* With high-powered endorsers like Merryl Tisch and Dick Ravitch in his corner, insiders are expecting Bill Thompson to post impressive fundraising numbers on Wednesday's campaign finance deadline. But Mr. Thompson still has further to go to catch up with his Democratic rivals in terms of dollars that are eligible for the city's 6-to-1 public matching fund system. The city matches low-dollar donations of up to $175, for a maximum of $1,050 in public funds per contributor. As of last March, Mr. Thompson had raised a total of $2,782,048, of which only $228,668 is matchable. That's about $130,000 less than Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has in matchable funds, or $409,000 less than Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Comptroller John Liu has over $560,000 in matchable funds, but may not receive public matching dollars in the wake of the recent convictions of his former campaign treasurer and a top donor.

*Brooklyn state Sen. Daniel Squadron, a candidate for public advocate, raised more than $209,000 over the past two months, his campaign said on Monday. In total, his campaign has raised nearly $1.2 million, with Mr. Squadron expected to have some $2.6 million when the city's campaign matching funds system kicks in. Other leading public advocate contenders include Brooklyn Councilwoman Letitia James, who recently landed the Working Families Party's backing, and Reshma Saujani, who on Monday announced the endorsement of Alliance of South Asian American Labor. Neither of their fundraising numbers were available. Mr. Squadron also announced that on Tuesday, he would be getting the backing of a "large coalition" of community and business leaders representing the Manhattan and Flushing, Queens Chinatown neighborhoods.

* Northeast Queens Democratic Council candidate Paul Vallone announced it has raised $73,000 for his bid on Tuesday, doubling his total sum over the past three months. He also announced the backing the Detectives' Endowment Association, which boasts 17,000 members. Mr. Vallone is running to replace indicted Republican Councilman Daniel Halloran, who is not seeking re-election. Other Democrats in the race include Austin Shafran and John Duane, while Dennis Saffran is running on the GOP side.

* In that Queens Council race, it appears Mr. Saffran could have a primary challenger. Hank Yeh, a Chinese-American businessman and Republican, registered a campaign committee to raise money for a run on Monday. There are no other Asian-Americans currently running for the seat, although Kevin Kim, a Korean-American attorney who won the Democratic nomination in 2009, is reportedly interested.

The New York Hotel Trades Council is rallying its members to attend a community board hearing Monday night on a Bloomberg administration plan to rezone 78 blocks of the business district. The union wants a provision added to the plan requiring developers to get a special permit from the City Council to build a new hotel in the area. The board will issue an opinion on the plan, which itself requires City Council approval this fall.

Several hundred hotel workers are expected to show up at the hearing at Lighthouse International on East 59th Street, according to the union. Because the union has enough political might to help elect or un-elect council members, it has leverage to persuade the council to add conditions favoring unions during the special permit approval process.

The Department of City Planning's east midtown rezoning, meant to encourage the modernization and development of commercial buildings, just began its seven-month public review process. But the playbook being employed by the Hotel Trades Council is not new.

A special-permit requirement for new hotels was incorporated in rezonings of North Tribeca, the fur district (a small area north of the meatpacking district) and most recently Hudson Square.

The permit idea has support from a wide coalition of city officials and from the Real Estate Board of New York, an industry association that includes developers who build unionized hotels.

"As we have seen in other rezonings, most recently Hudson Square, special permits for hotels safeguard the community from overdevelopment of hotels, which pose unique challenges to the neighborhoods," said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

The Trades Council supports the permit requirement because it gives the union an opportunity during the review process to point out whether a proposed hotel development is labor-friendly or not.

"Without a special permit process, the area could be overrun by limited-service hotels with low-wage jobs—not the world-class hotels a world-class central business district deserves," said Peter Ward, president of the Trades Council.

East midtown is dominated by union hotels. The district has 29 hotels employing 7,500 workers, of which 90% are members of the Trades Council.

"We are supportive of the rezoning in general," said Josh Gold, political director of the Trades Council. "We also want middle-class jobs here."

Among the most prolific developers and operators of limited service, non-union hotels are the Lam Group and Sam Chang, who runs McSam Hotel Group. Between them they have built and sold dozens of properties under the banner of Holiday Inn Express, Best Western and Comfort Inn, among others. A special permit would likely discourage them and others from building on a site that requires a special permit. In most of the city, hotels can be built as-of-right—that is, without council approval—on sites zoned for commercial use.

Others support the special permit because it incorporates the community's voice before a building goes up.

"Hotels are a 24-hour-a-day operation, distinct from commercial or residential uses," said City Councilman Daniel Garodnick, who represents east midtown, in a statement. "We need to treat them differently, and that is what this special permit achieves."

Crain Communications Inc., publisher of Crain's New York Business and more than a dozen other publications, including Advertising Age, will shift its headquarters to 685 Third Ave., at East 44th Street, the company announced Monday afternoon.

The company will move early next year from 711 Third Ave., which is next door to 685 Third Ave.

"This is an exciting opportunity for us to hit the refresh button," said Chris Crain, a vice president and manager of Crain Communications' New York office, in an internal company announcement. "We're working on an open-space design that will make our office a more collaborative environment and offer some more modern technology and amenities."

Crain Communications will take 57,000 square feet at 685 Third Ave, where it will occupy the entire 9th and 10th floors of the 31-story building. The length of the lease was not disclosed. Rents were also not disclosed, but asking rates at 685 Third Ave. start in the $50s per square foot.

A team from the brokerage company CBRE Group Inc. led by Mary Ann Tighe and David Hollander represented Crain Communications in the deal. CBRE also represented TIAA-CREF. Mr. Hollander could not be reached immediately for comment.

The company has been an office tenant at 711 Third Ave., a building owned by SL Green Realty Corp., for several years but had considered multiple options to move elsewhere, including a relocation downtown, according to brokers familiar with the company's search. Ultimately, the firm chose to stay close to its existing location, maintaining commuting patterns for staff and keeping the company in the heart of midtown.

Though not as inexpensive as lower Manhattan, Third Avenue is considered one of the most affordable areas of midtown.

685 Third Ave. has been searching for tenants. Pharmaceutical company Pfizer sold the building to TIAA-CREF for $190 million in 2010. Late last year, TIAA-CREF had a nearly 100,000-square-foot deal at the property with Epiq Systems, a technology provider to the legal industry. But late in negotiations, that deal fell apart.

One day soon, New Yorkers might be able to buy a fancy umbrella or a cell phone charger when they pick up a pack of gum at the corner newsstand. The City Council proposed legislation on Monday to increase the maximum price of products sold at New York City newsstands to $10 from $5. Possible new items for sale would include electronic accessories like earphones, chargers, and camera batteries, and city guides for tourists.

The current law exempts newspapers, magazines, periodicals and prepaid transit or phone cards—everything else must cost $5 or under. The price limit covers items before taxes, so cigarettes are lawfully available though they cost around $13 a pack—$8 of which are from taxes.

"This legislation will allow New York City's iconic newsstands to sell more products, thereby expanding consumers' access to more of the products they want and need," said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn in a statement. She noted that the bill, which will be formally introduced at a May 22 City Council meeting, should help small business owners generate more sales.

The last time the newsstand price limit was altered was a dozen years ago in 2001, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg increased it to $5 from $2. Such limits are in place in order to preserve the historic nature of newsstands without turning them into larger retail chains. There are currently 300 sidewalk stands in the city, down from 1,500 over half a century ago, according to Robert Bookman, counsel to the NYC Newsstand Operators Association.

"This will help newsstands stay in business by giving them items they can sell and make some money on," explained Mr. Bookman. "It's to allow these other items which you can't sell for $5 anymore—a decent umbrella that will work for more than one rain, or a tourist guide."

One kiosk operator remained ambivalent. Chempak Patel, who has operated a kiosk on Third Avenue and East 45th Street for the past four months, noted that not many people purchase his $3 black umbrellas as it is. He's unsure that pricier umbrellas would generate more business.

"They only buy them when it's raining," he said.

About 44% of small businesses received full funding on credit applications last year, up from 8% of applicants in 2011, according to the bi-annual Small Business Credit Survey. The New York Fed said fewer businesses were "discouraged" by credit conditions: Among non-applicants, about 18% didn't seek capital because they anticipated being denied, down from 29% of firms the previous year.

"There's a big push to increase small business lending at the banks," said Ramit Arora, president and co-founder of online loan broker Biz2Credit. "Bank lending is trending up and that could even go higher this year."

Last year, the majority of businesses sought credit—usually $100,000 or less—for daily operating expenses, the survey showed. Experienced borrowers applied more often, and success rates were higher for firms with better sales and profits, said Claire Kramer, an officer in regional and community outreach for the New York Fed. About half of profitable businesses received loans, compared with a quarter of firms that operated at a loss.

"We're seeing a little bit of a divided marketplace," Ms. Kramer said. "Future credit demand is likely to come from returning borrowers."

More than half of businesses reported borrowing against residential and commercial real estate.

Despite reporting better results, the majority of firms said access to capital was still their biggest growth concern. Other challenges included taxes, regulations, and "external events," like Superstorm Sandy, the businesses said.

The New York Fed said 61% of businesses affected by Sandy had losses of $25,000 or less. Some firms reported losses of more than $100,000. Only a third of businesses had business disruption insurance at the time of the storm, while 8 percent had flood insurance.

"For those businesses, access to capital is most important right now," Mr. Arora said.

The poll, which covers New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, yielded 812 responses. More than a quarter of the respondents were based in New York City.

The name change will begin in the fall with watches and jewelry for men and women, the company said.

Calvin Klein said the platinum label rebranding is part of its strategy to further boost global growth of the Calvin Klein brand across product categories and geographies.

Calvin Klein said its men's and women's sportswear and accessories being rebranded are designed to be "modern, directional and sexy with an urban edge." The distribution of the line is focused on Europe and Asia.

Shares of New York-based PVH fell $1.04 to $118.38 in midday trading Monday. They have traded in a 52-week range of $72.47 to $125.50.

