An upstart innkeeper on trendy Smith Street is facing off with transit officials over the decision to put a bus stop right in front of his hotel's entrance.

Bertrand Nelson, general manager of Hersha Hospitality Trust's newly opened Nu Hotel, tells The Brooklyn Paper that his lobby is filling up with bus fumes and that bus riders are fouling up the hotel's restrooms.

“It’s a weird place for a bus stop,” [Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Joe] Chan told The Brooklyn Paper at the Nu Hotel’s opening party last month. “For a guest’s first experience [to be] inhaling a bunch of bus fumes — it’s less than an ideal way for them to experience a morning in Downtown Brooklyn.  read more »

Back in April, as I was trying to figure out how the hell to get out to Glendale for my interview with the Cash Giveaway King of Queens, Damon Hemmerdinger, development director for the Shops at Atlas Park, I asked his rep:

"Think ol' Dale [Hemmerdinger, M.T.A. chairman and also Damon's father] can hook me up with a closer subway stop?"

"Funny!" she said. "But the bus stop right in front is relatively new so consider yourself lucky!"

Luck is one way to put it. Some city officials call it fishy.  read more »

According to Friday's Metro, City Council members are upset about the new bus service, ]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/bus-ted-city-council-blasts-mta-expanded-service-atlas-park#comments Real Estate Dale Hemmerdinger Damon Hemmerdinger Glendale Metropolitan Transit Authority PUBLIC POLICY Queens Retail The Shops at Atlas Park Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:34:57 -0400 Chris Shott 71016 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2007/news-corp-joins-related-hudson-yards-bid

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has joined Stephen Ross's Related Companies in its bid for the Hudson Yards project, a source familiar with the bid said.

If Stephen Ross' Related won the bid to develop on the far West Side, News Corp. would move its headquarters from its Sixth Avenue tower and into a new tower in Hudson Yards, the source said. Last week, The Observer reported that Conde Nast would leave 4 Times Square for a new, 1.5-million-square-foot tower if Douglas Durst and Vornado won a bid; and it was also reported that Morgan Stanley had teamed up with Tishman Speyer.  read more »