The Buzz

SIXTH AVE. TOWER-FICATION: The chi-chi apartment towers keep coming on Sixth Ave. just north of 23rd St. The latest addition to the burgeoning tower row is a 44-story behemoth — part hotel, part luxury rentals — slated to come online at 839 Sixth Ave (at 29th St.) in approximately two years. According to Jerald Johnson, a lawyer representing the developer, Carlisle 839 LLC, the hotel will occupy the lower 22 floors and will include a restaurant off the lobby, which will open onto a 10,000-square-foot public-private plaza containing a 16-table café, a reflective pool in the middle and additional seating for non-café patrons. The café will close nightly with the restaurant, while the plaza, which will have ample security, will remain open 24/7, much to the concern of C.B. 5’s Land Use and Zoning Committee. David Diamond, chair of both the board and committee, likes the mid-block pedestrian pass-through the plaza will provide, but committee member Kate McDonough wants to see gates on both sides of the open space: “I’m a big fan of closing public spaces at some point each day. We can use a common-sense yardstick such as, What time does risk start and end?” she said at a recent committee meeting, where Johnson presented his client’s plan convincingly enough to yield a unanimous vote in favor of the project. Fears that the plaza would also be private were also allayed; there will be one public entrance and one through the restaurant, with no special entrance for residents. That was enough to please the full board, which followed with a 34–1 approval last week.

DTW DEEP DISCOUNT: NYC & Company, the city’s tourism board, has named Chelsea’s Dance Theater Workshop its Cultural Organization of the Month for March, which will net attendees a 40 percent discount on ticket prices throughout the month. “We are thrilled to be featured in this city program,” said Marion Dienstag, DTW’s executive director, who notes the spring lineup includes artists from New York, Brazil and Vietnam. To take advantage of the discount, ticket buyers need only mention “Cultural Organization of the Month” when they purchase tickets for any March performance. The discount is only available when purchasing tickets over the phone at 212-924-0077 or in person, and cannot be honored when purchasing tickets online.

Glick sticks Spitzer: Assemblymember Deborah Glick is sticking by Assemby Speaker Sheldon Silver after the hubbub about the comptroller election. And she has some choice words for Governor Eliot Spitzer. “I fully support the way Shelly operates, which is to produce consensus opinion after hours of conferences,” Glick told us on Monday, adding, “I think the people voted for a governor, not an emperor. And while people appreciate forcefulness, they don’t like a bully.” For more of Glick’s views on the comptroller hoopla, check out her talking point on Page 22.

‘King of all media’: Chelsea Now’s sister paper, The Villager, will be making its foray into radio, Internet radio, to be exact, next week on Tribecaradio.net. The first show will have a full plate of guests, including David McWater, Community Board 3 chairperson; Andrew Berman, director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation; and David Reck, president of Friends of Hudson Square. Discussion topics will likely include the proposed East Village rezoning, Trump Soho condo-hotel and Spring St. mega-garbage garage plan. The 44-minute show premiers as a streaming broadcast next Tues., Feb. 20, at 4 p.m. with an encore Thurs., Feb. 22, at 10 a.m., and will play at various other times; a podcast is also available 24/7 for downloading to an MP3 player or playing on your computer with QuickTime software.