1) On Sunday night, about 150 people were evacuated from the artist-heavy 11-story building at 475 Kent Avenue in South Williamsburg when the NYPD and FDNY found an illegal and dangerous matzo factory(!) in the basement. Oh, and the old pasta factory never had permits for residential use, but that's been known for years. The Gowanus Lounge received several emails from residents who were tossed out into the cold. No word on when folks will be able to return, or why the Man chose one of the coldest nights of the year to evict a bunch of hipsters. Matzo haters, perhaps? [NYT; NYP; NYDN]
2) Developer Kaish & Taub wants to build a 21-story condo building on 22nd Street near Third Avenue, but a pesky three-story building is the lone holdout. No worries, because Kutnicki Bernstein Architects has designed a solution: building above and over the stubborn little stucco survivor (above). The new building, 160 East 22nd Street, will have 71 apartments priced from $1.2 million to $2.25 million. Related: guests staying in the Cooper Square Hotel want to see poor people doing laundry. [Posting/C.J. Hughes]
3) Surprise! Manhattan townhouses are more expensive than ever, according to 2007 records: "City tax files, released, city officials say, to increase the “transparency” of the tax system, indicates that the average house price across Manhattan, from the prime neighborhoods on the Upper East Side to the rapidly gentrifying houses in Upper Manhattan, rose by more than 19 percent, to $5.15 million from $4.32 million the year before." Bronfman won the grand prize. [Big Deal/Josh Barbanel]
4) The developer of 25 Bond is doing things a little backwards. He just put the building's two lowest units on the market, after all the fancier ones sold. Is it because these two units, which are both priced just under $9 million, kind of suck? Nope, it's because he wanted the garden out back to be completed first, to show off the apartments' views. [Big Deal/Josh Barbanel]
5) More analysis on changes to the 80/20 rule, changes that mean co-ops can now make a lot more money off of commercial tenants. Expect mom-and-pops to be on the outs in co-op retail spaces. ["Co-ops Reap Unexpected Bonanza"/Vivian S. Toy]
6) Manhattan loses a good one, to Dumbo's J Condo of all places! But what of the BQE and bridge proximity that so many kvetch about? When you live on the second-highest floor, that ain't a problem. The traffic “is all very miniature and very cute.” [The Hunt/Joyce Cohen]
7) Because that's the kind of guy they are, Columbia bought 53 apartments in the struggling development at 455 Central Park West in 2004. They put up a law professor in one of the second-floor units inside the old cancer hospital, and how does she thank them for their generosity? By jumping ship to NYU and making the school buy her a $5.2 million apartment in the same building so she can rub all of her old colleagues' faces in it. Dastardly! [Big Deal/Josh Barbanel]
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