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The city will nearly double its investment in the restoration of a historic Chinatown building that was destroyed in a fire last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday. After committing $80 million last July to the rebuilding of 70 Mulberry Street, a former public school constructed in the 1890s, the mayor said the city will tack on another $90 million, for a total of $170 million. In January 2020, a fire significantly damaged the site, forcing out five nonprofit organizations. According to the city, all of the groups will be welcomed back as tenants.

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Listing photos courtesy of The Corcoran Group

This lovely Park Slope co-op is certainly handsome, but it avoids being overly austere and maintains its delicate, pre-war lightness. Located in a brownstone at 135 Garfield Place, the one-bedroom home is filled with wood details old and new, including an original fireplace mantel, pocket shutters, and moldings, as well as new built-in cherry bookshelves. It’s asking $750,000 with monthly maintenance of $443.

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Photo of 2019 Village Halloween Parade by Steven Pisano on Flickr

The Village Halloween Parade is officially back this year thanks to a major donation. The beloved event was scheduled to return after a pandemic-related hiatus, but a lack of funds threatened to cancel the 2021 parade, according to organizers. The parade set a fundraising goal of $150,000 by October 5, and with the help of 183 donors who contributed over $11,000 and Jason Feldman and his wife Missy who made up the difference, the spooky show will go on.

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Brooklyn Public Library’s recently renovated Central Branch. Photo by Gregg Richards

All of New York City’s public libraries have permanently eliminated late fees and will not charge for overdue books and other materials starting Tuesday. This shift in policy, which was first established at the start of the coronavirus pandemic last March, aims to create a more equitable and open system for communities in need, according to an announcement by library officials. Combined, the city’s three library systems, made up of over 200 branches, are now the largest municipality in the country to eliminate fees.

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Listing photos by Rise Media

Thanks to a 2019 street co-naming, it’s well known that Chris Wallace, better known as Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, grew up in an apartment at 226 St. James Place in Clinton Hill. The late rapper’s childhood home was a three-bedroom unit on the third floor, and now, the unit just below it has hit the market for $1.2 million. Like Biggie’s apartment, it’s been fully renovated and features a lovely bay window, pretty moldings, and a renovated kitchen. It also has three bedrooms and totals 1,121 square feet.

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Photo by Rachel Martin on Unsplash

With the goal of making the home buying process in New York more equitable, the city is expanding its existing down payment assistance program by more than double. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced on Monday it will offer up to $100,000 toward down payments or closing costs to first-time homebuyers who earn up to 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), a major increase from the $40,000 in forgivable loan offered by the city previously.

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Listing photos courtesy of Brown Harris Stevens

If you haven’t taken a selfie there yourself, you’ve definitely seen more of them than you can count–the corner of Washington and Water Streets, a cobblestone block with two brick warehouse buildings on either side framing a view of the Manhattan Bridge, often considered the most Instagrammable spot in Brooklyn. This loft is located in one of those buildings at 31 Washington Street, and it’s just as photogenic as what’s outside. The four-bedroom, top-floor condo is one of the largest in the neighborhood at 3,200 square feet, and it has 25 windows, four exposures, and three huge skylights.

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The new modern office building that replaced the St. Denis Hotel in Greenwich Village is nearing completion. The ground-up development 799 Broadway sits where the Village and Union Square meet, a burgeoning tech hub known as “Silicon Alley.” As a majority of construction work on the building wraps up in the coming weeks, Columbia Property Trust, Inc. announced on Monday it has secured its first lease at the building.

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Listing photos by Daniel Wang of Brown Harris Stevens

Marc Balet was the longtime art director for Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, as well as for his talk show 15 Minutes that aired on MTV from 1985 to 1987. Around this same time, in the late ’80s, he purchased a three-floor loft at 620 Broadway in Noho that was used as a dance studio. He transformed it into a beautiful, light-filled live-work home, even calling on his friend Fran Lebowitz to have her father, who owned a furniture store, create custom curtains for the 17-foot-tall space. The window treatments remain today, as do many other personal mementos, including lava lamps gifted by Pee-Wee Herman and a huge wall of celebrity photographs. Balet has now decided to put the home on the market for $5,995,000 and considering it also has an incredible amount of outdoor space, it’s a place not to be missed.

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Photos courtesy of Neir’s Tavern

After a rent increase and the coronavirus pandemic left the fate of Neir’s Tavern in question, the history of the nearly 192-year-old Queens establishment will be preserved forever following a street co-naming ceremony Saturday. The intersection of 78th Street and 88th Avenue in Woodhaven is now known as “Neir’s Tavern Way,” honoring the waterhole that opened on the corner in 1829 and is considered New York City’s oldest bar.

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