1. PORT AUTHORITY TO PAY SILVERSTEIN MILLIONS IN FEES

The Port Authority issued a press release saying it missed its January 1 deadline for excavating the foundations for World Trade Center towers 3 and 4, and will have to pay developer Larry Silverstein more than $12 million in delay penalties. The Port Authority, which owns the site, will owe Silverstein Properties $300,000 a day until the excavations are complete, which is expected to be in the next four to six weeks. The Port Authority, which is leasing the land for towers 2, 3, and 4 to Silverstein Properties, said lower fees for the contractors, who will not be paid additional bonuses because they missed the deadline, would offset the payments.

2. HARLEM CONDO OWNERS SUE DEVELOPER

The condominium owners at 125 Central Park North are suing the developer for $79 million, alleging shoddy construction, the Real Deal reported. The building on 110th Street and Fifth Avenue, facing Central Park, broke a Harlem record when it sold its 17 units for $850 a square foot in 2005. The condo owners, who paid an average of $1.046 million (including one resale), according to Streeteasy.com, say the apartments were not built as promised in the original offering plans.

3. RETAILERS BEMOAN SUBWAY CONSTRUCTION

The construction of the Second Avenue subway is hurting businesses on the Upper East Side, the New York Post reported. Shop owners on Second Avenue between 91st and 96th streets say the tunneling for the $3.8 billion subway has cut their sidewalk space by more than half, as guardrails and concrete barricades prevent their customers from easily accessing the stores.

4. REAL ESTATE’S FOREIGN INVASION SPREADS

Foreign buyers have been snatching up Manhattan real estate for some time, but the trend is expanding outside of metropolises such as New York and Miami. In fact, the National Association of Realtors has found that one in five American real estate agents has sold a home to a foreign investor in the past year, the Associated Press reports.

5. GROUNDBREAKING (THE THIRD) FOR A BROOKLYN PARK

City and state officials are set to kick off construction on the long-delayed Brooklyn Bridge Park with a groundbreaking early this year, according to the New York Post. This is the third groundbreaking for the project since 2001. The planned 85-acre waterfront park would stretch between Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO.

6. STEIN DAUGHTERS MAY SUE

The daughters of slain realtor-to-the-stars, Linda Stein, a former manager of punk band, the Ramones, are considering suing her employer, brokerage firm Prudential Douglas Elliman, as well as the temp agency that employed Stein’s accused killer. The New York Post reported that Stein’s daughters, Samantha Wells and Mandy Stein, were unable to find a will, and so filed a petition in Manhattan court for control of their mother’s estate. The petition was accepted, and in the filings were letters indicating the possibility they could sue Douglas Elliman and temp agency Axion of New York, which employed Natavia Lowery, the assistant to Stein who has been charged with her murder, for negligence. The petition also showed that Stein’s estate is valued at $2.2 million, including her apartment at 965 Fifth Ave., valued at $1.2 million.

7. BEDBUGS BEDEVIL NEW YORK

The number of bedbugs in the city is surging, infesting even the wealthiest corners of New York. The nocturnal, bloodsucking insects have been found in the Upper East Side luxury apartment buildings owned by Governor Spitzer’s father, a landlord, as well as a $25 million duplex on Central Park West, a penthouse on Park Avenue, and a Broadway theater, according to the New York Daily News. In the year ending in June, there were nearly 7,000 infestation complaints logged with 311, compared with just 537 in 2004.

jsatow@nysun.com