FIDI—A tipster sends in the above photo of a retail space at 5 Hanover Square, nothing the aggressive usage of our favorite Financial District moniker. Not surprising, because this is a Kent Swig building, and Swig Equities has been a big FiDi pusher. What is surprising, however, is that the average income of the neighborhood's residents is $240,000? Good lord! That's so much, um, less than us! [CurbedWire Inbox]
HARLEM—Former Development Du JourLotta Condominiums, a fun little 35-unit conversion job on West 118th Street, will be celebrating itself tonight with a rooftop/model apartments shindig. Sushi will be served, just to bang home the message of West Harlem gentrification. [CurbedWire Inbox]
HELL'S KITCHEN—The situation at Ninth Avenue's legendary and legendarily screwy Windermere is so messed up that no rumor about the boarded-up building can be counted out. But this one sounds like a longshot: "I have heard that the owners of the Hudson hotel purchased the Windemere and plan to convert it to condos." We asked where this information came from, and our tipster repllied, "From the barber at Roosevelt's (the neighborhood barbershop), who claimed to have heard it from the manager at the Hudson hotel." [CurbedWire Inbox]
HARLEM—Every now and then, we like to see some photos of real estate anti-porn, just to cleanse the palate. Which leads us to the above. Writes a tipster, "Speculators in Harlem continue to hold onto burnt out brownstones in the hope that the prices for these shells will continue to move skyward (buying a shell for $1.3 only to spend three times that renovating it!?!?). Here's an example at 240 West 123rd Street. The roof is gone, rainwater seeps into the adjacent buildings, and the front yard is a rat infested dump (literally). The facade has now come crashing down (for the second time) causing the police to decorate with yellow caution tape. Worse: The owner RENTS across the street and is indifferent." There are a few DOB complaints registered over the past couple days complaining about the crumbling structure. [CurbedWire Inbox]
HELL'S KITCHEN—The battle between developer Kent Swig and the rent-stabilized tenants, market-rate tenants, condo buyers and marching bands at his Sheffield 57 building is so out of control that we have no idea what this means or if it's true: "A 7A Proceeding was filed against the owners of the Sheffield57 condo building by the Rent Stabilized Tennants Association. At the first court date on May 29th Swig's atty's got a postponment. As a result of the filing, the judge placed a lien against the building. The next trial date is scheduled for June 19th. Stay tuned." Ah yes, the famed 7A. They have good brunch, right? [CurbedWire Inbox]
1) In last week's PriceSpotter, we touched on the madness of the resale market at 15 Central Park West (right). Now, Josh Barbanel reports that the buyer of a $30 million penthouse in the building has been offered $100 million for it (he turned it down!) and there are rumors that $125 million has been offered for another apartment. Also, the world is a cold, dead place. [Big Deal/Josh Barbanel]
2) Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, Conn., is endangered, and yet his Urban Ass House in Hudson Square, Richguyville, is just dandy. Up in Architect Heaven (it's like regular heaven but the zoning is lax and there are no community boards), PJ just took off his glasses and shot the residents of Connecticut quite the look. ['A Tiny Masterpiece, Unloved, Faces Threat'/Andy Newman]
3) Luxury condo buyers along the isolated Williamsburg waterfront will most likely have to throw some additional cash into the kitty if they want that ferry service that every developer has advertised as an amenity. Also, this photo makes Williamsburg look post-apocalyptic. [Posting/C.J. Hughes]
4) Artsy Brooklynites priced out of Park Slope are gentrifying Kensington, and rumors of a coffee shop (a coffee shop, people!) are making the rounds. Ah, Brooklyn. [Living In/Jake Mooney]
After megadeveloper Related's plan for a mixed-use development that included an 1,800-seat Cirque du Soleil theater didn't quite pan out (too Canadian), the huge vacant piece of land on West 42nd Street between Tenth and Dyer Avenues took on a new identity as the Hell's Kitchen swimming hole. But when Related announced that it had cleared the way for the rumored 60-story hotel/condo, we knew that the clock was ticking on the unofficial pool. Indeed, a Curbed tipster sent in the above photos of the site, where Related's worker bees are busy excavating and laying foundation. Related had said they would release details on the 440 West 42nd Street project "soon," and we're still waiting. Guys, how about a rendering? Or at least tell us what you did with two years' worth of rainwater!
