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1162 of 1258 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
February 6, 2007 Tuesday

Late Edition - Final

The New Immigrant Dream: Arepas as Common as Bagels
BYLINE: By NINA BERNSTEIN; Adam B. Ellick contributed reporting.
SECTION: Section A; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1711 words
Manuel A. Miranda was 8 when his family immigrated to New York from Bogota. His parents, who had been lawyers, turned to selling home-cooked food from the trunk of their car. Manuel pitched in after school, grinding corn by hand for traditional Colombian flatbreads called arepas.

Today Mr. Miranda, 32, runs a family business with 16 employees, producing 10 million arepas a year in the Maspeth section of Queens. But the burst of Colombian immigration to the city has slowed; arepas customers are spreading through the suburbs, and competition for them is fierce. Now, he says, his eye is on a vast, untapped market: the rest of the country.

In the long run, like bagels, ''you're going to have arepas in every store,'' predicted Mr. Miranda, whose innovations include a ''toaster-friendly'' version (square instead of round), and an experimental Web site that offers online sales nationwide. ''But I don't have the connections. I don't know the people who can advise how to take us to the next level.''

As the flow of immigrants to suburban and small-town America outpaces the growth of bustling ethnic centers in New York, many foreign-born entrepreneurs like the Mirandas are facing an unfamiliar crossroads. In the city, rising rents and density hamper growth, while swelling ethnic enclaves in the suburbs generate competitors. Yet in other places, opportunity beckons as never before, as immigrants expand the tastes of mainstream America.

Whether these businesses exploit the new chances to break out or succumb to the new perils, the city's economy will feel the effects.

''Immigrants have been the entrepreneurial spark plugs of cities from New York to Los Angeles,'' said Jonathan Bowles, the director of the Center for an Urban Future, a private, nonprofit research organization that has studied the dynamics of immigrant businesses that turned decaying neighborhoods into vibrant commercial hubs in recent decades. ''These are precious and important economic generators for New York City, and there's a risk that we might lose them over the next decade.''

A report to be issued by the center today highlights both the potential and the challenge for cities full of immigrant entrepreneurs, who often face language barriers, difficulties getting credit, and problems connecting with mainstream agencies that help businesses grow. The report identifies a generation of immigrant-founded enterprises poised to break into the big time -- or already there, like the Lams Group, one of the city's most aggressive hotel developers, or Delgado Travel, which reaps roughly $1 billion in annual revenues.

In Los Angeles, at least 22 of the 100 fastest-growing companies in 2005 were created by first-generation immigrants. In Houston, a telecommunications company started by a Pakistani man topped the 2006 list of the city's most successful small businesses.

But even in those cities and New York, where immigrant-friendly mayors have promoted programs to help small business, the report contends that immigrant entrepreneurs have been overlooked in long-term strategies for economic development.

Some are doing just fine anyway. Lowell Hawthorne, the Jamaican-born chief executive of Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery, has parlayed a single bakery, opened in the Bronx in 1989, into more than 100 franchise restaurants nationwide. The latest batch opened in Atlanta, where Jamaican-style specialties, supplied from a Bronx plant with 130 employees, draw on a mix of West Indian immigration and crossover appeal.

Other companies, like Rajbhog Foods, which started as a mom-and-pop Indian sweets shop in Jackson Heights, Queens, seem to be on the edge of a similar breakthrough, even as they struggle with rising costs and shifting immigration patterns.

''Two steps forward and then back one step,'' said Sachin Mody, the chief executive and son of the founders. ''That is the hardest part, to keep hurdling and keep evolving.''

Mr. Mody said the company had about 70 employees and three plants and sold its vegetarian products to stores in 41 states and Canada. Its catering operation handles Indian weddings and conventions for as many as 10,000. But six years ago, in recognition of a changing market, it began opening franchise stores in places like Jersey City and Hicksville, on Long Island, where Indians have settled in large numbers.

In Jackson Heights, where South Asians from around the region have long come to shop for ethnic food and the latest in saris, bangles and Bollywood DVDs, business in Rajbhog's gleaming flagship store is down 30 to 40 percent, said the owner, Nirval Shah, an Indian-born nephew of the founders.

''We try to reach out to every corner where there is an Indian community, so they don't have to drive all the way to one location to get what they need,'' he explained, allowing that such suburban shops were drawing business away from Little India in Queens, a view echoed by other merchants.

Then he pointed to the company's newest line: frozen Indian entrees, less spiced for American palates.

