Midtown

The Clooneys are moving to Midtown. Sources tell the Post that the power couple has just purchased an apartment at the glassy Norman Foster-designed One Hundred East Fifty Third Street. The pair had apparently toured the $65 million, two-floor penthouse but ultimately opted for something a bit more modest on a lower but still high floor.
find out more here

Celebrities

October 5, 2016

The NYPL’s iconic Rose Reading Room reopens to the public today!

The New York Public Library’s Rose Reading Room and Bill Blass Public Catalog Room officially reopened to the public today at 10 AM. Early this morning, NYPL staff held a ribbon-cutting celebration for two adjacent spaces located on the third floor of the iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 5th Avenue. Both rooms had been closed to the public for more than two years for repairs and restorations.
more details this way

October 4, 2016

Save the Carnegie Deli group offers $5M for the pastrami palace

By Metro New York

As Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is celebrated, Carnegie Deli might be getting a new start, according to Save the Carnegie Deli, a group dedicated to keeping the 79-year-old deli open. Samuel Mussovic, a man who said he is a former restaurant owner and was a Carnegie Deli dishwasher 30 years ago, announced on Monday […]

Uncategorized

September 30, 2016

Beloved Carnegie Deli will shutter at the end of the year

By Metro New York

Iconic New York City restaurant the Carnegie Deli, which first opened in 1937, will close at the end of the year. Restaurant owner Marian Harper Levine told employees of the eatery’s closing Friday morning, reports said. “I’m very sad to close the Carnegie Deli but I’ve reached the time of my life when I need to take […]

Uncategorized

September 27, 2016

More luxury condos may head to Billionaire’s Row as office tenants are vacated across from One57

Recent reports that the luxury housing market is slowing down may soon be dismissing Billionaires' Row, where several sites are in question to add to the strip's uber-high end array of residential offerings. The latest is at 140 West 57th Street, the Feil Organization's office tower right across from One57. The Post tells us that leases are not being renewed for tenants in the 14-story, landmarked building, where the developer "is said to have already drawn up floor plans for apartments."
The full story ahead

New Developments

September 15, 2016

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber buys second condo at Trump International for $7.6M

Though we're not sure about composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's political leanings in this country (he's a Conservative in Britain), he sure does seem to love some Donald Trump real estate. The Observer reports that the British musical theater impresario has dropped $7.6 million on a two-bedroom 35th-floor unit at Trump International in an off-market deal. He and his wife Madeleine already own another adjacent unit on the same floor in the Central Park West tower, which they bought in 2012 for $5.8 million after selling a Trump Tower duplex for $16.5 million in 2010.
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Friday 5: Live in Midtown for less, modern towers now offering free rent

Every Friday 6sqft rounds up five of the best rental deals showcased on CityRealty.com’s no-fee rentals page, a space where house hunters can find the best concessions being offered by landlords across the city.

September 2, 2016

Friday 5: Live in Midtown for less, modern towers now offering free rent

By 6sqft

If you love being in the thick of it all, there's no area of New York that pulsates quite like Midtown. With ample entertainment and dining options along every street and on every corner; stunning architecture spanning numerous decades and styles everywhere you look; and no shortage of transit options to deliver you to just about any neighborhood in a matter of minutes, this neighborhood is made for the truest of urban explorers and city enthusiasts. Ahead are five extra-tall modern towers that put the city's spectacular offer up close and personal—and they're all giving out free rent!
check out who's offering deals here

Uncategorized

August 18, 2016

Robert A.M. Stern’s 220 Central Park South now two-thirds erected

Robert A.M. Stern's latest Billionaires' Row blockbuster continues its rapid ascent into the sky. As CityRealty.com reports, 220 Central Park South (220 CPS) is now two-thirds of the way up, construction having knocked out about 600 feet of the tower's eventual 950-foot height. Application of the limestone cladding started in April and has thus far been installed across over one-third of the building. When finished in 2017, the two-winged skyscraper with its rare and direct Central Park South frontage will host 118 luxurious homes across 66 stories—and it will be one of the city's most expensive residences. Jump ahead to see more photos of all the work that's been completed.
More photos of the tower under construction here

August 11, 2016

Sting and Trudie Styler Buying 220 Central Park South Triplex

By Michelle Cohen

The NY Post reports that Sting and Trudie Styler are in negotiations to purchase a condo in the Robert A.M. Stern-designed 220 Central Park South. The tantric twosome aren't new to the parkside circuit; they're currently among the significant celebrity contingent at the also-Stern-designed 15 Central Park West, where the pop star purchased a 5,413- square-foot penthouse for $26.5 million in 2008.
Find out more

