"We are thrilled that all of you are here," Kyle Pope, editor of the Observer, told the crowd. "We know what a difficult year it's been in commercial real estate."

Mayor Bloomberg said he didn't mind dropping from No. 4 in 2009 to No. 9, but joked to Observer publisher Jared Kushner to be wary of building inspectors at the paper's office tomorrow.

On a more serious note, Mayor Bloomberg was bullish on the city's economic state, and said it was in better shape than the rest of the country. Tourism, for example, was so strong that one of his acquaintances couldn't find a single hotel room the other night. He also cited the 7 train extension to the new Hudson Yards development and Atlantic Yards as positive industry signs, and a herald of more big things to come.

"We're going to continue with the big developments. We've rezoned something like 25 percent of the entire city," said Mayor Bloomberg. "If I was a developer, I'd put a shovel in the ground right now."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, No. 17 on the list, recognized that he and Mayor Bloomberg have had differences in the past, but affirmed their partnership to make New York a center of finance and development, particularly in Lower Manhattan.

"I'm thrilled that the arguing has subsided and progress has replaced the stop-and-go that defined the construction of the World Trade Center," said Mr. Silver.

Perhaps the most lauded man of the night was public relations maestro Howard Rubenstein, No. 21, who was credited with bringing the entire event together.

Turns out it's not just the city's image that's suffering. It's also all those out-of-work waiters.

More here.

drubinstein@observer.com

Now she's working as an adviser to the real estate industry, as an attorney at real estate law firm Greenberg Traurig.

The Real Deal has a tour of her desk. It's nice.

drubinstein@observer.com

Their mutual distaste spilled into the pages of The New York Times on Monday morning, with a report that Mr. Raynor's Sidney Hillman Foundation has decided to relocate its annual journalism award dinner from the Hudson Theater at West 44th Street, a theater serviced by workers belonging to Mr. Ward's union, because they refuse to wait on a man they are convinced misallocated $15 million from their union to his, the apparel workers' union:

"We would prefer that Mr. Raynor not conduct his events in hotels where we represent the workers," said Peter Ward, the president of Local 6 of the hotel workers' union. "Our union and our members don't want to serve this guy."

..In February, Unite Here's public review board asked federal prosecutors to investigate Mr. Raynor's transfer of $15 million from that union to apparel union locals that later quit Unite Here.

Mr. Raynor's defenders say he was merely moving money that the apparel workers had taken with them into the merger.

But Mr. Ward, the Local 6 president, said: "As far as we're concerned, his behavior has damaged our members irreparably. We don't think he's a legitimate labor leader."

Mr. Raynor has some prominent supporters, including judges for the Hillman Foundation awards, which reward social-justice journalism. Among them is New Yorker editor Hendrik Hertzberg, who told New York Times reporter Steven Greenhouse (an award recipient) that, "The Hillman Foundation has its roots in the needle trades unions, but it's independent, and why anyone who believes in the value of the trade union movement would want to spoil this party is a profound mystery. The Hillman Foundation ought to be sacrosanct to everyone in the trade union movement."

Read the article here.

Read more about Mr. Raynor and the disputed $15 million here.

drubinstein@observer.com

Here's the typically bombastic Mr. Trump speaking to The New York Times:

"If I could help the city and the city wanted me to get involved, I could be open" to running Tavern. He added: "It really is a special place. Only a person with a lot of money can rebuild and resurrect Tavern. And I have a lot of money."

Meanwhile, Cipriani company COO John Higgins, told the Times, "We are very much interested."

drubinstein@observer.com

In a statement issued late Thursday, Mr. Poll said, “It is with great regret that we are unable to go forward with our very exciting $25 million plan to restore the famed Tavern on the Green restaurant. Unfortunately, after eight months of negotiations, coming to terms with Local 6 of the Hotel & Motel Trades Council to operate a viable restaurant and banquet facility has been impossible to achieve."

In a competing statement, New York Hotel Trades Council president Peter Ward said that he's "saddened that, for now, the doors of the city’s greatest restaurant remain closed, but optimistic that New York will get a new operator for Tavern deserving of this iconic establishment.

