World Financial Center retail to get $250M facelift … and more

1. Brookfield Properties initiates a $250M upgrade of retail space in World Financial Center
[Crain’s]
2. Current city rooftops could capture enough sun to power half of NYC’s peak electricity needs
[NYT]
3. Larry Silverstein: entire WTC site will be complete by 2016
[NY1]
4. New York’s most expensive and most affordable housing markets
[Fox23News]
5. Sixty percent of buyers and renters at Williamsburg’s 175 Kent are from Manhattan
[Brownstoner]
6. The new hotel at 2 Allen Street is getting its “soulless” glass facade
[Bowery Boogie]
7. In June 2008 15 CPW unit 27A was bought for $11.7M; it was just sold for $24.5M
[NYO]
8. Developer Howard Milstein was approved to oversee the state’s Thruway Authority
[Ithaca Journal]
9. Queens group aims to get piers, boat launches and pedestrian walkways connecting Astoria and LIC waterfronts
[NYDN]
10. Manhattan architect Gerald Abramovitz dies a month after being attacked outside friend’s UWS home [Post]
11. Acting talent agency Gersh Agency, and literary agent Trident Media Group sign leases at 41 Madison [NYO]
12. Manhattan vacancy rate hits lowest level since June 2006, and rents continue to rise [Post]
13. Museum of African Art opening delayed again — this time to late 2012 [WSJ]