From top: Blusetone principals Eli Tabak, Marc Mendelsohn and Ari Bromberg; from left: 1585 and 1589 East 172nd Street

[Updated 12:06 p.m. at Sept. 16 with buyer information] The real estate investment firm the Bluestone Group, which denied for months it would unload a six-building portfolio of once severely distressed Bronx properties, sold the package for $17.6 million, a source close to the deal said.

The sale closed yesterday as part of a bankruptcy case filed by the former ownership company BXP 1, controlled by investor Susumu Endo. The buyer was Anthony Gazivoda, owner of Gazivoda Realty, a prominent landlord in the Bronx Albanian community, an employee at Gazicvod said. Gazivoda himself was not immediately available for comment. Bluestone, led by principals Eli Tabak, Ari Bromberg and Marc Mendelsohn, purchased the defaulted notes on the six properties, with a face value of $13.15 million, for about $10 million in June 2010, according to city property records. [more]

Clockwise from top left: Bronx landlord Sam Suzuki; 621 Manida Street in the Bronx; Omni New York partners Mo Vaughn (right) and Eugene Schneur; and 1271 Morris Avenue in the Bronx

From the August issue: For the owners of distressed properties, it’s a harrowing ride to stabilization. Note sale, foreclosure, bankruptcy or recapitalization, there is no easy path from financial trouble to stable footing. And while some savvy investors have seized control of valuable New York City properties, many owners and lenders have lost billions of dollars through distressed real estate sales and restructurings since the financial crisis began. This month The Real Deal examines five deals and how they unfolded.
In the fourth distress deal from the series, Ocelot Capital Group and partner Eldan-Tech tried to unload a portfolio of Bronx rental properties, but were unable even as the housing conditions in the apartments continued to decline. Controversial manager Sam Suzuki took over, but could not close on a purchase. Ultimately baseball slugger Maurice “Mo” Vaughn’s Omni New York acquired first the mortgages and then the deeds, and now is rehabilitating the buildings (note: correction appended). Click here to read the story. [more]

Morris Moinian, president of Fortuna Realty Group

From the December issue: Shopping for distressed buildings isn’t as easy as pointing and clicking
through a listing service — or is it? Investors who have picked up
projects that ran out of money before construction was complete or
simply couldn’t keep pace with their bank payments — read: distressed
assets — shared how-to advice with The Real Deal that contains a surprising amount of common sense.
Yes, the average real estate Joe might not be able to waltz into a
corner bank and demand to see what troubled notes it holds. Instead,
distress investing, like many high-level business propositions, seems to
require membership in a clubby circle. Still, picking up a half-built,
low-rise rental for a song may be in the realm of possibility. [more]

Housing code violators concentrated in city’s poorest areas

Landlord Sam Suzuki, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio

[Update: 2:29 p.m.] A new website is calling out 153 landlords whose buildings are so dirty or unsafe that they have earned a spot on the city’s list of shame. Among them is Alan Fein — whose Bronx tenants live with allegedly urine-soaked hallways, crackhead squatters and rat-infested toilets — and Chris Grijalva, whose reported roach-infested B [more]

Embattled landlord Sam Suzuki was released from Manhattan Detention Complex on
Friday after spending [more]

In the wake of Bronx landlord Sam Suzuki’s jailing over massive violations at his 1585 East 172nd Street apartment building, a new property owner is angling to buy six of the landlord’s buildings, according to the New York Daily News. The Bluestone Group, a four-year-old company that has bought several dilapidated buildings in the Bronx, said it’s in talks to snap up a collection of Suzuki’s distressed properties that the jailed property owner bought last year. Bluestone, which manages around 800 apartment units in the Bronx, has recently developed a reputation for taking over violation-heavy buildings. The company bought an apartment building with more than 600 violations at 1151 Elder Avenue in Soundview six months ago for an unknown amount and has since improved the building drastically, residents say. It purchased another Soundview building at 1129 Lawrence Avenue three months ago and reduced the number of violations at the building from 305 to seven. [NYDN]

[more]

In the wake of Bronx landlord Sam Suzuki’s jailing over massive violations at his 1585 East 172nd Street apartment building, a new property owner is angling to buy six of the landlord’s buildings, according to the New York Daily News. The Bluestone Group, a four-year-old company that has bought several dilapidated buildings in the Bronx, said it’s in talks to snap up a collection of Suzuki’s distressed properties that the jailed property owner bought last year. Bluestone, which manages around 800 apartment units in the Bronx, has recently developed a reputation for taking over violation-heavy buildings. The company bought an apartment building with more than 600 violations at 1151 Elder Avenue in Soundview six months ago for an unknown amount and has since improved the building drastically, residents say. It purchased another Soundview building at 1129 Lawrence Avenue three months ago and reduced the number of violations at the building from 305 to seven. [NYDN]

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Sam Suzuki, a Bronx landlord who allegedly failed to make court-ordered repairs to his building at 1585 East 172nd Street, has turned himself into court following the filing of a warrant for his arrest, according to the Village Voice. Although a Housing Court judge ruled in July 2009 that Suzuki had to make improvements on his 49-unit Soundview apartment building, which currently has 662 open violations, including for vermin, mold, lead paint and leaking ceilings, tenants allege that Suzuki has yet to make any renovations. After tenants at the building once again brought their case to court — and Suzuki’s attorney Kenneth Rosen quit — a housing court judge granted a warrant for the landlord’s arrest. No word yet on which specific charges Suzuki faces or what penalties he could face. [Village Voice]

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A Midtown-based real estate investment firm is in negotiations to take control of the troubled RKO Keith’s Flushing Theater from Boymelgreen Developers by the end of the year. Venator Capital has agreed to purchase a $20 million note secured by the Flushing, Queens, property located at 135-27 Northern Boulevard from Doral Bank, said Sam Suzuki, a principal with Venator, ultimately giving the company full control of the theater. Investors affiliated with Venator are active in the Bronx as well, where they are in contract to buy 16 mostly rent-regulated apartment buildings owned by Ocelot Properties, after buying six earlier this year. The RKO Keith note purchase would be followed by a so-called friendly foreclosure in which Boymelgreen would sign over the deed to the new owner without a protracted court proceeding, Suzuki said. [more]