By Howard M. Riell

Mayor Bill de Blasio has appointed Jessica Tisch as Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT).

Tisch previously served as Deputy Commissioner of Information Technology for the NYPD, where she led the Department into the 21st century by harnessing the power of technology to best serve police officers and the people of New York City. At the NYPD, she helped revolutionize policing in the City by implementing the largest police body-worn camera, smartphone and tablet programs in the world.

Her deep knowledge of complex technological systems and accomplishments throughout her decade of public service with the City of New York make her well-equipped to lead DoITT into the future, the mayor’s office noted in a release.

“As DoITT Commissioner, Tisch will lead all aspects of the City’s delivery of IT services that touch every aspect of city life, from public safety to human services. She will also undertake a modernization of the City’s technology infrastructure.”

“Jessica’s knowledge of technology and her drive to get things done are unmatched,” said de Blasio. “She helped modernize the finest police force in the nation, outfitting our officers with body-worn cameras and equipping them with smartphones to better connect to New Yorkers. I’m thrilled to welcome her to her new role as Commissioner of DoITT, where she will continue to use technology to make New York City government work better on behalf of all New Yorkers. I also want to thank Eusebio for his hard work as Interim Commissioner and am grateful he will remain in this Administration as Chief Information Officer at the Department of Finance.”

“Jessica Tisch is a world class talent and is a dedicated public servant. She will ensure DoITT continues to serve the complex technology needs of our government, bringing benefits and real results to the millions of New Yorkers we serve,” added Deputy Mayor Laura Anglin. “I thank Interim Commissioner Eusebio Formoso for his leadership, and look forward to his continued partnership.”

“Over the past six years, the Mayor has given me the rare opportunity to use technology to modernize the greatest police department in the world. That modernization did not happen in a vacuum. It was part of a much larger vision that Mayor de Blasio had for how technology can be used to solve problems and serve New Yorkers,” said Tisch. “It is now my great honor to help him realize this vision across City government.”

As Deputy Commissioner of Information Technology at the NYPD, Tisch led the effort to use technology to transform the NYPD’s fundamental business processes, including how officers are dispatched and respond to 911 calls for service, take crime reports, investigate, and search for wanted or missing persons. She managed the development and implementation of the flagship Domain Awareness System, which is at the heart of the NYPD’s crime fighting and counterterrorism operations. Under her leadership, the NYPD equipped every officer with a smartphone that not only gives them access to real-time information in the field, but also improves their accessibility to the public. This effort is fundamental to the Neighborhood Policing program.

In addition to driving the wholesale replacement of the NYPD’s technology infrastructure, Tisch oversaw the agency’s efforts to open a new 911 Call Center in the Bronx. She was also responsible for a pioneering interagency effort with the MTA to make NYPD’s radios work in the subways. Tisch also drove a number of efforts to improve the transparency of the NYPD, including equipping patrol officers with body-worn cameras and making crime statistics, Vision Zero statistics and collision reports available to the public online.

Tisch joined the NYPD in 2008, first as Director of Planning and Policy in the Counterterrorism Bureau and then as Counsel to the Police Commissioner. Tisch graduated Harvard College in 2003 and Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School in 2008. She is a lifelong New Yorker. Her first day as DoITT Commissioner is December 9, 2019.

By: Pablo Vilicozza

Add yet another complaint to the long list that New York City residents like to whine about: helicopter noise.

Some locals are angry over the sounds of overhead on-demand helicopter services like Uber Copter and Blade. While passengers are shuttled from airports to midtown, residents in Brooklyn and Manhattan reportedly can’t hear themselves think.

“It’s horrible. It’s like a lawnmower going through your living room,” Jerry, a resident of Lincoln Place who declined to provide his last name, told the New York Post. Bill Parsons, 71, told Post reporter Sara Dorn that he compares the sounds to “a Harley revving. From the Vietnam War, I know what a Huey [helicopter] used in the Army sounds like. These are bigger. They’re louder … They sound like they are jet-propelled.”

Added Jess Lynn, 62, “The helicopters are coming very low … and they come at quite a pace.”

Uber, wrote Dorn, “admits it flies directly over Brooklyn — departing the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, heading south down the East River before looping around Governor’s Island and making a sharp eastbound turn toward the airport, according to spokesman Matt Wing. But Uber insists it doesn’t generate many complaints because it flies a more limited schedule than Blade – 2 to 6 p.m. on weekdays only. It also claimed that it tries to keep its copters at a noise-minimizing altitude of 1,500 feet over residential areas. It would not divulge how many trips it flies.”

