Ben Shaoul, president of Magnum Real Estate, and the Brooklyn Bridge

A new Lower Manhattan luxury rental building designed to reflect the semi-industrial feel of the old South Street Seaport, will be completed next month after years of delays, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The building, at 254 Front Street, at Dover Street, near the South Street Seaport, was purchased in 2004 by developer Barry Akrongold and was planned to be condominiums. However, the project’s lender, the Bank of Smithtown, never funded the construction, and Ben Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate bought the project, though no date is listed in the Journal article or on Streeteasy.com. The controversial developer then turned the building into rentals. [more]

Ben Shaoul and the Cabrini nursing center

Negotiations to preserve the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation failed, and the East Village facility will close this summer, EV Grieve reported, to make way for a condominium development by Magnum Real Estate President Ben Shaoul.

Shaoul acquired the 84,000-square-foot building, at 542 East 5th Street, for $25.5 million in November and reports immediately began circulating that the center would close. [more]

127 Seventh Avenue

The heir to one of New York City’s great real estate fortunes is continuing to accumulate properties although recently focusing on modest-priced retail investments.

Lloyd Goldman’s BLDG Acquisition is in contract to buy a retail condo at the Yves, a condominium at 127 Seventh Avenue at 18th Street with 2,064 square feet on the ground floor from the property’s developer, Ben Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate Group, a document filed this past Friday with the city shows. [more]

From left: 315 East 10th Street and Ben Shaoul

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a block-long historic district on East 10th Street at an emergency public hearing and vote today. The creation of the historic district follows developer Benjamin Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate Group’s application in December to add a rooftop addition to a townhouse at 315 East 10th Street, which Magnum purchased late last year. The newly designated area extends from avenues A to B along the south side of 10th Street. [more]

From left: Ben Shaoul of Magnum Real Estate Group and 542 East 5th Street

Ben Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate Group shot back today at a group of elected officials who had urged the developer not to convert a Lower East Side property that houses the Cabrini Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation into a residential building. According to a letter from Shaoul’s attorney obtained by The Real Deal, Magnum is close to a deal to sell the 542 East 5th Street property to a for-profit nursing home operator, and the main obstacle to the sale is the lack of an agreement between the for-profit operator and Cabrini.

As previously reported, Magnum acquired the building on the corner of Avenue B for $25.5 million earlier this fall. Cabrini’s lease expires in mid-April, prompting worries from some that the community would lose the 240-bed nursing home. [more]

From left: 542 East 5th Street and State Senator Daniel Squadron

As reported last month, the Cabrini Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation, at 542 East 5th Street, recently sold to Ben Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate Group for $25.5 million. Now, with a rumor that Magnum will be flipping the building to the Archdiocese of New York City, one of the city’s largest real estate owners, circulating, local politicians are putting in their two cents, begging the owner not to sell.

The local politicians cite the recent closure of the Bialystoker Nursing Home, highlighting the lack of adequate nursing care in the area and asking that the new landlord consider options that will “retain nursing home beds on the Lower East Side.” [more]

From left: the block of East 10th Street under consideration by the LPC and Magnum President Ben Shaoul

The Landmarks Preservation Committee’s meeting regarding the proposed designation of the East 10th Street Historic District in the East Village has been expedited, the New York Times reports.

The decision is being sped up in response to Magnum Real Estate Group’s application last week to add another floor to 315 East 10th Street, a building the firm recently purchased. Magnum is run by developer Ben Shaoul, and has purchased a number of buildings in the area recently. The building at 315 East 10th Street, on the northern border of Tompkins Square Park, would be taller than the other buildings on the park if approved, the Times said.
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Developer Benjamin Shaoul, and the call box at his Sky East at 636 East 11th Street shows only residential apartments, not the promised doctors’ offices, on the first floor and ground level.

Benjamin Shaoul, the developer ordered earlier this month to dismantle a penthouse atop an East Village tenement, has yet another expensive m [more]

The owner of 514-516 East 6th Street needs to remove the penthouse of his building to comply with a ruling issued yesterday by the city, according to the New York Post. The Board of Standards and Appeals voted to approve a sixth story that had been added by developer Ben Shaoul to his East Village tenement last year, but not the penthouse above it, said lawyer Marvin Mitzner. The attorney said the decision was a “three-quarters victory” for Shaoul, who had been seeking the right to expand a tenement without having to strip it to the foundation. Tenants had been demanding that the entire addition be rejected and had complained to City Council member Rosie Mendez that the extra floors put them in danger by taking out an emergency exit on the roof. Mitzner countered that when the extra floors were added, Shaoul made upgrades to the fire safety system throughout the structure that actually exceeded code requirements. Mitzner plans to ask for a similar variance for the Shaoul family’s building at 515 East 5th St., where another story and a penthouse were also added. [Post]

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The party’s over at the A Building, an East Village condominium at 421 East 13th Street built by mini-mogul Ben Shaoul and his partner, Rob Kaliner. Beneath the two-year-old building’s reputation for hosting raucous rooftop pool parties lies a reality worse than the most killer hangover — flooding, crumbling balconies, alleged mismanagement of the condo board’s funds and two unresponsive developers who have left owners banging their heads against mold-ridden walls, claim several residents who forwarded dozens of documents detailing these issues to The Real Deal.
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