1. UPSCALE ARCHITECT GOES DOWNTOWN: Architect Robert A.M. Stern was chosen by Silverstein Properties to design a 60-floor luxury condominium and five-star hotel at 99 Church St. Mr. Stern is the architect behind the sold-out apartment building 15 Central Park West, where one unit sold for $42 million.

2. CONSTRUCTION JOBS SURGE: The building boom is driving construction jobs to record highs, with 130,000 jobs in 2009, up from 116,000 in 2006, the New York Building Congress reported.

3. REZONING FOR 125TH STREET: The city submitted a proposal to turn 125th Street into a corridor filled with business, retail, and arts facilities. The plan would increase building density, allow for 2,300 more apartments, and add 600,000 square feet of retail space. “I don’t want a 42nd Street,” Council Member Inez Dickens said. She is calling for a height limit of about 19 stories.

4. NEW HOTEL FOR CHINATOWN: An 18-story, 106-room Wyndham Hotel is being planned for the corner of Hester Street and the Bowery, at the site of former Chinese-language movie theater, the Music Palace.

5. THIRD-QUARTER PRICES FLAT IN QUEENS, L.I.: Median sales prices in Queens and Long Island were generally flat in the third quarter, according to a report from Radar Logic. The median sales price for homes, $445,000, was the same as last quarter and 2.2% lower than the same quarter last year.

6. PARK AVENUE DUPLEX SELLS FOR $20M: A Democratic fund-raiser, Connie Milstein, sold her 5,000-square-foot, 15-room duplex at 770 Park Ave. to a private equity fund manager, Robert Niehaus. The chairman of Greenhill Capital Partners, Mr. Niehaus, bought the apartment, situated on the 16th and 17th floors, for $20 million. Mr. Niehaus and his wife, Kate, endowed the Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University last year.

bhope@nysun.com