The family of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has sold a medial office condominium at 345 East 37th Street for $31 million, Crain’s reported. The 81,000-square-foot space was purchased by medical property investment firm ProMed, which plans to renovate. The 57-story building, also known as the Corinthian, has upwards of 860 residential condos in addition to the medical offices. Last year, the Spitzer family sold off the building’s 186-space parking garage to Alliance Parking owner Gregg Reuben for $10.2 million. [more]

Andrew Cuomo (left), Mario Cuomo and the Governor’s Mansion in Albany

Behold the new — and old — home of Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo, the 40-room Victorian mansion that’s sat mostly unused by the governors since his father, Mario Cuomo, left office 16 years ago. David Paterson spent only 55 days in the house during his first nine months on the job, while Eliot Spitzer preferred his Fifth Avenue apartment or his farm in Columbia County and George Pataki’s own Putnam County mansion served as his primary residence. But the younger Cuomo plans to return the Albany property to the home it was when his father lived there, spending several nights per week there (he’ll head to Mount Kisco on Wednesdays, Thursdays and every other weekend to see his three teenage daughters, whom he had with ex-wife Kerry Kennedy). Cuomo was 25 when his father was elected, having grown up in a modest row house in Hollis, Queens, but he told the New York Times that he thinks of the Eagle Street mansion, which is set on six acres, as a “magical place” that “gives you a sense of the importance of state government and what it was all about, and how seriously it was taken.” [NYT]

Andrew Cuomo and the Alexander at 250 East 49th Street

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has quietly settled a five-month investigation in which developer Alexander Gurevich has been banned from selling condominium and cooperative units in New York state for three years, will pay a $300,000 fine and was separately forced to offer refunds to all buyers at the Alexander condo on the East Side, The Real Deal has learned. Cuomo entered a so-called assurance of discontinuance with Gurevich Feb. 18, after launching a probe in September 2009, amid allegations that the sponsor of the building at 250 East 49th Street failed to disclose key information about the principal investors from prospective buyers. Attorney Andrew Weltchek, who represented four buyers that filed suit in federal court against the developers, said he complained to the AG about several “defects” in the offering plan, leading Cuomo’s office to investigate further. “The attorney general investigated that and figured out there were additional disclosures that had to be made,” Weltchek said. “In the meantime, the clock ran out on the [Jan. 1] date the sponsor projected the project had to be closed.” [more]

Away from politics, Eliot Spitzer has been keeping busy with his family’s real estate business. Last week, the former governor sold a parking garage on East 38th Street underneath the Corinthian, a 55-story apartment building in Murray Hill built by his father, Bernard Spitzer. Spitzer got $10.3 million for the spot, and was praised by buyer Gregg Reuben of Alliance Parking for being “a total gentleman” during the transaction. Both sides were represented by Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services. Spitzer’s big sale comes on the heels of his Washington, D.C., office building purchase for $180 million this summer.

A New York State Supreme Court judge late last month ordered the
appointment of veteran corporate attorney Stuart Shorenstein to take
over as receiver of 34 Leonard, the troubled luxury co-op development
in Tribeca. Shorenstein, who recently joined the corporate law division at Cozen
O’Connor, was ordered Aug. 27 to collect rents and complete
construction of the property and named Cooper Square Realty as managing
agent at the building. The order also named E.W. Howell, as general
contractor of the project. “The goal is to complete the [construction of] the building,” Shorenstein told The Real Deal,
when asked about the fate of the project. “The second step is to
complete the foreclosure action. Once that is done, we’ll be in a
position to decide how to proceed.” [more]