Celebrities

July 28, 2016

Time Lapse Video Shows How Midtown’s Tall Towers Will Cast Dark Shadows on the Park

By Michelle Cohen

A dozen supertalls (1,000 feet or higher) in the construction or planning stages in Manhattan include a significant number on the rise along the Billionaires’ Row strip just south of Central Park. This trend has been causing concern due to the shadows the looming towers will cast on the park. Now, a slightly ominous time-lapse video from Cube Cities shows how Billionaires' Row will have a sundial effect on the park (h/t Gothamist). The length and duration of the shadows will vary as the sun's angle changes with the seasons; fall and winter days are looking dark, with the tall towers' long shadows reaching as much as a mile into the park.
Watch the tall towers darken the park on a fall day in the future

New Developments

July 27, 2016

In the 1980s a Group of Feisty Tenants Blocked Evictions by Donald Trump

It's no secret that Donald Trump has engaged in some shady real estate dealings over the years, from his fraught attempt to own the Empire State Building, to the "public" gardens at Trump Tower that allowed him to build taller, to a lost battle with China over two major office buildings (not to mention his many bankruptcies). But there was at least one snafu that he wasn't able to weasel himself out of, and it was all thanks to a group of feisty residential tenants. In the early 1980s, Trump planned to evict rent-controlled and rent-stabilized tenants from 100 Central Park South (now known as Trump Parc East) and build a larger tower on this site and that of the adjacent Barbizon Plaza Hotel. He hired a management firm that specialized in emptying buildings, and they began eviction proceedings. After claiming reduced services, a lack of repairs, and overall harassment, the tenants decided to fight back, and in the end 80 percent of them remained, leading to this revelation by the Donald: "What I've learned is that the better the location and the lower the rent, the harder people fight. If I were a tenant, I'd probably be a leader too."
Get the full story here

History

MoMA Has Already Raised $650M for Renovation and Expansion, And More Is Coming

Rendering of MoMA renovation Via Diller Scofidio + Renfro

July 20, 2016

MoMA Has Already Raised $650M for Renovation and Expansion, And More Is Coming

Just this week, it came to light that the Metropolitan Museum of Art may lay off as many as 100 employees as part of efforts to cut its $30 million deficit. As the New York Times previously explored, the struggling state of the Met exemplifies a shift in the art world towards modern and contemporary art. And standing as a true testament to this is MoMA's current financial status. The midtown museum has already raised $650 million towards its fundraising campaign, far exceeding the $450 million needed for its planned renovation and addition of three new gallery floors. In addition, they'll also sell $280 million of tax-exempt bonds "to raise money for the project and refinance debt as borrowing costs drop to the lowest on record," reports Crain's.
More details ahead

New Developments

Friday Five: 5 Upscale Manhattan Buildings Offering Free Rent and Gift Cards

Every Friday 6sqft is rounding up five of the best rental deals showcased on CityRealty’s newly launched no-fee rentals page, a space where house hunters can find the best concessions being offered by landlords across the city.

July 15, 2016

Friday Five: 5 Upscale Manhattan Buildings Offering Free Rent and Gift Cards

A new week means a slew of new rental deals being offered across the city. Today we're focusing on upscale rentals in Manhattan, scanning the island from top to bottom, from the Upper East Side to FiDi, for the most generous of rental concessions. Standouts ahead include one month’s free rent and a $1,000 MasterCard gift card at a Robert A.M. Stern-designed Tribeca tower, and two months of free rent on beautiful new rentals in Yorkville.
5 of the Best deals here

Uncategorized

July 12, 2016

Why Are the Supertall Gurus at Extell Planning a Stubby 18-Story Condo on Billionaires’ Row?

Gary Barnett's Extell Development has become synonymous with sky-high towers, especially those along Billionaires' Row -- the 1,005-foot-tall One57 and the 1,550-foot-tall Central Park Tower -- where it appeared that they were readying to construct a third behemoth that would rise more than 700 feet. However, Crain's reports that Extell has filed plans for the site at 134 West 58th Street (the same block as One57), and they call for a stubby, 18-story, 41-unit condo building that's less than 200 feet tall.
What's the deal?

