303 East 51st Street

The documents detailing the wrongful death settlements in the 2008 East 51st Street crane collapse that harmed 31 people have been ordered unsealed by a Manhattan judge, the New York Law Journal reported. The defendants appealed the decision yesterday, The Real Deal has learned.

Justice Carol Edmead said that there was no justification for withholding the settlement amounts from the public now that all seven Labor Law wrongful death cases have been settled. Edmead had temporarily sealed the documents after one of the trials so that previous judgments wouldn’t impact the ones pending. [more]

Pre-trial proceedings in the 2008 Upper East Side crane collapse manslaughter case will be held in open court, the judge has decided, according to the New York Post.

Concerns from prosecutors and victims’ families convinced Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel Conviser to make hearing, crane company owner James Lomma’s hearing, on second-degree manslaughter charges, public, the Post said. The hearing is scheduled for tomorrow at 10 a.m. The collapse at the Azure, at 333 East 91st Street, at First Avenue, involved a crane owned by Lomma’s company, New York Crane and Equipment Corporation.
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There is only one wrongful-death lawsuit related to the 2008 Turtle Bay crane collapse left unsettled, the New York Post reported. Families of the six other victims settled secretly out of court with the city, crane operator Rapetti Rigging Services, Kennely Development Company and building contractors.

The only outstanding suit is from the family of Santino Gallone, a Rappeti crew member who died in the accident. The case will go before the Manhattan Supreme Court Sept. 12.

There are still however about 43 lawsuits totaling $500 million related to the incident pending from people injured as well as property and business owners, the Post said. [more]

Though he was cleared of manslaughter charges last year, William Rapetti received a punishment for his part in the crane collapse in Midtown in 2008 that killed seven people. A judge today found that the rigger’s sloppy crane work was to blame for the collapse, and recommended his license be revoked, the New York Post reported. Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri has adhered to that recommendation, making Rapetti unable to operate or oversee any cranes in the city.

“We have determined that Mr. Rapetti took shortcuts while erecting the tower crane by using damaged equipment and failing to follow the manufacturer’s specific instructions,” LiMandri said. “Those shortcuts sacrificed the safety of the job site and led to horrific consequences.” [more]

From left: Crane owner James Lomma and the Azure at 333 East 91st Street

The owner of the crane company implicated in the deadly 2008 collapse at the Upper East Side’s Azure is suing the construction company that had rented his crane for $1.1 million in damages, the Post reported. The owner, James Lomma, is currently awaiting trial on manslaughter charges after a judge turned down his bid to get the case dismissed last month. He and mechanic Tibor Varganyi were accused of arranging for a cheap welding job on the 200-foot-tall crane, which failed after a month of use. [more]

Developer Ziel Feldman may have stepped in last year to buy the note on the stalled Turtle Bay construction site at 303 East 51st Street, where a 2008 crane collapse killed seven people, but the immediate surrounding neighborhood is looking like it needs its own cash infusion in the aftermath of the tragedy. According to the Post, nine businesses around the site — near Second Avenue, between 50th and 51st streets — have become “ghostly museums” as a result of the crash. City Council member Jessica Lappin, who lives in the area, called the retail strip “moribund” and “just depressing.” Meanwhile, the construction site at the center of it all hasn’t been a source of much optimism, either. [more]

A judge has upheld manslaughter charges against an owner and a mechanic in connection with a rig collapse at a construction site that killed two workers on the Upper East Side in May 2008, CBS reported. The judge today turned down the defendants’ bid to get the case dismissed and the case is now headed for a trial this spring or summer. Prosecutors said owner James Lomma and mechanic Tibor Varganyi arranged for a cheap welding job on a 200-foot-tall crane at the site of the Azure cond-op at 333 East 91st Street. [more]

Elliman’s Ilan Bracha is marketing the Azure.

HSBC and four other institutions have agreed to convert their $145 million construction loan into a shareholder loan at the Azure, at 333 East 91st Street, a 34-story residential tower which was the site of a fatal crane collapse in 2008. The developers of the Azure, the Mattone Group and the Dematteis Organization, said yesterday that their financing is intact and they are on track to sell the 93 apartments left at the 128-unit building, Crain’s reported. The new shareholder loan will allow the building to continue to operate while the developers sell units. As each unit is sold, the loan is paid down. “A year ago this would have been difficult to achieve,” said Douglas MacLaury, senior vice president at the Mattone Group. “This indicates that credit is beginning to flow back into real estate and is a testimony to the confidence lenders have in the building.” Ilan Bracha’s the Bracha Group at Prudential Douglas Elliman is handling marketing, after replacing Brown Harris Stevens. So far, seven units have closed and nine are scheduled to close shortly. An additional 19 units are under contract. [Crain's]

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Michael Sackaris, the de facto owner of Nu-Way Crane company, has been sentenced to two to six years in state prison for bribing the chief crane inspector for the Department of Buildings numerous times. Sackaris, who pleaded guilty in May to bribery charges, gave cash payments to DOB inspector James Delayo, ranging from $200 to $500 on 20 separate occasions beginning in 2000, according to the Manhattan district attorney. Delayo, who also pleaded guilty, offered phony crane operator licenses to Sackaris’ employees. The former inspector was sentenced to two years behind bars in June. The case against Sackaris stemmed from an investigation after two deadly crane collapses in Manhattan, at the Azure condominium construction site at 333 East 91st Street and at 303 East 51st Street, both in 2008. TRD

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Michael Sackaris, the de facto owner of Nu-Way Crane company, has been sentenced to two to six years in state prison for bribing the chief crane inspector for the Department of Buildings numerous times. Sackaris, who pleaded guilty in May to bribery charges, gave cash payments to DOB inspector James Delayo, ranging from $200 to $500 on 20 separate occasions beginning in 2000, according to the Manhattan district attorney. Delayo, who also pleaded guilty, offered phony crane operator licenses to Sackaris’ employees. The former inspector was sentenced to two years behind bars in June. The case against Sackaris stemmed from an investigation after two deadly crane collapses in Manhattan, at the Azure condominium construction site at 333 East 91st Street and at 303 East 51st Street, both in 2008. TRD

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