New York Developers party poolside at the Bellagio hotel

The International Council of Shopping Centers’ four-day RECon retail convention and party marathon wraps up today in Las Vegas. Though some brokers told The Real Deal that the show felt busier than last year — and attendance rose — many said the velocity of deals seemed slower. See photos after the jump…. [more]

From left: Ziel Feldman and Barry Farchi

Two boutique Manhattan commercial brokerage firms are suing the sellers of a high-profile Bryant Park development for up to $4.98 million for a commission that they claim they were denied when HFZ Capital Group, one of the sellers, spearheaded an inside deal for the same $83 million price. [more]

Ziel Feldman and 20 West 40th Street (building photo: PropertyShark)

HFZ Capital Group has sold the site of a new condo-hotel development at 20 West 40th Street, adjacent to Bryant Park, for $83 million, according to reports. However, HFZ founder Ziel Feldman will still be involved in developing the project, the New York Post reported. [more]

Jacqueline Finkelstein and Ziel Feldman

HFZ Capital Group is facing a $12 million breach of contract lawsuit from Jacqueline Finkelstein, a former senior vice president who claims the developer bypassed her on several real estate financing deals she procured and then purportedly fired her after she protested.

Finkelstein claims she arranged the financing for several deals — including the $170 million acquisition of 11 East 68th Street with Vornado Realty Trust in January 2012 — but was later frozen out of her share of commissions, according to a lawsuit filed Feb. 21 in New York State Supreme Court. [more]

From left: 11 and 3 West 29th Street and Ziel Feldman

Developer Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital Group is negotiating with the centuries old Collegiate Church to form a joint venture to develop a 350,000-square-foot mixed-use tower in NoMad, half a block from the popular Ace Hotel, sources familiar with the deal told The Real Deal.

The Collegiate Church “is in conversations with Ziel Feldman,” one source with knowledge of the process, said. [more]

From left: Ziel Fedlman, the Chatsworth and Lipa Lieberman

Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital and partner BSG Real Estate have closed on the purchase of the Chatsworth, an Upper West Side rental building, for $150 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. [more]

From left: Ziel Feldman, managing principal at HFZ Capital, One Madison Park and Stephen Ross, chairman of Related

Related Companies has reached a deal to settle most of the outstanding claims — estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars — in the ongoing legal drama at the One Madison Park condominium and expects to relaunch sales late this year, The Real Deal has learned.

The settlements, which include $6.75 million in unsecured claims and several million in additional claims, will allow Related to complete construction at the site and resolve a number of outstanding title disputes at the property, at 23 East 22nd Street, which would allow the developer to put most of the unsold inventory back on the market. [more]

From left: HFZ Capital founder Ziel Feldman, Vornado Realty Trust Chairman Steven Roth and 11 East 68th Street (building credit: PropertyShark)

HFZ Capital Group joined Vornado Realty Trust in its previously reported acquisition of 11 East 68th Street, and will take control of the 41 residential units while Vornado presides over the 100-foot-long Madison Avenue retail space, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In September, Vornado entered into contract to buy the Upper East Side rental building for $170 million, a $21.8 million discount on the amount the sellers, ABRO management, paid for it in 2008. [more]

From left, 303 East 51st Street, Ziel Feldman, founder of HFZ Capital
Group, and City Council member Jessica Lappin

For three and a half years, the structure at 303 East 51st Street has remained a stunted
skeleton, halted at 18 stories after the infamous March 2008 crane collapse that killed
seven people and crushed an adjacent building.

But that may change soon.

Ziel Feldman, founder of HFZ Capital Group, which closed on the purchase of the site
early this year, said through a spokesperson that he would have “significant progress to
announce” later this week, and the firm plans to restart construction at the site, on 51st
Street between First and Second avenues, this spring.

The expeditor on the project, Laurence Gillman, an associate at Jerome S. Gillman
Consulting Architect, said that the Department of Buildings had completed its zoning
examination of the plan and was reviewing architectural and other drawings as part of a
building code review…. [more]

Developer Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital Group signed a contract to buy three adjacent parcels in Chelsea where it plans to build an approximately 100,000-square-foot, mixed-use building rising on both sides of the elevated High Line park, Feldman told The Real Deal.

The two-towered project will have about 90,000 square feet of residential space — condominiums with the possibility of some rentals as well — rising both east and west of the tracks, and at least 10,000 square feet of retail that will pass under the High Line with frontage on 10th Avenue.

“It is one of the better sites in the city as it straddles both Chelsea and the Meatpacking District,” Feldman, the company’s chairman, said. “Both communities have become residential where demand has been soaring.” … [more]