Framework at Domino Refinery

Fred posted this yesterday, and I felt compelled to post today. After all, we did this together with the help of Alex O’Daly, our sidekick. Just another project in the life of Fred and Joanne, who love to build things.

Back during COVID, Fred and I, along with the team in our family office, debuted our “sustainable” apartment building development business in Brooklyn, called Frame Home. We had two small ground floor retail spaces to lease in our first building, Frame283, and nobody wanted them. So Alex O’Daly, who helps us run our family office, suggested we make a “covid safe co-working space” in the ground floor. And so we did.

We called it Framework and it opened in early 2021. The concept is simple. Every “frameworker” gets their own sound insulated office pod optimized for privacy and productivity. Our tagline is “your own home office away from home”. Our first Framework has been sold out since shortly after opening. We made something a lot of people want, almost by accident.

So when our friends at Two Trees opened up The Refinery at Domino Park in Williamsburg, we suggested that we put a Framework in that building. They visited the original location and loved it and a partnership was struck.

Back in October, we opened up Framework At The Refinery on the 9th floor of The Refinery building. We are now getting close to half full and hope to expand the operation to take the entire 9th floor later this year.

Again, the concept is dead simple. Every Refinery “frameworker” gets their own pod. It comes with a sit/stand desk, a chair, a file cabinet, an electric kettle, a french press, and a small fridge. There is fast and reliable wifi, and a few shared resources like bathrooms, a kitchenette, unlimited printing, and one bookable conference room.

As you can see, the views of the east river are wonderful. The light in the space is fantastic.

Pods start at $820 per month and can be leased for a minimum of 30 days or as long as 18 months.

If you want to schedule a tour and see it for yourself, go here and book one.

The way we work is changing but we still need a comfortable place to do our best work and Framework is all about giving that to people in a place that is close to home, but without the distractions of home.

The added bonus is downstairs is a Gotham!

Alcohol is not Happy

It is incredible how quickly the conversations around alcohol consumption and the fact that it is not great for you have come to the forefront.

The natural wine revelation might have been the beginning. At the same time, we saw the surge of IPAs and non-alcoholic drinks. Now, we are seeing a rise in THC and CBD drinks. As we all know, people are drinking less alcohol, everyone is drinking natural wines, and THC/CBD drinks are everywhere (Hemp-based, too, but that is another story). Gotham does not sell hemp drinks that can be sold anywhere and can be shipped across state lines, we buy drinks from the NY producers.

Last week, the Surgeon General called for alcohol bottles to require a label warning of cancer risk. Needless to say, that idea fell flat on Congress’s ears. Alcohol lobbyists and their companies wield a heavy stick. However, it doesn’t bode well for any of us when the Surgeon General has brought full acknowledgment of the evils of alcohol to the top. Alcohol is the third-leading preventable cause of cancer in the U.S., after tobacco and obesity, at least pharma still has obesity.

Cannabis, on the other hand, is looking really good; for instance, CBD curbs alcohol cravings. The problem is that the cannabis industry isn’t robust enough to create the deep pockets needed to play in government, so the government is taking its sweet time while they try to bob and weave, attempting to understand the landscape.

I can barely unwrap my head around the whole thing. I know that the data rising to the top is good for our health and will replace pharma and alcohol at some level. Where this all goes is anybody’s guess, but always remember that the consumer always wins, and cannabis does not need to be ruled by pharma and alcohol. Let a new industry rise and listen to the people.

The Cannabis System Is A Mess

The illegal markets and, lack of public education, and closing of the operators by the government have made it hard for legal dispensaries to compete. I want to scream “DO SOMETHING”.  Every dispensary and farmer is paying absurd taxes while attempting to build businesses from scratch, most of which are under-financed. The same disaster exists in California as it does in NY. I can’t speak for the other states, but the question is, why are they not doing anything to protect legal licenses to only compete against each other? 

If an illegal liquor shop opened or someone started making bootleg vodka or wine in any state without a license, they would be shut down in a nanosecond. It makes zero sense that cannabis is treated differently; it should be treated the exact same way.  

