Don Peebles and a rendering of his plans for the Harlem site

Don Peebles of the Peebles Corporation, America’s largest African American-owned development company, has well and truly planted his flag in Manhattan. Peebles moved with his family to the city last year to oversee his company’s entry into the New York market, where it plans to make a name for itself by building iconic developments in emerging neighborhoods.

Based at 600 Madison Avenue, the firm has begun scouting what will be its first few Manhattan projects. In addition to a Financial District condominium, Peebles has submitted a proposal to the city’s Economic Development Corporation for the disposition of three city-owned office buildings in Lower Manhattan. [more]

Mitt Romney

Republicans are set to officially oppose the mortgage-interest tax deduction, Bloomberg News reported, a policy seen as crucial to the health of the housing market. Party platform drafters, working to prepare the platform ahead of next Monday’s Republican National Convention, are eliminating the measure as part of what party leaders say is an effort to make the tax code “simple, flat and fair.” [more]

From the August issue: While the Manhattan office-leasing market has been stuck in neutral all summer and has been dealing with Wall Street’s shrinking footprint, real estate professionals say it’s also suffering because of the uncertain outcome surrounding November’s presidential election.

Marc Holliday, CEO of the city’s largest office landlord SL Green Realty, told analysts late last month that Manhattan tenants are holding off on leasing decisions until voters decide whether to give President Barack Obama four more years in the White House or replace him with GOP contender Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. That is, he said, despite growth in New York City office employment. [more]

Cassa Hotel & Residences, the penthouse and Ichiro Suzuki

Ichiro Suzuki, the newest member of the Yankees, has apparently beefed up his search for a Manhattan residence.

The baseball star, who joined the Bronx Bombers earlier this month, had already hired celebrity broker Adam Modlin to help him find a rental within easy commuting distance to Yankee Stadium, as The Real Deal reported. But he has also enlisted the services of several other brokers — including two from Prudential Douglas Elliman and one from Platinum Properties — who recently lined up showings at the Cassa Hotel & Residences at 70 West 45th Street, The Real Deal has learned. [more]

From left: Mitt Romney and his debt clock (credit: Mitt Romney campaign site), the debt clock erected by Seymour Durst and Seymour Durst 

The Durst Organization, a long-time supporter of Democratic politicians, has inadvertently made a contribution to Republican’s Mitt Romney campaign — in the form of a clock design, the New York Observer reported.

Romney’s clock looks similar in both format and color to the one that late developer Seymour Durst erected in 1989 in front of Bryant Park to depict the increasing national debt. Romney uses his as a prop to “represent President Obama’s economic failures,” Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein said. [more]