Mr. Stern's father, the renowned architect and Yale School of Architecture dean Robert A. M. Stern, whose recent credits in the city include 15 Central Park West and the Brompton at 205 East 85th, designed the house. Seen through glass panels from the leafy backyard, the grand room, with its wide staircase and 21.5-foot ceiling, is, as Mr. Stern said, "dramatic."

His wife, Courtney, who on this July evening was at the family's East Hampton beach house with their three children, is the West Village house's interior designer. Mr. Stern oversaw the project as the contractor, or, as he would say, the builder. Work didn't always go smoothly.

"By all accounts, we should all be dead in some sort of triple homicide that you read about," Mr. Stern said. "You know, site meeting goes horribly awry, wife kills builder husband as he's killing daughter--some sort of Marvin Gaye-type thing. But it was fun."

Mr. Stern, 42, tanned, energetic and slightly graying, was dressed sharply in a gray suit, striped tie, white pocket square and gold cuff links. Before becoming a builder in 2002, he worked for 10 years in the entertainment business, and he carries himself like an old-fashioned Broadway showman. "Hold on," he said, stopping to adjust the lighting before climbing the stairs to the master floor. "I'll turn the light on, get you the full dramatic effect." And when the mood was perfect: "It's what we do--we make dreams," he said, adding, "I promise I'm not trying to date you."

MR. STERN HAD invited The Observer over to talk about his new boutique construction firm that specializes in high-end Manhattan residential projects. He and his small group of trusted colleagues, many of whom he has worked with for almost a decade, are "living the dream" at Stern Projects LLC, he said. "This is the thing that is mine, that I wanted to do all along, and I suppose, yes, I had to do it," he said. "I'm happier than ever."

But it hasn't always been that way.

On March 3 of this year, Mr. Stern resigned from his post as executive vice president of Taconic Builders, the tony development concern. He made some phone calls, and within hours, several of his colleagues had also resigned. In one fell swoop, Taconic lost, in addition to Mr. Stern, vice president Alexander Carey, project manager John Huthwaite, site supervisor Joseph Huthwaite (John's brother), site supervisor Nick Banks, site supervisor Gerald Garry and assistant project manager Kathleen Brosnan.

Taconic responded swiftly. Reeling from what it perceived as an effort "to take over existing Taconic projects," the company filed a lawsuit, accusing Stern et al. of a "calculated surreptitious effort" to sabotage Taconic's business, in alleged violation of noncompete agreements that it said the defendants had signed. The former employees walked out with "trade secrets," Taconic said, after they allegedly deleted emails from Taconic computers and stole valuable clients. Taconic sought restraining orders on the defendants' construction projects, in an attempt to shut down the lead defector and his crew. "Let's say we got divorced and I got the kids," Mr. Stern said, referring to his colleagues. "I guess that makes me Dad or something."

For the previous two months, Mr. Stern had spent nights and weekends setting up a new company that would become Stern Projects. After resigning, all the former employees immediately began work at Mr. Stern's new company. ("They wanted to go camping with me," Mr. Stern said, continuing the divorce analogy.) To Taconic, it looked like a massive suicide pact--some sort of conspiracy. But Mr. Stern denied that there was any such pact. He said he had only mentioned the new company to his close friends Mr. Carey and John Huthwaite. Mr. Stern called the two men "my right and left hand."

"When Nick came to me a few months prior to his departure and said he was leaving to start his own company, I think he got about four words out before I said, 'I'm going with you no matter what,'" Mr. Carey said. "I don't want to say I follow the guy anywhere, but when it comes to business, I needed to follow him."

The group that resigned, Mr. Huthwaite said, was "essentially a company within the company"--not officially, but that's how they behaved.

Mr. Stern said Taconic's lawyer, Richard Menaker, seized innocuous details and turned them into exaggerated allegations. Taconic has a videotape of Mr. Stern packing up "eight years of memorabilia and personal furniture" from his corner office, which Mr. Stern said was the basis of Taconic's claim that he stole, as he called it, "the secret sauce." Mr. Carey and Mr. Stern said that "trade secrets," as the lawsuit calls them, don't exist in construction, since every project is unique.

"We're not coming up with the formula for Coca-Cola here," Mr. Stern said. "Do you know what the trade secret is in construction? Be honest."

Vince Tyer, the president of Taconic, declined comment. In response to the defendants' claim that the lawsuit was based on false premises, Mr. Menaker, the lawyer, said, "If the folks on the other side are making irresponsible remarks, it would be unfortunate."

