From left: Andre Balazs and Tamir Sapir

William Beaver House, the 47-story, 333-unit FiDi condominium that’s faced numerous legal and fiscal woes since its development in 2008, has yet another creditor on its tail, according to Curbed. Lender iStar is now seeking to foreclose on the building’s remaining 209 unsold units, and has filed suit against developer Tamir Sapir and partner SDS Investments. Famed hotelier co-developer Andre Balazs was not named in the suit, according to court documents. The move comes on the heels of a $130 million suit filed earlier this month by a Blackstone Group fund, which alleged that Sapir had defaulted on the loan used to develop William Beaver House. [Curbed]

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Tamir Sapir and the William Beaver House

Billionaire developer Tamir Sapir is facing a $130 million lawsuit from a fund controlled by the Blackstone Group, alleging he defaulted on a multi-million-dollar loan used to develop the William Beaver House condominium in the Financial District.

GSO Re Onshore, the fund managed by Blackstone subsidiary GSO Capital Partners, filed suit Monday against Sapir individually in New York State Supreme Court, seeking a judgment on the $66 million loan that he guaranteed and then failed to repay by the November 2009 maturity date.

“GSO RE would not have made the loan to SDS William Street absent Sapir’s personal and unconditional promise to repay the loan set forth in the guarantee,” wrote Kobre & Kim attorney Elizabeth Wolstein, who is representing the fund.

The lawsuit alleges that as of November 2009 Sapir owed $48.7 million in interest, on top of the $66 million in principal. Another $15.7 million in new interest is now due, resulting in the $130 million claim for summary judgment. [more]

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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Jenene Danenberg, Luxury Attache co-founder, and 100 11th Avenue, where closings began last week

In a residential market where most new developers are trying to cut costs, Jenene Danenberg is convinced she can still make them spring for an upgrade. And she has — most recently at 100 11th Avenue and 141 Fifth Avenue, both of which started move-ins last week. Cape Advisors brought in Luxury Attache during the development of its 72-unit Jean Nouvel project at 100 11th Avenue near 19th Street. David Comfort, a senior executive with Cape Advisors, said that the service was helpful in moving sales. “At the time we [began sales in February 2007], West Chelsea was not a [very] residential area, some of the niceties were not particularly known,” Comfort said. Luxury Attache helped educate buyers on attractions in West Chelsea, Comfort said, and even helped arrange travel plans for prospective residents. Luxury Attache, a four-year-old full-concierge service that developers and condo boards have on board to assist residents with everything from party planning to nabbing theater tickets, currently has a full-time station or at least dedicated services in place at 16 other Manhattan buildings. Those include Soho Mews, the Greenwich Club Residences, the Prudential Center, and Andre Balazs’ William Beaver House. Other clients include the National Hockey League, with whom they recently signed, and financial bigwigs like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. [more]

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From left: Andre Balazs, William Beaver House

Hotelier Andre Balazs got a mixed bag from the City Planning Commission yesterday, as the board chose to approve a curb cut — a break in the sidewalk that allows vehicles to travel in and out — at the William Beaver House at 15 William Street on the corner of Beaver Street in the Financial District, but denied his request to build a public parking garage in the structure. The permit to build the 195-space garage was denied by a unanimous vote. The curb cut, meanwhile, was approved by the same margin, according to the commission. TRD [more]

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]

With next month marking the one-year anniversary of the fall of Lehman
Brothers, “recession specials” continue to dominate advertisements. And
as in previous bust periods, today’s real estate ads sell value to
entice today’s budget-conscious consumers, not luxury. A collection of ads above illustrates the change in advertising over the
last several years. The first six ads are from the boom times, trying
to use sex and high-end lifestyle to sell units, and the last nine are from the bust period, emphasizing
value. “Now, it’s almost taboo to talk about living the high life; having an ostentatious lifestyle is not advertised like it was in the mid-1990s, during a boom period. Instead, your home is looked at as a smart investment,” said Scott Aaron, a principal at Benchmark Real Estate Partners, whose projects have included Chelsea condominium 100 West 18th Street. [more]

As developers in places like New York and Miami look for ways to sell off condo inventory, some are turning to guaranteed income assets, also called master leases. Broker Rodrigo Nino, founder of Prodigy Network, has started using these leases, in which the developer leases out or promises to lease a condo, puts up to three years worth of rent in an escrow account, and then sells the property to an investor, who is guaranteed rental income at least until the money in the escrow account runs out. Nino is using this method to sell units in William Beaver House, at 15 William Street at Beaver Street. [more]

Shaun Osher and William Beaver House

Core Group Marketing
has filed suit against the developer of chic downtown condominium
William Beaver House, claiming it is owed more than $220,000 in unpaid
commissions for units sold at the building. In a suit filed Monday in New York State Supreme Court, Core claims
that the project’s owners committed breach of contract and fraud by
failing to pay commissions for units Core sold at the development. Core
asked that the payments for rent be paid along with interest, legal
fees and compensatory damages. The high-profile Financial District project is being developed by
hotelier and nightlife impresario Andre Balazs, along with SDS
Investments, a private real estate firm led by developers S. Lawrence
Davis and Alex Sapir, president of the Sapir Organization. [more]

Dottie Herman’s Elliman replaces Kelly Kennedy Mack’s Corcoran Sunshine as marketing agent at Arris Lofts.

Two more developments have pulled sales-team switcheroos in a tough real estate climate. Prudential Douglas Elliman has now taken over as the sales and
marketing agent at Arris Lofts, a 237-unit condominium in Long Island
City. Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group previously marketed the
project. Meanwhile, the 330-unit William Beaver House in the Financial District has
changed sales teams yet again. After a disagreement with the
development team of Andre Balazs and SDS Investments, Core Group
Marketing is no longer the co-exclusive sales agent at the project, according to Core CEO Shaun
Osher. Prodigy International, a brokerage with offices in New York,
Miami, Panama, Mexico and Spain, previously handled sales at the development alongside Core, but is now the sole sales and marketing agent,
according to Rodrigo Nino, the president of Prodigy. [more]