"The Tavern on the Green workers, all of them residents of New York City, have dedicated years of their lives to making the Tavern on the Green one of the most celebrated and profitable restaurants in the world," Mr. Ward said. "Mr. Poll was unwilling to show these women and men the respect that they deserve. Now, a new operator will step in and the workers can make the Tavern on the Green great again.”

Mayor Bloomberg, also in a statement, said,  “We’ll solicit new proposals with labor obligations from anyone that wants to re-open it as a restaurant. During that period, which will last several months, we’ll use the venue as a visitor center and snack bar, similar to the successful Central Park Dairy, and also a retail shop. The City will put in the resources to stabilize the building and make it suitable for those uses. Then, based on the proposals and the success of the venue as a visitor center and store, we’ll decide whether or not to turn all or part of it back into a restaurant."

drubinstein@observer.com

But it must have been hard to anticipate the uproar that ensued when a simple liquor license request from restaurateur Cole Miller for a new tapas restaurant and wine bar at 38 Gramercy Park North brought 150 opponents to a recent Community Board 6 meeting.

Community Board District Manager Toni Carlina, who didn't respond to The Observer's multiple requests for comment, told Grub Street in March, "It is extremely controversial because Gramercy Park North is a narrow and highly trafficked street. There are huge concerns about limos and cabs causing congestion and honking. That space hasn't been an eating and drinking establishment since the twenties. It was an antiques shop. We are talking about historic Gramercy Park."

Even so, Mr. Miller, who owns The House on nearby East 17th Street, persevered. Last week, after allaying community concerns, he finally got the liquor license approval for his restaurant.

Mr. Miller plans to open the tentatively named Gramercy Park North in the next couple of months. He described overcoming the community's initial opposition as a "long, difficult battle."

"The issue that kind of stuck with the whole board was traffic," Mr. Miller said. "So we hired three of the biggest traffic experts in the city," who, essentially, demonstrated that a restaurant opening on the north side of the park would not inundate the neighborhood with cars.

Alas, patrons will not be able to sit in front of the restaurant, technically on 21st Street between Gramercy Park East and Third Avenue, and gaze longingly at the imprisoned garden nearby.

"No outdoor seating," Mr. Miller said. "They would have really flipped out if we tried to pull that."

drubinstein@observer.com

On Tuesday, a court struck down an appeal by Mr. Bender's sister and nephew that challenged his right to inherit the estate from his uncle, William Gottlieb. The news was first reported in the Wall Street Journal:

A long-running family feud over a vast portfolio of Manhattan property moved closer to resolution on Tuesday when a New York court ruled that Neil Bender is fit to run William Gottlieb's billion-dollar estate.

The appellate court ruling cleared a major legal obstacle that some brokers say may have kept Mr. Bender and his father, Irving Bender, from developing blocks of prime real estate in the West Village and the Meatpacking District that brokers have valued at up to $1 billion.

The case, brought by Neil Bender's sister and her son, pushed a private, often bitter family squabble into the public spotlight. In the suit, his sister, Cheryl Dier, alleged that Mr. Bender was unfit to run the estate's property portfolio. Her son submitted as evidence drunken-driving convictions and Internal Revenue Service tax liens against Mr. Bender. In court filings, Mr. Bender said Ms. Dier was "spiteful" for being left out of the family inheritance.

"Today's unanimous decision by the Appellate Court is an important victory for the estate of William Gottlieb," a spokeswoman for the Benders, Lin-Hua Wu, said in a statement.

Ms. Dier, who represented herself in court, could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Bender, something of an unpopular figure in Greenwich Village, was profiled in The Observer in January.

drubinstein@observer.com

According to the Journal, "The sticking points include the naming of an arbitrator and the solvency of the pension plan."

Mr. Poll, who also holds the operating license for the Central Park Boathouse, has a long and somewhat unsavory history with labor, as recounted in The Observer a couple of weeks back. Should these negotiations with the New York Hotel Trades Council, which represents the restaurant's 400-strong staff, fall apart, the city would be forced to take the embarrassing step of beginning the search for a new Tavern operator anew.

More here.

drubinstein@observer.com