After three years in the shadows, developer Shaya Boymelgreen has broken his silence, speaking out to the New York Observer about his Manhattan aspirations. While Boymelgreen isn’t a fan of the press — because their stories are often “below the belt” — he said he’s ready to discuss his future, and regrets. “I’m sorry I left Manhattan,” Boymelgreen said. “I should have stayed only in Manhattan, as far as going to Brooklyn, to Florida, to Vegas, to [Eastern] Europe.” While he didn’t elaborate much on his aspirations, Boymelgreen mentioned a possible project with the head of Citibank in Israel. “They wanted us to do something together, and I told them, ‘Listen, I am not so strong as I used to be.’” And with good reason — Boymelgreen’s LibertyPointe bank was shut down in March, and the developer himself received an eviction notice from his Brooklyn headquarters in January.  [NYO]

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Shaya Boymelgreen

Paul Bright, a Smith Street condo owner who successfully sued Shaya Boymelgreen over construction problems in his building, says the embattled developer — and the $1,800 in damages he was ordered by a judge to pony up — is now nowhere to be found. “As soon as they lost the judgment, they disappeared,” Bright told the Daily News, which couldn’t reach Boymelgreen for comment. The sheriff’s office, which Bright called in order to get the judgment enforced, couldn’t find him either. In April, Boymelgreen was evicted from his Prospect Heights headquarters near Atlantic Yards after his landlord lost the building to eminent domain. In March, his LibertyPointe Bank was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and he’s also facing a slew of lawsuits from condo buyers over allegedly shoddy construction at his buildings. [NYDN] 

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At left and at right: photos of alleged damage to the Newswalk condo from ShameOnShaya.org; Center: Shaya Boymelgreen

2010 hasn’t been kind to Brooklyn developer Shaya Boymelgreen. Last
month, he was evicted from his Prospect Heights office near Atlantic
Yards after his landlord lost the building to eminent domain. And one month
before that, his LibertyPointe Bank was seized by the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation. 

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Alleged transfer of funds from companies linked to Charles Antonucci, former president of the now-shuttered Park Avenue Bank, back to him and then reinvested in the bank. (Click image for larger version.)

Marking the first ever prosecution of alleged fraud against the Trouble Asset Relief Program, Charles Antonucci, the former president of the Park Avenue Bank was arrested this morning and charged with embezzlement, bribery and allegedly trying to defraud the program of $11.2 million. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara warned that while this was the first ever TARP prosecution, his office had recently ramped up staffing and expected the probe to continue. Federal prosecutors allege that Antonucci approved loans and lines of credit to companies that he invested in, made false statements to federal regulators to apply for TARP funds and arranged for the bank to lease properties that he personally owned at 2 Broad Street and 48 Jackson Street in Fishkill, NY. “Antonucci allegedly put his personal greed ahead of his professional duty, deliberated and repeatedly deceived regulators and even attempted to obtain through fraud more than $11 million in taxpayer rescue funds through the Troubled Asset Relief program or TARP,” Bharara said. Antonucci’s attorney, Charles Stillman, said he just received a copy of the charges and would not immediately comment.
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Donald Glascoff’s (left) Park Avenue Bank has been shut down with its deposits sold to Valley National Bank, headed by Gerald Lipkin (right)

Federal and state regulators have shut down the Park Avenue Bank and sold its deposits to Valley National Bank, marking the second seizure and asset sale of a New York City bank in two days. The State Banking Department closed the bank citing ineffective management and inadequate capital as well as a high volume of non-performing loans. “We determined that the management team’s inability to address the
problems in the consent order led to the bank being critically
undercapitalized,” said Richard Neiman, supervisor of the state Banking
Department. “This issue coupled with the high volume of non-performing
loans held by Park Avenue meant that the bank could no longer operate
in a safe and sound manner.” The FDIC entered into a loss-share transaction on $379.8 million of Park Avenue Bank’s assets. Park Avenue Bank reported assets of $520.1 million and deposits of $494.5 million, according to the FDIC. The bank’s four branches will reopen as branches of Valley National Bank. Last night, state regulators shut down and sold the assets of LibertyPointe Bank, the struggling lender owned by Brooklyn-based developer Shaya Boymelgreen. Asked whether the collapse of two small New York banks was a start of a new trend, FDIC officials acknowledged that commercial real estate lending is playing a larger role in bank failures. [more]

