1. AD FIRM MOVES WEST: The advertising and public relations firm Ogilvy & Mather will be one of the first major companies to move to Manhattan’s far West Side, the New York Times reported. With a major rezoning and ongoing bid process, the Hudson Yards neighborhood is expected to undergo major development in the next decade. The firm is not waiting: It has leased an entire 11-story building at 636 Eleventh Ave.

2. RENTS STRONG, DEALS SLOWED IN 2007: Commercial rental rates continued to rise last year, but landlords have begun offering more concessions to close deals, The New York Sun reported. While deal activity and the pace of rental growth slowed in the fourth quarter, the rents rose to $65 a square foot, Cushman & Wakefield said.

3. PLACES OF WORSHIP TO BE BULLDOZED: A dozen historic places of worship are slated to be demolished in 2008, and preservationists and elected officials are campaigning to stop their obliteration, the New York Post reported. A crew has already started to take down a 140-year-old Romanesque church, Glad Tidings Tabernacle, and scaffolding has begun to go up at other sights in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens.

4. MERRILL OFF MIDTOWN: Merrill Lynch will likely to put off plans to build a new headquarters in Midtown due to the difficult business climate that has plagued Wall Street since the credit crunch began last year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The decision to stay downtown at the World Financial Center is a boost for a neighborhood that is starting to see new retail and office tenants. Last fall the company was in talks with Vornado Realty Trust to build a new tower at the site of the Hotel Pennsylvania.

5. LIMITS PROPOSED FOR CHAIN STORES IN VILLAGE: A community group is drafting a zoning plan for the East Village to prevent national chain stores from proliferating, the Villager reported. The East Village Community Coalition is trying to stop the spread of Starbucks and other businesses that they say are pushing out local shops.

bhope@nysun.com