Everything You Wanted To Know About The Rental Market in Manhattan
Stephen Colbert Takes on New York's Most Famous Catholics at Al Smith Dinner (Audio)
To Do Saturday: Dining on the High Line
I Want Candy: British Mega-Developer Picks Up Morris Mansion for $35 M.
Thompson Supporters Accuse Hynes of Exploiting Racial Fears
Lord Voldemort Heads Cast of Wes Anderson Types in New Wes Anderson Feature (Video)
De Blasio Will Continue Bloomberg’s Soda Cup Fight
Banksy Ascends to Superhero (or Villain) Status in City
A $17.5 M. Fixer-Upper: Half-Restored Mansion at 249 Central Park West Finds a Buyer
To Do Saturday: Dining on the High Line
“What happens when hundreds of people gather for a one-pot meal at a communal table in a restaurant without walls on the High Line?” That’s the question being asked and answered at High Line Social Soup Experiment, presented by Friends of the High Line, where 200 New Yorkers will gather to lunch on soup and bread. Chef Mona Talbott, author of Zuppe: Soups from the Kitchen of the American Academy in Rome, will prepare the meal. When else do you get a chance to dine outdoors with strangers of all ages? Read More
I Want Candy: British Mega-Developer Picks Up Morris Mansion for $35 M.
Clearly, Christian Candy—one half of uber-posh London development duo Candy & Candy—was not deterred from flashy New York real estate investments by brother Nick’s recent scuffle over a pair of apartments at One57. Mr. Candy—that is, Christian—has closed on the 104-year-old Morris Mansion at 19 East 70th Street, The New York Times reports. At $35 million, the sale was (shocker!), the biggest deal of the week. Read More
Commercial Observer’s Masters of Real Estate Conference
On October 16th, Commercial Observer will host the annual Masters of Real Estate conference at The Metropolitan Club from 8am to 2pm. Join industry leaders in discussing the current real estate market. For more information, click here.
Thompson Supporters Accuse Hynes of Exploiting Racial Fears
Nearly 40 supporters of Ken Thompson’s Brooklyn district attorney campaign gathered on the steps of Borough Hall today to demand incumbent Charles Hynes apologize for allegedly accusing Mr. Thompson of being a gun trafficker–which they linked to a larger plot to scare white voters in the November election. Read More
Lord Voldemort Heads Cast of Wes Anderson Types in New Wes Anderson Feature (Video)
Even from the trailer, the mood of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel seems darker, more adult, than any of his work since Bottle Rocket. Sure, it’s still super-whimsical, with a bunch of Anderson-ites (Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Edward Norten, Jeff Goldblum, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman) hanging out on the snow-capped peak of a European mountain in a pink hotel, punching each other in the face and offering quippy, seemingly non-sequitor one-liners. Read More
De Blasio Will Continue Bloomberg’s Soda Cup Fight
After his mayoral campaign sent vague signals yesterday about whether he would maintain Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s legal effort to restrict soda cup sizes at restaurants, Bill de Blasio vowed to do precisely that this afternoon. Read More
Banksy Ascends to Superhero (or Villain) Status in City
The mayor has condemned him. The police are after him. Possible copycats are posing as him. And vandals who dare deface his work are being humiliated by vigilante mobs.
Which all points to one conclusion: Banksy is Batman. Read More
A $17.5 M. Fixer-Upper: Half-Restored Mansion at 249 Central Park West Finds a Buyer
Despite the seemingly endless appetite for trophy properties on the Park, the red-brick castle at 249 Central Park West could not fetch the kingly sum of $30 million. The fanciful property—one of nine brick and brownstone homes erected between 84th and 85th streets in the late 19th century by William Noble, a zealous builder whom The Real Estate Record and Builder’s Guide once deemed one of “the particularly bright stars of the coterie of men who have done so much to improve and enrich our city”— just sold for $17.5 million, according to city records.
Then again, the 10,000 square-foot townhouse was a very high-end version of a handy-man’s special. Read More
Make a Wish and Blow Money: New York Gets a ‘Birthday Show’
The New York Birthday Show comes to town on Oct. 20, complete with copious amounts of glittery swag, pint-size spa stations, the Big Apple Circus and TLC’s Cake Boss. Don’t we already live in the capital of the world when it comes to spoiling children? Read More
Mavi Jeans Maven Ragip Ersin Akariliar Sells UWS Manse, Controversial Pool Remains Unbuilt
When it comes to the townhouse at 51 West 83rd Street, you have to give the Upper West Siders points for their novel approach to NIMBYism. Rather than adopting the “not in my backyard” stance that characterizes so many local disputes, neighbors took the more unusual “not in your backyard” tack, vehemently opposing Mavi Jeans owner Ragip Ersin Akariliar’s plan to install a pool and three-tiered deck behind his house.
So it’s not altogether surprising that even though the Turkish millionaire won the battle, securing landmarks approval for the indoor/outdoor pool, two of the deck’s three stories and glass curtain wall in the back of the house, he decided to abandon his renovation plans and move elsewhere. The house, frozen in the midst of a gut renovation with all approvals in place, hit the market for $7.2 million this March. Read More
This Saturday, a Fruit and Vegetable Stand in Queens Offers Up Art
On his way to teach at LaGuardia Community College some weekday mornings, the painter Paul Branca likes to pick up bananas or apples at a little fruit and vegetable stand on Queens Boulevard between 32nd Place and 33rd Street in Long Island City. Walking by on a Saturday morning, though, he noticed it was empty. The vendors only worked during the week. “It’s this funny, green, handmade wooden structure,” he said approvingly. “It looks like art already.” And so a plan was born. Read More
