According to the Post, this is the biggest condominium sale ever: Russian composer Igor Krutoy bought a 6,000-square foot apartment at the Plaza Hotel for $48 million ($3,000 per square foot!). And, "While it has sweeping views of Central Park, it is not even a full-floor unit." Egads! more ›

Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries says that there are 65 condominium developments in Brooklyn which are "either financially troubled or on the verge of distress". He said, "There was an irrational exuberance of construction in the area these past few years," and Crain's reports that he's "in the early stages of approaching developers and banks behind some of these properties with a proposal to convert the unsold units into affordable housing." (Apparently it's unrelated to the city's own from-foreclosed- to-affordable-housing push.) The Local has a list of the developments; Curbed notices, "There's some shockers on there, including the blockbuster One Hanson Place conversion." Possibly related: Prices were cut on the remaining units at One Hanson Place ("One of the biggest was a 23 percent price reduction on a 1,500-sf, 2-bed, which went from $1,222,431 to $945,000"). more ›

Yesterday afternoon, there were reports of a wall collapse or falling debris from a Harlem building on 116th Street, off Fifth Avenue. It turns out it was not quite a full wall collapse, but it looks to be more than the "construction debris" referred to by fire officials in an AP story. more ›