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Joel Simkhai and a rendering of 215 East 19th Street (Photos via Getty, Gramercy Square/Woods Bagot) A Gramercy Park penthouse was love at first sight for Grindr founder Joel Simkhai, according to the New York Post. Simkhai, who sold his dating app in 2018 for around $245 million, bought the unit at 215 East 19th Street, which was asking $29.5 million, a mere 30 days after it hit the market, the newspaper reported. The story was unsourced but did name the listing broker, Douglas Elliman’s Richard Steinberg. Last year, Simkhai listed his Los Angeles home, at 7100 La Presa Drive, for $9.95 million, three years after buying it for $10.5 million. He also owns a Hollywood Hills home, which he purchased for $13 million. The 7,000-square-foot Gramercy apartment comes with five bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms and a 5,680-square-foot, private, landscaped roof terrace with panoramic city views. The garden also features an outdoor kitchen, a lounge and room for a pool. Inside, there’s a great room with 18-foot ceilings and glass windows and an open chef’s kitchen. Building amenities include access to the Gramercy Club, which features a gym, spa, pool, residents’ lounge, dining room, playroom and “tween” room. Simkhai departed as Grindr CEO after Chinese tech firm Kunlun Group completed its acquisition of the gay dating app, which at the time had 3.8 million daily users. [NYP] — Sasha Jones Contact Sasha Jones

Hotels and offices have seen their values drop. Now a state senator wants New York to buy and convert some into affordable housing. A bill introduced by Sen. Michael Gianaris this week would let the state buy such distressed properties to house low-income and homeless people. Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed an office-conversion bill in January, but it did not call for public acquisitions.

Cannabis business consulting firm Nucleus One recently released the findings of their February 2021 Massachusetts Adult-Use Marijuana Market Report. Nucleus-One tracks and analyzes data from the Cannabis Control Commission of Massachusetts. February’s report heralded good news for the Commonwealth’s cannabis industry after a short-lived decline in sales in 2020. Since the decline, December and January 2021 saw unprecedented sales, with over 98 active retailers in the state.

JPMorgan Chase is marketing a big chunk of its Manhattan office space as the company re-evaluates the future of its workforce. The New York-based bank is looking to sublet about 700,000 square feet at 4 New York Plaza in the Financial District and more than 100,000 square feet at 5 Manhattan West in the Hudson Yards area, Bloomberg News reported. Brokers at JLL are marketing the space.

The growth of medical marijuana has seen the trend of legalization and opening of new markets prevalent in recent years. Some states that were not leaning towards legalization have greater chances of success this year. More importantly, there is a big possibility for four traditionally red states to make the move to allow medical marijuana programs: Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, and South Carolina.

Announcing that indoor dining would reopen at 25% capacity in New York City on Valentine’s Day, and wedding receptions could also resume with up to 150 people a month after, Cuomo suggested: “You propose on Valentine’s Day and then you can have the wedding ceremony March 15, up to 150 people. People will actually come to your wedding because you can tell them, with the testing, it will be safe. … No pressure, but it’s just an idea.”

digital marketing agency, boom online, has teamed up with soft furnishings retailer, the mill shop, to recreate iconic horror movie posters using a not so scary medium – fuzzy felt. the series...

A key congressional panel launched an investigation this week into the wave of COVID-19 infections that killed hundreds of workers at meatpacking plants nationwide last year and highlighted longstanding hazards in the industry. Since the start of the pandemic, the meat industry has struggled to contain the virus in its facilities, and plants in Iowa, South Dakota and Kansas have endured some of the biggest workplace outbreaks in the country.

An amateur mask broker who was awarded more than $38 million in federal contracts to provide N95 masks has pleaded guilty to defrauding three different federal agencies as part of a scheme to profit from the COVID-19 pandemic. Robert Stewart Jr., 35, pleaded guilty to three counts of making false statements, wire fraud and theft of government funds Wednesday in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia, including charges that he lied to the Department of Veterans Affairs in April in order to win a $34.5 million no-bid deal to supply personal protective equipment to nurses and doctors in a sprawling health system serving 9 million veterans. He similarly acknowledged lying to the Federal Emergency Management Agency when he stated he had masks “stored securely in our climate control warehouse located in VA and PA,” according to his plea agreement.

Building your own PC from scratch gives you the freedom to choose the exact specifications you want, and it often saves money as well. However, the idea can be daunting. You...