In the News: Dominique Strauss-Kahn

••• Oops: “The case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is on the verge of collapse as investigators have found holes in the credibility of the hotel housekeeper who charged that he attacked her in May.” (New York Times) Plus: House arrest lifted. (New York Times)

••• “Portland Monthly has learned that [Matt] Lightner [of a restaurant called Castagna] will head to New York in August to open a new restaurant on 77 Worth St in Tribeca (currently home of Compose restaurant). He’s partnering with Jodi Richard, owner of RBC Coffee Roasters in Tribeca, and other business owners and food lovers who fell hard for his food on recent visits to Portland, then lured him away. Richard, the wife of Dwight Merriman, chief technology officer and co-founder of DoubleClick, opened the first state-of-the-art animal hydro-rehabilitation center in New York City, Water 4 Dogs, and also brought Manhattan its first $18,000 Slayer espresso machine—one of fewer than twenty in the world. […] The game plan is still being formulated, including a name for Lightner’s new restaurant. The opening date: this fall, tentatively. Lightner says he won’t know what he’s cooking until he gets to New York and sees the lay of the land—literally. He’s designing his own kitchen, and will influence everything down to the dishware. He expects a very small place, ‘calm, comfortable, and clean,’ with 14 seats. Only one nightly tasting menu will be served, showcasing, no doubt, the things he loves: strange and wonderful botanicals, surprising compositions, and an unexpected taste of place.” (Portland Monthly)

••• Trouble at New York by Golly Gehry: “Building services being cut back. Management has out-sourced handling of incoming/outgoing packages to an outside vendor. Tenants are up in arms because packages can only be picked up during the outside vendors business hours. Previously, packages where available 24/7, like every other luxury doorman building in Manhattan.” (Curbed)

••• Bigger trouble at Reade57. (Crain’s)

••• “‘We never thought we would be selling off of floor plans,’ said Justin Ehrlich, a partner of VE Equities, which is building two small condos in TriBeCa. ‘We underwrote these buildings with big budgets for marketing.’ He said he had expected it would take a year after opening the buildings at 471 Washington Street and One North Moore to fill them. Instead, sales started in April and each building now has only one unit left, even though neither will be ready for occupancy until late summer or early fall.” (New York Times)

••• Superdry has opened at the Seaport: “The limited-edition Tin Tab tees come emblazoned with retro American logos and little Japanese letters, all drawn by hand by the same artist in England. Each shirt comes with dog tags detailing its specific colorway and look; apparently British teenagers collect them. In general, the line is very youth-friendly, with nearly everything priced under $100 and store-wide discounts of 10% off for anyone with a valid student ID. But the clothes look a little bit older than what you’d find at Abercrombie.” (Racked)

••• “Down at the west end of Canal Street, yet another stalled site is showing signs of life. The Arman Building project at 482 Greenwich, an 11-story stack of condos on the north side of Canal, is back on track. […] The proposal here was named for sculptor Arman, who used this irregular wedge-shaped lot to create his works from 1977 until his death in 2005. Now demo of Arman’s ramshackle old studio building is done and recent filings at the Department of Buildings show that a 10-unit condo from, brace, architect Karl Fischer is getting ready to rise. The project at 482 Greenwich is from Benjamin Shaoul and Marc Ravner at the Magnum Real Estate Group, the gang who brought us the green and glassy Yves on Seventh Avenue. Renders of the plan found on the McKay Architecture website show a jumble of balconies, inset and projecting over both Canal and Greenwich, with a sharp wedge of windows where the two streets meet and a large sculpted panel standing tall over Canal.” I need to rest my eyes. (Curbed)

 

Comments are closed.