Developer Shaya Boymelgreen

The New York State Department of Banking shut down developer Shaya Boymelgreen’s struggling LibertyPointe Bank, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation sold its assets to Wayne, N.J.-based Valley National Bank, marking the first New York state bank seizure this year. The shut down — which will cost the FDIC $24.8 million — comes nine months after federal and state regulators issued a cease and desist order against the lender for using unsound banking practices, including operating with an excessive amount of commercial real estate loans. “It is a top priority of the New York State Banking Department to
protect the deposits of consumers of New York State banks and ensure
the safety and soundness of the banking system in the state,” said
Richard Nieman, state superintendent of banks, in a statement. Valley National Bank officials said the bank assumed about $200 million
in deposits and received about $180 million in loans, which are subject
to a loss-share agreement with the FDIC. The bank also received $20
million in cash and other assets. [more]

When you travel to Las Vegas you can make a bet on nearly every sporting event. Perhaps in 2010, the odds makers in Sin City will allow people to wager on the number of failed banks nationwide. Few would have expected a total of 140 United States banks to fail in 2009, up from 25 in 2008 and a mere three in 2007, according to Zacks Investment Research. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Shelia Bair stated that the worst of the bank failures are not over yet and bank failures will accelerate this year. During the first 15 days of the year alone, four banks — in Utah, Minnesota, Illinois and the State of Washington — were closed by the FDIC. Last year, some of the biggest failures were banks which were involved extensively in providing real estate financing — Corus Bank, BankUnited, AmTrust Bank to just name a few. And today, many of the banks under review are financial institutions which were intimately involved in commercial real estate financing. Locally, a number of New York and New Jersey financial institutions are under cease-and-desist or formal agreement with the government to raise capital and discontinue commercial real estate lending. [more]

Developer Shaya Boymelgreen was hit with a five-day eviction notice
yesterday at his headquarters at 752 Pacific Avenue in Brooklyn after
a series of legal troubles with his landlord Harry Weinstein. Although
he was scheduled for eviction last year, the process was stalled
after two companies claimed to be subleasing space from the developer
and tried to push him into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. But a U.S. Bankruptcy judge ruled Dec. 11 that the eviction could proceed and
Boymelgreen was given the notice yesterday. This development is the
latest in a series of financial troubles for the embattled Boymelgreen,
who most recently failed to meet the Nov. 30 deadline to raise enough
cash to save LibertyPointe Bank, a financial institution which he
co-founded four years ago.

The LibertyPointe Bank,
whose chairman is troubled developer Shaya Boymelgreen, is in danger of
being seized by regulators after failing to raise the $25 million
ordered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. After issuing the
New York-based bank a cease and desist order
in July, reports showed that the bank’s total risk-based capital ratio
was only 3.7 percent as of Sept. 30, well below the minimum threshold
of 8 percent for an “adequately capitalized” bank. On Oct. 20, the FDIC
decided to give the bank 30 days to raise additional capital. However,
the bank failed to raise the cash by the deadline and chief executive
Meron Corn said it is “unclear what will happen next.” The failure of
LibertyPointe Bank would be added to the list of difficulties recently encountered by Boymelgreen, who is also dealing with stalled downtown office building conversions and various lawsuits
from lenders and creditors. Also, if LibertyPointe Bank goes under, it
would be the first failure of a New York bank since the financial
crisis started two years ago. [Crain's] [more]

Shaya Boymelgreen, a rendering of Novo condominium

Embattled developer Shaya Boymelgreen has at least one piece of good news. Boymelgreen’s Novo, a 113-unit condo on Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue, is sold out after nearly three years on the market, with the last unit scheduled to close this Friday, according to Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, which exclusively handled sales at the project. The condo, which encountered resistance from the community after using a local park for construction staging for the building, began sales in March 2007.  More

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