Boymelgreen’s financial difficulties may be growing, but at least his Novo condo sells out

Shaya Boymelgreen, a rendering of Novo condominium

Embattled developer Shaya Boymelgreen has at least one piece of good news.

Boymelgreen’s Novo, a 113-unit condo on Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue, is sold out after nearly three years on the market, with the last unit scheduled to close this Friday, according to Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, which exclusively handled sales at the project.

The condo, which encountered resistance from the community after using a local park for construction staging for the building, began sales in March 2007.

Meanwhile, development along Fourth Avenue, once billed as the next frontier of gentrification in Brooklyn, has slowed amidst the real estate slump.

Novo, at 343 Fourth Avenue between the neighborhoods of Park Slope and Gowanus, had closed around 70 percent of its units by the time the Lehman Brothers collapse occurred in September 2008, so it didn’t have to contend with stiff presale requirements now in place from Fannie Mae, according to Gordon Hoppe, a senior vice president and director of sales at Corcoran Sunshine. Financing for buyers in the building “wasn’t an issue,” Hoppe said.
According to Streeteasy.com, the average price of units sold in the building was $607,000, or $671 per square foot.

Crain’s reported that last month Boymelgreen’s LibertyPointe Bank was served with a cease and desist order from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to stop risky loan policies. Boymelgreen reportedly has been unable to raise the funds to build a planned 15-story rental at 10th Avenue and West 23rd Street near the High Line. He is also facing lawsuits from TD Bank and Aristone Capital Funding.