The poor unfortunate souls who bought into Battery Park City's Rector Square are mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore! Well, everyone except Augusten Burroughs, that is. He's still cool with the place. A group of 45 unit buyers have filed a $100 million lawsuit against the parties involved in the failed/abandoned/foreclosed/auctioned condo conversion, our sixth most frightening building in NYC. The Real Deal has the details, and they're fairly epic. Here's who the Battery Park City Hell Building buyers are going after, and why:

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

Back in 2005, New York magazine asked three brokers what a duplex at South Williamsburg's pioneering condo conversion the Gretsch, asking $1.25 million, should sell for. David Maundrell, grand poobah of boutique Brooklyn brokerage Aptsandlofts.com, said $995,000, adding that the wide-open loft space would require a build out for a family-oriented buyer. It eventually sold to music video director Ed Steinberg for $1.047 million, and now, years later, Maundrell's brokerage is handling the resale. Steinberg apparently took Maundrell's advice: On its first time around #5Q was a 1BR, 2BA condo. Now it's listed as 2BR, 1.5BA (hmm?), and with a slightly curious increase in square-footage from 1,755 to 1,850 (double hmm!). Also up is the perceived value of the space. It's asking $1,349,500. But who can really put a price on that type of proximity to Peter Luger?
· Listing: 60 Broadway 5Q [Aptsandlofts.com]
· Triple Assessment [NYM, third item]

The latest headlines from Curbed Hamptons, our outpost on the East End...

[Fancy a round of golf? Let's go out back.]

1) In addition to a best Hamptons houses of the decade list, our Curbed Hamptons counterparts have put together a roundup of the decade's 10 most important real estate deals. It's got everything: flips, Kennedy connections, and some of the most expensive houses in America.

2) Bridgehampton's Three Ponds Farm is not just on the market for $68 million -- it's also been named the number one "golf home" for sale in the U.S. How does a home get that honor? Well, it helps to have an 18-hole golf course and two-story clubhouse in the backyard.

3) A Water Mill mystery mansion didn't get any less mysterious when it took a $2 million PriceChop this week. The 10,000-square-foot manse is now asking $10.95 million. The all-important fireplace-to-bedroom ratio is 5:7.
· Curbed Hamptons [hamptons.curbed.com]

Blog Harlem Condo Life uses the occasion of the opening of The Douglass (formerly called The Savannah, right) to anoint Frederick Douglass Boulevard as Harlem's Gold Coast. (And really, every neighborhood needs a Gold Coast, right?) In addition to the Douglass at #2110, there's 2280 FDB, Livmor, the Aloft and plenty of other new stuff sprouting. HarlemGuy writes:

"I’ve come to view Frederick Douglass Boulevard (F.D.B, which is Central Park West above 110th a.k.a 8the Avenue) between 110 and 125th as Harlem’s Gold Coast, from a resident’s perspective. ">I’ve come to view Frederick Douglass Boulevard (F.D.B, which is Central Park West above 110th a.k.a 8the Avenue) between 110 and 125th as Harlem’s Gold Coast, from a resident’s perspective.

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

This isn't the first time we've drooled over 54 Bond Street, the landmark Bouwerie Lane Theater now carved up into three condos. But this is the first time we're seeing the building's new website, which gives us another opportunity to ogle Bond Street emperor Adam Gordon and architect Steven Harris's work on the beauty. The two smaller apartments' floorplans are narrow and still asking over $2,000 per square foot. But oh, that triplex penthouse! It's now asking a slightly slimmer $15.45 million (still more than the $15 million Gordon paid for the whole building in 2007). And the lowest floor can be either storage space (boring!) or a 1,510-square-foot lap pool.
· 54 Bond Street [54bond.com]
· 54 Bond Street [StreetEasy]
· Bouwerie Lane Theater Gutted, Chopped Up & On the Market [Curbed]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

The Sperone Westwater Gallery from British starchitect Norman Foster has started to rise above the street, and Foster + Partners are showing off the goods in fuller detail on their website—including the gigantic red elevator that has everybody talking. The Lower East Side building at 257 Bowery has been digging out for months, getting everything below ground in order so the art can sprout above. What's to come is a facade of glass rods and a levitating gallery behind, all the better for viewing the Bowery below. With Lord Norm's other gallery gig good to go on the Upper East Side, we'll soon have a double dose of fresh Foster in our midst.
· Sperone Westwater [Foster + Partners]
· 257 Bowery coverage [Curbed]

Our end-of-decade examination series kicked off with a countdown of the best new buildings in New York City. Oh, building boom, you were so kind. And speaking of booms, it's now time for a look at the biggest deals of the '00s. Of course the biggest deal of the decade—and any decade, for that matter—was the $5.4 billion purchase of the 11,000+ apartments of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. Buyer's remorse, perhaps? We're more interested in the individual, single-family stuff—folks hashing it out over four walls, a roof and a toilet. Or in these cases, 20 rooms, private roof decks and his-and-her bidets. These are, to the best of our hard-working interns' knowledge, the biggest sales in an era fueled by excess. Flips of trophy properties were common. Records were set and immediately shattered. That's all gone, for now, but the memory lives in on this document. Got proof of a bigger deal we missed? The tipline is always open.

20) $33,654,000
Building: 845 United Nations Plaza
Buyer: Chu Chinh
The Skinny: The massive spread (reportedly 12 bedrooms and 16.5 bathrooms) bought by the Blackstone exec on the 89th and 90th floors of the Trump World Tower—just above Derek Jeter!—was practically a bargain at less than $1 million per room!

When developers build affordable-housing units within their new luxury projects to get tax breaks and zoning bonuses, it sometimes creates an uneasy mix of feelings within the building's walls. Luxury buyers get fancy finishes and SubZero, while "affordable" residents get basics and GE. Adding to the second-class-citizen vibe, sometimes the affordable portion of a building has a completely separate entrance—like at Tribeca's 101 Warren (aka the Whole Foods building), where the rental side of the building, which includes, 77 affordable units, is known as 89 Murray. But different lobbies may not be the only thing dividing the building's residents. The Downtown Express reports that one of the plans floating around for rezoning Lower Manhattan's elementary schools would cut the building in half, putting the offspring of the luxury condo owners in nearby powerhouse P.S. 234, while sending the renters half a mile away to the new Spruce Street School in the base of Frank Gehry's Beekman Tower. Going to school in a massive hunk of starchitecture sounds kind of cool, but the have-nots don't seem to agree.

We recently espoused on the glory that is Jude Law's rented penthouse at the Novare, the condofied Washington Square Park-area church, and gave a shout-out to the duplex's roomy terrace—yours for a newly reduced $6.9 million. Well, now we understand the downside of having a large, lovely terrace in the heart of NYUville: peeping underclassmen. The Post reports that NYU students in a neighboring dorm have been tripping over themselves in a rush to the windows whenever Jude Law steps ourside to do crunches. They've been taking pictures and calling out to him, and Jude—can you blame him?—isn't pleased. In fact, on one occasion he threw oranges at their windows. Memo to this penthouse's eventual buyer: Keep fresh fruit stocked.
· Jude irked by NYU dorm's-eye view [NYP]
· On the Market: Jude Law's Sinful Village Hideaway [Curbed]