News from the Big Things Dept.

• Tiffany & Company, which got its start in lower Manhattan 170 years ago, is going back home. They're opening a Wall Street store in October and will join several other luxury shops opening new stores in the reborn financial district. Tiffany held a news conference at its flagship Fifth Avenue store today to announce $3 million in grants to 3 groups that work to preserve and restore the environment in downtown Manhattan. BMW and Hermes, which is opening a store near the New York Stock Exchange this week, say they want to take part in the post-September 11 renewal of lower Manhattan. According to a survey released this month by the Alliance for Downtown New York, the growth in residential development since September 11 has added 17,800 residents to the area below Chambers Street, and the median annual household income in the neighborhood is a hefty $242,000. Tiffany, which moved to its Fifth Avenue store in midtown in 1940, was founded on lower Broadway in 1837.
  
  
  
• In other news, porn princess Jenna Jameson traded in her Bentley for one of these; a $360,000 Rollys Royce Phantom. Holla.