One Madison Park faces legal trouble including a suit by former Yankees/Nets Chairman Harvey Schiller

The developers at One Madison Park are facing millions of dollars in additional lawsuits for alleged loan defaults and refusing to release down payments to buyers as well as a judgment for unpaid rent at the property’s off-site sales office.

In November, former Yankees/Nets Chairman Harvey Schiller and his wife Marcia filed a $1.5 million fraud suit in New York State Supreme Court against the developers, Ira Shapiro and Marc Jacobs’ (not the designer) who operate under the name New City, N.Y.-based Slazer Enterprises, alleging they collected multiple deposits on the same apartment to keep in good standing with lenders.

The couple alleges that it signed an agreement in July 2007 to buy apartments 45A and 45B in the building for $7.15 million, and put a 10 percent deposit into an escrow account controlled by the law firm Goldberg Weprin Finkel Goldstein.

They claim that in January 2009, the developers got another party to bid on the apartment and promised to refund the Schiller’s deposit and pay them $850,000 to terminate the contract. Additionally, they allege the sponsor took a deposit on the apartment from the new purchaser, but refused to refund the money. [more]