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☆ NYC rolls out plan to convert empty office buildings into 20,000 homes as remote working persists
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

NYC Mayor Eric Adams outlined a proposal to convert office buildings into affordable homes. Adams said the goal is to create as many as 20,000 homes to help solve the city's housing crisis. "It makes no sense to allow office buildings to sit empty while New Yorkers struggle to find housing. Empty office buildings are an issue across US cities including San Francisco and Chicago. A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that over 2,000 US office buildings could be transformed into as many as 400,000 apartment units.

Persons: Eric Adams, Adams, Dan Garodnick, Maria Torres, Meta Organizations: Service, New York's Department of City, Housing Opportunity, New York City Department of Buildings, of Standard, Appeals, Springer, Colliers, New York Times, National Bureau of Economic Research Locations: Wall, Silicon, York City, Manhattan, New York, San Francisco, Hudson Yards, Chicago

☆ Here’s what Bobby Flay could cook for you
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Katia Hetter | Natalia Osipova | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

If you’re celebrity chef Bobby Flay, there’s no need to panic or turn to take-out menus. Bobby Flay came by CNN's Hudson Yards office in Manhattan to give CNN's Wellness team some food tips. Bobby Flay: I’m always ready. You take some onions and garlic, you sweat it (cook them in a little oil or butter to soften them, without taking on any color). Definitely have a bunch of different vinegars — red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, sherry vinegar.

Persons: you’ve, Bobby Flay, there’s, “, ” Flay, —, Bobby Flay ” —, Anderson Cooper, Cooper, I’m, e pepe, Perfect, Flay, They’re, I’ve, Calabrian chiles, What’s, margarita Organizations: CNN, longtime Food Network, Food Network, CNN's Wellness, CNN CNN, chiles Locations: New York City, Manhattan, Dijon, Mexico, Calabrian, Italy, Las Vegas

☆ Window-washing robots are working on Manhattan skyscrapers
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Molly Kaiser | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Skyline Robotics is disrupting the century-old practice of window washing with new technology that the startup hopes will redefine a risky industry. A robotic arm with a brush attached to the end cleans the window following instructions from a LiDAR camera, which uses laser technology to map 3D environments. "That person, other than regulation, doesn't actually have to be there for our sake," Blum said. "We don't need a separate squeegee and a separate brush to get a perfectly clean window," he said. The current cost of the Ozmo is approximately $500,000, which has a three-to-five-year payback for building owners, according to Skyline Robotics board member and Platinum CEO James Halpin.

Persons: Blum, Ross Blum, James Halpin Organizations: Robotics, Yards, Trade Center, Organization, Skyline Robotics Locations: Tel Aviv and New York, Manhattan, Madison

☆ ‘How To With John Wilson’ Loves All of You Weirdos
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( James Poniewozik | More About James Poniewozik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The final season premiere of the docu-essay series “How To With John Wilson” opens, like many of its episodes, with a problem. Wilson, whose self-help ruminations began airing on HBO in 2020, has a home plumbing emergency that sends him on a search for New York City’s elusive public bathrooms. But the episode, “How to Find a Public Restroom,” is about more than the lengths New Yorkers will go to for relief. Wilson talks to cabdrivers who resort to peeing in empty water bottles for lack of accessible facilities. Wilson builds out his story like a complex system of plumbing.

Persons: John Wilson ”, Wilson, ruminations, Botox, cabdrivers Organizations: HBO, York, Brooklyn -, Hudson Yards Locations: Brooklyn, Brooklyn - Queens

☆ Top of New York City crane crashes into street, injuring six
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, July 26 (Reuters) - Six people were injured in New York on Wednesday when the top portion of a construction crane caught fire and crashed into a Manhattan street during the morning rush hour, authorities said. [1/7]Members of the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) and others gather after a construction crane caught fire on a high-rise building in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., July 26, 2023. "As you see from the debris on the street, this could have been much worse," New York City Mayor Eric Adams said during a press conference at the scene. In recent years, New York City has adopted more stringent safety measures for the towering cranes used to erect the massive buildings that define the skyline of the country's most populous city. More recently, a crane collapsed in lower Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood in 2016, killing a pedestrian, injuring three others and crushing cars parked on the street.

