Angelo Gordon CEO John Angelo and  733 Amsterdam Avenue

[Updated 7:13p.m. with comment from Starrett's attorney] Starrett Corp., the Manhattan-based real estate developer, is facing a $55 million foreclosure suit from lenders, including LNR Corp. and Angelo Gordon & Co., after allegedly defaulting on loans backed by the Axton, a former Mitchell-Lama high-rise on the Upper West Side.

Starrett defaulted this past May on principal and interest payments at the property, a 28-story rental building at 733 Amsterdam Avenue, the lenders alleged in a lawsuit filed Nov. 20 in New York State Supreme Court. The lenders are asking for a sale of the property, either as a single entity or in two parcels. [more]

Steven Witkoff, CEO of the Witkoff Group, and Columbus House at 95 West 95th StreetIn a decision that lawyers say could impact 17,000 current and former Mitchell-Lama apartments statewide, an appellate court ruled Dec. 28 that tenants at Columbus House, a former Mitchell-Lama building on the Upper West Side, were protected against rent increases after the building was sold. The Witkoff Group, following the 2006 acquisition of 95 West 95th Street for $68 million, applied for rent increases for 248 individual apartments at Columbus House, but the applications sat at the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal for more than a year. In 2007, the state then moved to close a loophole that would have allowed landlords to convert thousands of Mitchell-Lama buildings to market-rate…. [more]