It Happened One Weekend: Fifth Avenue's New Skyscraper

1) Thanks in part to some air rights snatched up from local landmarks, Uberdevelopers Aby Rosen and Hines will soon build a 54-story tower?designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli?at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street. The retail/hotel/residential building will take the place of the current 516 Fifth Avenue, which is pretty snazzy looking if you ask us. AIANY and CityRealty have more details on the new tower. So, Hines can get a big bland glass box built, but what about their Tower Verre? [Streetscapes/'A Stately Structure, Where a Grand Idea Failed']

2) Manhattan's dirty little secret: victims of foreclosure walk among us, and they look just like us. "Court filings show that some of these apartment owners have well-paying jobs as lawyers, professors and bankers. Their Facebook pages feature them at parties with friends, and their LinkedIn bios list prestigious careers and educational credentials. And they live at tony addresses like the Atelier at 635 West 42nd Street, the Ansonia at 2109 Broadway, Worldwide Plaza at 350 West 50th Street and the Philippe Starck building at 15 Broad Street." They have Facebook, people. Facebook. ['Foreclosure Makes Its Move on Manhattan']

3) In this week's Hunt column, an L.A. dude has like two seconds to find a rental in Manhattan before moving: "The Upper East Side, believe it or not, does not have the same consumer recognition. My friends said, That's where 'Gossip Girl' is; that's where the rich people live. I wanted something more downtown, more edgy, more organic. I don’t mean Whole Foods. I mean artistically forward." He ends up in FiDi, obvs. [The Hunt/'Waiting Pays Off for Apartment Hunter From California']

4) The 20-story Avalon Morningside Park is about ready to throw open its doors, on land leased for 99 years from St. John the Divine, located right next door. It's a complicated relationship involving many promises (including a rose garden; didn't Madonna tell us never to promise anyone a rose garden?), but Avalon is scoring $2,425 to $6,620 rents on 80% of the units. [Posting/'Worldly, Meet Other-Worldly']