After more than five years of owning the brownfield, discovering different biohazards and revising construction plans, the Austin, Texas-based company announced last week that construction will begin in 2011, as soon as the city approves its plans. A scaled-back 52,000-square-foot version of the store will open late in 2012 (the company originally broke ground in 2006). The canal, which has approximately 10 feet of black sediment the consistency of mayonnaise festering at the bottom, likely won't be clean for another 10 years.

It was only a matter of time before big-box brown rice capitalism landed in Brooklyn, which in the last four years has welcomed Fairway, Ikea and Trader Joe's. Whole Foods has opened six stores in New York since 2001, all in Manhattan. But proximity to Park Slope, the epicenter of purpose-driven, pseudo-suburban family life in Brooklyn, opens a whole new can of worms. Residents have so far staved off high-end retail, other than the odd boutique, despite being a branch office of Manhattan economically. One cannot even find a Gap in its increasingly lily-white environs.

This is Park Slope Food Coop territory, after all.

"I have concerns about the politics of the Whole Foods founder," said Mary Crowley on Saturday morning, walking through the Grand Army Plaza farmers' market with her husband. John Mackey, the company's co-founder and CEO, is a self-taught businessman who believes in small government, and he once compared working with unions to living with herpes--"It stops a lot of people from loving you." In August of last year, he wrote an editorial for The Wall Street Journal arguing that the government should not interfere in the health-care business. "He's very conservative," Ms. Crowley continued. "And we have good stores here already, so I don't know if we need another one."

Ms. Crowley's husband, John Denatale, walked over with their tall, long-haired dog. "I think people in the Slope get over things quickly," he said, their dog pushing his snout between his legs.

"I think they'll be upset. I disagree," said Ms. Crowley.

There was a strong wind blowing down Eastern Parkway. "People in Park Slope don't like change," explained Mark Germann, a young attorney standing over his son in a stroller while his wife, Beth Aala, a filmmaker, looked at yogurt drinks in the Ronnybrook Farm Dairy stall.

"Chains or change?" she asked, coming over to secure an extra blanket over their son.

"Change," he said.

"Maybe both," she added.

Whole Foods is more of an ideological challenge to the Park Slope Food Coop, the headquarters of arch-Park Slope living, than it is a threat to business. The cooperative, which is 15,000 members strong, was, foot by foot, more than three times as profitable as a Whole Foods in 2010, according to Fortune. Member attrition increased with the arrival of Fairway in Red Hook in 2006, but long checkout lines continue.

"I'm not a member of the co-op," Mr. Germann continued. "It's a little bit like a right-wing regime. They force you to do things, right? ... It's not a democracy; it's a totalitarian regime." He talked about friends getting "blacklisted" for missing shifts.

How will the Whole Foods stack up to the venerable Park Slope Food Coop? The Observer did some comparison shopping! >>

The arrival of Whole Foods is also a benchmark of the gentrification that newer Park Slope residents have wrought: It's now creeping across Fourth Avenue into Gowanus. Two women waiting in line for organic meat on the other side of the farmers' market, both with babies bundled against the cold strapped to their chests, said they would definitely not be going to the new Whole Foods. It was too expensive and too far out of the way. They don't own cars, and besides, they were members of the co-op. They declined to give their names. "Are you a member of the co-op?" one of the mothers asked, glinting at The Observer with a taut smile. "Just wondering."

"Oh, you're talking about Brooklyn! When you said Third Avenue and Third Street, I thought Manhattan," said writer Gary Shteyngart, who rented an apartment on Seventh Avenue and First Street, in the traditional heart of Park Slope retail, in the mid-1990s. "Third Avenue and Third Street, holy crap. Wow," he said. He had just returned from Santa Fe, where he was promoting his latest novel, Super Sad True Love Story, and was talking over the phone on Monday afternoon from his apartment in Manhattan. He said he moved back to the city to be closer to his shrink.

Mr. Shteyngart moved to Park Slope when he was working on his first book, and he expected it to be "edgy." There was a Connecticut Muffin on Seventh Avenue then. "Well, you know, there's an Ikea in Red Hook. Nothing is sacred anymore," he said, adding that in 25 years, no part of Brooklyn will remain untouched. "This elite group of people must be served one way or another," Mr. Shteyngart continued. "These kids need to be fed! Two-point-four kids per person there, so they need organic foods."

Mr. Shteyngart was proud to report that he never joined the co-op, "and I went to Oberlin, where working in a co-op was the cool thing to do."

Mr. Mackey of Whole Foods told Reason magazine this year that the most important variable in selecting a new site for stores is the number of college-educated people living within a 16-minute drive. Hello, Park Slope!

