The Apthorp and Dolly Lenz

High-end broker Dolly Lenz is quietly showing the apartment of developer Maurice Mann at the Upper West Side condominium conversion project the Apthorp, with a price tag of more than $12 million, sources said.
Lenz has been giving tours of Mann’s apartment, unit 2C, in the building at 390 West End Avenue between 78th and 79th streets, which the embattled developer recently vacated, the sources said.
Lenz had no comment and messages left with Maurice Mann’s office were not returned.
Mann, general partner of investment and management company Mann Realty Associates, led a group of investors that purchased the Apthorp in 2007 for $426 million with the intention of converting it to condominiums. Mann was replaced as managing partner by Africa Israel, however the Feil Organization is the managing agent at the building. Mann and his company were sued in New York State Supreme Court in November 2009 for allegedly not paying $400,000 in commissions to the Manhattan brokerage Blue Rock Properties, that helped arrange financing for the acquisition. TRD [more]

Developer Maurice Mann is facing a lawsuit for allegedly failing to pay $400,000 in commissions and fees to Blue Rock Properties, a Manhattan-based brokerage that in 2007, helped arrange financing for the acquisition of the Apthorp on the Upper West Side.

Mann, the general partner of Mann Realty Associates, led the investment group that acquired the landmark rental building, at 390 West End Avenue, for a record $426 million. Mann has since lost the role of managing partner at the Apthorp to Africa Israel, the Israeli real estate and diamond conglomerate led by billionaire Lev Leviev.

Leviev is currently awaiting word from the New York State Attorney General about whether he will declare the condominium plan effective, amid serious concerns about whether the developer was able to find enough buyers to make the building financially viable. [more]