$17M loans for sale at site where Ismael Leyva-tower was planned

A $17.3 million judgment on two loans provided to the North Development Group to finance part of an Ismael Leyva-designed high-rise tower at 85 Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown Brooklyn were put on the market this month.

Brooklyn-based North Development Group, led by developer Isaac Hager, planned to build a 21-story, 108-unit residential condominium tower at the vacant site at the triangle-shaped intersection of Flatbush Avenue, Tillary Street and Duffield Street, city Department of Buildings records show, but the project stalled.
Lender U.S. Bank filed to foreclose on the loans in 2009, and a Brooklyn State Supreme Court judge signed the foreclosure judgment last year in November, court records show.

An online listing from commercial investment firm Eastern Consolidated says the property has a $17.3 million judgment, and includes development rights for 115,000 square feet.

David Schechtman, senior director at Eastern Consolidated, who is marketing the property, declined to comment.

The North Development Group, which also built 20 Bayard Street  in Williamsburg, faced major challenges over the past several years, including from the death in November 2008 of one of its investors, Chaim Lax, who had been a 55 percent owner in the Downtown Brooklyn project.