HFZ’s Ziel Feldman and a Halcyon project rendering

HFZ Capital Group’s condominium development in Turtle Bay, once the site of a deadly crane collapse, will be called Halcyon NY and will include a mix of one-bedrooms through four-bedrooms, priced at between $1.5 million and $5 million, Curbed reported.

The building is set to reach 32 stories, with a total of 123 condos, as The Real Deal reported. In 2008, the crane accident killed seven people and damaged nearby buildings, effectively forcing out the original developer. [more]

A rendering of the Zeckendorfs’ 50 United Nations Plaza

Midtown East’s Turtle Bay neighborhood is undergoing a development renaissance, with several long-stalled projects recently taking off and a number of new projects in the pipeline, the Wall Street Journal reported.  [more]

The site of the 2008 crane collapse

A New York state appeals court refused Tuesday to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Arbor Realty Funding against Herrick Feinstein LLP over allegedly bad zoning advice on a Turtle Bay condo project that was the site of a 2008 crane collapse, Law360 reported.

In the 2011 suit, Arbor alleged that it would not have provided $70 million in bridge financing for developer Jim Kennelly’s luxury residential project at 303 East 51st Street, had it not been for Herrick’s bad advice about the zoning regulations for the planned 42-story tower, as The Real Deal previously reported.  [more]

From left: Ziel Feldman of HFZ Capital and 303 East 51st Street

HFZ Capital Group was forced to temporarily halt construction at its controversial Turtle Bay condominium project after a contractor hit a live gas line late last week, The Real Deal has learned. [more]

HFZ's Ziel Feldman and 303 East 51st Street

Construction is once again an issue at the Turtle Bay site where a crane collapsed and killed seven people in 2008. According to the New York Post, Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital Group, which is developing the site in conjunction with CIM Group, is seeking a way to remove the balconies already built on the 18-story shell at 303 East 51st Street. [more]

From left: Ziel Feldman, managing principal of HFZ Capital, and 303 East 51st Street

Los Angeles-based CIM Group closed its majority stake in a high-rise residential tower and retail development site in Midtown, according to a statement from the developer yesterday.

The site, at 303 East 51st Street, will be co-developed by CIM Group and Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital and construction will begin later this year, the statement said. [more]

From left: CIM co-founder Richard Ressler, HFZ founder Ziel Feldman and 303 East 51st Street

CIM Group has reached a deal with HFZ Capital Group to invest up to $85 million in the developer’s planned 32-story condominium project at 303 East 51st Street, the site of a fatal 2008 crane accident, The Real Deal has learned.

Israel’s Polar Investment, a public company affiliated with HFZ, disclosed in a Jan. 16 filing with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that it had reached a definitive agreement with CIM, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, to help fund the project, allowing the struggling Polar to avoid future financial commitments. Though HFZ is involved in the deal, only Polar, as a public company, must make routine disclosures with securities regulators. [more]

303 East 51st Street

The documents detailing the wrongful death settlements in the 2008 East 51st Street crane collapse that harmed 31 people have been ordered unsealed by a Manhattan judge, the New York Law Journal reported. The defendants appealed the decision yesterday, The Real Deal has learned.

Justice Carol Edmead said that there was no justification for withholding the settlement amounts from the public now that all seven Labor Law wrongful death cases have been settled. Edmead had temporarily sealed the documents after one of the trials so that previous judgments wouldn’t impact the ones pending. [more]

From left, 303 East 51st Street, Ziel Feldman, founder of HFZ Capital
Group, and City Council member Jessica Lappin

For three and a half years, the structure at 303 East 51st Street has remained a stunted
skeleton, halted at 18 stories after the infamous March 2008 crane collapse that killed
seven people and crushed an adjacent building.

But that may change soon.

Ziel Feldman, founder of HFZ Capital Group, which closed on the purchase of the site
early this year, said through a spokesperson that he would have “significant progress to
announce” later this week, and the firm plans to restart construction at the site, on 51st
Street between First and Second avenues, this spring.

The expeditor on the project, Laurence Gillman, an associate at Jerome S. Gillman
Consulting Architect, said that the Department of Buildings had completed its zoning
examination of the plan and was reviewing architectural and other drawings as part of a
building code review…. [more]

There is only one wrongful-death lawsuit related to the 2008 Turtle Bay crane collapse left unsettled, the New York Post reported. Families of the six other victims settled secretly out of court with the city, crane operator Rapetti Rigging Services, Kennely Development Company and building contractors.

The only outstanding suit is from the family of Santino Gallone, a Rappeti crew member who died in the accident. The case will go before the Manhattan Supreme Court Sept. 12.

There are still however about 43 lawsuits totaling $500 million related to the incident pending from people injured as well as property and business owners, the Post said…. [more]