In some ways, New York may have a head start on the growing pains of immigrant businesses. The nation's recent surge of newcomers started earlier in the state and peaked by the mid-1990s, when immigration was still growing rapidly elsewhere. About 90,000 new immigrants still arrive each year in New York State, the vast majority still settling in the city, but that is down from about 168,000 in 1990.

Now, some children of the early influx are trying to build on their parents' success -- success that itself has increased the cost of doing business, by driving up rents and creating congestion.

One example is Jay Joshua, a Manhattan company that designs souvenirs and then has them manufactured in Asia and imported. Jay Chung, who arrived from South Korea in 1981 as a graduate student in design, started printing his computer-graphic designs for New York logos and peddling them to local T-shirt shops. His company is now one of the city's leading suppliers of tourist items, from New York-loving coffee mugs to taxicab Christmas ornaments.

Mr. Chung's son Joshua, 26, who was 3 when he immigrated, joined the company after studying business management in college, and recently helped land orders for a new line of Chicago souvenirs. But frustration mixes with pride when the Chungs, both American citizens now, discuss the company's growth.

''It's really hard to conduct a business over here as a wholesaler,'' Mr. Chung said in the company's West 27th Street showroom, chockablock with samples. ''We get a ticket every 20 minutes, no matter what. We need more convenient places with less rent, less traffic.''

Thirty years ago their wholesale district was desolate. Now hundreds of Korean-American importers are there, said Jay Chung, who is a leader of the local Korean-American business association. They face a blizzard of parking tickets and high commercial rents -- nearly $20,000 a month for 1,400 square feet, he said. Many merchants have had to subdivide and sublet their space, he added, shrinking just when they need to grow.

The association's efforts to find an alternate wholesale site have a checkered history that underscores the importance of partnerships with the city -- and the pitfalls. Responding to the city's request for redevelopment proposals for the College Point section of Queens, more than 50 Korean merchants pooled $1 million to draw up the winning proposal, Mr. Chung said. At a news conference in 2004, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said it would create hundreds of new jobs. But the city backed out eight months later, after protests by older,white Queens residents and their representatives.

''They said they didn't want the area to become like Flushing, like Chinatown,'' Mr. Chung recalled. ''It was a disaster for us -- not only financially, but our image.''

Apologetic city development officials offered five other locations, he said in an account that the city confirmed, and the group is negotiating for a private project in Jamaica, Queens, that could yield a 13-story center in about four years. Meanwhile, however, some merchants have already moved to New Jersey.

At a time when cities woo biotechnology firms and sports arenas to jump-start local economies, the economic potential of immigrant entrepreneurs has remained largely under the radar, says the Center for an Urban Future. Though there are no precise figures to measure their economic contributions, the report said, these businesses create jobs in good times and bad. They offset the cyclical slumps of more high-profile sectors like finance in New York or energy in Houston. And they have created ethnic markets that draw shoppers into the city, balancing the loss of retail trade to the suburbs.

The report credits the Bloomberg administration for small-business initiatives that have helped some firms, but calls on public, private and nonprofit agencies to do more to connect immigrant entrepreneurs to the expertise available.

Kara Alaimo, a spokeswoman for the city's Small Business Services Department, said it now deployed a staff speaking six foreign languages who aided almost 13,000 businesses in the five boroughs last year. ''We are incredibly proud of our achievements in this arena and look forward to doing even more to provide resources to this vital community,'' she said.

Immigrant entrepreneurs seem ambivalent about getting more attention from the city. Some are leery of red tape, though they would welcome, say, a municipal parking garage. Others cite concrete help they have received from city agencies.

When Mr. Miranda's arepas company, Delicias Andinas, was struggling with high trash bills two years ago, he said, a city agent in an industry retention program referred him to a recycler. Now much of the company's garbage -- mostly corn leftovers -- is sold to hog farms.

''They helped us out to a win-win situation,'' said Mr. Miranda, now an American citizen who calls himself ''a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker.''

''For us, it was a big deal. Right now, I don't need money. I need knowledge.''