June 16, 2016

New Renderings of Extell’s Central Park Tower Emphasize Design and Record Height

A new set of images of the world's upcoming tallest residential tower have been uncovered, these better revealing the cantilevering silhouette of the 1,550-foot supertall and how it will relate to the skyline of Central Park South. The images of the Central Park Tower (née Nordstrom Tower) were first spotted by NY Yimby and are part of official EB-5 Immigrant Investor program materials posted online and provided by developer Extell. As such, they confirm that the supertall will indeed no longer have the spire, a feature which would have brought the tower to 1,775 feet and just a foot shy of One World Trade. The materials also reveal that the tower is being marketed with a height of 133 floors (the actual count is just 95, though some units like the 17,000-square-foot three-story penthouse have ceilings that stretch well beyond the standard) and 179 luxury residential units.
more here

June 9, 2016

Work Begins on Times Square ‘Activity Areas’ to Confine Characters and Performers

Mayor de Blasio first started pushing to corral the costumed characters and topless performers in Times Square last August, and now almost a year later work has begun on a reconfiguration of the area, reports the Daily News. A preliminary map that divided the plazas into three zones was released in September, but a new, final version was issued on Wednesday. Called "TSq Plaza Rules Cheat Sheet," it splits the tourist mecca into Chill Zones (places to "sit, nosh, meditate, take in the sites"), De$ignated Activity Zones ("commercial activities, street entertainment, posing for photos, vendors of expressive matter... in exchange for compensation, donation, or tips"), and Express Lanes ("pedestrian through lanes, NYC style"). After the City Council passed legislation eight weeks ago that gave the Department of Transportation the power to relocate the performers and ticket sellers, workers began painting the colored lines to delineate the zones on Wednesday night.
See the full map

Policy

June 7, 2016

Another Luxury Development May Rise on Billionaires’ Row

Crain's reports that another prime piece of property will soon be changing hands, putting 126,000 square feet of development rights in play. The Steinberg family last month made an agreement with commercial developers Thor Equities and General Growth Properties to sell neighborhood fixture Lee's Art Shop's four-story structure at 220 West 57th Street for $85 million, a deal that is expected to close this month. It is not yet clear what the developers plan to do with the landmarked building, but what is known is that the property comes with the right to build atop the historic structure—itself boasting 21,837 square feet on a sizable 8,400-square-foot lot.
find out more here

New Developments

May 27, 2016

Spotlight: Adam Blumenthal Keeps Magic Alive at 91-Year-Old Tannen’s

By Susan Cohen

At a time when the inner workings of so many things have been demystified, magic still has the ability to stump us. But for magicians to make tricks look seamless, a tremendous amount of time is invested in perfecting the craft and engaging with colleagues who can help them grow and develop their skills. And in New York, magic is cultivated on a daily basis above the hustle and bustle of 34th Street at Tannen’s Magic. The business has been serving the magic community since Louis Tannen opened a street stand in 1925. He later took the business indoors, where it became a gathering place for magicians of all ages and skill levels to purchase and practice their tricks. The current keeper of Tannen’s tradition is Adam Blumenthal, who fell in love with magic at a young age, in part thanks to the store, and is now responsible for ensuring its legacy and introducing it to a new generation of magicians. 6sqft recently spoke with Adam to learn more about magic, Tannen’s, and New York’s magicians.
Read the interview here

May 26, 2016

Anne Hathaway’s Infamous Former Midtown Love Nest for Rent for $48K a Month

By Michelle Cohen

We've followed ingenue Anne Hathaway through various life events as expressed in real estate transactions, including the Upper West Side penthouse she currently shares with husband Adam Shulman. Before that, there was the DUMBO Clocktower loft the actress reportedly used as an expensive closet. Now here's a peek at the glossy midtown duplex in the Olympic Tower condominium at 641 Fifth Avenue that Ms. Hathaway shared with ex-con ex Raffaello Follieri for $37K/month in the mid-2000s (h/t WSJ); the apartment is currently on the rental market for $48,000 a month. The listing points out that the glass-clad, dubiously decorated pad has the distinction of having been the rented home of the ill-starred couple during their "storybook romance," which makes a lot of sense if the storybook you're reading is a white collar crime novel about a 30-year-old con man arrested, convicted, incarcerated and deported for embezzlement and fraud, possibly with the aid of his actress girlfriend. But a different choice of words and more context should put this dressed-to impress duplex in a better light.
It would be a crime not to check out the views from here

