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December 2, 2009
Star of Real Estate Boom Is Confronting Hard Times
The NY Times
By Christine Haughney
This story of developer Shaya Boymelgreen's declining fortunes includes a bit about his deal with Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner to double-cross footprint property owner Henry Weinstein and the lingering issues with the Newswalk building, which is located in the curious cutout of the megaproject's outline:
Residents of the 173-unit Newswalk building, a former Daily News printing plant in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, that Mr. Boymelgreen finished converting into condos in 2002, have spent $5 million in repairs and legal fees to address structural problems, said Michael Rogers, a member of Newswalk’s condo board. He said the building had so many leaks that some of its original concrete beams had started to fall apart.
“This was a really solid building,” Mr. Rogers said. “The construction is so poor. It’s construction that could have hurt people.”
...
Then there is the convoluted eviction battle: Henry Weinstein, who owns a Prospect Heights building that Mr. Boymelgreen leases, and where he has his office, sued Mr. Boymelgreen in 2003 for selling the lease on the building to Forest City Ratner, the developer of the Atlantic Yards project. The office is located within the Atlantic Yards site.But hours before Mr. Weinstein was to evict Mr. Boymelgreen, Henry Herbst — whose company installed telecommunication systems in Mr. Boymelgreen’s projects and who also had his offices in the building — filed bankruptcy proceedings against Mr. Boymelgreen, according to public records and interviews with Mr. Herbst and Mr. Weinstein’s lawyer, David Brody. Mr. Herbst said he feared losing his office and the offices he sublet to others.
“He refused to go into bankruptcy,” Mr. Herbst said. “So we put him into bankruptcy.”
Posted by lumi at December 2, 2009 6:08 AM