Clockwise: Durst Fetner Residential’s Hal Fetner, 855 Sixth Avenue, Baruch Singer, Yitzhak Tessler of Tessler Development and Douglas Durst of Durst Organization

From the August issue: For the owners of distressed properties, it’s a harrowing ride to stabilization. Note sale, foreclosure, bankruptcy or recapitalization, there is no easy path from financial trouble to stable footing. And while some savvy investors have seized control of valuable New York City properties, many owners and lenders have lost billions of dollars through distressed real estate sales and restructurings since the financial crisis began. This month The Real Deal examines five deals and how they unfolded. In the third part of the series, we look at 855 Sixth Avenue, a development site just a few blocks south of Herald Square where Durst Fetner Residential stepped in and is preparing to erect a 500,000-square-foot building — 300,000 of which will be devoted to 350 rental units (80 percent market rate and 20 percent “affordable”). There will also be a 325-key, 130,000-square-foot hotel, and 90,000 square feet of retail. Click here to read the story. [more]

From left: Durst Fetner CEO Harold Fetner, developer Baruch Singer and 855 Sixth Avenue

A state court judge handed a victory to Durst Fetner Residential this week,
removing a nagging legal speed bump the developer was facing at its large
Herald Square site.

The legal cloud has hovered over the property at 855 Sixth Avenue since 2006,
when two real estate investors sued a group of developers led by Baruch Singer over a failed partnership bid to acquire a portion of the site.

Durst Fetner became involved in the dispute after it bought the defaulted note for about $104 million from iStar Financial and took title in December 2010 from owners Tessler Developments and the Chetrit Group.
[more]

A Park Slope development site where Baruch Singer once planned to build an 11-story condominium has changed hands for $6.5 million, according to Brownstoner. The three-parcel site, at 385 Fourth Avenue and 6th Street, had been listed by CPEX for $7.75 million. Preliminary plans are already in place for a 52-unit, Enrique Norten-designed building with 10 parking spots, but the Department of Buildings also recently issued a stop-work order on the site. The buyer’s identity is shielded behind 278 6th Street LLC, with an address at 26 Delevan Street in Brooklyn, public records show. [Brownstoner]

Baruch Singer and 86 Canal Street (building photo source: PropertyShark)

Manhattan-based landlord Baruch Singer sold a stalled development site
in Chinatown for $16.5 million in late June after failing to convert
the property into a 16-st [more]

Douglas Durst, chairman of Durst Fetner Residential, and landlord Baruch Singer

A Durst Organization affiliate, Durst Fetner Residential, is expected to sell a $32.5 million note on a stalled 1 million-square-foot residential development sitemay buy $33M note held by Durst” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

Douglas Durst, chairman of Durst Fetner Residential, and landlord Baruch Singer

A Durst Organization affiliate, Durst Fetner Residential, is expected to sell a $32.5 million note on a stalled 1 million-square-foot residential development site on the East River in Long Island City to the property’s owner. The sale is a signal that the long-delayed project on the site of the East River Tennis Center, first dreamed of in the 1970s, is finally going forward. But it would be a blow to Durst Fetner’s hopes to develop the site. Durst Fetner, a residential development company, bought the note on the six-acre, vacant site at 44-02 Vernon Boulevard in November 2009 from a Texas bank, one of the site’s developers Marshall Weisman said. Durst Fetner purchased the note at a discount, Durst Organiziation spokesperson Jordan Barowitz said. He would not divulge the price.

Weisman, managing member of the New Jersey-based property owner Vernon Realty Holding, said he expects to close on the note purchase in the first or second week in March, and must pay the full face value of $32.5 million. [more]

Baruch Singer (Source: Jennifer Weisbord, Splashnewsonline.com) and the Greenpoint Pencil Factory

A lender to controversial landlord Baruch Singer is seeking the repayment of a multi-million dollar development loan on a delayed high-profile condominium project in Brooklyn, court papers said.
 
Singer took out a $6.68 million subordinate loan from Greenwich Village-based real estate financial services firm Aristone Capital Funding for the development of a Greenpoint, Brooklyn project, a lawsuit filed May 8 in New York State Supreme Court shows.  
 
But the 93-unit Greenpoint Pencil Factory condo was not finished by its January 19 completion deadline this year, and so the lender called in its loan.
 
“Borrower is in default of the loan agreement for failing to complete the construction of the [Pencil Factory] by the completion date,” a March lette [more]

Baruch Singer (Source: Jennifer Weisbord, Splashnewsonline.com) and the Greenpoint Pencil Factory

A lender to controversial landlord Baruch Singer is seeking the
repayment of a multi-million dollar development loan on a delayed high-profile
condominium project in Brooklyn, court papers said. Singer took out a $6.68 million subordinate loan from Greenwich
Village-based real estate financial services firm Aristone Capital
Funding for the development of a Greenpoint, Brooklyn project, a
lawsuit filed May 8 in New York State Supreme Court shows. But the 93-unit Greenpoint Pencil Factory condo was not finished by its
January 19 completion deadline this year, and so the lender called in
its loan. “Borrower is in default of the loan agreement for failing to complete
the construction of the [Pencil Factory] by the completion date,” a
March letter Aristone Capital sent to Singer said, court records
indicate. [more]