A stalled Williamsburg condominium that was reincarnated through a loan-to-own deal last year is back on track for completion and preparing to hit the market this summer. Unlike many of its back-from-the-dead peers, 170 North 5th Street is not going rental.

Instead, its new owners have decided to stick with the original developers’ plans, tapping the Corcoran Group’s Lior Barak and Christine Blackburn, of the high-grossing Barak/Blackburn Group, to sell off the 16 units as condos.

Sales are slated to launch in late June or early July, Blackburn said, and the building should be ready for occupancy by October.

The 17,000-square-foot building, two blocks from the L train’s Bedford Avenue stop and designed by RKT&B Architecture and Urban Design, was built — mostly — by Lucky Boy Development, which purchased the site for $2.6 million in 2005. [more]

Blackburn and Barak

The six-person Barak/Blackburn Group has moved from Prudential Douglas Elliman to the Corcoran Group. The group, led by Lior Barak and Christine Blackburn, has focused mostly on Brooklyn and will operate out of Corcoran’s 241 Bedford Avenue office in Williamsburg. Since they partnered in 2006, Barak and Blackburn have made more than $400 million [more]

From left: Christine Blackburn, Lior Barak, Ilan Bracha and Dolly Lenz

Dolly Lenz, the Bracha Group and the Barak/Blackburn Group won top awards at Prudential Douglas Elliman’s annual awards ceremony held at Cipriani tonight (see full awards list after the jump). Lenz received the individual award based on transactions and gross commission income, while the Bracha Group, led by Ilan Bracha, won the award for the top team by GCI. Bracha himself also received the 2009 award for the most sales exclusives in Manhattan. Other top groups by GCI were the Leonard Steinberg Team (number 2), the Jacky Teplitzky Team (number 3), the Tamir Shemesh Group (number 5) and the DeNiro Group (number 8). The Kotler Group, which secured the 7th spot, was also acknowledged for closing the most rental transactions in Manhattan. The top team in terms of transactions was Barak/Blackburn Group, led by Christine Blackburn and Lior Barak. Groups who won based on sales transactions included the Doron Zwickel Team (number 2), the Bracha Group (number 3), the Jacky Teplitzky Team (number 4) and the Tamir Shemesh Group (number 7). On the commercial side, Faith Hope Consolo won the top retail and commercial award by highest GCI. TRD [more]

20 Bayard

In a move that stunned real estate executives and residents of the
building, the sponsors of 20 Bayard Street in Williamsburg filed the
condominium into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late this
afternoon. According to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn, the
condo by North Development Group owed more than $10 million to more
than 50 creditors. The reason for the filing was unclear, however bankruptcy is often
used by developers to prevent a property from being foreclosed on.
Records with the city Department of Finance show that Istar Financial
inherited the building loan from subprime lender Fremont Bank.
However, court documents show that Manhattan-based hard money lender W
Financial among the listed creditors. The creditor with the largest unsecured claim was Add Plumbing, a
contractor at 120 Evergreen Avenue in Brooklyn. The claim was for
$325,000. [more]