Persons: Amr Alfiky, Eric Adams, Frank McGurty, Brendan O'Brien, Nick Zieminski, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: YORK, Firefighters, New York City Police Department, Twitter, Reuters, Fire Department, City of New York, REUTERS, York City, Thomson Locations: New York, Manhattan, Lincoln, New Jersey, City of New, Manhattan , New York City, U.S, York, New York City, Manhattan's, Tribeca, Chicago

New York is doing better than San Francisco — Manhattan has a vacancy rate of 13.5 percent — but it can no longer count on the technology industry for growth. More than one-third of the roughly 22 million square feet of office space available for sublet in Manhattan comes from technology, advertising and media companies, according to Newmark. The company has opted not to renew leases covering 250,000 square feet in Hudson Yards and for 200,000 square feet on Park Avenue South. Twitter, Microsoft and other technology companies are also trying to sublease unwanted space. The large amount of space available for sublet is also driving down the rents that landlords are able to get on new leases.

Persons: Newmark, ”, Ruth Colp, Haber, Colp Organizations: sublet, New, New York State, Spotify, Trade Center, Twitter, Microsoft, Wharton Property Advisors Locations: York, Francisco —, Manhattan, New York, Hudson Yards

☆ Westfield Gives Up San Francisco Mall, Signaling More Pain Ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Jordyn Holman | Thomas Fuller | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In San Francisco, Nordstrom said it would close its longtime store at San Francisco Centre in August, which will leave the mall 45 percent empty. Westfield isn’t the first mall owner to decide to leave a longtime downtown shopping center. Last year, Brookfield Property Partners relinquished Chicago’s Water Tower Place, the mall that anchors the Magnificent Mile, an upscale commercial district. More than half of the space in Water Tower Place is vacant, including an anchor store location that was a Macy until 2021, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Indeed, Westfield’s decision in San Francisco is part of a broader strategy by its parent company, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, to greatly reduce the number of malls it operates in the country.

Persons: Yasukochi, ” Banks, ” Mr, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, REI, Macerich Organizations: San Francisco Centre, Hudson, Nike, Brookfield Property Partners, Macy, Cushman & Locations: San Francisco, New York, Manhattan —, Seattle, Portland, downtowns, Westfield, Cushman & Wakefield, United States

☆ BlackRock just set a goal to double its private-markets business. It's on the hunt for deals to make that happen.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Michelle Abrego | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

BlackRock has set a target to double its revenue in its private-markets business. BlackRock wants to double its private-markets business over the next five years, and it's eyeing more deals to achieve that. An important piece of the puzzle to becoming a one-stop shop for investors is ramping up its private-markets business. BlackRock currently manages $156 billion in assets through its private-markets platform, which gives clients access to private equity, private credit, infrastructure, and real estate. He added that the management team is spending a "good amount of time" looking at deals to bolster its private-markets business, specifically around infrastructure, private credit, and the growth franchises.

Persons: Martin Small, Small, Edwin Conway, Conway, Carlyle, Larry Fink, Fink, BlackRock Organizations: BlackRock, Hudson Yards, Financial Times Locations: London

☆ Where is the best place in New York City for a finance office?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

So if you have to come in, where's the best place to go? Note: Most of the companies listed below have multiple office locations beyond the one listed. An open letter to big banks going through an identity crisis. My open letter to big banks. Here's a list of nearly a dozen of the best chocolates you can buy, according to a professional chocolatier.

