Daily News LP

• Budget woes force changes to WTC transit hub plans
[NY Times]
• Goldman Sachs' $614M Eddie Bauer deal collapses
[NY Post]
• FedEx breaks ground in the Bronx
[NY Daily News]
• Supermarket to replace aging movie theater in Dyker Heights
[NY Daily News]
• Councilman clashes with Flushing Commons developer over parking
[NY Daily News]
• Opponents battle Bloomberg's Randalls Island plans
[NY Daily News]
• City stalls express trains on chilly nights
[NY Daily News]
• Stuy Town hires detectives to eye rent stabilization violators
[NY Sun]
• Chelsea community board rejects church's condo tower
[NY Sun]
• Transportation panel approves 93-year lease of Stewart airport
[NY Times]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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• If you're an average Joe at Goldman Sachs, you'll likely be grabbing a $397,707 bonus this year. And all that goes straight into your vulgar pied-a-terre fund. [Dealbreaker]
• 110 British travel agents didn't know anything about Brooklyn, so Borough Prez Marty Markowitz (at right) shed a tear. Then he told the Brits about all the great "ethnic enclaves" (and museums and restaurants) in his beloved hometown. [NY Daily News]
• But why didn't he mention Williamsburg's very first rooftop cabanas? It's a top attraction at the new Mill Building. (That's a pun.) [Brownstoner]
• Somehow Mill was robbed of Cooper-Hewitt's First Annual People's Choice Award. That honor went to the fabulous pre-fab Katrina Cottage. [Interior Design]
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• Saunas, towel warmers and heated floors are still hot commodities in the luxury home industry, but the single biggest new trend is "everything green." That means New Yorkers are increasingly unwilling to kill a rainforest for "one piece of exotic wood for inlay." (Forbes)
• Classy behemoth Clear Channel and (at least) two other big billboard companies are suing New York over limitations on outdoor ads. Is it a matter of free speech or corporate graffiti? (NY Post)
• Opening a successful Central American comfort food eatery in Park Slope is easy. Park Slope really is perfect. (NY Daily News)
• New Yorkers (i.e. Bill Moyers) do not want the New-York Historical Society to build "a 23-story glass apartment tower behind the society's museum." (NY Times)
• Shouldn't we always listen to Mr. Moyers? Maybe not: after all, New Yorkers also don't welcome more development in the Lower East Side. Or in the East Village. Or in Washington Square Park. (Sun)
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• The cost of single-family homes in pretty little Westchester has hit a record high. And that's bad news, obviously, because it's inevitably all downhill from here. (And because there's going to be the first year-to-year decrease in sales since the elder Bush administration.) (AP/NY Daily News)
• Jay McInerney is leaving his lady friend's 72nd Street apartment for the Village, but first he's going to hit up "all the Upper East Side restaurants." He couldn't get into Jean-George's favorite Sushi Seki, so he went to Maya (which "has long been one of the best Mexican restaurants in the city.") And yet it made McInerney's tummy hurt. (House and Garden)
• It's (almost) official: The Whitney is ditching Renzo Piano's Madison Avenue expansion plans for the hipster High Line. "Hope springs eternal," says the Upper East Side. (NY Times)
• Boston Baseball Real Estate: The Yankees' Johnny Damon sold his old Red Sox house for over $5 million, but the Mets' Pedro Martinez has been forced to cut his Brookline house down to $1.895. (And poor old Nomar Garciaparra can't unload his Boston waterfront condo.) (WSJ)
• The mysterious Public Authorities Control Board controls New York, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Secrecy is so in right now. (City Limits)
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• A Google founder is headed to a $30 million apartment at 15 Central Park West. Sadly, New York isn't sure if it's Larry Page or Sergey Brin. Plus, Arnold Rothstein's Franconia is selling its roof. (New York Magazine)
• Eliot Spitzer happens to have a dad who's built up $500 million-worth of real estate. (That's half a billion dollars.) Among his jewels are 1050 and 800 Fifth Avenue, the Corinthian on East 38th, and the curvy 200 Central Park South--which Eliot once owned a part of. (NY Daily News)
• The duplex penthouse at 823 Park sold for $30 million, which is a record for the modest little avenue. Tragically, the apartment and its rooftop garden will belong to a hedge fund kid, who had been "prowling the market for trophy properties." (NY Times)
• In Crain's this week: wonderful Tower Records is gone, which means West 66th and East 4th will soon be much less cooler. Also, Duane Reade "gets kinky" by hawking a high-end line of erotic goods. (Crain's premium)
• Last week Forbes reported that hip-shaker Shakira and Pink Floyd's elderly frontman Roger Waters are buying (and developing) a 700-acre island in the Bahamas. It takes time for news like that to really sink in. (Forbes)
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• Ages ago Greenpoint was diagnosed with Condoitis, the irreversible condition in which old Brooklyn warehouses are sold to residential developers until there's no neighborhood left. Thankfully, the city is now offering "counseling" to industrial companies who have suffered from the illness--especially in hotspots like Greenpoint or Williamsburg or Sunset Park or Red Hook. (NY Daily News)
• A little more on the Freedom Tower fun: Columbia's Elliott Sclar points out "the absurdity of using taxpayer money to bail this thing out one more time." What does he mean? Government agencies were the primary tenants when the World Trade Center opened in the 1970s--which helped cause the citywide real estate depression. But of course that would never ever happen again. (NY Times)
• The next historic district created by the Landmark Preservation Commission will probably be a 471-house chunk in northern Crown Heights. It's not only the commission's biggest move in a decade, but it's also a big step away from the old landmarks of old-money Manhattan. Yet the Brooklyn neighborhood has mixed feelings--because the designation has been many years in the making, and because residents fear a loss of independence over renovations and construction. (NY1)
• Yesterday marked another loss for rich people who believe there shouldn't be waste transfer stations in rich neighborhoods. Horror! A State Supreme Court justice will allow construction at the East River and 91st Street, which will help minimize the amount of garbage trucks barreling to outer boroughs (and to already-trashy Jersey). (NY Times)
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• The big news is that the Freedom Tower (far, faraway from completion) has a tenant for nearly half its space--1 million out of 2,600,000 square feet. That tenant is our kindly Big Bro--federal and state agencies like the NY Governor's Office. The even bigger news is that this probably has more to do with "symbolism and politics" than the long-term welfare of WTC real estate. (New York Times)
