Crains New York - July 29, 2013 - (Page 3)

IN THE BOROUGHS QUEENS 10 years on, a high-rise hood in LIC Seven-tower complex is done. Now: working to create a community BY MATT CHABAN istockphoto On a dreary morning in mid-July, Tom Elghanayan surveyed the scene from the 40th floor of 4610 Center Blvd. One story above him, crews poured concrete for the final floor of the last of seven residential towers his company, TF Cornerstone, has built on the Long Island City waterfront in Queens. “When we started this, I was a young man with no gray hairs,” joked the now silver-maned Mr. Elghanayan. That was a decade ago, when Mr. Elghanayan and his brothers paid $85 million for the 21-acre site of a former Pepsi bottling plant. Today, with the addition of 4610 Center, their East Coast complex just south of the Queensboro Bridge has reached its full size, and the harder work of creating a full-fledged community is underway. But the core is there. East Coast looms across the East River from the United Nations as a glass-walled city-within-a-city, boasting 3,193 apartments, a handful of shops and a 12-acre waterfront park Release the hounds Political action committees and other outside groups are about to unleash an unprecedented effort to elect or defeat candidates for city offices BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS AND CHRIS BRAGG As if a sexting politician and a hooker-squiring ex-governor weren’t bringing enough attention to city elections, an unprecedented amount of special-interest money is about to pour in, flooding mailboxes, telephone lines and airwaves with ads. City voters will experience some of what their counterparts in presidential swing states did last year when groups outside of campaigns spent about $1 billion, enabled by the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United decision. Despite doubts that the splurge in 2012 was effective, organized labor and business groups are about to make New York City a test case for what independent expenditures can do in municipal elections. The Citizens United decision in 2010 allowed unlimited spending by corporations, unions and individuals on elections as long as it is separate from campaigns. Ahead of the city’s Sept. 10 primaries, a number of groups are plotting to spend amounts that dwarf what the candidates themselves will burn. A major effort by the United Federation of Teachers and other unions is expected on behalf of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who is running for comptroller against Eliot Spitzer, a real estate scion whose prostitution scandal led him to resign as governor in 2008. Mr. Spitzer’s many Wall Street foes could get into the act as well. And three independSee PACS on Page 28 ent groups have reported spending Magic Johnson, WBLS benefit from black radio consolidation BY MATTHEW FLAMM The battle over radio audience measurement that raged five years ago when Portable People Meters replaced paper diaries—a move that minority stations said hurt their ratings—never really went away. Radio stations that catered to blacks and Latinos said the people meters undercounted their audiences,making it harder to sell advertising. Last year, Emmis Communications threw in the towel on urban station Kiss-FM and leased its signal to ESPN. But that story has yielded an in- teresting twist for 107.5 WBLSFM. New York’s oldest urban station—and onetime No. 1 in the market—is making more money than it has in years. For the first six months of 2013, ‘In the No. 1 market ... two stations couldn’t survive’ advertising revenue for WBLS spiked 76% over the same period a year earlier, in a market that was up 6%, according to accounting firm Miller Kaplan. Billings are still below where they were before Arbi- tron rolled out its people meters, but according to General Manager Deon Levingston, revenue is “on track” to match its old numbers, perhaps in the next year. The turnaround is in large part the result of a couple of smart plays by YMF Media, a company owned jointly owned by Ron Burkle, Magic Johnson and Fortress Investment Group. Last year, YMF took over WBLS, along with other stations owned by bankrupt Inner City Broadcasting Corp. YMF also paid $10 million for the “intellectual assets” of Kiss-FM, including call letters WRKS, websites and databases. The two moves allowed the firm to fold in longtime rival Kiss-FM and make WBLS an urban radio powerhouse again. For Mr. Levingston, however, WBLS’ resurgence is bittersweet. “We’ve positioned ourselves STATS AND THE CITY by Emily Laermer NYC ‘LIKES’ SOCIAL MEDIA: After Facebook reported a first-half revenue jump of 45.9% from a year earlier, to $3.3M, shares soared 19%. 86.3% PERCENTAGE of Internet-using New Yorkers who are on social networks 3.7 million NYC MEMBERS of LinkedIn, six times the number of New Yorkers on MySpace 100,000 SQUARE FEET Facebook leased in midtown south for its second Manhattan office 1 billion MONTHLY VISITORS Yahoo aims to attract post-Tumblr acquisition, up from 700M in December 2012 39.3million newscom 107.5 FM survived people meters, but advertisers not fully sold on audience See NEW TOWN on Page 27 LADY GAGA’s Twitter followers, the most for any New Yorker and third in the world (after Justin Bieber and Katy Perry) Sources: Facebook, comScore, Yahoo, Twitter Counter ADDICTED TO NUMBERS? GET A DAILY DOSE AT @STATSANDTHECITY See WBLS on Page 28 July 29, 2013 | Crain’s New York Business | 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - July 29, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
OPINION
ALAIR TOWNSEND
GREG DAVID
REPORT: FOOD BUSINESS
FOR THE RECORD
REAL ESTATE DEALS
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE BREAKFAST
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - July 29, 2013