After grabbing Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park from the state, Mayor Bloomberg has now set his sights on a new acquisition: Battery Park City. Bloomberg’s office asked Comptroller John Liu earlier this year to study the feasibility of taking over Battery Park City, which is now under the state’s jurisdiction
The federal Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that it was designating the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn a contaminated Superfund site, opening the way for a cleanup of the long-polluted waterway.
The U.S. economy expanded at a 5.9 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, more than the government reported last month, reflecting stronger business investment and a greater contribution from inventories.
“Although the federal funds rate is likely to remain exceptionally low for an extended period, as the expansion matures, the Federal Reserve will at some point need to begin to tighten monetary conditions to prevent the development of inflationary pressures,” Mr. Bernanke said in a prepared statement.
New-home sales unexpectedly fell to a new low in January while mortgage applications dropped last week to the lowest level since 1997, according to data released by the Commerce Department. The reports rekindled worries that a turnaround for the housing market would be elusive in an era of high unemployment and huge debt burdens.
The Case-Schiller housing price indexes were released this morning, and both the Composite 10 (C-10) and the Composite 20 (C-20) showed monthly increases of 0.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis.
With much self-congratulatory fanfare, Citigroup (C) announced a new program to help itself maximize profits on foreclosures – as it boots one American family after another onto the streets.Citigroup's “generous” offer allows foreclosure victims to stay in their homes for up to six months, along with a grand sum of $1,000 to help their victims try to start over again. In return for Citi's generosity, the homeowner agrees to sign over title of the property to Citigroup – and thus Citi avoids a formal, foreclosure proceeding.
The good news continues rolling in for home builders, who hope they’ve hit bottom and are in recovery mode. But, as we’ve told you before, headwinds remain for the beleaguered sector. Bank of America Merrill Lynch started seven builders with a “buy” rating, a bullish view based “on an expectation of growth in 2010 driven by improving economic conditions.
Mortgage-loan applications dipped 2.1% for the week ended Feb. 12, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports. This comes as the average mortgage rate for 30-year fixed loans remained flat at 4.94%, with a slight increase in points.
Shane Ojar, a deputy director of the city’s Department of Design and Construction, told Community Board 1’s Tribeca Committee on Feb. 17 that a five-and-a-half-year replacement of water mains in northern Tribeca could start by the end of the summer. In addition, he said, crews will begin a three-year overhaul a five-block-long stretch of Chambers Street in early April that will narrow the street to one lane for the duration of the project.
A concrete testing company and its owner were convicted on Wednesday of filing false test reports on various projects throughout New York, including the new Yankee Stadium, the Freedom Tower and the Second Avenue subway line.
Newly released aerial photographs of the World Trade Center terror attack capture the towers’ collapse, from just after the first fiery plane strike to the dust clouds that spread over Lower Manhattan and New York harbor. The images were taken from a police helicopter carrying the only photographer allowed in the air space near the towers on Sept. 11, 2001. They were obtained by ABC News after it filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year.
It is on the table. In the governor's cross hairs are loans for co-ops, which have long been free of taxation, while taxes on equivalent condos and houses run between 2.05 percent and 2.175 percent of any mortgage. The budget seeks to allow the city to slap this mortgage recording tax onto co-ops, swinging the tax lasso around a cash source that has been eyed-but untouched-by city officials since at least the days of Ed Koch.
Sam Zell--the self-proclaimed "grave dancer" with a history of swooping in on the carcasses of struggling businesses--is now picking at the Manhattan real estate market. Yesterday, Mr. Zell's company Equity Residential fleshed out its plans in Chelsea, which were reported by the NY Post. His company Equity Residential said it plans 111 market-rate apartments and nearly 10,000 square feet of retail space in the Chelsea neighborhood at the southwest corner of 10th Avenue and 23rd Street.
This is an investment-led recovery. Asset prices have rallied strongly from their March 09 lows and corporations have done a phenomenal job of quickly cutting costs and returning to profitability. The casualties reside with the U.S. Government and the U.S. consumer.
The unemployment rate unexpectedly dipped to 9.7 percent in January, from 10 percent in December, the government reported Friday, buoying hopes that the worst job market in at least a quarter-century is finally improving. Growth in manufacturing and part-time employment raised hopes, despite the loss of 20,000 more nonfarm jobs in January.
If you were worried the job market was starting to deteriorate again, today’s employment report lets you stop worrying. The job market is still improving. Among the other positive signs, the workweek increased, and the average hourly wage growth picked up a bit. The number of people working part-time because they couldn’t find full-time work dropped by more than 800,000. These are all signs that the economy is turning.
Tenants of Independence Plaza North have been arguing for years that their apartments should be rent-stabilized — and now U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is taking up the cause. Bharara’s office wants to recover tens of millions of dollars the federal government paid I.P.N. owner Laurence Gluck to support the Tribeca apartment complex’s low-income tenants. Bharara, in New York’s Southern District, also wants many of I.P.N.’s 1,339 apartments declared rent-stabilized.
Ending months of speculation and battles that divided Lower Manhattan, the District 2 Community Education Council voted Wednesday night for school zoning Option 2. The board’s vote means that all Tribeca children west of Church St. will be zoned for P.S. 234. Children in east Tribeca and the Seaport will attend the Spruce Street School; the Financial District south of Liberty St. and Battery Park City south of Albany St. will attend P.S./I.S. 276; and north Battery Park City and Gateway Plaza will attend P.S. 89.
J. D. Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for not wanting to be famous, died Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91
