PriceSpotter Big Reveal: Way up in Harlem

And now, the results of yesterday's PriceSpotter asking price guessing game...

Location: 125 West 136th Street

Asking: $600,000

As Todd shares (with much pride), this is a "most incredible" place, and at that price, we can't say we disagree. Why? B/c it's brand new (as renos go), in a good building, and has a pretty flexible two-floor plan right in the middle of Harlem. Even the yard is pretty clear for whatever it is you dig (snap!), although we aren't so big fans of having the master bedroom front the yard (and neighbors) rather than the living room. Paul Nelson got it on the first guess somehow...

PriceSpotter: Way up in Harlem [Curbed]

125 West 136th Street in Harlem [Prudential Elliman]

Plans!? We don't need no stinkin' plans!

We're still waiting for detailed reports on how the second public hearing went on Thursday, but judging by how festive the others have been, it must've been quite fun. At the most recent hearing, the Empire State Development Corporation was ridiculed for approving the Atlantic Yards project without waiting to see how its plans changed since Frank Gehry was dropped for Ellerbe Becket. Conveniently (we think), ESDC responded that Forest City wasn't required to submit the project's plans for approval (why couldn't they wait until the plans were released?).

Reaching even deeper into its bottomless bag of enemy-cultivating tricks, Forest City then said the plans won't be released until October or November, which is (conveniently) after the September meeting of state officials who also need to extend their approval. So should we believe Mary Anne Gilmartin, who claims that the airport hangar was just a placeholder for a true "architectural statement?" Let the touche-dishing saga continue!

Atlantic Yards Reboot Rendered! [Curbed]

Developer Bruce Ratner doesn't offer renderings of Atlantic Yards plan [NYDN]

[Image via The Brooklyn Paper / Tom Callan]

PriceSpotter: Way up in Harlem

What/where: W 136th btw Adam Claton Powell Blvd & Lenox Ave

Square feet: 1668

Maintainence: 2292

The Skinny: Just to see how far mighty Harlem has really fallen since the bubble burst, we give you this 3-bedroom crib. In case you can't tell from the pictures, it is a renovated townhouse/condo/duplex (yes, all three) with its very own garden to go along with the usual granite, stainless, and oak bits. The yard's a little bare, but at least the fence isn't falling down and grass seems to do okay....

Crib swap: Paris / Chelsea, Hollywood / Upper Westside; how about St. Louis Park / Manhattan?

A tipster informs us that on Craigslist's swaps page, in addition to the requisite proposals to swap a local pad for some swanky Euro flat in Paris, London, and other Woody Allen locales, for a short time only we're sure, you can give up your place in NYC for...St. Louis...Park...Minnesota. That's right, the suburb we all knew America could build, a hot-spot if ever there was one.

And how do those simple-minded Mid-Westerners live, you ask?

Stallone Testing's innovative pre-approval process for concrete certification not exactly legal

Whoa, if the new WTC ever falls down like the old one, there will be at least one company practicing up on "no comment." Stallone Testing Laboratories (allegedly, of course) falsely certified that concrete used in 90 construction projects was up to snuff. Projects certified by the newly indicted company (joining indicted competitor Testwell Laboratories) include "the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the World Trade Center transit hub and the Second Avenue subway, plus nursing homes, schools, highways and bridges." Nothing but the best for us, the public. Maybe the horizontal skyscraper trend is set to break into NYC! [NYTimes]

Gowanus Canal to get plants (plants!) - at some point

NYC has a rich, pungent history of smelly places, which makes us wonder why historic preservationists have yet to oppose the latest attempt to clean lovely Gowanus Canal. The folks at the Gowanus Canal Conservancy are teaming up w/ landscape architect Susannah Drake to design a small (movement-starting?) "Sponge Park" (something about sucking). Bigwigs are apparently sort of supporting them (e.g. Brookyn councilman David Yassky) with a truly wopping 638K in "capital funding" at the outset. Only 638K? We're looking at you, High Line...

Gowanus Much May One Day Save Your Life [Curbed]

City: We'll Clean Gowanus Canal (We Swear!) [Curbed]

[Image via brainware3000]

Oh really, Mr. Developer? Really?

Oh really? is Curbed's deep-thoughts time where we ask what the deal really is; sometimes nice, sometimes cruelly, constructively, critical...

Really. Just like brokers, some developers apparently moonlight pretty well, too. In this case, Harry Macklowe, of big-bet-gone-bad fame, likes to tell jokes as only old jews can. Where was the humor when a whole lot of something hit the fan?

Harry Macklowe, "Kleptomaniac" [Old Jews Telling Jokes]

Developer Harry Macklowe Is Pretty Funny [NYMag]