Not quite a Google campus, but it's pretty good. (AndrewRusseth, flickr)

It might be said that Goldman Sachs has a way of transforming everything that it touches, including, it would seem, Battery Park City, where the company has spawned a fledgling village adjacent to its headquarters.

After the heady financial services firm opened its 43-story headquarters (a $2.1 billion investment located by Vesey and Murray streets.) in October 2009, it quickly summoned a host of businesses and boutiques to cater to the needs and whims of its commerce-savvy employees, The New York Times reports.

In Battery Park City, Goldman is king. Traveling Goldman employees can seek overnight stays in a Goldman-owned hotel, outfitted with special accommodations to best suit the Goldman employee.

Parking? Not a problem. The firm purchased a parking garage at the Riverhouse condominium nearby. And of course it also offers valet parking.

As for eateries, Goldman employees have no shortage of options to suit their luxury-loving palates and their expense accounts.

After Danny Meyer, a New York restaurateur who leads the Union Square Hospitality Group, opened three restaurants in the vicinity to satiate the firm’s daily appetite, he began tweaking the menus to better cater to the Goldman employees.

At his restaurant Blue Smoke, Mr. Meyer began offering $25 takeout dinners after Mr. Meyer learned Goldman employees receive $25 meal vouchers, The Times reports.

And if an employee needs a post-grub haircut or eye checkup, Goldman has that covered too.

Salvatore Anzalone once worked at a barbershop that catered solely to Goldman clientele. The barbershop, which now resides in the Conrad lobby, serves mostly Goldman clientele, but he occasionally clips the random passerby.

As for eye appointments, an optometrist works at the Artsee Eyewear store within walking distance of employees, who account for about 70 percent of Artsee’s business.

Anthony Roche, the chief operating officer of Battery Place Market told The Times that 70 to 80 percent of his store’s business is from Goldman. And even the market's hours are dictated by the schedules of the overworked businessmen—6 a.m. to 1 a.m.

“That’s for the bankers working overnight,” Mr. Roche told The Times. “There’s a rush from 10 at night until 1. They’ll buy some fresh salmon with sides or one of our combo meals.”

But while these businesses have all been manipulated by the Goldman touch and the allure of steady sales, they must also serve the non-Goldman customer who shops sans meal voucher.

“We live in the shadow of the Goldman empire, but we have to think beyond Goldman,” Alan Phillips, owner of three restaurants on the Goldman premises, told The Times. Although Mr. Phillips admitted that his three restaurants reel in about 60 percent of their business from Goldman employees.

The plethora of businesses that have cropped up around the Goldman empire have also sparked some worry among Battery Park residents.

“We were concerned it would become a commercial dead man’s zone,” Anthony Notaro, a community leader, told The Times. “It’s turned out to be the opposite.”

Which is, we suppose, a good thing, as Goldman continues to erect its bustling empire along the neighborhood's streets.

sgrothjan@observer.com

Going up! (Cushman & Wakefield)

Is there a better way to enjoy the New York City skyline than from its highest point, atop the swiftly rising 1 World Trade Center? How about with a Shackburger and shake in hand?

According to The Times, Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group is among those vying to run the new observation deck on 1 World Trade Center's crown. Why?

Observation decks like the two at the Empire State Building have become so lucrative that the bidding for the three-level attraction on floors 100 through 102 drew bidders from as far as Canada and France, as well as a local restaurant owner.

Not every bidder is as upscale as the highbrow Mr. Meyer. They also include stadium favorites like Aramark (talk about nosebleed seats) and Legends Hospitality, which runs concessions at Yankees and Cowboys games. There is also Montparnasse 56 USA, the aforementioned French company, which runs this.

And then there is Tony Malkin, saluter of 1 World Trade and owner of the very popular Empire State Building and its two observation decks, which, The Times notes, generate some $60 million in profits a year.

