From left: Stanley Bard and the Hotel Chelsea

Former owner/manager of the Hotel Chelsea, Stanley Bard, must’ve gotten more than art from developer Joseph Chetrit for the iconic lodge. Bard and his wife, Phyllis, closed on an Upper East Side apartment for $4.7 million yesterday, the New York Observer reported. The apartment is at 1001 Fifth Avenue, at 82nd Street.

Bard was the hotel’s noted manager during the 1970s, when he frequently accepted art for rent and welcomed figures such as Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Charles Bukowski and Bob Dylan into the building. [more]

Yair Levy and 620 Sixth Avenue

A state Supreme Court judge today agreed to lift a temporary restraining order on developer Yair Levy to allow the $500 million sale of 620 Sixth Avenue, pending the immediate deposit of about $8 million in proceeds into an escrow fund for his former Rector Square condominium project.

The sale of the 700,000-square-foot retail complex is scheduled to close on Friday, and funds will immediately be transferred to an escrow account, according to lawyers for the Battery Park City condo.

Judge Joan Lobis continued to block the sale or transfer of any additional assets from Levy or his family, however, which lawyers for the Battery Park City condo say was done to illegally circumvent a judgment after the troubled developer was banned from the real estate industry for raiding the Rector Square reserve fund.
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Jewish Home Lifecare’s West 106th Street campusOne of the most ambitious new nursing home projects in the New York area is ready to move forward thanks to a land swap that could prove most profitable for developers Joseph Chetrit and Laurence Gluck (note: correction appended).

According to the Wall Street Journal, Chetrit and Gluck closed on the deal to give a lot on 97th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus avenues to Jewish Home Lifecare in exchange for the agency’s four-building campus that occupies most of the block nine streets directly north and another building on 105th Street. The developers will also give $35 million to Jewish Home. [more]

The new owner of the Hotel Chelsea and the building’s long-term tenants will have their day in court, the New York Times reported this weekend.
Chetrit began renovations at the hotel, at 222 West 23rd Street , under the supervision of project architect Gene Kaufman in October.

The tenants association filed suit in Manhattan housing court last Friday.

The tenants’ lawyer, Samuel Himmelstein, told the Times that repeated attempts to meet with landlord Joseph Chetrit, who bought the landmarked hotel in August for $78 million, were ignored.
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From left: Ed Scheetz and Ben Pundole of King & Grove Hotels and the Tides HotelWith funding from the Chetrit Group, two former Morgans Hotel executives are taking over a South Beach hotel, Hotel Chatter reported.

King & Grove Hotels, a boutique hotel brand founded by the former CEO of Morgans, Ed Scheetz, and Ben Pundole, Morgans’ former director of entertainment, took over the Tides Hotel on Ocean Drive in South Beach. The LLC that took over the hotel, named CG Tides, is headed by Joseph Chetrit. [more]

Attorney Sam Himmelstein and the Hotel Chelsea

Longtime residents of the historic Hotel Chelsea, which was recently purchased by developer Joseph Chetrit for $77 million and is currently undergoing renovations, have formed a tenants association and hired a lawyer, fearing that Chetrit may be planning to force them out.

According to the New York Daily News, eviction notices have been sent to tenants in several of the 80 rental units. Other tenants say their last rent checks weren’t cashed. Hotel reservations at the property have also been canceled.

“They are going after any tenant who they think is vulnerable,” said Sam Himmelstein from law firm Himmelstein McConnell Gribben Donoghue & Joseph, the lawyer retained by the newly formed association. “If they believe a person is not rent-stabilized, they are going to go after them.” [more]

The lobby of the Hotel Chelsea as it was (center); the art has now been removed and demolition has begun

The renovation of the Hotel Chelsea has begun in earnest.

In August, a group of investors led by Joseph Chetrit paid $77.8 million for the landmark hotel.

The Hotel Chelsea will be receiving an extensive, but subtle, renovation, according to project architect Gene Kaufman. It will get new retail space, an expanded lobby and possibly another restaurant as part of a major upgrade planned by Chetrit.

As The Real Deal and other publications documented, the new owners of the 12-story famous hotel at 222 West 23rd Street stopped accepting guests, fired most of its staff, and removed residents’ colorful artwork from the hallway and lobby walls. [more]

RXR Realty CEO Scott Rechler and 620 Sixth Avenue

RXR Realty will take control of 620 Sixth Avenue from a partnership of Joseph Chetrit, Yair Levy and Charles Dayan in a deal that values the building at about $500 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The partnership paid $290 million for it in late 2005, and will retain a minority stake. Douglas Harmon of Eastdil Secured marketed the property for the owners.

The seven-story, 700,000-square-foot, 114-year-old building at 19th Street is 80 percent occupied and home to big-box retailers TJ Maxx and Bed Bath & Beyond. RXR CEO Scott Rechler said the building will generate enough income to cover debt payments beginning next year. Rechler said he was attracted to the building because of its unique appearance and its “Silicon Alley” location — home to the city’s growing tech sector. [more]

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]

Eastdil’s Douglas Harmon and the Hotel Chelsea

The famous Hotel Chelsea — longtime haunt of luminaries like Bob Dylan, Charles Bukowski, and Janis Joplin — has been sold.
Secretive real estate investor Joseph Chetrit reportedly signed a contract several months ago to purchase the iconic hotel from its longtime owners for more than $80 million, in a deal brokered by Eastdil Secured’s Douglas Harmon. But amidst a furor yesterday prompted by the abrupt removal of guests from the hotel, longtime residents began to think the deal would not come to fruition. [more]