Richard LeFrak

The LeFrak Organization will redevelop a 13-story office tower in Rego Park into 108 luxury rental apartments, according to the Wall Street Journal. The project marks a return for the developer to the city, where it said it would no longer build because of the rising costs of construction. In fact, it’s the company’s first project in the city in 28 years.

The office building was constructed 50 years ago by LeFrak Organization CEO Richard LeFrak’s father, Samuel LeFrak, during a time when the developer was building housing geared towards the middle-income residents of the borough, most notably nearby LeFrak City. [more]

From left: Richard LeFrak, Karen LeFrak, Michael Bronson, chief of roint replacement at Mount Sinai, Rick Friedberg, Francine LeFrak, Peter May, Evan Flatow, chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics at Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai Medical Center recently celebrated its new Joint Replacement Center at 5 East 98th Street, where construction was completed in the second week of December. The 5,000-square-foot space, which takes up half of the building’s seventh floor, was formerly occupied by the Department of Ophthalmology, now located in the Annenberg Pavilion at 1468 Madison Avenue. Also unveiled at last month’s reception was the new Samuel and Ethel LeFrak Center for Patient Education, housed within the joint replacement unit. The LeFrak family donated an undisclosed amount to create its eponymous center, complete with HDTV monitors to display post-surgical information and videos, and was on hand at the reception to celebrate the new space. TRD [more]

The daughter of the late Queens real estate tycoon Samuel LeFrak sold an Upper East Side two-bedroom condominium for a loss after owning the apartment for less than half a year. Real estate heiress and author Denise LeFrak, who paid $2.55 million in December for the 1,576-square-foot apartment on the 11th floor of a new building at 255 East 74th Street, sold it this month for $2.14 million, a reduction of 16 percent. LeFrak went into contract on the sale to Daniel Brockett, a partner at litigation firm Quinn Emanuel, in April and closed May 14, according to city property records published today. She bought the sponsor unit in the 30-story tower at the corner of
Second Avenue developed by the World-Wide Group. “I wanted to get a better price but I couldn’t,” said Brockett, who does not know LeFrak. “The reality is the market has dropped a lot,” he added. [more]