Crains New York - October 8, 2012 - (Page 3)

IN THE BOROUGHS BROOKLYN MAKING MONAEO: Nishant Mittal and Anupam Singhal’s technology helps people working across borders avoid tax entanglements. In East NY, a landfill will enjoy populous new life Housing, schools and stores sprouting; next up, transportation BY AMANDA FUNG When Burger UrWay, a Brooklynbased healthy-burger joint, opens at the base of a new apartment building on Elton Street later this year, it will be the first retail establishment to set up shop in a community still taking shape in Spring Creek, in Brooklyn’s East New York section. Today, 233 families reside in Spring Creek—site of a former 227acre landfill. All of them live in a growing community of affordable one- to threefamily homes, known as Nehemiah Spring Creek Houses. By the time conCOST of Spring struction is Creek Community completed in a School, a new couple of years, three-school that number will campus Source: Spring Creek more than quinCommunity School tuple, to 1,275 families. Meanwhile, right next WATTS generated door, work is by Gateway Elton wrapping up on 1’s solar panel the four-buildsystem, biggest of its kind in NYS ing, 197-unit Source: Hudson Cos. first phase of Gateway Elton—the future COST of home of not just steakburger, fries, Burger UrWay 16-ounce soda at but the largest Burger UrWay Source: BurgerUrWay.com solar panel of any residential building in the state. And when Gateway Elton is completed by 2016, it will boast 660 affordable rental apartments. “It’s a brand-new community being built from the ground up,” said Linda Boyce, who moved into her single-family house in 2009. “It takes time to grow.” In fact, it already has. Work began on Spring Creek, a publicprivate effort, more than two decades ago with the building of roads, sidewalks, sewers and other basic infrastructure. The first prefabricated homes, built in modules and trucked in from a factory in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, began mushrooming six years ago. Just last month, the neighborhood-in-themaking hit another major milestone buck ennis THE APP FOR THE 1% Or any road warrior sick and tired of being hounded by the NY taxman BY ERIK ENGQUIST Two years ago, Anupam Singhal got a rude awakening when he sat down to do his tax return. He had spent the year working in London and traveling for business. His wife lived in Boston. Neither knew what taxes they owed to various states and nations. The couple spent weeks trying to reconstruct, day by day, where they’d been. The same thing happened a year later to Mr. Singhal’s friend Nishant Mittal, who had lived in India while his wife was in New York. The two men felt there had to be a better way than combing through receipts and travel records. In August 2011, using their savings, the two consultants started a tech company in Manhattan called Monaeo, from the Latin word moneo, meaning advise, warn, foretell. Their debut product: a smartphone app that, using GPS technology, allows people to track where they’ve been and tells them how many more days they can spend somewhere before triggering a tax liability. “Taxes are one place where almost no innovation has come,” said Mr. Mittal, noting the long dry spell since the advent of consumer tax-prep software. “We’ve taken on the challenge.” In fact, taxes may be the one area where government is ahead of the technological curve. A $3.8 million investment by New York state in analytics that flag questionable tax returns has so far recovered a whopSee APP on Page 19 ODDS & ENDS $73M 214K $7.39 Ad malaise points to ho-hum holidays Busiest time of year may be anything but, judging by one economic indicator BY MATTHEW FLAMM U.S. voters aren’t the only ones holding their breath until the election. Many advertisers are waiting for the November results—when consumers will be less distracted by politics,and economic policy will be more clearly defined—before they make major spending decisions. Media outlets have been posting lackluster results so far this year as Europe’s troubles and weak spending have cast a cloud over ad spending. Despite recent job gains locally and nationally, the buying decisions of marketers—which can serve as an economic indicator— reflect modest expectations for the fourth quarter, the busiest time of the year. “The advertising marketplace will grow as the economy rebounds,” said Lyle Schwartz, a managing director at mediabuying giant GroupM. “I haven’t seen any sign that that’s in the immediate future.” Executives at New York television stations say they expect to finish the year either flat or down a few percentage points in ad revenue, even counting a double-digit boost to the marketplace from the Summer Olympics, which drew record audiences for NBC.Ad sales for the city’s radio stations were down 1% through August, according to a confidential report obtained by Crain’s from industry accounting firm Miller Kaplan. Marketers could pounce after election is resolved Magazine publishers are also closing the year on a lower note as advertisers take refuge in the strongest titles or shift their dollars to digital. The Web, however, and, to a lesser degree, network television are still seeing growth. Local media are not benefiting from political advertising because New York is ignored by the presidential candidates.That makes stations more dependent on traditional sources like retailers. Yet signs so far suggest only moderate Christmas cheer, according to research and consulting firm Borrell Associates.Retail hiring is up this year,but Borrell does not expect to see a big holiday bump. “So far we don’t see a lot of hiring,” said Kip Cassino, executive See AD SLUMP on Page 18 FOUR WORRIERS offer doomsday visions of NYC’s future Page 18 See EAST NY on Page 9 October 8, 2012 | Crain’s New York Business | 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - October 8, 2012

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
CORPORATE LADDER
FROM AROUND THE CITY
OPINION
GREG DAVID
THE LIST
REAL ESTATE DEALS
CLASSIFIEDS
SMALL BUSINESS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - October 8, 2012