On June 17, the parties settled. "I don't have time, money or the interest in sidelining the business [Stern Projects] to get into a year and a half of appeals to prove that they are wrong on every count," Mr. Stern said.

He wouldn't disclose how expensive the lawsuit ended up being, saying only that it was "more than our drinks tab here." The drinks were water.

MR. STERN'S UPBRINGING in New York City was, in his words, "very fortunate." His father, now 71, was devoted to his firm, Robert A. M. Stern Architects, and Nick Stern picked up that discipline. "That compulsive commitment to whatever the task is I got from him," Mr. Stern said. "I think a lot of the lessons I learned I learned by osmosis, and so young I didn't even know I was learning them."

But being the son of Robert Stern also has had more practical advantages. Mr. Stern grew up surrounded by architects and artists. His mother, Lynn Stern, is a photographer, and her husband (Nick Stern's parents divorced when he was a child) is the architect Jeremy Lang. For his current profession, that exposure was an inadvertent but immensely valuable networking opportunity.

Some of the architects Mr. Stern works with (he estimated between 10 and 20 percent) are former students of his father's. He said he has known these architects for 35 years--he grew up around them. And even if they aren't his father's former students, the top architects in the business, Mr. Stern said, have likely met his father at some point, or have at least heard of him. "Everybody I deal with knows of Bob Stern," he said.

"There's probably close to a hundred people out there who remember me as Bob Stern's son making them martinis at age 7 at some fairly boisterous office parties," he said. "This was a type of person that I was just around my whole life."

"In architecture, it's a small world," he added. "Especially the kind of architecture I deal with."

But such an environment also put pressure on the young Mr. Stern. After graduating from Columbia in 1990 with a bachelor's in architecture, he worked for a year in Hollywood before enrolling in the Yale School of Architecture. Even though he said he naturally "can't start something and not finish it," he dropped out of graduate school during his first semester. The school refunded his tuition, a concession that, Mr. Stern said, to this day makes his father, who became dean in 1998, "furious."

"I dropped out because I was 22, an only child and going, 'My God, I finish this program in three years, my father is an internationally known architect, I'm not a wall flower of my own, what do I do?'" Mr. Stern said. "I couldn't figure out that I'd get into general construction, that I had this special skill set, and I'd just shift a little left--which is what I ultimately did."

Mr. Stern said he has more work now "than I've looked at literally in years." The advantage of his new firm's being "small and sort of lithe and lean and mean," he said, is that it can work on a diverse variety of projects. In addition to an Upper West Side "extremely traditional" duplex apartment, he's also working on a "very minimalist, modern" West Village landmarked townhouse renovation.

"It's a stunning design. It's quite large, lots of stone, lots of minimal use of stained wood," he said. "It's similar to mine except the aesthetic is totally different."

Other renovation projects in the works include two Park Avenue apartments (roughly 4,000 and 5,000 square feet, respectively) and three downtown lofts, two of which are in the same building.

As for Taconic, it's a relief to be free.

"I do it my way, which is just exactly my way," Mr. Stern said. "Like Frank Sinatra."

walden@observer.com

As their numbers increased, the all-male protesters, who had chosen the sidewalk outside RFR's 390 Park Avenue headquarters for their demonstration, set up a speaker system, handed out informational fliers to passersby and hung a large banner across a wooden frame on a flatbed truck: "RFR Realty: Stop Desecrating an Ancient Jewish Cemetery With Your Development in Jaffa." Police officers stood on the other side of the temporary gating erected on the rubber strip in the sidewalk that demarcates the RFR office property line. Security guards for RFR stood outside the building's glass-walled lobby. By 5 p.m., what seemed like hundreds of Orthodox Jews had arrived. By 7 p.m., Rabbinical Congress spokesman Daniel Green estimated that between 7,500 and 10,000 protesters were present.

"I'm just here to make sure they don't go onto RFR," a security guard said.

Rabbi William Handler had some choice words to share with The Observer. He harshly criticized Aby Rosen, who heads RFR with Michael Fuchs, calling Mr. Rosen "arrogant," "pretentious" and "empty."

"I think he rather enjoys the confrontation," Mr. Handler said. "He doesn't realize that people are really laughing at him."

Mr. Handler said Mr. Rosen's "in your face" taste in art--the 390 Park lobby features Mike Bidlo's 2005 piece Not Warhol (Brillo Boxes, 1964), an exact copy of an Andy Warhol artwork--exemplifies his general attitude.

