The High Line

As new developments rise along the High Line in West Chelsea, families are flocking to them, the New York Times reported.

A lack of family-sized apartments Downtown has sent prices for luxury condominiums surging past those of Uptown and Midtown. One of the most sought-after neighborhoods is West Chelsea, as the High Line’s elevated parkland continues to drive development. [more]

Chelsea’s Onyx (credit: PropertyShark)

A Chelsea condo that had a cameo role in a money-laundering drama involving a former president of Taiwan, will be sold, Our Bottom Line reported. [more]

MNS’ Chelsea and Gramercy locations, Jennifer Johnsen and Alex Cho (inset)

While gearing up to open its newest Williamsburg outpost, residential real estate brokerage MNS has also been reshuffling personnel at two of its other offices. The goal is to consolidate its rental division at one location and build a more cohesive sales and rental team in its Chelsea retail space. [more]

A view north from Chelsea

A major new pipeline that will bring natural gas into New York City has Chelsea residents fearful of a potential explosion, DNAinfo reported.

At a Community Board 4 meeting attended by DNAinfo Wednesday, members focused on a stretch of the project on 10th Avenue between Gansevoort and West 15th Streets. The infrastructure for the pipeline – which will run 20 miles from Linden, N.J. to Manhattan and bring in 800 million cubic feet of gas daily — is being built by Houston-based Spectra Energy, and members blasted both Spectra and Con Edison for what they said was a failure to demonstrate the system’s safety.  [more]

From left: Peter Von Der Ahe, Chelsea Muse exterior and interior and Joseph Koicim

Tavros Capital Partners has purchased the Chelsea Muse, a luxury mixed-use building located at 537 West 27th Street, for $27.5 million, The Real Deal has learned. The sellers were Ekstein Development, RD Management and L&M Development Partners. The deal closed on December 20. [more]

92 Eighth Avenue

Powerful wind gusts from Hurricane Sandy have ripped a portion of the façade from a Chelsea apartment building, DNAinfo reported. The top two floors of the four-story structure resembled the backside of doll’s house Monday evening — with nothing separating the interior bedrooms from the elements.

The building is located at 92 Eighth Avenue at 14th Street. Pieces of the partially collapsed façade fell to the street below at about 6:30 p.m., the FDNY and the city’s Office of Emergency Management told DNAinfo.No one inside the building or nearby was injured in the incident, the site said. [more]

From left: Sharif El-Gamal and 31 West 27th Street (credit:PropertyShark)

The San Francisco-based Walnut Hill Group has purchased Sharif El-Gamal’s 12-story Chelsea office building at 31 West 27th Street.

It was the second purchase by Walnut Hill in Manhattan. In February 2011, the company acquired the Holiday Inn Express hotel building at 15 West 45th Street in Times Square, in a joint venture with minority partner Magna Hospitality Group. [more]

From left: the Maritime Hotel and the Dream Downtown

West 16th Street is gearing up to become much more of a nighttime destination, DNAinfo reported, but don’t expect to see long lines of late-night revelers awaiting entry to new hot spots between Eighth and Ninth avenues.

The block already has the Dream Downtown and Maritime, which are both hotels. But recent additions include the new Bungalow 8, which is called No. 8. As previously reported, plans for No. 8 were announced in late April of this year. When Community Board 4 found out that Amy Sacco would be behind the operation, an agreement was reached in support of a name change for the club and that Sacco would not be involved. [more]

Ira Glass and the exterior and interior of the Chelsea Carriage House

Ira Glass, the longtime host of the public radio show “This American Life,” has purchased a one-bedroom apartment at the newly built Chelsea Carriage House for $1.27 million, according to public records filed with the city today.

Glass, who has hosted the popular show since its inception in 1995, closed on the unit May 30 with his wife, writer and editor Anaheed Alani. He paid slightly less than the asking price of $1.38 million. [more]

Rendering of Chelsea Market expansion plans

Manhattan Community Board 4 will likely urge the city to reject Jamestown Properties’ controversial plan to expand Chelsea Market, unless the developer agrees to a series of costly conditions, Crain’s reported. The board is expected to ask Jamestown Properties to shrink a 250,000-square-foot addition to the property, on Ninth Avenue spanning West 15th and West 16th streets. It will also recommend that the developer donate to a local affordable housing fund, reserve space for independent businesses in Chelsea Market and seek landmark status for the building. But the most serious request is for Jamestown to eliminate its plans for a 90,000-square-foot, 12-story hotel nearby on Ninth Avenue. [more]