Linkage

A New Park for Park Slope, Riverdale Condos Going On The Block

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[Photo by Will Femia]

· Somebody's getting the paper delivered at E2E4 [EVG]
· Park Slope's J.J. Byrne Park revealed! [Brownstoner]
· Still board to death: model's husband says building staffers are just jealous [NYDN]
· Columnist: "wholesale gentrification deadens" [NYT]
· Unit's at Riverdale's Solaria to hit the block Sunday [WSJ]
· What it's like to meet with Donald Trump [NYT]
· Greenpoint's Viridian is two-thirds rented [Brownstoner]
· New York City's $2 million "ghetto" apartments [BU]

Comment of the Day

Eater Tastings

Where To Go For Thanksgiving Dinner, Threats to the New York Slice

This week's top dish from Eater, Curbed's restaurant, bar, and nightlife blog...

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[Crosby Connection's new t-shirt design, via Eater]

1) New York City: A week in advance, Eater files a list of 20 places with reservations still available for Thanksgiving dinner.

2) MePa: The Department of Health may be out to get the New York slice. The owner of Gaslight Pizzeria received a warning not to serve reheated pizza slices from the display case, but only a few pizzerias are popular enough to avoid having to do so. Is DOH out to thin the pizzeria ranks?

3) Hell's Kitchen: Two Red Mango, one in Hell's Kitchen and one on Bleecker Street, have packed it in over the past two weeks. Both had Pinkberrys in the vicinity. Suspicious!
· Eater [ny.eater.com]

Lawsuits

$100M Rector Square Lawsuit Names Developer, Manager, Shvo

2009_11_rectorsquarelawsuit.jpgThe poor unfortunate souls who bought into Battery Park City's Rector Square are mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore! Well, everyone except Augusten Burroughs, that is. He's still cool with the place. A group of 45 unit buyers have filed a $100 million lawsuit against the parties involved in the failed/abandoned/foreclosed/auctioned condo conversion, our sixth most frightening building in NYC. The Real Deal has the details, and they're fairly epic. Here's who the Battery Park City Hell Building buyers are going after, and why:

Sweet baby Shvo, say it ain't so! >>

Board To Death

On the Market

Second Time Around for Duplex Loft in Williamsburg's Gretsch

Back in 2005, New York magazine asked three brokers what a duplex at South Williamsburg's pioneering condo conversion the Gretsch, asking $1.25 million, should sell for. David Maundrell, grand poobah of boutique Brooklyn brokerage Aptsandlofts.com, said $995,000, adding that the wide-open loft space would require a build out for a family-oriented buyer. It eventually sold to music video director Ed Steinberg for $1.047 million, and now, years later, Maundrell's brokerage is handling the resale. Steinberg apparently took Maundrell's advice: On its first time around #5Q was a 1BR, 2BA condo. Now it's listed as 2BR, 1.5BA (hmm?), and with a slightly curious increase in square-footage from 1,755 to 1,850 (double hmm!). Also up is the perceived value of the space. It's asking $1,349,500. But who can really put a price on that type of proximity to Peter Luger?
· Listing: 60 Broadway 5Q [Aptsandlofts.com]
· Triple Assessment [NYM, third item]

LIC, Astoria Housing Explodes

Curbed Hamptons

The Hamptons' Most Important Sales of the Decade, The Country's Best Home For A Round of Golf, More!

The latest headlines from Curbed Hamptons, our outpost on the East End...

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[Fancy a round of golf? Let's go out back.]

1) In addition to a best Hamptons houses of the decade list, our Curbed Hamptons counterparts have put together a roundup of the decade's 10 most important real estate deals. It's got everything: flips, Kennedy connections, and some of the most expensive houses in America.

2) Bridgehampton's Three Ponds Farm is not just on the market for $68 million -- it's also been named the number one "golf home" for sale in the U.S. How does a home get that honor? Well, it helps to have an 18-hole golf course and two-story clubhouse in the backyard.

