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]
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]
Though he was cleared of manslaughter charges last year, William Rapetti received a punishment for his part in the crane collapse in Midtown in 2008 that killed seven people. A judge today found that the rigger’s sloppy crane work was to blame for the collapse, and recommended his license be revoked, the New York Post reported. Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri has adhered to that recommendation, making Rapetti unable to operate or oversee any cranes in the city.
“We have determined that Mr. Rapetti took shortcuts while erecting the tower crane by using damaged equipment and failing to follow the manufacturer’s specific instructions,” LiMandri said. “Those shortcuts sacrificed the safety of the job site and led to horrific consequences.” [more]
The developers of a troubled Turtle Bay condominium tower filed a $100 million malpractice lawsuit against two high-powered law firms Cozen O’Connor and Blank Rome for allegedly giving them bad zoning advice prior to the fatal March 2008 crane collapse that killed seven people at the East 51st Street site.
The developers, led by former firefighter James Kennelly of Kennelly
Development, alleged in a suit filed June 13 in New York state Supreme
Court that their former zoning lawyers provided flawed legal opinions,
which led them to overestimate the value of the property, leading to the
eventual default of $70 million in loans with Arbor Realty Trust.
“Cozen and Blank Rome’s incorrect analysis of the applicable zoning
regulations and their failure to conduct sufficient and adequate due
diligence caused plaintiff to overestimate the value or potential value of
the project,” attorney Rex Whitehorn, representing Kennelly, wrote in
the complaint, “and plaintiff made irreversible decisions with respect to
financing while relying on plaintiff’s advice.” [more]
Developer Ziel Feldman may have stepped in last year to buy the note on the stalled Turtle Bay construction site at 303 East 51st Street, where a 2008 crane collapse killed seven people, but the immediate surrounding neighborhood is looking like it needs its own cash infusion in the aftermath of the tragedy. According to the Post, nine businesses around the site — near Second Avenue, between 50th and 51st streets — have become “ghostly museums” as a result of the crash. City Council member Jessica Lappin, who lives in the area, called the retail strip “moribund” and “just depressing.” Meanwhile, the construction site at the center of it all hasn’t been a source of much optimism, either. [more]
Michael Sackaris, the de facto owner of Nu-Way Crane company, has been sentenced to two to six years in state prison for bribing the chief crane inspector for the Department of Buildings numerous times. Sackaris, who pleaded guilty in May to bribery charges, gave cash payments to DOB inspector James Delayo, ranging from $200 to $500 on 20 separate occasions beginning in 2000, according to the Manhattan district attorney. Delayo, who also pleaded guilty, offered phony crane operator licenses to Sackaris’ employees. The former inspector was sentenced to two years behind bars in June. The case against Sackaris stemmed from an investigation after two deadly crane collapses in Manhattan, at the Azure condominium construction site at 333 East 91st Street and at 303 East 51st Street, both in 2008. TRD
Michael Sackaris, the de facto owner of Nu-Way Crane company, has been sentenced to two to six years in state prison for bribing the chief crane inspector for the Department of Buildings numerous times. Sackaris, who pleaded guilty in May to bribery charges, gave cash payments to DOB inspector James Delayo, ranging from $200 to $500 on 20 separate occasions beginning in 2000, according to the Manhattan district attorney. Delayo, who also pleaded guilty, offered phony crane operator licenses to Sackaris’ employees. The former inspector was sentenced to two years behind bars in June. The case against Sackaris stemmed from an investigation after two deadly crane collapses in Manhattan, at the Azure condominium construction site at 333 East 91st Street and at 303 East 51st Street, both in 2008. TRD
