The Real Estate

M.T.A. (artfully) unveils its new hybrid buses. [City Room]

Staten Island Railway to close loophole allowing commuters a free ride. [City Room]

Mystery Manhattan building literally blinds onlookers. [City Room]

The elation and frustration of buying new. [Curbed]

The most expensive condos outside Manhattan. [TRD]

Real estate bigwig William Gottlieb suing a man for $10 million for falsely representing his estate. [TRD]

Mapping your way through all those September restaurant openings. [Eater]

Massive toll hike for NJ Turnpike drivers could be on the way next year. [Gothamist]

Angry reactions to RNC’s jokes about community organizers. [West Bronx Blog]

Bummed about the stagnant real estate market? Everything will be just dandy by 2011, says the National Real Estate Investor. [Brownstoner]

More info on Gowanus’ new music venue, The Bell House. [Brownstoner]

We learned that:

• Arthur Sulzberger Jr. will have to testify in Trump-Times lawsuit.
• A Sam Chang-affiliated Chelsea hotel sold for $66 million.
• The "current business climate" dooms a CBRE business conference.
• Lev Leviev has sold a 49.9 percent stake in his New York towers.
• The property insurance lobby was busy in St. Paul.
• The Republicans still love the ownership society idea.
• Bensonhurst has gone from "Little Italy to Chinatown."
• Roosevelt Island's got 2,500 apartments on the way.
• The Republican Party officially doesn't support the Bear Stearns bailout.
• Dennis Hastert really digs green architects.
• Trump donated to the state Senate Dems for the first time since '02.
• Nick Sprayregen had some words for Columbia in the Wall Street Journal.
• A Japanese firm bought Macklowe's old 527 Madison Avenue.
• Queens once again led the city in first-time foreclosures.
• Downtown Brooklyn had the city's highest job growth rate from '97 to '07.
• Roosevelt Island's population boom is straining its transportation.
• Florida Congressman John Mica really wants a DC-NYC bullet train.
• $48,836,000 is New York's official new co-op record.
• New York's economy wasn't too hot or too cold in July and August.
• Queens zip codes dominated first-time foreclosures in August.
• Coney Island's Astroland will likely close for good this Sunday.
• Nick Sprayregen has more words for Columbia and its eminent domain push.

Back in March, this reporter was dismayed to discover that charming restaurateur Toney Edwards had finally lost his long, drawn-out legal fight to protect his beloved French bistro Le Madeleine from the wrecking ball.

Landlord Mark Scharfman was reportedly planning to tear down the single-story structure on West 43rd Street and replace it with a multi-story residential building.

Now, adding insult to injury, I come to find out, via the blog Lost City, that Mr. Scharfman has installed a new tenant in Le Madeleine's place -- specifically, another French bistro called Le Petit Un Deux Trois. Incroyable!

"...it has to make you wonder by the landlord insisted on kicking Le Madeleine to the curb. Was it personal between the landlord and the restaurant owner, Tony Edwards, who always insisted Scharfman couldn't legally tear the building down. Did the economy foil Scharfman's plans? Or maybe Un Deux Trois just offered more money."

From the new Real Deal:

For years there was a buzz about the potential of a residential boom in the South Bronx, but with the credit crunch making it nearly impossible for small-scale investors to obtain financing in the area, any sort of explosion appears to be on hold. ...

Much of SoBro's residential housing is made up of row houses originally constructed as low-income housing.

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There's a review of Yale economist Robert Shiller's latest book, The Subprime Solution, in The Observer's print edition this week:

The over-valuation of real estate was brought on, he argues, by a “contagion” of bad thinking: Americans as a whole became convinced that real estate fundamentals such as personal income, the cost of building materials and the ratio of home values to rent no longer mattered. Repeated endlessly, the “real estate myth” of homes as an asset destined to appreciate indefinitely due to economic growth, scarce land and a swelling population became a truism, even though it was wrong—as we’re all finding out now.

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"Good riddance! Throngs of confused people meandering knee-deep in trash blown from unattended-to garbage cans. Nice! Really, really nice! There are many other cleaner, safer, better beaches and boardwalk attractions so close in Jersey... Coney Island doesn't even have a shell store or decent restaurant associated with its beach area." ["Advantage Sitt! Astroland Closing for Good"]

A real estate broker has plastered an Upper West Side retail space with an advertisement imitating (or celebrating) the work of renowned artist Barbara Kruger, who, interestingly enough, borrowed imagery from advertisements in order to criticize consumerism, according to an article in today's Washington Post.

Said real estate broker is Matt Harnett, a photographer and one-time teacher at the School of Visual Arts, who called the ad for retail space at the foot of 2625 Broadway an "ode to Barbara Kruger."

But borrowing from an anti-consumerist artist to promote consumerism is, well, sort of mind-bending. Of course, ad folks have been borrowing from the art world for ages.  read more »

Canadians are the busiest foreign buyers of American housing as of May, according to this morning's Wall Street Journal. The paper offers a handy guide for sellers trying to lure our northern neighbors. (Strangely, the list mentions neither moose meat nor hockey.)

My colleague Leigh Kamping-Carder (a genuine Canadian herself!) wrote in August about the growing number of Canadians settling in New York City.

"Any neighborhood in Manhattan that is home to several warehouses including 'Tuck-It-Away self storage' definitely deserves to be called 'blighted.' This guy is a selfish joke. How inconsiderate Columbia must be to pay him millions of dollars for dilapadated warehouses and replace them with state of the art medical facilities, schools and dormitories. Shame on you, Columbia." ["Columbia Holdout: Eminent Domain 'Not Necessary or Appropriate'"]

Columbia holds only public hearing on $6 billion expansion plan. [NY Times]

Rangel earned more than $75,000 from tourists renting at his villa in the Dominican Republic—all unreported to the IRS. [NY Times]

“Experimental” Bronx bus route saves passengers significant time. [NY Times]

Brokers offering popular home/wine pairings to aspiring second-home buyers. [NY Times]

Stocking up on second-home staples. [NY Times]

Latin America rife with affordable second-home opportunities. [NYDN]

A Caribbean island’s architectural paradise. [NYDN]

Deutsche Bank still smoking. [NYDN]

Former Credit Suisse broker returns to U.S. to face charges. [NY Post]

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Council Speaker Quinn urge the construction of more schools to meet a rising, condo-fed population.  read more »