New York state's pension fund has reached a record-high value of $160.4 billion following an estimated 10.38% rate of return on its investments for the year ending March 31, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli announced Monday.

A stock-market surge powered the gains, with the domestic equities portion of the giant portfolio returning 14.48%. Those holdings now represent 36% of the pension fund's assets. Fixed-income assets in the fund returned a more modest 4.87%, and now constitute 28.2% of the fund. The other double-digit performers for the year were global equities (13.88%), private equity (11.75%) and real estate (11.08%). Non-U.S. equities, which account for 14.1% of the fund, generated a 9.75% return.

But the comptroller, who is the sole trustee of the fund, indicated that cash-strapped local governments should not take the news as their salvation—and certainly not as a reason to essentially borrow from the fund, which they can do under a policy proposed recently by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Mr. DiNapoli initially expressed skepticism about the plan but ultimately negotiated a deal with the governor's office at the end of March.

On Monday, the comptroller sounded another note of caution about the governor's program, which localities can use to realize savings from a pension-benefit reduction that applies only to future government employees.

"We don't recommend it," Mr. DiNapoli said during a conference call announcing the fund's record performance. "Local governments are facing many pressures and some are facing real cash-flow situations, where perhaps taking advantage of either of these options could help manage a short-term budget issue. But certainly, taking a longer view, it's always better to pay the bill in full rather than do any kind of amortizing."

But the comptroller's spokesman said Mr. DiNapoli's comments should not be seen as backing off from the agreement with Mr. Cuomo, which allows local governments to borrow from the pension fund for up to 12 years, with interest, to meet current obligations. "Nothing's changed," the spokesman said. (It's worth noting that Mr. DiNapoli previously backed a pension-smoothing plan himself, in which localities could reduce their immediate payments to the fund in exchange for increasing contributions later.)

Mr. DiNapoli and Mr. Cuomo are known to have an awkward, if not tense, relationship. As attorney general, Mr. Cuomo investigated Mr. DiNapoli's office and refused to endorse him in the 2010 race.

Mr. DiNapoli predicted that local governments, crushed in recent years by rising pension costs, will see their budgets stabilize as the fund continues to recover from the economic collapse in 2008, when it lost over a quarter of its value. Since then, the fund, which provides benefits to over 1 million state workers and their beneficiaries, has rebounded, with 2012-13 marking the fourth straight year of gains.

Local governments likely wouldn't see reduced pension costs until fiscal year 2014-15 at the earliest, Mr. DiNapoli said.

"As long as we don't have the kind of tsunami we had in '08 and '09 … we'll see stability in the rates and actually a hope that we'll begin to see a decline," Mr. DiNapoli said.

The Bloomberg administration has launched a program to help speed up the restoration of New York City waterfront communities that were battered by Superstorm Sandy.

The city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development released a request for qualifications last week seeking developers who would help rebuild one- to four-family homes. More than six months after Sandy, hundreds of houses across the five boroughs still need to be rebuilt. The city said putting the rebuilding work in the hands of a few experts would not only make it easier for displaced families to return home but also create more continuity within affected neighborhoods. The program is entirely voluntary, however, and if individual homeowners want to work with their own developers, designers and contractors, they can.

"For most people, designing a house, especially when you're dealing with new regulations, can be daunting," said RuthAnne Visnauskas, the city housing agency's deputy commissioner for development. "Building a new home in general can be daunting, so having a developer and a team of architects and engineers with the skills to tackle the challenges left by Sandy can be a real help to homeowners."

New zoning and building codes tied to new FEMA flood maps and other regulations stemming from the storms, such as raising homes and using new materials, have been implemented.

Under the request for qualification process, the city has divided affected areas up into six groups, and developers would take charge in each area: Breezy Point in Queens; the rest of the Rockaways and Broad Channel in Queens; Staten Island; Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach and Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn; scattered home sites in the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan; and scattered mixed-use buildings (residences with attached commercial spaces, usually ground-floor retail) in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

The program is aimed at rebuilding 400 to 750 properties with a portion of the $350 million in funding allocated to repair smaller properties from the $1.77 billion in federal Sandy aid being provided to the city. However, the total money spent for the program depends on how many homeowners participate.

Kevin Boyle, editor of The Wave newspaper and a member of the Graybeards, a Rockaways volunteer group that has done a lot of work after Sandy, said city officials had mentioned the program at a recent meeting with Belle Harbor homeowners, a number of whom had lost their homes on Beach 130th Street, and few had expressed a desire to participate.

"None of them were interested, but maybe for some of the smaller homes, people might be," Mr. Boyle said.

The city believes many homeowners will prefer its approach because it would streamline the design process and improve the community. Each of the six developers selected would be expected to come up with at least two to four different shapes and sizes of homes, with an eye toward maintaining the look and character of each neighborhood.

"If you lived in a bungalow or a modern ranch, we don't want to force you into a Cape Cod or a Tudor," Ms. Visnauskas said, referring to some common housing styles found in many of the waterfront communities. By choosing a developer for each area, it also ensures that the houses relate not only to each other but the neighbors who are still standing.

Applications for the request for qualification are due June 5. The city is expected to select six developers by July, so they can spend the rest of the summer mapping out possible home designs and begin construction in the fall.

The city hopes a range of developers will apply, from those who build small homes for the city to large local outfits or big national firms like Toll Brothers or KB Home. "For developers, we can offer scale that makes this a desirable project," Ms. Visnauskas said. "Instead of figuring out all these new challenges for one home, they can do it for 50 or 100."

Several years in the making, Volkswagen AG finally held a grand opening party late last week to celebrate the 2012 launch of its first Manhattan showrooms for its Audi and Volkswagen brands. The German car manufacturer invested $135 million in the flagships, which are located on 11th Avenue between West 55th and West 56th streets.

Over 1,000 attended the celebration, including Hans Deiter Pötsch, Volkswagen AG's chief financial officer. His appearance emphasized the company's push for increased sales in North America, according to a spokesman.

"New York City has always been a vital market for Volkswagen in achieving long-term U.S. growth," Jonathan Browning, chief executive of Volkswagen Group of America Inc., headquartered in Herndon, VA, said in a statement. Bridgewater, NJ-based car dealer Open Road Auto Group, which sold nearly 20,000 new vehicles in 2010, will operate both the Audi and Volkswagen dealerships.

The splashy showrooms have been in the works for four years. Volkswagen first announced plans to purchase the 265,000-square-foot space in 2009. It spent $85 million to buy the building from the Potamkin family, a local automobile dealer that had sold Cadillacs, Hummers and Buicks there. The Potamkins moved six of their franchises five blocks south on 11th Avenue to a smaller space.

Volkswagen then spent another $50 million in renovations, finally opening the 15,500-square-foot Volkswagen showroom in February of 2012 and the 16,800-square-foot Audi showroom last August. The remaining 232,700 square feet are for parking, maintenance stations and offices.

Meanwhile, other auto brands are recognizing the Big Apple's role as a retail showcase. Mercedes-Benz USA paid nearly $190 million to developer Two Trees Management in 2010 for 330,000 square feet of space at 770 11th Ave., just south of the new Volkswagen showrooms. That facility opened two years ago. Mercedes also has a showroom in Brooklyn.

Despite the competition, Volkswagen has no immediate plans for opening additional stores in the New York area, said a spokesman.

Real estate investment firm Savanna has put its 25-story office building at 5 Hanover Square, in lower Manhattan, up for sale, according to sources.

Savanna purchased the mortgage on the 340,000-square-foot property during the depths of the economic downturn for $51.5 million and then took control of the building from former owner Kent Swig. Savanna retained Mr. Swig as the manager of the property, located between Beaver and Pearl streets.

The company later took a $47 million loan against the property from Mesa West Capital to help pay for renovations and raise much-needed capital to get tenants to sign leases in the building. Savanna used that cash to pay for brokerage commissions and tenant incentives, like office build-out work. Since 2010, Savanna has signed several tenants at the property, bringing the building to 96% occupancy.

5 Hanover Square could fetch as much as $100 million, sources say, well beyond what Savanna paid for it. Brokerage Eastdil Secured was hired to sell the building. Savanna and Eastdil Secured declined to comment.

Savanna's decision to sell 5 Hanover Square comes as leasing activity in lower Manhattan has picked up—raising the attractiveness of buildings downtown as investment assets. Several sizable leasing deals have been signed in lower Manhattan in recent months, and the area has become an increasingly popular and affordable destination for companies as rents in the adjacent neighborhood of midtown south soar.

Savanna bought several commercial properties during the recession, capitalizing on discounted prices during that period. Real estate experts familiar with the company's business plan say it is now eyeing opportunities to cash out of those acquisitions and net large profits.

Late last year, Savanna sold 104 W. 40th St. to Princeton International Properties for $105 million. Savanna had acquired that building in 2010 by buying the debt on the property for $61.7 million.

Albany had been in a standstill since its rushed passage of a gun-control law earlier this year sank the Democratic governor's popularity upstate and inflicted Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos with buyer's remorse. Then federal prosecutors unveiled corruption charges against several lawmakers and hinted at more, casting doubt over the prospects for a productive end of session next month.

When Mr. Cuomo met several weeks ago with Mr. Skelos, the governor found the Long Island lawmaker determined to avoid another gun-control scenario. "Skelos said, 'You're not leading me down that path again,' " one Albany insider explained. Translation: The governor won't get public financing of political campaigns, an expansion of abortion rights, decriminalization of low-level marijuana possession or anything else that smells funny to Senate Republicans.

Detours around the Skelos roadblock were quickly closed. Sen. Jeff Klein, a Democrat who shares control of the chamber with Mr. Skelos, was unwilling to circumvent his new partner. And Mr. Cuomo could not trade Mr. Skelos anything because the Republican had no wish list.

But they found common ground on casinos and corruption penalties, and Republicans signaled that they could pass elements of Mr. Cuomo's women's rights agenda that won't increase abortions. "It was a quick pivot by Cuomo to other areas where he might be able to accomplish something," said the insider.

