It seems the control freaks running Robert De Niro's new Greenwich Hotel aren't only cracking down on camera-equipped spectators.

On opening day, management also kicked out a reviewer for the hospitality industry site Hotel Chatter, abruptly canceling her reservation.

And she wasn't even requesting a cheap press rate! To wit:

we had a room booked at the Greenwich Hotel tonight. Juliana was going to stay there. In fact, she was excited to stay there.

However, our credit card was flagged by the hotel, Focker style, and we were informed this weekend that we needed to agree not to publish any images that resulted from our hotel stay. Long story short, the hotel has an embargo on photos with some international publication with a long lead time, how archaic is that?

Celebrity hotelier Robert De Niro's hugely anticipated and high-priced lodge, the 88-room Greenwich Hotel, officially opens for business today in Tribeca.

And talk about excellence in hospitality!

A Curbed tipster reports from the scene:

there are three staffers outside the hotel, guarding against photographs. OF THE EXTERIOR. I managed to get a few shots, and one through the glass of the lobby, before a nice Asian lady nearly popped a blood vessel and grabbed at my camera. Bobby D, you've done it again, sir.

Watts Street does not have a sign at the moment, but residents of the edgy, untrammeled, Tribeca block cut-off by the Holland Tunnel probably prefer it that way.

At the crossroads of SoHo, Tribeca, and the West Village, the two-block strip of Watts below Canal Street had been passed over during the downtown development boom until recently. It remains the same gritty, inaccessible no-man's land today as it did 10 years ago; but the residential construction flanking Watts at Canal on one end and West Street on the other suggest that the tide may be turning for Tribeca’s last holdout.  read more »

I decided to do a little recreational house-hunting on Sunday afternoon to see if the Manhattan housing market is really as resilient as it's cracked up to be.

My experience hunting for a rental apartment downtown in August had been thoroughly depressing—I did not see a single inhabitable apartment for under $3,000 a month and even then, the choice was between living in a shoebox or in a grungy, amenity-free condo. After reading all the 2007 year-end market reports released by the brokerage firms during the past few weeks, I braced myself for the house-hunting malaise familiar to most New Yorkers. But it never came.  read more »

Tribeca seafood restaurant Fresh "doesn't get enough attention," according to the latest Zagat Survey.

Its owner, Eric Tevrow, though, has attracted plenty -- albeit not the favorable kind.

Mr. Tevrow, who also owned the now-shuttered downtown eateries Coast and Shore, pleaded guilty on Monday to stealing sales taxes collected from all three restaurants.

According to the Manhattan District Attorney's office this afternoon:  read more »

The lights will go out at the Delphi in Tribeca this Halloween and they won’t come on again. The gyros, the hummus, the toasted pita—all of the staples of Greek cooking which Tribeca residents have consumed for over three decades will have to be found elsewhere.

After a dispute with the landlord, the nearly 37-year-old, two-story restaurant did not renew its lease at 109 West Broadway and will be looking for another location in Tribeca, according to owner Bill Moutsatsos. While there may have been arguments between Mr. Moutsatsos, brokers and the owners of the building, the Gindi Family, the final deciding factor was simple—a small local diner can’t afford to pay $55,000 a month in rent.

Cue David Bouley.

According to The Tribeca Trib, Brushstroke, a Japanese restaurant owned by Mr. Bouley will be filling the now vacant space. Mr. Moutsatsos confirmed to The Observer that brokers had mentioned Mr. Bouley as a possible new tenant. Mr. Bouley's representatives would not comment on Brushstroke.

Mr. Bouley already has six establishments in Tribeca. Bouley is located at 120 West Broadway; Austrian-inspired Danube is at 30 Hudson Street; the Bouley Bakery, Market, and Upstairs are all located at 130 West Broadway; and the Test Kitchen is at 88 West Broadway. A new French restaurant, also, is planned for the Mohawk Building at 161 Duane Street.
It’s clear that Mr. Bouley’s empire has expanded a great deal since the 1991 opening of his first restaurant, the eponymous one at 120 West Broadway. But what’s with the narrow geographic range? Mr. Bouley doesn’t have any establishments outside of Tribeca, and most of his businesses are on the same street!

Is this a sign of a lack of imagination, or good business sense? Mr. Bouley seems to be doing pretty well for now, albeit at the expense of the small restaurant owner. Mr. Moutsatsos expressed his sadness at the end of his tenure at this location. He said he would look for a new location in the same neighborhood.

“Of course in Tribeca,” he said. “Because the people they know me here.”

Mr. Moutsatsos and Mr. Bouley seem to have a similar sensibility about these things.

The offspring of hedge fund managers and high-profile celebrities will soon have a place to break a sweat in Tribeca.

Play Garden, a fitness center for children, recently signed a 10-year lease at 95 Franklin Street, according to Sinvin Realty. Sinvin would not disclose the annual rent, but the asking rent for the 7,700-square-foot space was $299,000 for the year.

Play Garden is the brainchild of Amanda Vierheller, who was an executive with the California-based children's gym franchise MyGym for eight years.  read more »

Jews and Episcopalians of the World, Unite!

The Y will move its "Makor" and "Daytime" programs downtown. Those programs are relocating from their former uptown digs at 35 West 67th Street, which was sold to CUNY last year.

Now, of course, the deal means that the "the growing number of retired or semi-retired Baby Boomers" will have a comfy new "home-away-from-home," says the release.  read more »

2008: Retail Space Odyssey

Brokerage Robert K. Futterman & Associates described the deal Thursday as a " testament" to the historic neighborhood's rebirth as, um, a shopping mall.

With Whole Foods Market and Barnes & Noble already taking up another 100,000 square feet of the Owings & Merrill-designed building (aka 270 Greenwich Street), there's only enough room left for, say, a Gap or two.

What, no Starbucks?

• Bloggers are getting exhausted with the overuse of the "luxury" label. (Curbed)
• Speaking of small luxuries, P. Diddy's former apartment at 813 Park Avenue is being redeveloped as three seperate residences. (Curbed)
• Neighborhood activists and preservationists are not happy--again--about a new residential development set to take up four blocks in the northern end of Tribeca. (Downtown Express)
 read more »]]> http://www.observer.com/node/34146#comments Real Estate Daily News LP NYP Holdings Inc. The Wall Street Journal TriBeCa Tue, 31 Jan 2006 04:00:58 -0500 Observer Staff 34146 at http://www.observer.com