The rabbi acknowledged that Mr. Rosen is himself Jewish and that his parents survived the Holocaust. But: "He sounds to me like a rebellious child who turned his back on his father's religion," Mr. Handler said. "He still calls himself Jewish but I don't see what's Jewish about him, except for eating gefilte fish and watching Fiddler on the Roof."

In his speech atop the flatbed truck, coming after Rabbi Hershel Kler's speech in Yiddish, Mr. Handler said Mr. Rosen "seeks to make money over the bodies of our sacred dead." He said Messrs. Rosen and Fuchs had betrayed the Jewish faith, comparing them to Bernard Madoff and saying they worshiped "gelt, gelt and more gelt."

Mr. Rosen did not respond to an email request for comment. But his office sent a statement that both criticized the Central Rabbinical Congress for being anti-Zionist and said its claims were false.

"Every stage of the RFR hotel development in Israel has been reviewed and approved by the applicable government agencies of the State of Israel," the release, dated Aug. 10, says. "Over the past 18 months, we have worked with the Antiquities Authority, the government agency that oversees developments in areas of known archeological significance. The Antiquities Authority oversaw all excavation work at the site. The human remains that were discovered during the Antiquities Authority's excavations were determined to be of Pagan origin, not Hebrew, and were turned over to the Ministry of Religious Services for reburial."

Mr. Green said representatives from the Rabbinical Congress sent two letters to Mr. Rosen and received no response. He said, though, that these representatives spoke to RFR secretaries, who confirmed Mr. Rosen had received the letters, and to Mr. Rosen's son. "Obviously, many phone calls were attempted, but no one was ever put through to Mr. Rosen," Mr. Green said.

The release says Asra Kadisha, a group that has aligned itself with the Rabbinical Congress in protest, has been "harassing its [RFR] employees through the use of inappropriate telephone calls and email. Several death threats and bomb threats are currently under investigation by the NYPD and the District Attorney's Office."

Mr. Handler explained why the thought of building a hotel on top of a Jewish cemetery is so repulsive. "We believe when a person dies that's not the end of life," he said. "Many times people have to come back two and three times to complete unfinished work."

A graveyard, he said, is considered a "house of the living," because "souls hover there." Citing the Kabbalah, a sacred Jewish text, he said, "If you disturb the rest of those who are buried, there are very serious consequences."

Such as? "Plague, earthquake, sickness, economic tragedy," Mr. Handler said, adding that any Jews who do not protest are implicated in the crime.

"Think about Israel," he said. "A nuclear-armed Iran is around the corner. And Hezbollah, and Hamas. This is not a time to be playing with God and giving him the finger."

walden@observer.com

The Fed branch already foreclosed on one property, the Crossroads Mall in Oklahoma City. According to its website, the 1.2-million-square-foot, two-hotel, 16-theater mall has 60 specialty shops and eateries, a children's play area, the town's only indoor full-size carousel, and is "easily accessible from all parts of the metropolitan area." But tenants like Dillard's have left, and the government is having a lot of trouble trying to sell it off.

A brokerage site says its "pleased to offer this lender owned distressed asset," and has a collection of empty but brightly lit interior photographs that would make Stephen Shore shed a tear.

"No one is happy about owning a mall," said Helen Mucciolo, a New York Fed official who heads a team that manages the troubled portfolio. "But we have to manage this responsibly and see what we get back." On the upside, this Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be the annual sales tax holiday in Oklahoma. Crossroads mall plans to participate.

The Fed also owns loans on properties as far afield as Hawaii and Malaysia. Mr. Reinhart imagines how Fed chairman Ben Bernanke must feel: "You should have the image of Chairman Ben Bernanke flying to a speaking engagement," he told NPR. "And he can look out the window and look down and say, 'Boy, I own a piece of that, I own a piece of that, I own a piece of that.'"

CB Richard Ellis is representing IDB Group subsidiaries Property and Building Corporation Limited, a holding company, and Koor Industries Limited, a holding company, which together own the building. The current tenant, HSBC Bank, which has occupied the space since 1999 (the building was constructed in 1984), plans to shrink its office space into the building's base.

