From left: Hotelier Andre Balazs, Neil Gronowetter, chairman of Multifamily Investor and 5 Beekman Street

An independent Manhattan broker who says he brought famed hotelier Andre Balazs to buy the 10-story building 5 Beekman Street in Lower Manhattan, claims that the sellers Bonjour Capital and Chetrit Group are refusing to pay him a 1 percent commission, a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court yesterday shows.

The broker, Neil Gronowetter, chairman of his single-broker shop Multifamily Investor, says in July 2010 he introduced Balazs to representatives of Bonjour Capital, who promised him verbally that he would receive a 1 percent commission, the lawsuit says.

Balazs is reportedly in contract to buy the 128,000-square-foot property built in 1883, which Bonjour and the Chetrits planned to convert to a 200-room hotel after buying it for $61 million in 2008. [more]

The Rising Dragon Chelsea Tattoo Company and the Hotel ChelseaThe first known casualty of the Chetrit Group’s renovation of Hotel Chelsea appears to be the Rising Dragon Chelsea Tattoo Company, a retail tenant on the hotel’s ground floor. According to the New York Times, while it remains unclear what the Chetrits have planned for that particular space, the hotel will get a gym and a rooftop bar.

The tattoo parlor has operated out of the hotel’s ground floor since 1997, and on a month-to-month handshake agreement with the hotel’s previous manager, Stanley Bard, since 2007. [more]

Hotel Chelsea and renovations inside the buildingHotel Chelsea residents have been complaining about dangerous conditions ever since the Chetrit Group began renovations on the famed building, and photos taken by The Real Deal show conditions are not pristine. However, according to the New York Daily News, Department of Buildings inspectors found just one minor violation in their inspection of the landmark at 222 West 23rd Street — the removal of a partition wall not mentioned in the permit. [more]

Hotel Chelsea and renovations inside the buildingFirst residents of the under-renovation Hotel Chelsea hired a lawyer, now they’ve brought on an environmental assessment team to make sure they are safe from toxins being exposed by the Chetrit’s renovation.

DNAinfo reported that the residents hired Olmsted Environmental Services to assess the renovation being done by new owners Chetrit Group and architect Gene Kaufman, and published updated photos of the damage inside the building at 222 West 23rd Street. [more]

Clockwise from top left: Rockwood Capital CEO Edmond Kavounas, Crown Acquisitions CEO Stanley Chera, 530 Fifth Avenue, Murray Hill Properties CEO Norman Sturner and Jamestown Properties managing director Matt BronfmanA partnership of Jamestown Properties and Rockwood Capital is providing equity to Murray Hill Properties and Crown Acquisitions for their previously reported $390 million purchase of 530 Fifth Avenue. The Wall Street Journal reported Jamestown and Rockwood will be the controlling equity holders.

The four firms are putting about $200 million in equity into the purchase and taking out about $220 million in debt. Crown is slated to manage leasing the retail space in the building, which is occupied by Fossil Store and LensCrafters, and will soon be home to a Syms. [more]

The lobby of the Hotel Chelsea as it was (center); the art has now been removed and demolition has begun

The renovation of the Hotel Chelsea has begun in earnest.

In August, a group of investors led by Joseph Chetrit paid $77.8 million for the landmark hotel.

The Hotel Chelsea will be receiving an extensive, but subtle, renovation, according to project architect Gene Kaufman. It will get new retail space, an expanded lobby and possibly another restaurant as part of a major upgrade planned by Chetrit.

As The Real Deal and other publications documented, the new owners of the 12-story famous hotel at 222 West 23rd Street stopped accepting guests, fired most of its staff, and removed residents’ colorful artwork from the hallway and lobby walls. [more]

From left: Brothers Meyer Chetrit and Joseph Chetrit; Moinian Group CEO Joseph Moinian; Murray Hill Properties CEO Norman Sturner and 530 Fifth Avenue

Crown Acquisitions and Murray Hill Properties have partnered to purchase 530 Fifth Avenue for $390 million from the Chetrit Group and the Moinian Group, the Wall Street Journal reported. The 26-story, 500,000-square-foot building between 44th and 45th streets was bought for $210 million by Joseph Moinian and the Chetrit family in 2004.

The building has 21,790 square feet of retail space on Fifth Avenue, currently occupied by LensCrafters, Chase bank and Fossil. This summer Moinian and the Chetrits expanded the retail space to include part of the second floor in order to accommodate forthcoming tenant Syms. [more]

Chetrit Group’s Isaac Chetrit was defrauded out of ownership of a mortgage he bought on a Garment District office building, his attorney alleges.

Real Estate Weekly reported that when Isaac Chetrit purchased the distressed mortgage on a 60,000-square-foot office building at 315 West 35th Street for $10.75 million last year, he meant to file the transaction under an LLC called Mazel West 35. Instead, it was incorrectly recorded as Mazal 315 W35 LLC. [more]

Development on the Midtown site of St. Vincent’s hospital is expected
to move forward next month, with the Chetrit Group planning
to turn the property into apartments, DNAinfo reported. Since the site,
at 415 West 51st Street, closed in the face of debt in 2007,  it has accumulated numerous building violations. Residents say that
for at least two years, the building has attracted rats, that there is
smelly standing water, that scaffolding on the site lacked proper
lighting and that homeless people were spending time there. [more]

Brothers Meyer Chetrit, left, and Joseph

From the September issue: Tongues wagged in the real estate industry when news broke that the Chetrit Group — one of the city’s most prominent investment firms — had split in two.
Brothers Joseph and Meyer Chetrit would be relocating from the company’s longtime headquarters at 404 Fifth Avenue into offices at 512 Seventh Avenue, Real Estate Alert reported in June. Meanwhile, their two younger brothers, Jacob and Juda, would continue working out of the Fifth Avenue office, but operate under the name of Chetrit Organization.
Or would they?
The notoriously secretive family broke their silence last month in a rare, albeit brief, phone interview with The Real Deal to deny that a split has occurred. [more]