Now might be a good time to take a look at Tin Pan Alley, because The NY Post reports that "the birthplace of American song" has become a real estate commodity. Dating back to 1885, when music publishers came to the area, Tin Pan Alley kept the music going through the 1950s--and in the eyes of many should be preserved.Much to the dismay of tenants and preservationists, five of the buildings on West 28th Street......

The $150 million reconstruction project on the two mile esplanade between East River park and Battery Park was supposed to be done last year, but you know the drill. Two thirds of the promenade still have a long way to go, and last year the state Department of Environmental Conservation fined the city and contractor Pile Foundation Construction Company $200,000 because workers were allowing the shoreline to erode into the water. Now a DEC spokesman......

The Landmarks Preservation Commission met again yesterday to deliberate on St. Vincent's Hospital’s “hardship-status” application, which, if approved, would let the hospital raze the distinctive O’Toole Building in the West Village and build a 299-foot-tall medical building and a 233-foot tall luxury condominium. Unlike previously rowdy sessions that featured protest from local celebrities, there was no public comment this time. Instead, the commission heard from outside experts like Michael Meola at the city’s Economic Development......

The development company that's pushing for a special rezoning approval to construct several residential buildings by the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn came under fire at a Neighborhood Association meeting in Carrol Gardens last night, with two local architects dismissing the project renderings as deceptive. Chris McVoy and John Hatheway maintained that the developer, Toll Brothers, has provided renderings that make their tallest building—which would be 12 stories and 125 feet high—look more like 85 feet.......

Photo via Kate Hartman's Flickr. Extra Place is a small East Village street, spanning only 30 feet wide and about 120 feet long, and The NY Times is taking a closer look at the mostly unknown nook of New York that remains invisible to many passerby, and has no street sign to distinguish it. The small street "runs north from First Street — without making it to Second Street — between the Bowery and......

The Observer looks at "Roosevelt Island 2.0"--as in the new developments on the island. The big development Riverwalk "could bring 2,500 to 3,000 new residents to the Island" which translates to over a 25% increase in population since 2000. Roosevelt Island 360 blogger Eric Schwartzman has been documenting the addition of Riverwalk said of the chain stores finally arriving, "It very funny, where a lot of areas are like 'We already have too many Starbucks,'......

Back in January, it was reported Major League Baseball's new TV network would be the anchor tenant at a planned 21-story glass skyscraper on 125th Street and Park Avenue. Then last month, the skyscraper was reportedly undergoing some changes, since developer Vornado was having trouble securing financing. Now, it looks like there's more trouble, as the NY Times says the plan has started to "unravel," because Vornado wants MLB to "take additional space and pay......

Photo courtesy MaoSayWhat. Despite the economic tailspin, developers are still moving forward with luxury residential buildings that – assuming anyone can still afford to occupy them – will result in 170,000 new cars on city streets by 2030, thanks to city regulations requiring new developments to contain a minimum number of built-in parking spots. That estimate comes from public transit advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, who held a press conference at City Hall yesterday urging the......

The mammoth Avalon Chrystie Place rental building on Chrystie, between Houston and Stanton, is facing a federal lawsuit from the Department of Justice. The DOJ accuses developer AvalonBay Communities of, per the NY Times, "illegally discriminating against disabled people by failing to provide them with sufficient access at a 361-unit rental building on the Lower East Side." The building, which ushered in a new era of large, modern apartment buildings to the formerly "gritty" Bowery,......

The things you see when you leave the New York City limits! This photo was taken on Grove Street in Jersey City last weekend en route to the PATH station after All Points West. Hung on a fence surrounding a vacant lot, the banner speaks volumes about the Garden State's famed anarcho-syndicalism, which has succeeding in directly carrying out the collective will through cutting-edge technology like text messaging. If only New York City developers......

Photograph by vermilionink on Flickr It's that time of year again, when, with a regularity that rivals the swallows' return to Capistrano, the operator of the Astroland amusement area on Coney Island stares into her future and beholds a murky void. The tradition, which dates all the way back to 2007, is deeply troubling for Carol Albert, who has no idea whether developer Joe Sitt will renew her lease on the land that Astroland......

Photograph of Manhattanville by Mira (on the wall) on Flickr Unsurprisingly, the state agency the oversees development declared a 17-acre area eyed by Columbia University was "blighted", opening the door for the state to use eminent domain to seize properties for Columbia's grand Manhattanville expansion plan. The school owns most of the 17 acres, but there are still a few holdouts who are promising go to court over the matter. A lawyer for the......

The Brooklyn Paper talks to a number of people about the inevitability of more national, big box and chain retailers coming to Red Hook. One commercial real estate broker says, "There are a lot of large parcels of land that are owned by single landowners [and] it’s favorably zoned.” So, will the death knell be a Wal-Mart...or an Olive Garden?......

Last night’s Coney Island Public Scoping Meeting was the place to be, as activists like political performance artist Reverend Billy turned the meeting into a carnival, leaping up on a chair with repeated cries of “Coney-lujah!” Musician Amos Wengler stood up to croon his anthem “Save Coney Island,” and Savitri D., the Mermaid Parade queen who had been on a hunger strike since Saturday to spotlight the meeting, passionately derided the city’s latest proposal for......

Photograph from East 51st Street by gattogrosso212 at flickr The East 51st Street condominium site where a crane collapsed into buildings--completely leveling a townhouse and killing seven--had its construction permit revoked. A month after the March 15 collapse, it was revealed plans for the 43-story building should never have been approved by the Department of Buildings (it's possible revised plans could still have been approved), so the developer James Kennelly was asked to resubmit......

