The old Five Franklin Place design

••• “Glacier Global Partners, a freshly minted real estate investment firm, along with an unnamed foreign partner, has purchased the $40 million first mortgage on the stalled condominium project Five Franklin Place in Tribeca. Glacier Global and its partner plan to revive the project. […] Glacier Global plans to revive the project as a condo, but with a new design. The building’s previous architect under Sleepy Hudson’s plan was well-known Dutchman Ben van Berkel of UN Studio; his plan was seen by many as being overly ambitious. As just two stories of the structure [have been] constructed, Mr. Scheffler expects the project will need an additional 20 months of work.” (Crain’s) As Curbed says, “Say goodbye to the starchitecture.” A shame, because the old design was pretty cool. As for the “unnamed foreign partner,” I still think it sounds like these guys; is there another big parcel on Franklin?

••• “A Manhattan lawyer with ties to the Saudi royal family is sounding out officials and community leaders about a plan to move the controversial Ground Zero mosque to the West Village. Attorney Dudley Gaffin is claiming King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia might want to buy shuttered St. Vincent’s Medical Center and transfer the mosque to a new Islamic cultural center he would build on a plot at the site, say sources who have heard Gaffin’s pitch. The king, worth more than $20 billion, would also save the hospital, reopening most of the units that closed when St. Vincent’s filed for bankruptcy on April 14, the sources said.” (New York Post)

••• Turn those old Hermès scarves into throw pillows! And other design ideas in a Tribeca loft. (HGTV)

••• To celebrate her 32nd birthday, Tom Cruise took Katie Holmes to a class at SoulCycle. (Just Jared, which appears to be written by monkeys)

••• Models at Weather Up Tribeca. (Style.com)