Persons: Dan DeFrancesco, we've, Spencer Platt, It's, Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, We'll, Morgan Stanley, Jefferies, You've, I'm, Gene Wilder, Willy Wonka, Stephanie Cohen, Banks, We've, Brace, it's, Jeffrey Cane, Hallam Bullock Organizations: Getty, Apple, Downtown . Companies, NYSE, BNY, Metro North, . Companies, Bank of America, Barclays, BNP, Midwest, Midtown East . Companies, Blackstone, Millennium, Grand Central, Yards, Hudson Yards, Plaid, Rho Technologies, Connecticut . Companies, Paramount, Maverick Capital, Tiger Global, D1, JPMorgan, LinkedIn Locations: Downtown, JPMorgan, MarketAxess, BlackRock, midtown, — Flatiron, NoHo, Connecticut, Bridgewater, AQR, London, Citadel, New York

☆ Fans celebrate K-Pop supergroup BTS' 10-year anniversary
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Mike Segar/File PhotoSEOUL, June 12 (Reuters) - Fans of K-Pop supergroup BTS gathered in the heart of the South Korean capital Seoul on Monday to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the boy band's debut. Landmarks such as Seoul City Hall and Namsan Tower were lit purple, BTS' signature colour, while dozens of fans from France, Mexico and elsewhere came to enjoy the sights. Organisations and businesses are also joining the celebration, with the city of Seoul working with BTS' management agency HYBE (352820.KS) to set up a tour of landmarks associated with BTS. South Korea's postal service released special commemorative stamps of BTS' debut anniversary. The celebrations are expected to hit a climax on Saturday, when BTS leader RM is expected to meet fans - followed by fireworks near the Han River, which bisects Seoul.

Persons: Mike Segar, Rita, Lotte, JungKook, Daewoung Kim, Joyce Lee, Angus MacSwan Organizations: Hudson, REUTERS, Seoul City Hall, BTS, Hyundai Department, Lotte Cinema, Minwoo, Thomson Locations: South Korea, Manhattan, New York City , New York, U.S, SEOUL, Seoul, France, Mexico, Korea, KS

☆ CNN staffers breathe sigh of relief after dismissal of embattled network chief. Now they wonder, what’s next?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN staffers don’t want the organization to be known for and consumed by a never-ending soap opera starring the C-suite. With Chris Licht’s dismissal as chairman and chief executive of CNN on Wednesday morning, staffers are aiming to get back to that mission. In recent months, David Zaslav, chief executive of CNN parent Warner Bros. The piece, in which Alberta spoke to more than 100 CNN employees, called into question Licht’s ability to lead the organization moving forward. Will the next network chief be an improvement over Licht?

Persons: don’t, Chris Licht’s, Jeff Zucker, Licht, David Zaslav, Zaslav’s, David Leavy, Tim Alberta, Zaslav, —, “, ”, ” Zaslav, “ It’s, Amy Entelis, Virginia Moseley, Eric Sherling, WBD Organizations: CNN, Employees, Warner Bros, Hudson, New Locations: Alberta, New York

☆ CNBC Daily Open: Winds of change are blowing, but the haze remains
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Yeo Boon Ping | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

This report is from today's CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Chris Licht relinquished his position as CNN's CEO and left the company, Warner Bros Discovery, the parent company of CNN, said Wednesday morning. So it was perhaps not surprising that investors were relieved by his departure, as indicated by the 8.43% jump in Warner Bros ' shares. Cohen is known as "the god figure of the meme-stock community," a Reddit user, who preferred to be anonymous for fear of retaliation, told CNBC.

Persons: Chris Licht, Licht's, Donald Trump, Matthew Furlong, Ryan Cohen, Cohen, GameStop's Organizations: Penn, Empire, CNBC, Warner Bros Discovery, CNN, Warner Bros, GameStop Locations: New York City, New York

☆ CNN Chairman and CEO Chris Licht is out after a brief and tumultuous tenure
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —Chris Licht, the embattled chief executive and chairman of CNN, whose brief one-year tenure at the network was stained by a series of severe missteps, departed the company on Wednesday. “I met with Chris and he will be leaving CNN,” David Zaslav, the chief executive of parent company Warner Bros. But it became increasingly clear that Licht’s tenure as the chief executive was not tenable and quickly coming to an end. The CNN chief had, in effect, lost the room. Hundreds of CNN employees were laid off in late November and early December.

