Brown Harris Stevens broker Paula Del Nunzio told The Observer that the owners—that would be the estate of Ms. Roberts—have decided they want to lease the house for a minimum of two years.

Ms. Del Nunzio noted that while $150,000 a month might sound like a lot, at almost 20,000 square feet and 35-feet wide, furnished or unfurnished, the house is something of a good deal—for comparison, she cited a 7,000-square-foot townhouse (only 20 feet wide) that was currently renting for $80,000 a month.

"It would be the only renovated townhouse at this size on the market," Ms. Del Nunzio said, adding that if rented at $150,000, it would set a record for most expensive townhouse rental. The record for the most expensive rental still goes to the Astor penthouse at the Plaza, asking $165,000 a month.

And honestly, what charm was there left in being a $90 million listing when there is now a $100 million listing and two $95 million listings? With the debut of the penthouses at New York by Gehry, it's also the time for top-notch rentals. Although given the recent activity in the trophy market, it does seem somewhat unusual to pull one of the prime properties out of the action. Perhaps the owners are hoping that the market will look even better in two years? Or maybe they were spooked by the impending $47 million sale of Aby Rosen's townhouse (down from the $75 million he was originally asking)?

The seven-story townhouse is one of three in limestone ne0-French Renaissance mansions built by Frank Winfield Woolworth for his three daughters in 1916. (It's the middle one).

And while Mr. Woolworth may have built an empire selling discount goods, he spared no expense when it came to building mansions. He hired architect Charles Pierpont Henry Gilbert to design the grand home, which includes a front drawing room spanning 35 feet and windows that stretch from the floor to the 14-foot ceilings. Naturally, the dining room can seat more than 50 people and includes a huge fireplace. There's a also a wood-paneled library and a gym on the fifth floor (we would expect no less of a grand dame of exercise), but those prefer not to feel the burn when they move between floors can take an elevator to get to it.

Ms. Del Nunzio said that the home can be rented furnished or unfurnished. Smart, as we'd assume that not many renters, not even those who can pay $150,000 a month, have furniture fit for a palace. And, of course, there will be an option to buy if the renters fall in love with living in baronial splendor.

kvelsey@observer.com

Kind of amazing, kind of like an upscale mall.

Delancey Underground, a.k.a. the Low Line, a.k.a. New York's first underground green space, has had a lucrative summer, raising a not-unimpressive $150,00o.

Bowery Boogie reports that the project has met its summer goal of raising $75,000 in 75 days, earning matching funds from an angel investor in the process. The project, dreamed up by RAAD Studio founder James Ramsey, would transform the abandoned Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal on the LES into a subterranean garden illuminated by skylights. Lately, it's also been racking up endorsements and support from local politicians, including State Senator Daniel Sqaudron, Representative Nydia Velázquez and Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Delancey Underground is planning to take advantage of the momentum with a model of the project in the Essex Street market building, galvanizing local support—and quite possibly some opposition—from those who don't envy the fate of Chelsea in the wake of the High Line's wild success.

The neighbors might be right to fear that the space, if built, will become "a tourist-clogged catwalk”—a glamorized version of grit for visitors that drives out the people and businesses that have long called New York home. At the same time, the High Line was a legitimately wonderful idea that transformed an outdated piece of infrastructure into a beautiful stretch of green space in a busy urban center very much in need of beautiful stretches of green space. And its failures would, one hopes, offer some lessons of what not to do if we're trying  to create public spaces that contribute more than tourist dollars to the neighborhoods that host them.

kvelsey@observer.com

At least luxury homes are selling well. (technorati)

The American people don't stand united on very many causes these days, but the recovery of the housing market is one of them. After all, failure was tied to the unhappy fate of so many households that most of us would like to think that its good fortune would signal similarly widespread prosperity.

Well, the housing market is now limping again, although the signs of a total return to health are a good deal more promising in the upper than the lower echelons. The Wall Street Journal reports that jumbo loans—larger, higher-cost loans used to purchase luxury properties—are doing really, really well. A lot better than the rest of the housing market, which is still bogged down by foreclosures and underwater mortgages in many parts of the country.

But at least those Americans still struggling to make their mortgage payments on houses that are worth far less than whatever they paid for them before the crash have some good news coming their way: as of this approaching November, it will be easier for homeowners to conduct short sales. Meaning that those with underwater mortgages will not need to jump through so many hoops to sell their property for less than it's worth. Progress!

Also, some cities in California are trying to use eminent domain to take over troubled mortgages—a plan that's going to be fought tooth and nail by mortgage-holders, but could potentially help to turn the tide in beleaguered neighborhoods.

Of course, the surge in jumbo loans means that Americans are buying homes again, which should, ostensibly, buoy the market overall. Or foreign investors are buying homes here because our economy still looks better than their economy. But still, good news, right?

The Journal reports that lenders issued $38 billion in private jumbo mortgages during the second quarter of 2012, up 65 percent from a year earlier. The financing generally covers loans exceeding $417,000, with higher cutoffs in more expensive markets like New York.

Rates on jumbo loans now average 4.22 percent, generally a percentage point higher than regular loans, and homeowners must generally put 25 to 30 percent down.

Luxury home sales, defined by the National Association of Realtors as homes over $1 million, went up 19 percent in July from a year earlier, a trend that the Manhattan luxury market, with higher price points (of course), is at the forefront of.

kvelsey@observer.com

But in 2004, it was still a place where you could buy a roomy loft in an old industrial building for $675,000—what two Manhattanties paid for a a 1,400-square foot loft on the second floor of 119 North 11th Street. Now the condo is on the market for $1.29 million, listed with Weichert Mazzeo broker Maria Goretti.

"You couldn't get that kind of space in the city for under a million dollars," Ms. Goretti, who also sold the apartment to its current owners, Michael Hofeman and Andrew Arrick, told The Observer.