Novelist Amy Sohn, a co-op member and Brown alumna who grew up in Brooklyn Heights, compared Gowanus to downtown Providence before it was cleaned up. "It was dirty video stores," she said, "and now they have this whole festival of candles on the waterfront. I feel like Gowanus is heading in that direction. It's a little bit frightening. I love the gritty feel." She now lives in Park Slope, and her latest book, Prospect Park West, satirizes the neighborhood.

She said she would not shop at Whole Foods but hoped some of the riffraff at the co-op--the type of people who don't have their hearts in the movement, the type who wind up on the blacklist--might.

"They probably come from another part of the country where Whole Foods is very fetishized, and they have been waiting," Ms. Sohn said. "They want to replicate their sort of Mall of America experience in New York City, so they love that you can have a Whole Foods in Brooklyn."

On the other end of the spectrum was a "crazy fringe" of Park Slopers who may object to the presence of the store, she said. "They're just not going to like that it's this massive chain experience, even with progressive values. They're not going to buy into that."

"I guess I put myself in the 'sure, but I won't shop there' category,'" Ms. Sohn said when we asked if she would allow Whole Foods to build on the site if it was entirely up to her. "I mean, they're creating 350 jobs. There's gonna be the greenhouse. It's very ecologically conscious. There's gonna be stations for electric cars.

"They're the devil," she said. "They've made it too good to turn down."

There will also be bike parking and a waterfront esplanade, in the model of Ikea and Fairway in Red Hook. According to a letter sent by Mark Mobley, an executive who oversees construction for Whole Foods, the rooftop garden "will grow fresh, organic produce right on-site!" Michael Sinatra, a spokesman for the company, added that produce grown on the roof will be sold in the store. "The stores that are built in Connecticut use reclaimed wood from torn-down farms in Connecticut," Mr. Sinatra said, "and hopefully this one will feature brick from old torn-down Brooklyn buildings."

No bricks, however, will come from the landmarked Coignet Stone Company, constructed in 1873, on the corner of the Whole Foods lot. The structure will sit just behind the new store.

"I don't know. I just don't want them to tear it down. Do you? Maybe they should. What do you think?" asked artist Dustin Yellin on Sunday afternoon, after a flight back from Art Basel, talking about the Stone Company building. "They should donate it to artists to have a small museum there! I want to build a museum."

He was eating dark chocolate and sitting cross-legged in his office, off the studio, living space and gallery he opened in Red Hook. There were photographs tacked to the wall above his desk, including reproductions of Pieter Bruegel winter-scene paintings, studies for a 24-by-36-foot glass piece he is working on. Mr. Yellin and his close friend, Charlotte Kidd, bought the building on an isolated street in 2007 after his work became too heavy for the floors in his Manhattan studio. Now he finds himself down the street from Fairway, and neighbors with the new cruise ship dock and Christie's new warehouse in the New York Dock Company building. It's a short walk to Ikea.

Mr. Yellin described Whole Foods as a "weird art installation, a postmodern clusterfuck of like 55 kinds of the same kind of granola and 55 kinds of the same kind of chocolate." He doesn't like grocery shopping very much.

"If it's not going to be a museum, and it's not going to be a park--'cause those are two things that I think enhance communities--then I say to myself, 'Well, a Whole Foods isn't terrible because a strip mall would suck. And Whole Foods isn't terrible, because don't they have good stuff?' I could definitely shop there to cook dinner for my friends. It's not Wal-Mart."

Outside the co-op on Monday morning, the attitude was live-and-let-live. Doug Ashford, who teaches sculpture at Cooper Union and has belonged to the co-op since 1983, was waiting with his groceries for a ride home. He reached into his cart and tore off a piece of olive bread.

"The practices that are involved with the co-op have more to do with overall lifestyle choices that we all make," he said. "The only problem is that if that creates an economic shift in the neighborhood, where people get replaced. But we've been through so many waves of gentrification--I've been here since the '70s--that I'm not that worried about that, either."

"I doubt I'll shop there. It's too expensive. All of their products have way too much sugar," said Hilda Cohen, another co-op member, as she bungee-corded a cardboard box of groceries to the back of her bicycle. She comes over from Fort Greene to shop.

Ms. Cohen had heard all about Whole Foods' green roof and said she thought the company was doing a good job listening to the neighborhood's concerns. "They're wanting to do the right thing. And for how many times Atlantic Yards doesn't want to do the right thing ..." she said. "So, you know, it feels like they're trying."

