Ira Shapiro and One Madison Park One Madison Park, the embattled, 50-story condominium tower at 22 East 23rd Street, has been hit with yet another lawsuit, this time by the owner of the next-door property, which developers Ira Shapiro and his partners have been in contract to buy for $13.8 million since 2007. According to Crain’s, Abe Shrem’s Flamingo LLC, which, despite the signed contract by Shapiro, still owns 26 East 23rd Street, is claiming that the developers forged signatures and posed as the owners of the site in order to demolish part of the structure there and install a duct on a support structure there without permission. [more]

From left: Ira Shapiro, Cevdet Caner, Ian Bruce Eichner and One Madison Park

By Lauren Elkies and David Jones

Bruce Eichner, chairman of Continuum Companies, said he hopes to submit a new plan to rescue the embattled One Madison Park condominium project, as he awaits a tentative, rival agreement to sell the property to HFZ Capital Group, led by managing principal Ziel Feldman.

The move comes just weeks after One Madison developer Ira Shapiro settled with billionaire investor Cevdet Caner, who previously filed suit alleging Shapiro had exceeded his decision-making authority at the 23 East 22nd Street tower. [more]

From left: One Madison Park condominium developer Ira Shapiro, billionaire investment partner Cevdet
Caner, investor Ian Bruce Eichner of Continuum and One Madison Park

Embattled One Madison Park condominium developer Ira Shapiro has agreed to give up much of his authority at the project under a settlement with billionaire investment partner Cevdet Caner, effectively ending his $40 million rescue deal with investor Ian Bruce Eichner, The Real Deal has learned. Shapiro reached a settlement last Tuesday with Caner’s Green Bridge Partners, which helped finance One Madison Park in 2007 and filed suit in December to block the Eichner agreement, which would have financed the completion of the 23 East 22nd Street condo and leave Shapiro in charge of the property. [more]

Ian Bruce Eichner (top), Ira Shapiro and One Madison ParkThe Monaco investor who filed a lawsuit last month to block developer Ian Bruce Eichner’s bankruptcy reorganization plan for One Madison Park testified in court Monday and Tuesday that he has his own rescue plan for the troubled condominium, the Wall Street Journal reported. The investor, Cevdet Caner, said he could be ready to file the plan within days if the court granted him — not Eichner — control of the stalled Flatiron project. Under the Eichner-sponsored plan, the 50-story tower would get a $40 million infusion from Eichner, who would oversee the completion of the project. [more]

From left: One Madison Park and Ian Bruce Eichner

Developer Continuum Company is set to inject $40 million into the troubled One Madison Park residential condominium and finish up the project, after reaching a deal with developer Ira Shapiro and creditors.

The deal, which is contingent upon bankruptcy court approval, would fund the costs of a proposed restructuring on a loan from lender iStar. The lender gained control of the building from Shapiro’s Slazer Enterprises in April, after asserting that the builder had failed to pay it $12 million in interest between October 2009 and February 2010 and owed upwards of $200 million. [more]

A state Supreme Court judge has named veteran real estate attorney Jonathan Newman as interim receiver of the controversial One Madison Park condominium, which is currently facing a foreclosure lawsuit by iStar Financial.

Newman, a partner at Newman Ferrara, was granted limited rights to oversee the project, including the collection of common charges and sales proceeds, however Judge James Yates allowed lead developer, Ira Shapiro, to continue sales at the 23 East 22nd Street property, at least until a number of legal issues are sorted out.

Yesterday’s move represents a partial victory for Shapiro, the president of Slazer Enterprises, who was facing allegations of forgery by his development partner Marc Jacobs and claims by the lender that millions of dollars in borrowed money was unaccounted for. [more]

Developers Ira Shapiro and Marc Jacobs have defaulted on their mortgage interest payments at once-condo-hot-spot One Madison Park, the unfinished 60-story tower on East 23rd Street, according to lender iStar Tara. The lender has filed foreclosure papers in Manhattan Supreme Court, saying that the developers and their Slazer Enterprises owe the company more than $200 million and have committed “numerous breaches of [their] obligations under the mortgages.” The property, with its rocky sales record, has been hit with a number of lawsuits from other lenders and buyers over the past several months. According to the latest iStar suit, judgments, liens and lawsuits pending against One Madison Park total one dozen. The company wants to foreclose on the property, where sources told the Post that the and marketing office has been closed for the past week, and sell it. The foreclosure suit will not affect the condos already sold with the approval of iStar, according to the filing. [Post]

From the February issue: During the real estate boom, it was common and even encouraged for brokers to buy units in the new development buildings they were marketing. After all, what endorsement could be better than a six-figure down payment? But now that buyers are scarce, a number of problems with brokers purchasing units have surfaced, from unethical dilemmas with flipping to price inflation to whether brokers can be considered “bona fide” purchasers. These issues often went unnoticed when prices were roaring upward, but can threaten a condo development’s very existence in today’s litigious environment. “In the past, there was absolutely no issue because these buildings were sold out, and who cares what the broker did?” said Anne Salisbury, an attorney in the real estate litigation group at Guzov Ofsink. “Now that you’ve got empty units, it can become an issue.” For years, marketing firms urged their brokers to buy units in the new development buildings they were tasked with selling. “It’s a sort of stamp of approval for the building,” said Jennifer Lee, the director of new business development at aptsandlofts?.com, who noted that the brokerage encourages its agents to purchase property. [more]

Brown Harris Stevens agent Wendy Maitland and One Madison Park

The developers of Flatiron District condominium One Madison Park are facing a flurry of lawsuits alleging they failed to pay back millions of dollars in loans and deposits to a number of high-profile investors, including Brown Harris Stevens’ Wendy Maitland, the building’s original listing broker, and Charles Milite, president of the Gotham City Restaurant Group. Maitland, a senior vice president at BHS, filed suit against Park Madison Associates in New York State Supreme Court Dec. 22, alleging that Ira Shapiro, who co-developed the building with investor Marc Jacobs (not the designer) under the name Slazer Enterprises, asked to borrow from her $300,000 in August 2009 to help pay for unpaid mechanics liens on the property. Shapiro told Maitland that he would receive money from another source, so Maitland agreed to lend the funds if the money was repaid within 24 hours, according to the complaint. Maitland made two $100,000 wire transfers into Shapiro’s account between Aug. 19 and Aug. 20, the complaint says, and then made a third wire transfer of $100,000 to Five Star Electric, an Ozone Park-based contractor. An official from Five Star confirmed that it was a contractor at the building, but did not have any further comment on the mechanic’s liens or the case. [more]