· Swingin' Related Switches it Up in Hell's Kitchen [Curbed]
· Hell's Kitchen Swimming Hole Might Go Hotel [Curbed]
Jed Walentas, 33, sat down with the Observer's Dana Rubinstein to discuss his growing role at father David's real estate empire, Dumbo megadeveloper Two Trees. It's a revealing interview, and we're happy to see that Jed has dropped the sweater thing (right) in favor of a more haggard hipster look. We also find out that he calls his dad David (not, you know, Dad) and he's not afraid to drop the F-bomb. Also, his office is very messy. Oh, and then there's the stuff about work:
On taking over the reins at Two Trees: "I think I certainly run the business here, in terms of running all the people. … On the one hand, [partner and college buddy] Amish and I can talk David into almost anything if we feel strongly enough about it. And on the other hand, there’s nobody here with better real estate judgment than he has. And I'm certainly not doing anything that he doesn't want us to be doing."
On David's obsession with details: "He can spend three hours with Laura, an architect here, looking at carpet samples. I'm like, 'David, don't you have anything better to do with your fucking time? Like, are you serious?'"
Office buildings are supposed to be boring—and indeed, the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill design for 250 West 55th Street isn't much to get excited about—but the saga of Mort Zuckerman's new Hell's Kitchen tower just took an interesting turn. Steve Cuozzo reports that engineers working on the new Eighth Avenue building need to get into a four-story neighbor at 241 West 54th Street to reinforce it, but the building's owner—fellow megadeveloper Joseph Moinian—is refusing to give them entry. Or at least that's what Zuckerman's Boston Properties alleges in court papers. According to Zuckerman, Moinian (the tan one) is essentially trying to force him to buy the building and another one on the block for $20-$30 million. Zuckerman even alleges that Moinian told him, "This is how the game is played in New York." Meanwhile, the occupants of little 241 West 54th Street are caught in the middle of this spat between two rich old dudes, and they are freaking out. Said one: "The court papers came in Friday and I thought, Oh my God, it's little boys in the sandbox." Yeah, if the sand is actually shredded $100 bills.
· W. 54th Demolition Derby Zuckerman to Battle Moinian [NYP]
· Midtown Braces for Another All-Glass Office Building [Curbed]
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Two Trees' Clinton Park proposal would bring a hot dose of Enrique Norten starchitecture to a desolate corner of Hell's Kitchen, so of course the local community board wants nothing to do with it. But the Walentas boys keep on keepin' on, which is fine by us if they keep releasing more awesome renderings of Norten's massive mixed-use zig-zag. Reminder: 900 rental apartments above, a car dealership, NYPD facility and retail galore below. The location is between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues and 53rd and 54th Streets, near DeWitt-Clinton Park on a former Verizon parking lot. Here are all the deets. This latest rendering, featuring a lot more detail than previous versions and providing a nice look down at the terraces, comes by way of The Real Estate, who tease a Walentas interview on Wednesday. It looks like the Kings of Dumbo are digging in for a fight in Hell's Kitchen.
· The Redefined Rental Starts Here: New Rendering of Walentases' Clinton Park [TRE]
· Two Trees Digging Straight into Hell [Curbed]
· Two Trees' Clinton Park in Awesome, S-Shaped Detail [Curbed]
We thought tossing in a for-sale-by-owner listing would through off the guessers, but all the drama was removed pretty early on from this week's PriceSpotter: The first dude nailed it (suspicious!). Many other guesses were in the $900k to $1M range, so the lack of a broker pricing this Hell's Kitchen two-bedroom apparently wasn't much of a curveball. Discussion soon turned to the decor, and this was a favorite zinger: "I'd pay a premium for the exposed brick, except for the fact that it's outside." The owner took it all in stride. "My wife and I loved the comments and laughed our ass off at a few," he writes. We love a happy ending.
· 357 West 55th Street [357west554h.com]
· Curbed PriceSpotter: A Fizzbow Blooms in Hell [Curbed]
PriceSpotter is Curbed's asking price guessing game. We provide you with some details and pictures from an apartment listing, and you take a crack at the price in the comments. Tomorrow we reveal the answer. And hey, no cheating!
What/Where: 2BR, 1BA co-op on West 55th Street btwn Eighth/Ninth Square Feet: not listed Maintenance & Taxes: $1,385 The Skinny: Hey, remember when the market was so hot that sellers felt they didn't need brokers to market their property and for-sale-by-owner listings flooded the market? Those were some crazy days, and for the most part, the FSBO scene has dried up. So what does the occasional fizzbow go for nowadays? That's for you to find out, using this cozy Hell's Kitchen co-op as your test speciment. The building is an elevator and doorman joint with laundry and storage facilities on the premises. The apartment was renovated within the last four years, features a sunken living room with separate dining room and a fairly snazzy Hell's kitchen. Heh, get it?!
· Curbed PriceSpotter archives [Curbed]
Comments
1) In last week's 
Jed Walentas, 33, sat down with the Observer's Dana Rubinstein to 
Office buildings are supposed to be boring—and indeed, the 
