Crains New York - June 3, 2013 - (Page 1)

CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS VOL. XXIX, NO. 22 GOTHAM GIGS Christian Gibbs is a musician who’ll move you P. 7 ® WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM JUNE 3-9, 2013 PRICE: $3.00 The Cats conundrum buck ennis Candidate Catsimatidis credits luck, instinct for his success, but his deals had dark sides, too Grand Central’s owner lawyers up BY CHRIS BRAGG AND AARON ELSTEIN In 1986, the small northwestern Pennsylvania town of Warren faced economic ruin: A major employer, United Refining, an 84-year-old oil company on the edge of the Allegheny River, was mired in bankruptcy. In swooped an unknown Manhattan grocery mogul, John Catsimatidis. “I recognized the value,” Mr. Catsimatidis recalled, from his Red Apple Group’s cluttered, unpretentious office on 11th Avenue. “I shook it away from ‘Larry the Liquidator,’ as they say, and I saved 5,000 jobs. The people there still say, ‘Thank you.’ ” But the town would soon get to know another side of its economic savior. For more than a year after Mr. Catsimatidis’ takeover, plant security wiretapped and recorded conversations of 100 people inside and outside the company, its attorneys admit in court records. The security firm pleaded no contest to 100 misdemeanors, and Mr. Catsimatidis agreed to pay a $1 million fine. He denied any involvement, an account contradicted by the security official who carried out the crime, asserting that Mr. Reclusive investor to fight City Hall over who gets air-rights windfall darren thompson BY DANIEL GEIGER 201 TOP 3 ENTREPRENEURS PAGE 15 NEWSPAPER See CATS on Page 24 Seven years ago, Andrew Penson, head of an obscure investment firm called Argent Ventures, quietly snapped up ownership of one of the most famous train stations in the world,Grand Central Terminal, with dreams of minting hundreds of millions of dollars by selling off the landmark’s more than 1 million square feet of unused development rights. Now—almost a year after his plan was broadsided by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to create out of whole cloth millions of square feet of development rights in midtown east and sell them off to jump-start a new generation of bigger, smarter office towers—Mr. Penson is fighting back. He’s accusing the city of violating his constitutional property rights and has hired one of the nation’s foremost constitutional lawyers, David Boies of Bush v. Gore fame, to press his case in court if need be. Mr. Penson claims the mayor’s airrights proposal leaves him no choice. The city aims to charge $250 per square foot for development rights that would allow property owners to build larger towers than current zoning allows. In return, the city hopes to use the proceeds from the sales to fund hundreds See GRAND CENTRAL on Page 8 http://WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - June 3, 2013

Crains New York - June 3, 2013
IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
REAL ESTATE DEALS
OPINION
GREG DAVID
FOR THE RECORD
TOP ENTREPRENEURS
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE COFFEE
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - June 3, 2013