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]

The development site at 421-431 Kent Avenue and N. Richard Kalikow (site photo source: PropertyShark)

Brooklyn developer Isaac Hager is facing litigation after he allegedly took out a $17 million loan from N. Richard Kalikow’s Alpha Capital, and allowed his terminally ill business partner, Chaim Lax, to personally guarantee the loan, less than a year before his death.

Alpha, a firm controlled by Kalikow’s Manchester Real Estate and Construction, entered an agreement in October 2007, to lend the $17 second mortgage to Kent Wythe 9th Street, a firm led by Hager and Lax, who was at the time suffering from terminal cancer, according the lawsuit filed Nov. 20 in New York State Supreme Court.

In December 2007, the developer paid $42.6 million for a development site at 421-431 Kent Avenue and 464-474 Wythe Avenue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, with plans to build several apartment buildings there, according to PropertyShark.com records and the complaint. [more]