Being in the weeds of this debacle has only highlighted how broken our system is. That nobody in politics has the wherewithal to say the buck stops here. Fear of not being re-elected, fear of not getting the funding from the lobbyists, fear of pissing off a group of people who won’t vote for you next time, has made it hard for anything to get done.

Why can’t the governor or the mayor say that you will be closed if you do not have a license, period? You must follow the guidelines set forth by the Government to build a legal cannabis business in this state that will create new taxes for our state. There will be fines and eventually jail times if you continue, not because you are selling weed but because you are not abiding by the laws put forth to distribute weed, like alcohol. How hard is this? It appears to be very hard.


What will happen in 2025? From everything we read, and of course, each media platform skews the information differently, it is clear that the DEA is moving towards rescheduling the plant. This is all new territory. Once it happens, how quickly does that change banking? They won’t need a fair banking act passed for cannabis (although they still need one) because the banks all want in on this. 

The lawsuits to move products across state lines will begin, but that takes time; I assume banking will not. There have been countless legal roadblocks in the process of building Gotham. We have started to think of them as weather, if you wait long enough the climate changes, and sometimes you have to shovel the sidewalk.  

 I hope that 2025 is game-changing for the cannabis industry if (fingers-crossed) the DEA reschedules, the banks jump in, and the plant becomes federally legal. It is time. It is also the only way we will fix the illegal market, and the way cannabis operates. 

2024, What A Year, Hello 2025

Last week, I have started reflecting on the past year. It is hard to wrap my head around how much I have enjoyed it. Perhaps it is age, maybe it is therapy, but I feel balanced. Our kids are happy and living their own independent lives, and we are the lucky beneficiaries of that. We enjoy each other and mutually respect what we each enjoy doing and how we live our lives, which merge in multiple ways. It is so wonderful. It is the highlight of our year.

The past year of Gotham has been an incredible experience. Being at the helm of a vision and seeing it grow and slowly become bigger than you is a wild ride. Our excellent team will add a few new players next year. I do not want to disrupt the culture. I want an addition to the culture.  Next year, we should have six stores where we continue to engage in the community, always putting hospitality first, which is included in our weddings, corporate and party events, and delivery. There will be more art shows, new clothing and product designers, new cannajacent products, new events, and most importantly, top-notch old and new cannabis brands and newly designed Gotham products with the same delicious scents for our candles, lotions, and body washes.

The Public Housing Community Fund has grown, we have brought on new board members, and our impact is starting to be felt. I hope we can continue this trajectory as the outcome of every program, every newly renovated park, and every newly renovated community room impacts all New Yorkers. 

I have been working on a documentary for years, and I believe we will move forward on that in 2025, which is exciting. 

This past year, we almost completed another carbon-free apartment building that feels very European and will open to tenants in 2025. We made a few other real estate purchases because we couldn’t help ourselves. They will be projects in 2025.  

I have been to countless new restaurants in NYC, and the resurgence of new delicious spots is incredible. It reminds me of when David Chang changed the landscape of restaurants. We are eating differently, and the blending of cultures has created delicious, innovative, yet simple food—a new generation of restauranteurs. 

The Olympics was a cool experience, and I am so glad we went. Our other travels were just as good, and I am still thinking about Seoul—a few other trips in 2025 are still in the hopper.

The world has shaken off COVID-19, but all the political changes are still unknown on what 2025 will look like. I have come to terms with it, but it does appear to be strange times ahead.  

2024 was a very good year, and although political turmoil still hangs over the future, I am quite excited about 2025.

The Retail Landscape

I love retail, good retail and there isn’t enough good retail these days.

Getting old has many perks, one of which is living through multiple eras of change. I have become more fascinated with history, particularly the booms and busts of each decade. The US economy boomed after WWII, and consumerism was the key; everything has been affected by that. Although Americans like the future, we do not live in the past, like many other countries. 

