Amid accusations of a sham closing, buyers at new condo No. 22 Renwick are getting their money back.
Purchasers at the delayed Soho development were given a 15-day period in which to rescind their contracts, according to a Feb. 17 amendment to the offering plan obtained by The Real Deal (see amendment after the jump). In a previous amendment, filed in November, sponsor 22 Renwick Street Associates stipulated that purchasers would receive the right of rescission unless a temporary certificate of occupancy, or TCO, for at least 50 percent of the units in contract had been issued by Jan. 31, 2010. The TCO was not issued in time, according to the amendment, so purchasers who were in contract at the time of the November amendment were told they could back out of their contracts and get their deposits back. Located at 22 Renwick Street between Spring and Canal streets. It was hit with a stop work order in December, but it has since been removed, according to the Department of Buildings Web site. A growing number of new developments, including Linden78, One Madison Park and the Setai, are being forced to offer their buyers so-called right of rescission in the real estate downturn, often due to construction delays. [more]

At left: Gaia managing partners Amir Yerushalmi and Danny Friedman and Park River Properties’ Lenny Sporn and Mickey Roth at their new office opening. At right: Lenny Sporn with Rabbi Yishayahu Yosef Pinto at the office.

It’s been less than three months since Prudential Douglas Elliman powerbrokers Mickey Roth and Lenny Sporn departed the firm to start their own venture, but the Roth-Sporn brand appears to be holding strong, even under their new company name, Park River Properties.

The freshly-minted firm, which organizes foreign buyers into purchase groups for bulk deals in new development condominiums in New York City, is planning a slew of international outposts for its forthcoming expansion. In addition to the existing Park River office in Tel Aviv, Israel, a branch is coming to Rome next month, Sporn said. He is hoping to open a total of five new overseas offices over the course of the year, and is eyeing Japan and India for two of them.

Park River, which launched in December as part of one-year-old Gaia Real Estate, a distressed investment firm, also moved into a permanent U.S. headquarters this week with Gaia and Gaia’s latest acquisition, Vision Property Management, at the Carnegie Hall Tower at 152 West 57th Street. Park River currently employs 15 agents in New York and also has plans to open two more Manhattan branches over the next six months. [more]

Investors in the Setai, a condo and spa development at 40 Broad Street, have filed a lawsuit against the building’s developers for understating the costs of the project by nearly $24 million. In addition to permitting construction overruns, the suit alleges, Zamir Equities conducted a “sham” closing in order to meet a June 2008 deadline for at least one condo purchase. The closed unit was sold to an affiliate of the developers, the suit claims, triggering a costly slew of lawsuits. Zamir also allegedly diverted construction funds from the project to a restaurant the company had leased on the ground floor. The plaintiff in the case, the DelShah Group, invested $4.185 million in the project in March 2007, and is now seeking punitive damages and reimbursement for legal costs. [NYO]

Rolan Shnayder of Home Owners Mortgage, which has been lending in a number of new condo buildings that are less than half sold

From the October issue: New condos — the black sheep of the real estate industry for much of 2009 — are finally beginning to move again as construction progresses and developers find ways to circumvent stiff presale requirements for mortgages. For example, the Tempo condominium in Gramercy, which sat virtually buyerless for months after it went on sale in September 2008, sold 10 units this summer. In Lower Manhattan, District on Fulton Street sold 10 units in August alone. The Fairchild at 55 Vestry Street in Tribeca, which had sold only one unit in April and none in February or March, put five units in contract in August and even saw a bidding war, the developer said. “Deals are getting done at new developments,” said Stephen McArdle, the principal of brokerage Urban Marketing, which is handling sales at District. “We’re seeing activity. Six months ago you weren’t seeing anything. The fact that the bottleneck is open is very encouraging.”