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Metroplex on the Atlantic in Far Rockaway sold for $27.6M
The 126-unit, 15-story condo building was in foreclosure
A Far Rockaway condominium that’s been the subject of lawsuits, tenant disputes and even a federal investigation was purchased last week for nearly $28 million, according to city property records.
Doron Pergament, based out of Long Island, paid $27.6 million to acquire the 15-story, 126-unit “Metroplex on the Atlantic” at a bankruptcy auction, city records filed Friday show.
The prior owner, Elzbieta Mielczarek, put the building at 120 Beach 26th Street on the market in for $38 million in 2010, the year it went into foreclosure. She filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last May and was forced to sell the property.
Hilco Real Estate, a unit of the Chicago-based Hilco Global, handled the auction sale. Pergament could not be reached for comment.
The original condo plan had a sellout of over $60 million, according to a Hilco Real Estate’s press release. The building is being delivered vacant.
Metroplex and Mielczarek have been named in multiple lawsuits over the last decade. In 2006, while Metroplex was under construction, neighbor Richard George sued Mielczarek, claiming the project blocked public access to the waterfront.
In 2012, tenants, who believed they had rent-to-purchase contracts, found out the building had been in foreclosure since 2010 and that their contracts were voided, the New York Daily News reported. The tenants claimed the building’s manager Jerzy Szymcyck had duped them, the News reported.
In 2014, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued Szymcyck, as the building’s second sponsor, and Mielczarek for “persistent fraudulent and illegal practices” involving the lease and attempted sale of the units. A judge later barred Mielczarek from selling the units.