Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the Apthorp

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has shut down the sales office at the Apthorp, fined the developers $190,000 and ordered rescission for all contracted buyers following an investigation into misleading statements made to the AG months before they filed suit to block Anglo Irish Bank from selling their $385 million mortgage loan.
The Apthorp developers, led by Africa Israel USA and Broadwall Management, filed suit against the troubled bank Sept. 12, alleging the sale of the $385 million Apthorp loan would “adversely impact sales” and potentially “threaten the conversion project itself.”
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Diane Passage, a former Scores stripper and current wife of scam artist Kenneth Starr, may get thrown out of the $7.5 million Upper East Side triplex her husband bought with funds bilked from celebrity clients like Uma Thurman and Al Pacino. According to the Post, federal prosecutors are asking the couple to surrender the condominium voluntarily or else face legal action. Passage, who has been living at the Lux 74 apartment since her husband’s $50 million fraud was uncovered last May, also apparently hasn’t been paying her more than $7,000-a-month common charges to the building, a judge noted yesterday. [more]

Closings have begun at the Upper West Side’s Apthorp condominium, Prudential Douglas Elliman powerbroker Dolly Lenz told the Post. Lenz said more than $100 million worth of closings are expected over the next six weeks. The iconic 102-year-old building, whose residents have included Nora Ephron, Al Pacino, Cyndi Lauper and Sidney Poitier, was originally built for the Astor Family. Developers Mann Realty and Africa Israel bought the building, which lies between 78th and 79th streets between Broadway and West End Avenue, for $426 million in 2007. A controversial rental-to-condo conversion battle followed, and the offering plan was approved in 2008. [Post]

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From left: Lev Leviev, the Apthrop and resident Cyndi Lauper

After nearly three years of controversy, the landmark Apthorp condominium on the Upper West Side has won approval from the state Attorney General’s office to commence closing apar [more]

Al Pacino, Susan Sarandon and Tina Fey have all filmed movies in brokerages this summer.

Hollywood has taken an interest in New York City real estate lately,
with several actors filming scenes in real estate offices. Al Pacino
and Susan Sarandon are filming an HBO biopic called “You Don’t Know
Jack” in Fillmore Real Estate’s offices in Brooklyn this week. Earlier
in the summer, Tina Fey shot a scene for “Date Night,” an upcoming
film, in Halstead Property’s office in Soho. Fey plays a real estate
broker in the film. [more]