1) The leading concrete testing company in the New York area, Testwell Laboratories, is under investigation for failing to perform some tests and falsifying others on some major construction projects, including the Freedom Tower and the new Yankee Stadium. The Yankees and the Port Authority both say the concrete used for their projects is sound and poses no safety threat, but yikes! Investigators took 200 boxes of documents and computers from a pair of Testwell offices, as well as from a trailer at Yankee Stadium. ['Company Hired to Test Concrete Faces Scrutiny']
2) The condo conversion of the Apthorp is a go, and when the 163 apartments in the Astor-built complex at Broadway and West 79th Street (right) hit the market, they will average about $3,000/sqft, more than the initial offering at 15 Central Park West. The average apartment price will be about $6.5 million, and current Apthorp tenants are not getting any insider deals, though they do have an early crack at any apartment in the building they want. Sales open to the general public in the fall. It's Manhattan's second-most-expensive condo conversion, behind Manhattan House. [Big Deal/Condos at Pedigree Prices]
3) Rumors of Hoboken's demise have been greatly exaggerated: "Average sales prices are still increasing for downtown condominiums in Hoboken, although most asking prices are open to negotiation these days, as several developers acknowledged in interviews. Developers say that their new buildings are still selling out, if somewhat slower than in the past." Take that, supposed down market! ['Hoboken Weathers the Market']
4) If you want to know how the rest of the country lives, look to Staten Island, where income and homeownership figures are similar to those icky other places. And in Staten Island, foreclosures are a "grimly familiar tale." ['Fighting Foreclosure on Staten Island']
It's summer, huzzah! But while this means sandy weekends and frozen margs for most of us, summer also marks the beginning of the slow sales season for our broker friends. But one category never goes out of shopping style: the bargain. People are always on the hunt for a good cheapie, so as a little low-season experiment, we decided to search for open houses priced at a maximum of $300,000. Do such apartments exist in Manhattan? Yes indeed, and most of them are in and around Washington Heights. Parents want to buy you a starter apartment for when you begin Columbia in the fall? Then click through the above. The first apartment is only $159,000!
· Weekend Open House Tour archives [Curbed]
One Bennett Park, aka Fort Tryon Towers, everyone's favorite (only?) 25-story Hudson Heights luxury apartment building, may be going under the microscope. Writes a tipster, "Spoke yesterday to a reporter about how the construction noise affects residents, as this isn't a 'normal' amount of noise (especially as they aren't really mitigating noise as required due to the 'hill' nature of the rock. Article should be in Sunday's Times, so keep a look out for it." [CurbedWire Inbox]
In terms of cultural cachet, Washington Heights has never been hotter. The Broadway musical based on life in the neighborhood, In The Heights, just won the Tony for Best Musical (right). Vampire Weekend, a band popular with the kids, namechecked the 'hood in their recent single, "A-Punk." Yes indeed, the residents of Manhattan's northern hinterlands must be flying high with community pride, which makes it a perfect time for the Central Park Conservancy to ask them for money. The Gay Recluse, a Heights resident, received a letter that goes:
I imagine you treasure Central Park for the oasis that it is, particularly because you live nearby in the Washington Heights area...
And since you live so close to the Park, I’m hoping you’ll do your part to support the Central Park Conservancy so that we can continue to keep Central Park clean and beautiful.
When you send a gift to the Conservancy, you will be affirming that Central Park matters to you…that as a member of the Washington Heights community, you are doing your part to help preserve this urban sanctuary.
Sure, it reads like a form letter with Washington Heights plugged into the [insert neighborhood here] field, but The Gay Recluse was not amused.
