The Whitman at 21 East 26th Street and Chelsea Clinton (inset)

Chelsea Clinton and husband Marc Mezvinsky have plunked down $10.5 million for an apartment  across from Madison Square Park, the New York Post reported.

The deal for the home in The Whitman,  at 21 East 26th Street, closed last month. The  5,000-square-foot apartment has four bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms, and the living room boasts sweeping views of the park. Elliman’s Melanie Lazenby, profiled last year in The Real Deal, and Dina Lewis had the listing.  [more]

Office towers around Bryant Park

The city’s commercial retail insiders sometimes bemoan required investment into nearby green spaces, but a new CBRE Group report cited by the Wall Street Journal show those short-term outlays pay off in the long-run. Office buildings that sit directly across from the recently improved Bryant Park, Madison Square Park, High Line, Hudson River Park and Battery Park command rents 44 percent higher than do similar properties nearby that lack park frontage. [more]

Madison Square Park

Credit Suisse has issued a request for proposals for nearly 3 million square feet of office space it intends to lease when its current space is up, in 2017, a source told the Wall Street Journal.

The Swiss financial services firm currently leases three spaces — all near Madison Square Park —  at 11 Madison Avenue, 1 Madison Avenue and 315 Park Avenue South, the Journal said. Although Credit Suisse has long been represented by CBRE, it is looking to undergo a complete review of its office spaces in New York City, and possibly consolidate them in one building, the Journal said. [more]

21 East 26th Street (credit: PropertyShark)

The developers of a Madison Square Park building — slated to be featured on the television series “Million Dollar Listing,” according to reports — have received a $26 million construction loan to proceed with their plans to convert the building to condominiums, The Real Deal has learned.

Developer David Mitchell, of Mitchell Holdings, secured the loan from Joseph Merrill Capital, a New York-based real estate investment banking firm. Mitchell bought the building, located at 21 East 26th Street at the park’s north end, for $13.2 million last year from the plumbers’ union, according to city records. [more]

Steve Ross is the latest developer angling for a piece of One Madison Park, the skinny glass condo at 23 East 22nd Street that’s been mired in lawsuits since its owners ran out of cash in 2009. According to the Wall Street Journal, Ross’ Related Companies is working on a bid with Amalgamated Bank, one of the project’s junior lenders, to wrest control of the property through a buyout of senior lender iStar Financial’s debt. The Amalgamated plan was revealed in yet another lawsuit filed yesterday by Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital, which is expected to submit an official rescue plan for One Madison to federal bankruptcy court in Delaware within days. … [more]

Rodrigo Nino of Prodigy International and the William Beaver House

William Beaver House, the André Balazs-designed Financial District condominium that was just bailed out by the Los Angeles-based CIM Group, is going partially rental under its new ownership.

The 333-unit tower, which had been facing a foreclosure lawsuit prior to the takeover, was part of a three-piece deal in which CIM agreed to buy the debt on two troubled Sapir Organization buildings (Trump Soho and Beaver House) and take an equity stake in another (11 Madison Avenue), sources said. As the Wall Street Journal reported earlier today, CIM purchased the loan on over 200 unsold condos at the Beaver House and subsequently took ownership through a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure.
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New Yorkers will be able to enjoy a variety of burgers in 2010 with the opening of a number of burger restaurants in Manhattan.

Elevation Burger, the Virginia-based chain specializing in an organic, grass-fed, free-range burger, has signed a lease for its first location at 103 West 14th Street in Union Square. The 1,900-square-foot restaurant will seat 50 to 60 guests. The restaurant, which will also have an outdoor café, is scheduled to open in May.

Also in May, Stephen Hanson and B. R. Guest Restaurants’, Bill’s Bar & Burger is scheduled to open in Rockefeller Center. The company has signed a lease for 10,000 square feet of space on the street and concourse levels at 50th and 51st streets, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. The first Bill’s Bar & Burger opened in October 2009 in the Meatpacking District, as The Real Deal reported in “Burger Joints Supersizing“ in that month’s issue. … [more]

Burger chain phenom Shake Shack has grand plans for its pending Nolita location at 47 Prince Street on the corner of Mulberry Street. The spot will feature a 30-person rooftop terrace for diners, according to papers recently filed with the Department of Buildings. The Nolita storefront will be the fourth New York City outpost for the chain, whose current locations include 366 Columbus Avenue at West 77th Street, Madison Square Park at the corner of Madison Avenue and East 23rd Street, and Citi Field. The burger chain has made wave this year, with the announcement of its Miami expansion, and the recent rumors of a possible Financial District outpost in the future.

Architect Stanford White (left) had an affair with actress Evelyn Nesbit (right) at 22 West 24th Street

A Flatiron District parcel where one of the early 20th century’s most important architects, Stanford White, had sexual dalliances with a 16-year-old mistress, is facing a tax lien foreclosure. The owner of the parcel at 22 West 24th Street has not paid real estate taxes in years, and now owes $82,987, a June 12 lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court alleges. But the banal mechanisms of the court process mask a tumultuous period for the address, beginning with a fire in 2003 that badly burned the building and its owner. Four years later, in 2007, the building collapsed. … [more]

On a recent episode of the “Open House NYC” TV series, brokers estimated what a one-bedroom prewar loft near Madison Square Park is worth. The seller bought the home last year for $1.3 million, and is hoping to sell for close to that price. Wendy Sarasohn, a broker with the Corcoran Group, priced the home at $1.15 million and Brian Lewis of Halstead Property said he would list it for $995,000. Barbara Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Group, said the apartment is competing with a two-bedroom home two floors higher in the same building, which is priced at $950,000. Corcoran suggested pricing the home at $850,000 to attract more buyers.

… [more]