The landscape of retail has changed many times. The past decade felt like watching a slow train wreck. Department stores, malls, and large chains have struggled to reinvent themselves to a new frontier. I have countless theories on why but mostly, the top stores stopped recruiting the best and the brightest as many of them went into money management fields because the retail executive training programs became less robust, and the pay sucks. 

I had expected that the shifts in the retail world would have happened earlier, but as I said, slow train wreck. Saks was first acquired in 1998 and then purchased by the Hudson Bay Company in 2013. Last week, Saks bought Neiman Marcus. Saks is gobbling up multiple brands. The company now owns Bergdoffs, Saks off 5th, and Neimans, the only luxury department stores left under one umbrella. 

The other shifts were Nordstrums is going private. The Container Store and the Party Store filed for bankruptcy. Over the past month, top designers have made shifts to get out of luxury and jump on the innovating fashion to the masses. 

We are in new frontiers. None of these stores will grow in the next few years. They will slice and dice. They will close stores, get out of leases, scale down in size, rethink technology, salespeople, approach, customer, brand, and how to get to the other side and be profitable again. 

It had to happen because what goes up always comes down, particularly when it comes to the consumer. Consumers’ tastes, how they shop, and their needs changed, and direct-to-consumer changed everything. Drug stores are closing, DoorDash has changed, grocery is changing, and times are changing. We need a better balance.  

We also have Zara, Mango, Shein, H&M, Uniqlo, and Asos, which oversaturated the market with fast casual clothing that is destroying the environment. I hope the designers push for change because someone has to. These stores will all have to downscale, too.

This has a long tail that directly hits the landlords, and that is a good thing. There must be big checks and balances here because the large ground-floor rentals will sit empty. It is the smaller footprints that are renting. Small stores and intimate restaurants are opening all over NY. Again, pay attention to the landscape. Even the Macy’s on 34th Street is rumored to be on the market. Talk about an end to an era. 

All of this reminds me of the 80s when the Gap came in and started taking market share away from the department stores. It shifted everything, and this feels very similar, but of course, it is always a bit different.  

Healthcare

We all know that the healthcare system sucks. It is hard to get an appointment; you can only go if they carry your insurance, and there is always a battle with the insurance company about being covered before any procedure. You and your doctor do not get to decide what your health needs are, but some random human reading text from a computer tells you that we have decided not to pay for that.

Our system is built to be defensive, not offensive. I have to have a breast MRI every single year after having breast cancer (luckily detect very very early). After a few years, my doctor had to battle the insurance company to cover the MRI. Why wouldn’t they want to cover something to ensure it does not return? If it does return, the cost is higher than paying for a yearly MRI, but more than likely, their data states otherwise. It is all based on stats, and of course keeping the stock price up.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a healthcare insurance company, whose job is to pay for people who need medical procedures or medication. Still, that payment is considered a loss on the profit and loss statement. Anyone who runs a company knows you want fewer losses on your profit and loss statement, so turning people down for care keeps the losses down.

I recently saw a poll showing that most Americans think their healthcare is okay. All numbers are fungible, so I’d like to know if people’s expectations of their healthcare are low. Have we all been beaten into submission? Is that we have all been convinced it is what it is. Concierge doctors have grown from the abysmal system that applies to how doctors make money and patients are taken care of. This is only a price available to some.

After the murder of the United Healthcare CEO, the door has opened, and people are speaking up. Why did this have to happen for the public to finally get people talking about this in open forums or for journalists who will finally do a deep dive into the reality of these companies’ practices? We are all at the mercy of publicly traded companies to care for our health; (and media/journalism caring more about grabbing daily eyeballs) there is something fundamentally wrong with that.

The Melting Pot of Cultures in NYC

The other night, someone asked me if I wanted to attend a seven-fishes Christmas dinner. It took me back in time.

The first job I landed out of college was a seat in the Macy’s training program. You spend the first three months going through a program to understand how the business works. It was a brilliant program. Unfortunately, it does not exist anymore.  