Craig Reicher, vice chairman of CBRE New York Tri-State, called the office space his firm will market "A-plus," "high-quality" and "boutique." Both Mr. Reicher and Ehud Elizur, executive vice president of PBC-Koor USA, praised the view from the tower floors, which takes in Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center and the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. "If you're going to meet high-net-worth clients, you'd rather do it in a building like this and not in a Class B building without any view," Mr. Elizur said.

The building's owners have hired Studios Architecture, which has also done projects at 200 Fifth Avenue and 731 Lexington Avenue, to renovate the building. Changes will include an upgrade of the lobby, a set of new elevators and an installation of new electromechanical systems. The work, Mr. Elizur said, will begin in September and, if all goes according to plan, will end in March.

"It'll really transform the entrance to the building," Mr. Elizur said. "The lobby is nice, but it's from 1984."

Representing ownership will be, in addition to Mr. Reicher, CBRE vice chairman Howard Fiddle; first vice presidents James Ackerson, Sinclair Li and Zachary Freeman; and senior financial analyst Rima Shpolyansky.

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An hour later, the shears would be used to cut a man-made "vine," composed from pieces of plants: anthurium, hosta, English ivy and umbrella fern. The vine, in place of a ribbon, was a nod to the "greenness" of the hotel, which will be the largest LEED-certified hotel in the city. The certification isn't yet official, but Dan Tishman, chairman of the National Resources Defense Council, said he expects the hotel will receive the Silver rating.

"Because the hotel is 'green' we wanted to use the whole idea of all 'green,'" said Ivan Hall, who works with Kuki Design, which built the vine. "All of this will be recycled afterward."

Drew Schlesinger, general manager of the hotel, ascended the stage just before 11, kicking off the festivities. "I'm here to celebrate the 'green' opening of this hotel," he said.

He introduced Jim Anhut, senior vice president of franchise development for InterContinental hotels, who talked about his own contributions to "greenness."

"This is my contribution to LEED certified: I recycled my boarding pass and wrote my speech on that," he said. "We'll compare that later to the mayor with his little iPad."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who also stood on stage, smiled. He had been reviewing notes on his trusty iPad.

"This is jobs—J-O-B-S for Jets fans—jobs for our city," Mr. Bloomberg said in his speech. He spoke optimistically about the hotel industry, saying that occupancy rates in May 2010 were the highest of any period since 2002. He called the new InterContinental "not only one of the greatest hotels in the world but also the 'greenest.'"

"This is a wonderful day for New York," he said. "I hope we have a lot more of them."

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Continuing to assert its dominance in commercial leasing, CB Richard Ellis had Michael Laginestra, Scott Gottlieb and Andrew Sussman represent the tenant, according to a release issued last night. Steven Durels, executive vice president and director of leasing and real property for SL Green, represented SL Green, which owns the building. SL Green is the city's biggest office landlord, with approximately 22,012,215 square feet to its name. For its part, 555 West 57^th encompasses about a million square feet.

CBS will presumably have easy access to medical attention, schooling and cars. Other tenants in the building include St. Luke's Roosevelt, Greater New York Hospital Association, City University of New York and BMW of Manhattan.

It's been a busy week. According to the release, recently renewed leases by Pepsico and Citigroup outside of the city (in Westchester and Fairfield counties, respectively) combine with the CBS deal to bring the total leased square feet in SL Green buildings to over 610,000 "in the past few days."

"Large tenants are choosing to lock in favorable occupancy costs with financially stable landlords," Mr. Durels said.

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Now located at 280 Park Avenue, between 48th and 49th streets, the NFL will move to 345 Park Avenue, between 51st and 52nd, according to a release. Starting in the third quarter of next year, it will occupy about 175,000 square feet in a 44-story tower owned by the Rudin family, which owns about 10 million square feet of office space in the city.

The leased space breaks down thusly: three full floors (5, 6 and 7) comprise about 150,000 square feet of office space, while the rest, approximately 30,000 square feet, is "below-grade," for "various operational and administrative departments."

Franklin Speyer and Lou D'Avanzo of Cushman & Wakefield teamed with Peter Hennessy and Daoud Awad of Jones Lang LaSalle to represent the NFL. Tom Keating of Rudin Management Company repped Rudin.

Bill Rudin, CEO and vice chairman of Rudin Management Company, called the NFL "the most respected and successful league in all of professional sport."

Eric Grubman, executive vice president of NFL ventures and business operations, said the new space "will enable us to be more efficient."