Great Game Changers: One Worldwide Plaza, A Classy Attraction for Sleazy 1980s Midtown

Image of WWP via Macklowe Properties

May 24, 2016

Great Game Changers: One Worldwide Plaza, A Classy Attraction for Sleazy 1980s Midtown

By Carter B. Horsley

What does it take to jump-start an unglamorous neighborhood? A huge development? A mixed-use project? New transit facilities? When this full-block, mixed-use development project was conceived in the mid-1980s the area in and around Times Square was one of the city’s worst. It was riddled with crime and pornography and was run-down, especially along Eighth Avenue. The proposition to add a building that was the scale of the full-block One Worldwide Plaza development, therefore, was not only surprising, but shocking and downright unthinkable. The legendary Madison Square Garden designed by Thomas W. Lamb had occupied its site from 1925 to 1966, but its second incarnation here was rather ramshackle especially in comparison to its previous glorious building on Madison Avenue at 26th Street. When it moved south next to the “new” Penn Station 16 blocks to the south, this site became the city’s largest parking lot and it took about a decade and a half for it to find a new life. The site was finally developed and completed in 1989 by a syndicate headed by William Zeckendorf Jr. that included Arthur Cohen and Worldwide Realty partners Frank Stanton and Victor Elmaleh.
more on the rise of worldwide plaza and how it revived midtown manhattan

Rafael Viñoly Apologizes for Dissing 432 Park

Image of Rafael Viñoly via Rafael Viñoly Architects Facebook page for Fall 2011/Winter 2012 issue of Pin-Up: Magazine for Architectural Entertainment

May 13, 2016

Rafael Viñoly Apologizes for Dissing 432 Park

Image of Rafael Viñoly via Rafael Viñoly Architects Facebook page for Fall 2011/Winter 2012 issue of Pin-Up: Magazine for Architectural Entertainment On Monday, the architecture world was gobbling up the comments starchitect Rafael Viñoly made about 432 Park Avenue at a Douglas Elliman talk last week. He admitted that the 1,400-foot supertall "has a couple of screw-ups," referring to the interior design and layout, as well as the window framing, which he blamed on developer Harry Macklowe. But it looks like the architect is a bit red in the face, because he penned a lengthy public letter to design blog Dezeen apologizing for his loose lips. "In the context of what we understood to be a private and off-the-record conversation, I expressed frustration, inartfully, about the consequences of my profession's diminished position in the real estate development eco-system. Sometimes I get a little excited and say things that can easily be taken out of context and stripped of their humor. I have to improve," he said.
Read more of his apology letter

Architecture And Design

May 12, 2016

Interview: RAMSA’s Paul Whalen Reflects on the Unique Design of 15 Central Park West

For good reason, hundreds if not thousands of articles and books have been published on 15 Central Park West, the “Limestone Jesus” designed by famed architect Robert A.M. Stern. This modern icon is credited with not only elevating the New York City luxury market to a level no one before dreamed it could reach, but […]

May 10, 2016

Forgotten Four Acres of Central Park Reopens to Visitors After Almost 90 Years

After being closed off to the public since the 1930s, The Hallet Nature Sanctuary on the lower east side of Central Park is once again open to all, writes The Times. The lush four-acre peninsula has for the last decades been used as a bird sanctuary, reclaimed and then tended to by the Central Park Conservancy in 2001 as part of their Woodlands Initiative. Under the project, $45 million was directed towards revitalizing and restoring the wooded areas of Central Park to their original glory.
More on how to visit here

The History of Herald Square: From Newspaper Headquarters to Retail Corridor

Image via Library of Congress

May 10, 2016

The History of Herald Square: From Newspaper Headquarters to Retail Corridor

By Michelle Young

Herald Square is today known for many things. There's the flagship Macy's department store and the pedestrianized part of Broadway that extends to Times Square. And it serves as an epicenter of the retail corridor that now runs from 5th Avenue to 7th Avenue. Some may remember the song, "Give My Regards to Broadway," from the George M. Cohan musical "Little Johnny Jones"with the iconic line, "Remember me to Herald Square." But written in 1904, "Give My Regards to Broadway" references a very different Herald Square than the one we're familiar with today.
Learn about the evolution of Herald Square here

May 9, 2016

Rafael Viñoly Admits 432 Park ‘Has a Couple of Screw-Ups’