Crains New York - June 24, 2013 - (Page 30)

The bride wore green Natural fit A green-focused wedding is a natural fit for Ms. Ehrhart, 27, and her fiancé, Dan Kartzman, 32, who founded Powersmith, a company that outfits homes for energy efficiency. To minimize their carbon footprint, they will use as many local vendors as possible for their New Hampshire wedding, including the caterer, photographer and florist. For her gown, Ms. Ehrhart discovered designer Rebecca Schoneveld, who produces dresses locally, via Etsy. Ms. Schoneveld worked with the bride to customize details such as finding lace made in the U.S. Ms. Schoneveld said that her heirloom-quality dresses get a second life by being shortened and reused, donated or saved for a daughter. “We’re so disconnected from what we buy, so it was important to keep that sense of being made here,” said Ms. Schoneveld, who is based in Brooklyn. Her business is growing fast.She LISTEN to a discussion at CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts DAVID VON SPRECKELSEN by Matt Chaban Continued from Page 29 introduces brides to ethically made, eco-conscious bridal gowns. Couples seeking an ecoconscious wedding typically spend about 2% more than those throwing a traditional affair, with spending on green weddings expected to reach nearly $3 billion in the U.S. this year, according to a recent study by market-research firm the Wedding Report. “At least half of the brides are interested in sustainability as a component of their wedding,” said Liz Neumark, CEO of Great Performances, which uses local vendors, owns a farm upstate and is the exclusive caterer for the Plaza Hotel and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. “I think this is more than a trendy thing to do. This really speaks to them as a value.” The wedding reception offers the greatest opportunities for ecoimprovement: It is a wedding’s largest source of waste, producing nearly 400 to 600 pounds per wedding, according to dvGreen, a New York City event company. It is also the celebration’s single biggest expense, accounting for more than half of the $28,000 average wedding cost. Planning a sustainable wedding can be a daunting task for already stressed couples. Rather than trying to cover all the bases, wedding expert Mireya Navarro recommends steps as simple as cutting the guest list or donating the decorations at the end of the evening. “There are so many opportunities for cutting waste and educating people,” said Ms. Navarro, author of Green Wedding: Planning Your Eco-Friendly Celebration. Even leftover food can avoid the trash heap: City Harvest works with caterers, including Great Performances, to rescue leftover food for city soup kitchens. SOURCE LUNCH: Toll Brothers move beyond McMansions I DO: Saving money and the planet is the goal. launched her company in 2010 out of her apartment and is opening a storefront on June 30 in Gowanus, gaining much-needed space to accommodate her three employees. She produces five dresses a month on average, and each gown ranges from $1,200 to $4,000. Brooklyn resident Tegan Roberts, 29, and her husband, Bryan Roberts, 30, got married in October in Lake George, N.Y.The couple focused on ethically sourced and fair-trade options. “We were already interested in fair trade and organic and in all the ‘This is more than a trendy thing to do’ different ways to be socially conscious as well as environmentally conscious,” said Ms. Roberts, who started a blog, In Tandem Fair Trade Weddings, to document her wedding-planning experience and help others discover fair-trade options. The couple cut waste, and costs, by booking an outdoor venue that provided natural beauty, eliminating the need for most decorations. They opted for potted plants instead of cut flowers and sourced a local florist to make her bouquet using organic blooms. Most important, the food had to be sustainable. “I think the biggest thing was having a caterer who used local and seasonal food,” said Ms. Roberts. For couples tying the knot in New York City, rooftop farm Brooklyn Grange may be as close as couples can get to their wedding feast’s origins. The farm in the Brooklyn Navy Yard opened its space to weddings at the end of last 30 | Crain’s New York Business | June 24, 2013 summer and has eight booked this summer. Couples have a wide-angle view of the Manhattan skyline and access to the top sustainable vendors in the city. Big picture “In general, people are focused on the whole picture of their wedding,” said Anastasia Cole Plakias, co-founder and managing partner of Brooklyn Grange. “The beauty doesn’t have to do with only the setup and design but how that is affecting the ecosystem around them.” Brooklyn Grange partners with Parker Red catering, which uses produce from the rooftop farm. Launched in October 2012, Parker Red has seen its sales increase by 25% as a result of its event partnership with Brooklyn Grange. Couples who book there also have access to organic flowers through Molly Oliver Flowers, which gets its blossoms from the Youth Farm at the High School for Public Service in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. And they can expand their event space by taking advantage of BLDG 92, the LEED platinum-certified building within the Navy Yard. Marie Ostby, 27, and her fiancé, Jonathan Buccola, 33, didn’t originally seek a green wedding. But as she struggled to find a wedding dress that fit her style, a friend recommended the Cotton Bride. The Long