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Eastern Consolidated represented the seller and, according to a release, "procured" the buyer, whose identity is "undisclosed." Mr. Anton and Ron Solarz, both executive managing directors at Eastern Consolidated, worked with vice chairman Brian Ezratty and senior director Deborah Gutoff to broker the deal.

The 8,426-square-foot retail space is all leased up, and the new owner doesn't plan on making any drastic changes. "It's a pure investment," Mr. Solarz said. The storefronts, which Ms. Gutoff called "local," include Devonshire Optical, University Floral Design, Sunshine Cleaners, La Petite Coquette and Bagel Bob's.

The seller was a partnership between the Cheshire Group and Sterling Equities, which together bought the building in December 2007, "a couple days before Christmas," Mr. Anton said. Cheshire and Sterling converted the upstairs residential portion of the building from rentals to condos, which have been selling for an average of $1,850 a square foot.

Messrs. Solarz and Anton wouldn't give the buyer's identity, but Mr. Anton said it's "one of the large New York real estate families." Mr. Solarz added that the family has "a lot of experience in real estate." Tantalizing!

walden@observer.com

Why is CBRE so dominant? Matt Van Buren, CBRE's executive managing director, enlightened us.

"I don't think the secret is all that mysterious, I really don't," he said. "It all comes down to, A, Do you have better talent? We think we do. And, B, Do you keep your eye on the ball? And keeping your eye on the ball means eliminating all distractions and giving clients really good results."

Last year, Jimmy Kuhn, president of rival brokerage Newmark Knight Frank, compared CBRE to the Yankees and Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE's archrival, to the Boston Red Sox. America's favorite pastime is also commercial real estate's favorite analogy.

To borrow a phrase, CBRE's batting average this year was impressive. The brokerage claimed the top four positions in the top-50 list, representing the landlord, the tenant or both. It also had a hand in eight of the top 10 leasing deals, and 23 of the top 50. By comparison, Cushman snagged 13 of the top 50 deals, Newmark Knight Frank got nine, and Jones Lang LaSalle and Studley each took seven.

CBRE's 23 top deals totaled about 3.55 million square feet. It's a dramatic improvement over 2009's dismal mid-year total of 1.75 million square feet, but it's not quite back up to the pre-Lehman 2008 mid-year figure of 4.9 million. Cushman's 13 leasing deals this year totaled 1.55 million square feet, better than last year's mid-year figure of 892,284, but, likewise, not as impressive as 2008's mid-year total of 1.9 million.

To New York City commercial brokerages: Pretend you're playing baseball, and you might have a shot at toppling the CBRE kingdom (but probably not).

"We do have a very powerful lineup of brokers in New York that are unusually resourceful," Mr. Van Buren said.

walden@observer.com

VIP shoppers got a preview Tuesday at a red-carpet event that attracted, among other celebrities, Jerry Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica. Ms. Seinfeld's line of baby clothes, Baby Buggy, is sold in Target stores.

"Dear Harlem, We're going to be neighbors," says Target's Web site. "Come on over to our newest store on Sunday, July 25 to help celebrate the creativity of Harlem. We're debuting three limited-edition collections from four designers that capture our neighborhood's unique flavor."

The Journal has a nice roundup of quotes from the celebrities at Tuesday's shindig.

"I can't wait to get inside," actress Michelle Trachtenberg said. "I'm on the hunt for a new Polaroid camera. I was a big fan of the old one."

wlden@observer.com

In 1968, the Times Magazine called the building, located at West 132-135^th Streets between Lenox and Fifth Avenue and owned by the Olnick Organization, "Harlem's Best Address," according to the Olnick Organization's Web site. Harlem looked pretty different back then.

The Times recalls today a story it reported in 2008 that first exposed the discounts. Mr. Rangel, who used one of the apartments as a campaign office, paid a total of $3,894 a month for four units, the Times says. Back in 2008, a similar bundle of analogous apartments in the building would have cost between $7,465 and $8,125 at market rates.

An employee in Lenox Terrace's leasing office told The Observer today that a two-bedroom apartment in the building rents for between $2,100 and $2,300 a month, and a one-bedroom fetches between $1,400 and $1,750.

Mr. Rangel wasn't the only politician to rent for cheap in Lenox Terrace. Governor David Paterson paid $1,250 a month in 2008 for a two-bedroom whose market rate was at least $2,600.

In the 2008 Times story, Mr. Rangel declined comment.

