Financier Lev Leviev and developer Shaya Boymelgreen last month ended a close working relationship of five years.
The pair’s agreement, begun in 2002, spawned high-profile developments, where sales prices routinely stretched over $1,000 a square foot. Their roster included 20 Pine The Collection, 88 Leonard Street, 60 Spring Street and 14 Wall Street in Manhattan, and the Smith and the Nexus in Brooklyn.
As they head their separate ways, the Wall Street Journal reports that Boymelgreen plans to focus on commercial and residential development in India, Israel, and Europe. He recently bought a 64 percent share of Azorim Investments, an Israeli development firm.
Leviev, the New York Times reported in mid-June, bought a commercial building at 111 Fulton Street in the Financial District. (He, of course, plans a condo conversion.)
Leviev, whose fortune comes from holding company Africa Israel Investments and the Leviev Group, the world’s largest private diamond manufacturer, and Boymelgreen, a small-scale developer when he met Leviev, together developed about five million square feet in New York City. They also did projects in Toronto, Las Vegas and Miami.
While the partnership benefited from the hot condo market, the cooling market of today has already affected at least one project they worked on together; prices were lowered earlier this year on about 24 of the 79 units in the Beacon Tower at 85 Adams Street.
But Boymelgreen and Leviev made the most of the good times.
“They were fantastic,” said Michael Shvo, whose eponymous marketing firm worked with the duo on the condo conversion at 20 Pine Street in Lower Manhattan. “We had great interaction with them.”
Leviev and Boymelgreen still have ongoing projects that they will see to completion, including three luxury apartment developments in Miami, according to the Journal. But the end of the five-year agreement means that each can branch out with others — Leviev with other developers, and Boymelgreen with other financiers.