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Behind the Money Woes of Domino’s Developer
Charles Bagli has an extensive piece in the New York Times about how the longstanding nonprofit Community Preservation Corporation has run into substantial money problems, and the article illuminates why the developer is now shopping around the Domino development site. Many of the organization’s money woes stem from its for-profit C.P.C. Resources arm, which was established in the ’90s to invest in projects that often involved elements of luxury housing. Here’s the long and short of it, in Bagli’s words: “At the time, Community Preservation defended the ventures, saying it needed to invest in condominiums and other relatively upscale developments in order to strengthen neighborhoods by creating mixed-income communities. But others pointed out that even if that had been the case, the group should not have allocated so much of its capital to such projects. At the peak of the real estate boom in 2007 and 2008, more than half of the $1.5 billion in loans originated by Community Preservation or its for-profit arm were for condos.” The article notes that C.P.C. Resources defaulted on its $125 million Domino loan last month. Meanwhile, here’s a quote from Councilman Brad Lander about how CPC needs to get back to its affordable, nonprofit roots: “C.P.C. was tempted into more speculative lending, which harmed the organization financially and left a big hole in the field of lending for multifamily housing. …Two-thirds of the city’s housing stock are rental units, and that’s why we need C.P.C. to return to its core mission.”
Seeking Real Estate Profits, Nonprofit Group Stumbled [NY Times]
Photo by scriptingnews
03/15/2012 9:31 AM
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New Details About State Street’s ’9 Townhouses’ Project
Today the Eagle has an update on the sequel to the enormously successful 14 Townhouses development on State Street: The second phase of the project will be called “9 Townhouses,” and prices will start at $3.5 million. The new homes, which will rise on a lot at the corner of Hoyt Street and are a separated from the first 14 by a few older brownstones, will all be around 4,000 square feet. Developers Hamlin Ventures and Time Equities are aiming for LEED Gold certification this time around. The rendering above, from Rogers Marvel Architects, is the first sketch of the project we’ve seen. Here’s what developer Abby Hamlin says about the design in a statement to the newspaper: The new phase “continues the rhythm established by the 14 Townhouses” and “The ‘9 Townhouses’ are the second phase of a purposeful architectural statement that is modern and of today and yet compatible with the historic neighborhood.”
Hamlin, Time Equities Break Ground on 9 New Townhomes [Eagle]
Work Starting on 14 Townhouses, Phase Two [Brownstoner] GMAP
14 Townhouses, the Sequel: Coming Soon to State Street? [Brownstoner]
02/28/2012 9:30 AM
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Affordable Housing Build in Bed Stuy Starts Moving
Construction work’s begun at 29-35 Macdonough Street, between Tompkins and Marcy Avenue in Bed Stuy. DOB approved plans for a four-story, 25 unit building. The lot sold last September; back then developers announced it would be an affordable housing development. According to a sign on the construction fence, work should last through the end of the year.
Affordable Housing Coming to 29-35 MacDonough [Brownstoner] GMAP
02/14/2012 2:40 PM
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LPC OKs Renovation Plans for 878 President Street
Last week the LPC held a public hearing for plans to alter the Romanesque Revival beauty at 878 President Street in Park Slope. The owners intend to add a roof deck, carve out five side windows, and demolish an addition in the rear. From a tipster, here’s what happened at the hearing:
“At the hearing the architect’s proposal primarily addressed adding the roof deck and mechanical equipment, as well as demolishing a later addition in the rear… I got up to speak and addressed three points: concern about the visibility of the deck and mechanical equipment on the roof; the fact that the notice [of the hearing] said nothing about demolishing anything in the rear; and concern about damaging the maple tree not on the property but immediately adjacent to the planned window additions on the property line (even though I knew this last point really wasn’t within the purview of the Committee, I wanted it on the record). The architect responded that the rear demolition was on the notice (I really don’t remember this being the case, and neither do others who saw the posting). The Landmarks Commissioners commented that the window additions were within their new guidelines, and that the changes in the rear would return the building to its original appearance; there was a little concern about the visibility of the roof changes, but they agreed with the architect that they would only be visible to people walking by for a few seconds. I left while the commissioners were going around the table in discussion—they were all speaking very positively about the proposals, so I assume it passed unanimously, although I don’t know for sure.”