"Why should I help you embarrass me?" he said.

walden@observer.com

This means that midtown north, in real life, is about to become cool. Time & Life is at 1271 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) between 50^th and 51^st streets. It's an expansion of Rockefeller Center and now houses the decidedly un-hip SportsNet New York.

Luckily for Mad Men fans everywhere, and thanks to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the lobby is still fairly retro. The LPC designated an "elevator core, wrapped in shimmering stainless steel panels which contrast and complement the gray and white terrazzo floor," a poetic description, courtesy of the American Institute of Architects Guide to New York City, that Don Draper would have been proud to write.

The real-life history of the building even includes a charming Mad Men-esque story of a 9-year-old foreman's son who lit a 35-foot Christmas tree on top of the 587-foot building after shouting, "O.K., Dad, take her away!" (Of course, if that had happened in the show, the dad wouldn't have been around to hear the kid shout.)

It's been a half-century since the building opened in 1959, so a few things have changed. The otherwise retro lobby now has card-operated turnstiles.

"That was after 9/11," an elevator starter said.

walden@observer.com

The Real Estate Group of New York's latest Manhattan Rental Market Report went live on Tuesday morning, and it shows rents in July ticking up. That's reassuring for landlords and worrisome for first-time renters. Your friends who entered the market last year may still be riding on the recession-era glut of incentives, such as a couple months of free rent, but chances are you won't be so lucky.

"As a rule, if you're living in Manhattan, it's not impossible, but it's very hard to find anything under $1,300 or $1,400," said Gus Waite, vice president of the rental division of The Real Estate Group New York, a local brokerage.

Asked whether it was possible to rent for a thousand dollars a month (or less!), Mr. Waite wasn't optimistic. "I wouldn't say there's no way. It's a tall order. People always say, 'My friend...' But your friend wasn't renting in July 2010."

Rents aren't actually that much higher than last year. Average rents are up 0.72 percent from June and up 3.62 percent from the same period last year. The average rent for a non-doorman studio is $2,077, while a doorman studio is $2,367 (last year: $1,958 and $2,337, respectively). A non-doorman one-bedroom is $2,713, while a doorman one-bedroom is $3,428 (last year: $2,590 and $3,276, respectively). It's cheaper to have a roommate, but not by much. A non-doorman two-bedroom is $3,680, while a doorman two-bedroom is $5,327 (last year: $3,590 and $5,197, respectively).

Still, many of the symptoms of last year's renter's market have vanished. As Mr. Waite said, "The market is almost back to normal," which means incentives are rarer. Don't expect, for instance, to be offered two months of free rent, a common practice in 2009. Also, don't expect to be allowed to put up a temporary wall. The service, which can save renters a bundle, is starting to be more closely scrutinized for legality. Now that landlords aren't so desperate, they're getting stricter about checking for permits.

"The laws haven't changed in 80 years. It's the interpretation of the codes," Mr. Waite said. "You have to get a permit. For years people didn't get permits because people were doing so many. But now, if they check, you could get fined or in trouble."

Because of the dearth of incentives, the buildings still offering them are getting special attention. The Financial District and Stuyvesant Town, where free rent deals still exist, are starting to look more attractive.

Mr. Waite said he doesn't expect rents to go down. But he also doesn't expect them to go up. He predicts they'll remain fairly constant for the rest of the summer. Which means you have a few more leisurely weeks to pick out a place before school starts—or doesn't—in the fall.

walden@observer.com

Grubb & Ellis, which issued a release, brokered the deal between LaSalle and the London-based WCL Group.

The school will leave its East 2^nd Street location for a new home at 215 East 6^th Street, to co-inhabit a space with St. Geroge's Ukranian Catholic School. LaSalle's Web site reflects this change in address. The World Class Learning Academy of New York will occupy two of LaSalle's three properties on East 2^nd Street.

The mission statement of LaSalle, a Catholic high school that has been in New York City since 1848, is, according to its Web site, "to educate young men of diverse cultural, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds with special outreach to those most in need."

The Web site of the British Schools of America, a collection of prep schools that currently operate in D.C., Boston, Houston, Chicago and Charlotte reads, "Welcome to a style of learning that's New World innovative and Old World refined."

Ken Famulare, director of development for LaSalle, said his school struck the deal because of financial troubles. The move, he said, allows three schools to exist: LaSalle, St. George's and the new World Class Learning Academy of New York. Asked whether LaSalle was concerned about the fact that the new British school attracts a wealthier student base than LaSalle, Mr. Famulare said, "Certainly folks at the school [LaSalle] were happy it [World Class Learning Academy] was a school [for a tenant]. We're also aware of the changing demographics of our neighborhood."

