From left: Michael Hirtenstein (credit: Hamptons Magazine ) and a rendering of One57

Gary Barnett has returned New York property investor Michael Hirtenstein’s One57 contract and deposit, after Hirtenstein admitted to bribing a construction worker to film the view from what would have been his future apartment, according to the New York Post. Barnett has been strict about not letting his buyers view their apartments before completion. After Hirtenstein complained to Extell that his view of Central Park was obscured by Essex House, Barnett returned his contract and deposit.

Barnett claims that he rejected Hirtenstein on principle, and that it had nothing to do with Hirtenstein paying a construction worker $200 to secretly film the unit, according to the Post. [more]

Extell’s Dan Tubb and new renderings of One57

A film produced by the marketing team at One57 is helping the building rake in as much money as any Hollywood blockbuster, according to the New York Post. The short film promotional film shown to Extell Development’s prospective buyers begins with the completed building emerging from water.

According to the Post, as water shoots up into the air, forming the blue-glass building, intercuts of a beautiful evening-dressed woman are shown. The woman is seen strolling through a massive apartment with a view of Central Park and in another cut she goes down the elevator from the 90th floor to get into an awaiting black sedan. [more]

From the October issue:

Brokers Nikki Field and Kevin Brown of Sotheby’s International Realty at the construction site at One57

Extell Development’s new luxury condo tower, One57, has already done some $1 billion in sales, and most of its überwealthy buyers have had to envision their new apartments from floor plans and renderings.

But a few lucky buyers — and their brokers — have had the chance to visit the building’s construction site, sampling the views from the top floors of the 1,000-foot-high glass tower, which will be the tallest residential skyscraper in Manhattan when it’s completed in 2013. [more]

Gary Barnett and One57

The so called “billionaire’s club” that has recently formed on the top 15 floors of Midtown’s One57 building, has developer Gary Barnett worried about a possible “gripe fest,” according to the New York Times. Several of the new owners of the building’s top sections have commissioned their own
designers to finish their full-floor apartments and the construction could become a potential disturbance to their well-heeled and fussy neighbors.

“This was a major, major issue for us,” Barnett said. “We don’t want our people who are buying and accepting our finishes to be sitting there for three or four years while tons of construction goes on in the building and people build out their spaces. It ties up elevators and creates dust and noise. We are doing everything possible to avoid that.” [more]

From left: Silas Chou, One57 and Lawrence Stroll

Despite unprecedented interest in the building’s pricing and sales figures, the actual identity of buyers into Extell Development’s One57 condominium have been kept close at bay. But the New York Times confirmed the identity of two billionaire buyers of $50 million One57 apartments — bringing the number of known buyers in the development to three. [more]

From left: Prime Minister Sheik Hamad and a rendering of the One57 penthouse

Extell Development has denied reports that the Prime Minister of Qatar made any purchases in the One57 condominium building, in an email sent to the press, let alone $250 million worth of them. Yesterday, a report said Prime Minister Sheik Hamad was the buyer of the 10,923-square-foot penthouse and four other units in the building. [more]

Faith Hope Consolo and scaffolding instead of storefronts on West 57th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues

Nordstrom’s deal for a 300,000-square-foot department store on West 57th Street may be exactly what was needed to help advance the retail scene on one of Manhattan’s most storied streets, according to the New York Post.

The thoroughfare is riddled with empty storefronts because landlords refuse to reduce their asking rents to reflect the current reality. “Generally, no landlords on 57th Street adjusted their rents during the downturn,” said Faith Hope Consolo, who heads Prudential Douglas Elliman’s retail leasing division. [more]

Qatar Prime Minister Sheik Hamad, a rendering of One57 and a rendering of its penthouse

The prime minister of Qatar has negotiated deals to by about $250 million worth of apartments in Extell Development’s One57 tower, including a nearly $100 million penthouse, the New York Post reported. Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani turned his attention to Gary Barnett’s building after his bid to buy Huguette Clark’s Fifth Avenue penthouse for $31.5 million was rejected by the co-op board. [more]

One Hyde Park

Gary Barnett offers proof for the real reason why the developers behind London’s exclusive One Hyde Park backed out of their One57 purchase (hint: it wasn’t the elevators). A handful of economists explain why they disagree with Paul Krugman’s assertion that more inflation would help boost the housing market. An old townhouse on the Upper East Side collapses and injures four workers. The three big mistakes real estate agents frequently make on Twitter. Robert Marc opens his fifth store on Madison Avenue. Finally, Aptsandlofts.com President David Maundrell says Bushwick and Cobble Hill are the city’s up-and-coming neighborhoods. Read these stories and more after the jump.

A Nordstrom store (left), Gary Barnett (center) and Bloomberg with Peter Nordstrom (right)

Additional details on Nordstrom’s agreement with Extell Development to take seven floors — some 285,000 square feet — at a planned mixed-use tower on West 57th Street were released today.

The tower, which will be completed in 2017 or 2018, and sits between Seventh Avenue and Broadway, was just “better” for Nordstrom than the Hudson Yards, where Nordstrom also considered putting a Manhattan store, Nordstrom’s director of merchandizing, Peter Nordstrom said. [more]