blowout winning bid for a West 77th Street development site. The client, after all, was offering to pay a third more than the $45 million asking price. Oops. Not only was his client outdueled, but so too were 16 others who offered even higher sums. Insiders say the winning bid, which has not yet been announced, will end up being as much as 50% over the original price. That deal is just one of a string of recent manifestations of a land rush that is pushing prices for property—either vacant sites or structures that can quickly be knocked down—to record levels. Just last week, a long-stalled site on East 125th Street fetched $65 million, $22 million more than it was sold for at the peak of the market in 2007. Several experts agree that values have shot up by nearly 20% in just the first four months of this year, in a frenzy driven by developers scram- OWN A HOME NOW JUST BRING CASH BY MATT CHABAN In real estate, cash has always been king. But in the city today, buying with cash is no longer just for royalty. Cash buys were once the sole domain of New Yorkers at the city’s toniest co-ops, where financing is forbidden, and of foreign buyers with little hope of landing a mortgage. Now, however, cash buying has gone decidedly down-market, thanks—or no thanks— to an incredibly tight housing supply that is 20% below historical ‘If you want the home, what else can you do?’ asks one broker LENDERS CAN’T HELP! SELL YOUR ASSETS, BORROW FROM THE BANK OF MA AND PA levels, according to appraiser Miller Samuels. “If you want the apartment, there’s really no other choice,” said Prudential Douglas Elliman agent Arina Yakobi.During one week in March, she sold three loft condos at the Gretsch Building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for between $1.4 million and $2.5 million. All were cash deals. There are no official numbers for how many deals are all cash, but brokers have seen a big jump. Steven James, president of See MANHATTAN on Page 23 REPORT EDUCATION See CASH on Page 23 THE LIST Future masters of the universe bypass Wall NY area’s largest M.B.A. Street as finance jobs lose luster PAGE 13 programs PAGE 14 http://WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's New York - April 29, 2013

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

Crain's New York - April 29, 2013