Carter's View

Manhattan's luxury for-sale apartment market strengthened somewhat in the third quarter of this year, according to several new brokerage reports.

"Housing prices in Manhattan continue to remain stable," according to the Third Quarter 2011 report prepared by Miller Samuel Inc. for The Elliman Report.

"The medium sales price of a Manhattan apartment was $911,333 in the third quarter, essentially unchanged from $914,000 in the prior year quarter and up 7.2 percent from $850,000 in the prior quarter," it said, adding that "the other price indicators offset each other."

The New York City Housing Authority is considering selling advertisements on its buildings, according to an article published today by Jonathan Lemire at The New York Daily News.

The authority "quietly circulated notice last week that it's looking to hire a consultant to advise them on selling advertising space in developments that more than 400,000 people call home," the article said.

At a book party last night for the third edition of "New York from the Art" on the 49th floor of 7 World Trade Center, I ran into John Tauranac, the author who wrote the text for the book's sumptuous and spectacular aerial color photographs by Yann Arthus-Bertrand of New York City.

Mr. Tauranac, the author of a wonderful guidebook to Manhattan, the definitive book on the Empire State Building and a great book on "Elegant New York," reminisced with me about his recent effects to identify one of the buildings in the book. Apparently four well-known architectural historians had been unable to identify it. I was the fifth he had asked and I too was fascinated by the building, but stumped. Two weeks later, however, I figured out which building it was and called Mr. Tauranac right away. It was a 32-story skyscraper at 75 Livingston Street in downtown Brooklyn that had been designed by Abraham J. Simberg in neo-Gothic style.

If you think the sidewalks of Manhattan are crowded now, wait 'til next year when Alta Bicycle Share plans to put 10,000 rental bikes at 600 self-service "stations" on sidewalks and plazas south of 60th Street in Manhattan.

The Bloomberg administration announced today it has selected the Portland, Oregon-based company to create the bike-share program next summer.

"The administration, led in the effort by Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, has enthusiastically committed to bicycle sharing, but the system will be the only one in the world not to receive public funds," according to an article by Jeremy Smerd in today's edition of crainsnewyork.com.

Rudin Management presented new plans Wednesday for St. Vincent's Triangle at the intersection of Seventh Avenue, 12th Street and Greenwich Avenue in Greenwich Village.

The triangular block has long been used as a trucking facility by St. Vincent's Hospital that owned much of the block across Seventh Avenue and the Edward and Theresa O'Toole Medical Services Building across 12th Street.

The hospital had planned to build a new hospital on the O'Toole site and had sold its numerous buildings on the east side of Seventh Avenue to Rudin Management that plans to convert some of them to residential use as well as build new residential buildings on the site.

The Chetrit Group has told city officials it expects to start converting the former St. Clare's Hospital Building at 415 West 51st Street into apartments next month, according to an article by Mathew Katz today at DNAinfo.com.

The hospital building was closed in 2007 with millions of dollars in debt.

Residents say the building has become a breeding ground for rats, that standing water stinks, that scaffolding on the site lacked proper lighting and that homeless people were squatting there. The problems have been going on for at least two years, residents say," the article said.

Park users held a rally Saturday at Ruppert Park on Second Avenue and 92nd Street where Related Companies had posted a sign indicated it planned today to close the park where it is reportedly planning to erect a 49-story residential tower, according to an article in today's edition of The Wall Street Journal by Maura Webber Sadovi.

Related bought the one-acre property and a nearby parcel that it has developed from the city in 1983 for $10 million and agreed to maintain the "interim" park for 25 years.

Madonna's upstairs neighbor at her Central Park West building who complained about blaring music that shook her walls and floor can proceed with claims against the pop icon and against the cooperative building's board and manager, according to a New York State Supreme Court Justice Louis York, an article by Andrew Keshner in yesterday's edition of the New York Law Journal reported.

New York State, New York City and officials of The Museum of the City of New York made public yesterday a deal in which the museum will take over the Seaport Museum using a $2 million grant from the corporation in charge of developing Lower Manhattan, according to an article in today's edition of The New York Times by Robin Pogrebin.

The $2 million that helped make the takeover deal possible was provided by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, part of $20 million in grants to 38 nonprofit community and cultural organizations.

Sales of the most expensive Manhattan cooperative apartments rebounded sharply during the first half of the year, as sellers reduced asking prices to attract value-conscious millionaire buyers, according to an article in today's edition of The Wall Street Journal by Josh Barbanel.

A report on the luxury market by Stribling Private Brokerage recorded 80 co-op sales costing more than $5 million during the first half, the most since 2008, the article said.