••• “Claremont Preparatory School, a six-year-old institution in Lower Manhattan that has had difficulty fulfilling its ambitions, is being sold to a private-equity-backed firm [Meritas], in a sign of growing investor interest in private schools in New York City.” (New York Times)

••• Drama at the Riverhouse in BPC: “[Tyra Banks] is combining four apartments on the 22nd and 23rd floors (purchased for around $10 million) into a duplex, and that renovation has now dragged on nine months past its estimated completion date. Neighbors, Page Six reports, are not pleased. We’re talking call-the-cops not pleased, which they did, over “ear-rattling drilling,” paint fumes and other inconveniences of construction. What could possibly ease their pain? A big fat check, of course!” (Curbed)

•••”Popular Hot 97 disc jockey Mr. Cee—who also produced Notorious B.I.G.’s first album, “Ready to Die”—was busted in TriBeCa for public lewdness after cops caught him in a car receiving oral sex from a male companion, officials said. Police said Mr. Cee, whose real name is Calvin Lebrun, 44, was in a parked car last Wednesday when he was arrested at 4:05 a.m. with Lawrence Campbell, 20, at Watts and West streets.” (New York Post)

••• Downtown Alliance has a Q&A with Peter Poulakakos about Pier A, his dog-friendly bar, and more.

••• “The Water Taxi Beach at the South Street Seaport is dropping its tropical seashore theme in favor of an upscale* German beer garden, the owners announced this week. Telly Hatzigeorgiou, who owns the Slate party space in Flatiron, plans to replace the beach with 50 communal tables, along with outdoor Ping-Pong, foosball and billiards. Instead of the gaudy plastic palm trees that ringed the beach the past two summers, Hatzigeorgiou will bring in 25 real pear trees and other plants to create a lush, sheltered oasis facing the Brooklyn Bridge.” (DNAinfo) *”Upscale” and foosball don’t generally coexist.

••• New York mag included Reade Street and “Lower East FiDi” (i.e., near the Gehry building) in its list of up-and-coming neighborhoods and microneighborhoods. I don’t know… Reade Street really boomed years ago, no?