Battery Park City Authority CEO Gayle Horwitz and a rendering of ball fields on the community spaceAfter 43 years as the lead developer of Battery Park City, the Battery Park City authority is nearing completion of its last projects on the neighborhood built on landfill from the excavation of the original World Trade Center site.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a $50 million community center and sports facility will open in February, and later in 2012, the redevelopment of Pier A will be complete.

“We are closing one chapter as real-estate developer and opening a new chapter as a building manager,” said Gayle Horwitz, chief executive of the authority. [more]

From left: Developer Charles Blaichman, empty lot at 214 East 14th Street and Howard Milstein, CEO of Milstein Properties

Developer Charles Blaichman, owner of Chrystie Street-based CM Developers, may be tiring of the Chelsea real estate scene. Blaichman, who previously partnered with rapper Jay-Z for an ill-fated residential development at 345 West 14th Street and had an ownership stake in 500 West 21st Street before it was taken over by Sherwood Equities, has purchased three development sites on East 14th Street for $33.2 million, according to public records filed with the city today.

The sites, at 208 East 14th Street, 214 East 14th Street and 216 East 14th Street, are all vacant lots, according to data from PropertyShark.com, and have 1,755 square feet, 18,761 square feet and 2,426 square feet, respectively. [more]

Liberty Green and Liberty Luxe, erected on two remaining empty land
parcels in Battery Park City, have made significant progress, the New
York Times reported. Developed by Milstein Properties they are next
to each other on a shared plot of land, a block west of the West Side Highway on North End
Avenue. Residents began moving into the 22-story Liberty Green, which has 191
studios to three-bedroom apartments, in May. About half of the
apartments, which range in price from $3,350 a
month to $9,050 and up, were leased in July. [more]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has nominated developer Howard Milstein as the new chairman of the New York State Thruway Authority, overseeing both the Thruway and the 524 miles of the state’s canals, according to the New York Times. Milstein, who presides with his brother, Edward, over his family’s Manhattan real estate empire and is also the chairman and CEO of Emigrant Savings Bank, has donated generously to Cuomo’s campaigns and both he and his wife served on the governor’s transition team. Though the Thruway Authority position is unpaid, some watchdog groups immediately raised red flags about potential conflicts of interest between Milstein’s real estate holdings and economic development projects that might arise during his tenure, which Cuomo dismissed. [more]

30 Lincoln Plaza and Milstein CEO Howard Milstein

Five tenants at 30 Lincoln Plaza have filed suit against Milstein Properties alleging the firm previously sold condominium units to outside buyers at
huge discounts, but refused to offer the same deals to existing
residents, and now refuses to allow them to close on their purchase
agreements.

The suit, filed May 5 in New York State Supreme Court, alleges
fraud, breach of contract and other claims against the developer,
which owns the 33-story tower at 30 West 63rd Street, near Central
Park. [more]

Scratch that: Dominique Strauss-Kahn won’t be moving into the Upper East Side’s Bristol Plaza when he’s released from Rikers Island on $1 million bail, because once he was outed as the resident-to-be, the management balked. According to the Post, “someone high-profile in the building” pushed for Strauss-Kahn to be rejected as a tenant after hordes of reporters showed up at 210 East 65th Street today, waiting for the former International Monetary Fund managing director and alleged rapist to show. Strauss-Kahn’s wife, Anne Sinclair, had reportedly rented two apartments at the extended-stay hotel, where rooms go for between $8,800 and $14,200 per month, and had planned to have her husband stay in one of them while he awaited trial. Now, reports say Strauss-Kahn is heading to a corporate housing building in Lower Manhattan. [more]

Dominique Strauss-Kahn and images of Bristol Plaza

[Update: Bristol Plaza rejects Strauss-Kahn as a tenant. He's now headed to Lower Manhattan] Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief who was granted bail last night after being charged with sexually assaulting a Manhattan hotel maid, will be under house arrest at the Upper East Side’s Bristol Plaza as he awaits trial, multiple news outlets are reporting. The Milstein Properties luxe corporate rental building, which specializes in long-term stays and is attached to a sister condominium, offers apartments ranging from $8,800 per month for a studio to as much as $14,200 per month for a two-bedroom, as well as a 24-hour concierge, daily maid service and a swimming pool. [more]

With 2010 winding to a close, Crain’s has listed the notable New Yorkers who passed away this year, including some of the real estate industry’s biggest names. Among the fallen titans are Tishman Realty & Construction CEO Robert Tishman and billionaire Paul Milstein, co-founder of Milstein Properties, one of the city’s biggest development firms. [more]

While building and development projects stagnated across most of New York City during the financial crisis, Battery Park City has been largely unaffected, according to the Wall Street Journal. Over the past 10 years, nine residential buildings with 2,435 units have been built as part of a 40-year master plan developed through the state’s Battery Park City Authority. While hundreds of residents were displaced after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and many didn’t return, a combination of temporarily reduced rents, government subsidies and rebuilding funds helped to restore the neighborhood. The influx of new developments has caused apartment prices to drop 17 percent, according to the Real Estate Board of New York. On Battery Park’s last two developable sites, Milstein Properties is constructing two residential buildings that are slated for completion in 2011. In between the two buildings will be the 52,000-square-foot Battery Park City community center, which will have a pool and fitness center, a 156-seat theater and classrooms. [WSJ]

[more]

30 Lincoln Plaza and Howard Milstein, chairman of Milstein Properties

A state Supreme Court judge ruled against tenants at the 30 Lincoln Plaza condominium who filed suit to overturn Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s approval of the conversion despite outside buyers getting steep discounts.
More than two dozen tenants, led by Vera Salnikova, president of the 30 Lincoln Plaza tenant’s association, sued to overturn an earlier ruling by Cuomo in favor of the developer. Tenants asked the court to grant rescission of their condo purchases or an amendment to the offering plan, which was approved in August 2009. [more]