Mr. Cuomo's "clean up Albany" package will likely yield stronger enforcement of campaign rules, tougher penalties for corruption and a misdemeanor charge for failure to report bribe attempts. Some good-government and advocacy groups will be disappointed by the exclusion of public financing of campaigns—just as they were let down by the governor last year when he abandoned a push for independent redistricting. But women's groups seem prepared to settle for an abridged version of the governor's 10-point Women's Equality Act, sources said.

Mr. Klein and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who have already achieved their top 2013 goal of a minimum-wage increase, are not positioned to get much else this session, although Mr. Klein's Independent Democratic Conference is pushing anti-discrimination bills to complement Mr. Cuomo's women's package.

"Our denim business has been on fire," said Tom Ott, senior vice president and general merchandise manager for men's, home and gifts at Saks Fifth Avenue. "What's really driving it is fabric innovation and color."

With the recession in the rearview mirror, men are feeling more relaxed, and their duds are showing it. Two years ago, as they dressed to impress, fancy suit and sport coat purchases grew at a robust pace, generating around $4.7 billion in U.S. sales. Yet now, at $4.5 billion, the category is on the wane; casualwear is picking up the slack.

"In a depressed job market and suffering economy, dressing up helped men stand out," explained Michael Fisher, trend director of menswear and lifestyle at forecasting firm Fashion Snoops. Now, he added, most men have already bought all of the basic suits and jackets they'll need. "We're moving away from the vintage influences of the past and looking toward fresher, more sporty trends."

Led by such looks, overall sales of menswear were up 2%, to $57.6 billion, for the 12 months ended in February, according to research firm NPD Group Inc. Though this represents a dip from a 5% gain in the year-earlier period, analysts say that it's still a strong showing.

Last week, the Department of City Planning argued that Madison Square Garden had better pick up and move in 15 years to clear the way for a new Penn Station. Which raises the question: Is that enough time for MSG management to recover the nearly $1 billion it is spending to renovate the arena?

The answer depends on how one defines Madison Square Garden.

Looked at solely as the home of the New York Knicks and Rangers, numerous concerts and other events, 15 years is nowhere near enough time to earn back the cost of an ambitious three-year project that essentially rebuilt the arena from the inside out.

But consider the Garden to be the diversified media company that sells for around $60 a share on Nasdaq, and it becomes clear that renovation costs can be recovered in as little as five years, thanks to the vast revenue streams generated by the MSG Networks.

The questions of what the Garden is, and how quickly it makes money, are more than an academic exercise now that Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration seems inclined to extend for only 15 years the special permit that allows MSG to operate above Penn Station.

Replacing the Garden and rebuilding the train station will be all the more expensive if the city accepts MSG management's argument that it would be owed significant compensation so it can recover the $980 million cost of renovating its building, a project undertaken without any government support or subsidies.

"We have a right to a return on our investment," MSG Chief Executive Hank Ratner said at a recent meeting with Crain's. MSG wouldn't comment for this article.

Laura Martin, an analyst at Needham & Co., estimates the renovation, which will be completed later this year, will generate up to $100 million annually in new revenue for MSG via higher prices for tickets, suites, food and sponsorships.

Robert Gutkowski, a partner at Innovative Sports & Entertainment and a former MSG chief executive, estimates that the profit margin on the new revenue would be 25%.

"Strictly speaking, the arena is a big food, beverage and retail business," he said.

In election years, I get repeated calls from elected officials asking me for money for their campaigns. I can picture them sitting in a lonely room making calls for hours on end. Political-science professor Dan DiSalvo of City University tells me that elected officials spend 25% to 50% of their time raising money.

I raised money to start Brooklyn Brewery. I raise money for not-for-profit organizations. I cannot imagine raising money to ensure that my political career continues.

I can see how some elected officials, whose whole lives are politics, confuse the public interest with their personal interest. That's one reason we get a culture of corruption in New York.

Once you are elected, the only way you can get things done is to get elected again and again, achieve seniority and become part of the legislative leadership. Junior councilmen and legislators can make noise, but they rarely make laws.

That is not the democracy they taught us about in grade school, or the one we saw in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Instead of giving moving speeches to a spellbound chamber, today Mr. Smith faces years of raising money and fighting for re-election and a place in the Senate leadership. And thanks to television, we see that most of those speeches are addressed to a largely empty room.

It seems to me that term limits are part of the answer. I could see spending two terms in Albany or Washington and then moving back to the private sector. I think it would be good for more people to get a taste of politics. I don't buy the argument that this would leave the government in the hands of the bureaucrats. With term limits, an incoming elected official's opinions would actually matter because his or her vote would be as important as anyone else's.

As things stand now, big donors have an outsize influence on elections because their contributions are the easiest way to fill a politician's campaign chest. Your $100 contribution or your house party that raises a few thousand dollars for a candidate is nothing compared with $5,000 each from 10 members of a corporate board. Or the political action committee that gives thousands more.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was able to rise above the money hunt because of his immense wealth. But his third term is demonstrating the downside of entrusting government to the opinions of one leader.

I would rather see a City Hall, a City Council and a state Legislature occupied by many independent leaders determined to do the right thing for the right reasons, not because their eyes are focused on the cash they need for the next election.

Steve Hindy, co-founder and president of Brooklyn Brewery, writes a monthly opinion column for Crain's New York Business.

Three of New York City's trendiest fitness clubs are feeling the burn after receiving subpoenas for unpaid sales taxes from state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman last week, sources told Crain's.

SoulCycle, Bar Method and Flywheel Sports were all issued investigative subpoenas but have not been accused of any wrongdoing by Mr. Schneiderman's office. The clubs are being directed to provide relevant tax documents stretching back about a year, sources said. A spokeswoman for Mr. Schneiderman declined to comment.

SoulCycle and Flywheel are both popular spinning studios with a reputation for attracting A-list celebrities. Bar Method, which uses a mix of ballet-inspired stretches and Pilates moves, has also grown in popularity in the city.

The 408-foot spire that will crown 1 World Trade Center as the tallest building in the hemisphere was lifted last week to the top of the 104-story tower, the latest milestone in the $14 billion rebuilding of the trade center site.

Down below, however, there is less to celebrate.

As of today, more than 3 million square feet of vacant office space is expected to open in 2014 at 1 WTC and the neighboring tower under construction, 4 WTC. And more than 2 million square feet are on the drawing board at 3 WTC, whose construction is stalled at seven stories for lack of commercial tenants.

No office lease has been signed at the site since magazine publishing giant Condé Nast signed a deal to lease about 1.2 million square feet at 1 WTC two years ago.

The deal was hailed at the time as a validation of the site's prospects as an office neighborhood, but the buildings continue to lose out on the handful of major office tenants currently in the market.

Time Warner Inc., for example, is the biggest office tenant now looking for new headquarters in Manhattan. It has turned its focus to the Hudson Yards, a block west of Penn Station, to meet its demand for 1 million square feet of Class A office space, according to a report last week in The Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, many real estate experts had thought law firm Jones Day might anchor the yet-to-be-built 3 WTC, but it is instead close to inking a 400,000-square-foot deal at Brookfield Place, the four-building office complex just across West Street from the trade center site.

"It's definitely disappointing," said Christopher Ward, former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the WTC site. "Jones Day should have been the deal that 3 World Trade Center landed."

Billions have been spent on a stunning Santiago Calatrava-designed transit hub, a new Fulton Street subway station and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum to create what the site's boosters call the city's pre-eminent office neighborhood. Now the glut of space has turned stakeholders into rivals.

Instead of bulky "smart docking" stations—which are causing some local New York merchants consternation—the Hoboken program relies on bicycles equipped with "smart locks" that can secure a bike anywhere.

"We are looking to expand this system to the Jersey Shore, Fire Island, Newport, R.I., and other cities," said Chris Wogas, president of Bike and Roll New York City, which is operating the program. Other partners are E3Think and Social Bicycles. The infrastructure is far less costly than the Citi Bike program, Mr. Wogas said.

Rentals cost $10 an hour, or $34 for the day. Members who sign up for bike share pay $25 for a month, or $75 for the six-month trial period, with the first hour free and each additional hour running $10 on a prorated basis.

Mr. Wogas expects the pilot to be extended past November and to eventually include 300 bicycles.

Lisa Rosenstein, a new employee at executive recruiter Nexxes Group, recently snapped a quick photo with her soon-to-be boss, Sandra DiFiglia, in Central Park using her iPhone. It turned out to be a good one, but one she wasn't quite ready to upload to her Facebook page.

"I wanted to brighten my eyes and skin tone and fix the background," Ms. Rosenstein said. "I'm starting a new job, and when people look me up, I'd like to appear as attractive and professional as possible."

In today's cyberworld, "say cheese" is becoming a dreaded command. As private is easily made public, and anyone who wants to can follow you virtually with the click of a mouse, people are becoming acutely aware of the dangers of playing candid camera. With competition in the job market remaining fierce, especially among those over 40, looking old or unprofessional could mean the difference between landing a job and landing on the unemployment line. Trashing embarrassing party shots is a given, but for the photos that remain, removing fine lines has become an online necessity.

To make sure their social-media pages show off their better sides, New Yorkers at every income level are enlisting professional photographers to snap and retouch profile pictures submitted to such sites as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Even photos snapped on the fly are getting makeovers via such apps as Visage Lab Pro and Perfect365.

The Chelsea quarters of eBay New York make up a tiny outpost of the $14 billion San Jose, Calif.-based e-commerce company. But as online shopping heads toward a new stage, the Sixth Avenue location, which opened in the fall, could become the tail that wags the giant dog. The 30 or so engineers and developers in the high-ceilinged third-floor offices are working on making shopping on eBay more like hanging out on Pinterest—turning a site once known for auctions of attic junk into an eye-pleasing stream of merchandise "curated" according to the preferences of each user.

"It's Amazon meets Pinterest," said Wedbush Securities analyst Gil Luria of the new eBay homepage in development. "Amazon gets you to stay for a minute or two, Pinterest for a couple of hours. If [eBay] can get you to stay and linger and look at what other people around you are buying—and then shop—they have the best of both worlds."