While no one likes noise, the copter services are a tremendous boost for many.

The Uber Copter, which was launched on October 7, takes passengers from lower Manhattan to John F. Kennedy International Airport with an eight-minute chopper ride. Each trip comes with a $200-$225 price tag, depending on demand. Rides on the five-seater helicopter are available on weekday afternoons from 2-6 p.m.

For instance, Blade Urban Air Mobility is a short-distance aviation company “committed to reducing travel friction by enabling cost-effective air transportation alternatives to some of the most congested ground routes in the U.S. and abroad,” it said on its web site. “No company flies more people in and out of city centers than Blade.”

Indeed, its long-term goal is “to make aviation more accessible by preparing for the adoption of eVTOL (Electric Vertical Take Off and Landing) quiet, carbon-neutral and cost-effective aircraft that are currently being developed by our investors and partners,” it boasts. “Blade is an integral part of this urban mobility revolution and we invite you to fly the future today.”

By Hellen Zaboulani

The owners of recently-built homeless hotels, in the five boroughs of NYC, are saving millions of dollars on city taxes through a rebate program. A total of 44 homeless hotels appear to have received both the Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program (ICAP) rebate and homeless subsidies in the last four years, according to city records. As reported by the NY Daily News, in the 2018-2019 tax cycle alone, dozens of these hotels have been spared of paying a total of $12.5 million in taxes. Furthermore, a bulk of the tax breaks are benefitting just three hotel developers, namely Sam Chang, Harshad Patel and Riverbrook Equities, according to a New York Hotel Trades Council analysis.

There are a total of 151 hotels that get ICAP rebates. The ICAP, an updated version of the Industrial and Commercial Incentive Program, offers a partial abatement of taxes for up to 25 years, for eligible industrial or commercial buildings that are constructed, modernized, rehabilitated, or expanded. It is part of the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s mission is to boost economic growth. From 2015 to 2019, homeless hotels that got the rebates saved themselves more than $30 million in taxes. At the same time, some of them got paid by the city to house the homeless, and brought down their vacancy rates. “Many New Yorkers question whether city tax break programs really deliver the promised benefits,” said spokesman for the city’s Independent Budget Office, Doug Turetsky. “Providing tax breaks to the owners of some of the same hotels where the city is spending millions of dollars to shelter the homeless seems like a prime example of a tax break gone awry.”

Chang’s McSam Hotel Group has built 49 hotels since 2006. Of those, 14 have been subsidized to house the homeless, and five have received ICAP rebates. The tax savings for the 2018-2019 year was roughly $2.3 million, as per city records. A spokeswoman for the company said it did nothing wrong in receiving the rebates. “McSam Hotel Group complies with New York City laws, rules and regulations in building hotels. We never build hotels with the intent of housing homeless persons,” said spokeswoman Lisa Linden. “McSam Hotel Group makes no decisions regarding whether homeless persons are housed in hotels. The management companies make those decisions.”

In 2018, under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, NYC spent about $384 million housing homeless people in hotels, due to a dire shortage of affordable housing in NYC. The city expects to spend an estimated total of $2.1 billion in 2020 on the homeless crisis. It is widely agreed that the less spent in hotels the better. The city’s goal in 2017 was to open about 90 new homeless shelters, to eliminate the need for hotels and cluster apartment sites. So far it has opened 30 new shelters.

By Ted Brooks

The lawsuits continue to mount from those claiming to have contracted Legionnaires’ disease in 2018 from the cooling tower of a Washington Heights housing complex.

According to medical authorities, Legionnaires’ disease, also known as legionellosis, is a form of atypical pneumonia caused by any type of Legionella bacteria. Signs and symptoms include cough, shortness of breath, high fever, muscle pains, and headaches.

Published reports say that nine more individuals have alleged that the Sugar Hill Project at 898 St. Nicholas Ave. at 155th Street was the cause. According to the allegation, the complex’s contaminated cooling tower sent them to the hospital. The suits were filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Defending in the lawsuits is Sugar Hill’s parent company, Broadway Housing Communities, Inc., and cooling tower company Clarity Water Technologies LLC. The charge is negligence. In all, 32 have come down with Legionnaires, with one death.

