By Matt Chaban 11/02/12 10:50pm

true crime

Courtesy, Professionalism and Raincoats. (Getty)

A Sandy Silver Lining? Still No Murders After the Superstorm

One of the few bright spots to Hurricane Sandy, besides a new found appreciation for a subway system we too often loathe, is that crime is down, and according to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, there have been no homicides since the storm hit the city Monday night.

“We’ve had no murders for three days,” Commissioner Kelly told reporters today inside the portico of City Hall, following the mayor’s afternoon press briefing.  ”And we’ve also had a reduction in domestic violence.” Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/27/12 11:00am

Best Laid Plans

Picture 8

Faulty Towers: Midtown Needs a Makeover, with Twice as Tall Towers, But Can Mayor Bloomberg Get It Right?

It was but one line in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s State of the City address in January, but it could prove to be one of the biggest of his dozen years in office.

“In the area around Grand Central, we’ll work with the City Council on a package of regulatory changes and incentives that will attract new investment, new companies and new jobs,” the mayor said from the stage inside Morris High School in the Bronx.

Hizzoner spent more time talking about Cornell’s Roosevelt Island tech campus, keeping the Hunt’s Point Produce Market from moving across the Hudson to Jersey and efforts to further expand the blue-collar workforce on the waterfront. Even the redevelopment of nearby East Fordham Road and Webster Avenue got equal billing with these vague pronouncements about “the area around Grand Central.”

Despite the scant mention, it turns out that for an administration that has never shied away from big plans, this may be one of the biggest projects yet. Read More

By Kim Velsey 4/30/12 1:03pm

Market Madness

Spring sales: there's just something in the air (orchidgalore, flickr)

Fire Sale! Luxury Home Contracts Were Raging Last Week

Ah, spring! The season of warm breezes, blossoming trees and brisk home sales is upon us. And last week saw a flurry of activity, with 22 contracts signed for homes $4 million and above, according to the Olshan Luxury Market report.

The number was a luxury market record for 2012, with the biggest contract signed for the $22 million duplex co-op at 88 Central Park West (12 room duplex co-op, park views, 6,000-square feet). However, most of the action was happening downtown and most of it involved condos (10 of the 22 contracts signed were for downtown condos). Read More

By Stephen Duffy 1/11/12 1:32pm

Checking in

Vacancy. (Scouting NY)

Temple of Ruins, Balazs Checks Out of 5 Beekman St. Development

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. Read More

By Guelda Voien 9/13/11 1:28pm

office space

Tara Stacom of Cushman & Wakefield.

The Fall Season in Downtown

“I’m more bullish today than I was in 2007,” said Cushman & Wakefield’s Tara Stacom of  1 World Trade and the outlook for the 1,776-foot tower that will offer 3.1 million square feet of Class A office space. “I did not think one of the first tenants would be a million-plus feet.”

Signing the lease with Condé Nast in May of this year was, for lack of a less hackneyed term, a game-changer for downtown Manhattan, especially as the area emerges not only from the Great Recession but from the malaise that characterized so much of the area since 9/11. Read More

By Tom Acitelli 6/10/11 12:19pm

The Neverending Story

That shaft business settled, Si Newhouse signs.

Condé Nast's Cafeteria Vent: Almost a Dealbreaker at 1 WTC

Condé Nast almost walked away from its 25-year deal with the Port Authority for 1 million square feet at 1 World Trade Center (neé the Freedom Tower).  Why?

Because the Port balked at installing a cafeteria ventilation shaft that would have, according to the New York Post‘s Keith Kelly, “blast[ed] … out the southern wall, which some sources felt would have marred the aesthetics of the sheer glass façade overlooking the memorial.” Read More