3) A Water Mill mystery mansion didn't get any less mysterious when it took a $2 million PriceChop this week. The 10,000-square-foot manse is now asking $10.95 million. The all-important fireplace-to-bedroom ratio is 5:7.
· Curbed Hamptons [hamptons.curbed.com]

Neighborhood Names

Making a Case for Frederick Douglass Blvd. as Harlem's Gold Coast

2009_11_douglass.jpgBlog Harlem Condo Life uses the occasion of the opening of The Douglass (formerly called The Savannah, right) to anoint Frederick Douglass Boulevard as Harlem's Gold Coast. (And really, every neighborhood needs a Gold Coast, right?) In addition to the Douglass at #2110, there's 2280 FDB, Livmor, the Aloft and plenty of other new stuff sprouting. HarlemGuy writes:

"I’ve come to view Frederick Douglass Boulevard (F.D.B, which is Central Park West above 110th a.k.a 8the Avenue) between 110 and 125th as Harlem’s Gold Coast, from a resident’s perspective. ">I’ve come to view Frederick Douglass Boulevard (F.D.B, which is Central Park West above 110th a.k.a 8the Avenue) between 110 and 125th as Harlem’s Gold Coast, from a resident’s perspective.

And here's why. >>
On the Market

Bond Street Beauty Adds Pool To Penthouse

This isn't the first time we've drooled over 54 Bond Street, the landmark Bouwerie Lane Theater now carved up into three condos. But this is the first time we're seeing the building's new website, which gives us another opportunity to ogle Bond Street emperor Adam Gordon and architect Steven Harris's work on the beauty. The two smaller apartments' floorplans are narrow and still asking over $2,000 per square foot. But oh, that triplex penthouse! It's now asking a slightly slimmer $15.45 million (still more than the $15 million Gordon paid for the whole building in 2007). And the lowest floor can be either storage space (boring!) or a 1,510-square-foot lap pool.
· 54 Bond Street [54bond.com]
· 54 Bond Street [StreetEasy]
· Bouwerie Lane Theater Gutted, Chopped Up & On the Market [Curbed]

Sleeping With The Vampires

Construction Watch

New Renderings of Norman Foster's Bowery Building Revealed

[Renderings by dbox via Foster + Partners.]

The Sperone Westwater Gallery from British starchitect Norman Foster has started to rise above the street, and Foster + Partners are showing off the goods in fuller detail on their website—including the gigantic red elevator that has everybody talking. The Lower East Side building at 257 Bowery has been digging out for months, getting everything below ground in order so the art can sprout above. What's to come is a facade of glass rods and a levitating gallery behind, all the better for viewing the Bowery below. With Lord Norm's other gallery gig good to go on the Upper East Side, we'll soon have a double dose of fresh Foster in our midst.
· Sperone Westwater [Foster + Partners]
· 257 Bowery coverage [Curbed]

Second Ave. Subway Can't Kill Condos

Top of the Aughts

The 20 Biggest Residential Deals of the Decade

Our end-of-decade examination series kicked off with a countdown of the best new buildings in New York City. Oh, building boom, you were so kind. And speaking of booms, it's now time for a look at the biggest deals of the '00s. Of course the biggest deal of the decade—and any decade, for that matter—was the $5.4 billion purchase of the 11,000+ apartments of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. Buyer's remorse, perhaps? We're more interested in the individual, single-family stuff—folks hashing it out over four walls, a roof and a toilet. Or in these cases, 20 rooms, private roof decks and his-and-her bidets. These are, to the best of our hard-working interns' knowledge, the biggest sales in an era fueled by excess. Flips of trophy properties were common. Records were set and immediately shattered. That's all gone, for now, but the memory lives in on this document. Got proof of a bigger deal we missed? The tipline is always open.

Top%20Sales%2020%20845%20UNPLAZA.jpg20) $33,654,000
Building: 845 United Nations Plaza
Buyer: Chu Chinh
The Skinny: The massive spread (reportedly 12 bedrooms and 16.5 bathrooms) bought by the Blackstone exec on the 89th and 90th floors of the Trump World Tower—just above Derek Jeter!—was practically a bargain at less than $1 million per room!

More money than we care to tally up. >>

Viridian, Greenpoint, $2,958/Mo.

Viridian, Greenpoint, $2,958/Mo.
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2 BR, 2 BA condo w/balcony
Net effective rent: $2,958 (@ 2 free mos.)
110 Green Street, C301 [Elliman]