Erin Jones, who commutes from Chinatown to the American Can Factory across the street from the Whole Foods site, was conflicted about the new store. She likes the view from her office the way it is. "I like the signage, the big open lot. That's something that I enjoy on my walk to work," she said over the phone on Monday afternoon.

Ms. Jones and her coworkers at Lite Brite Neon make custom neon signage in rented studio space. They keep bees on the roof, but they haven't been able to harvest any honey yet. The office normally orders in lunch together, or everyone brings from home, because there just isn't that much nearby in Gowanus. She wondered whether their bees would like the Whole Foods roof garden better than what's there now. "There's sort of an outlaw nature to it," she said. "It's a great open expanse. I feel like it's sort of a Texas of Brooklyn."

How will the Whole Foods stack up to the venerable Park Slope Food Co-op? The Observer did some comparison shopping! >>

zturner@observer.com / @zekeft

The gallerists hammered out the details over pizza with the architect on the Swiss mountaintop, according to The New York Times' Alex Williams, who described the eight-story tower in today's edition as a "Trumpian expression of ambition."

Ealier The Times' Linda Yablonsky described Lord Foster's building as an "eight-story shaft thrusting its metallic black, milky-glass way up." But Angela Westwater, in her third interview with the newspaper about the space, was pretty reserved — not Trumpian, not thrusting shaft–like. “It’s the burgeoning spirit that we’re more interested in, rather than creating any kind of mausoleum," said Ms. Westwater, a former managing editor of Artforum in the 1970s. "There are enough museums out there to do that.”

zturner@observer.com

The 1984 Emery Roth & Sons-designed building hosted ad-sales offices for The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, the Dow Jones Newswire and the publisher's other business-to-business products for more than a decade before Rupert Murdoch moved the Dow Jones newsrooms into News Corp. headquarters, three blocks north at 47th Street in June of 2009.

This time around, Dow Jones negotiated with the Durst Organization for renovations of the third-floor bathrooms as part of the renewal. The company is planning to do some work of its own too. "We are doing some updates in the space to make it a more efficient workplace for us, but nothing major," said Howard Hoffman, a spokesman for Dow Jones. "No major renovations are planned."

Tim Dempsey, Ken Rapp and Mary Ann Tighe at CB Richard Ellis, who represented the tenant, declined to comment.

The Dow Jones floors at 1155 Avenue of the Americas were never listed publicly by the Durst Organization, but other spaces in the building are on the market. The entire 11th floor is being listed now for $60 per square foot. Suites on the fourth and 10th floors are listed for $55.

zturner@observer.com / @zekeft

Mr. Gosling's performance was "close," but "not as good as the real thing," Mr. Durst told The New York Times' Charles Bagli and Kevin Flynn, who have covered the Durst case since the late '90s. “Parts made me cry,” added Mr. Durst, who showed up on set during the filming and saw the movie at a private screening arranged by Magnolia Pictures.

During production of All Good Things — "part researched docudrama that claims to point to the truth," according to Messrs. Bagli and Flynn — the lawyers for the Durst Organization promised to sue upon the film's release. At issue was Mr. Jarecki's depiction of Seymour Durst as an instrument for criminal businesses in old Times Square. "[The filmmakers] can do whatever they want, but to misrepresent somebody's life story when there are live relatives around strikes me as—um—his right, but hitting below the belt," former Manhattan borough president Ruth Messinger told The Observer earlier this month.

With the film slated for theatrical release this week, the Durst Organization has pivoted away from legal action. “Fortunately this movie will be seen by so few people that litigation would be superfluous,” Douglas Durst told The Times.

Earlier: Seymour Durst Did Play Tennis: Otherwise, New Film Gets Lots Wrong About Real Estate Lore

"You know, the real estate business is a very tough business, and you have to be patient and persistent, and aggressive," Mr. Gamal told The Observer in August, sitting in his former office. "Thank God I have all those qualities."

Mr. El-Gamal's SoHo Properties was leasing space on the sixth floor of 552-556 Broadway, between Spring and Prince, for $7,100 per month from landlord Royal Crospin, until the last day of summer, Sept. 20. Mr. Crospin is now suing the developer for $39,000, including $18,000 per month in default charges that Mr. Crospin wants from Mr. El-Gamal.

The developer's lawyers say that the landlord did not serve the default notice properly through overnight mail, and therefore the charges can't be collected. Mr. Crospin plans to take the matter to civil court. "We have no doubt we will prevail," wrote the developer's lawyer in an email to The Real Deal.

zturner@observer.com

Chris Soukas bought the building, at an enormous discount, for $11.35 million earlier this summer. Mr. Swig — he of the unfortunate timing — acquired the building for $23.9 million in 2007.