Map of New York City highlighting the locations of the aforementioned neighborhoods. (pg. B6)
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: IMMIGRATION (92%); SUBURBS (89%); CITY LIFE (89%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (89%); CITIES (89%); FAMILY COMPANIES (78%); FAMILY (78%); SMALL BUSINESS (76%); COMPANY LISTS & RANKINGS (76%); REFUGEES (73%); TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES (70%); HOTELS & MOTELS (60%); LANGUAGE & LANGUAGES (50%); TELECOMMUNICATIONS (50%) Small Business; Immigration and Refugees; Entrepreneurship'>Entrepreneurship; Renting and Leasing
ORGANIZATION: Center for an Urban Future
PERSON: MICHAEL MCMAHON (56%) Nina Bernstein; Michael R (Mayor) Bloomberg
GEOGRAPHIC: NEW YORK, NY, USA (95%); LOS ANGELES, CA, USA (92%); BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (90%) NEW YORK, USA (98%); CALIFORNIA, USA (92%) UNITED STATES (98%); COLOMBIA (94%) New York City; New York City; New York City
LOAD-DATE: February 6, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Photos: Jay Chung and his son Joshua, from South Korea, own a company in Manhattan that is one of the city's leading supplier of tourist items. At left, Manuel A. Miranda and his mother, Mercedes, at their arepas plant in Queens. He wants to sell the corn flatbreads nationwide. (Photographs by Richard Perry/The New York Times)(pg. B6)Chart: ''Immigrant Neighborhoods, Booming Business''From 1994 to 2004, neighborhoods with predominantly foreign-born populations saw substantial increases in the number of businesses and jobs, outpacing growth in the rest of the city, according to a study released today.NEIGHBORHOOD: FlushingBUSINESSESIN 2004: 3,654INCREASE FROM 1994: 54.6%EMPLOYMENTIN 2004: 30,155INCREASE FROM 1994: 12.1%NEIGHBORHOOD: Sunset ParkBUSINESSESIN 2004: 1,606INCREASE FROM 1994: 47.3EMPLOYMENTIN 2004: 17,286INCREASE FROM 1994: 23.2NEIGHBORHOOD: Sheepshead Bay-Brighton BeachBUSINESSESIN 2004: 1,900INCREASE FROM 1994: 33.7EMPLOYMENTIN 2004: 11,580INCREASE FROM 1994: 13.3NEIGHBORHOOD: ElmhurstBUSINESSESIN 2004: 1,301INCREASE FROM 1994: 25.1EMPLOYMENTIN 2004: 12,768INCREASE FROM 1994: 10.2NEIGHBORHOOD: Washington HeightsBUSINESSESIN 2004: 2,129INCREASE FROM 1994: 17.8EMPLOYMENTIN 2004: 25,334INCREASE FROM 1994: 33.6 NEIGHBORHOOD: Jackson HeightsBUSINESSESIN 2004: 1,468INCREASE FROM 1994: 14.3EMPLOYMENTIN 2004: 6,700INCREASE FROM 1994: 27.9NEIGHBORHOOD: New York CityBUSINESSESIN 2004: 210,783INCREASE FROM 1994: 9.6EMPLOYMENTIN 2004: 3.6 millionINCREASE FROM 1994: 6.9(Source by Center for an Urban Future)(pg. B6)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

1163 of 1258 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
February 6, 2007 Tuesday

Late Edition - Final

News Summary
SECTION: Section A; Column 3; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 784 words
INTERNATIONAL A3-11In Shift, Saudis Push To Counter Iran in RegionWith the prospect of three civil wars looming over the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has taken on a central, aggressive role in reshaping the region's conflicts. The kingdom is playing host to the leaders of Hamas and Fatah, in what both Palestinian factions say could lead to a national unity government and reduced bloodshed. A1 Iraqi Urges Iran-U.S. TalksAbdel Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite leaders, said that his country had urged Iran to hold talks with the United States and that such talks were important for the security of the region, according to the ISNA news agency at a news conference. A8 China Detains Lauded DoctorA retired Chinese doctor acclaimed for helping people with AIDS has been placed under house arrest to stop her from traveling to the United States to receive an award from a nonprofit group connected to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a friend of the doctor said.

