The New York City School Construction Authority has purchased the first five stories of New York by Gehry for a shade over $76 million, according to public records filed today. The 100,000-square-foot space will continue to house PS 397 Spruce Street School, an early childhood and elementary school that has leased the site at 12 Spruce Street since the 76-story tower opened in 2011. The SCA’s purchase comes just over a week after developer Forest City Ratner sold a 49 percent stake in the tower for roughly $250 million to mammoth pension fund TIAA-CREF…. [more]

From left: Cliff Finn, 8 Spruce Street and the Woolworth Building

The area around City Hall, known as Civic Center, is flourishing, according to the New York Post, which caught up with the trend and attributed it to the New York by Gehry rental building. Once far off the radar for well-heeled Manhattan apartment-hunters, the neighborhood north of the Financial District near the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge has lured large new developments of late, and retail is sure to follow, the Post said.

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From left: New York by Gehry and One MiMA Tower

Three-quarters of Manhattan residents are renters, but only the smallest fraction of them pay more than $30,000 per month. Those renters are usually staying in townhouses or condominium penthouses, and are often there on a short-term basis, waiting out renovations to their homes, delaying the buying process, or looking for a luxury stop amid a road-warrior lifestyle, according to the New York Times.

But for the first time, Manhattan’s rental buildings are also offering super-expensive apartments to lure wealthy people who are determined renters. [more]

From left: Window washers, New York by Gehry and the Time Warner Center

One industry that has been quietly benefitting from the city’s increasingly glassy skyline is the window-washing industry. The New York Times reported that window washer services have been in higher demand of late, as professionals are needed to maintain the city’s growing population of tall steel and glass buildings.

Whereas windows in brick-clad buildings can usually be cleaned by an entrepreneurial superintendent from the inside, and the structures’ remaining facades are rarely scrubbed, glass and steel buildings present a completely different set of complications. [more]

From the May issue: With so many luxury rentals on the market in New York, advertising plays a key role in persuading tenants to pick one building over another. This month, The Real Deal dissected an advertisement to find out how marketers of new rental buildings convince potential tenants to click on a website, check out an apartment and (hopefully) sign a lease.

This ad, called “Declare your independence,” is part of the much buzzed-about campaign for New York by Gehry, the 76-story FiDi rental tower at 8 Spruce Street that hit the market in February 2011, and is now almost 80 percent leased. [more]

Kathy Braddock

State-of-the-art fitness centers and outdoor spaces double as the most sought after and most frequent amenities in luxury Manhattan residential buildings. But according to the New York Times a decidedly low-tech amenity is gaining traction among buyers and developers are responding. They’re bringing libraries to their buildings.

Extell Development is bringing one to its high-profile One57 condominium and the the Toll Brothers are doing the same with their forthcoming Touraine condo on the Upper East Side. [more]

New York by Gehry, currently the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere, is premiering three penthouses in the next six to eight weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported.

And those residents — who will be paying between $40,000 and $60,000 per month, as The Real Deal has previously reported — will have a celebrity neighbor: Frank Gehry himself, according to the Journal. [more]

From left: Rushmore, Aldyn and New York by Gehry (credit: Gehry Partners, LLP)

Wall Street professionals are accounting for less business in the residential sales and rental markets, as banks slash pay and jobs, and brokerages have begun shifting their focus towards home hunters in the technology, media and entertainment industries.

Citing data from Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, Crain’s reported that just 24 percent of the brokerage’s new luxury condominium buyers in 2011 worked in finance, compared to 35 percent in 2006 and 2007. [more]

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From left: David LaRue of Forest City Enterprises, 8 Spruce Street and DKLB BKLN

Forest City Enterprises and National Real Estate Advisors announced agreements to restructure the financing at 8 Spruce Street, the Frank Gehry-designed 76-story rental tower in Lower Manhattan and at DKLB BKLN the luxury tower in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, saving the companies hundreds of millions of dollars in debt payments.
The development is key for Forest City, the parent firm of Forest City Ratner, as this $876 million rental tower, formerly known as the Beekman, was under pressure to bring in enough renters to become profitable in a market that is just getting its sea legs.

“By extending the bank credit facilities, it allows for additional time for economic conditions and rents to further improve before refinancing is necessary,” said David LaRue, CEO of Forest City Enterprises, in a statement…. [more]

Famed architect Frank Gehry celebrated his 82nd birthday this past Saturday during a fete on the 76th floor of New York by Gehry, the starchitect’s latest project located at 8 Spruce Street in Lower Manhattan. Among the guests at the party (see photos above), held in a penthouse unit inside the newly opened rental tower, were numerous stars of the art, music and real estate worlds, including actress Candice Bergen, singer Bono and Forest City Ratner CEO Bruce Ratner, which developed the 903-unit building. TRD