Brooklyn architect and developer Robert Scarano, whose many projects have come under Department of Buildings' scrutiny in the past for safety and zoning violations, was charged with allegedly making "false or misleading statements on applications submitted" to the DOB for two buildings. From the press release:The administrative charges are in connection with documents for two Brooklyn apartment houses that Scarano filed with the Buildings Department in 2000 and 2002. Scarano is alleged to have improperly......

Close-up photograph of the Chrysler Building's spire by Chris_In_Philly_'08 on Flickr The NY Post is reporting that the Abu Dhabi Investment Council "is negotiating an $800 million deal for a 75 percent stake" of the Chrsyler Building. Which would mean the entire Art Deco skyscraper, designed by William Van Alen (who was never paid!), is valued at over $1 billion. TMW, a German investment group, is apparently looking to sell its stake of the......

A nosy Post reporter may have cost Coney Island “Mayor” Dick Zugin his free apartment in a building he purchased with a 3.6 million grant from the city. Zigun runs his Coney Island USA sideshow and museum out of the Surf Avenue building, which the city helped his group buy last year. But when confronted with documents that report the address as his residence, Zigun admitted that he’s also been illegally living there, albeit humbly......

As the Department of Buildings, Manhattan DA's office, and OSHA investigate the fatal May 30 crane collapse at East 91st Street and First Avenue, the crane's history continues to be a focus. Immediately after the collapse, it was suggested and later confirmed the crane was the same one that had been damaged at a West 46th Street construction site in 2007. The NY Times looks at the crane's "second life," reporting that the crane's turntable......

Photograph of building cranes by digiart2001 on Flickr Yesterday, the assistant chief inspector for cranes was arrested and charged with accepting bribes "to falsify inspection reports and overlook unqualified operators." Upon leaving court, James Delayo, 60, who is a 26-year veteran of the Department of Buildings, did not respond to when a street sweeper asked him "if he felt responsible" for the fatal crane collapses in recent months. Delayo allegedly gave a copy of......

Rallies aren’t just for grassroots activists – moneyed developers can hold them too, as Bruce Ratner proved yesterday by financing an afternoon rally in downtown Brooklyn to support his beleaguered Atlantic Yards project. Organizers of the so-called “Brooklyn Day” event handed out free hot dogs and T-shirts to passersby in an attempt to drum up enthusiasm for the $4.2 billion project, though there were no free turkeys to fully evoke the Tammany Hall spirit.......

Bryant Park is Manhattan’s most packed park, and there’s considerable hand-wringing going on about the new office buildings rising nearby, which will further glut the urban oasis with more than 10,000 new office workers. Maxine Teitler of Community Board 5 says “the city” is to blame, telling the Times that Manhattan “doesn’t have a lot of green space, and the city keeps giving permits to build enormous buildings that are putting pressure on all of......

The long-running dispute between the owners of 47 East 3rd Street and their rent-stabilized tenants seems over, as the Court of the Appeals ruled the owners can evict tenants from the 60-room building in order to create a single super-duper residence. Alistair and Catherine Economakis took over the 15 apartment building a few years ago, after buying it for $1 million (and knowing it had rent-stabilized tenants). They told tenants, who pay $600-1200/month, they would......

When the Bloomberg administration successfully rezoned large parts of Williamsburg and Brooklyn three years ago to facilitate the construction of massive housing condos, the deal came with a promise to deliver lots of new park space. But while the luxury residential buildings are going up, the parks have remained a pipe dream. And local City Councilman David Yassky tells the Post he’s “sickened” that the Bloomberg administration has made “almost zero progress on the......

The NY Times reports that owners of Starrett City will attempt to sell the 140-acres Brooklyn apartment complex again, after reaching "an agreement with federal, state and city officials" that the complex will remain affordable. Last year, Starrett City, which is the largest federally subsidized development (and considered one of the most successful), was sold for $1.3 billion, only for the sale to be blocked and later rejected outright by the federal Department of Housing......

Photo of Looking Northeast from a Roof on Broome Street by Jake Dobkin; McHattan billboard via chinese_fashion's flickr. Last year the National Trust For Historic Preservation named the Brooklyn Waterfront one of the 11 Most Endangered Places, and this year some of New York's land gets the honor. The Lower East Side has made the annual endangered list, which highlights the country's areas deemed at risk of irreparable damage. Thanks to new development, the......

Sorry, Mayor Bloomberg, even your wheeling-dealing couldn't stop this: The MTA's deal with Tishman Speyer to develop the West Side rail yards is dead. Here's the statement:The MTA met today with Tishman Speyer. Despite the best efforts of both sides, a final agreement could not be reached. The MTA has now re-entered discussions with other interested developers and remains committed to timely development of these unique and valuable parcels of land on Manhattan's Far......

Mayor Bloomberg tried to rally hopes for a happy ending to the saga of the West Side rail yards by telling reporters, "The plan isn’t dead by any means. Hudson Yards is the most exciting opportunity New York has.” On Thursday night, the MTA issued a statement saying that negotiations wit developer Tishman Speyer had "reached an impasse" and that Tishman "no longer" had "development rights" to the 26 acres a few blocks west......

This evening, the MTA released a press release signaling that the plan to turn the West Side Rail Yards into Hudson Yards won't be happening any time soon. Apparently, developer Tishman Speyer, which won the bidding with a $1.004 billion proposal, got too grabby. At least, that's what the MTA"s statement seems to suggest:Late this afternoon, negotiations between the MTA and Tishman Speyer over the development of the Rail Yards on Manhattan's Far West......

Last month the city announced that the space dedicated to amusements in the latest Coney Island rezoning plan would be cut from 15 acres to 9 acres. City officials explained that the downsizing was necessary to accommodate “local landowners” – the biggest of those is developer Joe Sitt, whose glitzy plans were previously derailed by the city for the express purpose of devoting larger space for the amusement park. Now Sitt’s Thor Equities stands to......