Steve Cuozzo

The New York Post's real-estate ranter Steve Cuozzo today ridicules the campaign to landmark endangered Hotel Pennsylvania, denouncing the old inn as "one of the gloomiest structures between the Battery and The Bronx."

The last-minute drive to save the hotel is flagrant anti-development obstructionism, under the thinnest possible mask of preservationism. It will likely go nowhere.  read more »

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Embattled Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal has stepped down, possibly throwing a wrench into the financial giant's almost-done deal to move uptown to Vornado's Hotel Pennsylvania site.

The relocation discussion "is being reopened," according to the Post's Steve Cuozzo, citing a well-placed source: "Not back to square one, but it's no longer the done deal people thought."

Activists hoping to preserve the decrepit-yet-historic McKim, Mead & White-designed hotel reacted to the news with a sigh of relief: "That was close!"

But is the big old inn really worth saving?

Tonight, a committee of local Community Board 5 will discuss the findings of its own two-person task force on the subject. The meeting takes place at 6 p.m., 227 West 27th Street, "A" Building, 8th floor, room A802.

In the meantime, The Observer posed the same question to Professor Mosette Broderick, director of NYU's urban design and architecture studies program and a reputed expert on the early work of hotel designers McKim, Mead & White.

"I am, in general, a pro-preservation person," Dr. Broderick replied via email, "but I am not willing to battle for the hotel. It is indeed seedy and I would assume has long ago lost any of the richness it once might have had within the walls....

"With so little interest in older buildings and more important ones needing to be saved, I would be willing to let this one go."

The Financial Times Building at 1330 Avenue of the Americas is a closed deal, according to city records. Harry Macklowe dropped $498 million in a bidding war to get the building in contract. Steve Cuozzo reported that 40 percent of the building will be on the leasing market this year. - John Koblin

Brookfield Properties is planning "a huge new office development" on a recently completed assemblage between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, 31st and 33rd Streets, The Post reports, behind what would be Madison Square Garden if the Moynihan-Penn Station deal ever gets done. On the other hand, don't get too excited. Steve Cuozzo quotes a source saying, "They will not build on spec, but are considering a two-building or a three-building option depending on tenant interest." -Matthew Schuerman

The New York Post's Steve Cuozzo today checks in at Essex House, the Central Park South hotel and condo building in which the Dubai Investment Group invested $440 million in September.

Although the new owners took control only last month, some guests in the Central Park South property's 606 hotel rooms and residents of its 148 condo apartments already claim to see signs of a planned $50 million capital improvement program. (The sale to DGI included only 9 of the condos).

The peg is to the "pattern of growing U.A.E. investment in Manhattan real estate," and Cuozzo leads with a comparison of renovations at Essex House to the controversial plan to hand a management contract for American ports to a company based in the United Arab Emirates.

But at Essex House, the problem, which is neatly reminiscent of the grumbling that accompanied Japanese companies' purchases of high-profile Midtown buildings in the 1980's, is as much cultural as legal.

One resident said he was shocked to see new, orange carpeting on part of the third floor, where management is apparently experimenting: "We are used to a subdued palette here."

Meanwhile, strollers have been surprised to see the sign above the entrance sprout the name "Jumeirah," with a vivid Arabesque flourish above the letter "i."

Much, much more detail here.  read more »

- Tom McGeveran

The Daily News reports on computer simulations that show how proposed condo towers along the Brooklyn waterfront would block views of the Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan. They also show how sophisticated the opposition has become.

The Mayor is holding up the Liberty Bonds that Larry Silverstein wants for Ground Zero, Steve Cuozzo says, although that won’t stop the Freedom Tower from rising next spring.  read more »

Williamsburgers won’t stand for shutting down the L train on weekends next year, and real estate brokers can‘t be too pleased either: how else will people get to their open houses?

-Matthew Schuerman

The Sun predicts that the City Council will override Bloomberg’s veto today of its bill to require big box stores to provide health coverage. The editorial board offers its own solution for minimum wage workers: Medicaid. And if that doesn’t work, “Uninsured patients can receive care by showing up at any hospital emergency room.” Prisons provide health care too, we hear.

Will Sir Norman have his own twin towers? Steve Cuozzo reports that Foster has landed the commission for the former YWCA building at 53rd and Lexington to complement his Hearst design on the West Side. Developer Aby Rosen is planning to transfer the development rights from the Seagram Building and could build a total of 50 stories or more.  read more »

Whatever dreams Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz had of hosting the world are dashed as the Daily News reports that the United Nations will stay in Midtown, probably in two to four locations, during its HQ renovation.

-Matthew Schuerman

The Post follows the money and sees less and less of it. Miller Samuel reports a 13 percent drop in average home price in Manhattan—but then again, outrageous luxury sales have been exagerrating market gains for a long while. More troubling, the Times discovers, is the fact that it is taking almost a third longer to sell real estate than it used to and, nationally, executives at big residential builders are selling stock like Froot Loops. The Post quotes Corcoran CEO Pamela Liebman saying, “Their assumption of double-digit price increases every six months isn’t realistic.” Now she tells us.

Steve Cuozzo reports that Larry Silverstein is not buying the Governor’s plan for retail at Ground Zero.

In the Daily News, Councilmember Yassky rides herd on the Mayor for forgetting about Newtown Creek now that the Olympics aren’t coming.

The federal labor board has found a way of solving New York’s rodent infestation problem: get rid of the union rat.  read more »

Finally, Tom Tomorrow explains New York’s emergency evacuation plan to you.