Even though the city Board of Standards and Appeals approved developer
Patrick Thompson’s $160 million plan to transform the old RKO Keith’s
Theater in Flushing into condominiums in July, he may now have
run into some trouble far above the ground, Yournabe reported. This
week, the Federal Aviation Administration said it had never approved
the building and that its 17-floor height might interfere with the
safety of flights to and from nearby LaGuardia Airport. An FAA
spokesperson said that agency had received an application regarding
the project and has asked for additional information before doing a
study.  [more]

From left: Ben Ashkenazy and Shaya Boymelgreen

Diamond-dealer-turned-developer Shaya Boymelgreen has two more legal headaches to deal with, from a private lender and a former law firm, seeking more than $22.2 million.

National real estate investor Ben Ashkenazy claims he lent Boymelgreen $21.5 million in 2008 but that the embattled builder has failed to pay the money back, a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court says.

Ashkenazy, CEO of Midtown-based Ashkenazy Acquisition, which owns an interest in mostly retail properties from Manhattan to Beverly Hills, says in the complaint that he lent the money so that Boymelgreen could consolidate a number of debts into one, and that the loan with a 12 percent interest rate was payable 30 days after it was demanded. [more]

Costas Kondylis’ 88 Leonard Street, the 352-unit Tribeca rental building developed in 2007 by Africa Israel and former partner Shaya Boymelgreen, could garner as much as $200 million in a sale, according to the Post. The 21-story building, which contains11,365 square feet of retail space and sits above a 249-space parking garage, is being marketed by the Cushman & Wakefield capital markets group of Helen Hwang, Nat Rockett, Karen Wiedenmann and Steven Kohn. Comments

Developer Patrick Thompson is expecting community board approval for his $160 million conversion of Flushing’s long-shuttered RKO Keith’s Theatre within the next few weeks and could finish the project by 2013 if he’s allowed to break ground this year, he told the Post. Thompson, who picked up the landmark for $20 million last year after Shaya Boymelgreen lost it in a friendly foreclosure, plans to turn the 389,000-square-foot property into a mixed-use complex with 357 market-rate rental apartments, retail, parking and a senior center. [more]

From left, Shaya Boymelgreen, Lev Leviev of Africa Israel and 15 Broad Street

Shaya Boymelgreen and co-developer Africa Israel have been hit with a $20 million lawsuit over shoddy construction at 15 Broad Street, the glitzy, 330-unit Financial District condominium conversion also known as Downtown by Starck. According to the Post, four members of the condo board and several apartment owners claim the developers left the building “rife with defects,” including a movie theater rendered unusable by building code violations, water leaks and a lack of fireproofing. They also allege that the developers have purposely avoided making the building improvements necessary for a permanent certificate of occupancy from the city in order to retain control of the condo board “as leverage to pressure its unit owners into accepting conditions that are far less than what the sponsor and its associates promised them.” It’s an all-to-familiar story for the embattled Boymelgreen, who virtually disappeared last year amid a slew of similar lawsuits from condo buyers in Brooklyn, but who has been attempting to stage a comeback on the New York City scene in recent months. Laurie Golub, general counsel for Africa Israel, pledged to “aggressively defend this action,” which she said is “wholly without merit.” [Post]

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The Manhattan developer who has plans to turn Flushing’s landmarked RKO Keith’s Theater into a mixed-use apartment building is looking to bulk up his proposal with nearly twice as many units and parking spots as originally announced, according to the Daily News. While he has yet to file an application to adjust his plans with the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals, Patrick Thompson, who bought the 389,000-square-foot property for $20 million earlier this year, is said to be considering upwardly revising his proposal from 200 to 370 apartments and using car “stackers” in the planned garage in order to increase its usable parking space. A revision would mean more delays for the long-vacant theater, which closed in 1986. It had previously belonged to embattled developer Shaya Boymelgreen. who purchased it in 2002 with the intent of converting it to condos but lost it in a friendly foreclosure last year. [NYDN]

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Now that developer Shaya Boymelgreen is back in town, residents of his controversial Newswalk condominium in Brooklyn, who’ve already sued him for at least $10 million in damages because of construction defects in the building, are planning to ramp up the volume of their marketing campaign against him. Boymelgreen told the Observer recently that he has taken office space on Broad Street and is looking for new development opportunities again. To the “Shame on Shaya” group, that represents an opportunity. “Shaya in New York will let us focus on more physical activities — demonstrations, hand-outs, some guerilla marketing efforts,” said Michael Rogers, who bought a three-bedroom condo in Newswalk in 2002. “Our goal is that when you hear Shaya Boymelgreen, you think Newswalk and very unhappy people.” Boymelgreen has dismissed their allegations. “Everyone has a problem with something. You know how long ago we finished and fixed and corrected Newswalk?” he said. [NYO]

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After three years in the shadows, developer Shaya Boymelgreen has broken his silence, speaking out to the New York Observer about his Manhattan aspirations. While Boymelgreen isn’t a fan of the press — because their stories are often “below the belt” — he said he’s ready to discuss his future, and regrets. “I’m sorry I left Manhattan,” Boymelgreen said. “I should have stayed only in Manhattan, as far as going to Brooklyn, to Florida, to Vegas, to [Eastern] Europe.” While he didn’t elaborate much on his aspirations, Boymelgreen mentioned a possible project with the head of Citibank in Israel. “They wanted us to do something together, and I told them, ‘Listen, I am not so strong as I used to be.’” And with good reason — Boymelgreen’s LibertyPointe bank was shut down in March, and the developer himself received an eviction notice from his Brooklyn headquarters in January.  [NYO]

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Shaya Boymelgreen

Paul Bright, a Smith Street condo owner who successfully sued Shaya Boymelgreen over construction problems in his building, says the embattled developer — and the $1,800 in damages he was ordered by a judge to pony up — is now nowhere to be found. “As soon as they lost the judgment, they disappeared,” Bright told the Daily News, which couldn’t reach Boymelgreen for comment. The sheriff’s office, which Bright called in order to get the judgment enforced, couldn’t find him either. In April, Boymelgreen was evicted from his Prospect Heights headquarters near Atlantic Yards after his landlord lost the building to eminent domain. In March, his LibertyPointe Bank was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and he’s also facing a slew of lawsuits from condo buyers over allegedly shoddy construction at his buildings. [NYDN] 

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Flushing’s landmarked RKO Keith’s Theater, which Shaya Boymelgreen lost in a so-called friendly foreclosure last year, sold this week for $20 million to Manhattan condo developer Patrick Thompson, Crain’s reported. Thompson, who hasn’t yet decided on the future of the long-vacant but once-famous theater on Queen’s Northern Boulevard, said he paid the price of Boymelgreen’s loan for the 389,000-square-foot building. Potential uses include a condominium or a nursing home, he said. Boymelgreen bought the building in 2002 for $15 million with the intent of converting it to condos. [Crain's] 

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