Clean-up time … and more

1. Mortgage companies are getting stuck with stiff fees from
cities that are cleaning up vacant foreclosed properties [WSJ]
2. City Sports has signed a lease for a three-story store at 64 West 48th Street,
near the NBC Studios [Post, 3^rd item]
3. Merrill Lynch’s firesale of battered subprime securities
raises questions for the rest of the lending industry [NYT]
4. A Baltimore developer is
creating a $300 million mixed-use development in a rusting section of Providence [NYT]
5. California-based department-store chain Mervyn’s has filed
for bankruptcy, blaming the housing bust and credit crunch [Post] and [WSJ]
6. Park Slope’s last butcher shop will close after the landlord
refused to extend its lease [NYDN]
7. A Far Rockaway resident is determined to preserve the peninsula’s old bungalows [NYDN]
8. Mortgage applications have hit their lowest level this year [AP via NYDN]
9. Home sales are down in the Hamptons [Newsday] and [Bloomberg]
10. A glut of vacation homes around the country is driving down
home values [AP via Newsday]
11. Manhattan’s
office vacancies keep going up [NYO]
12. Susan de Franca, president of Related Residential Sales, discusses
marketing and selling luxury condos at One Astor Place and the Brompton [NYO]
13. Hip hoteliers like Jason Pomeranc and Andre Balazs are in no
hurry to finish their new hotels on time [NYO]