• Who has helped transform a "dowdy" section of Fifth Avenue into a soon-to-be wonderland of fashionable exclusivity? Diddy, aka Puff Daddy, aka Sean Combs, of course. His burgeoning Sean Jean retailer has upped the status of 500 Fifth--a building that is now forcing out its less trendy retail tenants in order to serve its growing upscale clientele. (Crain's premium)
• This week, The Post's omniscient Dear John column delves into everything you've ever wanted to know about real estate investment. The real lesson: "When the consensus is that real estate will never be a good investment again, that's when it probably will be a good investment." Invest away! (NY Post)
• Chinatown has had some hard-luck years since 9/11-- but luxury condominiums are coming to the rescue. Among the new crop is Hester Gardens (at Hester and Mott), and seven more posh developments are on the way. Penthouses have been going from $1.5-3 million, attracting even (take a breath) non-Chinese buyers. "This is either a renaissance," says a local museum director, "or gentrification to the hilt." (New York Times)
• A teenager named Ben Passikoff had the genuinely brilliant idea to photograph the city's "ghost signs" (those ancient facade advertisements for "steam power, garters [and] taxidermy.") His book--the kid has a book--captures the happy, bygone days before LCD billboards and those illegally mammoth scaffolding ads. (NY Daily News)
- Max Abelson  read more »
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• Okay, everyone, pronounce this with us: Biophilic design. It's the very latest trend in Upper West Side apartments, according to the trustworthy Times. Of course, it involves using "real or simulated natural elements" in the home to "promote well-being." What's the relation to green design? "It is a quirky, lesser-known cousin... concerned more with speaking to our emotions." And that'll cost you $50,000. (The New York Times)
• The New York Liquor Authority is making it even harder for you to drink your pains away with sweet joy-juice: There's a moratorium ("effective immediately"!) that prevents a bar from opening on a block with three there already. Actually, that doesn't sound so bad. Nevertheless: "We are flabbergasted," screams the NY Nightlife Authority. (Crain's)
• Today's Post real estate cover-story warns that folks building a house should "EXPECT SOME BATTLES WITH CONTRACTORS AND NEIGHBORS." We're glad to know. But much bigger news is that The Catskills are featured above the Hamptons in the homebuilding run-down, which surely means a Catskills cover-story is around the corner. Also: Corcoran's Joanne and Jonathan Douglas are the best couple in the state. (NY Post)
• Wouldn't it be nice if the working class tenants of Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village could avoid a horrifying $5 billion takeover by putting together a homegrown buy-out? Mr. Jonathan Miller says: "I've never heard of one of this magnitude." But, speaking of magnitude, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Senator Schumer are all for it. (NY Daily News)
- Max Abelson
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• Why should Brooklyn get all the gargantuan $1 billion developments? The City Council has approved plans for Long Island City's Silvercup Studios. The name says it all: 2.7 million square feet of television and film fun, 665,000 square feet for commercial space, plus 1,000 units of housing. And a roof terrace for the grateful Queens public. (Crain's)
• Cute little Ann Curry is being sued by her neighbors on West 71st--though technically she hasn't even moved to the block yet. It usually takes us years to alienate those in our immediate proximity, though to be fair we've rarely done home construction which forces out 25-year tenants nearby. (Also we usually move into our $2.9 million townhouses in less than 32 months.) (NY Daily News)
• Why the enormous photograph of Paris Hilton in a Post commercial real estate column? Because a non-profit named after Ms. Hilton's ex-boyfriend's grandfather has bought the 22nd floor at 645 Madison. Equally bewildering: the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation paid $105 per foot. (NY Post)
• Frank Bruni gets nostalgic for the simpler times, when Dad--or any gentleman--could provide guests a price-free menu when hosting at a restaurant. "Giving her a menu that didn't show how much the lobster cost was considered a laudable act of chivalry," Mr. Bruni explains. A hex on "women's liberation"! A hex on The Four Seasons and its liberal sensibilities! (NY Times)
• The riveting milkshake saga continues: The Friends of Dag Hammarskjold Park have failed (at least for now) in their effort to stop a milkshake vendor from setting up shop in the pretty D.H. Plaza. Those shakes are so tasty, yet so controversial. (NY Sun)
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• Nothing says 'new Financial District condo!' like chic concierge service. The developers of South Star at 80 John Street are luring buyers with amenities from the Gansevoort Hotel (which, of course, the developers also did). Shouldn't private terraces, a "rock-climbing-wall machine" and in-house acupuncture treatment be big enough condo bait? No. (NY Times)
• Who knew New York magazine would be interested in the identity crises of Park Slope mothers searching for a nice night out? This week's profile of "adult space" hits up the Slope's Tea Lounge and Prospect Heights' Amorina, plus Cafe La Fortuna and Bottino in Manhattan. (But can we trust a writer who boasts: "I have eaten tuna tartare with my kid"?) (New York Magazine)
• It's hard to find a bargain in the Lower East Side these days, which surely means the neighborhood is dead. Where is Foreman's? Blame the 'hip Village-type crowd' that likes staying out late. Or blame the phrase 'LoHo.' Or blame the $200-sf rents. (NY Daily News)
• But who should be blamed for the theater district zoning deal that allows theater owners to trade around air rights (thereby building higher than they should)? The City. Who should be blamed for preventing all the extra money from going to state education? Stephen Sondheim and Tony Randall. (New York Times)
• Apparently 34th Street is "the next 'It' neighborhood." And apparently it is entirely rational that tourists and businessmen crave a second Times Square. (Crain's premium)
• DUMBO's waterfront Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park will be open past dark, which means the neighborhood might finally become hip. No matter how bright its lights are, they won't match up to 2012's super-mega Brooklyn Bridge Park. (NY Daily News)
- Max Abelson  read more »
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It was announced this morning that Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's 20-year-old granddaughter has been found. She did not show up for work on Thursday or Friday.

