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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From left, William Rapetti, Scott Stringer and Cyrus Vance. 

Crane rigger William Rapetti was acquitted
today of manslaughter charges in the 2008 Midtown crane collapse that
killed six construction workers and a tourist at 303 East 51st Street,
at Second Avenue. Prosecutors said Rapetti did an efficient job
of securing the nearly 200-foot crane as it was being extended upward,
while Rapetti’s lawyer maintained that he worked carefully,
but that the crane was unsteady because of engineering equipment that
wasn’t Rapetti’s responsibility. City officials expressed
disappointment following the decision. “While we respect
the criminal justice process, we are extremely disappointed by the
court’s verdict,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, in
a statement. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer had harsh
words for the Department of Buildings, blaming the DOB for faulty
inspection procedures. “Questions about the innocence or guilt of this
particular rigger miss the larger point that still lingers some 28
months after the tragic crane collapse,” he said in a statement. “Any
questionable straps, beams, collars or other crane parts should have
been caught through the use of aggressive inspection protocols by the
Department of Buildings.” TRD

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Proceedings concluded yesterday in the deadly crane collapse case that led to seven deaths at a Midtown construction site on March 15, 2008,
according to the New York Times. William Rapetti, the rigging
contractor at the site at 303 East 51st Street near Second Avenue, had
been formally charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide
and reckless endangerment in January 2009. In the closing proceedings
yesterday afternoon, Deborah Hickey, an assistant district attorney,
said that Rapetti showed disregard for safety when he failed to replace
a worn out sling, which ultimately snapped, likely leading to the
crane collapse. “All of it began with this sling,” Hickey said, “and
the 67 seconds it would have taken the defendant to look at it that day
and throw it away”. If found guilty on all charges, Rapetti faces 28
years behind bars. Justice Roger Hayes said he plans to announce a
verdict on Thursday. [NYT]

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The old Crave Ceviche

When a collapsing crane crushed his newly renovated restaurant in March 2008, “it wa [more]

As expected, Michael Sackaris and his company Nu-Way Crane Service pleaded guilty to charges of bribery, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. And a company employee, Michael Pascalli, pleaded guilty to a charge of offering a false instrument for filing, in connection with the bribing of a Department of Buildings official. The arrests stemmed from an investigation following the deaths of nine people at two crane collapse sites, the Azure at 333 East 91st Street and 303 East 51st Street. Sackaris paid James Delayo, the acting chief inspector for cranes and derricks at DOB, to complete and file false paperwork with the agency on about 20 occasions, indicating that Nu-Way had passed city inspections, when in fact the cranes had not been inspected at all, or only in a perfunctory way, the DA’s office said. On six other occasions, the DA’s office said, Sackaris paid Delayoto certify that Nu-Way employees, including Pascalli, seeking crane operator licenses passed their examinations. Delayo pleaded guilty in March on bribery charges. The three defendants will be sentenced July 13. TRD

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The city has failed to provide the families of two construction workers who died in the 2008 crane collapse at the Upper East Side’s Azure Condominium at 333 East 91st Street on the corner of First Avenue with documents, e-mails and other information about equipment inspections, a State Supreme Court judge said yesterday. The families had filed a lawsuit against the crane company, the company’s owner, the Department of Buildings and others in connection with the case, and had tried to obtain copies of communications regarding the crane from the DOB and to prevent the city from conducting tests on the collapsed crane while they were not present. In yesterday’s ruling, the court issued the Bloomberg administration a $5,000 fine — $2,500 to each family — for “flagrant disregard” of court orders to provide the documents and to notify the families of crane tests in advance. Last month, crane company owner James Lomma was indicted for manslaughter for allegedly allowing the crane to operate with a broken turntable that led to the accident. [NYT]