A person familiar with the matter said Goldman Sachs became concerned about outside access after a Bloomberg reporter, investigating what she thought was the departure of a Goldman employee, told the securities firm that the employee had not logged into a Bloomberg terminal for a number of weeks.

The person was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.

In a memo sent to staff Friday, Bloomberg CEO Daniel Doctoroff said the company had "long made limited customer relationship data available to our journalists," but added, "we realize this was a mistake."

After the complaint last month, Bloomberg "immediately" turned off its journalists' special access and limited it to what clients can see themselves, he said.

The dispute was earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Bloomberg News reporters had been able to see when any of the company's 315,000 paying subscribers, mostly stock and bond traders, had last logged into the service. They could also view the types of functions individual subscribers were accessing.

Mr. Doctoroff said in his memo that access did not extend to "trading, portfolio, monitor, blotter or other related systems or our clients' messages. Moreover, reporters could not see news stories that clients read, or the securities they viewed."

He said senior executive Steve Ross had been appointed to the new position of client data compliance officer to review Bloomberg's policies.

Although Goldman's concerns caused the change, JPMorgan Chase & Co. had also expressed concerns about Bloomberg journalists' access to sensitive data.

A person familiar with the matter at JPMorgan said multiple Bloomberg reporters had used the data to try to break news in the last several years. The person said Bloomberg journalists used their access attempting to find out whether disciplinary action had been taken against Bruno Iksil, a JPMorgan trader nicknamed the "London whale" who was blamed for a $6 billion trading loss last year.

One reporter knew details about the log-in times of multiple traders on a single desk and called daily to ask about potential layoffs, the person said. JPMorgan complained to the reporters about the technique but Bloomberg managers weren't made aware of a formal complaint.

The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and requested anonymity.

Bloomberg reporters are renowned for aggressive techniques in a competitive field.

In November 2010, the news service reported on the earnings of The Walt Disney Co. and NetApp Inc. well before the companies' scheduled releases by guessing the unprotected website addresses of the press releases before they were made public.

The public relations gaffes, which resulted in immediate but fleeting dips in the stock prices of both companies, resulted in the companies taking action to prevent a recurrence.

The network said Friday that the show would soon be ending.

"Rock Center" premiered on Halloween 2011 and news executives preached patience then, saying it would take a while to get established. Bob Costas' interview with Jerry Sandusky about the Penn State child sexual abuse case was its biggest coup.

Since its premiere, NBC aired the show on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights.

The former head of Jewish outreach for Anthony Weiner confirms he's been in talks with the ex-congressman about working on an expected mayoral campaign.

A plugged-in source in Orthodox Jewish politics told the Insider that the hiring was a done deal, but the former congressional staffer, Morton Avigdor, told The Insider Friday afternoon that it was not yet official. Of course, the campaign itself is not yet official, though there are whispers that Mr. Weiner will announce it soon after Shavuot, a Jewish holiday, which ends at sundown May 16.

"I can't speak for a campaign, I'm not in a campaign yet," said Mr. Avigdor, later adding, "I don't have anything, just yet. I should be able to speak to you more about it late next week after the Jewish holiday."

The revelation comes amid increasing speculation that Mr. Weiner will declare his candidacy very soon, with one political insider telling The Insider that it would likely happen next week. Mr. Weiner did not return repeated requests for comment about a campaign announcement or the conversations with Mr. Avigdor.

Asked if the campaign was set to kick off next week, Mr. Avigdor said he did not believe so.

If there is indeed a campaign at some point, Mr. Avigdor is said to be Mr. Weiner's Jewish outreach coordinator. He held a similar position in Mr. Weiner's congressional office. He is also the former associate general counsel of Agudath Israel of America, the giant Orthodox Jewish social services nonprofit.

Meanwhile, Mr. Weiner appears to have switched campaign offices. His old one was on a suite on the third floor at 420 Lexington Ave. in midtown Manhattan, but the door of the old office, visited on Friday by two Crain's reporters, states that an organization called ProMexico is now the tenant. No one answered a reporter's knock, but a woman who works on the third floor told The Insider that she has seen the former congressman around the building recently, but not on that floor. Mr. Weiner continues to pay rent for a campaign office, according to his filings, but Mr. Weiner's name is not listed in a building directory.

Mr. Weiner resigned from Congress after a 2011 sexting scandal, but a month ago declared his interest in a mayoral run. He still has more than $4 million in campaign cash to spend.

With reporting by Andrew J. Hawkins

The Greater New York Councils, Boy Scouts of America has lost a long-time supporter because of its national organization's ban on gay youth and leaders.

The God Bless America Fund, which controls the royalties of its famous namesake song, withheld funds in December because it did not receive adequate assurances from the NYC Boy Scouts' leadership that it was not discriminating against gay scouts or leaders. The fund generates between $100,000 and $200,000 a year, which is usually split between the NYC Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of Greater New York.

Bert Fink, a spokesman for the God Bless America Fund, couldn't immediately say how much money was withheld from the NYC Boy Scouts but noted it was in the five-figure range. The NYC Boy Scouts did get a check last June. Mr. Fink said that the fund has always been very concerned about the Boy Scouts of America's ban against gay individuals but was confident the local chapter wasn't discriminating. However, he said that over the summer the NYC Boy Scouts' leaders "couldn't unequivocally say that they do not discriminate," so the fund withheld its donation.

He said the group will reconsider the decision after the outcome of a vote slated for May 23 by the Boy Scouts of America on whether to allow gay scouts. The group would still ban gay leaders.

"We are truly grateful for the generous support of the God Bless America Fund, which has been transformative in our work, enriching the lives of hundreds of thousands of New York City children," said a spokesman for the NYC Boy Scouts, in a statement.

He added that, "The Greater New York Councils, Boy Scouts of America continues to practice non-discrimination here in New York City and strongly believes that both gay adults and youth must be welcomed in scouting. We support the proposed change in policy as a meaningful step in the right direction, and share the God Bless America's Fund's commitment to advocating for total inclusion."

The anti-gay policy has caused numerous donors, including Intel Corp. and UPS, to stop funding the Boy Scouts of America. And even though the NYC Boy Scouts said it doesn't follow the lead of its national organization, its funding has suffered, according to sources. Tax records show that in the five years ended in 2011, donations, grants and membership fees fell 36% to $7.2 million.

But the God Bless America Fund had been a stalwart supporter of the NYC Boy Scouts. Irving Berlin wrote "God Bless America" to boost the country's spirits during WWII but didn't want to take any royalties from it. In 1940, he established the God Bless America Fund and said that royalties should go to support America's youth. Funds were distributed to girl and boy scout troops around the country. However, since the 1990s, the royalties only flowed to the New York City chapters of each organization.

In the 12 months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the fund generated $800,000, or $400,000 for each group. If the NYC Boy Scouts received at least $50,000 from the fund annually since 1990, plus the $400,000 in 2001, that would total about $1.5 million for the NYC Boy Scouts.

Zach Wahls, a founder of Scouts for Equality, said that it's unfortunate that some troops may suffer financial hardships as the ban pushes donors to withdraw support. But, he added that if the boycotts hasten the end of the ban, it's worth the short-term pain.

"The impact on a youth is far greater when scouts tell them they aren't good enough because of their sexual orientation," Mr. Wahls said.

Back in 2004, Disney was in the 20th year of the tenure of Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner, who had transformed a tired movie and amusement park outfit into the very model of a modern major entertainment conglomerate. Under Mr. Eisner's leadership, Disney bought ESPN, ABC and revived its animation studio with such hits as Beauty and the Beast. In his prime, Mr. Eisner was considered the savviest executive in media, lording over his company just like Mr. Dimon does over JPMorgan and the banking world.

But by the millennium's turn the magic was gone. The hit movies stopped, the big writedowns began, and Disney's share price fell by 11% between 1999 and early 2004, or about 2.5% per year.

There were scandals, too. Mr. Eisner's version of the multi-billion-dollar "London whale" loss that's now nipping at Mr. Dimon's reputation was the case involving Michael Ovitz, a powerful agent who was lured to Disney with an eye-popping $140 million pay package, then fired when Mr. Eisner concluded Mr. Ovitz was gunning for his job. The ensuing trial was a media fiesta in much the same vein as the U.S. Senate hearing in March featuring JPMorgan executives testifying under oath about the botched whale trade.

Fear and loathing in the Magic Kingdom boiled over in early 2004, when members of the Disney family led a shareholder uprising to strip Mr. Eisner of his chairmanship. Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, two firms that advise investors how to vote in board elections, bought the argument. (By the way, ISS and Glass Lewis also have both recommended in recent weeks that JPMorgan shareholders take away Mr. Dimon's chairmanship.)

Clearly there are lots of differences between the media conglomerate and mega-bank. The Disney board was particularly feckless, stocked with directors like Mr. Eisner's personal lawyer and the architect who designed his house in Aspen. JPMorgan's presiding director is Lee Raymond, the former CEO of ExxonMobil, and Mr. Dimon's pay was cut in half last year following the whale debacle. The bank's stock has risen by 11% of the past five years, compared to a 23% drop for its peer group.

In the end, only 43% of Disney shareholders withheld their votes from Mr. Eisner, but that was enough for the board tell him he was no longer chairman. According to James Stewart's excellent book, DisneyWar, Mr. Eisner threatened to quit the company entirely—much as Mr. Dimon is reportedly considering if he's denied his chairmanship—but in the end he stuck around as CEO for a year before leaving to become a private equity investor.

Since Mr. Eisner lost his chairman's post, Disney shares have become a stellar performer again, rising by 154%, or 11% annually, according to Bloomberg data. That beats the 7% annual increase over that time in the S&P Movies and Entertainment Index—and could be something for JPMorgan shareholders to think about as they head into the year's most closely watched board election. Truly, it's a tale as old as time and a song as old as rhyme that beastly boardroom battles can result in something beautiful.