The media described her as 5'10" and 110 pounds; The New York Daily News, for one, described her as "trim" on July 31st, and as "willowy" on August 1st.  read more »

Apparently, the young lady realized she was missing, and discovered herself at the intersection of anorexia and substance abuse. (In New York City, of course, having traveled here with a fellow named "John Savage.") Shortly thereafter she phoned home. The Senate press office memo, in which Mr. Bruno blames the Internet and those on it who "prey on the vulnerable" for his granddaughter's troubles, follows.

• All-star slugger Bobby Abreu didn't get that $3.9 million apartment at One Beacon Court for nothing. This weekend the Yankees managed to acquire Mr. Abreu from Philadelphia, which finally makes him teammate to Beacon-mate Johnny Damon. Those two will surely be the talk of East 58th. (NY Daily News)
• Governor Pataki has further infuriated the Upper East Side: last week, The Other White George signed a bill into law that will publicize the sales prices of New York co-op apartments for the first time in history. (At long last, has he no shame?) In equally sad news: Louise "The Icon" Sunshine is officially gone from the Sunshine Group. (New York Times)
• How does the city lure prude developers into constructing 24 million square feet of office space at the Hudson Yards? By offering to pay lots of their taxes for nearly two decades. How romantic. (Crain's)
• McCarren Park may house wonderful hipster pool parties (everyone likes 5,000 kids in striped shirts!), but it's also home to four enormous new condo projects. The Times happily announces: 'Welcome to Luxury Condoville.' (New York Times)
• The Second Avenue Deli, which has been closed since the New Year on account of "a rent dispute," will be replaced by a Chase Bank branch. But as everyone knows, one simply cannot get a killer pastrami-on-rye at Chase. Is this some sort of Jewish conspiracy? (NY1)
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• Forget Lebanon. The really significant battles are being fought in "an all out war for the soul" of Brooklyn. Time Out New York generously breaks the violence down by battleground: Prospect Heights, Williamsburg, Gowanus, Red Hook, and four more. Better yet: a guide to the bloggy Brooklyn blogs. (TONY premium)
• Canarsie, on the other hand, is a peaceful "suburban oasis" at the end of the L line. (Though a local official mourns: "there's been a population explosion"). (NY Daily News)
• The Port Authority board approves $2 billion for a "massive" train tunnel beneath the Hudson. ($2 billion down, $4 billion to go.) Authority chairman Anthony Coscia calls the project "our generation's George Washington Bridge," referring to the A/X Generation of badly tanned, oily haired rascals who still listen to Z100 and hit up The Shore for Spring Break. (AP via Crain's)
• The Department of Homeland Security looks out for New York, and so its tearing down the Intrepid's Peir 86, wasting $31 million on building "a staging area for federal authorities [to use] in the event of another terrorist attack." For surveillance? A military armory? A "hidden room"? Maybe. (Newsday)
• The top-secret $16 million renovation of Washington Square Park has been halted--because the city "didn't adequately inform the public" about it. The Parks Department argues that it's been seeking out Greenwich Village's input for two years, which explains those plans to move the park fountain 20 feet, and to add a "45-foot water spray." (NY1)
• Who knew Jordache Jeans could buy you a full floor on Park Avenue? It helps if that floor was once owned by Cem Uzane (a businessman who happened to default on some multibillion-dollar loans) and then sold on-the-cheap by Uncle Sam. (NY Post)
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• Don't look now, but it's another New York magazine feature on kids and parents. This week, we learn about the irresistible lure of child-centric co-op marketing: at 10 West End Avenue, there's a version of the Children's Museum 's Playworks exhibit; at 170 East End Avenue, Peter Marino has designing 6,000-plus square feet of "amenities... for kids up to age 16"; you can find "nanny concierge" at Brooklyn's Court Street Lofts. (Goodbye, Brooklyn, we hardly knew thee.) (New York)
• So far this year, five companies have leased 100,000-square-foot spaces. Before November, nine others "are expected to sign leases of the same size." That somehow leaves only five midtown spaces of 100,000 square feet--and only six above 200,000 in the entire city. Where's Philip Johnson when you need him? (Crain's)
• But can big offices be defended? Empire State Building guards are trying to organize--their enemies have hired Howard Rubenstein, while the poor guards are being defended in the press by a Rabbi named Michael Feinberg. Does this mean we can't make out up there anymore? (City Limits)
• Hookers! Fires! Lawsuits! Warped staircases! Falling ceilings! Apartment (and hotel) owner Moses Fried increasingly looks like he deserved a place atop that lousy landlord list. But: "he's not a bad guy." (NY Daily News)
• Daily excuse to memorialize Dylan Thomas' heroic consumption of whiskey: The Hotel Chelsea's very own Capitol Fishing Trade, "the only bait and tackle shop in Manhattan," is moving to West 36th Street. Maybe the Garment District is really heating up after all? (New York Times)
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• Because Laquila "patriarch" Dino Tomassetti is under indictment for corruption, the 79-year-old isn't allowed to set foot on Ground Zero. But that doesn't mean his son's trucks shouldn't deliver the Freedom Tower's concrete foundation; or that his daughter's steel rods shouldn't be used in its walls; or that youngest son Dino Jr.--Dino Sr.'s chauffeur--shouldn't get "tens of millions of dollars" for the tower's excavation work. At least Larry Silverstein doesn't think so. (New York Times)