Martin Cottingham, managing director for Grubb & Ellis, said his firm wanted to preserve LaSalle and thereby help the community.

"This project has allowed us to really stabilize the school and put it on good financial footing," he said.

Updated 4:06pm

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"When we mailed out the notice and we reached out to a lot of people, there was almost no response," Vito Lopez, chairman of the state Assembly's housing committee, said. "So it's quite interesting."

At issue was whether 421-a, which gives tax breaks to developers who build affordable housing and which expires at the end of this year, was worth renewing. Mr. Lopez, his Assembly colleague Rory Lancman and the five witnesses who testified all spoke in support of the tax credit program. Tempers flared, though, over the details of 421-a and the circumstances under which it should apply. Mr. Lopez strongly criticized Brooklyn's "gold coast" and pushed for the required percentage of affordable housing in new buildings to be increased to 30 percent.

"There are units for people making a hundred or more," he said in an opening statement. "There are almost no units for people making thirty, forty and fifty thousand."

Rafael Cestero, commissioner for the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, expressed his support of 421-a and proposed a series of minor amendments, such as a clarified definition for commencement of construction and a more streamlined application process.

In response, Mr. Lopez proposed still further amendments, such as increasing the required percentage of affordable units in a building from 20 to 30 percent. He admitted that the higher figure would "have a lot of developers committing hara-kiri."

Mr. Cestero sympathized with the spirit of Mr. Lopez's proposal but remained evasive, saying, "We don't have to build that housing under every program." He said 421-a is "just one tool in the toolbox to create affordable housing."

Ever skeptical of for-profit developers, Mr. Lopez cautioned against the way developers have used 421-a in a way contrary to his own affordable housing ideals. He ranted against what he saw as "the consequences of, say, 421-a and a policy of a massive displacement in gentrification," bemoaning what he called the new "gold coast" of Williamsburg. He expressed horror, later in the hearing, at the fact that some developers have actually appropriated his term "gold coast" in their branding. "These are all wealthy people. They're not the indigenous people," he said. "Some people will clap and applaud that, but someone has to give support to the person that makes only $20,000."

Stephen Levin, council member of Brooklyn's 33^rd district, who testified next, echoed Mr. Lopez's ideals, saying, "We do not need any more luxury housing built without paying property taxes."

Mr. Lopez agreed. "I can't live in most of my district," he said. He then playfully accused Mr. Levin of perpetuating the pernicious gentrification. "You almost caused it when you came to the district. You lived in one of these apartments with four friends," Mr. Lopez said. "I don't know what we can do about that."

To make his position clear, Mr. Levin said the "exclusion zone," or the area in which 421-a applies, should be expanded to the entire city, a move that would eliminate tax breaks for buildings that don't include affordable housing.

The big storm came after the testimony of Michael Slattery, senior vice president of the Real Estate Board of New York. Mr. Slattery said that an additional cut to developers' tax burdens, from 30 to 12 percent, was the only way to get them to build more affordable housing. "We're just looking for a shared burden to keep these units affordable," he said.

But Mr. Lopez didn't like Mr. Slattery's attitude. He thought Mr. Slattery's desire to further cut the taxes was unrealistic, and he accused REBNY of being too focused on profit. "Become a little bit more humanitarian," he said. "You're asking some tough stuff here."

When Mr. Slattery addressed the now-defunct negotiable certificate program, which allowed affordable housing developers to sell tax rebates to market-rate developers, Mr. Lopez exploded. "I try to have a working relationship with you," he said. "Give me some respect. That was driven solely by exorbitant profit margins. It was outrageous. Totally outrageous."

He got particularly inflamed over Williamsburg's New Domino development: "Everything is more money. Greater profit margin. Is that what government is supposed to do? Guarantee greater profit margin? Segregate people? Racially divide people? I mean, this is what you're talking about."

The chairman later apologized for his outburst, saying it was motivated by passion.

After two more witnesses testified, the hearing had raised provocative questions without hammering out many solutions.

"I don't have all the answers," Mr. Lopez said. "But I plan, God willing, to have a hearing in every borough in the next six months to talk about the creation of a 70-30 program and a moratorium on every other kind of development—and ask the city and state not to support anything but that. Now, you may say I'm going nuts. But we don't need any more luxury development."

walden@observer.com