Not much of a downgrade.

When The Epoch Times reviewed celebrity chef Michael Symon's new Greek restaurant in the Flatiron District, Parea, in 2006, it wrote that it "might improve after Mr. Symon gets more experience in the New York restaurant world." Parea shut down the next year and Mr. Symon has refocused his efforts on the Midwest and his hometown of Columbus, Ohio (he once described his cuisine as "meat-centric"), but he's still taking The Epoch Times' advice to heart: he's staying in New York.

Mr. Symon and his wife Elizabeth just picked up a full-floor unit at 316 East 22nd Street, a boutique loft building built by David Howell Design. The six-unit building went up around the time the market crashed, and the Symons' sixth-floor unit (which is not actually the penthouse) is the first to be resold. The sellers, Neil Barve and Davray Aditi, picked up the pad in 2010 for around $2.24 million, and resold it to the Symons for $2.75 million—a tidy profit for not even three years of ownership.

The Symons could be moving from their penthouse at 210 Lafayette Street, a building styled as One Kenmare Square (nevermind that there is no "Kenmare Square" in Manhattan), designed by Richard Gluckman and developed by hotelier André Balazs. They picked up their SoHo digs for just over $3 million last year, and are asking $3.5 million for it. So far, they've gotten two offers above that price. Not bad for a condo they've only owned for a year!

Though their latest buy is cheaper than their SoHo penthouse and isn't quite in prime Gramercy territory, it isn't much of a downgrade. The 40-foot-wide condo features 1,777 square feet of space, and also boasts a private parking garage. And while the building doesn't have the same pedigree as their SoHo pad, it must be well-designed, because architect David Howell told The Observer that he in fact lives in the building. So if there are any leaks, the Symons will know who to call!

Screengrab. From left: Andrew Warren, Serena Marron, Peter Brant II, and Nick Gruber.

Friday, opening night at pop-up club Chez André at The Standard, East Village, found teenage dandy Peter Brant II and ex-porn star Nick Gruber, who was apparently taking a night off from writing a book and developing a TV show about his two-year relationship with Calvin Klein, on stage. The duo, joined at the mic by Andrew Warren and model Serena Marron, sang and mumbled their way through a live-band karaoke rendition of "Born to Be Wild." We have the video evidence. Arguably, it is the best version of the song ever performed. Arguably!

Looks plain enough from the outside. (ScoutingNY

But inside is a different story. (ScoutingNY)

Imagine the parties, but watch the edge. (ScoutingNY)

After Andre Balasz, the hotelier behind the edgy Standard, backed out of the deal for the Temple Court at 5 Beekham Street, the building will be developed by not one but two hot-shot hoteliers: A joint venture between GB Lodging LLC, which has worked on the Ace New York, and Commune Hotels & Resorts, the parent company of Thompson chain of hotels.

Last November, Allen Gross, president of GFI Capital Resources Group—an investor in the Ace Hotels in New York and Palm Springs—and Chartres Lodging Group partner, Bruce Blum, created a private equity hotel investment firm: GB Lodging LLC. The firm remains an affiliate of GFI Capital.

In light of recent contract speculation, the deal was finalized and announced today:

GB Lodging LLC, the New York hotel investment, development and asset management firm and affiliate of GFI Capital has purchased the iconic 5 Beekman Street.  The historic property is located in an emerging neighborhood in FiDi across from City Hall Park and Gehry NY, one block from the Brooklyn Bridge, three blocks from the new Freedom Tower and two blocks from the new Fulton Street Metro Station, to be completed in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

The historic building will be named a Thompson hotel as it is operated by Commune, and will consist of 297 luxury boutique rooms and 90 residences. The exact specifications are unknown, as the project is at the very early stages of development, but it is expected to be completed in 2014.

5 Beekman Street, built in 1883, has been unoccupied for several years but will receive a much-needed restoration. "We will pay homage to the history and grandeur of this iconic building and combine classic and modern design to create a vibrant community that will further enliven and rejuvenate the Financial District and downtown Manhattan," Jason Pomeranc, Co-Chairman Commune Hotels & Resorts, noted.