Persons: Chris Licht, “, Chris, ” David Zaslav, Jeff Zucker, Stephen Colbert ”, Kevin Mazur, Tim Alberta, Licht, David Leavy, Zaslav, ”, ” Zaslav, “ It’s, Amy Entelis, Virginia Moseley, Eric Sherling, Joe ”, Licht’s, Zucker, Brian Stelter, Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, Kaitlan Collins, Lemon, Donald Trump, Christiane Amanpour Organizations: New, New York CNN, CNN, Warner Bros, CNN Worldwide, Discovery, CBS, Columbia Journalism School, Licht Locations: New York, CNN’s Hudson, Alberta

☆ Embattled CNN chief apologizes to staff after embarrassing profile, vows to ‘fight like hell’ to win back trust
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Chris Licht started CNN’s daily network editorial meeting on Monday by directly addressing the elephant in the room. “I want to say that I’ve spent the weekend doing a lot of thinking,” Licht told staffers, many of whom had dialed into the meeting specifically to hear from their embattled chief executive. Employees had not heard from Licht since The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta on Friday published a blistering 15,000-word profile on him. He said that he would “fight like hell” to win over the trust of the 3,500-person news organization he leads. In the immediate future, I’m told, Leavy is counseling Licht and CNN leadership’s primary goal is to stabilize the ship.

Persons: Chris Licht, I’ve, ” Licht, Licht, Tim Alberta, Donald Trump, ”, They’ve, David Leavy, David Zaslav, Zaslav, I’m, wouldn’t, WBD, Leavy Organizations: CNN, Employees, Hudson, Warner Bros, “, North Star

☆ Whitney Museum Sells Breuer Building to Sotheby’s for About $100 Million
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Robin Pogrebin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The deal — which Sotheby’s and the Whitney refused to confirm in response to queries from The Times in April — finally resolves the fate of the Breuer building, which has hung in the balance since the Whitney moved down to the meatpacking district in 2015. Would the Whitney ultimately take back the building and operate uptown as well as downtown? Would the Breuer building end up as some wealthy person’s private residence or a fancy retail store? What was the Whitney without Breuer? But Lauder ultimately became a convert to the new location and it was named for him: the Leonard A. Lauder Building.

Persons: Parke, —, Breuer, Whitney, Leonard A, Lauder, ” Lauder, “ Organizations: Whitney, Times, Hudson Yards Locations: Madison, meatpacking, Manhattan

☆ Stephen Schwarzman says Blackstone has dumped office investments. Another corner of the firm kept lending billions.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Blackstone Mortgage Trust's $8.2 billion portfolio of office loans leaves it exposed to the sector. The Blackstone-managed firm issued about $3.3 billion of US office loans since the pandemic began. Even as clouds began to gather, Blackstone Mortgage Trust continued to lend to the office sector. In addition to managing the mortgage trust, Blackstone is among its largest shareholders. A Washington office complex shows how far values have fallenThere are ongoing issues, however, in Blackstone Mortgage Trust's portfolio.

☆ BlackRock is mandating 4 days in the office, starting in September. Read the memo on the firm's plans.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

BlackRock is calling employees back to the office four days per week, starting in September. BlackRock told employees last fall that they had to work in the office at least three days per week. In a Fox Business interview last September, Fink linked a return to in-office work to a more productive workforce and lower inflation. "We are going to ask our employees to be much more mindful about their responsibilities in the office. This new approach begins on the 11th of September, and we encourage you to transition into this model by increasing your in-office days, as your schedule permits, over the next few months.

☆ Frieze New York’s Intimate Art Fair Pops Up at the Shed
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Ted Loos | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Temporary “pop-up” editions of retail stores and restaurants have proliferated in the past few years. And what is an art fair if not a specialized, group version of that idea? The 11th edition of the fair Frieze New York will pop up at the Shed in Hudson Yards this week, from Thursday to Sunday, and will feature 68 galleries. The trick for the fair is that New York is already an art-world hub with hundreds of art spaces throughout the city, and the Shed sits just a few blocks from the gallery-packed Chelsea neighborhood. As Frieze’s director of Americas, Christine Messineo, put it, “The mission for New York is, we know we have a really educated audience, so how do we show them things they might not come across on their own?”

