Fifty-nine-year-old Loews boss and NY Giants co-owner, Jonathan Tisch is a big kid at heart. Tisch is playing a modern-day Victor Kiam — remember the man who liked Remington Shavers so much he bought the company?
Tisch tells On the Money that his daughter celebrated her ninth birthday at the make-your-own crafts store Make Meaning, and now he’s an investor in the rapidly expanding concept.
The idea behind the store is to house a range of different craft activities under the same roof.
The Manhattan store even closed its doors so Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise could share some fun with friends. Kids can indulge their creative side by doing everything from cake decorating to making soap or jewelry, or painting pottery or just scrapbooking.
Tisch won’t say how much he paid or what stake he owns in Make Meaning, but he told On the Money: “My wife would go and just see pleasure on the kids’ faces. It’s a new and innovative way for young people to explore their creativity in this era when they’re so attached to electronic devices.”
He continued: “We need more of that.”
Tisch added that he also sees the stores as a way for adults to connect via evening corporate events. Bright bulbs, take note: “I’m always looking at entrepreneurs who are doing interesting activities that my wife and I take an interest in.”
Make Meaning, founded by Dan Nissanoff, took some of Tisch’s money to just hire Starbucks’ David Orwasher, who was a vice president of development, to spearhead new store openings.
The original stores are only 2 years old, but already Nissanoff has signed 15 new leases for other locales.–Claire Atkinson
Center ice
Barclays Center announced last week that the New York Islanders were moving to Brooklyn.
National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman said hockey at the arena (which is in a U-shaped form and does not include seating behind one net) is 14,500, and is expandable to slightly more than 15,000.
Expanding the arena to 15,000 would match it with the smallest current NHL arena, in Winnepeg. Despite the additional costs of some off-season construction, this deal still makes financial sense to the Barclays Center.
An arena spokesman said, “We may add in premium seats behind the goal.” There would also be the expense of adding a locker room.
Two sources a few months ago told The Post that Barclays had hired an engineering firm to see how expensive it would be to accommodate more hockey fans. The answer: roughly $25 million.
The spokesman described the costs as negligible and said it was less than $25 million, declining to give specifics.
Meanwhile,an On the Money source said the Islanders would likely be paying about $6 million a year in a lease agreement.
With the Islanders signing a 25-year lease, this seems to On the Money a potentially nice return on investment.–Josh Kosman
Stepford fund
Trophy wives need not apply.
Energy Income Partners — a Westport, Conn., fund-manager firm founded by Jim Murchie in 2003 — appears to be one of the straightest arrows in the business.
Murchie, a former energy analyst with Sanford Bernstein and managing director at Tiger Management, has all the usual information on his website, from Investment Philosophy to Analysis of Returns. But the information that sets Murchie apart is listed under About EIP.
Below the short bios of the managing directors is this line: “There has been no turnover within EIP’s team of principals, each of whom is married to their first spouse and have normal healthy children.”
Now, that’s what Wall Street would consider a real alternative investment idea.–Post staff
Facebook plant
No insider trading at Facebook as another stock lockup expires on Monday.
The 121 million shares vesting tomorrow belong to FB’s C-suite crowd with the exception of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who does not have shares vesting this time and has stated he will not sell shares for a year.
Six top officers said in SEC filings Friday they would not be selling, including COO Sheryl Sandberg, CFO David Ebersman and Ad VP David Fischer.–Post staff