New Jersey real estate investment firm the Klein Group, which focuses on retail properties, paid $20 million for four retail condominiums at the residential building the District, at 111 Fulton Street in the Financial District.

The four individual condos are comprised of 17,200 square feet of ground-floor space and 4,620 square feet on the lower level. Currently, about 45 percent of the total space is vacant, Jacob Klein, the president of Klein Group, said. He said the firm was in advanced discussions with various tenants for the available space.

The sold out District, a 163-unit residential condo developed by Africa Israel, Wonder Works Construction and Urban Equities NY, is at the corner of William Street and is two blocks east of the under-construction Fulton Street Transit Center at Broadway. – Adam Pincus [more]

Real estate developer Africa Israel USA made major investments in residential conversion projects during the boom years. Two of its Downtown condominium projects, 111 Fulton Street and 20 Pine Street, hit successful milestones last month, but serious challenges remain for two others, the Upper West Side’s Apthorp and the Clock Tower, formerly the Metropolitan Life headquarters at 5 Madison Avenue.
This week, Lori Ordover, a sales and marketing consultant to Africa Israel, talks to Insights from The Real Deal about how the company cut prices by as much as 30 percent to attract sales at 20 Pine Street, where prices ranged from a low of $666 per foot in 2009 to more than $1,000 per foot recently. Forty units remain for sale.

Asked if she thought the company left money on the table as she compared the low $700 per foot deals to the $1,000 per foot deals, she said, “We really try hard to sell at the market. If I were starting sales today in this building, instead of three years ago — right when the market took its downturn — we would be pricing at a higher number.” (Note: correction appended).

She also addresses why Shvo Marketing, the former exclusive sales agent at 20 Pine Street, was replaced as announced last week by Warburg Realty Partnership, despite hitting the 90 percent-sold mark. She would not discuss any aspects of the 163 condominium units being marketed at the Apthorp at 390 West End Avenue or the 100-unit Clock Tower, which is looking to secure construction financing. [more]

Expert says developer Lev Leviev has little chance of winning on appeal

Lev Leviev and the District at 111 Fulton Street (building source: PropertyShark)

In a landmark ruling, a federal district court judge ruled that developer Lev Leviev must return deposits to three buyers at the District condominium after he failed to register the prope [more]

Broker Stephen McArdle and District

It’s been a long road for District, the Lower Manhattan condominium that became synonymous with the excesses of the condo boom when it hired nightclub queen [more]

At peak, 51 percent of the buyers at the 505 at 505 West 47th Street had cases in federal court to rescind their contracts.

From the December issue: At peak, buyers of 55 out of 108 units (51 percent) at the 505 at 505 West 47th Street had cases in federal court to rescind their contracts, which were worth a combined $43.1 million. Six have since dropped their cases, and three have closed on their units (one received a 3.5 percent discount). The plaintiffs claimed Parkview, headed by Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass, failed to provide the property report required under the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act. After Parkview realized its mistake, the buyers claim it filed an amendment to the offering plan in an attempt to exempt itself from the law by removing eight units and combining another two, so the initial offering plan would only be comprised of 99 units. Developers across the city are fighting to keep buyers in contracts — but 20 condos and co-ops are facing a particularly tough time. Click here to read about the rest.

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A few months after switching marketing firms from now-defunct JC DeNiro & Associates to Brown Harris Stevens, District’s developers have made another change, this time to Urban Marketing, a new division of brokerage Urban Sanctuary. Switching sales and marketing firms has become a common response from developers to slowing sales amid the recession. District, a 163-unit condominium at 111 Fulton Street, is currently over 70 percent sold out, said Stephen McArdle, a partner at Urban Marketing. [more]