Speaking of the top of the Empire State Building, The Times also has a nice story about the new LED lamps that were installed at the city's formerly tallest tower. These have been years in the works, and still will not be up and running for a few months, but the pics of the prismatic possibilities are still really cool.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

I've met some of my most-admired people in the food business at Danny's restaurants, and so of course I've been hounding Danny since Day One to contribute to the Food Channel. I couldn't be more pleased that, a mere 14 months after we launched—gestation time for, say, one of his restaurants—we'll have not just Danny, grand master and team leader as always, but three key members of Union Square Hospitality Group writing regularly about life in their restaurants.

Kummer calls Meyer "a very good writer, as his 2006 Setting the Table reaffirmed," but today's offering is a less than auspicious start: four paragraphs of PR-speak ("While memorable cuisine and spot-on service are incredibly important to our success, it is the care for others and genuine hospitality that mark the core of our business philosophy"), plus introductions to the "All-Star" employee contributors. We wait to hear what chef Michael Romano, manager Mark Maynard-Parisi, and wine expert Belinda Chang have to say for themselves.

Bids on the city's top-grossing eatery are due on Monday, May 18, but Mr. Meyer, an early favorite for the famous space, has decided to withdraw his name from the competition.

According to a statement from Mr. Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group:

“After careful consideration, we have elected not to submit a bid for the restaurant to succeed Tavern on the Green. As passionate New Yorkers, we were excited and tempted by the opportunity to envision how to transform such a magnificent place into a new institution for our city to cherish. After a thorough review of the [city's Request for Proposals], we ultimately concluded that the overall business opportunity unfortunately did not make sense for us at this time.

We remain excited to follow the developments as the City considers the next chapter of such a historic location.”

Mr. Meyer, whose name inevitably comes up anytime a high-profile restaurant space becomes available, had shown some initial interest in the lucrative location back in March, sending representatives to a meeting of potential candidates for the 25,000-square-foot venue.

But that was before he was announced as the newest operator at Ian Schrager's posh Gramercy Park Hotel. Mr. Meyer also recently took on the hefty task of concessionaire at the New York Mets' new Citi Field stadium in Willet's Point.

The city's current contract with the late LeRoy's family expires at the end of the year. The family has vowed to outbid all rivals for the space.

Smith & Wollensky founder Alan Stillman, Boathouse owner Dean Poll and Capitale operator Seth Greenberg have also expressed interest.

"Some big players," noted dapper Capitale owner Seth Greenberg, as he peered around the room at the competition on hand.

Smith & Wollensky founder Alan Stillman and Boathouse owner Dean Poll also attended, alongside representatives of Giuseppe Cipriani, Donald Trump and Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group, among others.

Michael Desiderio, the restaurant's current chief operating officer, was there on behalf of the late Warner LeRoy's family, which has operated the historic 25,000-square-foot eatery since 1974. The famous venue annually ranks among the top-grossing independently run restaruants in the country, earning more than $37 million in 2007. It is also a very costly and massive operation, with up to 500 employees, many of whom are unionized, which some operators view as an impediment.

The LeRoys' current license agreement with the Parks Department expires on Dec. 31, and the city is expecting big things from whomever is awarded the next 20-year contract, including substantial renovations to the building and a much larger chunk of the profits.

The LeRoys have vowed to outbid any competitor for the space. "Based on the amount of people who've walked through [the restaurant] and the amount of people who've shown up [to Thursday's meeting] I see somewhere between five to six bids," said Mr. Desiderio, who summed up the field of potential proposers thusly: "Some of it is just gawking and some of them will do their due diligence and weed out whether it makes sense as a business."

Mr. Desiderio pointed to Mr. Meyer and Mr. Stillman as particularly strong contenders. "I think these guys are all great restaurateurs and I think they're going to do their best to set forth a bid."

"I'd hate to lose a beauty contest," said Mr. Greenberg. "But we think it's worth it. … We're deep into this and I'm very excited."

Bids are due on May 1. Officials hope to award the new contract in July.

