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Mark interviews Journalist Steve Cuozzo. · The Mark Simone Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: On seventen w R. He's more of the marks Emosia. Well,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: let's see how New York is actually doing. The great
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: columnist Steve Cuso New York Post nobody better on real estate,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: on restaurants. Steve Cuzo's columns are all in the New
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: York Post website. You can you can see them all there,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Steve Cuzo, how you.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Doing, Hey, good morning, Mark, good thank you. No.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: So every time I turn on somebody's that's it. Everybody's
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: leaving New York. Everybody's moving, everybody's what's the.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Truth, nobody's leaving. I don't know anybody who's leaving.
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  Speaker 3: All my friends are trying to get back to town.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: They're stuck in Palm Beach, problems with the planes, all
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: that kind of stuff.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: So no, nobody's leaving. It's all baloney.
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  Speaker 3: And in fact, if you look around, there's more real
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: estate investment than ever. I read that there's a couple
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: of apartments or townhouses on the Upper East Side that
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: sold for numbers. So there's almost no office space left
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: because the company companies are expanding, signing new leases and there,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: and there's new construction going on, and the big best
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: news of all for the city is that American Express
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  Speaker 3: MS announced last week they're building a new building at
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  Speaker 3: the World Trade Center to be their headquarters.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there's a site.
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  Speaker 3: Called Tower two or two World Trade Center that was
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  Speaker 3: never developed up to nine to eleven.
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  Speaker 2: The other buildings went up, but.
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  Speaker 3: That corner Fulton and the Church Street has been empty.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: It's like it's being used as a beer garden and
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  Speaker 3: an art installation. And Larry Silverstein, the developer, is going
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  Speaker 3: to build this new beautiful, twelve hundred foot tall skyscraper
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  Speaker 3: for MX, which is going to move from where they.
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  Speaker 2: Currently are right nearby. And extraordinary thing.
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  Speaker 3: It's confidence in the city and it's also reflects you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's it finally completes the World Trade Center. A quarter
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  Speaker 3: century after nine to eleven, we're finally going to get.
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  Speaker 2: The last piece of the puzzle. It's great news.
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  Speaker 1: How old is Larry Silverstein got to be in his nineties.
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  Speaker 3: Ninety four and he's going to build discovery spry. He's
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  Speaker 3: very spry. Well, he's not going to be down on
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  Speaker 3: his hands and knees. You know, he's not going to
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  Speaker 3: be wielding a shovel.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure when you're the builder you're in there fighting
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  Speaker 1: with unions and arguing everybody.
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  Speaker 3: Actually, you know, Silverstein has very good relationships with the
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  Speaker 3: construction unions. Not all developers use union labor. He does,
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  Speaker 3: and it's never been a problem. And I suspect that
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  Speaker 3: whenever they schedule a groundbreaking, likely in the next quite soon,
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  Speaker 3: within the next few months, you'll see Larry Silverstein there,
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  Speaker 3: you know, for the photo op with the shovel.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, good for him. So I also notice there's
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: buildings going There's like a huge skyscraper going up at
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: fifty eighth and Madison. There's one going up at Park
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Avenue and fifty second. There's dozens of these planned.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: So there are two of them on Madison Avenue. One
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  Speaker 3: is at like roughly fifty eighth Street. The other is
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  Speaker 3: two or three blocks north. Developers are Extel and related companies,
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  Speaker 3: and the ones, you know, the ground has been excavated.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: The other is I think beginning construction and there will
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  Speaker 3: be new combination condo apartments, some office space, partly hotels,
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  Speaker 3: and of course a lot of retail because it's Madison Avenue,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the world's greatest shopping boulevard.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so these are the smartest real estate guys in
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  Speaker 1: the world. These companies, they wouldn't be building here if
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: they had any doubt about New York having a big future,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: even with mumdown.
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  Speaker 2: It's so true.
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  Speaker 3: Even with Mum it'll be interesting if he shows up
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  Speaker 3: for the groundbreaking of the MX Tower. But yes, they
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  Speaker 3: are among the smartest people in the world.
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  Speaker 2: You don't hear.
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  Speaker 3: About as you read about in Miami sometimes La even
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: in London sometimes about excuse me, yeah, developers that over
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  Speaker 3: they're over leveraged. They borrowed too much money, the demand
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  Speaker 3: wasn't there for their product, and so their buildings go
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: into foreclosure.
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  Speaker 2: They have to get failed out by the banks.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, this happens in New York, as it does everywhere,
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  Speaker 3: but not at the highest level, which is very impressive.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. Hey, So I remember after nine eleven everybody said, well,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: nobody will ever go downtown again, nobody will ever open downtown.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, that's nobody. Cities were going to be dead.
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  Speaker 3: Remember, not just New York, but cities are dead because
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: there's too much of a threat to terrorism everywhere, and
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: nobody's going to want to be concentrated in a small area.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, we laughed at that we didn't laugh,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: so it was taken seriously at the time.
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  Speaker 2: I never believed that.
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  Speaker 3: And then you have other catastrophes of the lesser order.