• To call today's Daily News' "L Train Love" story an astoundingly innocuous Brooklyn puff piece is unfair to puff pieces. Or maybe you hadn't noticed that the borough has recently attracted "immigrants, hipsters and young families"? Mort? News to you? (NY Daily News)
• Making-up over-flattering over-generalizations about New York neighborhoods--for example: "The Garment District is the new Soho"--is the new making-up cynical over-generalizations about New York neighborhoods. (Globe St., via The Real Deal)
• Halstead informs us that June 2006 was a good June as far as Junes go, but it was certainly no June 2005. Last month, a strong summer demand for co-ops--and a mysterious drop in inventory--helped the average Manhattan apartment price increase. However, we're still a big 2 percent below last year's record. (Crain's)
• How does big ol' Sierra Club feel about private housing near Brooklyn Bridge Park? "We strongly object," says city chair Tim Logan. Them be fightin' words--almost as vicious as the New York comptroller's. (New York Times)
- Max Abelson  read more »
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• Toy real estate news is the very best kind: By the end of this month, the Toy Industry Association will likely lease at least 250,000 square feet at 636 Eleventh Ave. The group has needed new HQ since The International Toy Center at Fifth and West 23rd was sold two years ago. (Sadly that building will morph from globe-spanning hilarity to mere luxury condos.) (Crain's)
• For the first time in decades, the 121,000 workers of New York City's biggest union--District Council 37--have been set free to live outside of city limits. In retrospect, it does seem a bit cruel for NYC to have paid its workers $31,000 whilst forcing them to submit to the whims of its haute housing market. (AP via NY Daily News)
• Why does Roseanna Colletti's Best Buys In the Burroughs series ever have to end? In installment four, Ms. Colletti bravely treks to Staten Island--"one of the fastest growing counties in New York State." She reports that house prices in relatively ritzy 'hoods like Great Kills run for less than $400,000. Luckily, those residents live in a place awesomely named Great Kills, though unluckily they also live on Staten Island. (NBC)
• Everyone loves a good Money list, except when New York clocks in as only the tenth-best big city. (Apparently Columbus and Omaha are still quite beloved.) More devastatingly, Manhattan doesn't make it to the priciest, safest, best educated, youngest, or--for shame!--"most singles" lists. (CNN Money)
• CNN would also like to inform us that homes from Housing and Urban Development can actually be "a real bargain." And here we had been informed that HUD was a perpetual nightmare--follow that link for the creepiest comment of the week. (CNN Money)
• The city finds that the majority of its "homeless clusters"--73 in all--are located in Manhattan. Bloomberg promises to "humanely, respectfully and firmly" break up the their 3,800 tenants, so that they can join the nearly 32,000 New Yorkers in city shelters. And afterwards? "The city is working to build 12,000 units of supportive housing over the next few years." Problem solved! Praise be the New Math. (AP via NY Daily News)
- Max Abelson
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• Where did the $21.4 billion for New York's post-9/11 aid go? For starters, $635,000 marked for helping "small businesses directly impacted by the terror attacks" wound up with a frozen custard business in Texas. And then there's lucky young Gregg Brown, who was paid $300,000 to take photos of the city: he was allowed to keep the copyrights, using the material in a "documentary that juxtaposed topless women talking about their breasts with images of the smoldering twin tower ruins." Ever the gentleman, regional FEMA head Joe Picciano says: "Admittedly, we probably should have had constraints... The attempt was good. We made a mistake." (NY Daily News)
• Is the government always so cutely negligent? The NYC Housing Authority has allowed 2,100 apartments to stay vacant for around three years--while 140,000 local families waited for homes. $4 million in rent would have been collected by the NYCHA "if it had cut the average [apartment vacancy time] by just 20 percent," which would have helped dent its $168 million deficit. (Instead, the Housing Authority has proposed its biggest rent hike in nearly two decades). (New York Times)
• More comfortingly: The final beam of the New York Times Building ("50% leased"!) was hoisted onto the top of Renzo Piano's 52-story steel frame. The beam was autographed by Forest City Ratner and NYT executives, which means it is indeed the luckiest little beam in all the land. (Globe St.)
• New York's perfect new hotel feature covers all the bases: the "West Coast dealmaker friend who needs a killer lobby," the "23-year-old cousin and her best friend who came to party," and the "extremely cool newlywed friends." But most importantly: "the midwestern relatives who want to be in tourist central." (New York)
• That lovable Hilton family is at it again. Their Waldorf Astoria and NY Hilton are still fighting the hotel workers union over problems like "back pay and worker safety issues involving asbestos." Contract talks were due to expire tonight, though they have been extended yet again. When will the workers learn? You can't beat the Hiltons. (Crain's)
• If The Sun says Clinton Hill is "soaring," then the neighborhood must already be dead. Seriously, though: kudos to the paper for going out on its white-man limb and sourcing a "hip, young African-American." (Sun)
- Max Abelson
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• "Politicians and developers have been hungry to get their hands on [this] sad stretch of land," the AP reports about our West Side rail yards, and ain't it the truth. Indeed, after a full year of wound-licking over the Olympics/Jets stadium failure, Bloomberg has teamed with Council Speaker Christine "vocal opponent" Quinn to propose a half-billion dollar plan for rail yard development. Why Quinn has dropped her opposition probably has something to with all that "hunger"--or maybe it's because a West Side stadium is "not among" the cards. (AP via NY Daily News)
