From left: Izak Senbahar and a rendering of 56 Leonard

From the April issue: Izak Senbahar stands in his 33rd-floor office and shows off a scale model of his latest project: the 60-story glass condo tower rising at 56 Leonard Street. The model, made of Plexiglass pieces stacked like the building’s cantilevered floor plates, occupies a prime position on the developer’s windowsill overlooking Midtown. And when the tower is complete in two years, it will occupy a similarly prime position in Tribeca. [more]

Izak Senbahar (credit: STUDIO SCRIVO)

From the March issue: Izak Senbahar is the president of the Alexico Group, the development firm behind high-profile condo projects such as Grand Beekman on East 51st Street, 165 Charles Street, the Laurel on East 67th Street and the condo conversion of the Mark Hotel. In January, Alexico secured $350 million in construction financing to jump-start its stalled 60-story residential condo at 56 Leonard Street in Tribeca. The Herzog & de Meuron–designed project will have 145 units and is now slated to be complete by 2015. The company is currently working on projects with a combined value of around $2 billion. [more]

From left: Alexico’s Simon Elias and Izak Senbahar, Rockpoint head Pat Fox and the Alex

The 203-room Alex Hotel, located at 205 East 45th Street, has sold to an affiliate of the Wyndham Hotel Group for $115 million, The Real Deal has learned. The sale comes on the heels of the $180 million purchase of the Flatotel by Joseph Chetrit and David Bistricer, reported earlier today. Both properties were owned by a joint venture between Rockpoint Group, Atlas Capital Group and the Procaccianti Group. [more]

A rendering of 56 Leonard

Construction was restarted in October on the previously stalled luxury condo building at 56 Leonard Street in Tribeca and now a fresh $350 million construction loan has been secured for the project, Izak Senbahar, president of Alexico Group, the project’s developer, confirmed. A consortium of seven major banks, led by Bank of America, are backing the massive loan. [more]

From left: Izak Senbahar, David Von Spreckelsen and the stalled site

Developer Alexico Group has offloaded a troubled First Avenue development site, plans for which went belly-up as a result of the financial crisis.

The firm, which stalled several of its projects, including 56 Leonard Street, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, has sold another stalled site at 953-961 First Avenue, at East 53rd Street, to the homebuilder Toll Brothers, according to public records filed today with the city. The deal for the site, which closed December 28, was for $64 million. Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller in the transaction. [more]

From left: Izak Senbahar and Simon Elias of Alexico and the Mark Hotel

Alexico Group scored another victory at its once-financially troubled but since recapitalized Mark Hotel (note: clarification appended). A U.S. District Court Judge in Manhattan ruled that Alexico did not have to return the $4.68 million deposit to the buyer of a $18.75 million co-op who attempted to renege on her purchase because she claimed there were defects in the unit, the New York Times reported.

In 2009 — two years after Alexico purchased the property, and converted the top floors into 18 co-op units — Roberta Campbell purchased a co-op in the building at 25 East 77th Street. [more]

From left: Izak Senbahar and Simon Elias of Alexico, the Alex Hotel and the Flatotel

Four months after a court ruled debtholders could foreclose on its Alex Hotel and Flatotel properties in Midtown, Alexico Group and its partners have filed for bankruptcy protection in connection with the two buildings, which have $368 million in liabilities, Bloomberg News reported (note: correction appended). The developer has $245 million of outstanding liabilities on the 272-room Flatotel at 135 West 52nd Street with lenders Rockpoint Group, Procaccianti Group and Atlas Capital Group. The partnership purchased the debt from Anglo Irish Bank two years ago. [more]

Clockwise from top left: Simon Elias, Alex Hotel, Flatotel and Izak Senbahar

The Alexico Group will likely lose control of a pair of Midtown hotel properties by the end of the year, after a New York State Supreme Court Judge ruled that the debtholders on the Flatotel and Alex Hotel may foreclose on the properties, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Flatotel is a 272-room hotel the Alexico Group developed at 135 West 52nd Street that the debtholders moved to foreclose on in September 2010 with a $197 million lawsuit. The Alex Hotel, a 205-room property at 205 East 45th Street, was first hit with an $81.7 million lawsuit two months earlier, The Real Deal reported at the time. [more]

From left: Hines Interests Chairman Gerald Hines, renderings of 56 Leonard Street, 1045 Sixth Avenue and the MoMA Tower

Already behind the controversial MoMA Tower and a new Bryant Park tower, perpetually under-the-radar real estate firm Hines Interests is undertaking another major project, the New York Observer reported in a lengthy profile, by reviving the stalled 56 Leonard Street condominium project in Tribeca.

The Herzog & de Mueron-designed 57-story condo was first announced by developer Alexico Group a month before Lehman Brothers collapsed, and even sold four of its planned 145 units. But the recession took the plans for the building down with it, and the site currently has a foundation and little else. Typical of the understated firm, Hines refused to divulge much detail other than to say it would become another of Herzog & de Mueron’s “global landmarks.”… [more]

[Updated at 2:50 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. with most recent sales figures for the Laurel and a statement from Studley] Real estate investment firm Prudential Real Estate Investors has closed on its purchase of three separate commercial condominium units, including one parking garage, at the Alexico Group’s Laurel condominium building at 400 East 67th Street, according to public records filed with the city today. The units were acquired Aug. 24 for a combined $61.6 million, records show.

Alexico recently signed TD Bank as a retail tenant at the building. Quik Park, a parking facility, currently occupies one of the other lots. Quik Park wasn’t immediately available for comment.
Woody Heller, Will Silverman and Eric Negrin of Studley’s Capital Transactions Group represented Alexico in the transaction. Prudential handled the deal in house…. [more]