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  Speaker 3: You had Hurricane Sandy, you had the Wall Street crash
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  Speaker 3: of what is it eight I think, and when you
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  Speaker 3: had a lot of companies have to contract their space,
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  Speaker 3: and of course the worst of all, which was the pandemic.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then they said, nobody will ever go back
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: to work in an office.
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  Speaker 2: Nobody's ever come back to work in the office. Is
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: it's over? And even some very smart people believe that.
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  Speaker 2: I never did.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe I'm not one of the smart ones. But
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  Speaker 3: look what's happened. You can't move in midtown excuse me?
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  Speaker 3: So full of life, and there's very little, as I mentioned,
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: very little office space still available because the demand is
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: so high.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, So what about restaurants? You still got? Every time
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: I turn around, this is another big restaurant opening. So obviously, yeah, demand.
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  Speaker 3: The demand is there. And the funniest thing is that
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: if you read the you know, the food media, the
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  Speaker 3: blogs and all this stuff, all they write.
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  Speaker 2: About is vegan vegan veganness.
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  Speaker 3: Obscure cuisine combinations, you know, Mexican Malaysia and all these
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  Speaker 3: kind of crazy things, But what people really want is
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: steak and so right now I think there are probably
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  Speaker 3: more steakhouses in the city than.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: There ever were more new ones.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: I just read in the last I'm so sorry the
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: last few days, last few days. There's a new hotel,
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  Speaker 3: a Kimpton Hotel right near my office on West forty
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  Speaker 3: eighth Street, which is developed by Extel, and that hotel
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  Speaker 3: is going to have four restaurants or three restaurants in
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  Speaker 3: a lounge. And one of the restaurants is Roco de Spirito,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the great Italian American chef. But the other
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  Speaker 3: is a big steak a Latin steakhouse. I don't remember
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: the name, but there you go, another steakhouse. And then
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: I read that there's an another steakhouse, which I can't
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: recall the name of. There were just so darn many
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  Speaker 3: on near eighth Avenue or on eighth Avenue in Midtown.
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  Speaker 3: The appetite is insatiable for red meat. And it's remarkable
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  Speaker 3: because the price of beef at the wholesale level has
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: gone up enormously over the last ten years. Anyone in
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: the business will explain that the herds for various reasons.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: The herds at the large ranches to be reduced in numbers,
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: so there was less supply. At the same time, there
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: was still this insatiable demand. So prices have gone up.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: Other prices have come down, the price of chicken, the price.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Of eggs has come down.
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  Speaker 3: But for people who love meat, red meat, none of
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  Speaker 3: it seems.
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  Speaker 2: To make a difference.
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  Speaker 3: Steakhouses open and they put there like palladinos. I'm happy,
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: happy to be going this evening, has great steak, and
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: the prices are gone up, but only a little, not
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  Speaker 3: that much.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, when you go to a restaurant in the steakhouse
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  Speaker 1: and it's eighty dollars for the steak, they're paying like
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  Speaker 1: seventy eight dollars for the steak. It's not that they're
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: trying to gag.
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  Speaker 2: They're not gouging.
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  Speaker 3: They're not gouging at all. And you know, they restaurants
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  Speaker 3: are very, very creative people. They have to adapt and
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  Speaker 3: so you know, they can tweak their menus, they can
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: tweak their labor costs to an extent, and somehow they
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  Speaker 3: always come through.
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  Speaker 2: You know, after the nightmare of the.
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  Speaker 3: Pandemic, when restaurants literally in New York City had to close,
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  Speaker 3: and then when they were allowed to reopen, they were
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  Speaker 3: reopened in this grudging way, you know, only serving on
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  Speaker 3: the street, limited capacity. Everybody had to wear masks. You
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: remember we all had to go to restaurants. You had
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: to have your temperature taken.
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  Speaker 2: Do you remember that temperature?
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  Speaker 3: And so how if an industry, a business that can
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  Speaker 3: survive that kind of collective trauma, can survive anything, you know,
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  Speaker 3: or an incidental increase in the price of steak is
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  Speaker 3: not going to make a difference.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Steve Cuzo, we're out of time. But if
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: you want to read some great columns or restaurants about
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: real estate, about New York, Steve cuzou New York Post website.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: You can get all his columns there. Steve Cuzo in
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  Speaker 1: the New York Post. Steve Cuzo, great stuff. Thanks for
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: being with us.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Mark always fun.
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  Speaker 1: I take care. Yeah, so that's true. The steak, if
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  Speaker 1: it's eighty dollars the restaurant, it's like seventy eight to them.
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  Speaker 1: They're not even making a profit. In fact, they only
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: make the profit on the side dish. If you ordered broccoli,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: it's like fifteen dollars and it cost them twelve cents,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: so if you don't order a side dish, they go crazy. Anyway,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: don't forget Buck and Clay. They'll be here right after
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the news at twelve noon with an excellent show. And
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you heard Curtis Sliwa beginning Monday,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: he'll be co hosting the Morning Show with Larry every
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: day starting Monday here on seven ten w o R