• Day 13,794 (or is it day 5?) of the city-wide construction strike: the words "backhoe operators" and "indispensable" are strung together for the first time in recent memory, while Governor Pataki constructively offers: "I think the strike is totally wrong." But forget the enormous setback the strike is costing Ground Zero--more tragically, Forest City Ratner has been forced to postpone its "topping out" ceremony at the new New York Times building. (Newsday)
• But Michael Brick over at the Times won't let that get him down. He stays jovial enough to compare the alcoholic homeless immigrant accused of starting the city's biggest fire since 9/11 to "Otis, the affable town drunk from 'The Andy Griffith Show.'" Unlike Otis, this defendant does not speak fluent English, and his inability to name a home address forced the State Supreme Court to set his bail at $250,000. Hilarious. (New York Times)
• It's never too late to re-rethink your balcony, especially when Curbed helps you break down the "plush outdoor space" that's available for less than $1 million. Finally, the "prestige" and "big wow" of the Manhattan terrace can be yours. (Curbed)
• The Sun heaps lavish praise upon Lower Manhattan, declaring it "the third-largest business district in the country - and the city's fastest-growing residential community." Who can guess which district/community houses the Sun HQ? (The Sun)
- Max Abelson
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• In the course of Nicolai Ouroussoff's recap of the Ground Zero memorial fisasco he politely suggests that architect Michael Arad "could consider stepping aside," and less politely declares: "Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg got it exactly wrong." (The New York Times)
• And yesterday's Daily News reported that a federally banned construction company is working (for millions of dollars) at Ground Zero. And the guys have lots of explosives. If even a turncoat nicknamed Mikey Scars says that a group is mobbed up, shouldn't Larry Silverstein listen? His spokesman doesn't seem to think so.(New York Daily News)
• NYC's share of middle-income families is smaller than any other American city's (except, of course, LA), and our middle-income neighborhoods are "vanishing." The culprits are gentrification (even in "more marginal" areas) and the "bunching of high-income families in more homogenous surroundings." Brave rich people always stick together. (The New York Times)
• Might another culprit be the growing slice of residents' gross income that rents demand? The local numbers are passing the disturbing "maximum threshold," which means three out of ten dollars earned by New Yorkers go to the landlord. (The Real Deal)
- Max Abelson
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• The Times waxes nostalgic for the era of Manhattan millionaire neighborhoods, declaring that Midtown today "has only one real strip of mansions." But there's hope: if you've got the dough for "museum quality" offices--and if you ask very nicely--Zimmer Lucas Partners might allow you to check out Philip Lehman's newly-renovated palace at 7 West 54th Street. (The New York Times)
• Quadriad Reality clashes with savvy Brooklyn locals over Quadriad's plan for 28 big new residential towers in North Williamsburg. Residents point out that 20,000 housing units are already slated for the local waterfront--Quadriad manager Henry Wollman retorts: "The only way to build everything... is to build higher." (New York Post)
• Bloomberg says that flying is the "wave of the future," and he makes a case for local seaplanes. ("Wave"--get it?--Mr. Mayor made a joke.) Water is so the new land. (AP, via NY Daily News)
• Everything you've ever wanted to know about your Central Park West apartment options, but were afraid to ask: if you can bear the sight of "bank-counter marble" and "tacky high-gloss wood," you can go as low as $300,000. (Or, alternatively, leaving the Park for Inwood can you save some money. (New York Magazine)
• Protest works. Dermot's Andrew MacArthur--Magic Johnson's development partner for the Williamsburg Savings Bank condo project--says that his group is considering the construction of affordable housing next-door to One Hanson Place. Nothing's a certainty, except that any affordable homes will not come furnished with either "Brazilian teak flooring" or "lava stone counters." (New York Daily News)
- Max Abelson
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• NYU researchers find that the affordable housing available for New York's moderate-income households has taken a nose-dive. The Times refuses to decide "whether the rising housing costs are seen as a sign of the city's economic vitality or a harbinger of trouble." We only wish to return to that happy $1,000 era. (The New York Times)
• No, seriously, everything's fine: the city's May economic performance was "stellar," beating up on the unemployment rate until it sunk to an 18-year low. 6,100 new jobs were born, and the number of employed city residents grew by 29,000--which means 7% of the country's job growth happened right here in the Apple. (If only the workers had a place to live.) (Crain's)
• The old Municipal Art Society calls for big changes to the Atlantic Yards plan. Convincingly, they point out that Forest City Ratner's 8.7 million square feet of proposed development is the size of three Empire State Buildings (or 2200 brownstones). We attended the very long, very hot basement press conference, and would like to ask the MAS that they please vocalize their obvious answer to their own question (i.e. Can the development "work for Brooklyn?") a little earlier next time. (The New York Times)
