From left: David Kornmeier and 137 West 74th Street (credit: PropertyShark)

In the recent news flurry of record-breaking condominium and co-op sales, attention seemed to be drawn away from another notable purchase that quietly hit public records in late April. The price paid for the Upper West Side townhouse located at 137 West 74th Street doesn’t directly compare to the hefty amount exchanged for these other record-breaking purchases, but it does mark the highest price paid for an Upper West Side townhouse that isn’t located on a Central Park block. [more]

Picholine, at 35 West 64th Street

A nine-story Manhattan residential building — the longstanding home of the Michelin-starred restaurant Picholine — has sold for $26 million after a bidding war between real estate investors, sources told The Real Deal. A partnership of Astoria Realty Partners and Mornos Realty was the victorious party, purchasing 35 West 64th Street, between Central Park West and Broadway, according to Friedman-Roth Realty Services, which represented the buyer.  [more]

318 W. 75th St. (credit: PropertyShark)

An illegal hotel operating out of the Upper West Side last week became the latest victim of a new state law that’s cracking down on these facilities, the New York Press reported. Located at 318 West 75th Street, the landmarked five-story, 11-unit building had four of its units used as hotel rooms.

The rooms were advertised online at Airbnb.com, a travel site where owners can rent out their rooms or homes for short-term stays at a lower price than general hotel rates. [more]

From left: Shlomo Reuveni, the Windermere and the new Brooks Brothers

The Upper West Side is becoming more affluent, real estate brokers told the New York Daily News, and no where is that better reflected than in the neighborhood’s rising residential and retail rents. The News points to the Windermere, a rental building long in poor condition at 92nd Street and West End Avenue that Stellar Management recently upgraded. Apartments now rent for between $2,200 per month for a studio and $16,000 a month for a four- or five-bedroom home, under a marketing team led by Brown Harris Stevens’ Shlomi Reuveni. [more]

James Harmon & 32 W. 76th St.

The only thing that last month’s rent control lawsuit changed is the lives of the Upper West Side landlords who tried to bring the case to the Supreme Court, according to the New York Post. As a result, the landlords, James and Jeanne Harmon, may have to sell their townhouse, the focal point of the legal proceeding. [more]

From left: Warburg brokers Ronnie Lane and Bonnie Chajet, the exterior of 1030 Fifth Avenue and the interior of the ninth-floor unit

Having listed his six-bedroom unit in a pre-war Fifth Avenue building in January, cellular communications mogul George Blumenthal has succeeded in securing a quick sale. A deal for his 6,000-square-foot unit at 1030 Fifth Avenue hit public records today for $31.5 million, just $3.5 million less than the initial asking price. [more]

PS Marcato, the new elevator operation company that took over Transel Elevator in the wake of Young & Rubicam executive Suzanne Hart’s December death, now faces a lawsuit for a similar accident that occurred in July 2010 in another building, DNAinfo reported. The suit alleges that PS Marcato did not properly maintain, inspect and repair a freight elevator at 711 Amsterdam Avenue between 94th and 95th streets, which fell on a worker and left him paraplegic. [more]

From left: Aaron Jungreis of Rosewood and the three buildings at 65 West 91st Street, 393 West End Avenue and 55 West 92nd Street

[Updated at 1:55 p.m. with comment from Aaron Jungreis] The sale of three Upper West Side buildings once marketed as part of residential portfolio comprising four properties has closed for a combined price of approximately $145.5 million, according to Aaron Jungreis, founder of Rosewood Realty Group, who brokered the deal. [more]

From left: exterior and interior shots of 342-350 West 71st Street

An affiliate of property owner Icon Realty Management paid $18.5 million for three adjacent Upper West Side single-room occupancy buildings with a combined 365 units that had been used for years as an informal hotel. The purchase price was about half that offered by another buyer five years earlier. Much of the decline in value followed a May 2011 state law that bans renting rooms in Class A residential buildings for less than 30 days. [more]

Manhattan Beep Scott Stringer

Now that support for the Upper West Side retail rezoning has moved beyond local advocates and to the borough president’s office, other communities are beginning to consider similar legislation.

Crain’s reported that community boards in Tribeca, the East Village and Upper East Side are weighing restricting storefronts in order to preserve mom-and-pop shops and encourage a particular set of retail tenants. The Tribeca and East Village-Lower East Side advocates are focusing on the loss of local businesses and the saturation of night life in the areas. [more]