The long-shuttered building went viral in November 2010 after Scouting New York got inside. Coincidentally (or shrewdly) the old owners, the mysterious Chetrit Group, put it on the market only a few months later.

mewing@observer.com

The quiet Standard (don't let the architecture fool you).

Andre Balazs is not known for his quietude, having developed hotels the world over famous for their parties and celebrities—the Standard Hollywood has naked people in the lobby, the Standard Manhattan has them the windows. So it is surprising to hear the hot hotelier tell Grub Street that the new Standard East Village, inside the old, alien-looking Cooper Square Hotel, will be more "residential, more quiet—more introspective, if you will."

Mr. Balazs also shared plans for his recent $90 million acquisition with The Wall Street Journal. Property manager Ironstate Development Co. and Mr. Balazs closed the deal for the Cooper Square Hotel last October.

This marks Mr. Balazs' third New York Standard, after the Meatpacking mainstay and the East End outpost he opened last summer.

Balazs plans to open by mid-fall with "an emphasis on public spaces" claiming that "good hotels are a center of their community." The lobby, restaurant, and ground floor are further being "re-imagined as public spaces." Balazs will also slash prices at the East Village location, according to The Journal, by having rooms that "start at about $190." That is about half the price of the Meatpacking District's Standard Queen for $385.

realestate@observer.com

Vacancy. (Scouting NY)

Hotelier Andre Balazs has given up on his effort to restore one of the cities grandest dormant dorms.

It was only last October when the magnificent Temple Court, a block from City Hall, was revealed as in contract to the hot hotelier, but the deal fell through and Mr. Balazs may even be out $5 million on it, the Post reports. It is believed intertia in financing the restoration got the better of Mr. Balazs. However a source for the tab claimed that he pulled out for other unspecified reasons.

Woulda been some lobby. (Scouting NY)

Nonetheless, the glamor boss of The Standard is set to lose a substantial deposit, likely to be in the millions. His partners in the deal were developer and property manager Ironstate Development Co., who were providing the equity, and Fortress Investment Gr0up, providing debt.

The building, with it's glorious open atrium, has been unoccupied for the last decade, save a few hip photo shoots. But Mr. Balazs still has his East Village consolation prize.

sduffy@observer.com

Susan Bloomberg (Photo from Patrick McMullan)

We know that Mayor Bloomberg lives in the lap of Old World luxury in his string of East Side townhouse, but his ex, Susan Bloomberg, has a roost rivaling the mayor's Baroque maison, as well? Or at least she did.

Unlike her former husband's palatial uptown abode, Ms. Bloomberg favors downtown digs, at One Kenmare Square, to be exact, that black, wavy lodestar built by Andre Balazs. Ms. Bloomberg has just sold her candy-colored bachelorette pad for $11.6 million, according to city records

Ms. Bloomberg penthouse was actually comprised of two units, which sold separately to the same buyer buyer, who purchased anonymously through "Cirrus 210 LLC." Perhaps he or she is a meteorological aficionado, as "cirrus" is in fact a type of thin, ethereal cloud. Or perhaps the buyer is merely mocking us, making note of the life they'll soon lead up in the clouds of Soho.

While not quite reaching the $13 million ask Ms. Bloomberg sought when she put the property on the market over the summer, she did best the asking price of $11.5 million from when the home first came on the market in August 2009. It is still a tidy profit, enough to make a Bloomberg-terminal-tied banker proud: City records show she purchased the two units for a combined total of $10.2 million in 2006.

According to a listing from Halstead broker Arlene Weindberg, the buyer has scored a "quiet paradise above the bustle of the city, with abundant light, fine finishes and sensational views at every turn!" Aside from owning the five-bedroom, four-bath home frequented by the daughters of New York's fearless leader, they have a full 4,472 square feet of interior space to relax in the winter months, and another 4,031 square feet of outdoor space spread over two terraces to sun themselves when weather permits.

eknutsen@observer.com

The Fresh Direct fridge goes here.

One winter evening in 2006, host Martin Bashir’s voice intoned over the opening of Nightline: “Meet the brash, young real estate assassin, selling lavish dream apartments to clients with money to burn.”

