Midtown’s Community Board 5 approved an air rights transfer that will allow a Moinian Group affiliate’s new West Side hotel to rise higher than expected, DNAinfo reported.

The Moinian Group, run by Joseph Moinian, conveyed its interests in the land at 237 West 54th Street, a Midtown lot for which Moinian has filed plans for a hotel, to a new anonymous joint venture last month. The new, controlling members of the venture have provided financing.

The board voted in favor of allowing the joint venture to purchase 24,000 square feet of development rights from the Booth Theater on West 45th Street, making way for a 34-story, 400-room hotel on the site, DNAinfo said. [more]

From left: Anthony Kammas, president of Lyons General Insurance, Jeffrey Levine, chairman of Douglaston Development Group, moderator Lou Katsos, owner of Jekmar Associates, Taso Pardalis, a partner at Mavromihalis Pardalis & Nohavicka, Joseph Moinian, founder of the Moinian group, Bernard Tyminski, manager of construction for Bank of America, Chuck Olivieri, senior vice president of Minskoff Equities, George Liakaris, a principal at Masterpiece Construction and Barbara Koudellou, assistant vice president at TD Bank

Joseph Moinian, founder of the Moinian Group, is ready to dust off his plans for a 1 million-square-foot rental tower at 605 West 42nd Street, a 61-story high-rise planned by the company for the northwestern corner of 11th Avenue, he said last night at a panel discussion organized by the Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce and attended by former Gov. David Patterson. “We have approved plans and a building permit. We waited three to four-and-a-half years on the stalled site program,” Moinian said of a Bloomberg initiative that allows developers to renew active work permits for up to four years in return for following an in-depth site safety maintenance plan and keeping the site clean. [more]

The W Downtown Hotel & Residences at 123 Washington Street is facing a $1.6 million lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court from a next-door condominium that the new hotel is located dangerously close to the older building’s chimney and ventilation systems. The Moinian Group, which developed the W, and Starwood Hotels and Resorts, which manages the property, were named in the lawsuit filed Nov. 9 by 120 Greenwich Place. [more]

The Moinian Group has been ordered to pay up $3 million, after losing a lawsuit brought forward by affordable housing developer Atlantic Development Group, according to Crain’s. Atlantic filed the suit in June 2009, claiming that Moinian had failed to pay for the air rights it purchased to build a planned 60-story residential tower at 605 West 42nd Street. According to court documents, Moinian “deposited in escrow $3 million, which was supposed to be replaced in November 2008 by a $20 million letter of credit in favor of Atlantic.” The affordable housing developer sued for the deposit, after the letter never materialized. But while Atlantic may have won this legal round, more troubles may lie ahead. Atlantic is currently under investigation for reasons that were not immediately clear after its office was raided in April. [Crain's]

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Three non-profit organizations have signed full-floor leases at 147 West 24th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, according to landlord the Moinian Group. Meanwhile, the city began a $266 million remediation project on a Staten Island landfill today, and a Riverdale, N.J. shopping center welcomed Best Buy as a new tenant. Click here for more. TRD [more]

Peter Fine

From the February issue: No one could blame Peter Fine if he expected the past year to be easy
– even amid the market turmoil. Widely regarded as one of the city’s
top affordable housing developers, Fine started last year as the
darling of the entertainment world, as the unlikely coproducer of a
Tony Award-winning musical.
With close ties to President Obama’s new urban development guru, he was also more politically connected than ever. However, while his Broadway show, “In the Heights,” has enjoyed
continued success, Fine’s political connections and real estate career
have taken a beating over the past year.  [more]

Embattled developer Joseph Moinian has restructured the debt on three of his Downtown properties, 180 Maiden Lane, the Ocean Residences at 1 West Street, and 17 Battery Place. In total, the restructuring covers about $550 million in debt. His firm, the Moinian Group, renegotiated the $340 million mortgage and mezzanine loans on 180 Maiden Lane, while nabbing a $130 million first mortgage on the Ocean Residences and a loan extension on the Battery Place property, Bloomberg reported. [Crain's] and

From left: REBNY award winners Alan Pfeifer, Rena Goldstein and Nancy Teague

The founders of the New York Residential Specialist committee, a post-graduate program aimed at educating existing brokers, received the Real Estate Board of New York’s Special Recognition Award for Outstanding Service during REBNY’s annual gala award ceremony. Meanwhile, the Moinian Group announced yesterday that it has donated one year of rent-free living to a silent auction hosted by lung cancer research foundation Joan’s Legacy: Uniting Against Lung Cancer and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has signed an agreement to sell the Bliss Spa and product company to Steiner Leisure Limited for $100 million. Click here for more. TRD [more]