Dave Ford Does Earth

Posted by Dave Ford

From my new apartment in Stuyvesant town in the East Village/Union Square area of Manhattan–I have a view of the Empire State Building. For me this is way up there on the list of life goals. I have always wanted to live in New York City– and now my life is centered in the  heart of the beast. Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved my last 11 months in Park Slope. Running and BBQ-ing in Prospect Park, living-partying-meditating with Pat and Wendy, and reviving my extremely poor Spanish with all of the shop keepers in the neighborhood made living in Brooklyn fantastic. I am so glad I lived there.

But living in Manhattan is a whole new ballgame. I mean, this is one of the most important if not the most important city in the entire world, right?

So, Stuyvesant town–where I live–has 25,000 other people living in the same complex. From the outside the red brick buildings look like a cross between a college campus and “the projects”. However, the places are nicely renovated and insanely spacious for Manhattan. The complex was built in the early 1950’s to house veterans returning from World War 2. Some of the initial tenants still live here. The are very, very ancient and living under very, very rent controlled terms.

The Empire State Building came into play yet again last weekend when returning home from the bars I decided to check out the view from our roof. This did not go down quite like I planned when the doors locked behind me and left me stranded–albeit with a beautiful view–12 floors up at 2:30 AM in the morning. Thank God I had my cell phone and that my roommate/business partner Mike is a light sleeper.

In 2006, this entire complex was sold for 5.4 Billion dollars and was the biggest real estate deal in the history of the United States. The new owners, Tishman-Speyer planted hundreds of trees and completely renovated most of the apartments. They also put in a boatload of amenities including a health club, lounge, library, and daycare.  Unfortunately for Tishman-Speyer, 2006 was not exactly the best year to buy real estate. We ended up getting our place for a steal compared to what they were getting this time last year.

The owners have not had much good will from the former tenants as they have been campaigning to kick out many of the rent controlled people that live here. In fact, they just lost a major lawsuit and its making large waves in NYC.

The New York City real estate market is hurt up in a really bad way. When we were looking for places there were literally deals around every corner. Many of the companies and brokers we talked to were offering 1-2 months free rent. Thousands of jobs in finance, real estate, and advertising have been lost in NYC in the last 6 months. Unfortunately, many of the people that have lost their jobs have been forced to up and move out of the city.

Yes, we are living in wild and scary times. But, somehow I feel very confident and extremely at ease.

Mike, the rest of the crew (there are 7 of us in total), and I are working all the time–but loving where we are and what we are doing. Yes, it is a crazy time to start a business. But, I have a really positive feeling about everything we are up to and getting into. I feel very strongly that we are in the right place–at the right time. We launch our first Branded Entertainment campaign under the B.E name this week.

I am now going to walk over to my window and stare blankly at the Empire State Building–and think a bit more about how glad I am I didn’t get stuck on the roof that night.

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