NEW YORK CITY-If there was a theme to CBRE's Second Annual Downtown Market Forecast Breakfast, it was that incentives to retain and attract businesses to the area need to be encouraged.

NEW YORK CITY-Madison Square Garden hires a Canadian architectural firm, which designed a feature of Toronto's 2008 Olympic bid, to handle a planned $300-million upgrade of the famed arena. This comes on the same day city officials mailed off a bid to host the 2012 Olympics.

NEW YORK CITY-Barneys will rollout additional flagship and co-op concept stores "very quickly" now that it has been acquired.

NEW YORK CITY-Barneys will rollout additional flagship and co-op concept stores "very quickly" now that it has been acquired by Jones Apparel Group in a $400-million merger transaction. Concept stores are already on tap for Costa Mesa, CA, Atlanta and Chicago.

NEW YORK CITY-Whitney Museum officials approve an expansion and renovation plan that will bring the total size of the museum to almost 124,000 sf. It will nearly double the exhibition and public space.

NEW YORK CITY-A partnership led by Tishman Speyer Properties inks an agreement to acquire the landmark New York Times Building for $175 million. The Times Co. will remain in the site until its new headquarters is ready for occupancy in 2007.

NEW YORK CITY-City officials propose a no-cost incentive to encourage the development of affordable housing in the Hudson Yards area. The redevelopment plan calls for as many as 13,600 new residential units in the area with as many as 2,600 affordable units.

NEW YORK CITY-In an off-market transaction, a 10-story pre-war apartment building that had been family owned for nearly 65 years, sells for more than $40 million.