Lehman Looks at Expensive New Space

Bankrupt Lehman is shopping for Manhattan Office Space:

The bankruptcy proceeding requires Lehman to dispose of its old space, so staying put in their current office is not an option. The failed investment bank is currently looking to lease somewhere between 150,000 to 250,000 square feet of space in Manhattan.
Why not move to Jersy City, LIC or better yet...how about Las Vegas?

Perez Left NYC After Bankruptcy

Guess who filed for bankruptcy in 2005 when he was living in NYC. Gossip-hound Perez Hilton, aka Mario Lavandeira, lost it all three years ago and gave up life in New York. As a student at New York University, he had a little too much fun with his credit cards and was forced to declare bankruptcy. He was ahead of the pack even then.

If he can bounce back then so can you. Our advice...go to an open house and make an offer on the home of your dreams. What do you have to loose? If this guy can bounce back then there is hope for the rest of us too.

Director Lists $28.5 Million "Fixer-Upper"

We know that the Italian film producer Vittorio Cecchi Gori made a little money from his movie Il Postino, but we had no idea tat he was actually rich. He placing his gutted apartment on the market for a cool $28.5 million. The construction ready penthouse is in the Trump International Hotel & Tower. The Donald himself almost moved into the 5,500 sq ft unit himself when the building first opened. Lucky real estate brokers were even entertained there during the launch party for the building. The 20 foot ceiling and incredible views are said to be amazing.


When the 5,500-square-foot unit with 20-foot ceilings and amazing south, east and west views was first completed with a seven-bedroom, six-bath floor plan, Donald Trump threw a splashy press event there and said he was considering moving in himself.

See the listing Prudential Douglas Elliman

Sam Talbot is Moving to NYC

Sam Talbot, the Top Chef contestant who has been cooking in Montauk lately, has signed on as the chef at a seafood restaurant in the Mondrian Hotel, opening late next year at 150 Lafayette, on the edge of Chinatown.

This begs the question, what will he be doing until then? Late 2009 seems like a long way away. Foodies may remember that he announced plans to become the chef at the LES restaurant, Spitzer’s, but that never actually materialized.

Visit his current restaurant The Surf Lodge

2008 NY Real Estate Numbers Down 90%

Bloomberg News has reported:

Only 20 property sales worth $5 million or more closed in the fourth quarter and there were only 250 such deals in the year.

Fourth-quarter Manhattan transactions totaled $961 million, down 90 percent from the same period a year ago.

Office space is in even worse shape. The Observer recently reported that Manhattan has seen only nine “office” space transactions of more than $2.5 million this quarter. If you aren't sure how bad that is, consider that during the last quarter of 2007, NY had 41 such transactions. including the $1 billion Americas Tower at 1177 Sixth Avenue and the $1.15 billion Helmsley Building at 230 Park Avenue .

Brooklyn Developer Gives Up

We expect to see more of this in 2009. A developer has given up and is selling a half finished apartment building. This one is a 33 unit building in Crown Heights. It is a handyman's special with an asking price is only $8.5 million. Brownstoner did the match and it works out to somewhere between $200 and $250 per foot. We agree with them that the asking price is way too high. We'll predict a selling price closer to $5.5 million.

The listing details: 7-story building for sale in construction process / 33 apartments & 17 parking spaces / 24 apts have balconies.

see the listing

Pennsylvania 6–5000

A closer look before it's lost:

Built in 1919 by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the Hotel Pennsylvania was the largest hotel in the world at the time of it's opening. The hotel was designed by the prominent architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White, which also completed landmark properties such as the original Pennsylvania Railroad Station, the Pierpont Morgan Library, Columbia University and the United States Post Office Building on Eighth Ave.

Hotel Pennsylvania hosted numerous presidential visits. It has 22 floors and the original penthouse spanned 3 floors. Originally there were 2,200 bathrooms, 3,537 beds and the world's first high–rise elevator system. Underground passages connected the hotel to Pennsylvania Station so guests arriving by rail avoided any exposure to inclement weather.

Upon opening, the rate for a single room was $3.50 per night (about $48 in today’s currency, adjusted for inflation). Today, Hotel Pennsylvania remains the fourth largest hotel in Manhattan, with 1,700 available rooms.

New York's Hotel Pennsylvania has kept the same telephone number since 1919, which was immortalized in the 1938 Glenn Miller hit "PEnnsylvania 6–5000." This is New York's, and perhaps the World’s longest continually used telephone number.

(if you’re rusty on old-style exchange names)

(HotelPenn.com)

Hotel Pennsylvania's Last Days May be Near

rendering of a planned office tower at the Hotel Pennsylvania site

It's was once the largest and grandest hotel in the world. Designed by McKim, Mead & White; it was even the home to the world's first high rise elevator but it may soon be reduced to a pile of rubble.

Vornado has filed paperwork with the city to demolish the 90-year-old Hotel Pennsylvania and build a 2.85 million sq ft office tower in it’s place. The proposed building will be 1,198 ft tall making it one of the tallest building in NYC. (The Empire State Building is just 1,250 ft tall)


One stipulation that the city has in place prior to granting any approvals states Vornado would need to reopen the famed” Gimbels Passageway”; an underground tunnel for pedestrians that runs from Penn Station to the subways at Sixth Avenue and Broadway. (NYO)