“The city Health Department last November said the Sugar Hill cooling tower was the likely culprit of the outbreaks,” the New York Post reported. “The residents say they experienced “significant impairment, hospitalization, complications, symptoms, and problems caused by Legionnaires’ disease,” which they continue “to experience to the present day,” the lawsuits claim.”

The attorney representing the plaintiffs, Scott Harford, told the Post’s Priscilla DeGregory, “The cases relate to the cooling tower on the top of the building and what happened was it released bacteria into the air through water droplets. My clients breathed the air in from the cooling tower.” (See https://nypost.com/2019/12/06/four-more-washington-heights-residents-sue-after-contracting-legionnaires-disease/)

The attorney for Clarity, Michael Shalhoub, told the Post “Our client takes seriously the health risks posed by legionella. We are confident that our client has taken all necessary steps to protect the public from these risks, and we are prepared to defend the claims made against it in court.”

Each year, between 8,000 and 18,000 people are hospitalized with Legionnaires’ disease in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “People get Legionnaires’ disease when they breathe in a mist or vapor (small droplets of water in the air) containing the bacteria. One example might be from breathing in droplets sprayed from a hot tub that has not been properly cleaned and disinfected. The bacteria grow best in warm water, like the kind found in hot tubs, cooling towers, hot water tanks, large plumbing systems, and decorative fountains. They do not seem to grow in car or window air-conditioners. Most healthy individuals do not become infected with Legionella bacteria after exposure.”

By: Noah Robinson

Announced this week: Amazon no longer plans to spread its wings to Queens, a project worth $3 billion and, instead, will lease office facilities in Midtown Manhattan. They have signed an officialized lease near Hudson Yards, the new shopping center in the most vibrant area of Manhattan. Amazon’s consumers and advertising teams will take over these offices, a total of 350,000 square feet.

Amazon’s project seems to be of interest to State representatives. The Queens debacle is not a slight or subtle move as maybe they would have hoped. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who always has something to say, had lots to say on the matter. She currently represents an area in Queens close in proximity to where the initial project would have taken place. “Won’t you look at that, Amazon is coming to NYC anyway–*without* requiring the public to finance shady deals, helipad handouts for Jeff Bezos, & corporate giveaways.” She wrote explicitly on her Twitter.

Amazon’s change of heart is actually affecting an array of others, not just the regular old outspoken bunch. Eric Phillips, for example, former press secretary to Mayor Bill de Blasio, wrote on Twitter: “This is a tiny fraction of the jobs, with no help for public housing residents or locals, in a place that was going to be developed and have jobs anyway.”

In a recent interview, Mr. Gianaris negated Phillips. He stated: “This is where the talent is. They can’t sacrifice the talent to the competition.” Senator Michael Gianaris had a similar approach. The Senator himself is a Queens Democrat who had once supported Amazon’s move to Queen, but changed his mind after learning more about it, refusing to be ignorant.“Amazon is coming to New York, just as they always planned. Fortunately, we dodged a $3 billion bullet by not agreeing to their subsidy shakedown earlier this year.”

When Amazon decided not to pursue their Queens project, they said it has over 5,000 employees in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island, and will “continue growing these teams.” For this new project, Amazon placed 8,000 in the workforce, with 3,500 employed.

The Queens project would have been, should have been, but now Amazon invests in creating more and more jobs, slowly putting an end to unemployment in the State in a unique, more focused angle.

By Ilana Siyance

New York City has historically been known to fetch among the highest prices for commercial real estate across the globe. That’s not to say it’s overpriced. There is undeniably incalculable value added by being in a prime location. The Big Apple is certainly a prime setting, a place to see and be seen, to wheel and deal, more so than any other City in America. This is true for businesses and offices as well as homes and residential buildings.

Today, businesses continue to pay a premium for an address in the Big City. Commercial space in prestigious areas like FiDi, Hudson Yards, or the Plaza District regularly ask potential tenants more than $100 per square foot. The only question remains, which NYC streets and neighborhoods are fetching the highest prices for commercial space in 2019. A recent blog in Metro Manhattan by Alan Rosinsky sought to answer this question. Based on commercial real estate sales data from NYC Department of Finance , in the five boroughs of NYC from January 2019 till October, a list was compiled revealing the 30 most expensive streets, as well as the 30 most expensive neighborhoods in NYC. The list found the locations with the highest Median Sale Price for NYC streets and neighborhoods that had at least 10 commercial sales transactions so far this year.

