Demolition on Hold as Stock Market Wavers

If the preservationists can't save the Hotel Pennsylvania, fate and the stock market might lend a helping hand. The New York Post predicts that the credit crisis in the subprime mortgage world will lead developers to call off demolition until they can confirm their tenants. In the case of the storied Herald Square hotel, apparently Vornado Realty is courting Merrill Lynch.

New York Post: Seven Manhattan Development Projects to Watch

Today's Apartment Pick: Take the "A" Train

Go a few stops north on the A train from our last apartment pick and find this 850-sq. ft. three-bedroom on 180th St. It's listed at $349,900, with $550 maintenance. Hardwood floors, a few closets, and a nice lobby. If you visit, let us know what you think.

Link to Douglas Elliman

No Love for Piano; Plus, The Effect of Expansion

James Russell, the architecture critic for Bloomberg News, pans Renzo Piano's design for the proposed Manhattanville expansion campus of Columbia University. Affirming the "site's historically valuable industrial buildings" and calling the new plans bland, Russell finds Piano's choices aesthetically incongruous with a community already hostile to the university's ambitions: "The size and bulk of the proposed buildings make the streets anything but inviting to the surrounding neighborhood."

Meanwhile, the New York Observer reports on the official environmental impact statement about Columbia's plan. The impact statement's authors affirm community members fearful of rising rents: "While it is impossible to quantify the exact number of at-risk residents who would be indirectly displaced as a result of the Proposed Actions, there is the potential for the indirect residential displacement impact within the primary study area to be significant and adverse."

Bloomberg News: Columbia's $7 Billion Expansion Plan by Piano Fails to Thrill
New York Observer: The Columbia Effect, Detailed

Today's Apartment Pick: Morningside Charm; Plus, Harlem Blossoms

This three-bedroom charmer overlooking Morningside Park in Harlem is listed at $519k. The apartment boasts hardwood floors, French doors, a fancy new kitchen -- and is not far from the A train (one stop to 59th St.). At this asking price, you may be able to negotiate and get a good bargain.

Meanwhile, the New York Times highlights change and new development in central Harlem -- including a condo called the Langston, with 180 units, and Ellington on the Park, with 134 units. The New York Sun has noticed as well, pointing out extraordinary increases in price per square foot for central and east Harlem condos between 2005 and 2006. In commercial news, The Observer reported this past week that Reisman Properties has commissioned Handel Architects (Trump Soho Hotel, Ritz-Carlton Downtown) to design a 19-story luxury hotel on 125th St. and 5th Avenue.

Link to Today's Apartment Pick
Link to New York Times: A Neighborhood Worth the Big-Ticket Investment
Link to New York Sun: The Residential Market, Too, Surges in Harlem
Link to New York Observer: Harlem to Get First Luxury Hotel