• Despite his upstate alibi, the homeless man arrested last week in connection to Brooklyn's 10-alarm fire is indicted. (AP, via New York Daily News)
• REBNY gives an award to the cubic Apple store under the GM building, calling it the city's most creative retail deal. Thankfully the East 14th Trader Joe's gets a prize for benefiting Manhattan (and its unquenchable appetite for expensively flavored seltzers), while the new Cobble Hill/Park Slope Whole Foods is dubbed the most creative real estate deal in the outer boroughs. (New York Post)
• The Daily News gives some serious coverage to a tree house--a Williamsberg tree house going for $150 per month. Brooklyn has died and gone to Hell. (New York Daily News)
- Max Abelson
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• The polish immigrant who confessed to triggering the city's biggest fire since 9/11--the blaze that consumed historic Brooklyn waterfront warehouses--may be an innocent man. "It would have been impossible for him to have started that fire," swears his boss, upstate in scenic Pond Eddy. "Because he was here, working for me." (New York Daily News)
• Real estate tycoon Shaya Boymelgreen and longtime business partner Lev Leviev have gone their separate ways. Boymelgreen is leaving one Israeli millionaire (Leviev) for another (Nochi Dankner), and will turn his attention from Brooklyn developments--condos in Park Slope, Beacon Tower in Dumbo-- toward the riches of India. (Globes, via Curbed)
• On September 10, we'll all open our Times and find something that may be "extraordinarily hot"--brand new Key, a biannual high-end real estate rag. Crain's graciously calls it "yet another special interest supplement." (But we knew about it first). (Crain's)
• "Multiple sources" say big red Rothko, a Lower East Side indie rock mecca, has closed its doors forever. RIP. (Brooklyn Vegan)
• The Port Authority chairman gives "his most explicit warning to date," and things over at the Freedom Tower aren't looking so sunny. "I think there's every reason to be optimistic," Deputy Mayor Doctoroff chirps. We disagree. Meanwhile, Senator Schumer constructively adds: "We have a plan to move forward. What we don't have is explicit certainty..." (The New York Times)
- Max Abelson
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• Frank Gehry, the popstar behind Tiffany jewelry and Bruce Ratner skyscrapers, gets his $4.6 million contract for the WTC arts center extended for yet another year. Sadly Mr. Gehry will face the annoyance of dealing with the Port Authority, whose executive director promises: "If there's an obstacle, that's not the obstacle." (AP, via New York Daily News)
• Heiress Anna Anisimova pays a slick $600,000 for her Hamptons summer rental, smashing her record-breaking $550,000 tab from 2004. (Congratulations, Anna.) Lucky for us all it's an "open house" - you can already find 50 guests at the tiki bar, the sunken tennis court, or at one of 8 plasma TVs. (New York Post)
• A house in Red Hook may (or may not) have sold for a million. Curbed blames Fairway, we blame Time Out. (Curbed)
• Guess who insists that Manhattan real estate is looking perfectly rosy? The Real Estate Board of New York, of course. Despite the Board's comforting new numbers -- like the 22% jump (to $838,000) for the median condo sale -- some cold-hearted analysts insist the market is "flat." (Crain's)
• Stock traders are the luckiest: The state's Job Creation and Retention Program forks nearly a million dollars over to Wall Street's LaBranche & Co., so that they'll stay put at 33 Whitehall Street. If only poor Anna could get the same deal in the Hamptons. (The New York Times)
• A very big, very old, and very valuable hole in the ground (fortunately situated at 42nd and Eighth) may be changing hands. The hole's owner, Howard Milstein, has apparently been "looking forward to coming out of the ground." Meanwhile his retail leasing agent Robert Futterman wonders: "what's in Howard's mind when he wakes up in the morning?" (New York Post)
- Max Abelson  read more »
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• In exchange for teaching math, science or special education in city schools, teachers will receive housing subsidies for up to $14,600. They can live anywhere they want, but have to commit three years. (The New York Times)
• The Garden State, also known as the Armpit of America, is rehabilitating Great Falls State Park, "a 7-acre, post-industrial eyesore that surrounds a natural wonder." (The Architect's Newspaper)
• New York State is losing more residents than any other state in the country, so why can't we find a seat on the subway? (The New York Sun)
• Karim Rashid's Design Your Self comes out next month with insightful design tips: "Sex is a completely different experience on a couch or on a rocking chair." (The Architect's Newspaper)
• The McMansion crackdown has begun. (MSN)
• And, fewer homes are being built, indicating a "cool down" (?) of the residential market. (Bloomberg)
• The city of Chicago seems to value freedom more than New York. They even built a museum for it. "Our intention is to avert apathy, and educate students and adults as they come through the museum, so that we can reverse what we see as an unfortunate trend." Meanwhile our own Freedom Museum languishes. (Lynn Becker)
• "Boring Al Gore" captivates by telling the world that "Earth is going to hell in a handbasket." Oh, and New York will drown. (The Washington Post)
• Another Coyote hits up the big city, but this time it's in the Bronx. (New York Post)
• A landlord-broker becomes an inmate, and the world sleeps at night. (Metro)
• A gallery exhibit that features photographs of constructions sites. Is the art the photo or the subject? (Candace Dwan Gallery)
• It comes down to this: the city is making money off Brooklyn's new residential popularity. How about some reliable subway service, eh? (New York Daily News)
• Fine, you messed up your taxes. Next year, don't forget to include these real estate tax breaks. (Forbes)

