••• “An upscale French shirt seller has chosen Tribeca for its first U.S. store. Xoos French Shirts, which already has shops in Paris and Montreal, recently signed a 10-year lease for 1,000 square feet at 7 Lispenard St., between Church Street and West Broadway. […] Xoos should open for business later this month.” That’s the block with Nancy Whiskey Pub and the Tribeca Soho Animal Hospital. Interesting choice! (Crain’s)

••• “Investor and philanthropist Michael Steinhardt and a partner have acquired two former American Stock Exchange buildings for $65 million and plan to build a retail complex, hotel and a residential tower at the site. The two properties are a block south of the World Trade Center […]. They acquired the former American Stock Exchange building at 86 Trinity Place, which has been mostly vacant since the exchange merged with the New York Stock Exchange in 2008. […] They also acquired an adjacent building at 22 Thames Street that had been used for back office work. The partners plan to turn the Trinity Place building into a retail complex with a handful of shops and at least one high-end anchor tenant. Above the retail complex, they are planning a 174-room boutique hotel. The partners plan to renovate and convert that building, which includes a former trading floor, 60-foot ceilings and a 15-story tower that they say is suitable for hotel development. They plan to tear down the 10-story building on Thames Street and construct a 60-story residential building that is likely to be luxury rentals, Mr. Fried said. The new owners have the right to build 400,000 square feet of residential property.” (Wall Street Journal)

••• “A state judge on Tuesday granted a temporary restraining order on the construction of a city sanitation garage on Spring Street. […] The order was prompted by a suit brought by the St. John Center against the Department of Sanitation over a disputed property line of the site, which is located at 353 Spring St. The St. John Center, at 340 West St., is a neighbor of the site of the planned sanitation garage, which the Department of Sanitation is leasing from United Parcel Service.” (Crain’s)

••• Courtney Sale Ross has unloaded one of her three apartments at 7 Hubert. The recession is truly affecting us all. (Curbed)

••• “A new theater with views of the Brooklyn Bridge will open its doors April 1 in the South Street Seaport Mall, staff announced this week. Algonquin Theater Productions will initially offer cabaret, jazz, comedy and kids’ shows in its new 200-seat space on the second floor of the Pier 17 mall […]. By the end of the year, the company hopes to turn the space into a full-fledged off-Broadway theater, with all the necessary equipment and backstage setup to house major performers. […] The space will start by hosting weekly themed nights, like cabaret on Tuesdays or comedy on Thursdays, so locals know what to expect. Tickets for these basic shows will run about $15 to $20, though big-name performers or large-scale productions in the future would likely cost more.” And then you can grab a bite at Johnny Rockets. (DNAinfo)

••• “Judith Socolov, who as a diminutive Barnard graduate named Judith Coplon was convicted of espionage more than 60 years ago after embracing a utopian vision of communism and falling in love with a Soviet agent, died Saturday in Manhattan. She was 88. […] fter the verdicts were reversed, Ms. Coplon—now Ms. Socolov—lived in obscurity, raising four children, earning a master’s degree in education, publishing bilingual books, tutoring women in prison in creative writing, and, with her husband, running two Mexican restaurants in Manhattan (the Beach House in Tribeca and Alameda on the Upper West Side).” (New York Times)

••• Jane Krakowski (“30 Rock”) was looking at apartments in Tribeca. (Daily Mail)

••• Eater has two updates on Matsugen’s closing: “Update: A worker at the restaurant says they’re unsure whether or not the space will be kept, and that there were multiple reasons for closing. He adds that the Matsushita brothers, the co-owners with [Jean Georges Vongerichten], would like to return to Tokyo. Update No. 2: PR tells Fork in the Road the restaurant is closing because JGV’s contract with the Matsushita brothers is up and most of their Japanese based chefs’ visas are going to expire. Which only kind of makes sense as a reason to close a giant restaurant.” Come on, it was half-empty pretty much all the time!

••• Fork in the Road really likes the coconut shrimp (!) at Cowgirl Sea-Horse.

••• “Starting today and continuing through mid-May, the Church Street School for Music and Art (located at 74 Warren Street) will host weekly workshops in puppetry and costume-making, that will culminate in a May 21 gala parade through Hudson River Park, as part of the Hudson River Pageant.” (Broadsheet Daily)