And now you can't get that kind of space for under a million in Williamsburg, The Observer pointed out.

"No, you can't," replied Ms. Goretti with a chuckle.

The owners did do a full renovation on the loft. They were savvy, we suppose, to the neighborhood's impending shifts and the fact that when and if they sold they would competing with properties like The Edge and the Finger Building for well-off Manhattanities looking for an industrial, artsy vibe but unable to afford SoHo or the Meatpacking District. The loft's open layout, partitioned off with large, unfinished maple panels was even featured in Elle Decor magazine.

Indeed, it sounds like an artist's loft par excellance—a very successful mid-career artist, that is—with resin floors, two walls of 7-foot windows and a kitchen with "a large cast iron sink framed by butcher block cabinets."

Ms. Goretti noted that it is one of the few industrial conversions in the area, unlike the old-single family houses that are often hollowed out to make impressive pads with less-than impressive exteriors, or the new, glassy condos that seem to materialize with the morning dew.

"It's very interesting to see how people create a look of money in a borough where there never was one," she remarked.

kvelsey@observer.com

The heiress in 1989. (New York Magazine)

The problem with getting what you want is that sometimes, once you have it, you don't want it anymore. The Observer has learned that Libet Johnson is looking to offload the Vanderbilt Mansion, the stately neo-Georgian mansion at 16 East 69th Street that she spent $48 million to buy scarcely more than a year ago.

Sources tell us that Ms. Johnson has been quietly shopping the townhouse around, hoping to sell for a price in the mid-$50 million range. Which does not come as a huge surprise—the heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and the sister of NY Jets Owner and Romney bundler Woody Johnson has a reputation for falling in, and out, of love with extravagant real estate. She bought the townhouse, sans broker, from her friend and fellow heiress Sloan Lindemann Barnett and Ms. Barnett's husband, the founder of beauty.com. What's a $48 million townhouse between friends?

The Vanderbilt Mansion.

So what new gem caught the heiress's avaricious eye? Sources familiar with the matter have told us that Ms. Johnson fell hard for Huguette Clark's eighth-floor apartments at 907 Fifth Avenue, but lost the late copper heiresses' spread to private equity chief Frederick Iseman. The Central Park-facing apartment and a few rooms of the smaller apartment are currently in contract for $22.5 million. Mr. Iseman, the CEO and chairman of CI Capital Partners, is still awaiting board approval. And you know how those can go, so no doubt Ms. Johnson has her fingers crossed.

One broker expressed disbelief that Ms. Johnson would want an apartment in 907 Fifth—which the broker sniffed was not the kind of A-type building the heiress usually goes for—but we suppose Ms. Johnson felt a kind of kinship with Clark  and her estate, even if the socialite Johnson and the reclusive Clark would appear to have little in common other than their vast family fortunes. More likely, Ms. Johnson was just looking for something new to occupy her time.

As far as the Clark apartments go, the ranks of the rebuffed grow more illustrious by the day—Ms. Johnson joins Qatari prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, whose $31.5 million bid for all of both apartments in May was reportedly rebuffed by the board.

Will Ms. Johnson be able to sell the Vanderbilt mansion and make a little money in the process? The Stanford White mansion at 973 Fifth Avenue—a gilded age truffle of a townhouse—sold $42 million in June, and it required major refurbishment. But before Ms. Johnson swept in last May, the home had been lingering on the market for some time at $48 million. And while brokers say that the 1881 home and its Peter Marino-designed interiors are lovely, they note that it's rather dark inside and the brick facade less elegant than that some of the city's top limestone townhouses.

At the time of the sale, it ranked as the most expensive deals since the recession hit and the most expensive townhouse since J. Christopher Flowers set the previous record with his purchase of the Harkness Mansion for $53 million in 2006. Last year, Larry Gagosian scooped up the place for $36.5 million.

And it's not even the only townhouse that Ms. Johnson, or at least her family, is trying to sell. A five-story West Village townhouse at 85 Perry Street, owned by Falconer LLC., a oft-used screen for Libet and her close kin, has been publicly listed since May with Stribling's Pamela D'Arc. Falconer is apparently extremely eager to be rid of the townhouse, dropping the $13 million ask to a mere $9.96 million this August.

Surely this is precisely the kind of situation where one's rich friends might come to the rescue and buy at least one of Ms. Johnson's real estate holdings?

kvelsey@observer.com

The latest property to disappear from the market is the now under-contract townhouse at 26 East 73rd Street, listed with Brown Harris Stevens broker Paula Del Nunzio at $23 million.

The luxurious limestone building, on the cusp of being sold to an unknown buyer, was bought anonymously for $18  million in 2007 by owners who records suggest are based in the Netherlands.

They clearly had whimsical and artistic preferences when it came to decorating. Listing photos show a swarm of butterflies crossing the living room, lavender walls, a bright orange breakfast nook and and a plethora of interesting paintings.

But fresh, alluring design aside, it seems that buyers can't keep their hands off really expensive properties these days and 26 East 73rd Street fits the bill. The six-story, five-bedroom townhouse has an elevator, central heat that is adjustable room-by-room, a high-end security system, a private exterior vestibule hidden behind a heavy brass front door and more high-tech creature comforts than we've ever seen included in the same listing before.

There's also a roof terrace (with built-in irrigation system), both gas and wood-burning fireplaces (a total of 5), closets galore, a living room with state-of-the-art home theater equipment and a master bedroom with a regular closet and a shoe closet, as well as a bathroom with heated limestone floors.

The beauty also apparently caught the eye of Jerry Seinfeld last June, but either the comedian and dyed-in-the-wool Upper West Sider decided to stay in known territory or he takes a very long time to make up his mind.

kvelsey@observer.com