Mayor Bloomberg at Liberty Warehouse in Red Hook (Photo via the Epoch Times)

Tax bills for many of 88,000 Hurricane Sandy-hit homes and businesses will be reduced to account for property value losses, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday, according to Capital New York. [more]

From left: A Sandy-damaged Rockaways property and City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden

The Department of City Planning this week released its post-Sandy building-elevation plan that calls for zoning changes to allow for such alterations, Crain’s reported. Earlier this year the city waived some zoning rules to speed up recovery work, but now these zoning changes are set to become permanent city guidelines. [more]

A water tower in Chelsea (Credit: Night Heron Speakeasy)

RWN Real Estate Partners paying $3.8 million for 328 Bowery condo. Speakeasy in Chelsea water tower is far from underground. Seagate Beach Club in Coney Island to open in summer. High Line painting elevates dining experience at Colicchio & Sons in Chelsea “Improvements” to Penn Station would be hardly that: OPINION. Read these stories and more after the jump.

Rockaways boardwalk damage (source: WIVB)

With Memorial Day just around the corner, city workers are speeding to finish $270 million in post-Sandy repairs to get public beaches ready for their opening weekend, the New York Post reported.

“Reopening the beaches is a major focus for us every year, but Sandy just set the degree of difficulty beyond anything we’ve ever seen before,” Liam Kavanagh, first deputy commissioner of the city Parks Department, told the Post. [more]

From left: Gregory O’Connell Jr., chief financial officer at the O’Connell Organization, Two Trees’ Caroline Pardo and Brooklyn Rock

Seven months after Hurricane Sandy, many tenants along Brooklyn’s waterfront are still unable to pay rent or operate their businesses. But landlords in the borough – much more likely than their Manhattan counterparts to be small, local players – are finding creative ways to help tenants who are struggling to stay put, landlords told The Real Deal. [more]

New York City on the eve of Hurricane Sandy

Hundreds of New Yorkers who were displaced from their homes by Hurricane Sandy and are now living in city-paid hotel rooms won’t be forced to leave by the end of the month, according to a state supreme court judge ruling Wednesday seen by the Wall Street Journal. [more]

Rockaway Beach Boulevard after Hurricane Sandy

The city will sell the tax liens of hundreds of Hurricane Sandy-hit homeowners to debt collectors, the New York Daily News reported. [more]

Compromised crane at One57

A Midtown co-op is suing to stop Extell Development from installing a new crane boom to the top of its One57 condominium project, which would required a one-day evacuation of the building, the Wall Street Journal reported. [more]

Michael Gross and One57
(Gross photo source: Richard Lewin)

Real estate author Michael Gross is none too pleased that he is being asked to evacuate his home at the Alwyn Court co-ops at 180 West 58th Street once again, thanks to continued issues with the crane at nearby luxury tower One57, as he described in an opinion piece for the New York Times.

Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, the developer of the tower at 157 West 57th Street, offered $1,500 to each household at the Alwyn as compensation for the hassle of evacuating for the second time since Hurricane Sandy, when the crane boom cracked under the force of powerful winds. [more]

New York City on the eve of Hurricane Sandy

Thousands of co-op owners have been left without a crucial safety net in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, as a longstanding Federal Emergency Management Agency policy considers co-ops as businesses and leaves them ineligible for federal aid, the New York Times reported.  [more]