The New York City Law Department said Thursday that the city has already been paid about $60 million with the last settlements being processed.

The case was first filed nearly nine years ago.

City lawyers alleged the companies fraudulently reported inflated drug prices called Average Wholesale Prices, or AWPs. They say the inflations were sometimes thousands of percentage points over the true AWPs. By law, AWP forms the basis for most Medicaid drug reimbursement to doctors and pharmacists.

City lawyers said that since generic drug prices were inflated the most, nearly $49 million in settlements came from seven pharmaceutical companies that manufactured generic drugs.

The office-suite company Regus is leasing yet another space, the latest in what has been a rapid expansion for the company in recent months.

Regus, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange and based in Luxembourg, signed a deal to take 15,000 square feet on the 36th floor of 1250 Broadway, a 39-story building between West 31st and West 32nd streets. Rent for space there is in the $50s per square foot.

The deal is the latest in a string of at least four that Regus has made in recent weeks. Last month, the company took 32,000 square feet at 101 Sixth Ave. in TriBeCa, and weeks before that, it signed up for a more than 60,000 square feet at Brookfield Place in lower Manhattan. The office-suite provider also just opened a huge location at 747 Third Ave., with a ground-floor cafe and lounge for clients. Last year, it relocated its 11 Penn Plaza location to a 50,000-square-foot space at 112 W. 34th St., where it signed a long-term lease. In addition, Regus is close to finalizing a lease for 25,000 square feet at 132 W. 31st St.

Mitch Arkin, a broker at Cushman & Wakefield Inc., represented the landlord of 1250 Broadway, a partnership between Jamestown Properties and Murray Hill Properties. Regus is the largest office-suite provider worldwide, based on location count, and it has 600 in the U.S.

Traditionally, office-suite companies provide space for small businesses and startups. Donna Scott, an executive at Regus, told Crain's last month that larger, more established firms are now using office suites in order to outsource some of their real estate needs. Ms. Scott said about half of Fortune 500 companies use Regus in some capacity.

"A lot of it is the benefit of having flexible lease terms, the ability to grow or shrink quickly, and not having to have a lot of upfront capital costs because the space is fully prepared for occupancy with furniture, phones and technology," said Roger Griswold, a CBRE Group Inc. broker. He and colleague Arkady Smolyansky represent another office-suite provider, NYC Office Suites, which is also expanding in the city.

NYC Office Suites just entered into a long-term sublease for 32,000 square feet at 733 Third Ave., its fourth Manhattan location. Meanwhile, WeWork, another office-suite company, also recently signed up for roughly 125,000 square feet at 222 Broadway in lower Manhattan.

Penn Station, which is serving three times more passengers than it was designed for, is so substandard that it threatens the city's long-term competitiveness and arguably presents a safety risk as well. As long as the arena is above it, it cannot get the major overhaul it so desperately needs.

The Garden is an economic engine in its own right and an important part of the city's culture. But its benefits to the local economy are marginal compared with those of Penn Station, which handles more than twice as much traffic as Grand Central Terminal. If one West Side venue had to be sacrificed for the other, the Garden would have to give way.

Fortunately, there need be no sacrifice. Both Penn Station and the Garden could end up winners. And should. Thus, we urge the City Council to affirm the Bloomberg administration's proposal to extend by only 15 years the special permit that allows the Garden to be where it is. That's enough time to come up with a project that expands and modernizes Penn Station, relocates the Garden without interruption and creates a vibrant business district.

Development around the site today doesn't take full advantage of the station's 600,000 daily commuters. Adding office, retail and other space around a renovated Penn Station would be lucrative enough to subsidize a new Garden nearby. The arena's owners, who would see their air rights soar in value, would be effectively compensated for leaving their current building, despite their having spent, by their count, $980 million on its recent upgrade.

That investment, which was made even though the arena's permit is contingent on its providing a public benefit and was to expire in 2013, followed failed talks about a relocation and development plan. But it need not condemn the nation's largest transportation hub to unending gloom. Penn Station could be a gleaming gateway to New York, welcoming commuters and businesspeople from across the city, suburbs and East Coast via subway, Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit and Amtrak.

In any event, Penn Station can't be moved. The Garden can. In fact, it has moved three times already. The fourth could be the charm.

In low-turnout Democratic primaries like Council race, the WFP's endorsement is especially important. The labor-backed party is known for its get-out-the-vote strategy, and is widely seen as the gold standard for progressive voters.

In Brooklyn, incumbents Darlene Mealy and Mathieu Eugene received the labor-backed party's endorsement. Laurie Cumbo, who is running to replace Councilwoman Letitia James, a candidate for public advocate, also got the nod. Ms. Cumbo has also been endorsed by the Hotel Trades Council and 32BJ, both major players in the Working Families Party.

Igor Oberman, who is campaigning in a very competitive race for term-limited Councilman Mike Nelson's seat in South Brooklyn, was endorsed, as was Kim Council, who is running to replace term-limited Council Erik Martin Dilan. Assemblyman Rafael Espinal, who is also running for Mr. Dilan's seat, tweeted Thursday night: "always have to expect the unexpected."

And Assemblyman Alan Maisel, who is running to replace the term-limited Councilman Lew Fidler, got the party's backing over Mercedes Narcisses, a community activist.

In Queens, the WFP is backing Austin Shafran, a former spokesman for the New York state Senate Democrats. Mr. Shafran is running to replace scandal-scarred Councilman Dan Halloran, who was arrested last month for his involvement in a bribery scheme to get state Sen. Malcolm Smith on the mayoral ballot and is not seeking re-election.

Manhattan candidates got most of the party's endorsements Thursday night—as well as a hint of drama. The WFP Manhattan chapter voted nearly unanimously to back Ben Kallos, running to replace Councilwoman Jessica Lappin, who is vacating her seat to run for Manhattan borough president. But the party's executive committee, which includes a slew of major unions that have more say in endorsements, voted to endorse Assemblyman Micah Kellner over Mr. Kallos.

The executive committee also chose to back Corey Johnson over Yetta Kurland in the race to replace Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Sources say the two got an even number of votes from the Manhattan chapter.

Jeff Gold, head of the Manhattan-based chapter’s steering committee, said, "I think our process…is an apples-to-apples metric. I will tell you I didn't get all that I wanted last night. I sometimes do and I sometimes don't."

Dan Cantor, executive director of the party, said in a statement: "Working Families is backing a slate of candidates who embody the progressive values of most New Yorkers. They're civil rights leaders and community advocates and tenant organizers. They're men and women who believe that our city must work for everyone, not just the wealthy and well connected -- and they've proven it in their communities."

Marc Landis, who is running to replace outgoing Councilwoman Gale Brewer and who has also received the endorsement of 1199 SEIU, also got the Working Families nod. And in the Bronx, the WFP voted to endorse Riverdale lawyer Andrew Cohen to replace term-limited Councilman Oliver Koppel, and Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson, running for outgoing Councilwoman Helen Foster's seat.

The party also announced Thursday evening that it was backing Brooklyn Councilwoman Letitia James for public advocate. A decade ago she became the first council member elected solely on the Working Families line, in a contest to replace the assassinated James Davis.

John Krenicki, a company nominee and former CEO of General Electric Co.'s energy unit, will become chairman if he's elected to the board at the May 16 meeting, New York-based Hess said in a statement today. The separation of the CEO and chairman roles will occur even if shareholders vote in favor of Elliott's board nominees, Jon Pepper, a Hess spokesman, said today in an e-mail.

Elliott, the second-largest Hess shareholder, has accused John Hess of poor management and proposed five new board members to increase accountability. The company, which is seeking shareholder support for its own board-member changes, has announced asset sales this year that will yield $3.4 billion as it exits refining, gasoline retail and other units to become a pure oil exploration and production business.

Shareholders are "expressing a desire for better accountability, increased board oversight, and the adoption of best-in-class corporate governance practices," John H. Mullin, Hess's lead director, said in the statement. "We understand our shareholders' views, and recognize that our corporate governance structure should have been improved sooner."

Hess declined 1.3% to $70.03 at 9:36 a.m. in New York. The shares have gained 32% this year.

Hess's actions are the latest attempt to placate increasingly active energy industry shareholders. Occidental Petroleum Corp. Chairman Ray Irani was forced to step down last week after almost three decades at the company as investors voted against him. Transocean Ltd., owner of offshore oil rigs, is fighting board nominees from billionaire investor Carl Icahn and SandRidge Energy Inc. agreed to board changes after being challenged by shareholder TPG-Axon Capital Management.

"I don't know how far reaching the effect is, so close to the date," Phil Weiss, an analyst at Argus Research in New York who rates the shares hold and owns none, said in a phone interview. "If they were very confident, they might not do this."

Splitting the chairman and CEO roles at Hess is one of several items on the agenda for a vote next week.

"Hess's announcement today is not a concession or step on the part of the company, rather it is a reaction to the shareholder vote currently under way," Elliot Sloane, a spokesman for New York-based Elliott Management, said in an e- mailed statement. "It is significant to note that Hess's board recommended against this split only a few weeks ago."

John Hess, 59, has been chairman and CEO of the company since his father, Leon Hess, retired in 1995. Leon Hess, a former owner of the New York Jets football team, formed the company in 1933 to deliver oil to residential customers near his home in Asbury Park, New Jersey, according to Hess's website.

"They want to show they're not as entrenched as Elliott made them out to be and will do whatever shareholders would prefer," Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, said in a phone interview. He rates the shares at outperform, the equivalent of a buy, and owns none.

"Even if you have the lead, you still play to protect the lead."

Where workers used to build merchant vessels and war-ready battleships, now they will make cranial implants, robotic lamps and plastic spoons created by 3-D printers. Elected officials and high-tech entrepreneurs flocked to the Brooklyn Navy Yards Thursday to help launch an innovative new manufacturing space that they say heralds the coming of a new economy.