☆ Wynn Resorts delivers the quarter we've been waiting for, bolstered by China
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Wynn Resorts (WYNN) delivered a much better-than-expected first quarter Wednesday, with the casino. It appears the miss could be attributed to individual wealthy gamblers frequenting Wynn Palace at the expense of Wynn Macao, which historically is more exposed to groups and tours. Las Vegas Wynn Las Vegas continues to post big results, generating an all-time record adjusted EBITDAR of $231.6 million. There may be a lot of talk out there about a pullback in consumer spending, but it isn't showing up at Wynn Las Vegas. On a hold normalized basis, Wynn Las Vegas' EBITDAR margins expanded 300 basis points year-over-year and 1,400 basis points from the first quarter of 2019.

☆ New York City’s Most Expensive Neighborhoods
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Michael Kolomatsky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

New York City’s notoriously volatile real estate market is cooling — the high end included — according to a new report from PropertyShark. The report showed that in the first quarter of 2023, the median sale price fell in 28 of the city’s 50 most-expensive neighborhoods from a year earlier, while the number of sales dropped or was flat in 46 neighborhoods. Only four of the 50 neighborhoods had a median sale price of $2 million or more, compared with eight in the first quarter of 2022. In the most expensive area, Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, the median sale price rose about 6 percent year-over-year, to $5.729 million; but in TriBeCa, the next most expensive, it fell 6 percent, to $3.5 million. But its $2.6 million median sale price was level from a year earlier, so it was price reductions in other neighborhoods that improved its ranking.

☆ I tried 2 spa treatments that this luxury NYC hotel says will improve sleep—here's how it went
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Renée Onque | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The Equinox Hotel at Hudson Yards has outdoor saunas near one of its pools during the colder months. Renée OnqueThe Equinox hotel also has an offering of spa treatments that are dedicated to better sleep. All-year round they offer services like IV drips, cryotherapy, a wave table and access to an infrared sauna. I started with the infrared sauna that aims to reduce inflammation and remove toxins from the body. I'd say given the headache during, and the grogginess that followed, I'd give the wave table a 5/10.

Three days into his tenure as Silicon Valley Bank 's government-appointed CEO, Tim Mayopoulos has a message for his high-powered venture capital and startup clients: Bring your money back. "There is no safer place in the U.S. banking system to put your deposits," Mayopoulos said on the call, which CNBC attended and was first to report. SVB's former CEO and CFO are no longer employed by the bank, Mayopoulos said on the call. Customer feedback will be critical in determining the future of the bank, Mayopoulos said on the call. "There are other places that do venture debt, but Silicon Valley Bank was the 1,000-pound gorilla in the room," said Ami Kassar, CEO of the business lending consultant Multifunding.

So You Want to Turn an Office Building Into a Home? There’s an appealing simplicity to the idea of converting office buildings into housing. Basically, they did this:How to Turn a 26-story Office Building Into a 30-story Apartment Building Cut a hole through 23 floors of the building. How to Turn a 26-story Office Building Into a 30-story Apartment Building Cut a hole through 23 floors of the building. That could change with tax abatements and subsidy programs, or if outdated office buildings lose so much value that the cost of acquiring them plummets.

☆ Amazon expansion collides with contraction
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Amazon.com’s (AMZN.O) rapid expansion is hitting a wall. When it comes to those trends, even Amazon can’t be too sure. But when it comes to the intersection of hiring and work-from-home trends, even Amazon doesn’t have a crystal ball. Follow @jennifersaba on TwitterCONTEXT NEWSAmazon.com is pausing the construction of its next phase of its second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, the company said on March 3. In 2018, Amazon awarded the Washington suburb with the promise to invest $2.5 billion and hire 25,000 workers.

☆ Elon Musk is reportedly trimming some of Twitter's office space in New York City
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Twitter is subleasing 200,000 square feet of office space in Manhattan, Bloomberg reported. This past weekend, Musk laid off hundreds of staffers, including some of his most loyal employees. Now, he's chipping away at the company's office space, too. Twitter is not the only major tech company to cut back on office space in New York. Late last year, Meta also pulled back on office space in Manhattan's Hudson Yards as part of an effort to lower expenses.

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