The most thankless CEO gig in NY - American Business Media

IN THE BOROUGHS STATEN ISLAND
Saddest biz strip in NYC
Continued from Page 3
ler’s office. It’s unclear how much
money Staten Island will lose, but
given the storm’s impact in a borough
where every business counts,
the losses could have an outsize
effect.
On the island last week, Hylan
Boulevard served as a dividing line
between the neighborhoods that
were decimated and those slightly
upland that were “merely” battered
by the flood.
Last Wednesday, snow began
coating the 10-foot-high piles of
rotting furniture and rugs in front of
each house along the island’s hardhit
south shore. Cleanup crews
scooped up muddy debris.On many
windows, amid tattered Halloween
decorations, were yellow signs from
the city’s Department of Buildings
declaring homes uninhabitable.
While relief centers are providing
basic survival materials,borough
leaders are trying to ensure the survival
of local businesses. Many business
owners never anticipated the
high water, and were not insured
against it.Those without power as of
Thursday lost precious revenue in
the nearly two weeks they have not
operated. And the businesses that
are back open are waiting for customers—themselves
waiting for rationed
gas—to return.
The U.S. Small Business Administration
has opened a disaster
recovery center at the College of
Staten Island that is aimed at businesses.The
SBA can give loans of up
to $2 million. The Staten Island
Chamber of Commerce and the
Staten Island Economic Development
Corp. recommend that businesses
with losses not covered by insurance
seek loans from the SBA.
‘Pulling their hair out’
Most businesses were not prepared
for the unprecedented storm
surge,said Frank Rivela,a Staten Island
public claims adjuster. All he
can do for the uninsured is to refer
them to the Federal Emergency
Management Agency. Relief may
not come anytime soon. Businesses
will have to get in line behind all the
residents who have lost their homes.
“If you’re a business owner on
Hylan Boulevard, you didn’t have
flood insurance,” Mr. Rivela said.
“They never thought the water was
going to come that far.They weren’t
in flood zones.”
Businesses in buildings that did
not suffer structural damage or
whose property was not ruined have
Charities lose galas
Continued from Page 3
gling to carry out their work. (See
Helluva Town, page 25.)
“I’m very concerned about our
fundraising now,” said Ms. Shapiro.
She’s planning to make an extra plea
for donations at Friday’s Power
Lunch event. She never considered
canceling the luncheon, because it
isn’t a big black-tie gala despite a
guest list chock-full of luminaries
like Bette Midler and Sandra Lee.
Plus, she added,“We really need the
money.”
Special appeals
To encourage more giving, she
will mention in her holiday
fundraising note the help Citymeals
gave to storm victims. Others will
also make special appeals in
fundraising letters or start new campaigns
to replenish their coffers and
pantries.
But the executives wonder if
their efforts will be enough. The
Fortune Society, which provides
help to the formerly incarcerated,
was forced to cancel its gala slated
for Oct. 29. That cost the group an
estimated $60,000 in donations, according
to Glenn Martin, its vice
president of development. The organization
had already raised
$165,000 toward the gala’s goal of
$230,000.
ali elkin
IN SANDY’S WAKE: Picking up the pieces on Staten Island.
Mr. Martin thinks those attending
the affair would have ponied up
more funds. “The gala is where we
get the face time with the donors,”
he said.“It’s where we tell the stories
that tug at the heartstrings.”
He said the group considered
moving the party to another date,
but all the best nights and venues
were already booked.Now he is considering
raising the ticket price for
the spring fundraiser, which attracts
a younger crowd, to $250 from
$175. That’s still only half the price
of the autumn event. The shortfall
won’t force the wholesale cancellation
of any programs, Mr. Martin
said, since the money was a minor
part of the organization’s $20 million
budget. Yet he worries that he
might have to turn some people
away. “It’s a blow,” he said.
Some organizations are finding
new resources from existing supporters.
God’s Love We Deliver,
which brings meals to people with
AIDS and other illnesses, distributed
8,000 meals it had in the freezer
to those displaced by the storm,
according to the nonprofit’s chief
development officer, David Ludwigson.He
estimated that the effort
cost about $70,000.
Whole Foods is helping by setting
up a food drive in its Manhattan
stores for the nonprofit. “We
nonetheless lost valuable
time being without
power.According
to Consolidated Edison’s
outage map,
about 5,000 customers
on Staten Island
remained without
power as of last
week, many of them
businesses along Hylan
Boulevard.
Even businesses
that can work at full
power are hurting.
LaBella Marketplace,
near Tottenville, opened for
the first time since the storm on
Thursday. The Italian specialty supermarket
posted a note on its website
about delayed delivery orders
due to the gas shortage.