An LPC rep informed us that the application was indeed approved. This home was on sale for $3,139,000 earlier this year and sold at ask.
Lots of New Windows Planned for Slope House [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark
09/29/2011 10:30 AM
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Public Shaming of Shaya
Disgraced developer and bank owner Shaya Boymelgreen now has the opposite of a fan website. Residents at his first condo conversion project, the Newswalk building on Pacific Street, have started Shame on Shaya, an organization devoted, apparently, to shining a light on Boymelgreen’s alleged neglect and misdeeds in an effort to get a financial settlement out of him in court. “The site will document the physical, financial and emotional toll that buyers have suffered,” according to an email we received. The condo owners have sued him for $10 million in damages.
05/25/2010 10:43 AM
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Spencer Street Condo Saga Drags On
This week City Limits checks in on the unfortunate drama surrounding the Spencer Street Condos in Bed-Stuy. As will come as no surprise to anyone who’s been tracking the story since the early days of the Brooklyn real estate boom, there are no happy endings in sight. To refresh: In 2005, residents who’d bought their condos at 201 Spencer Street the year before from developer Mendel Brach (he of Finger Building fame shame) found out after closing that the building had been illegally overbuilt by four stories by exploiting a “community facility” provision in the code that allowed developers to build extra square footage for educational and religious purposes; in this case, Brach claimed he was going to house teachers from a nearby yeshiva. Department of Buildings failed to catch Brach’s maneuver at the time, approving the building for occupancy just long enough for the unsuspecting condo buyers to close on their units. They’ve all been trapped, unable to sell, for five years.
Residents are trying to negotiate with Brach to gain air rights from neighboring properties, a move that would bring the Spencer Street buildings into compliance, but Brach will only negotiate if residents let him off the hook for $10,900,000 in damages he owes them from a 2009 lawsuit. In the meantime, he’s chipping away at his debts a little bit at a time: $280 a month of Brach’s wages at his bakery job are garnished to pay condo owners. That comes out to a whopping $3.88 per unit. Despite having had a hand in creating the situation, the DOB isn’t being too sympathetic with residents now: they could allow special variance or rezoning to bring the buildings into compliance with zoning regulations, but haven’t for fear of sending the wrong message; nor has the state filed any criminal actions against Brach. “When you deal with these city agencies, I’m learning, logic goes out the friggin’ window,” said one of the unlucky condo owners. “They make the rules. They make no sense to anybody else and they can change the rules when they want.”
Saga of The Worthless Condo [City Limits Magazine]
Banned Devloper Pays Settlement from Bakery Wages [Curbed]
Subpoena for Fraudulent Spencer St Developer [Brownstoner]
A Big F-in Mess on Spencer Street [Brownstoner] GMAP
Lock Him Up and Throw Away the Key [Brownstoner]
The Bottom Line on Developer Abuses [Brownstoner]
Photo by Marc Fader.
05/19/2010 10:00 AM
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MyHome, Brooklyn Takes New Approach to Development
It’s kinda like Brooklyn CoHousing without the communal kitchen! MyHome, Brooklyn is a new recession-friendly approach to developing residential real estate. The idea is to get potential apartment buyers involved at the beginning of the process. Through the collaborative process, the buyer gets input and the developer gets to pool funding upfront at a time when acquisition and conversion loans are nowhere to be found. Theoretically, the buyer ends up with a customized apartment at a discount to market prices and the developer makes an honest wage for managing the process. The focus on MyHome, Brooklyn is small- to medium-sized multifamily buildings in and around Brownstone Brooklyn that often fall under the radar of established developers. The one that caught our eye was this two-story commercial building at 259 Pacific Street.
