Leona Helmsley, the self-styled hotel queen, whose prison term for income tax evasion and fraud was greeted with uncommon approval by a public who regarded her as a 1980s symbol of arrogance and greed, died Monday at her summer home in Greenwich, Conn. She was 87.
The cause of death was heart failure, said her [...]

After months of speculation, Larry Silverstein has finally decided to convert 99 Church into a hotel-condo. The Real Deal has the scoop late this afternoon. Silverstein will build a 60-story mega-hotel-condo, with the first 20 floors turning into a ritzy hotel and the rest of the tower going residential.
Lauren Elkies quotes Lisa Silverstein, Larry’s daughter [...]

Dubai’s government bolstered its holdings of New York City real estate, announcing Sunday that its Istithmar PJSC holding company had purchased a majority stake in Manhattan’s five-star Mandarin Oriental hotel.
The US$340 million (euro260 million) purchase of the Mandarin Oriental, part of the Time Warner Center on Manhattan’s Columbus Circle, adds to the growing U.S. [...]

A three-story building on Miami Beach is burning this afternoon, cloaking the skyline with smoke and drawing hundreds of onlookers, including hard-hats, swimsuit-clad beachgoers and members of a neighboring synagogue.
”The smoke was so thick it was blocking the sun at one point. I’ve never seen smoke that black,” said Richard Hodge, who is vacationing from [...]

Senior Housing Properties Trust announced that it commenced a public offering of 4,500,000 common shares. All of the shares will be issued by SNH. SNH expects to use the proceeds of this offering to repay borrowings outstanding under its revolving credit facility and for general business purposes. It is contemplated that the underwriters will also [...]

Senior Housing Properties Trust announced that it has priced a public follow-on offering of 6,000,000 common shares of beneficial interest at a price of $26.49 per share. The settlement of this sale is expected to occur on Monday, February 12, 2007. SNH expects to use the proceeds of the offering to repay borrowings outstanding under [...]

Roomster.net, an advanced roommate and apartment matching service that connects members using personality traits, keyword searches and interests, has announced that it is now offering its service in the United Kingdom. The site, which launched in 2003, continues to dominate the online apartment, roommate and sublet matching arena in the United States and Canada. Roomster [...]

The temperature of Portland’s downtown office market rose Thursday with the announcement by developer Tom Moyer that he will build a 35-story office tower just west of Nordstrom.
Moyer’s firm, TMT Development, said it would break ground this fall on the $150 million project, which it has dubbed Park Avenue West at Park Avenue and Yamhill [...]

Duetsch lives in the posh penthouse at the Trump Park Avenue, which he rents from pal Donald Trump while his 13,000-sqare-foot limestone on the Upper East Side is undergoing renovations. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez are among his many celebrity neighbors at the Trump Park Avenue. The penthouse has a [...]

Mayor David Strong unveiled an $18 million proposal Monday that would kill plans for the city’s most controversial building, expand its downtown park and build new city facilities.
Strong, who has been meeting secretly with developers of The Carlisle, told commissioners that he isn’t sure where all the money will come from but pledged $100,000 out [...]

The Knights of Columbus and a developer have filed scaled-down plans for a Park Avenue condominium project withdrawn last summer after it was criticized for being too large.
The revised plan, facing a hearing Tuesday before the Zoning Board of Appeals, proposes construction of 39 units of townhouse-style condos at 2550 Park Ave., and a new [...]

Indian Hotels Co. Ltd., operator of Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, confirmed today that it has signed an agreement to purchase the Ritz-Carlton Boston for $170 million.
The 79-year-old Back Bay hotel will be renamed the Taj Boston when the deal with current owner Millennium Partners closes on Jan. 11, the Mumbai, [...]