••• And the big retail space at 140 Franklin (northwest corner of Varick), where Crunch was going to open till the residents fought it, will be…. The new offices of Douglas Elliman. No word on what’ll take its space (at 90 Hudson with more frontage on Leonard) after it moves in January. —Commercial Observer

••• “The Performing Arts Center planned for the former World Trade Center site was dealt a serious blow on Thursday when the corporation in charge of downtown redevelopment insisted that the project come in at no more than $200 million—about half the original estimated cost. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which oversees the former World Trade Center site, made it clear at a board meeting that the $99 million in federal funds committed to the project was contingent on the arts center’s leaders’ producing an affordable design and a viable plan for raising the remaining money from private sources. […] Maggie Boepple, president of the Performing Arts Center, [said] she already had renderings of a scaled-down design by a new architect. […] ‘It will be starkly simple and meaningful,'” she said. —New York Times

••• “A world premiere by Thomas Bradshaw, a play by Jennifer Haley directed by the Hollywood veteran Joel Schumacher, and a real-time zombie war-game played out on the streets of Tribeca are among the highlights of the Flea Theater’s fall season. […] The alert level may hit its high in Ms. Haley’s Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, which runs from Nov. 9 through Dec. 21. Set in a hyper-regimented suburban cul-de-sac, the play features a group of teenagers who lose themselves in an online zombie game, quickly blurring the line between game and reality. The same may happen outside the theater: in conjunction with the run, the Flea will partner with the group State of Play to present “Humans vs. Zombies: Neighborhood 3 Edition,” a live-action game that will unfold on the streets near the theater’s Tribeca home and beyond.” —New York Times

••• La Colombe is doubling down on FiDi: Besides a café in the World Trade Center mall, it’s reportedly opening one at 63 Wall. —FiDi Fan Page

••• And Dos Toros is opening at 101 Maiden Lane. —Commercial Observer

••• New Amsterdam Market is hoping to reopen on Bond Street. —Eater

••• “The food at 1WTC is a tower of garbage.” —New York Post

••• Issey Miyake is opening a showroom and offices in the former Art et Maison space at 31 N. Moore (as first reported here). —Commercial Observer

••• “The public plaza in front of 15 Cliff Street, a 31-story residential tower between Fulton and John Streets, is getting a facelift.” —Tribeca Trib