First let us peek at the Priciest Commercial Streets in NYC. The number one most expensive street in NYC is none other than Manhattan’s Third Avenue. The Median Sales Price was $12,092,588, as calculated from the 10 sales on the street between January and October 2019. The total sales volume for the period was $715,746,114. The largest transaction was Chetrit Group’s $422 million purchase of the Midtown Manhattan building at 850 Third Avenue in January. The 21-story, 617,000 Square foot building on 51st street and third was previously owned by China’s debt-ridden HNA Group. Another heavy-duty deal was 60 Guilders and RCG Longview’s $212.5 million purchase of the renovated 19-sory student housing building at 1760 Third Avenue, from The Chetrit Group.

The second most expensive street in NYC was Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue. The street boasted a Median Sales Price of $9,335,312 for commercial transactions. There were 10 sales recorded for the year so far, with total sales volume of $379,769,138. The largest transaction in the area was the $180 million purchase of 360 Lexington Avenue by Savanna at the end of the summer. Manhattan’s First Avenue was named the third most expensive street in NYC. There were 11 sales recorded for the period with a Median Sales Price of $8,000,000.

As expected, the City’s most expensive streets are in Manhattan. However, Brooklyn seems to be catching up. Manhattan was home to 9 of the 30 most sought after streets for the year, but Brooklyn topped that with 13 of the most expensive streets based on this year’s sales. NYC’s fourth priciest street is in Brooklyn— namely Flatbush Avenue. The street fetched a median sale price of $5.6 million for commercial properties, recording 13 transactions with total sales volume of $191,040,950. That means than in 2019, commercial buyers paid a higher premium for Flatbush locations than Fifth Avenue or Broadway. Brooklyn’s busy street is developing fast. The priciest exchange was the $100 million sale of 270 Flatbush Avenue, which is yet to be built.

Last in the Top five is Queens’ Northern Boulevard with a Median Sales Price of $4,550,000, for 12 sales. The biggest transaction there was the sale of the $40 million retail building at 51-30 Northern Boulevard. The former Sports Authority Store there will be turned into a high school. Queens grabbed a total of seven spots in the top 30 list for the most expensive commercial streets. The combined commercial sales volume for the borough on this list was $863 million in 2019.

Manhattan’s prized Fifth Avenue took the sixth spot on the list. The Median Sales Price for transactions was $4,222,500, despite the high total volume of $3,010,590,975 on the 18 sales in 2019. Seventh place on the list was Brooklyn’s President Street, with Median Sales Price of $3,050,000 in 16 transactions.

Eighth place was 4th Avenue, also in Brooklyn. Median Sales Price was $2,950,000 over the 16 transactions. Other notable streets to make the top 30 list from Brooklyn include: Brooklyn’s Broadway (#11), Nostrand Avenue (#13), Coney Island Avenue (#16), Atlantic Avenue (#17), Amity Street (#21), Bedford Avenue (# 22), 6Th Avenue (#23), Fulton Street (#26), Kings Highway (#29), and Greene Avenue (#30 on the list).

Number Nine on the list is Queens’s 31st Street, with a Median Sales Price of $2,850,000 for the 10 transactions. Other hot streets on the top 30 list in Queens included: Steinway Street ( spot #18), Queens Boulevard (# 19), Prince Street (#20), Roosevelt Avenue (#24), and Union Street (#25).

Rounding off the top ten of the list of NYC’s most expensive streets was Manhattan’s Charlton Street with a Median Sales Price of $2,788,914 for the 13 transactions. Other hot streets in Manhattan included: Madison Avenue (#12), Leonard Street (#14), West 87Th Street (#15), and of course Broadway (down to spot # 27, with Median Sales price of $1,400,000, despite high sales volume of $476,502,007 in 21 transactions.)

The Borough of Bronx did make an appearance on the list, though Staten Island did not. East Tremont Avenue landed was ranked as #28, with a median sale price of $1.2 million for 10 commercial sales in 2019.