The TV screen bled to an earnest-looking Michael Shvo. “When you see a photo of the New York skyline,” the 32-year-old informed us, “these are buildings I made happen.”

And what made Mr. Shvo happen?

The New York condo boom, in no small part a product of 9/11. For several years during the last decade, he ran at the vanguard of a marketing movement for thousands of new condo units, one that emphasized Fresh Direct, spa treatments, 5 percent down for multi-million-dollar properties—and sex. Andre Balazs and partners pitched a steel-and-glass tent at a corner of the financial district, and called it William Beaver House; ostensibly after the corner’s cross-streets but the marketing was all about the middle word’s ribaldry.

Similarly lascivious condos popped up from Harlem to the Lower East Side to Long Island City, changing neighborhood demographics—everyone was to have the tastes of a 27-year-old VP at Goldman Sachs, it seemed—their scaffolding a ubiquitous symbol of the city’s slog back from the terrorist attacks.

Those attacks rendered an already recessionary economy supine. Most tellingly, companies fled, especially from downtown; and borrowing money became much easier for both home buyers and the people building the homes—the Fed, for instance kept the capo di tutti capi federal funds rate at 0 for nearly three years after the attacks.

“What happened was that it created this unnatural affordability for housing,” said Jonathan Miller, C.E.O. and president of New York appraisal firm Miller Samuel. “If we did not have 9/11, we would have probably gone into an expanding recession; and the Fed would have probably lowered rates to respond to the recession. But I think the symbolism of getting the economy back on its feet led them to keep rates at 0 for too long.”

Through this combination of cheap cash and vacant property, more than 6.5 million square feet of office space in lower Manhattan alone was converted to condos in the decade after the attacks, according to brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle—more than three Empire State Buildings’ worth. Much more commercial space would follow, perhaps most tellingly in the old warehouses of the Brooklyn waterfront.

Within a few years, condos were routinely outselling the co-ops that had dominated the city’s for-sale housing for as long as anyone could remember (today co-ops still outnumber condos 3 to 1). In 2006, 57 percent of all Manhattan apartment sales were just newly built condos, according to Miller Samuel. And they were going in Manhattan for well over $1,000 a square foot on average, more than co-ops. Buyers were often allowed to borrow up to 95 percent of the price (a mortgage share most co-ops would never permit). Everyone was winning.

And now? Condos still sell, though at a leaner pace—they accounted for 48 percent of Manhattan apartment trades in the second quarter of 2011. And development has slowed considerably amid a tighter lending climate since the late 2008 collapse of Lehman.

Manhattan condos, looking back, burned brightest between 2004 and 2008, in tandem with the rapid development, the loose money and the seminal marketing. All of that’s over now.

The 200-plus unsold condos at William Beaver House are rentals, acquired through a loan sale late last year by CIM, an L.A. outfit that loves distressed assets. And Mr. Shvo, the “real estate assassin?” Emails to an account that The Observer knows was once hopping were not returned. And a phone call to his offices was answered thusly: “At the subscriber’s request, this phone does not accept incoming calls.”

tacitelli@observer.com

Dune Buggies! (The Standard)

The list of Fiat 500 lovers continues to grow. Not only do a few hundred New Yorkers have Cinquecentos already, but the Fiat 500 is practically the Obama car, and at least one 500 was spotted inside Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's compound. And herewith is the tipping point: Andre Balazs is smitten with the tiny car.

As Stan D'Arde—yes, that is the name of the hotel's pseudonymous social media specter—tells us, there is a special deal going on out on the East End:

What I’ve done for you, my little Stan D’Auto lovers is create a weekend package to end all packages (aside from my own, bien sur!)

For the next three Fridays, I have arranged for the 11am flight to Shelter Island be made available to you for only $350 one way.  With all the money you save on the flight, you can buy me countless martinis when you arrive at Sunset Beach just in time for lunch.   I’ve also accommodated for every single passenger to have their very own FIAT® 500 or FIAT® 500 Cabrio once they’ve finished dining!

