The developers of the Upper West Side’s Apthorp condominium are planning to withdraw their lawsuit against Anglo Irish Bank, according to documents filed in New York state Supreme Court this past Friday, and will allow the lender to sell the property’s troubled $385 million building loan to Dallas-based Loan Star Funds.

Anglo, the senior mortgage lender at the troubled condo, at 2211 Broadway, blasted the developers, led by Africa Israel USA and Broadwall Management, in a proposed order submitted to Judge Jeffrey Oing, detailing what it considers numerous attempts by the building sponsors to squirm out of their crumbling lawsuit, which sought to block the bank from selling the senior mortgage.

“Plaintiff’s current effort to dismiss this case in its entirety suggests that Anglo’s contention that this is a strike suit may well be correct,” Anglo Irish lawyers wrote in the proposed order. [more]

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the Apthorp

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has shut down the sales office at the Apthorp, fined the developers $190,000 and ordered rescission for all contracted buyers following an investigation into misleading statements made to the AG months before they filed suit to block Anglo Irish Bank from selling their $385 million mortgage loan.
The Apthorp developers, led by Africa Israel USA and Broadwall Management, filed suit against the troubled bank Sept. 12, alleging the sale of the $385 million Apthorp loan would “adversely impact sales” and potentially “threaten the conversion project itself.”
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Maurice Mann, the original developer of the Apthorp
condominium conversion, has filed a new lawsuit against his
former partners, alleging they reneged on an agreement to let him
buy an apartment at the building.

Mann, in a lawsuit filed Monday in New York state Supreme
Court, alleged that in 2009, his former development partners,
Apthorp Associates and Broadwall Management, agreed to sell
him apartment 2C at the building, but then refused and offered him
apartment 6A.
Mann initially agreed to buy the historic Apthorp at 390 West End
Avenue in 2006, and later brought in Africa Israel chairman Lev
Leviev as his partner in a record $426 million acquisition. [more]

[Update: 2:25 p.m.] The Apthorp’s 14,875-square-foot retail condominium is in contract for $37 million, according to the buyer, real estate investment company William Friedland. The retail space, located in the residential building’s ground floor on Broadway between 78th and 79th streets, contains four storefronts. Current tenants there include JPMorgan Chase and the Apthorp Pharmacy. The other two units, which are 1,560 square feet and 2,460 square feet, will be available for rent, according to William Friedland, which said it expects the sale to close early next month. TRD [more]

Conditions at the Apthorp are continuing to deteriorate, several tenants in the venerated Upper West Side condominium-conversion have told The Real Deal, and a visit by a reporter confirmed that the environment appears to be far from desirable — and, in some cases, far from safe.

Their complaints come just days after an article was published in the New York Times, detailing the trials of 95-year-old tenant and Holocaust survivor Irene Front, who said that numerous maintenance requests — including complaints of rampant rodent problems — went overlooked for weeks.

After months of back-and-forth between residents and the building sponsor and management, other tenants say that unsafe construction zones in the building, at 2211 Broadway between 78th and 79th streets, are easily accessible, some common areas are left with detritus and punctured walls and ceilings, while exposed cables abound, all of which The Real Deal saw this morning (see photos above).
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Lev Leviev, the Apthorp

Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev’s Africa Israel Group is feeling the heat at the controversial Apthorp on the Upper West Side, as rival investors in the project are raising questions about the business plan and what they say is a lack of transparency at the troubled project. Angry investors claim that Africa Israel Group and managing agent the Feil Organization have refused repeated requests for information about sales activity and other relevant data, but made a recent capital call for $2.1 million to fund an interest shortfall.

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