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, 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]