From left: Lauren Muss, Carrie Chiang, Janet Wilkinson and Pam Liebman

Residential brokerage the Corcoran Group held its annual company awards ceremony this week, honoring some of its top-producing teams and agents. Lauren Muss was named the Individual Salesperson of the Year, while the Carrie Chiang Team was honored as the Top Team of the Year. Janet Wilkinson took home the Rookie of the Year prize. At Corcoran Sunshine, the top-selling onsite sales team was comprised of Graham Spearman, Aidan Sullivan, Melissa Ziweslin, Lynne Brown and Lena Nusimow, who work at Extell Development’s the Rushmore, at 80 Riverside Boulevard between 64th and 65th streets. TRD

Clockwise, from top left: the Toren, One Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Forte and Warehouse 11

New condominiums in Brooklyn are leading the way in sales activity so far this year, according to PropertyShark, which released a list of the top-selling New York City apartment buildings so far this year (click here to see the full list). The Toren and One Brooklyn Bridge Park, both in Downtown Brooklyn, saw the first- and second-most units sold in the first three quarters of the year, unloading 99 and 88 units, respectively. TRD [more]

The Rushmore and Gary Barnett

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a motion Friday to dismiss a last-minute lawsuit to block the return of $16 million in escrow funds at the Rushmore condominium, arguing that developers Carlyle Realty Partners and Extell Development cannot use federal courts to resolve a local dispute. The judge added that they failed to appeal the ruling in state Supreme Court, which is the normal procedure to appeal an AG ruling.

Cuomo’s office noted that lawyers for Carlyle and Extell, operating under the name CRP/Extell at the Upper West Side project, never challenged the AG’s authority to handle such matters during the 14-month investigation and never once complained about a lack of due process, during multiple face-to-face meetings with the AG’s office.

The move by CRP/Extell, wrote assistant AG Andrew Meier, who is representing Cuomo in the case, was done merely to deny the purchasers “rights of rescission and the return of their deposits to which they are entitled based upon the plain language of the plan that the plaintiff itself created and promulgated, simply because it is unhappy with the results of the process — not because the process was unfair.” [more]

The Rushmore and Gary Barnett, head of Extell

In a last minute and stunning move, the developers of the Upper West Side’s Rushmore condominium filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo seeking to reverse his April rescission order to refund more than $16 million in escrow funds to buyers.

The developers, Extell Development and Carlyle Realty Partners, operating under the name CRP/Extell, also filed a motion in U.S. District Court seeking a temporary restraining order that would block the release of the funds, which include down payments for more than $110 million worth of apartments.

The developers expanded on their previous claims by arguing that a drafting attorney committed a typo or “scrivener’s error,” and claimed that Cuomo’s office failed to allow them to collect evidence or cross-examine the condo buyers on their true motivations for filing the claims, which CRP/Extell claims were to negotiate lower prices in a down market. [more]

The Rushmore and Gary Barnett

Extell Development President Gary Barnett conceded defeat after the state attorney general ordered him to release 41 buyers from disputed contracts at the 289-unit Rushmore condominium (click here to see the attorney general’s decision). “We’re not happy about this but we never expected many of these people to close at this point,” Barnett told The Real Deal in a telephone interview. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ended a 14-month dispute at the Rushmore, located at 80 Riverside Boulevard, after buyers alleged the developer failed to begin closing apartments by a Sept. 1, 2008 deadline. Extell has argued that the missed deadline was due to a “typo” and that closings at the Rushmore were supposed to commence closing a year later, but the AG states not only that Extell failed to back up the claim, but that the alleged error should not negate the buyer’s claims. [more]

Gary Barnett has his hands full with the recent $170 million acquisition of the Helmsley Carlton House hotel on Madison Avenue, the looming threat of millions of dollars in forced rent refunds at his luxe Upper West Side renovation project, the Belnord, and a flurry of lawsuits from buyers trying to back out of their contracts at his 80 Riverside Boulevard condominium, the Rushmore. Still, the Extell Development head has benefited from a cautious approach to real estate over the past decade, putting down 20 percent on many of his boom-time acquisitions, while his peers were going in on as little as 5 percent. So despite his recent challenges, it’s not a stretch to say that Barnett is among the most prolific real estate developers in the city, as Crain’s does in a profile of the developer this week. His roster of current projects alone includes the almost-finished 535 West End Avenue condo, the 34-story International Gem Tower going up at 44 West 47th Street, the massive Riverside Center complex planned for the Upper West Side waterfront, to name a few. As for his personal life, a cagey Barnett refused to tell Crain’s his age (53, sources say), his wife’s name (Ayala, according to public records), or how many children he has (more than five, say the sources).

