• 1. Developers try to make Murray Hill hip [NYMag]
• 2. Leonardo DiCaprio buys an apartment at Riverhouse, the LEED-certified gold Battery Park City development [NYMag]
• 3. Developer of controversial 340 Court Street presents to a tough crowd in Carroll Gardens [Gowanus Lounge]
• 4. Anti-Atlantic Yards protesters lambasted developer Bruce Ratner outside Brooklyn Museum [Brownstoner]
• 5. The new Center for New York City Neighborhoods,
  announced by Mayor Bloomberg in December, will be led by Michael
  Hickey, vice president for community development for Deutsche Bank [NYT]
• 6. The new look for the “Lollipop Building” at 2 Columbus Circle is slowly being revealed [Curbed]
• 7. Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Dolly Lenz downplays the first-quarter sales drop [Curbed]
• 8. Ousted Hotel Chelsea manager Stanley Bard re-appeared at the hotel with director Milos Forman [NYO] 

[more]

From the April issue: Conventional wisdom has predicted that
once Wall Street’s troubles manifest themselves in job losses, the
office market will begin to feel the heat. And last month saw Lehman
Brothers announce it will lay off 5 percent of its global workforce,
along with JPMorgan’s stunning purchase of Bear Stearns, with
predictions that at least one-third of the bought-out firm’s 14,000
employees will get cut. Adding to the grim news last month: Citigroup
reportedly said it would cut another 2,000 jobs, on top of a January
announcement of 4,200 layoffs. The layoffs, mostly in its investment
banking unit, will largely affect the bank’s New York and London
offices. And more pain is expected to be on the way.   [more]

From the April issue: Spring is in the air, bringing hope to
Manhattan real estate brokers that the traditionally busy season will
give a boost to a slow real estate market. But a seasonal uptick may
not be enough to spark a revival of a market dampened by the aftermath
of the credit crisis. “Historically, [April] begins the real ‘spring’
market after everyone has received their bonuses from the year before,
taken stock of their tax returns and the weather turns better,” said
John Wollberg, executive vice president of Atco Residential Group.
“This year, I would predict more of the same level as we saw in March.”
In anticipation of the traditionally busiest season of the year,
sellers have started putting their homes on the market, bumping up
inventory.   [more]

The school promised by developer Bruce Ratner as part of his Spring
Street tower in Lower Manhattan will open a year later than its
projected 2009 date. That’s despite the $680 million in financing that Ratner just secured for the Beekman Tower, as The Real Deal
reported. The Beekman Street School, which will sit at the base of
76-story Frank Gehry-designed tower, will have 630 pre-K through grade
8 students. Designs for the school will be unveiled in four to six
weeks. 
[more]

A subdued display of renderings at Madison Square Garden seems to have softened the stance of city, state and federal officials who opposed plans to renovate the old arena, instead of moving it to make way for the planned Moynihan Station, sources said. Insiders familiar with the negotiating process told The Real Deal that these public officials, who recently demanded that the Garden would have to accommodate Moynihan Station, are now shifting tack, suggesting that the train hub and the planned office development around it could move forward with the Garden in place. The Dolan family, which owns the Garden, broke on March 27 from talks about the plan to transform the Penn Station-Garden area, which faces a $2 billion funding shortfall. [more]

The Atlantic Yards “Miss Brooklyn” tower will be built and will “look
better than anyone imagines,” says the tower’s architect, Frank Gehry.
Doubts about whether the 511-foot tower would be built surfaced after
developer Bruce Ratner said recently that he would not build it before
he finds an anchor tenant. The tower, the gateway to Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project, will not, however, include a hotel component, as originally planned.
[more]

A citywide inspection sweep of several city construction sites found 28
percent of supported scaffolds and sidewalk sheds violated safety
codes, Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said. Out of 1,654
inspected sites, 44 percent of the violating sites had safety-related
issues, including improper installation or improperly braced
scaffolding. The inspections
were part of the Building Department’s Safety Analysis and Field
Evaluation Scaffold and Shed Initiative launched in February.
Violations were issued to 459 sites, and 210 sites were issued
stop-work orders. TRD
[more]

Retail development may finally catch up to the steady residential development
that has taken place along Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue. When the run-down
area, also known as “Brooklyn Boulevard,” first started getting new
residential developments after it was upzoned in 2003, most buildings
lacked in ground-floor retail.
However, as the residential buildings bring in tenants, the demand for
boutiques, bars, gyms and restaurants has increased, and the newest
developments are including basement gyms or restaurants or stores.
Developer Domenick Tonacchio’s 10-story building will feature
ground-floor retail and a gym, and Shloimy Reickhman’s 12-story
building will have 100 feet of retail frontage.  
[more]

Real estate agent Adam Modlin is one of maybe ten brokers in the city
who can tell you where Alex Rodriguez and Britney Spears sleep, but
he’s not about to tell anyone. The broker specializes in representing
celebrity buyers who usually wish to keep their purchases out of the
media. Modlin, who last year did more than $200 million in
transactions, is part of a small network of brokers involved in the higher-end
residences that personally contact each other about buyers and sellers
rather than jeopardize the clients’ privacy through listings. 
[more]

The April issue of The Real Deal’s South Florida edition is now online. It includes a look at former Sperry Van Ness president Jerry Anderson’s plans for the company’s expansion in Florida and a special section on how sellers have been forced by the slow market to get creative.