From left: Joseph Belluck, a partner at law firm Belluck & Fox and 70 Cabot Lane
An affiliate of a $7.5 billion Loan Star private equity fund that bought up distressed debt with a face value of $55 billion in the United States and Germany, including in New York City, during the downturn is filing lawsuits claiming appraisers during the boom acted fraudulently and negligently in conducting valuations on residential properties. [more]
Jewelry dealer Mascha Selden has alleged in a lawsuit that Carrie Chiang, senior vice president at the Corcoran Group, has damaged her Upper West Side townhouse. Chiang purchased a brownstone that shares a wall with Selden’s townhouse last October. Chiang began renovating her $4.2 million multi-family property to turn it into a one-family home, and Selden’s lawyers charge that Chiang’s contractors have weakened the wall in Selden’s home and that the walls, floors and ceilings have cracks in them. Chiang’s lawyer said Selden’s building was damaged before the work began on Chiang’s property. [more]
Developer General Growth Properties, which filed for bankruptcy in
April, has backed out of the East Harlem Media Entertainment and
Cultural Center, a 1.7 million-square-foot retail and residential
complex proposed for East 125th Street. The other partners plan to
continue with the project and will find a different retail partner or
do the retail development on their own, said Stephen Hayes of project
manager the Carey Group. A group of local property owners filed suit in
state Appellate Court this month against the project, which will
include 600 apartments for moderate and middle-income families. The
property owners argued that the project has limited public benefits
because it is being built by a private developer. [more]
A New Jersey judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit that Donald Trump filed against author Timothy O’Brien, whose book estimated Trump’s wealth as much lower than Trump says it is. O’Brien, in “Trump Nation: The Art of Being the Donald,” reported that anonymous sources told him Trump’s net worth is between $150 million and $250 million, while Trump estimates his wealth at around $4 billion. Trump said his reputation and business had been hurt by the book. Comments
A legal battle against 21 real estate brokerages, four individuals and two real estate service providers in the Hamptons has continued this month, with several legal claims and motions filed back and forth. Many of the firms accused in Suffolk Research Service owners George and Jean Simpson’s $9 million lawsuit against the Corcoran Group, Prudential Douglas Elliman, Sotheby’s, Brown Harris Stevens and others have filed motions to dismiss the case. The Simpsons’ lawsuit alleges the brokers are illegally hoarding property data by charging too much for their shared online listing service. The Simpsons responded with a motion for a default judgment against some of the companies they sued, including BHS and Coldwell Banker Prestigious Properties. [more]