There will be no mass production, like in decades past, and the total number of jobs expected to be created by the new lab space is only 300. Around $60 million in public and private money will be spent to renovate the dilapidated warehouse space, amounting to about $200,000 spent for the creation of each new job.

But the New Lab, as it is called, isn't about reviving New York's dormant manufacturing sector, so much as it is about imagining a new industry altogether.

"Unfortunately, many people still think about the manufacturing of 25 years ago," said Andrew Kimball, president of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. "The days of the smokestack are gone."

New Lab will serve as an incubator space for designers, engineers, entrepreneurs and manufacturers to "interact with the technology and with each other," said David Belt, founder and managing principal at Macro Sea, which developed the 8,000-square-foot manufacturing hub. The full lab, which will occupy 84,000 square feet in a neighboring warehouse, is slated to open in early 2015.

"The idea is to create a space where design can lead to manufacturing," said Mr. Belt, who is credited with creating the Dumpster pools in 2009 that reinvented the receptacles as portable urban swimming holes. "And the manufacturing can happen on-site."

Some of the firms that will anchor the New Lab include Autodesk, which creates software for 3D-printers and has committed to providing the lab's other tenants with free software; EOS, which produce 3D printers; Within Lab, a software and design firm; and Infant Ventures, which produce products for babies.

More than half of the development costs—$42 million—of the manufacturing space come from private sources, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and the New York City Regional Center, in addition to $18 million from public sources, including grants from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's regional economic development council, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

"Those public investments have had an enormous return," Mr. Kimball said. "At least a 3-to-1 leverage ratio so far for every public dollar put in leveraging private dollars. And that leverage ratio is only going to increase over time."

Mr. Kimball noted that 3,600 people were employed at the Navy Yards in 2001, which has since grown to 6,400 jobs today and is expected to double in five years.

Surrounded by 3D-printers and an array of fashionably dressed software developers, Ms. Quinn joked that much of what Mr. Belt's high-tech tenants were doing was over her head—but that it excited her nonetheless.

"One of the entrepreneurs over here explained what he does to me and Marty," she said. "He's so good, I didn't really understand. That's what we need more of: big, smart ideas that I don't understand."

Eight affordable housing projects in the five boroughs will benefit from nearly $10 million in state funding, thanks to a new program meant to streamline where and how the state spends its limited housing resources.

The state's Department of Homes and Community Renewal announced Tuesday a $91 million housing-award program that will go toward 33 residential projects across New York state. All told, the money will help to build and preserve nearly 2,100 affordable-housing units. The $91 million will come in the form of a mix of grants and loans to nonprofit developers and is expected to attract more than $485 million in private spending.

In New York City, the $10 million will help to create 486 new affordable-housing units.

"These funds will leverage hundreds of millions of dollars in private resources, creating valuable partnerships as we work to rebuild communities and create jobs in all corners of the state," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, in a statement.

Selected developers submitted a single application to the Department of Homes and Community Renewal, and department staff determined the best grants and loans to provide to each project. Housing advocates praised the award program for its efficiency and simplicity. In the past, to receive state funding, developers had to submit applications to various housing agencies such as the Housing Trust Fund and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-supported HOME program. The state is also changing the formula for how this money is spent, since programs like tax credits are seen as being more effective downstate.

"By streamlining the application process, New York state is removing barriers that held back economic development for too long and made government inefficient," said Mr. Cuomo, who vowed in his 2013 State of the State address to spend more than $1 billion on affordable housing over the next five years.

At the annual meeting of the New York state Association for Affordable Housing, a developer group, state Housing Commissioner Darryl Towns said the new program is just the first step to innovate on the housing front. "Under the leadership of Gov. Cuomo, the work we do has risen to a new level, and the importance of affordable homes to strong economies has never been more evident," Mr. Towns said.

The damage resulting from Superstorm Sandy only focused the need for the efficient use of scarce state resources, he said: "We are rebuilding with the help of our federal partners and New York will come back stronger than ever."

At an Albany press conference, Mr. Cuomo also announced that he would aim to put on the ballot this November a constitutional amendment to legalize full-scale casino gambling in the state. Several days ago, he had said that putting off the vote to 2014 was an option. It has been postulated that passage would be harder this year because voting will be especially heavy in New York City, where there's a mayor's race—and no prospect of a casino with human dealers for the foreseeable future. But on Thursday, Mr. Cuomo said the struggling upstate economy needed the injection provided by new casinos as soon as possible, despite the political risk.

"My opinion is that it's not worth the cost of waiting the year," Mr. Cuomo said.

Mr. Cuomo said he would argue to New York City voters that the upstate casinos would provide education funding for the entire state, and also tout the benefits of not having one in voters' backyards in the five boroughs. Meanwhile, the governor said it was vital for casino operators to know that new upstate casinos would face competition from population-rich New York City anytime soon.

"I believe that a New York City franchise would eat at the buffet table of upstate casinos," Mr. Cuomo said.

An amendment authorizing up to seven casinos in the state first must be passed for a second time by the Legislature this session.

Gov. Cuomo announced plans in January to initially site three "destination-style" casinos upstate. The plan laid out on Thursday would divide upstate New York into six different regions. Three of them would be areas that already include Indian casinos, and those areas would only eligible for new casinos if the state cannot settle monetary disputes with the Oneida, Mohawk and Seneca nations, which operating the existing casinos.

In other words, if the tribes pay what the state believes they owe, the new casinos will not be located near their venues. Otherwise, there would be competition. "It's a real hardball approach," one Albany insider said.

The new casino sites would be selected by a temporary independent commission under the governor's plan, rather than by the Legislature. Mr. Cuomo said he had not decided how the commission would be selected. Critics have pointed out that a commission appointed by elected officials would not be truly independent.

Besides needing to pass the constitutional amendment to legalize casino gambling this year, the Legislature must also pass enabling legislation implementing the governor's more specific plans dealing with siting. Legislative leaders have suggested that the body should play a role in crafting that bill.

In addition to eight Indian casinos, the state already has nine racinos, which do not feature live dealers. The city has one of the racinos: the highly profitable Resorts World Casino in southeast Queens.

City cyclists will have a new reason to celebrate this coming Memorial Day. The city's Department of Transportation announced Thursday that the Citi Bike program will launch Monday, May 27.

Only cyclists who have signed up by May 17 for a $95 annual membership will be able to ride during the system's first week. Starting June 2, the system will be open to riders on a daily, weekly or annual basis.

Crain's first reported the Memorial Day launch in a cover story this week about excitement in the business community over the new bike share program, which will launch with 6,000 bikes and 330 bike rack stations in parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The system will eventually grow to 10,000 bikes.

"Now's the time for New Yorkers to sign up for their own keys to the city," Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said, in a statement. "More than 8,000 annual members have already signed up to get a head start on the newest way to get around, and the excitement continues to build as we count down the days to launch."

The city said last month that it would be launching the system sometime in May—following computer glitches that pushed back a roll out in the summer of 2012—sparking excitement among bike enthusiasts and speculation about the system's exact launch date. City officials refused to specify a date.

When a reporter asked Mayor Michael Bloomberg about the launch of the bike-share program at an unrelated press conference Monday, even the mayor remained mum. "We said we'd start it in May," Mr. Bloomberg said. "Is Memorial Day in May? Then it's possible."

Memorial Day weekend has become a favored time for the Bloomberg administration to launch controversial street projects. Times Square's transformation into a pedestrian plaza began during the quiet holiday weekend, when millions of New Yorkers leave the city and the streets become relatively traffic-free.

It has been a great couple of weeks in the mayoral race. But something important may be happening away from the spotlight.

Consider these revelations:

• The candidates were quizzed at a forum about when they last lived in a rent-regulated apartment, which allowed them to discuss their humbler abodes.
• They discussed whether drones should be used in New York City.

• They (mostly) expressed strong support for animal rights.

• They were challenged by gadfly candidate Sal Albanese about hiring staffers for their campaigns (shock!).
• They discussed under what circumstances those patronizing prostitutes could be exposed (pun intended).
• And Bill de Blasio's wife gave an interview to Essence magazine explaining how a self-identified lesbian decided to marry a man.

Have you tuned this all out? Probably. Maybe everyone is biding their time while Anthony Weiner decides whether he is entering the race or not, a decision that needs to happen soon.

In the meantime, the buzz in political circles is about former Comptroller William Thompson and the momentum his campaign is gaining.

He has unveiled a series of endorsements in the last month to shore up his base of minority support including Hispanic leaders Bronx Rep. José Serrano; his son, state Sen. José M. Serrano; and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. In addition, he's been backed by Karim Camara of Brooklyn, who heads Albany's black, Hispanic and Puerto Rican caucus and Herman D. Farrell Jr., the Harlem Democrat and former head of the Manhattan Democratic Party.

He also got the nod of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and government finance guru Richard Ravitch as he continues to try to claim the center of the Democratic Party, if there is one.

Will the endorsements matter? The next report on fundraising and the next polls should tell us if Mr. Thompson is going to be a contender.

Authorities announced Thursday that seven people are under arrest in the case, which involved thousands of thefts from ATMs in 26 countries. Prosecutors say an eighth person involved in the crime was murdered in the Dominican Republic late last month.

The U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, Loretta Lynch, calls it "a massive 21st-century bank heist."

She says the New York cell of the global theft operation withdrew $2.8 million in cash from hacked accounts in less than a day.

Arrests began in March.

The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, joint producers of the show that honors the best of Broadway, said Thursday the 67th annual awards will be broadcast live by CBS from Radio City Music Hall on June 9.

In a statement, Mr. Harris said he was excited to be back hosting the Tonys, adding: "The show will rock!"

Mr. Harris previously hosted the Tonys last year and in 2011 and 2009.

Last year's telecast at the intimate Beacon Theatre was seen by 6 million viewers, down significantly from 2011's 6.9 million. It was also the second-lowest ratings for the Tony Awards since 1988, though it was up against the season finale of AMC's "Mad Men."

