company town

The Freedom Tower Has an Empty Dance Card

Freedom Tower

Lonely, oh so lonely.Photo: Getty Images

REAL ESTATE
• The Freedom Tower is up for sale. But while the building now has a price tag on it, it’s understood that any developer who takes the project over from the Port Authority would not start from scratch, but complete the $3 billion tower as it’s currently designed. [NYP]
• Two scheduled public hearings that gave landlords and tenants a microphone and three minutes turned into something like an open-mike night at a stand-up club. [NYT]
• Rudy Giuliani’s old roommates, Queens car dealership owner Howard Koeppel and his life-partner, Mark Hsiao, paid $2.3 million for a new condo on the Upper West Side. [Real Deal]

FINANCE
• Goldman Sachs reported that second-quarter profits fell by only 11 percent, which is less than analysts predicted. But that didn’t stop them from handing out pink slips to hundreds of investment bankers last week. [DealBook/NYT, NYT]
• Loews Corporation just upped its cachet: The conglomerate is changing its New York Stock Exchange trading symbol to “L,” joining only a handful of companies to carry the coveted single-letter ticker. [DealBook/NYT]
• Pruning is happening in the hedge-fund business. Smaller hedge funds, including top performers, are shutting down these days, and even brand-name traders are finding it tougher to get new ones off the ground. [WSJ]

MEDIA
• Katie Couric’s YouTube channel, which shows her funny side, was largely her idea. CBS isn’t doing anything to promote the clips — it wants the site to be organic. [LAT]
• Bonnie Fuller has some news for Michelle Obama: The attacks are about to begin. [HuffPo]
• The 67th Annual Peabody Awards luncheon took place yesterday, and, amid remembrances of Tim Russert, Project Runway was the first reality competition show to walk off with one of the awards. Harvey Weinstein went so far as to give a shout-out to the executive who he said green-lit Project Runway — and who is now suing him. “Thank you very much,” he said, “and a special thanks to Jeff Zucker.” [Multichannel News]

LAW
• Inspired by the intersection of music and law in the R. Kelly trial, Above the Law polled lawyers for their favorite law songs. The results prove at least one thing: Lawyers might have a little too much time on their hands. [Above the Law]
• Federal prosecutors reached a settlement with New York–based law firm Milberg: The law firm will survive, but with the burden of a $75 million penalty. [Law.com]
• Brooklyn attorney Loretta McHenry’s alleged that Judge Robert Katzmann defamed her when he rejected her appeal in an employment-discrimination case, but a federal judge has thrown out the plaintiff’s action. [Law.com]

The Freedom Tower Has an Empty Dance Card