At peak, 51 percent of the buyers at the 505 at 505 West 47th Street had cases in federal court to rescind their contracts.

From the December issue: At peak, buyers of 55 out of 108 units (51 percent) at the 505 at 505 West 47th Street had cases in federal court to rescind their contracts, which were worth a combined $43.1 million. Six have since dropped their cases, and three have closed on their units (one received a 3.5 percent discount). The plaintiffs claimed Parkview, headed by Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass, failed to provide the property report required under the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act. After Parkview realized its mistake, the buyers claim it filed an amendment to the offering plan in an attempt to exempt itself from the law by removing eight units and combining another two, so the initial offering plan would only be comprised of 99 units. Developers across the city are fighting to keep buyers in contracts — but 20 condos and co-ops are facing a particularly tough time. Click here to read about the rest.

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New York City condos are seeing unseasonably high buyer interest, with buildings like RAL Companie’s One Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Rushmore reportedly seeing more interested buyers in part because buyers feel the market has stabilized. After a new sales team, the Developers Group, took over at One Brooklyn Bridge Park Oct. 1, 20 new contracts were signed, with more than 100 visitors coming to look at the waterfront development each week, according to the Daily News. At the Rushmore, which has reportedly been experiencing buyer backouts, Extell Development said that 12 apartments have gone into contract over the past two months and that 11 more are in negotiation. Gary Barnett, Extell’s president, told the Daily News that buyer sentiment has improved, which is helping to move units. “The overall market has picked up, people have a better feeling that New York real estate is starting to steady,” Barnett said. “There is no new inventory, and buyers who have been looking know a good opportunity.”

Kuwaiti conglomerate National Industries Group is suing the Carlyle Group, a building sponsor at Extell Development’s Rushmore towers at 80 Riverside Boulevard, for allegedly misrepresenting the financial health of its affiliate group, Carlyle Capital Corp, which collapsed in March of last year. National Industries Group had invested $50 million in Carlyle Capital, a public debt fund, allegedly under the impression that the fund was going to be invested in triple-A mortgage-backed securities, as was allegedly advertised. The debt fund’s collapse, one of the earliest bucklings in the financial downturn, was seen as a major blow to the Carlyle Group’s reputation in the Middle East, the Financial Times reported, and a cautionary tale regarding the range of diversity within private equity portfolios. The Carlyle Capital Group reportedly culled $600 million in private investments and another $340 million when it was publicly listed.

The sponsors of Extell Development’s Rushmore condominium have quietly begun offering sales discounts of up to 25 percent in a campaign to retain at least some of the 30-plus buyers looking to back out of their contracts, according to multiple sources. A group of at least 34 buyers filed complaints with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office, looking to get out of their contracts. And sources said that representatives of the Carlyle Group, which is Extell’s partner in the Rushmore, at 80 Riverside Boulevard, have contacted individual members of the group regarding discounts. Carlyle officials were not immediately available for comment, but Gary Barnett, Extell’s president, denied that any discounts were being offered.
“It’s not true,” said Barnett, in an e-mailed statement to The Real Deal. “These rumors are being spread by an attorney with an axe to grind.”
Barnett did not elaborate on which attorney he was referring to, or how he knew about any specific claims.Attorney Richard Cohen, who represents the group of 34 Rushmore buyers,
confirmed that one buyer dropped out of the group in recent days and
one other buyer previously left the group. “Our assumption is they were offered a discount,” said  Cohen. “We don’t think they would otherwise leave the group.” [more]