From left: Izak Senbahar and a rendering of 56 Leonard

From the April issue: Izak Senbahar stands in his 33rd-floor office and shows off a scale model of his latest project: the 60-story glass condo tower rising at 56 Leonard Street. The model, made of Plexiglass pieces stacked like the building’s cantilevered floor plates, occupies a prime position on the developer’s windowsill overlooking Midtown. And when the tower is complete in two years, it will occupy a similarly prime position in Tribeca. [more]

Izak Senbahar (credit: STUDIO SCRIVO)

From the March issue: Izak Senbahar is the president of the Alexico Group, the development firm behind high-profile condo projects such as Grand Beekman on East 51st Street, 165 Charles Street, the Laurel on East 67th Street and the condo conversion of the Mark Hotel. In January, Alexico secured $350 million in construction financing to jump-start its stalled 60-story residential condo at 56 Leonard Street in Tribeca. The Herzog & de Meuron–designed project will have 145 units and is now slated to be complete by 2015. The company is currently working on projects with a combined value of around $2 billion. [more]

From left: Simon Elias, the Mark Hotel and Izak Senbahar

Dune Real Estate Partners has filed to foreclose on loans granted to the Alexico Group’s Mark Hotel at 25 East 77th Street by Anglo Irish Bank, according to public documents filed in State Supreme Court last month. Dune bought the loans earlier this year. Alexico’s Simon Elias and Izak Senbahar pledged the hotel and co-op building as collateral for a total of five Mark Hotel-related loans, all of which are now in default, according to the public foreclosure filing dated June 9. The loans include a pre-development one totaling $14 million in 2006, a building loan mortgage totaling approximately $60.78 million, dated 2007, a project loan totaling around $22.7 million, a $17 million supplemental building loan and a $6.3 million supplemental loan mortgage. All of these debts are accompanied by unpaid interest, late charges, protective advances, service fees and attorney expenses. … [more]

From left: Simon Elias, the Mark hotel, Izak Senbahar

Fillmore Capital Partners filed a $21.1 million suit against Mark hotel developers Simon Elias and Izak
Senbahar of the Alexico Group, alleging the two defaulted on a mezzanine loan at the Upper East Side
hotel.
The suit, filed Monday in New York State Supreme Court, claims the two developers guaranteed
repayment of a $25.8 million mezzanine loan from Dublin, Ireland-based Anglo Irish Bank in 2006, and
acquired by San Francisco-based Fillmore in May 2007.
The loan, amended in December 2007, allowed the developers to borrow up to $43.28 million and some
of the funds advanced towards the project, leaving a balance of $38.5 million, as of April 2009. Fillmore
says the borrowers waived their rights to make any claims against the lender, and agreed to guarantee
the lesser of $7.75 million or the unpaid balance of the loan.

… [more]

Developer Simon Elias and Flatotel

Developers Simon Elias and Izak Senbahar of the Alexico Group are suing Anglo Irish Bank for $1 billion in a funding dispute over $500 million of loans that the bank gave to the men and their companies to redevelop three Manhattan hotels, the Mark, the Alex and the Flatotel, the Irish Times reported. The bank would not comment, but sources said it intends to defend the lawsuit and that the developers’ case has no merit…. [more]

The Alex

The Alex, one of Alexico Group’s three distressed hotels in Manhattan,
is facing an $81.7 million foreclosure suit after An… [more]

Alexico Group is facing a federal lawsuit from two Toronto-based buyers looking to back out of their apartment contract at the Laurel condominium at 400 East 67th Street at First Avenue.

Warren Shepell and Morris Berchard filed suit Oct. 26 in U.S. District Court alleging that the developer failed to file a property report with federal regulators under the Interstate Land Sales Disclosure Act.

Shepell and Berchard signed a November 2007 contract to buy an apartment at the Laurel for about $2.7 million, and deposited $401,250 into an escrow account held by attorney Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel to reserve Apt. 12B, according to the complaint.

By June 2008, the buyers made a second deposit of $267,500, for a total deposit of $668,750, according to the complaint…. [more]

From left: A rendering of the Oliver’s rooftop, images of the stalled project

Bank of America filed to foreclose on two loans totaling more than $30
million provided for the development of a rental project dubbed the
Oliver to be constructed by the luxury developer Alexico Group on the
East Side. The lawsuit describes one mortgage from 2007 as the fee acquisition
loan, valued at $28.32 million, and the second as a development rights
acquisition loan from 2008, valued at $2.3 million. Both loans were originally due November 2008, but the maturity date was
extended to May 1, 2009. The loans were not repaid by that time, and
the bank notified the borrowers that the loans were in default, the
suit filed in New York State Supreme Court August 13, says. The loans cover five mid-block lots from 951 to 961 First Avenue,
between 52nd and 53rd streets, although the planned 30-story
development is only on the three northernmost lots totaling 75 feet by
100 feet, court papers and property records show. The other two lots
are occupied by five-story apartment buildings…. [more]

Alexico is the subject of litigation for its Laurel condo at 400 East 67th Street (left). The off-site sales office at St. Tropez, 1161 First Avenue.

Alexico Group is facing litigation after it allegedly failed to pay
$254,000 in back rent and other charges for an off-site sales office at
the Laurel, its 31-story condominium building at 400 East 67th Street. Since 2007, the Manhattan-based development marketing firm has operated
the Laurel sales and design center at 1161 First Avenue, which is a
street-level commercial space located at the rival St. Tropez condo, on
the corner of 64th Street.
The complaint, filed by the St. Tropez Board of Managers May 27 in New
York Housing Court, alleges the developer — which pays $53,571 per
month in rent — failed to make a payment since January. Alexico, led
by Izak Senbahar and Simon Elias, told the landlord that slow sales at
the Laurel were hurting its ability to make rent payments for the sales
office, according to St. Tropez’s attorney…. [more]