12/10/2009 11:14 AM
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Stimulus Funding for Flatbush Affordable Housing
Using money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Tax Credit Assistance Program, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development earlier this week announced that ten affordable housing projects around the city would receive a total injection of more than $28 million; the ten projects would collectively add 600 units of housing. Just one of the projects is in Brooklyn, reports The Eagle. It’s a 53-unit development planned for 97 Crooke Avenue in Flatbush. The $2,239,000 in government funding will go to construct 32 units of supportive housing and 21 units of affordable housing for those making 60 percent of the area median income.
B’klyn Housing Benefits From Stimulus Funding [Brooklyn Eagle] GMAP
11/18/2009 10:14 AM
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Subpoena for Fraudulent Spencer St Developer
The courts issued a subpoena last week to developer Mendel Brach, whose residents won a $10.9 million judgment for his fraud and negligence at his four-building, 72-unit development on Spencer Street in Bed-Stuy. Brach had issued plans in 2002 for the buildings to be educational housing facilities, thus taking advantage of a zoning variance to build taller condominiums, The Real Deal reports. Additionally, Brach had failed to obtain a certificate of occupancy, amend his offering plan, and comply with zoning regulations. Without a certificate of occupancy, the residents who bought units at 191, 195, 197, and 201 Spencer Street cannot legally rent, sell, or refinance their homes. “We all closed in 2004 and we’ve all been paying our mortgages on what is a valueless property,” unit owner Sara Monestime told The Real Deal. Brach, through his attorney, stated: “Recently, I consented to judgments on behalf of the attorney general and the unit owners for the buildings. I will continue to do everything in my power to help the attorney general and the unit owners bring the buildings up to the highest standards possible.” Brach has said that he cannot afford the needed repairs, however, and the Department of Buildings has charged the homeowners with the responsibility of financing them. GMAP
Brach Hit with Subpoena at Spencer Street [Real Deal]
09/23/2009 9:00 AM
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Dreamland Closed for Summer
After developer Joe Sitt locked down Dreamland amusement park on Coney Island on August 21 because of over half a million dollars in owed rent, park operator Anthony Raffaelle swore he would find legal recourse to reopen it. (Dreamland, the roller rink, is still very much open!) The Brooklyn Paper reports that Raffaelle went to the state Supreme Court on August 28, asking for a court order forcing Sitt to unlock the gates, yet the judge did not make an immediate decision and instead put off the case until Friday, September 18. This means that, in all likelihood, the park will remain shuttered for the rest of the summer.
Coney’s Dreamland Will Be Closed [Brooklyn Paper]
Joe Sitt Is No Dream Operator [Brownstoner]
Will Dreamland Reopen? [Brownstoner]
Photo by
08/31/2009 10:15 AM
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Bruce Ratner, Moving on Down
Bruce Ratner, the developer behind the controversial Atlantic Yards mega-project, might be on the market for a less expensive home, reports the New York Post. He has sold his current home, a 4,500-square-foot house on a seven-acre estate in Montauk, for $10 million. The Post does not cite a source, but mentions that Ratner is looking in Quogue “for something less pricey, on the ocean, and closer to the city.” The Post asks whether this indicates “tough times” for the developer, but we’re assuming that anyone who can sell their home for $10 million can’t be all that beleaguered.
Ratner Moving West [NY Post]
Photo by Tracy Collins
08/31/2009 10:00 AM
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Will Dreamland Reopen?