A6 Yukos Founder Charged AgainRussian prosecutors brought new charges against the imprisoned founder of the Yukos oil company and one of his business partners, opening a new line of legal attack against a Kremlin opponent. A10U.N. Chief Returns to DissentBan Ki-moon, the new secretary general, returned to headquarters after a two-week working trip to Africa and Europe and ran into dissension over restructuring changes he has proposed and concern at the slow pace of his appointing top officials since taking office. A9NATIONAL A14-19Bush Unveils Budget With Few ConcessionsPresident Bush proposed a $2.9 trillion budget that he said would wipe out the deficit without raising taxes, setting up a clash of priorities with the Democratic-run Congress. It would trim or eliminate many domestic programs and cut the growth of Medicare and Medicaid. A1The president's budget contained $141 billion to cover war costs next fiscal year, of which more than a quarter would go to repairing and replacing military equipment. In addition, the budget seeks $93 billion for the war in the current fiscal year and money to increase the size of the Army. A19Trial of Army Officer OpensThe Army opened court-martial proceedings against the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq because, he has said, the war is illegal. The officer, who faces up to four years in prison, has said the Bush administration falsely used the Sept. 11 attacks to justify the war. A14 Edwards's Health Care PlanJohn Edwards, the Democratic presidential candidate from North Carolina, proposed providing health care coverage to the 47 million Americans who lack it. The plan, which could cost $120 billion a year, would require higher taxes on wealthy families. A18 Journalist's Record Time in JailA freelance videographer who has been in jail 169 days will become the longest-incarcerated journalist in modern American history. He has refused to testify or provide video footage in a grand jury investigation of a protest in 2005 in which a police officer was injured. A15NEW YORK/REGION B1-6Immigrant Entrepreneurs Face Expansion ChallengesMany foreign-born entrepreneurs are facing an unfamiliar crossroads as the flow of immigrants to suburban and small-town America outpaces the growth of bustling ethnic centers in New York. A1Hospitals Face Budget CutsPresident Bush's proposed budget includes deep cuts in spending to train young doctors, cuts that would hit New York especially hard. Combined with Governor Spitzer's plan to shrink hospitals in New York State, the reductions would total more than $1 billion a year. B1 Charges in Boating AccidentThe captain and the boat operator involved in one of the worst boating accidents in New York history were each charged with a misdemeanor more than a year after their tour boat capsized on Lake George, killing 20 elderly passengers. B1Neediest Cases B5BUSINESS DAY C1-12 S.E.C. Looks at Bank LeaksThe Securities and Exchange Commission has begun a broad examination into whether Wall Street bank employees are leaking information about big trades to their favored clients in an effort to curry favor with those clients. A1Warring Apples Make PeaceApple Inc., the company that makes computers and iPods, and Apple Corps, the one that manages the business interests of the Beatles, said they had agreed to end a trademark lawsuit. C1Business Digest C2OBITUARIES D8Hans WegnerA designer who helped change the course of design history in the 1950s and '60s, he was 92. D8EDITORIAL A20-21Editorials: The other defense budget; a vaccine to save women's lives; the comptroller choice; the price of corn.Columns: Stacy Schiff, Nicholas D. Kristof.Crossword E8TV Listings E10Weather A16
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COMPANY: OAO NK YUKOS (82%); CNINSURE INC (70%)
ORGANIZATION: HAMAS (58%); UNITED NATIONS (55%)
TICKER: CISG (NASDAQ) (70%)
PERSON: HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (55%)
GEOGRAPHIC: NORTH CAROLINA, USA (79%) SAUDI ARABIA (94%); IRAN (94%); IRAQ (94%); UNITED STATES (94%); MIDDLE EAST (92%); PALESTINIAN TERRITORY (92%); EUROPE (79%)
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DOCUMENT-TYPE: Summary
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Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

1164 of 1258 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
February 5, 2007 Monday

Late Edition - Final

High-Rise Architect Sails Proudly in Mainstream
BYLINE: By ROBIN POGREBIN
SECTION: Section E; Column 1; The Arts/Cultural Desk; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 1153 words
Costas Kondylis certainly doesn't look like a troublemaker.

In jacket and tie, with slicked-back silver hair, he comes across as a successful architect enjoying the fruits of his 40-year experience in New York -- which he is. But he also happens to be the designer of some of the city's most polarizing projects, including Donald Trump's various towers, the Plaza Hotel's renovation and four residential towers in the far West 40s that some architecture aficionados dismiss as dull blots on the skyline.

Mr. Kondylis is clearly not uncomfortable in the middle of controversy. He has established a 185-member office, completed 75 buildings in New York and currently has 15 more in the works. If the architecture profession hasn't exalted him as much as it has some others, the city's developers keep hiring him. Again and again and again.

''I did not design museums and philharmonic halls -- that's Frank Gehry territory,'' Mr. Kondylis said in a recent interview at his office. ''But I always push design, and our buildings were always ahead of the game, and I think now we are in the design mainstream.''

Not everyone considers the mainstream a good place to be. ''Things are changing in New York in a positive way,'' said the architect Richard Meier, who suggested that Mr. Kondylis's aesthetic ''is sort of where it was, not where it's going.''

''Costas is a traditional architect for developers who want traditional buildings in New York,'' added Mr. Meier, who said he was replaced by Mr. Kondylis on a project near Gracie Mansion because ''the developer wanted something traditional and didn't want a good contemporary building.''

