Crains New York - May 13, 2013 - (Page 1)

CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS ® FOUR MEN IN A ROOM If only we could listen in on that Albany conversation... PAGE 6 MAY 13-19, 2013 PRICE: $3.00 DIGITAL NY WTC site sits empty as rivals lease up With no big deal inked since Condé Nast, all three buildings there have huge vacancies How eBay NY plans to conquer the world buck ennis BY MATTHEW FLAMM The Chelsea quarters of eBay New York make up a tiny outpost of the $14 billion San Jose, Calif.-based ecommerce company. But as online shopping heads toward a new stage, the Sixth Avenue location, which opened in the fall, could become the tail that wags the giant dog.The 30 or so engineers and developers in the high-ceilinged third-floor offices are working on making shopping on eBay more like hanging out on Pinterest—turning a site once known for auctions of attic junk into an eye-pleasing stream of See eBAY on Page 19 Airbnb: hugely popular, still illegal Startup has $1B impact. Now it lobbies to go legit BY ANNIE KARNI Airbnb, the website that allows people to rent their apartments by the night, has over the past few years quietly become an economic leviathan in New York City. About 30,000 New Yorkers are signed up as hosts, and last year hundreds of thousands of visitors paid a fraction of the cost of a hotel to INSIDE streets, where most hotels are stay in the city an average of six REPORT TECHNOLOGY bunched,Airbnb directs dollars to nights. That kind of demand is From MoviePass to The neighborhoods that don’t usually expected to generate around $1 Verge: Who’s who in see the spending spoils of the $55 billion in local economic activi- Silicon Alley PAGE 11 billion-a-year tourism industry. ty in 2013, outstripping the imBut the San Francisco-based THE LIST: NY’s top tech pact of the city’s booming company is hardly trumpeting IPO candidates PAGE 15 cruise-ship industry five times its success here. A long-awaited over, according to figures cited study expected to back up the by tech-industry leaders with knowledge of bold economic claims has been delayed indefthe site. initely. There are no ads for the site in New And with about 87% of listings outside the York City. And Airbnb declined to comment See AIRBNB on Page 19 swath of Manhattan between 14th and 59th BY DANIEL GEIGER The 408-foot spire that will crown 1 World Trade Center as the tallest building in the hemisphere was lifted last week to the top of the 104-story tower, the latest milestone in the $14 billion rebuilding of the trade center site. Down below, however, there is less to celebrate. As of today, more than 3 million square feet of vacant office space is expected to open in 2014 at 1 WTC and the neighboring tower under construction, 4 WTC. And more than 2 million square feet are on the drawing board at 3 WTC, whose construction is stalled at seven stories for lack of commercial tenants. No office lease TOWER TOPPED: has been signed at 1 WTC last week the site since magazine publishing giant Condé Nast signed a deal to lease about 1.2 million square feet at 1 WTC two years ago. The deal was hailed at the time as a validation of the site’s prospects as an office neighborhood, but the buildings continue to lose out on the handful of major office tenants currently in the market. Time Warner Inc., for example, is the biggest office tenant now looking buck ennis RIDING HIGH: Tom Pinckney leads eBay New York’s push to remake online shopping. See WTC on Page 18 http://www.crainsnewyork.com/ipad

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - May 13, 2013

Crains New York - May 13, 2013
IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
REAL ESTATE DEALS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
OPINION
STEVE HINDY
GREG DAVID
SMALL BUSINESS
REPORT: TECHNOLOGY
THE LIST
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - May 13, 2013