86 Main Street in Yonkers
Amalgamated Bank has filed suit alleging Helmsley-Spear fraudulently transferred real estate assets to its former president, Lynn Schneider, in order to avoid collecting on a $2.3 million judgment against the company.
Amalgamated was awarded the judgment after Helmsley-Spear failed to respond to a 2009 suit by the bank charging breach of contract and negligence for the appraisal of a six-story office building in Yonkers. [more]
Liz Cho
ABC “Eyewitness News” anchor Liz Cho is engaging in a legal battle over $100,000 worth of renovations at the $2.2 million Yonkers mansion she purchased with her husband last spring. According to the New York Post, Yonkers contractor Cathal Maguire filed a lawsuit last month claiming he’s owed $100,875 from the $430,875 in upgrades he made to the home. Cho and her husband, Evan Gottlieb, countersued weeks later alleging Maguire performed substandard work that will cost more than $300,000 to fix. [more]
From the July issue: One of the condo buildings at Forest City Ratner’s long-delayed, mixed-use mega-project in Yonkers will soon be opening.
The $660 million project — which sits on 81 acres along the New York State Thruway and has been dubbed Ridge Hill Village — will include 1,000 rental and condo units. It will also include 1.2 million square feet of retail, 160,000 square feet of offices and possibly a hotel.
According to published reports, once complete, the project — which faced community opposition and legal hurdles — is expected to generate almost $24 million in annual tax revenue for the financially troubled city of Yonkers. It is also expected to generate $8.6 million in county taxes and $29.3 million in state taxes.
As of late May, the Horizon Group, the builder of the Monarch condo, which is set to open at Ridge Hill Village, had received deposits for 25 of its 162 units, according to the New York Times. Compiled by Omari Allen [more]
A new, 8,000-square-foot state- and federal-funded business center is set to open in Yonkers next month, according to the Wall Street Journal, as part of an ongoing effort to attract more small businesses to the area. The business complex, known as the Y-Enterprise initiative, will provide eight small businesses with office space for three years, with low-cost rents ranging from $500 to $2,500 per month. This so-called business incubator, which received almost $1 million in state and federal funds, is the latest step Yonkers has taken to revitalize its business community, after large manufacturers, such as Alexander Smith Carpet and Otis Elevator, moved out. [more]
From the February issue: The New York City real estate world has closely followed as brokerages here have downsized and shuttered offices. But just north of the city, in Westchester, the real estate industry has quietly seen a shift of its own. Indeed, some say the brokerage world there has been irrevocably altered during the downturn as some firms have announced closures, and others have set up shop or merged with larger corporate entities, poaching agents along the way. The biggest shake-up, of course, was Sotheby’s International Realty’s October decision to terminate its presence in the county altogether. Sotheby’s sold four of its offices — its three “golden triangle” offices in Scarsdale, Rye and Larchmont, as well as one in Chappaqua — to an affiliate, William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty. In addition, it shut down a fifth office in Katonah, farther north in Westchester. That follows Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty, which has seven offices in Westchester with roughly 340 agents, joining the Realogy umbrella at the end of April. [more]
Sandy Annabi, a former city council member, and the Ridge Hill siteA former city council member from Yonkers was charged today with selling her vote to approve developer Forest City Ratner’s Ridge Hill Project, as well as another developer’s real estate project in Westchester, the office of the United States attorney for the Southern District said.
Sandy Annabi, the city council’s Democratic majority leader who served through the end of 2009, allegedly took more than $166,000 in cash and valuables to switch her votes to support the projects, the indictment says.
Also charged in the complaint were Zehy Jereis, the former chairman of the Yonkers Republican Party and Anthony Mangone, a Westchester attorney. They each allegedly made illegal payments to Annabi, the indictment says. TRD [more]
