Owner of UES apartment building files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

UPDATED, Friday, Oct. 20 at 2:45 p.m. The owner of an 11-story apartment building on a prime stretch of Fifth Avenue filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a month after paying his sister upwards of $100 million in damages.

The Upper East Side rental property at 952 Fifth Avenue is owned by Windsor Plaza, an LLC controlled by Maurice Herman, is at the center of an ongoing family dispute.

Herman and his sister Rosemarie inherited the Fifth Avenue building and five other New York City properties in 1997.

However, according to a 2011 lawsuit, Rosemarie claimed her brother, with the help of a friend, used Rosemarie’s own money to buy her interests in the properties at a below-market rate.

She claims Maurice then went on to sell all of the properties — except for 925 Fifth — for seven times the purchase agreement price. She also accused him of trying to have his mother removed from the top floor of the Fifth Avenue building to increase its potential sale value.

Last month, after six years of litigation, a court ordered that the building be transferred back into a trust created by Rosemarie many years earlier. It also ordered that he pay more than $100 million out to two separate trusts.

Lawyers for Herman declined to comment. Herman couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

Correction: The story misidentified the building as 925 Fifth Avenue; it is 952 Fifth Avenue.