“We had no power for refrigeration,we
couldn’t get any deliveries in,
workers couldn’t make it due to the
rail system being down, and nobody
can actually drive to the store because
there’s no gas,” said Nicholas Pesce,
the store’s assistant manager.“Half of
Tottenville is a war zone.”
Mr. Carbonaro and Mr. Pesce,
though,counted their blessings.They
pointed out that they were lucky not
to have lost their homes,or to work on
the south shore waterfront where
businesses, mainly restaurants, were
destroyed.
“People are walking down there
pulling their hair out of their head,”
Mr. Carbonaro said.“They can’t believe
their whole life has been
washed away in one wave.”
have an urgent need, and we are
happy Whole Foods stepped up,”
said Mr. Ludwigson.
Bill White, chairman and chief
executive of strategic consulting
firm Constellations Group, hopes
the public and corporations will answer
his call for help when he
launches a major fundraiser on behalf
of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes
Fund. The organization needs to
raise $70 million to build treatment
centers for veterans with brain injuries
and traumatic stress.The fund
has already raised $30 million and
started two of the nine planned
locations.
FROM
AROUND
THE CITY
MANHATTAN
Bank for financial
beginners bows
CheckSpring Bank has cut the ribbon
on its first branch in the middle
of the financial crisis in the Bronx.
Despite the inauspicious timing,the
bank’s efforts to persuade inner-city
New Yorkers to step up their financial
dealings from check-cashing
stores to a full-service bank have
paid off. In the past three years,
CheckSpring has doubled the number
of its retail customers to 4,000
and septupled the ranks of its business
customers to 245.
Now the bank will try for a similar
success at a branch it plans to
open Nov.19 on Frederick Douglass
Boulevard in Harlem, another underserved
banking market. There,
more than a third of households
manage their finances without a
bank account, compared with 13%
of families citywide.
Even though CheckSpring will
be renamed Spring Bank by its
Harlem debut, it will continue to
lure customers with discount
check-cashing services and by
forming partnerships with city
agencies and local financial literacy
groups, which have brought in two
out of five of its customers in the
Bronx.
In Harlem, the bank also hopes
to benefit from the rising number of
SPECIAL DELIVERY: Whole Foods is helping God’s Love We Deliver
replenish its supplies by setting up a food drive in its Manhattan stores.
A social-media fundraising campaign
with the aim of collecting $10
million was slated to start on Veterans
Day.It was postponed until after
Thanksgiving because of the storm.
Now Mr. White worries that his
pleas for money may get lost in the
crush of nonprofits seeking holiday
donations and aid for storm victims.
Saving lives
“Sandy will affect our fundraising,”he
said.“But those charities are
out there trying to save lives, and we
are trying to save lives, and you just
have to respect where people decide
to give.”
small businesses in the area.
“We’re excited for more businesses
to find out about us,” said
Vice President Brian Blake.“A bank
survives by making loans.”
—ken m. christensen
BRONX
Filling in the big
Daffy’s retail gap
Just four months after the news
broke that the big Daffy’s store at
the Bay Plaza Shopping Center in
the Bronx would be shuttered as
part of the discount chain’s bankruptcy,
there was some good news
last week. The lease on the 26,500-
square-foot Daffy’s site is going on
the auction block. Bids are due by
Dec. 7.
“Whenever a major block of
space is vacant, it is not good for
neighboring businesses,” said Robin
Abrams, executive vice president at
real estate firm Lansco Corp.“It will
be beneficial to other neighboring
tenants to have the space leased and
filled.”
While the auction’s timing
means a big hole will remain in the
local shopping fabric through the
holiday season, it will at least be
short-lived.
The vacancy comes at a challenging
time for Bay Plaza, which
lies in the shadow of the huge
Co-op City housing complex in the
north Bronx. A new shopping option—the
Mall at Bay Plaza, a
780,000-square-foot center, is expected
to open nearby in 2014.That
property has already signed Macy’s
and J.C. Penney as tenants.
—adrianne pasquarelli
There’s at least one charity that
doesn’t want additional funds—for
now, anyway. Muzzy Rosenblatt,
executive director of Bowery Residents’
Committee, which provides
housing for the needy, asked donors
to give their money to charities
helping those hit hardest by Sandy.
BRC lost a van in the flooding, and
two of its buildings sustained moderate
damage, but Mr. Rosenblatt
put those losses in perspective.
“We need help, but we are
nowhere as in need as others,”he explained.
“Hopefully, when I really
need some help, people will be there
for us.”
buck ennis
22 | Crain’s New York Business | November 12, 2012