Some days, we would hear from leaders in different parts of the company. On other days, we would be assigned to a buying office for two weeks to learn how that business worked. We would also spend some time in the store line. By the time you were placed in your first position, you had been working at Macy’s for three months and they then decided where to place you depending on your skills, and the empty department manager positions across the organization.

The churnout must have been relatively high because there was a training program class of 15-20 people each month, sometimes bi-monthly. There was also camaraderie among everyone working there, almost like in college. What year were you?  

I got placed in Kings Plaza, running the cosmetics department. Little did I know that I had been placed in a job that few people get put in. Most people running the cosmetics departments throughout Macy’s were professional managers, so they did not come from the training program but were hired by the store manager. 

At 22 years old, I was overseeing 100+ people with a professional co-manager. I learned how to run a profitable business, turn inventory, manage people, connect with customers, sell, and manage up. I could have improved at managing up, but I was good at managing people. 

The diversity of my team was vast. I was deep in Brooklyn, one of the few indoor malls besides Queens. I had every race and ethnicity working behind the cosmetic counters. It was there that I learned about the seven-fishes meals.

I fell in love with New York and the ladies behind the counters. I was taken with it the first time I took a bus up Madison Avenue, staring at the buildings outside the window. But being deep in a part of New York, where I met the most incredible people and learned about their families, cultures, and lives, was the biggest gift of all.

After first landing in NY over forty years, I still walk the concrete and lament, I love this town so much and I am incredibly lucky to live here.

The Insanity of Cannabis

The insanity of government regulations when it comes to cannabis is a staggering ineptitude of muscle flexing politics.  

There are so many issues that it is overwhelmingly hard to keep up. California is an all-out disaster. The lack of any regulation except for taxation is all they do. The big idea is to raise the taxes more even though there is a cannabis tax debt of over a billion 

How about banking? The government touts how cannabis sales are, and the taxes they reap, but the Republicans won’t pass the banking bill. What else is in that bill?  It is so absurd.  They are talking out of both sides of their mouths. This is the babble we see clearly every day, which is why people distrust the Government.

I can only be entertained because I would be angry all day if I didn’t laugh about it. Here’s the thing: the cat is out of the bag. Nobody is going to change lanes and do a U-turn to make cannabis illegal as it was before. Considering we all know now the narrative has been a pack of lies from the Government 

The research is showing all of us that past vices, such as alcohol and pharmaceutical products, have not been the answer but are adding to the high cost of healthcare. Another reason not to trust the Government is pharmaceutical lobbyists.

Who can end all these bratty men from squabbling? After all, it is only about making the money happy that keeps many of these players in office.

White Bean Parmesan Soup

The photo could be better, but the soup is delicious. The recipe called for making it in a slow cooker, but I made it on the stove. Perfect for the winter days ahead. Note – I quadrupled the recipe with no problems.

  • 1 lb dry cannellini beans – SOAKED OVERNIGHT
  • 8 ounces Parmesan rind (the rest can be used for grating over the soup)
  • 1 cup wheat berries ( I used farro)
  • 1 large sweet onion – finely chopped
  • 1 fennel bulb – cored and chopped
  • 3 celery stalks, sliced 1/2″ thick
  • 1 tsp. fennel seeds
  • 1 tsp. red pepper flakes (adds a kick)
  • 2 sprigs rosemary (I put these in a spice sack so the leaves wouldn’t get in the soup)
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 6 cups chicken stock
  • Juice of one lemon

Don’t forget to soak the beans overnight. Drain right before using, and then season them with salt and pepper. Add the parm rind and the wheat berries (or farro).

Saute the onions for about 5 minutes in a large soup pot. Add the fennel to the onion and saute for another 5 minutes. Then add the celery and soften that for about one minute. Now add the fennel seeds, red pepper flakes, stir for about one minute before adding the rosemary and the wine. Boil the wine down for 2 minutes until the pot is almost dry. Then add the bean mixture and combine. Next add the stock. Bring to a low boil, then down to medium low and put a lid on it. I let this hang out for about 4 hours on the stove.

Take out the rosemary sprigs, and serve with shaved Parm on top. It keeps for days in the fridge too!