According to Sierra Realty, the tenant could be, well, anybody! The building could easily accomodate residential or commercial occupants, or even a hotel.

"We think it could be a great building for medical offices," Sierra EVP Peter Braus, the building's marketing agent, told The Real Deal. (Paging St. Vincent's ex-pats.) "There is a huge need for educational space downtown now," he continued. (Paging NYU.) "We're also entertaining the option of doing some residential on the upper floors." (Paging anybody.)

Asking rent is in the range of $120 per square foot annually for retail space and around $30 per square foot for the offices.

zturner@observer.com

"They assume Cuomo's going to win, so they fork over money in the hopes that when they make a phone call, someone will answer it," Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group told the Buffalo newspaper.

Today The Observer ran an infographic breaking down all the contributions to Mr. Cuomo's campaign (at right, detail below). This week we also talked with REBNY president Steven Spinola, who runs the city's largest real estate trade group, about the industry's relationship with Mr. Cuomo. "He has said fairly directly that New York City can't afford any tax increases ... What I think he needs to be able to continue that effort is a louder voice from the business community to say, 'We agree,'" Mr. Spinola said.

In the meantime, REBNY and its membership has been working to get money from the federal Department of Transportation to restart plans to extend the No. 7 subway line to West 41st Street and 10th Avenue. Today Crain's reported that the federal government rejected the grant application. Back to the drawing board.

zturner@observer.com

The most expensive office market in the world remain's London's West End, where occupancy costs averaged $193.69 per square foot, compared with $66.59 per square foot in midtown Manhattan. The Post's Steve Cuozzo issued a reminder earlier this week that the Brits are still very much in charge when it comes to retail space, too, despite good news for the city's landlords this week: asking rents in Times Square are up.

Worldwide the office market is beggining to find its low point as only 19 of the 175 biggest office markets saw double-digit declines in costs in the last year. Ninety-nine markets saw declines overall. Occupancy costs in 15 markets stayed the same.

For the last year, the top 10 most expensive places to take out office space were: London West End, Hong Kong (Central CBD), Tokyo (Inner Central), Mumbai, Moscow, Tokyo (Outer Central), London City, Paris Ile-de-France, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Perhaps the real news, though, is that midtown has finally stopped sliding down the rankings. In May it fell to 26--out of the top 25!--where it remains today. Before that, it was ranked 24th, according to last December's CBRE ranking, 21st in June of 2009, 15th in the second half of 2008 (just barely post-Lehman), and 13th six months before that. In 2007 we were in 12th place. Keep in mind this was back in the heady days of $100-per-square-foot-plus rents, when London was pushing the $300 threshold.

Still, the Brits have held their place at the top of the market throughout the downturn while New York has stumbled, mightily. Dubai is now in 12th place, despite that whole near-apocalypse thing.

zturner@observer.com

As his last question, Mr. Gopal asked the panel how the midterm elections were going to affect the commercial real estate business.

"I'm actually quite nervous about it as far as New York is concerned," said Mr. Elghanayan, CEO of Rockrose Development. He was wearing a black suit and gray tie with leather hiking boots.  

With increased Republican control in Washington looking to rein in stimulus money, Mr. Elghanayan said, New York City's banks will have less money for rent. "I'm nervous about our financial institutions. If they take a hit, we're going to lose tenants and that's frightening to me."

zturner@observer.com

The company will leave 800,000 square feet at 4 Times Square behind to anchor the new building, formerly known as the Freedom Tower, after its completion in 2013. The move will likely happen in 2014. Two Condé Nast executives told The Times that the company would likely lease one million square feet in the building, or almost 40 percent of the space available. The company notified employees of the plans, which are still in "active negotiatons," in a memo this morning. (Update: Memo here.)

The Observer reported that Condé was looking at space downtown in May. "We're paying below market rent here, and at some point, it goes to market," one executive at the company explained. "That's a huge jump. When we moved to Times Square, market rent was nothing like what it will be when our lease expires." Condé Nast's lease doesn't expire until 2019.

"Si is focused on steering resources toward our content," said another Condé Nast executive. "He likes to put resources toward quality products, not toward non-essential things like rent."

Related: Si It Isn't So! Condé Considers Move Downtown

The Times faced stiff competition on the list of uglies from the likes of the T.G.I. Friday's on Fifth Avenue (number 9) and Trump Tower on East 56th Street (number 4).

The Times own architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff called the building "a paradise by comparison" to the old Times building when it first opened. Not everyone was convinced.

Meanwhile Mr. Piano has been selected to design the new downtown headquarters of the Whitney, so that bodes well?