Island City, Queens-based company uses only natural fabrics and produces all of its dresses using local seamstresses. It began selling directly to brides in 2010 and grew its customer base through word of mouth. Fikre Ayele, director of operations and marketing, expects to see 12% more orders in 2013. Ms. Ostby was struck by the appeal of the natural fabric and simple silhouette. It was unlike anything she found in the more popular bridal stores in the city, and it sparked a search for other sustainable options. The Aug. 3 wedding in her hometown in Norway will use nearby vendors and locally sourced produce and flowers. “Wearing an all-natural cotton dress felt like a perfect fit with the beauty of the Norwegian countryside,” said Ms. Ostby. “And it got me thinking about my whole wedding as a local, natural event, from the wildflowers in my bouquet to the locally sourced produce and seafood.” Ⅲ W hen Toll Brothers moved into New York City, many sneered at the Philadelphia developers, who are famous for their McMansions. But over the past decade, Toll Brothers City Living, with David Von Spreckelsen at the helm, has carved out a prominent place in the city. A former economic development specialist in the Koch and Giuliani administrations, Mr. Von Spreckelsen, president of the New York City division, has helped build condo towers from Williamsburg to the Upper East Side. Next year marks City Living’s 10th anniversary in New York. What’s changed over the decade? credit line nationwide. We bought the Touraine site with just cash; we bought the Gramercy site with just cash; we bought a site in Dumbo with just cash. This was in ’09 and ’10. Most of the condo guys were not yet back, and we were competing with the rental guys, and we can always pay more than them. And what about now? The market is really heated up, and the pricing we’re seeing now has passed the last peak substantially. You’ve got Michael Shvo paying $800 a foot for the High Line site. You’re starting to see pricing now of $600, $700, $800 a foot. It’s putting people in a position where nobody can say they’re getting a great buy on anything. We did some projects early on in Williamsburg, which I didn’t think In Williamsburg, you sold the site for the would have been ahead of the curve. third tower at Northside Piers. Seeing where the market is, do you But for a lot of people who wish you hadn’t? came to our sales office We looked at it again, and from places like Manhatsome other sites, but it’s tan felt the neighborhood just too big. For condos in hadn’t arrived yet. the city now, we think 100 Based on that experiTHE NOMAD units is about the right mix. ence, we’re really focusing 1170 Broadway (347) 472-5660 Just get in,get out.On Park on neighborhoods that are www.thenomad Avenue on the Upper East established. When your hotel.com Side,we’re only going to do main focus is condo, the AMBIENCE: 11 units with a three-story way ours is, it needs to be If Louis XIV were penthouse. But with these that way, because you get a downtown huge sites, selling condos, one chance to sell a projhipster—skinny you wind up competing ect. If everything isn’t persuits and drapes aplenty. with yourself. Rental, it’s a fectly right, then you’re different story,and we have going to suffer for it. WHAT THEY ATE: a division, Toll CommerⅢ Fluke sashimi, sweetbread Still, it seems like you’re cial,that is looking into dospring rolls everywhere. ing more rental projects. Ⅲ Duck We’re certainly busy, but Ⅲ Suckling pig Can this market last? we’ve been more selective, TOTAL: At a certain point, all of so we’re on Gramercy, Ⅲ $130, including these wealthy buyers are we’re on Park at 89th, tip going to have purchased a we’ve got a tower on Park unit, and I don’t know how Avenue South going up, we just did the Touraine at 65th and deep that market is. Lex. Further down the line, we’ve got something on First and 52nd and in So it’s a bubble? Hudson Square, on King Street. The I don’t think it’s a bubble. I don’t project we’re doing in Brooklyn is in think you’re going to see pricing deBrooklyn Bridge Park, which is basi- crease any time soon, but I do think cally in Brooklyn Heights,which was it’s going to level off at a certain point as the market gets more saturated. basically the first suburb. When 205 Water came out in How’d you manage to do so well during Dumbo, we got $900 a foot, the best the downturn? price. In Gramercy, we raised prices We were fortunate coming out of the six times, and we’re at something like real estate recession and having a lot $2,000 a foot now. I think when of cash and not needing to borrow, more product comes on the market, when most lenders were very reluc- you’re not going to be able to autotant to do condo loans.Toll has about matically say,“I can get $2,000 a foot a billion in cash and a billion-dollar for any site.” Ⅲ WHERE THEY DINED INSIDE TIP: For the carb-averse like Mr. Von Spreckelsen, the Nomad, with ornately carnivorous entrées, is the perfect place. http://www.thenomadhotel.com http://www.thenomadhotel.com http://www.CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - June 24, 2013

Crains New York - June 24, 2013
IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
SMALL BUSINESS
BUSINESS PEOPLE
OPINION
ALAIR TOWNSEND
GREG DAVID
REAL ESTATE DEALS
REPORT: 50 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN IN NEW YORK
CLASSIFIEDS
DIGITAL NY
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - June 24, 2013