Shaya Boymelgreen and 20 Pine Street

The developers of 20 Pine Street, led by Africa Israel USA, have settled a probe by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for allegedly covering up construction defects at the troubled condominium, but are facing a new $20 million lawsuit from unit owners over the same charges, The Real Deal has learned.

Jesheyanu “Shaya” Boymelgreen and Tamir Kazaz, president of AFI USA, signed an agreement to pay $144,000 in fines to the state and allow prospective buyers to rescind their contracts. The developers failed to disclose a Rand Engineering report listing $5.6 million in defects, ranging from cracking throughout the building, mold in the sauna, damaged heating systems and other problems, according to documents filed with the AG. [more]

Adam Leitman Bailey represents owners at 20 Pine (left) and Stephen Ross (top right) is locked in an ILSA dispute with buyer Vasilis Bacolitsas (bottom right)

From the December issue: Not everyone has the stomach for a lawsuit — taking an otherwise private disagreement into the public realm and submitting it to the cool evaluation of the court.

But sometimes situations are untenable, and parties consider judicial intervention the only recourse. The resulting lawsuits can have a broad impact, reaching beyond the businesses involved to encompass the industry as a whole.

Consider the condominium contract dispute that could affect the way New York City developers handle purchase agreements for new condos. Or the suit between residential brokers whose failed alliance could become fodder for a jury trial. Or a federal agency’s offensive against a slew of major banks over mortgage-backed securities.  [more]

Two Financial District condominiums, the Africa Israel-developed 20 Pine Street and the Hakimian Organization-sponsored 75 Wall Street, held a joint open house to showcase their remaining units to brokers (see photos above).

The event started at 20 Pine, which is entering its final sales stage as only about 25 of the 412 units remain on the market. Sales started in the building in January 2006, according to Streeteasy.com, and Warburg Realty serves as the exclusive marketing team. Brokers were shown unit #2503, a 706-square-foot studio asking $925,000; unit #3104, a two-bedroom, 1,573-square-foot apartment asking $2.35 million, and PH12, a two-bedroom, 1,829-square-foot penthouse asking $2.8 million. – Adam Fusfeld Comments

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The pool at 15 Central Park West

From the July issue: One of the selling points emphasized by brokers at the Edge condominium in Williamsburg is the major weekend scene at the pool, with lots of sunbathing, picnicking and socializing. At 20 Pine’s pool in the Financial District, neighbors regularly practice yoga and host parties.

But there will be no pool parties at 15 Central Park West this summer. Even as the weather heats up, the atmosphere at the über-exclusive condominium remains subdued, residents say, and the pool area is often deserted.

The Robert A.M. Stern-designed building has become the condominium of choice for hotshot celebrities like Denzel Washington and Sting, and finance bigwigs such as Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Citigroup Chairman Emeritus Sanford Weill. [more]

Building superintendants are getting a makeover, as a new breed of supers, sometimes called “resident managers,” are showing how the job has changed over the years, the New York Times reported. “The role of the superintendent has evolved,” said Dan Wurtzel, the president of Cooper Square Realty, which manages the condominiums at the Plaza and other buildings. “It used to be considered a blue-collar job, a fix-it person, but now if I was given the choice between hiring the best mechanic out there who had no people skills, versus someone with exceptional communication and customer service skills for a luxury building, I would choose the latter every time.” [more]

From left: Michael Shvo, 20 Pine Street and 25 Broad StreetStalled condominium developments that suffered during the recession are now being revived in the Financial District. However, as the neighborhood emerges from the downturn, the new developments are falling short of previous expectations, in terms of pricing and design, the Wall Street Journal reported. The new owners of William Beaver House, for instance, are slashing condo prices, while the creditors of the Setai Wall Street are selling their defaulted loan, to help closings resume. The lenders to 25 Broad Street are foreclosing on the property, paving the way for converting it to rentals. “People in the Financial District got a little over-ambitious, both in terms of prices and concepts,” said Frederick Peters, president of Warburg Realty. [more]

For New York City real estate, 2010 in many ways marked a return to normalcy after the tumultuous aftermath of the financial crisis. As the ubiquitous real estate appraiser and Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller put it: “it was a year of a sense of relief.” City home prices stopped their freefall and sales activity improved considerably from the post-Lehman doldrums. Stalled condominium projects like the Sheffield and 1 Rector Park re-started sales. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim bought Tamir Sapir’s Fifth Avenue townhouse, the Duke Semans mansion, for $44 million. As the unspoken taboo on ostentatious spending faded, a number of high-end residential properties changed hands at the end of the year, including Brooke Astor’s 14-room duplex at 778 Park Avenue, which finally sold after two years on the market (albeit for a significant discount from its original asking price). Japanese retailer Uniqlo snagged 89,000 square feet at 666 Fifth Avenue’s former Brooks Brothers space for a record $300 million, demonstrating that retail is still thriving along the posh shopping corridor.
But the economic downturn continued to make its presence felt. The office market remained uneven and troubled lender iStar Financial fought to stave off bankruptcy amid lingering fears of a double-dip recession.
Here are The Real Deal staff’s picks for the stories that most altered the New York City real estate landscape in 2010, in alphabetical order. [more]

20 Pine Street

A federal district court judge denied an attempt by the sponsors of the 20 Pine Street condominium to throw out two [more]

Former Africa Israel USA chief executive Rotem Rosen has been named
president of Polar USA/HFZ Capital, The Real Deal has learned. Polar is a unit of Israel-based Polar-ZSG Group, a partnership formed
by real estate investors Ziel Feldman, Tamir Sapir and Giron
Development & Building Ltd., to buy distressed real estate. Rosen left Lev Leviev’s Africa Israel earlier this year amid increasing
turmoil involving the Israeli billionaire’s global real estate
holdings, which include the Apthorp, the controversial condominium
conversion at 390 West End Avenue, and 20 Pine Street, a condo where
Africa Israel wrested control from former partner Shaya Boymelgreen. [more]

Shaya Boymelgreen is facing a lawsuit over 20 Pine.

Developer Shaya Boymelgreen is facing a lawsuit from Aristone Capital
Funding after allegedly defaulting on a $3.2 million loan for
Boymelgreen’s former condominium project at 20 Pine Street in the
Financial District. Aristone, in a suit filed June 4 in New York State Supreme Court,
alleges that Brooklyn-based Boymelgreen failed to repay the loan,
missed a number of construction deadlines and failed to confirm whether
he repaid the building’s mortgage loan to Bank of America by October
2008. The suit names Boymelgreen Family LLC as the borrower and Boymelgreen as the personal guarantor of the loan. Records from the city Department of Finance show that in 2005, Bank of
America lent $140 million to Boymelgreen and his investment partner Lev
Leviev for the building. [more]