Broker files suit against Joe Sitt over Coney Island acquisition

Dan Ismailoff, a former Coney Island real estate broker, filed suit alleging he was “defrauded” out of $1.1 million when he brokered the sale of four acres of beachfront property near Stillwell Avenue from then-owner Hy Singer to Thor Equities’ Joseph Sitt in 2006, the New York Post reported. Both Sitt and Singer are defendants in the lawsuit. Ismailoff alleged that he entered into an open listing agreement with Singer to show the property, set up a meeting with Singer and a Sitt representative and got them to agree that he’d receive a 6 percent commission on the sale regardless of when it was completed. According to the suit, Singer and Sitt led him to believe the deal was dead but after Ismailoff left the country he learned that the two sides had come to an agreement. Lawyers for the defendants called it a “frivolous” claim and said Sitt never heard of Ismailoff and had never signed a commission agreement with the former broker. The Stillwell Avenue property was part of a larger parcel Sitt sold to the city for $95.6 million in 2009, where he initially wanted to build timeshare hotels and a glass-enclosed water park. [Post]