- Riva Froymovich

• Brown Harris Stevens pushes a new neighborhood in the New York Post: Greenwood Heights. Uh, isn't that Sunset Park?
• The cops are allowed to openly tape public events, like protests. "Political events are the ideal venue for terrorists, whether it's to kill people, monitor civilians, or even study police tactics." What's the difference from the thousands of hidden cameras they have all over the city? (The Village Voice)
• Now, people get arrested for chalking public space. You hear that? No more hop scotch! (Gothamist)
• The New York Times coins another neighborhood name and Upper West Siders revolt. Oh wait, Yorktowners... (via Curbed)
• Sheepshead Bay was named after a fish! (Forgotten NY)
• The East Side of Midtown is the last frontier of development ... in Midtown. (New York Daily News)
• New Yorkers are now buying their Florida condos in the Northeast suburbs. (The New York Times)
• Nina Lalli reports: "Staten Island—from the Godfather mansions to the Wu Tang Clan shout outs—is New York's randomest borough by a long shot." She learns about horny, riotous students on the NYC public bus system and the subsequent need for a car. Sounds about right. (The Village Voice)
• The National Association of Realtors has ruled that secrets are no fun. Now, realtors can gossip your bidding price to everyone. (Los Angeles Times)
• Can a Park Slope hotel be successful? Maybe if there's a stadium nearby. (New York Daily News)
• Will there be lines for $3 wine too? The wrath of Trader Joe's continues. (Gothamist)

- Riva Froymovich  read more »

• Again, the city's high dirt levels were recently documented by the EPA. Now, to compound our current state, New York may face a garbage strike. (The Village Voice)
• "The number of American households with a net worth of $1 million or more, excluding their principal residence, grew to a record 8.9 million last year," The New York Times reports. Furthermore, most are concentrated in just 13 counties--New York just makes it in.
• Super star chefs pressure hungry patrons to order the cook's favorites, rather than the customers'. (The New York Times)
• Wealthy neighborhoods with new luxury housing equals overcrowded public schools. (The New York Sun)
• A 48-acre estate and its 22,000-square-foot main house with elevator may sell at a record price for Long Island--$60 million. (New York Daily News)
• The president of the National Association of Realtors wants to kick Barbara Corcoran's ass after she bad-mouthed real estate brokers on Good Morning America. (Curbed)
• Apparently, if you're pro-choice, you can't be a fan of "...Baby One More Time." C'est La Vie. (The New York Sun)
• The MTA has hired Thacher Associates as an "integrity monitor" to prevent corruption in major construction sites. (New York Post)
• The target for the federal funds rate affects how much consumers pay on loans. After yesterday, Ben Bernanke's first meeting, it is the highest it has been in five years. (CNN)
• Neighborhood Homes helps nonprofit developers renovate neglected properties and sell them to low-income families, who receive assistance for the deal. (The Village Voice)
• More bars and more free food. What else is left to say? (The Village Voice)