That brings us to the list of the Most Expensive Commercial Neighborhoods in NYC, based on sales data from the DOF dated January to October 2019. In this list, Manhattan regains its rightful place at the top. Manhattan hogged 19 of the top 30 spots in the list, as compiled by Metro Manhattan. In fact all the top 11 most expensive neighborhoods were in Manhattan. The top neighborhood was, of course, Manhattan’s Financial District. It blew away all the competition with Median Sales Price of $43,850,000 in 10 transactions. Second place on the list is Manhattan’s Fashion District, with a Median Sales Price of $12,499,570, over 27 recorded transactions. The other top ten commercial neighborhoods on the list, in order include: Midtown Cbd, Upper East Side (79-96 streets), Greenwich Village-West, Greenwich Village-Central, Little Italy, Upper East Side (59-79 streets), East Village, and Chelsea neighborhoods respectively.

The Bronx’s Mount Hope/Mount Eden neighborhood stole spot #12, with Median Sales Price of $5,812,000 over 11 transactions in the neighborhood. Manhattan neighborhoods continue to dominate the list till the Bronx’s Mott Haven/Port Morris takes spot 18.

Queen’s Bayside neighborhood was named # 19 on the list with a Median Sales Price of $3,750,000 over 12 transactions. Bayside was the only Queens neighborhood on the list, led by the $12.2 million sale of the Bayside Tennis Corporation at 34-28 214th Place.

Six Brooklyn neighborhoods made the top 30 list. Carroll Gardens took the 22nd spot with a Median Sales Price of $3,700,000 in 17 transactions. The neighborhood of Gowanus was ranked # 23, with a Median Sales Price of $3,425,000, over 20 transactions with a total sales volume of $177,085,207 for the neighborhood in 2019. Flatbush-Central made the list as # 25, with 46 transactions in the neighborhood, at a Median Sales Price of $207,529,331. Other Brooklyn neighborhoods to make the most expensive list include: Park Slope (# 27), and Boerum Hill (#30).

By: Edward Mervison

Uber announced that over 3,000 passengers using its services were sexually assaulted last year. 464 people were raped in 2017 and 2018. 99.4% of them were riders. The question is, what will Uber do next? How will they improve the safety of their passengers?

Dan Ives, managing director of Wedbush Securities: “This is a major crisis situation that they’re going to have to deal with because the brand’s built on safety, and even though some could try to say it’s a small number, it’s still way too high — it’s higher than zero — and I think that shows a gap in their screening process.”

But it’s not that Uber hasn’t made attempts at implementing safety procedural measures. In the past two years, Uber has created in-app emergency buttons, a ride check feature that determines potential crashes, and a ride share feature that allows passengers to share their location. Obviously, it wasn’t enough.

So, this week, Uber will launch a new feature that gives passengers a four digit number that they can utilize to confirm that they are getting into the right car. Next year, Uber will launch a support hotline managed by RAINN, a sexual violence organization. It will also provide sexual misconduct education for all Uber drivers. Lyft will not do something similar, encouraged by this new shift in policy.

Some, however, are disappointed by the lack of reform and change. They do not believe that this is enough. It has been expressed that fingerprinting should be an additional feature, “because someone can easily fake a Social Security number,” said Dominique Penson, an attorney. She continued: “You can’t fake a fingerprint. And if somebody has been convicted of a crime anywhere in the United States, that will appear in a national database, and when you run that fingerprint, you’ll know.”

A U.S. House committee is in the process of looking at a legislation that could essentially reduce the number of sexual assaults. U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, confirmed this. The committee has discussed the idea of fingerprint check, camera monitoring, and front license plates. This would automatically eliminate the issue of “fake drivers.”

Bryant Greening, an attorney and co-founder of LegalRideshare concludes: “There’s no more dangerous place to be than in a moving car with a stranger. You are really vulnerable without a clear path to escape. So this system, rideshare, needs to be made safe for everybody who is in that car.”

By: John Hemison

Walking the streets of the city pre 2014, you used to see a payphone on every block. Post 2014, you now see electronic kiosks that offer free WiFi, “a critical step toward a more equal, open, and connected city,” Mayor Bill de Blasio. The sole purpose of LinkNYC was to connect New Yorkers digitally, New Yorkers that may not have access in neighborhoods that need it most. Recently, LinkNYC kiosks have been found clustered in remote areas that are better for advertising, a marketing strategy instead of a helpful tool for New Yorkers.

