Real Estate News

Carole Post, Mayor Bloomberg’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications commissioner, has been benefiting from a property-tax exemption for Florida residents for the past four years, despite working full-time in New York for the Bloomberg administration, the Post reported. Post, who earns $205,180 per year, and her husband, Lawrence, have saved $3,000 in taxes since 2005 on their multimillion-dollar home in West Palm Beach, according to public records. At that time, each of the Posts said in paperwork that they qualified for a homestead exemption on the mansion, which is granted only to full-time Florida residents, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office. Carole Post moved to the city in 2001, and never responded to annual request from the appraiser’s office for any changes of address. After an inquiry from a reporter yesterday, Lawrence Post, who is still claiming the Florida home as his permanent residence, contacted the appraiser’s office to alert the state of his wife’s move to New York. The couple will continue to receive the tax exemption because Lawrence primarily lives in Florida, said the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. A biography of Carole Post on the technology and telecommunications Web site says that she lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side with her husband. [Post]

Starwood Hotels and Resorts is giving its 665-room Sheraton Manhattan hotel a facelift, part of a large-scale effort to makeover the company’s Sheraton brand. The mid-priced hotel, on Seventh Avenue between West 51st and 52nd streets, will ditch the Sheraton name in April -- the new name has yet to be disclosed -- and be redeveloped, possibly including a retail and office component, Starwood said today. In its rebranding, the hotel is following in the footsteps of its slightly less modestly-priced sibling, the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers across the street, which has a $90 million renovation planned for this year. Both upgrades are part of a $6 billion investment in Sheraton hotels across the country, which Starwood began three years ago in an attempt to tackle the perception of the brand as dull and old-fashioned. Starwood has rebranded 32 hotels under the initiative thus far, though the Sheraton Manhattan and Sheraton New York are the first in the city to undergo upgrades. Starwood operates 13 hotels in New York City and is opening six more in 2010, three of which will be Sheraton properties. [Crain’s]

As the deflation of housing values deepens, more homeowners are choosing to walk away from homes -- and mortgages -- rather than continue making payments. NBC Nightly News’ Diana Olick said that with home prices down around 30 percent from peak levels nationwide, an increasing number of homeowners are finding that these strategic defaults can help their bottom line. The trend is becoming more noticeable, with Web sites like YouWalkAway.com providing step-by-step advice on the process, Olick said, raising concerns about the stress that could be put on banks should more mortgage holders jump ship.

From the January issue: Development in Lower Manhattan, perhaps more than anywhere else in the city, is characterized by big ideas. The biggest and most obvious developments are related to Ground Zero, a site that at present is more notable for its building delays than its progress. Still, prominent World Trade Center-related projects, including the September 11th Memorial, are expected to be finished within the next few years. Beyond the World Trade Center, big Lower Manhattan projects underway include the construction of the tallest residential tower in the city and work on the East River Waterfront. Other developments, such as towers near the Battery Tunnel and the redevelopment of the South Street Seaport, have fallen victim to the down market. Here are some of the plans floating around that, if brought to fruition, would fundamentally alter Lower Manhattan.