Hotel Gansevoort
The Round-Up: Friday
- 'I work at analyzing rat issues.' [NY Times]
- Realogy's chief ethics officer leaves over ethics lapse. [NY Post]
- Oh.My.God. New Bowery Whole Foods opens. [NY Post]
- Tenant-landlord dispute over Brooklyn Public Library site. [Daily News]
- More on Hotel Gansevoort billboards brouhaha. [Villager]
Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.
Gansevoort Billboards A Matter of Degrees
The Real Estate last week got a happy email from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. The email said the city had responded to complaints about the billboards by requiring the hotel to make adjustments to the billboards or to take them down. The city's angle measurements, according to society executive director Andrew Berman, were probably done last week.
On Wednesday, The Real Estate got a two-sentence statement from a representative of Michael and William Achenbaum, the brothers who own the Hotel Gansevoort. The statement was attributed to Michael:
There has been no violation issued against the hotel or sign. The sign is currently being installed in a matter that is legal-the city is aware of this and has approved it.
So, with the angle of the billboards being adjusted, perhaps the dispute has been resolved. Or has it?
"Signs like this belong in Las Vegas," Mr. Berman said on Wednesday, slicing to the heart of the billboards dispute.
Developing...
- Tom AcitelliHotel Gansevoort Billboards, R.I.P.?
The Real Estate got a triumphant email on Friday afternoon from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has opposed the billboards:
"We have just received news that the City has ruled that the controversial 8-story high billboards at the Hotel Gansevoort in the Meatpacking District are in violation of zoning rules."
The boards' fate now seems to hang with hotel owner Michael Achenbaum:
The owner of the Hotel Gansevoort can now take down the signs, as we and many area business and community leaders have been calling for, or he can try to correct them and keep them up. Because the owner has said publicly that putting up the billboards were a mistake he would change if he could, now is his chance to do so.
The Real Estate has a call out to speak to Mr. Achenbaum.
UPDATE: A rep for Mr. Achenbaum emailed this statement on Friday afternoon:"The hotel has not received any notice of a violation from the DOB. The address mentioned in [the preservation society's] letter--352 West 13th Street--is not the address of the Hotel Gansevoort and not the address filed on the application for the billboards (both 18 Ninth Ave.). Until we receive this notification, this is all the information we have available at this time."- Tom Acitelli
The (Big) Round-Up: Monday
- Queens Pepsi sign draws newcomers' ire, awe. [NY Times]
- How masterful was Zell in Equity Office bidding? [NY Times]
- Making online real-estate ads work. [NY Times]
- Never mind the sales gimmicks; here are the numbers. [NY Times]
- Backstory on Upper East Side's Union Club. [NY Times]
- Complications arise with popular reverse mortgages. [NY Times]
- New owner for site of exploded East Side townhouse. [NY Times]
- Commercial real estate "positively smoking." [NY Times]
- Why New York buyers depend on floor plans. [NY Times]
- Big plans for Sleepy Hollow's former GM plant. [NY Times]
- Bohemianism a key for Williamsburg renters. [NY Times]
- New laws to rid city of illegal hotels. [NY Post]
- Fire rips through Gallagher's Steakhouse. [NY Post]
- Blackstone's Jonathan Gray and the Equity Office duel. [NY Post]
- Protestors slam Hotel Gansevoort billboards. [NY Post]
- Congressmen call for hearings on Starrett sale. [Daily News]
- City foreclosures jump in '06. [Crain's via Daily News]
- East Side condo sues to stop Subway baking smells. [NY Sun]
- Port Authority mulls sale of Freedom Tower. [WSJ]
Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.
Bachelorette Party, Smokin' Hot, NYFD Arrives to Put Out the Fire