For most, this kiosk is a huge screen of fun facts. The kiosks themselves are physically nine feet tall, with two 55-inch screens on both sides that contain maps, directions, a USB charging station, and access to phone calls and Wifi. It doesn’t serve much of a purpose to most New Yorkers, but to some it is essential to stay connected when they might not have the opportunity to normally. This is what LinkNYC was produced for, so outwardly in such a large number.

However, the kiosks are being placed in areas that are more prosperous for advertising, and less so in areas that need it, very badly. The maps prove that kiosks are most prominent in places where the New Yorkers are not in need of this service at all and, in fact, get annoyed by screen after screen. The city’s poorest areas have little to no kiosks.

LinkNYC has had some strange issues in its development. In 2016, it had to diable most of its usable because people were using them to watch pornography. Business owners in the city have stated that these screens are “magnets for the homeless.” That same year, a letter was sent directly to the mayor’s office, raising deep concern about “the vast amount of private information retained by the LinkNYC system and the lack of robust language in the privacy policy protecting users against unwarranted government surveillance.” In fact, this exact issue has even caused violence. A few months ago, a man, who was paranoid about being watched all the time, managed to destroy 42 kiosks, NYPD calling it a “smash spree.”

But LinkNYC has made it clear in their own statement that “New York City and CityBridge have created customer-first privacy protections to ensure our users’ personal information stays that way – personal. We believe our privacy policy is the best way to protect New Yorkers and LinkNYC users while they safely and securely enjoy free superfast Wi-Fi across the five boroughs. We will continue to work to ensure legitimate concerns are addressed.”

It may be safe, but the kiosks’ use value lose all validity when standing its areas that don’t necessarily have a desire for it. So, at the end of the day, who is it for? The busy citizens of New York? Or the company, the mayor, and their finances?

By Hadassa Kalatizadeh

SoftBank Group Corp has widely been criticized for investing in WeWork. The Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company put in a total of roughly $14 billion in the office-sharing startup, which has yet to turn a profit. SoftBank, known as the as the 36th largest public company in the world, suffered an upsetting write down, and its own shares are now down approximately 30 percent from their April high. Founder Masayoshi Son conceded “there was a problem with my own judgement” in investing in WeWork. But now, one analyst is offering rays of hope. Chris Lane of Sanford C. Bernstein is saying that at the end, SoftBank will have the “last laugh”.

As reported by Bloomberg News, the financial planning expert says that WeWork still has the potential for a profitable future if it changes its business model, focuses on maximizing the occupancy rate in its current real estate assets, and steers clear of excess and expansion. Lane compares the business model to that of Starbucks, which was able to complete because of branding and global scale. “We think investors should think of the basic business as being similar to Starbucks,” Lane wrote. “While profitable, the scale of profits that can be generated from a single site is small. Starbucks as a corporation only makes sense if you plan to open thousands of outlets.”

After an Initial Public Offering fiasco, WeWork failed to go public, and co-founder Adam Neumann stepped down. WeWork’s valuation dropped from the estimated high of $47 billion down to the current valuation of less than $8 billion. The fast-growing co-work company, which lost roughly $1.61 billion last year, was bailed out by SoftBank, which ended up with an 80 percent stake in the company. Marcelo Claure, whom SoftBank has appointed the new executive chairman of WeWork, will now lead an effort to turn around the company, focus on becoming profitable and cut spending and expansion.

In a 21-page research report, Lane wrote that WeWork can turn a profit if it fills its space, thereby taking over 8 percent of an emergent market for ready-to-move-in offices for corporate companies. He says the company can even branch out to offering flexible real estate or “managed space as a service” to a wide range of clientele, possibly making $500 monthly on memberships. He estimates that WeWork’s revenue can rise to $1.5 billion if it can reach 90 percent occupancy for its real estate assets. Then when it becomes profitable, it can go public, maybe in 2023. He believes that the company has the potential for a valuation of $28.8 billion by the year 2025, which would mean a 40 percent profit for SoftBank on its investment.

“We believe WeWork’s valuation is justified if you believe in the long-term, ‘office space’ will be a managed service outsourced to professionals – and that WeWork will be the leading global player,” Lane wrote. “Despite the huge embarrassment WeWork has been for SoftBank this year, we suspect SoftBank will have the last laugh when they bring the company back to market in a few years – bigger and profitable.

By: Romy Ronen

Billionaire Steven A. Cohen is quite possibly in the process of buying a huge stake in the New York Mets. This has not been completely confirmed yet, but sources indicate Cohen would take over, after the Wilpons continue their position for five more years. In the past, when the Wilpons were under pressure from having investments in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, Cohen had actually attempted to buy the Mets, a buy that was very much of interest to him.