The 39-year-old Mr. Harris has starred in three Broadway productions, including "Assassins," ''Proof," opposite Anne Heche, and as the exuberant master of ceremonies in "Cabaret." He currently stars as dapper ladies' man Barney Stinson on CBS' sitcom hit "How I Met Your Mother."

Mr. Falcone would be barred for two years from working as an investment adviser or broker under the agreement in principle between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Mr. Falcone and Harbinger Capital Partners, the firm said in a filing Thursday.

Under the settlement, Mr. Falcone and Harbinger would neither admit nor deny the SEC's allegations.

Mr. Falcone, a prominent figure on Wall Street, could continue to own New York-based Harbinger Capital. But it would be overseen by an independent monitor. Mr. Falcone couldn't make investments for the fund or raise money for it.

The agreement must be formally approved by a majority of the SEC commissioners. The SEC had sued Mr. Falcone and Harbinger in June.

In 2007, Harbinger bet against bonds that were used to finance risky subprime mortgages and posted huge gains when the bonds fell in value. But the firm began to struggle in 2008, and it tightened its rules about when and how much money investors could withdraw.

The SEC alleged in its lawsuit that from 2006 through early 2008, Mr. Falcone manipulated the market for high-yield, high-risk bonds issued by a company called Maax Holdings Inc. Using fund money, Mr. Falcone bought many of the bonds to shrink the supply on the market and drive up prices, the SEC asserted.

The SEC also said Mr. Falcone and Harbinger secretly gave some key investors in the fund the right to cash out of their holdings. In exchange, the favored investors gave Mr. Falcone and the fund permission to bar the other investors from being able to cash out, according to the SEC. It said that arrangement was hidden from Harbinger's directors.

Last year, the SEC reached a settlement with Harbert Management Corp., a firm with ties to Harbinger. The SEC said Harbert had the power to control Falcone and Harbinger but failed to stop the bond manipulation scheme.

Harbert and two related firms agreed to pay a $1 million civil fine. They, too, neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.

The stock market pulled back Thursday as investors became harder to please.

Even a decline in the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits failed to give stock prices a big boost. Markets drifted lower in early trading, then ticked higher in the early afternoon.

Unemployment claims dropped to a five-year low last week, signaling fewer layoffs and possibly more hiring.

An improvement in hiring has been one of the factors helping to push stocks to record levels. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed above 15,000 for the first time Tuesday and is on track to notch six straight months of gains. The Standard and Poor's 500 index also closed at a record high Wednesday.

The bar for economic news and corporate earnings has risen as stock prices have marched higher, said JJ Kinahan, chief derivative strategist at TD Ameritrade. "You have to beat by a lot to really move the market higher."

Rising corporate earnings, another support for the stock market, were also in focus on Thursday.

Tesla Motors soared $14.73, or 26%, to $70.34, after the electric car maker posted its first quarterly net profit since it was founded a decade ago. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters surged $14.42 or 24.5%, to $74.06 after the company reported late Wednesday that its net income rose 42%. It also raised its earnings forecast for the full year.

Monster Beverage, the maker of energy drinks, fell $3.63, or 6.4%, to $53.31, after it reported net income that fell short of analysts' estimates. The company's profits fell 17%, despite stronger sales, because of unfavorable currency rates, legal expenses and costs tied to distribution agreements.

Almost 90% of the companies in the S&P 500 index have reported earnings for the first quarter. Earnings are projected to rise 5% for the period and continue climbing throughout the year, according to S&P Capital IQ.

The Dow slipped 16 points, or 0.1%, to 15,089 as of 3:40 p.m. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down five points at 1,628.

So far, markets have defied expectations for a slowdown heading into the summer.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index has started the second quarter well, gaining 1.9% so far in the period. But the index has declined in the second quarter in each of the past three years. Stocks slumped as Europe's debt crisis intensified last year and in 2011 they dipped as wrangling in Washington pushed the U.S. to the brink of default.

"The market has had a phenomenal run," said Ron Florance, managing director of investment strategy at Wells Fargo Private Bank. "We'll have to see how the second quarter plays out."

In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year note continued to edge higher, climbing to 1.81% from 1.77% on Wednesday. The yield, which moves inversely to the bond's price, has risen from 1.63 early Friday before a surprisingly strong employment report.

The price of crude oil fell 59 cents, or 0.6%, $96.09 and gold fell $10.90, or 0.7%, to $1,463.40. The dollar rose against the euro and the yen. The U.S. currency traded above the 100 yen level for the first time in more than four years.

In other stock trading, the Nasdaq composite index, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, was down a fraction of a point at 3,413.

Barnes & Noble surged $2.89, or 16%, to $20.69 after TechCrunch reported that Microsoft was considering acquiring the book retailer's digital book venture Nook Media for $1 billion.

Barnes & Noble Inc. jumped as much as 34% in early trading following a report that Microsoft Corp. offered $1 billion to buy the Nook Media unit.

Barnes & Noble surged $3.99, or 22%, to $21.40 as of 3:35 p.m.

The plan sees Microsoft gaining preferred units in Nook Media, which also includes a college book business, Techcrunch reported Wednesday, citing internal documents. Nook Media also intends to discontinue its Android-based tablet business by the end of its 2014 fiscal year to begin using applications on unnamed "third-party" devices, Techcrunch said.

A spokeswoman for New York-based Barnes & Noble declined to comment on the report in an email. Representatives for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft couldn't immediately be reached for comment outside of regular business hours.

In April 2012, Microsoft announced a $300 million investment in the newly formed Nook Media subsidiary. Microsoft's 18% stake valued Nook Media at $1.7 billion. Publisher Pearson Plc then announced an investment of $89.5 million in December in the unit, which gave Nook Media a valuation of $1.79 billion.

Nook Media had an operating loss of $190.9 million and sales of $2.18 billion in the three quarters through Jan. 26. The division has been unprofitable as it spends on marketing and developing devices to compete in the tablet market with Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc.

A humble Hertz rental car garage on West 77th Street has been snapped up for a sum well above original estimates of around $45 million, according to sources.

The buyer of the property at 210 W. 77th St., between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, is the Naftali Group, a development firm. The site can accommodate a roughly 100,000-square-foot residential building.

Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, handled the property's sale on behalf of the owner, The Jewish Board of New York, a nonprofit social services group. When Mr. Knakal brought the property to market last month, he initially estimated it could sell for $45 million. But sources say what the Naftali Group paid is likely at least one-third higher than that.

Amid a rising market for high-end residential condominiums, developers have rushed to acquire sites on which to build. The demand has pushed up land prices, in some cases to as much at $700 for each square foot of development that a site can accommodate, a record level.

Executives at the Naftali Group confirmed they had acquired the site but were not immediately available for comment.

Founded by developer Miki Naftali after he stepped down as chief executive of the Israel-based development company Elad in 2011, the Naftali Group has acquired several development sites in the city since then.

Last year, the firm purchased several buildings also on the Upper West Side on West 82nd Street for just more than $17 million.

The restaurant's operator, Fourth Wall Restaurants, declined to comment on the revamp and hotel management did not return calls.

Apparently, the hotel is in negotiations with Local 100, which represents the restaurant's 59 employees. The hotel has a separate contract with Local 6 for its hotel rooms. Many of the rooms feature terraces, kitchenettes and wood-burning fireplaces, creating the feel of a pied-á-terre, according to a write-up by The Leading Hotels of the World, of which The Lowell is a member.

Local 100 did not return calls for comment.

The notice filed with the labor department says that the steakhouse will be closed for at least six months.

Fourth Wall is run by father son team Alan and Michael Stillman and operates five other upscale eateries in the city, including Smith & Wollensky.

A spokeswoman for the company said it has a management contract with the Lowell to operate The Post House.

The Norwegian Breakaway, a 4,000-passenger vessel, will make its maiden voyage from New York City to Bermuda on May 12.

Dubbed New York's ship, Norwegian Breakaway's plan to homeport in New York year-round was announced about 17 months ago, after the city struck a deal with Norwegian Cruise Line to bring the ship here.

"Norwegian has not had a significant presence in New York for so long," said Morningstar cruise ship analyst Jaime Katz. "I think putting this in New York is a good strategic move for the cruise line because New York is a very lucrative market, attracting a lot of people who don't have to fly there to take a cruise."

Mr. Bloomberg said the $200 million cruise sector is a cornerstone of the city's $55 billion tourism industry. Last year, New York City drew a record 52 million visitors, an all-time high.

"There will be even more opportunities for visitors to experience the best that New York City has to offer, both on land and at sea," said George Fertitta, chief executive of NYC & Company, in a statement.

The enormous ship features 27 dining options, including three restaurants by acclaimed New York chef Geoffrey Zakarian. It also boasts the largest water park at sea, an open air boardwalk and a three-story sports complex with a miniature golf course.

From October through April the Norwegian Breakaway will offer seven-day voyages to the Bahamas and Florida as well as two 12-day trips to the Caribbean. It ranks among the top 10 largest vessels sailing globally, Ms. Katz said.

The list of names has been highly anticipated in local political circles over the past 24 hours, especially because on Tuesday the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, Loretta Lynch, revealed in court papers that eight of those individuals were under investigation by her office. The list includes Ms. Huntley's former fellow Senate Democratic colleagues, who held a majority in the chamber from 2009 to 2011, before corruption scandals helped end its hold on power.

Ms. Lynch's office would not comment on why it is looking into the people on the list, but a look at their recent history could reveal clues. Notably, one person out of the nine is not under investigation, though federal officials are declining to say who that is.

Brooklyn state Sen. John Sampson: He's perhaps the least surprising inclusion on the U.S. attorney's list. The former Senate Democratic leader was widely reported to be the "Senator #1" described in court documents last week as arranging a bribe along with Ms. Huntley. On Monday, Mr. Sampson was charged by Ms. Lynch's office in an alleged $400,000 embezzlement scheme.

Brooklyn state Sen. Eric Adams: The name of Mr. Adams, a former police captain and ex-chairman of the state Senate Racing & Wagering Committee, has come up in conjunction with alleged bid-rigging scandal involving racino rights at the Aqueduct racetrack, as has Mr. Sampson's. Wednesday's news could also have major political implications: Mr. Adams is running virtually unopposed to be the next Brooklyn borough president. That could soon change.

