1) Private pools, the ultimate New York City luxury. Not only rich Tribecans have them! But they have the nicest ones, that's for sure. Of the 100 or so private pools in Manhattan?and the handful featured in the NYT?we're most drawn to the custom Church Street steel infinity pool with an artificial current, part of a renovation in the "unspecified millions" for beef jerky magnate Matthew Keiser. On the pool being visible from surrounding buildings, his wife says, "There's no point in having all this if you can't show it, right?" To which Oliver Stone replied, "Mind if I borrow that line?" ['Frolicking in a City Ankle-Deep in Pools']
2) It was a working weekend for some Corcoran brokers out East, as posers and playboys alike lined up to get walk-throughs of Bernie Madoff's Montauk beach house. Potential buyers are told they must present a bank letter stating they can pay all cash (the Marshals aren't big on mortgages), and the Feds want $8.75 million obo. The brokers, for all their trouble, are donating their commission. Curse you, Madoff! ['A Chance to Dream Where Madoff Did']
3) The fight over the East Williamsburg/Bed-Stuy Broadway Triangle, an affordable housing controversy that occupies the back rooms behind the back rooms of local Brooklyn politics, is getting increasingly spicy as the city prepares to seize some property through eminent domain (Willets Point II?). Locals' main objection is that the buildings to be built on the old Pfizer plant aren't big enough, and only groups that are connected to certain local leaders will get housing for members. [NYDN]
4) Back in the day it was said that a $20,000 kitchen renovation could add five times that amount to an apartment's sale price. Ah, 2007! Now, sellers are renovating just so the small crop of buyers they're seeing don't instantly count a place out because it's not toothbrush-ready. ['Spending to Sell']
5) "Keep your chin up, kids; go on the Internet." Those were the words of inspiration a father gave to his daughters when the two-bedroom Park Slope condo he was buying for them slipped through their fingers. So they went on that darn Internet, and found a new place for him to pay cash for. Now there's a tale of perseverance! [The Hunt/'For These Apartment Hunters: Theirs to Fix and Fix Up']
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