Yes.  You heard me correctly.  That’s eight FIAT® for eight passengers.  All yours for the weekend!  Just make sure to get it back to Sunset Beach in one piece!

How long before Kanye or Chelsea Handler start driving one? And the real question: How does it handle on the Meatpacking District's cobblestone streets?

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

The hotelier in his summer white.

Andre Balazs, you've had a busy summer! Constant flights out to the Hamptons on your StndAIR seaplane, nights out with new girlfriend Chelsea Handler. So much to do! Could it be possible that you had the time to add another hotel to the already crowded portfolio?

Apparently he did. The man on top of The Standard is rumored to be taking control of the Cooper Square Hotel, Hotel Chatter reported last night. Reps for the fan-shaped Astor Place monolith declined to comment, but the tipster says staffers are already in the know.

If, as the report says, the deal is actually done, the takeover could happen as soon as September first.

The Observer tried calling Mr. Balazs' marketing manager, but it appears she, along with her coworkers -- and, let's be honest, the entire city -- are out off the office. Oh, August. Let's hope they're all on the StndAir jet to Southampton

Those'll be some views. (Getty)

Even if the city could be headed for further construction slowdowns, developers are still readying themselves for the (eventual?) recovery. The MoMA Tower, Hudson Yards, East Coast Number 4—all are showing signs of life. And they all have something in common, as well: their developers have their sights set on the first site at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Things were very, busy at the libertarian park two weeks ago. The city reached a new development deal with the state on what exactly can be built at Brooklyn Bridge Park to help fund its maintenance. Then, two days later, the city released an RFP seeking developers for Pier 1, the first site at the park to be redeveloped.

The RFP calls for two new buildings housing a hotel and condos, with either 170 hotel rooms and 180 condo units, 225 rooms and 150 units, or some mix thereof. If there was any notion Brooklyn is still somehow a backwater, the high-profile firms vying for these two sites should dispel that idea right about... now. According to a source present at an information session held yesterday by the city, among the developers and architects present were:

• Related Companies (Hudson Yards, Time Warner Center)
• Hines (MoMA Tower, Bryant Park tower)
• Two Trees (Pretty much all of Dumbo, Mercedes House)
• Andre Balazs (Fabulous!)
• Douglaston Development (The Edge)
• Rockrose (Lots of Queens West, 200 Water Street)
• TF Cornerstone (Lots of Queens West, 505W37)
• Starwood Capital (Westin, W hotels)
• The Dermot Company (One Hanson, Battery Maritime Building)
• Muss Development (Two Brooklyn Marriotts, Sky View Parc)
• TEN Architectos (One York, Hotel Americano)
• FXFowle (FXFowle, Northside Piers)
• Rogers Marvel (Gowanus Green, State Street townhouses)
• Architetonica (MiMA, Westin Times Square)
• Artimus (Lots of Harlem: 5th on Park, SoHa)

What's interesting about this list is, based on past history, some obvious teams seems to be emerging. Two Trees worked with TEN on Mercedes House, and this won't be their first hospitality venture—the Walentases are building a hotel in Williamsburg with architect Morris Adjmi. Architectonica has plenty of hospitality experience, building the Westin for Starwood and Related's MiMa, home of the robotic Yotel. Dermot has worked with both Rogers Marvel and FXFowle.

The final pairings might look nothing like this, but it presents some interesting options, especially because it would mean a new level of quality on the eastern shore of the East River—with the possible exception of the New Domino, designs for most of the glassy riverside towers in Queens and Brooklyn have been so-so. And there is another point of note: Pretty much all the developers on this list have built major luxury projects on said waterfront, whether at Queens West, Hunter's Point South (Related is doing the first phase) or Williamsburg.

So no slouches here, and for good reason. According to our source, "The site is awesome."

And there may be room for more parkland, too. The Journal reported yesterday that the city was in negotiations with ConEd to buy a transformer site in Vinegar Hill, which interrupts the waterfront promenade. The Bloomberg administration envisions a near-contiguous park stretching the length of the East River,  replacing former factories with miles and miles of public space stretching from Astoria to Sunset Park.

mchaban@observer.com