NOLITA—Sure, there's some controversy as to whether SHoP Architects' wavy 290 Mulberry Street is "real" brick façade, but we don't care! We think it's purty, and these updated Construction Watch photos sent in by a Curbed tipster do nothing to dissuade us from that opinion. We'll take that penthouse, please! [CurbedWire Inbox]
WaHI—Residents of 700 Fort Washington Avenue were joined by Manhattan Borough Prez Scott Stringer today at a rally against their building owner, the Ohebshalom family, also known as the Shalom family (they reportedly own over 100 buildings under various names). This latest protest against the notorious slumlords was held because Con Ed had to shut down gas to the 73-unit building in May, and cannot restore service until repairs are made to the cooking gas system in the building, which obviously will never happen. [CurbedWire Inbox]
UPPER EAST SIDE—According to a press release from developers the Ascend Group, Georgica, the latest family-friendly glassy addition to the Upper East Side, is over 30% sold. Must be all that sweet sweetkhaki. [CurbedWire Inbox]
"Stop calling East Harlem Spa-Ha! I hate that shit. And the same goes for WaHI or WaMu or whatever. Please stop." A bank-branded neighborhood? Now there's an idea. [CurbedWire Inbox]
The uptown O.C. Barkery & Café has gone and shuttered, and that has The Gay Recluse in rare form: "Imagine the gall it took to open a new business on Edgecombe Avenue and 159th Street where patrons could idly linger for hours at outdoor tables under a rainbow-colored umbrella — and we know what that attracts! – where they could take in the lovely views of the lower stretches of Highbridge Park! ... But thankfully, the nightmare is over. Both branches of the O.C. are dead and gone, and — even better! — have been replaced by nothing." [TGR; previously]
Even though the first of three Rent Guidelines Board hearings into rent increases for stabilized apartments was a little restrained, the annual battle is still getting a little chippy. Landlords are demanding their customary double-digit increases because of escalating operating costs, and while they won't get that, the range of increases proposed by the RGB is fairly high given previous years' rates. Tenants need a momentum shift, and today, they've got one. The Times' Gretchen Morgensen files a story on the recent trend of private investment firms buying up rent-stabilized buildings, which becomes an exposé on how tenants are being harassed until they leave their apartments. The developers and their investment firm partners claim they are just enforcing the rules, and that's the case in many of these situations. But of course, that's not the truth everywhere, and the Times does a bit of hammering on the "predatory equity" topic. It ain't pretty for Vantage Properties, which has been in the news about harassment before and gets the dreaded Times chart treatment (right). They've purchased 9,200 rent-regulated units in Queens and Upper Manhattan with co-investor Apollo Management in just the past two years, and in one Queens complex with 2,124 apartments, nearly 1,000 housing court cases have been filed. Last month, a group of tenants sued Vantage, alleging that the company has engaged in deceptive practices that violate New York's consumer protection laws.
· Questions of Rent Tactics by Private Equity [NYT]
· Annual Rent War Theater Lacks Drama This Year [Curbed]
CitySpecific has an update on a slew of Washington Heights/Inwood real estate projects, and while the headline "WaHI development roundup" would normally put us to sleep faster than a Matlock rerun, this one includes a vital update on everyone's favorite Hudson Heights high-rise: Fort Tryon Tower. Well, formally Fort Tryon Tower we should say, because apparently the 25-story apartment building at Overlook Terrace and 184th Street is now called One Bennett Park (how very Manhattan!), with every mention of the former having been wiped off the Internet. The 114-unit building should open in Fall 2009. Why do we love this building ever so much? Because it's 25 stories in freakin' Hudson Heights, and because we found out about it when a Curbed reader stumbled upon the model while touring the famed Pumpkin House. You just can't write a better Matlock script than that.
· WaHI development roundup [CitySpecific]
· CurbedWire: A-Train Rumors [Curbed]
· CurbedWire: Big Rocks in Hudson Heights [Curbed]
1) The book is now closed on the curious case of the penthouse at 111 Central Park North. The building that made Harlem safe for luxury development (and Esquire magazine) reportedly set a Harlem record when the penthouse closed for $8.5 million, but the listing soon popped back up with Halstead for $12 million. It turns out the buyers had agreed to pay the full asking price, under the condition they could flip the sucker before closing. It never sold, and the owners gave up their 10% deposit under heavy speculation they didn't have the cash to close the deal. Now, a new buyer has ponied up $8 million—still a Harlem record, but this thing feels more used up than a Spitzer dinner date. [Big Deal/Josh Barbanel]
2) A little-discussed subplot of the subprime mortgage crisis: what happens when landlords lose their properties? Renters get screwed. [Even Renters Aren't Safe/Elizabeth A. Harris]
Comments
1) The leading concrete testing company in the New York area, Testwell Laboratories, is under investigation for failing to perform some tests and falsifying others on some major construction projects, including the Freedom Tower and the new Yankee Stadium. The Yankees and the Port Authority both say the concrete used for their projects is sound and poses no safety threat, but yikes! Investigators took 200 boxes of documents and computers from a pair of Testwell offices, as well as from a trailer at Yankee Stadium. ['Company Hired to Test Concrete Faces Scrutiny'] 
In terms of cultural cachet, Washington Heights has never been hotter. The Broadway musical based on life in the neighborhood, In The Heights, just won the Tony for Best Musical (right). Vampire Weekend, a band popular with the kids, namechecked the 'hood in their recent single, "A-Punk." Yes indeed, the residents of Manhattan's northern hinterlands must be flying high with community pride, which makes it a perfect time for the Central Park Conservancy to ask them for money. 
Even though the first of three Rent Guidelines Board hearings into rent increases for stabilized apartments was 