Mr. Kondylis's clients include several of the city's major developers, like the Related Companies, Vornado Realty Trust and Forest City Ratner Companies. But his name is perhaps most closely associated with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Kondylis designed the Trump International Hotel and Tower at Columbus Circle, several buildings at Trump Place in the West 60s along the Hudson River, and Trump World Tower near the United Nations, whose 90 stories claim the title of the world's tallest residential building.

''Costas is an architect with great aesthetic taste who can also draw plans,'' Mr. Trump said. ''He's never been given proper credit until recently. He's starting to get it now.''

While many New Yorkers consider Mr. Trump's buildings too shiny, too tall or just tasteless, Mr. Kondylis makes no apologies for his association with the developer. ''He's an entrepreneur like all the American entrepreneurs -- the Paleys and the Carnegies,'' Mr. Kondylis said. ''They had guts.''

Yet he acknowledged that he doesn't like everything Mr. Trump demands. ''He wanted a gold building -- gold this and gold that,'' Mr. Kondylis said of Trump World Tower, which ended up bronze (Mr. Kondylis's preference). ''The only compromise was the way the canopy had to incorporate bronze and the Trump name,'' he added. ''The way I justify it for myself, it's the branding of the building. That's something sometimes you have to deal with. Like designing for Gucci, it's maintaining a brand.''

Larry A. Silverstein, the developer of the World Trade Center site, enlisted Mr. Kondylis for two buildings on the far West Side. The first, called Riverplace I, on West 42nd Street between 11th and 12th Avenues, has about 900 apartments and was completed in 2001. The other, on 11th Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets, is under way. In the same neighborhood, for the Moinian Group, Mr. Kondylis designed the Atelier at 635 West 42nd Street and a high-rise tower now being built at 605 West 42nd Street.

''He designs an attractive, buildable, functional building,'' Mr. Silverstein said. ''If I'm going to do a residential building in New York, the most natural thing in the world is to pick up the phone and call Costas.''

At a time when many high-profile architects are challenging the city's skyline with unorthodox designs, Mr. Kondylis's more conventional style can seem like a throwback. But there is still a market for it. ''He brings a level of sophistication and elegance to middle-class aspirations,'' said Fredric M. Bell, executive director of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects. ''He's a compromiser. He's someone who takes the realities of the marketplace and tries to work around the edges.''

Despite Mr. Kondylis's financial success, his architecture is often ignored by the critics. An exception was Herbert Muschamp's review of Trump World Tower in The New York Times: ''It punches through the morbid notion that the Midtown skyline should be forever dominated by two Art Deco skyscrapers, the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, as if these cherished icons couldn't stand the competition.''

Mr. Kondylis remains unfazed by the lack of approbation. ''Of course I care,'' he said. ''I'm very interested in what architects think of my work. But that's not what guides me. There is a suspicion among developers when you care too much. They think you're designing for the cover of an architecture magazine.''

The Greek-born Mr. Kondylis came to New York 40 years ago, after working in Switzerland. He grew up a fan of industrial design and showed an early affinity for architecture: as a child, when his parents were building a home in Athens, he would visit the site and give them his opinion. He was enthralled by residential building. ''It's a decision you make early in your life,'' he said. ''With housing, you have a sense of accomplishing something on a social level. You build neighborhoods.''

While some New Yorkers have complained that his projects cast shadows, bring congestion or clash with the prevailing aesthetic, he said he stands by his designs as vertical neighborhoods.

''I believe in skyscrapers,'' he said. ''It's the most environmental form of urban development.''

Mr. Kondylis, however, lives on a low floor of an Upper East Side prewar building and said his apartment was modeled after his image of the architect Mies van der Rohe in his red-and-white-checked wing chair-- ''warm, sympathetic, cozy.''

''I don't think the apartment has to make a statement about who I am,'' Mr. Kondylis said. ''I like it to be soothing to my psyche.''

He has happily embraced his reputation as the Developer's Architect -- designing the maximum square footage with materials that meet the budget. ''My concern is to create value for the developer, because they're my clients,'' he said.

Mr. Kondylis said his conscience is clear: While he has made some concessions to developers along the way, he has never sold out.

''Sometimes we have battles,'' he said. ''Some I win, and some I lose, and some I come out O.K. I can't think of one building I never want to associate my name with. I push the project to the limit until I feel I'm losing a client. We can't afford to lose a client.

''We can afford to, but it's not professional.''

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