CHELSEA—Last summer, Vanishing NY reported that Chelsea's Hotel Allerton on 22nd and 8th, a former home of Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith, would become a boutique hotel, and not condos as previously suspected. With a new sign on the scaffolding now, it's official: The Allerton will become a Gem, the high-end boutique arm of multinational hotel chain Clarion. You might know of them from their previous Gemming of the HoJo's on Houston, dubbing it the Gem Soho, although the only thing SoHo about it is that it's on the south side of Houston Street. Maybe they'll name this one the Gem SRO, in honor of the many homeless men and women who lived, turned tricks, smoked crack, and got murdered here. [CurbedWire] —Jeremiah Moss
FIDI—Longtime Curbed readers may recall the saga of The Crest, the upscale rental building at 63 Wall Street whose early problems nurtured some truly inspired tenant bitching. It had seemed all was well that ended well until this little missive hit the Curbed inbox a few weeks back. Today, that tipster checks in with an update: "The 2 elevators for high-rise tenants at 63 Wall Street The Crest are out of service AGAIN. They fixed one of them a few weeks ago and left the other one untouched, and it got broken again. The tenants have been using the freight elevator for quite a while this year in this 'luxury' moth-decorated apartment." [CurbedWire Inbox]
PARK SLOPE— Per The Real Deal, closings have begun at Heritage, the (wait for it) Karl Fischer designed condo at 309 2nd Street. There's a full listings lineup of what's still up for grabs at Halstead. [The Real Deal]
