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…
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.
i said *consider*. you can bet there was a healthy portion of the ownership that was pushing for more confrontational approach earlier. board chose another tactic. and errored. whether this was deriliction of duty i have my doubts and i have further doubts about meeting the standard to win the case. further, the suit would not be for shoddy construction but for negligent inaction. (i think it is a difficult standard to meet, at any rate.)
however, if the evidence is there, one should not choose not to take action simply because building cost would go up. as you point out this would be paid from d&o claim and cause an increase in d&p premium only.
“Families suffered some of the worst disruption; children couldn’t understand what was happening to their homes.”
pathetic.
“By antidope on May 25, 2010 11:40 AM
newswalk woke up after 10 years?
if i were a condo-owner, i’d consider suing the board for negligence. there were construction defects from the outset.”
why? the condo board is made up of condo-owners, not anyone involved in the shoddy construction? suing the board (your neighbors) would do nothing but raise the building’s insurance premiums since any settlement money would come out of the condo’s directors and officers insurance.
congrats benson. but being afraid of your shadow is what caused the delay in action by the board. if they had moved immediately, they would have gotten real money out of sb. now that ship has sailed.
The Newswalk board is as inept as a board can possibly be.
Condo owners here had long been divided between pro- and anti-AY/Boymelgreen (which are inextricably linked here – the only reason the Rat didn’t buy-out Newswalk too was that Shaya gave him Wards Bakery). Think they’re all antis now that the pros realized they’d screwed themselves and that neither the Rat nor Shaya was ever on their side. Pacific St. sales have been dead for years but even on the Dean St side lawyers are advising clients against purchasing next to that mess.
I’m with Etson. Given that they are taking this matter to court, what purpose does this web-site serve? Seems to me that the only tangible effect will be to drive down resales.
I can say from personal experience that condo owners can become irrational in situations like this.
Antidope: the eagle has landed! Permanent C of O arrived yesterday.
Two interesting points raised in the comments, and two quick answers.
Shaya Boymelgreen may not be active in the US at the moment, but he still has strong business interests in Israel, where he and his companies are raising money and building residential units. We are working with partners in Israel (in Hebrew and Russian) to make sure our message reaches all possible constituents.
Re endangering resale value: Newswalk’s problems are already no secret in the real estate community. However, Newswalk is much of the way through a massive construction remediation project, overseen by Rand Engineering, which will leave the building a state-of-the-art condominium (what it should have been when Boymelgreen finished it). We will then undertake a rebranding campaign, involving extensive publicity on the Web and in print, plus outreach to the real estate community, to re-establish Newswalk’s unique value in the marketplace.
newswalk woke up after 10 years?
if i were a condo-owner, i’d consider suing the board for negligence. there were construction defects from the outset.
and fsrg is correct — the only comforting news is that he’s bankrupt here and israel, so no comfy exile in the land of milk and honey either.
I think the conclusion was that resales here are done thanks to Atlantic Yards. I know people who sold five years ago and thank their lucky stars every day.