By Matt Chaban 9/13/12 2:26pm

Red Carpet Real Estate

9 Photos

Russell Simmons' Downtown Shrine

Hey Look! There’s a Giant Buddha Chilling on the Roof of Russell Simmons’s Downtown Penthouse

While waiting to take a tour of 4 World Trade Center recently, someone whispered in The Observer’s ear that if we looked closely, we would get a look at Russell Simmons’s Buddha. His what?

Turns out this was not some sick joke. As is well-known (from the various signs he has hung in his windows over the years), Mr. Simmons, the rap mogul, lives across the street at 114 Liberty Street. Or rather used to—the Def Jammer is trying to sell the place for $11 million as he moves out to the West Coast for good. Read More

By Matt Chaban 9/10/12 6:11pm

The Neverending Story

9 Photos

A Bathroom Break at 4 WTC

Taking the Elevator and Going to the Bathroom at 4 World Trade Center

Each year around this time, Larry Silverstein invites the foreign press (plus any local outlets interested in attending) into his World Trade Center buildings, whatever stage of construction they might be in. It serves as a useful backdrop for the flood global coverage  the 9/11 anniversary always attracts as well as an equally heartening and frustrating symbol of progress, sometimes halting, at the site. Maybe a new tenant will come out of it, too, which does not hurt. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/13/12 5:52pm

The Neverending Story

4WTC_Garden

A Fire and a Roof Garden at 4 World Trade Center

Maybe we were wrong, maybe 4 World Trade Center, rather than going unnoticed, is one of the hottest properties in the city. After all, it caught fire yesterday.

Terrible jokes aside, there are some serious amenities, beyond the views and nifty notched corners, that could attract some of those tentative tenants to the building. One in particular is a roof garden at the 56th-story roof garden. Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/03/11 8:20pm

The Neverending Story

Getting Stoned at 150 Greenwich Street [Pics]

The folks at Silverstein Properties returned from a Roman holiday last month.

The trip was for business, though the builders and architects who traveled to Carrara, Italy, no doubt derived some pleasure from seeing the lobby of 4 World Trade Center taking shape before their eyes. At a huge stonecutting facility in this Mediterranean town Read More