A four-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom unit at 5th on the Park, Uptown Partners’ Central Harlem condominium at 1485 Fifth Avenue, has just closed for $2.149 million, the highest priced unit above 111th Street since December 2009, Halstead Property Development Marketing, which is exclusively marketing the property, announced today.

The building has a strong record for selling comparatively high-priced condos in the area. The previous top closing prices above 111th Street were also at 5th on the Park, including a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit for $2.34 million in December 2009 and a four-bedroom, three-bathroom unit for $2.43 million in October 2009, according to Halstead.

Similar properties in the area include 2130 Adam Clayton Powell and 88 Morningside, both marketed by Halstead, each asking between $289,000 and $949,000 for a 533 to 1,508 square feet space and between $415,000 and $880,000 for 735 to 1,270 square feet respectively. – Katherine Clarke [more]

Uptown Partners, the developer behind the Lenox, one of Harlem’s first market-rate condominium projects, has emerged from bankruptcy protection and is resuming sales at the development, at 380 Lenox Avenue on the corner of 129th Street in Harlem, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Uptown has sold around half of the 68 units in the 12-story building by the time tenants began moving in in 2007, but the development was hit hard by the downturn, with the majority of the remaining units being pulled from the market.
“We continued to sell quite well until things slowed down for the whole world,” said Lewis Futterman of Uptown Partners. [more]

Uptown Partners’ 5th on the Park in Harlem has slashed prices by as much as 15 percent. The asking price for unit 26A, for example, was $1.9 million last month from $2.25 million previously. There are 70 units out of 160 still available at the project at 1485 Fifth Avenue on the corner of 120th Street. Uptown Partners made news in January when it scored a victory against two buyers who wanted to get their deposits back at the project. It was the first time in 20 years in New York that a federal judge ruled on a case in which buyers tried to use the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, or ILSA, to cancel contracts and get deposits back. Griffin Real Estate Group is handling marketing and sales for the project.

The Lenox Condominium at 380 Lenox Avenue on the corner of 129th Street in Harlem has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to Crain’s, after missing the due date for its $10 million mortgage on unsold apartments. Developer Uptown Partners, which filed for bankruptcy early last year (note: correction appended), said that it has applied for a loan extension with its lender and that the company is hopeful the situation will be resolved soon. “We had to temporarily protect our rights to give us enough time to negotiate and get apartments sold,” Lewis Futterman, Uptown Partners co-founder, said. “We are inches away from a settlement with the bank. I would be surprised if this filing is not withdrawn in three weeks.”

Condominium buyers at a luxury Harlem project filed court papers yesterday to begin an appeal of a recent decision that was the first ruling on the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, or ILSA, in New York state in the last two decades. Buyers of two condo units at Uptown Partners’ 5th on the Park, the 160-unit condo development at 1485 Fifth Avenue at 120th Street, filed a notice of appeal in Manhattan federal court yesterday, the filing shows. They sought to overturn a decision issued Jan. 30 by federal judge Denise Cote who ruled that the developers of the project were exempt from the ILSA statute, thereby rejecting buyers’ efforts to break their contracts and get their deposits back. The federal ILSA law requires that developers who have divided land into 100 or more units, file a property report with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Buyers must also be given a report before signing their contract. The little-known law has been used in dozens of cases in New York City where buyers are trying to back out of their contracts. [more]

In addition to the Water Street Realty Group, Harlem developer Uptown
Partners has filed for bankruptcy protection. According to the filing,
the developer owes about $1.1 million to Jay Furman, Capital One Bank
and Commerce Bank. The firm co-developed Fifth on the Park, a new 28-story
condo at 1485 Fifth Avenue at 120th Street, and the Lenox, at 380 Lenox
Avenue at 130th Street. Lewis Futterman, co-founder of Uptown
Properties, said the bankruptcy filing has nothing to do with its
newest property, Fifth on the Park, where 98 of 160 units are in
contract. [more]