••• “Fred Ohebshalom and his son Richard acquired 111 Washington St., three blocks south of the WTC site, three years ago by buying the distressed mortgage on the property from lender New York Community Bank. The price was a figure close to the $50 million loan’s face amount [….] The pair then spent an undisclosed amount snapping up nearly 200,000 square feet of air rights from several surrounding properties, 102-104, 106 and 108 Greenwich Street and 105 and 109 Washington Street. All together with those extra air rights, about 362,000 square feet of residential or mixed use space can now be built on the site, which is at the corner of Washington and Carlisle streets.” —Crain’s

••• LOL: An ad for 195 Broadway in (on?) the Commercial Observer refers to its locale as “Downtown North.”

••• “Ryan Skeen, who once forged a reputation as a flight-prone chef with a number of high-profile departures from kitchens around town, is now the executive chef at Patrick Fahey’s Los Americanos.” —Grub Street

••• “Tens of thousands of religious men, women and children flooded into the Financial District and Seaport on Sunday in prayer and protest. Transforming the neighborhood into a sea of wide-brimmed black hats and long black coats, the ultra-Orthodox Jews came to demonstrate against legislation in Israel that would require members of religious communities to be drafted into Israel’s armed forces.” —Tribeca Trib

••• 55 Broad looks like it’ll be torn down and replaced by something huge. Full details over at New York YIMBY.

••• Herzog & de Meuron seems to be designing a 12-story mixed-use residential building across from Pier 40 between Leroy and Clarkson; it’s “a partnership between developer Area Property Partners and hotelier Ian Schrager.” —Curbed

••• “Battery Park City is approaching a demographic turning point. Sometime in the next few years, the neighborhood will likely become a community in which the majority of households are condominium units, rather than rented apartments.” —Broadsheet

••• TC’s Seamless item made it to New York mag’s “Approval Matrix”! In the Despicable/Lowbrow quadrant, no less! Thanks again to the reader who sent in that tip.