We mentioned yesterday that Joe Sitt, founder of Thor Equities, locked the gates to the amusement park Dreamland on Friday, due to rent owed him by the park’s operator, Anthony Raffaelle. The move garnered the developer plenty of bad press, but, to be fair, it did turn out that Raffaelle did owe Sitt around $500,000 in rent, and Sitt’s spokesman, Stefan Friedman, defended the move with the following explanation: Dreamland has been locked out because it has not come close to meeting its financial obligations in many months. We are hopeful that Dreamland will soon pay its rent so it can quickly reopen the rides and allow Coney Islanders and visitors to continue enjoying what has been a spectacular summer so far. The Brooklyn Paper reports that Raffaelle acknowledged that he owes Sitt the half million dollars, but called the lock-out illegal nonetheless, because Sitt locked the site without a court order. He plans to return today with a court order to reopen the site. Meanwhile, other die hard Coney Islanders (like the person behind Kinetic Carnival, which is responsible for the image above) are still calling for Sitt’s head on a stick.
Coney Carney Vows to Reopen on Tuesday [Brooklyn Paper]
Joe Sitt Shuts Down His Coney Amusement Park [Brooklyn Paper]
Joe Sitt Is No Dream Operator [Brownstoner]
08/25/2009 9:30 AM
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Joe Sitt is No Dream Operator
Joe Sitt, founder of Thor Equities (and, by extension, owner of large swaths of this city), shut down Coney Island’s Dreamland on Friday due to the operator’s failure to pay rent, reports The Brooklyn Paper. Last year, Joe Sitt had shut down Astroland, the amusement park in operation since 1962, only one year after purchasing the land. He opened Dreamland to succeed Astroland, but now seems to be attempting to earn a master’s degree in shutting down amusement parks. Brooklyn Councilman Dominic Recchia, a former ally of Sitt, told the Daily News: “This is a heartless person who only cares about money.”
Joe Sitt Shuts Down His Own Park [Brooklyn Paper]
Coney Island’s Dreamland Shut Down [NY Daily News]
Thor Bringing ‘Dreamland’ to Coney [Brownstoner]
Photo by Anthony Catalano
08/24/2009 9:00 AM
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Goldman Sachs Buying Up Fulton Street
In My Brooklyn Report‘s series on urban blight along Fulton Street, Michael Corley notices that Goldman Sachs’ real estate investment arm has taken keen interest in a certain stretch of Fulton Street in Bedford Stuyvesant, buying up at least six neighboring properties in the vicinity of Marcus Garvey Boulevard, including at least one vacant lot. In his piece, he raises questions about the possible motives of Goldman Sachs, namely whether the financial behemoth plans to oust locals in favor for higher-paying suburbanite baby-boomers moving back to the city. Mr. Corley’s piece is the second in a three-part series, so we are curious to see if he finds evidence of sketchy political dealings or whether this is, simply, a savvy investment maneuver by Sachs. Update: Looks like this really isn’t such big news. As a commenter points out, we wrote about this a year and a half ago! See the post here. GMAP
Goldman Sachs Finds Opportunity in Bedford Stuyvesant [My Brooklyn Report]
Whose [sic] Responsible for the Urban Blight at 1576 Fulton Street [My Brooklyn Report]
Photo by Jonathan Scheff/Brownstoner
08/07/2009 9:00 AM
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Jeff Levine: ‘Cockeyed Optimist’
The Times ran an interview with Jeff Levine this weekend in which the developer of Williamsburg’s Edge, a self-described “cockeyed optimist,” talks about the present market’s challenges. Levine says lack of financing is the biggest barrier to recovery these days but that he thinks New York, last to the downturn party, will also make one of the quickest exits. More interesting: Levine says Phase 2 of the Edge is unlikely to be on the drawing board anytime soon because of lack of financing, and sales at Phase 1 of the development—while marked by high points like the sale of a $5.25 million penthouse—are basically stalled at the 20 percent mark. Nevertheless, unlike neighboring Northside Piers, he’s not dropping prices at the project: “We have not reduced prices at all. Obviously, if we have a willing partner who wants to buy a unit, we will work with them to facilitate their purchase — whether that means we help with their closing costs or help them with their parking requirements.”
The 30-Minute Interview: Jeffrey E. Levine [NY Times]
Photo from The Real Deal.
07/20/2009 9:30 AM
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adam_dahill
May 21, 2012 | 02:16 PM