Queens state Sen: Jose Peralta: Mr. Peralta is one of the frontrunners to become the next Queens borough president, and today's news could, at the least, affect his chances of getting the backing of the Queens Democratic Party later this month. In 2009, when he was an assemblyman, Mr. Peralta's name came up in a Daily News article about $500,000 in member items given to an allegedly inactive nonprofit.

Queens state Sen. Malcolm Smith: Mr. Smith, a Democrat who briefly led the Senate majority conference before Mr. Sampson, was charged recently in an alleged plot to bribe his way onto the Republican primary ballot in the 2013 mayor's race. His name has also come up in the Aqueduct affair, and in another probe into a nonprofit called the New Direction Local Development Corp. (Notably missing from Ms. Lynch's list is Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks, who has frequently been tied to Mr. Smith in salacious tabloid press accounts.)

Melvin Lowe: In court documents, Mr. Lowe is described by Ms. Huntley's attorney as a former political consultant and associate of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Mr. Lowe is perhaps best known in local political circles for reaping lucrative consulting fees during the 2010 Senate Democrats' election efforts, which were headed by Mr. Sampson, then the leader of the Democratic majority.

Queens Councilman Ruben Wills: Mr. Schneiderman has been scrutinizing a $33,000 member item given by Ms. Huntley to a nonprofit run by Mr. Wills while he was serving as her chief of staff. Mr. Wills has so far not provided records pertaining to the nonprofit that are being sought by investigators.

Brooklyn state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, Bronx state Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson, and Curtis Taylor, former press adviser to Mr. Smith: Neither the Insider, nor several sources, could recall any suspicions cast around these individuals. Of course, they are all closely connected to the Senate Democratic conference that seems to be a focus of Ms. Lynch's office.

Ms. Huntley, who last year was under investigation for misspending taxpayer pork for her own benefit, met with attorneys for the government and FBI agents regularly over a six-month period, according to a letter unsealed Wednesday, which was written by her attorney, Sally Butler, seeking a lightened sentence.

"During her interviews with the government, she advised them that she had knowledge of what she believed to be corruption involving public officials," the letter states. "She was asked by the government's attorneys and FBI agents to invite certain individuals into her home and record conversations on behest of the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

None other than Mr. Sampson and Mr. Smith has been accused of any wrongdoing.

"We are currently looking to go to Jacob Riis Park instead of Fort Tilden," said co-founder Sam Morrill, who put his fleet of yellow school buses to service in the off-season by running free trips out to the beach to aid Hurricane Sandy relief projects in the damaged neighborhoods near the Rockaways in Queens.

Fort Tilden, which is run by the National Park Service, will be closed to beach bathers this summer because it suffered severe erosion during the October storm.

Mr. Morrill launched the company last year with business partner Ryan Hefner.

Starting May 25, buses will leave from the corner of Metropolitan Avenue and Meeker Avenue at the top of the hour between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday. The fare will be $15 round trip.

"We're also planning to expand to a few other neighborhoods," Mr. Morrill said. The details of where service will be expanded are not yet final, he said. But those locations will have their own non-stop runs to the beach.

This Saturday, the Rockabus will operate a free shuttle to Fort Tilden from Williamsburg for volunteers who want to help restore the eroded beach.

After three years, dozens of rallies, numerous studies and a seemingly endless back-and-forth between supporters and opponents, the City Council approved a bill Wednesday mandating businesses with 20 or more employees to begin offering paid sick days starting in 2014.

Speaking at a rally before the passage of the bill, Council Speaker Christine Quinn said the final version, which was amended from the original to exempt more employers, strikes the right balance between working families and businesses.

"This legislation fully recognizes the importance of protecting the city's economy and locks in protections to ensure that its implementation is pegged to continued recovery," Ms. Quinn said.

Ms. Quinn struck a deal with supporters of the bill last March after delaying its passage for three years over concerns about the economy and the legislation's effects on the business community—and its support for her mayoral campaign. Under the bill, most businesses in New York would be required to provide employees with at least five paid sick days a year.

Some 39 council members are signed on as sponsors of the bill. An earlier version would have required businesses with as few as five employees to provide paid sick days. The revised version will only apply to companies with 20 or more workers starting April 2014 and to those with 15 or more employees beginning in October 2015.

The council plans to override Mayor Michael Bloomberg's promised veto of the bill.

The business community greeted the formal passage of the bill with a shrug of resignation. Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, said he still opposes the legislation, but will move on to educating restaurant and club owners on complying with it.

"We still believe that the paid sick leave legislation would have been a more appropriate discussion at the state or federal level versus in the City Council. However, our focus is now assisting business owners with compliance, not a legal challenge," he said.

Mr. Rigie's group is hosting a seminar Thursday at Dallas BBQ in Times Square to help business owners get up to speed with the new requirements.

Labor activists cheered the bill's approval, with union leaders from retail service, building management and health care joining council members on the steps of City Hall to pat themselves on the back.

But deep divisions remain in the labor movement over the bill. Bertha Lewis, president and CEO of The Black Institute and the former co-chair of the Working Families Party, which led efforts for three years to pass the bill and signed off on the final version, slammed the watering-down of the paid sick leave bill in an interview with Crain's.

"A lot of workers got thrown under the bus, insomuch as the campaign was going for three years, and at least half a million people or more were left out," she said. "There was really no good reason for it. I told [the Working Families Party] that."

Ms. Lewis, who recently penned an Amsterdam News op-ed expressing that opinion, said supporters should have waited until after the mayoral race to cut a deal. Barring that, Ms. Lewis suggested supportive council members could have used a "motion to discharge" to force a vote on a the original bill, which applied to businesses with five more workers.

City Comptroller John Liu made the announcement about the New York City Employees' Retirement System on Wednesday. The move follows a similar one in February by the pension for city teachers.

The decision to sell the stocks came after recent incidents of gun violence including the Connecticut school shooting that left 20 first-graders and six staffers dead.

Mr. Liu said the fund divested its holdings in five companies, including Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. and Sturm, Ruger & Co. The value of the holdings was more than $16 million dollars as of April 23, the date of the vote to sell off the stocks.

American Realty Advisors has acquired the 28-story office building 499 Park Ave. for an undisclosed price, the building's owner Hines announced Wednesday morning.

Houston-based Hines also said it has sold 425 Lexington Ave., a 31-story tower it had also recently put up for sale. The buyer of that building is J.P. Morgan Asset Management, a deal that was reported by Crain's on Tuesday.

Hines did not disclose the exact value of the transaction, but said that together the value of the deals came to more than $1 billion.

According to sources familiar with the buildings, both were being marketed in the vicinity of $1,000 per square foot, though it's likely 499 Park Ave. traded at a premium because of its location on Park Avenue, one of the city's priciest office districts. The tower at 425 Lexington Ave., across the street from the Graybar Passage entrance to Grand Central Terminal, is the larger of the two, at 750,000 square feet. That makes it more than twice the size of 499 Park Ave., which boasts 300,000 square feet.

In the weeks prior to the sale, 425 Lexington Ave.'s largest tenant Simpson Thacher & Bartlett renewed its 600,000-square-foot lease in the building until 2033. 499 Park Ave. has a largely stable tenant roster as well.

Both the deals were looked at by experts as long term investments aimed at netting stable returns and possibly upside down the road when the buildings can be re-released for higher rents.

"You're buying stable assets and there's a lot of core money that's looking for that type of property," Woody Heller, a broker with Studley, said. "Deals like this look very attractive compared to other fixed-income investments right now, which are yielding only 1% or 2%."

Eastdil Secured and CBRE Group handled the sales on behalf of Hines.

Cornell's new tech campus on Roosevelt Island got the official go-ahead from the City Council Wednesday, paving the way for the school to break ground in 2014.

The 2 million-square-foot applied science and engineering school, first announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in Dec. 2011, will occupy the site of the old Goldwater Hospital on the island's southern tip. Councilwoman Jessica Lappin said Wednesday's vote signals the beginning of the construction phase for the campus.

"It keeps Cornell well on track to break ground in 2014 and to open the campus in 2017," Ms. Lappin said.

Residents of Roosevelt Island, while generally supportive of the endeavor, had expressed concerns about how the massive project would affect their tiny community's infrastructure. Roosevelt Island has only one road and a single bridge connecting the island to the rest of the city, both of which may be choked with construction equipment after the groundbreaking.

But Ms. Lappin says she and her council colleagues have secured a number of commitments from Cornell and the Bloomberg administration to reduce the impact on the community. The university has agreed to transport construction equipment via barge to limit traffic on the island's main road. Cornell will also monitor air quality throughout the project to determine whether the demolition and excavation create any pollution.

The Police Department has also agreed to appoint a police captain to meet with residents to examine building plans and consult on terrorism risks.

Cornell will "adopt" the local school on Roosevelt Island, PS/IS 217, to assist with teacher training and student development. Starting this summer, Cornell will sponsor an immersion program for girls in that school and several others to learn coding, web design, robotics and mobile development.

"We've been talking about this project for a while now," Ms. Lappin said. "It's fantastic to be past this very significant hurdle, and to have the land-use process come to a conclusion and allow them to really get started."

Ms. Lappin was joined by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to announce the vote. Both are running for higher office—Ms. Lappin for Manhattan borough president and Ms. Quinn for mayor—and are hoping to associate their names with the Cornell project to appear tech-friendly and forward-looking about the city's economy. Ms. Quinn also plans to attend the launch of a new high-tech manufacturing hub in the Brooklyn Navy Yard Thursday.

American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller says American Eagle Flight 4563 was struck twice by lightning as it approached New York on Wednesday morning.

Miller says the captain declared an emergency as a precaution. The plane landed safely at 10:41 a.m.

The spokesman says a maintenance team is inspecting the aircraft. It was an Embraer 135 with 20 passengers and three crew members.