Billionaire landlord Sheldon Solow has locked up a $625 million loan from Deutsche Bank AG to help refinance a securities-backed debt tied to 9 West 57th Street that was slated to mature in February, sources confirmed.
The loan, which was first reported by Bloomberg.com last week, will be used as "ongoing capital" for 9 West 57th, a person familiar with the matter told The Commercial Observer.
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Our new besties over at SocialiteRank were kind enough to give The Transom's Spencer Morgan an e-mail interview, even after the piece in today's Observer. In it, the super-secretive, nameless SR Team spread open their Chanel blogging robe(s) a few inches. What lies beneath is at once tender and beastly, insightful and well-groomed. Read More
Monty C. Floyd and Claudia Reich Met: January 2002 Engaged: Jan. 22, 2006 Projected Wedding Date: 2007 The fear of living in (gasp) Queens had only just begun to grip Monty C. Floyd, a Texas native who’d come to the big city trying to win back the heart of an ex-girlfriend, when he saw Read More
Forgive me, Miss O., for I have sinned. Inspired by James Frey’s contrite appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show last week, I’ve decided to come clean. The fact that Mr. Frey’s “autobiography” is chewing up the best-seller lists and mine only clawed its way onto the New York Post list for one measly week isn’t Read More
Thomas Krens’ 17-year reign as director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is, as of last week, officially over. For the better part of the last decade, Mr. Krens has been the museum director that the culturati has loved to loathe. And with good reason: Mr. Krens drew down his endowment to pay for operating Read More
Wednesday 3rd
Folk it over! Lessons learned this week: If you happen to be opening a new restaurant or bar, to ensure maximum press and attention, tell your publicist to make pretend it’s a secret (plant notices on DailyCandy and Gawker, and the ninnies at The New York Times’ Styles section will fall all over themselves Read More
Why, oh why, are we so enamored of French women? Why do we hang idiotically on their every word, as if they know so much more than us about style and general fabulousness? How did all these imperious, fag-smoking chiennes manage to coax us all into this state of pathetic insecurity? The current Chanel exhibit Read More
I am a sucker for any accessory or garment of the moment, always the first name on a waiting list for whatever the women’s magazines dub “must-have”—the belt, bag or boot that screeches a designer’s name and is the highlight of his or her most recent collection. Some people accuse me of being a fashion Read More
I am a sucker for any accessory or garment of the moment, always the first name on a waiting list for whatever the women’s magazines dub “must-have”—the belt, bag or boot that screeches a designer’s name and is the highlight of his or her most recent collection. Some people accuse me of being a fashion Read More
The ladies of Park Avenue have a big problem. Yes, they can't help it. They're insatiable (and some might say insufferable, but that's for another piece); most therapists assume it's an addiction. On the Upper East Side, it's an unsurprising kind of moral failing: the state of being a handbag whore. (She's the kind of Read More
The ladies of Park Avenue have a big problem. Yes, they can't help it. They're insatiable (and some might say insufferable, but that's for another piece); most therapists assume it's an addiction. On the Upper East Side, it's an unsurprising kind of moral failing: the state of being a handbag whore. (She's the kind of Read More
Navigating the social riptides of Manhattan used to be simple. It was always so easy to tell who was rich and who was poor. The person with the Verdura baubles, mink stoles and Blahniks was the rich lady. The beleaguered individual with the matted hair and the moth-eaten knitwear was the poor lady.
Confusingly, the tables Read MoreOn the evening of Monday, May 2, as rain pelted down from the sky (as has been its wont in prior years), guests scampered out of their cars, armored vehicles and trucks-no cabs, thank you!-and up toward the entrance of the Metropolitan Museum for the Costume Institute Gala: hems dragging through the puddles, furs mottling, Read More
For the past several years, my mother and her friends have invited me to the annual Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon held by the Central Park Conservancy, where the crème de la crème of New York society turns out in full bloom to match that of the glorious park gardens. Usually I borrow a hat Read More
Wednesday 4th
Some more things we're just not on board with: the warmed-over meat loaf that is the new New York Times Thursday Styles section. White power males swimming naked? Yuck! (We give them exactly two weeks before they publish a feature on the "shaved scrotum" hipster look for summer 2005 … ); and don't even Read More