- Riva Froymovich

• ABC finds architects sexy, and is looking to cast a builder/designer for the next Bachelor. (New York Daily News)
• Autonomedia, a nonprofit company that publishes criticism by authors like Dwight MacDonald, Guy Debord and Michel Foucault, may be pushed out of its Williamsburg home and fights in the courts. (The New York Times)
• Because John Gotti's property is mortgaged to the mob, he cannot sell it to pay his legal fees. (New York Daily News)
• Hoboken, so close yet so far, becomes a destination with a W Hotel. (Curbed)
• The Industrial Development Agency doesn't play New York team favorites. The agency awarded both the Yankees and Mets money for their respective stadiums. (Crain's)
• Texas chef Tim Love is opening a second location of his Fort Worth restaurant, Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, at 29 W. 21st St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues. (New York Business)
• After reports of an empty Empire State Building, a new general manager has been named. (The Real Deal)
• Misshaped house, poison signs and gated fence are all yours for 3 percent down. (Brownstoner)
• "Slabs of beef, tall mounds of carbohydrates, stiff drinks and an atavistically musky atmosphere." Sounds like another P.J. Clarke's. (The New York Times)
• $140 a week for an SRO would drive us crazy too. (The New York Times)
• Taxpayers will likely receive their $400 property tax rebates just before this year's elections. (New York Post)
• Those Dubai Ports World naysayers didn't understand the vastness of the New York Harbor. (Gotham Gazette)
• "Carmela Soprano" has penned a cook and hosting book well-suited forBrooklynites, according to GO Brooklyn.
• In the chill of an indecisive season, find a comforting soup in the neighborhood. (The Village Voice)
• Da da da--it's not just a car commercial--and Spanish architectures modernize the world. (Slate)

- Riva Froymovich

• The Starchitect's selling power is short lived. (The Real Deal)
• The Empire State Building has a staggering 18% vacancy rate. Actually, is that really new? (New York Daily News)
• Apartment Therapy is turned on by bathroom fixtures.
• The swank Blue Moon Hotel, once a très chic tenement, has reopened. (New Yorkology)
• Halstead says that Manhattan's apartment prices are cheaper, not cheap. (The Real Deal)
• With talk of developing retail space in the Brooklyn House of Detention, officials discuss creating space for more inmates. Logical. (New York Daily News)
• Tall Tales of the City: The Anchor That Hit Park Slope (The New York Times)
• Dylan's Candy Bar has a rodent problem. (Page Six)
• Big-box business Wal-Mart, as an inspiration for urban planning. (the box tank)
• The smart shopper, the online shopper, buys in a more transparent real-estate market. (Inman News)
• Fixing up the apartment by New York.

- Riva Froymovich

• Corcoran, hipsters, artists and the well-planned hyper-gentrification of Bushwick. (NYT mag)
• Agents, developers and their ilk admired for their own original details and square footage. (The New York Times)
• The new real estate year offers more inventory, more time, and more broker attention. (The New York Times)
• The new mortgages have created "home-hopers" out of "home owners." Apparently we're "living in a bond with bathrooms, a stock certificate with a front porch." (The New York Times)
• Out-priced city residents have become out-priced suburbians who choose the exurbs. (The New York Times)
• Real estate agents work an insignificant amount of hours for their sales commission, but fail to hit bank because there are just too many hustlers working the beat. (The New York Times)
• For Patrick Quinn, there's no shame in trying to be the Donald Trump of New Orleans after, you know, the whole hurricane thing . (The New York Times)
• The no-plastic, ecologically friendly house. Will it push "better products" on the market? Unlikely. (The New York Times)
• When Edward Glaeser sees conservation land, he craves apartments on it. He says: The housing crisis is man-made—and rental control is "bad ,bad, bad." (The New York Times)
And in non-Times news:
• Get your foodie half-kicks for cheap from Cookshop's snack menu. (The Village Voice)
• Shecky's, known for nightlife guides and happy hour parties, has opened its own clothing store. (The Village Voice)
• Residents resign, sort of, to the "ugly monstrosity" going up in the Lower East Side--The Pencil. (The Villager)
• C.B.G.B. to head to Vegas. (The Villager)
• New York's greatest dumpling men. (New York Daily News)
• Eminent domain, which has allowed Atlantic Yards and Columbia University development, will result in revolt. (New York Daily News)
• Even if it is ephemeral, we're searching for that fantasy island, where "poetry and bicycle riding are exalted pastimes." (Metropolis)
• A new building on Park Avenue. (New York)

—Riva Froymovich

• A number of cities are suffering from an increase in foreclosures on houses among minorities and the poor. (The New York Times)
• Steve Cuozzo tell us to stop torturing ourselves trying to scrounge a cool invitation, and just go to guzzling meathouse Churrascaria Plataforma. (New York Post)
• Herald Square Development bought seven properties at once on a single block for $117.5 million, and may build up to 335,000 square feet of space, including 247,000 square feet of residential space. (Crain's)
• The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to demolish the 1936 Purchase Building underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. (Brownstoner)
• A young boy helps his mother write a book about a 32-room Scottish mansion, and tiny wisdoms emerge: "In my experience, cleaning ladies don't do much. It's a case of tokenism, I'm afraid." (The New York Times)
• Thomas Jefferson--intellectual, founding father and anti-urbanist, led this country to become the sprawling suburb it is. Ah, lawns. (Planetizen via Matrix)
• Two new streets: Peter Jennings Way on West 66th Street passed and Bob Marley Avenue passes onto the next hurdle. (Gothamist)
• Big chains take over Midtown's Fifth Avenue from no-name tourist shops. (The New York Time