While we were, uh, unavoidably offline yesterday, news happened! Here are some highlights. Anything else we missed? The tipline is always open. (And please pardon our dust as we come back online. Glitch reports also welcome to the tipline.)
1) The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to landmark 70 Pine Street, the Art Deco building slated for a complete residential conversion. (The landmarking covers the exterior and the first-floor lobby.) As the Post explained yesterday, the building's owners hope to make "minor" modifications to the 66-story tower. Given that Beyer Blinder Belle is the architecture firm signed on for the project, we're inclined to believe that. The LPC expects the owners to come back with those proposed changes soon. [CurbedWire Inbox]
2) The folks at TREGNY MNS released another monthly rental market report, and finally that summer rental season has shown up. Rents were up 1.82 percent from May and 6 percent from this time in 2010. Vacancy is also up?by 2.99 percent?but MNS attributes this to recession-era landlord strategizing that rearranged leases to turn over in the peak summer season. The best places for deals right now: Murray Hill, Midtown West, and?for doorman studios?the Lower East Side. Good luck, renters! [MNS]
3) Heads up, Clinton Hill: there's more Karl Fischer coming your way. Brownstoner spotted Hot Karl's name on DOB permits for an empty lot on Putnam Avenue between Downing Street and Irving Place. Word is what's coming is affordable housing in a seven-story, 30-unit package. ['Stoner]
4) At the Bronx's vacant Kingsbridge Armory, where a plan for a shopping mall conversion was voted down by the City Council, borough president Ruben Diaz is about to issue a report with alternative suggestions for the site. These include a hockey arena, a culinary center?and a mega-church headed by Creflo Dollar. The TV evangelist's plan may sound the most farfetched, but he was also the only potential developer to offer some of his own money for the project. And hey, stranger things have happened. [NYDN]
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