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]

The four brothers that comprise the powerful, and secretive, Chetrit Group have split up into two separate firms, according to Real Estate Alert. The firm, which recently bought Hotel Chelsea and has large stakes in 620 Sixth Avenue and 530 Fifth Avenue, split sometime in the last month. Sources told the publication that the split was not amicable, and the brothers did not return calls for comment. Brothers Joseph and Meyer Chetrit will continue business as the Chetrit Group, but have relinquished the firm’s 404 Fifth Avenue headquarters to their brothers Jacob and Juda, who will operate as the Chetrit Organization. Joseph and Meyer will move into offices at 512 Seventh Avenue. [more]

A discrimination lawsuit against the Chetrits, one of city’s most powerful and secretive real estate families, has been settled just a few days before it was set to go to trial.

The suit, which essentially accused the Chetrit Group of firing an employee because he was insufficiently Jewish, was dismissed yesterday, according to a spokesperson for Judge Harold Baer of the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.

Opening arguments had been set for Monday morning. Details of the settlement were not immediately available.

As The Real Deal previously reported, the suit was brought by former employee Les Kramsky, who is Jewish. In the suit, Kramsky claims that Joseph Chetrit, the firm’s managing member and an Orthodox Jew, hired Kramsky because he thought Kramsky, too, was Orthodox, which is a strict interpretation of the religion. [more]

A groundbreaking lawsuit heading to trial in federal court claims that prominent developer Joseph Chetrit engaged in discrimination by allegedly firing an employee for his religious beliefs.

Les Kramsky, a former employee, claims in the lawsuit that Chetrit, an Orthodox Jew, only hired him because he believed that Kramsky, too, was Orthodox, then fired him once he discovered that he was not. Kramsky, who is Jewish but not Orthodox, also alleges that he was pressured to pray and participate in religious rituals while at work.

The trial is slated to begin June 27 before Judge Harold Baer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit names the Chetrit Group as a defendant, along with the firm’s managing member, Joseph Chetrit, and his brothers Meyer, Juda, and Jacob, who are partners in the company. [more]

5 Beekman Street

Developer Jacob Chetrit filed a $50 million lawsuit against Bonjour Capital’s Charles Dayan, alleging the investment partner reneged on a deal to pay off a defaulted construction loan after the lender filed to for [more]

5 Beekman Street

Developer Jacob Chetrit filed a $50 million lawsuit against Bonjour Capital’s Charles Dayan, alleging the investment partner reneged on a deal to pay off a defaulted construction loan after the lender filed to for [more]

A California-based bank has filed to foreclose on a $45.7 million
acquisition loan made to a partnership that includes developers Jacob
Chetrit and Charles Dayan, who planned to convert an 1883 office
building near City Hall into a luxury hotel. The partners bought the landmarked 10-story building at 5 Beekman Street at Nassau Street in March 2008 for $61 million,
taking out the loan from Pacific National Bank at the same time,
according to the foreclosure lawsuit filed by the lender August 4 in
New York State Supreme Court. The bank filed the foreclosure after the borrowers failed to make their July mortgage payment, the suit says. [more]