Burger Stand in Madison Square Park

-Board Member, Sharon Paley

Over the last few years, restaurateur Danny Meyer has harbored something of an obsession with beautifying Madison Square Park, which serves as a backdrop to two of his restaurants. Now he's moving in.

Mr. Meyer's company, the Union Square Hospitality Group-which owns the Union Square Café, Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, Tabla and Blue Smoke restaurants-was awarded a contract last September to operate a food kiosk in the park's southern end in conjunction with the Madison Square Park Conservancy. On the menu: upscale hamburgers, hot dogs, milk shakes, beer and wine. On Feb. 12, Community Board 5 approved the proposed design for the 1950's-style, environmentally friendly burger shack, with a handful of requested changes.

The park hasn't always been an ideal location for such a venture. Not long ago, Madison Square Park was shabby and rundown, home to drifters and junkies. Consequently, the views from the giant picture windows of Tabla and Eleven Madison Square Park, Mr. Meyer's upscale eateries across the street, were decidedly unchic. In 1999, Mr. Meyer helped initiate a $5 million refurbishment of the park, which restored it to its 19th-century glory, complete with wrought-iron fencing, antique lights and a reflecting pool. Half of the reconstruction was funded through donations from local businesses, including Mr. Meyer's and Met Life, and the other half through public money.

"He's very involved with the park," Parks Department spokeswoman Margaret Johnson told The Observer, referring to Mr. Meyer. "The original idea [for the kiosk] wasn't his, though he did contribute greatly to the design and the concept."

Mr. Meyer has experimented with food service in the park before. For the last three summers, Eleven Madison Park has operated a gourmet hot-dog cart; the cart was permanently shuttered at the end of last summer, reportedly out of consideration for the regular hot-dog vendors whose customers were being siphoned away. Mr. Meyer was not available for comment.

The new kiosk, which is slated to open this summer, will be funded through private donations. The project came about after the Parks Department's July 2003 request for proposals to operate a "high-quality café" in the park.

"It's something the community has really been pushing for," said Ms. Johnson. "The original idea came about a few years ago when the park was being renovated, and the community has been really supportive of the idea. It will bring people into the park for another purpose, and will provide great food."

The Conservancy and Union Square Hospitality Group were awarded the nine-year contract in September, and promptly signed SITE Environmental Design, a design firm known for "green" buildings, to design the kiosk. Principals James Wines and Denise Lee built a model, which Ms. Lee presented to Board 5 at its last meeting.

The structure is a tribute to the Flatiron Building and features a sloping roof covered with Boston and English ivy and a zinc sign spelling out the name in block letters across the top. This last element provoked heated debate among community board members, who were concerned about unnecessary commercialism and lighting in the park. There were further questions about the 1950's style of the building, which would be impractical for any other business that might use the space should Union Square Hospitality Group be financially unsuccessful.

"We are the stewards of this park," declared board member Sharon Paley at the meeting. "Who is some fancy architecture firm to tell us what is right for this park?"

Ms. Lee defended the scheme, pointing to its "subtle" appearance, "gentle upwashing" of light and the high-tech, experimental materials which were intended to blend the building in with its leafy surroundings.

"This is jerry-rigged to be what Danny Meyer wanted it to be," protested board member Phil Beer. Mr. Beer introduced another resolution (which was subsequently withdrawn) to disapprove of the kiosk design, citing gaudy lighting on the signage, among other complaints. "Once Danny Meyer got involved, it became Danny Meyer's vision of Madison Square Park."

Ultimately, board members approved the design, but included a request that the signage be eliminated. The plan is subject to approval by the Art Commission of the City of New York and requires a permit from the Buildings Department before construction can begin.

"To keep the park beautiful, you need to have positive activity," Debbie Landau, executive director of the Madison Square Park Conservancy, told The Observer . "You need to have reasons for people to be in the park. This park used to be a needle park, it was derelict-it was an unsafe park. People walked around it, not through it. And all of this is a strategy to revitalize the park and make it a place that people want to be in."

-Sheelah Kolhatkar