I have two stories out in the NYP Home section today.
The first is how home owners are doing everything possible to sell their apartments -- including throwing in things like plasma screen TVs, cars and chauffeurs, and offering to loan their buyers the money to make the purchase. (?!)
Unfortunately, my favorite anecdote got cut from the story; Harry Poulakakos, who owns Adrienne's Pizza Bar and Harry's Steak among other Financial District eateries (both of which I really like) was apparently going to offer a $5,000 credit and "VIP" treatment at any of his restaurants to anyone who bought the two lofts he has on the market. (What does VIP treatment entail? Basically, being able to get a table even when they're booked.)
But when I called his broker to confirm a few of the details, the broker told me that he was apparently pulling both units off the market.
(In all honesty, I didn't quite believe the broker... my suspicion is that the broker spoke to me without Harry's permission and Harry freaked out. But I have no proof to back me up. In any event, since Harry wasn't willing to call me I took it out of the story.)
Of course, the other thing antsy sellers are doing is chopping the price on their places. And not by a little -- by a lot. Spike Lee's old studio space in Fort Greene got a $1.1 million price cut! (Which I reported in a separate story that the good people at curbed were nice enough to link to.)
