The Rushmore and violinist Pinchas ZukermanPinchas Zukerman, a world-renown violinist and a teacher at the Manhattan School of Music, has gone into contract on a three-bedroom unit at the Rushmore condominium, with his wife, cellist Amanda Zukerman, the New York Times reported. The asking price for the 1,712-square-foot 23rd-floor apartment, at 80 Riverside Boulevard, was $2.734 million. The developers, Extell Development Company, who are involved in a $16 million escrow dispute at the building, would not disclose how much Zukerman paid…. [more]

Rushmore and Extell’s Gary BarnettLawyers for Extell Development and Carlyle Realty Partners, which operate together as CRP/ Extell, admitted to the state attorney general that they had no evidence to back up claims that a typographical error led to a $16 million escrow dispute at the Rushmore condominium, according to new documents filed in New York State Supreme Court. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed the evidence in response to an October 2010 suit by CRP/Extell that claimed the previous AG, Andrew Cuomo, erred in his April 2010 decision to order the Rushmore developer to refund deposits to 41individual buyers at the condo, at 80 Riverside Boulevard…. [more]

Alex Rodriguez and the Rushmore

Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez has inked a deal to buy a four-bedroom, full-floor spread at Extell Development’s Upper West Side condominium, the Rushmore. According to the Wall Street Journal, Rodriguez, who has been renting a $30,000-a-month condo at 15 Central Park West and has been spotted apartment and townhouse hunting all over town in recent months, will pay between $5.5 million and $6 million for his new digs. Given that a Rushmore apartment on a higher floor recently sold for more than that, the Journal suggested that it’s possible Rodriguez got a so-called “celebrity discount,” though he did pay more than the buyer of a similar apartment one year ago. … [more]

Andrew Cuomo (top), Gary Barnett and the RushmoreA state Supreme Court judge ruled against former Attorney General Andrew Cuomo who filed to dismiss a lawsuit by developer Gary Barnett in the long running $16 million escrow fund dispute at the Rushmore condominium. The former AG argued that the developers, Barnett’s Extell Development and Carlyle Realty Partners, operating as CRP/Extell, missed a key deadline to challenge the April 9, 2010 ruling, in which Cuomo ordered them to refund deposits to 41 buyers at the 80 Riverside Boulevard building…. [more]

Lawyers for Carlyle Realty Partners and Extell Development, the sponsors of the Rushmore condominium on the Upper West Side, said they plan to challenge last week’s order by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to refund the deposits of 41 buyers, according to a court filing obtained by The Real Deal. In a letter to state Supreme Court Judge Debra James, lawyers for the sponsor, CRP/Extell, said they plan to file a so-called Article 78 that will challenge the AG ruling, and continue to argue that the disputed Sept. 1, 2008 rescission date was a “typographical error,” that should have been excused. “The AG decision concludes that certain purchasers have a right of rescission based on an obvious typographical error in a single digit in the 757-page offering plan for the Rushmore,” said Simpson Thatcher attorney Laura Murphy, who represents the two companies. The letter was in response to a demand by lawyers for Rushmore buyer Kelly Coffey to get documents and other evidence from CRP/Extell. Coffey, a managing director at JPMorgan Chase, is not one of the 41 buyers that complained to the AG, but filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court seeking a return of her deposit…. [more]

Kelly Mack, 36, is president of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group.
Specializing in the planning, design, marketing, and sales of luxury
residential developments, the company has generated over $9 billion in
sales since she became president in 2006. Mack earned her MBA at New
York University before joining Corcoran Sunshine, where she became
executive vice president in 2004. Last year, Mack was named the
first-ever Distinguished Young Alumna by New York University.

Which amenities are popular in new buildings today, and how has that
changed over the past year?
Amenities still create value — that
hasn’t changed. The strength of sales at a building like the Rushmore,
one of the most amenitized buildings in Manhattan, demonstrates that new
development buyers still want the complete package. That being said,
are there other developers who are scaling back on amenities during
predevelopment? Some are. 

Compiled by Candace Taylor.… [more]

Condominium buyers at a luxury Harlem project filed court papers yesterday to begin an appeal of a recent decision that was the first ruling on the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, or ILSA, in New York state in the last two decades. Buyers of two condo units at Uptown Partners’ 5th on the Park, the 160-unit condo development at 1485 Fifth Avenue at 120th Street, filed a notice of appeal in Manhattan federal court yesterday, the filing shows. They sought to overturn a decision issued Jan. 30 by federal judge Denise Cote who ruled that the developers of the project were exempt from the ILSA statute, thereby rejecting buyers’ efforts to break their contracts and get their deposits back. The federal ILSA law requires that developers who have divided land into 100 or more units, file a property report with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Buyers must also be given a report before signing their contract. The little-known law has been used in dozens of cases in New York City where buyers are trying to back out of their contracts…. [more]

From left: Corcoran Sunshine’s Kelly Kennedy Mack, Lynne Brown, Melissa Ziweslin, Graham Spearman and the Rushmore

Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group today announced the winners of its annual awards, with $1.6 billion in closed residential development sales in 2009. “In one of the toughest years in real estate history, $1.6 billion is a significant number,” Corcoran Sunshine President Kelly Kennedy Mack told The Real Deal. The award for sales team of the year was presented to Rushmore sales agents Lynne Brown, Jill Preschel, Graham Spearman, and Melissa Ziweslin, who closed over 100 unit sales at the project in 2009 and signed some $50 million in contracts during the fourth quarter alone. More inventory was sold and closed at Extell Development’s Rushmore condominium in 2009 than at any other development in the Corcoran Sunshine portfolio, Mack said, adding that the team demonstrated “a Herculean effort.”… [more]

470 Broome Street and Gary Barnett

The owner of an Italian tile company went to court in December to stop Extell Development’s Gary Barnett from allegedly “looting” a Soho condo conversion the two had partnered on.

Maurizio Placuzzi, the owner of Sicis, a high-end mosaic tile concern with a New York showroom at 470 Broome Street, filed an application for a temporary restraining order and injunction in New York State Supreme Court Dec. 12, 2009. The filing claims that Barnett was siphoning money from 470 Broome Development, the company he and Placuzzi had formed to convert the building, to Extell affiliates and projects.

Barnett engaged in a pattern of “looting the assets of the company by engaging in self-dealing designed to benefit other affiliates of Extell and Barnett,” then concealing these activities, the application claims.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the request, Barnett did this by “causing 470 Broome Development to pay expenses it was not liable to pay (including expenses wholly unrelated to 470 Broome Development’s operations and in fact related to other Extell projects.)”

The application asks that Extell provide Sicis with all current and future documents created in relation to the conversion, and that Extell be prevented from paying any bills or invoices, except for common charges and taxes, without permission from Sicis. Barnett called the allegations “nonsense.”
… [more]

From left: Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan and the Rushmore

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has launched an investigation into the Rushmore condominium, amid allegations that the lawyers for the developer, Extell Development, held previously undisclosed meetings with state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office to prevent existing buyers from backing out of their apartment contracts.

HUD officials said that as of May 11, 2009, Extell “voluntarily suspended” the building’s registration under the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA), a federal law that protects consumers in newly constructed condos with more than 99 units. The move would allegedly be a way for the developer to shield itself from ILSA-related claims.

HUD opened the probe after media reports mentioned that 34 buyers filed complaints with the AG’s office. While officials did not disclose why Extell would suspend, documents obtained by The Real Deal show the Rushmore developer was facing an ILSA-based lawsuit prior to the filing…. [more]