The Round-Up: Thursday

What good is marketing? The cupola building at 141 Fifth Avenue has sold 25 of its 38 units without any sort of hucksterism whatsoever, according to the developer. [NY Sun]

Congestion pricing proponents think that 350,000 “heartrending flyers” can push voters to push state legislators to push through the Mayor’s plan by July 16. [NY Daily News]

Speaking of Mr. Bloomberg, the president of the Community Service Society says that “the city’s affordable housing picture continues to worsen even as the Mayor’s new housing goes up.” [NY Daily News]

It’s not just in New York: office rents jumped higher this past quarter since the dot-com bust, propelled, according to The Wall Street Journal, by new landlords such as Blackstone and Morgan Stanley, which “are taking a harder line in lease negotiations.” [subscription required].

Finally, in case you missed it yesterday, the cost of the Penn Station-Moynihan Station overhaul has climbed to $14 billion. But here’s the really surprising part: “the developers also have yet to hammer out a final deal with the owners of Madison Square Garden” to move to Ninth Avenue. [NY Times]