Cohen purchased a 4% stake in the Mets in 2012 for $20 million. Bloomberg News reported he plans to up that stake to 80% of the team. If these reports are, indeed, true, and the deal is in the works, then the Mets would gain a sum total of $2.6 billion in value, as Cohen would obtain approximately 80%. The Mets have had their fair share of financial struggle, and this majority stake would not only help the Mets, but encourage the already discouraged, devoted fans who have been quite frustrated with the franchise itself.

New York Mets fans appear to be psyched up by Cohen’s interest in buying a significant stake in the National League club as they hope that a guy like Cohen could turn the team into a post season contender for the Fall Classic. The Mets have only made the playoffs just twice in the past decade.

If Cohen does purchase the Mets he would be the wealthiest owner across all the major sports leagues, according to a December 5th report in the Hartford Courant. The 63-year-old hedge fund manager is chairman and CEO of Point72 Asset Management in Stamford and lives in Greenwich, the report continued.

With Forbes estimating his net worth at $13.6 billion, that places Cohen in the sport of the second richest person who resides in Connecticut. The Hartford Courant article said that the only person ahead of Cohen in terms of wealth in Connecticut is yet another hedge fund manager, Ray Dalio who is worth an estimated $18.7 billion.

The Hartford Courant report that on a national scale that gauges wealth, Cohen has a ranking of number 35 and is higher of the Forbes 400 list than such prominent billionaires as George Soros who is estimated to have a net worth of $8.6 billion, filmmaker George Lucas who has a net worth of $6.2 billion, fashion designer Ralph Lauren who has a net worth of $6.3 billion and Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys football team who has a net worth of $8.6 billion.

Cohen grew up to a Jewish family in Great Neck, New York. His father worked in the garment district, his mother was a piano teacher. He had a relatively normal upbringing, focusing on hobbies like poker. Cohen was known as the kid who “took risks.” And most of all, he grew up rooting for the Mets. “It has always been a dream of mine to be a majority owner of a Major League Baseball franchise,” Cohen wrote in a note to investors Wednesday reviewed by Bloomberg News, as was reported in the Hartford Courant. The note reassured investors that Cohen would remain focused on “my first passion” of investing, but also said that “I look forward to seeing you at Mets games.”

He is now considered to be one of the biggest billionaires, hedge fund managers, philanthropists, and art collectors of our time. He is dedicated to the Robin Hood Foundation, serving his role as board of trustees. Most of his other philanthropy work has been geared towards helping veterans with PTSD through health centers and bioscience.

He has a massive art collection with pieces by Monet, Manet, Pollock, Hirst, Picasso, Warhol, and the list goes on. His reportedly $1 billion collection of art includes Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti’s “L’Homme au doigt” or “Man Pointing” that was purchased at a 2015 auction for $141.3 million, which broke the record for the most ever paid for a sculpture, according to the report in the Hartford Courant.

In 2013, Cohen bought Pablo Picasso’s “Le Reve” of “The Dream” from Las Vegas casino owner Steve Wynn for a staggering $155 million, which also shattered the record in terms of being the most money paid by a US collector for a piece of art.

On the bizarre and quite unusual side, the Courant also reported that Cohen owns a 14-foot shark preserved in formaldehyde and a self-portrait sculpture of a human head made from the artist’s own frozen blood.

As a renowned philanthropist and benefactor of the arts, Cohen gave $50 million to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

In 1986, he was charged with insider trading regarding shares of RCA. When under interrogation, he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right. In 2013, he was charged with insider trading again, pleading guilty, and paying $1.8 billion in fines in one of the biggest cases against a hedge fund. In addition to insider trading, Patricia Cohen, his ex wife, confirmed Cohen’s illegal insider trading so that he could push the beginnings of S.A.C. Capital. Cohen was not proven guilty, even with federal prosecutors inserting wires and devices in his phone to track his supposed wrongdoings. Cohen’s firm even withstood a sex discrimination lawsuit that claimed it was underpaying female employees and condoning crude behaviors.

Buying 80% of the Mets would have Cohen swinging high; as a kid who always took risks, this would be a big one, one that would take off a new rocket of opportunity, wealth, and growth in a sky of past scandal and scheme.