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Legal spats over Flatiron Hotel JOB BOARD
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Times Square Marriott Marquis sold in controversial $20M deal
Flatiron Hotel owners move to block $31M DelShah deal By David Jones The owners of the Flatiron Hotel asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a DelShah Capital affiliate that aimed to enforce a purported $31 million purchase of the property, contending the deal was a “sham.” The suit is the latest in a tangle of legal spats. At issue are two apparent sales of the property at 1141 Broadway, between 26th and 27th streets: DelShah’s alleged purchase in May and a sale to Robert “Toshi” Chan that was scheduled to close Dec 4. Chan was running the property through his company, Smart Apartments.DelShah, led by Michael Shah, which acquired the debt on the property in May after the owners defaulted on an $8 million loan, filed suit on Nov. 25 to block the Chan deal. However, one of the hotel’s current owners, Jagdish Vaswani of Main Team Hotel, claimed that DelShah did not deal with an authorized representaMichael Shah tive of the hotel.
HFZ flips $130M retail in Westbrook portfolio purchase By Adam Pincus Midtown-based investment fund Madison Capital paid $130 million last month for two retail assets — one on the Upper West Side and another in Hell’s Kitchen — owned by Westbrook Partners, as part of a transaction that included HFZ Capital Group, sources told The Real Deal. Ziel Feldman’s HFZ inked a contract last summer Ziel Feldman to buy the Astor and Metro and two other apartment buildings from Westbrook for about $610 million. Before the deal closed, HFZ arranged to have Westbrook transfer the retail portion of the Astor and Metro to Madison. The acquisitions closed Dec. 19. The more valuable retail, insiders said, is the approximately 19,000 square feet at the base of the Astor. The 212-unit apartment building at 235 West 75th Street has frontage along Broadway, as well as on 75th and 76th streets. Tenants include apparel retailers Barneys New York and Lululemon and makeup store L’Occitane en Provence.
114 January 2014 www.TheRealDeal.com
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Top deals of the month
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By Katherine Clarke The leaseholders for the Marriott Marquis in Times Square bought the hotel from the state-run Empire State Development Corporation for a mere $19.9 million last month. Public records show Host Hotels & Resorts closed on the property at 1535 Broadway between 45th and 46th streets on Dec. 10. Host first leased the property in 1982, when it enTimes Square Marriott Marquis tered a deal with the ESDC and the city that called for it to pay $34 million for the hotel, transferring title immediately back to the city, and then pay rent for 75 years. The deal included an option to repurchase the property for fair market value once the lease expired. In 1998, an amended agreement shortened the lease to 40 years and provided Host a chance to buy the building for a fixed $19.9 million as soon as 2013.
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Top deals of the month
Agent
Firm
Price
Address
Roger Erickson
Sotheby’s International Realty
$18 million
778 Park Avenue
John Burger
Brown Harris Stevens
$13.8 million
755 Park Avenue
Cathy Franklin, Alexis Bodenheimer
Brown Harris Stevens
$12.5 million
860 Park Avenue
Sheila Ellis, Patricia Wheatley
Sotheby’s International Realty
$9.8 million
930 Park Avenue
Jaswant Lalwani
The Corcoran Group
$9.5 million
721 Fifth Avenue
Source: StreetEasy and The Real Deal. Data is for closed deals filed with the city between Nov. 22 and Dec. 20, 2013, where both a broker and an address can be identified. Chart includes only listing brokers.
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Reader comments Response to a website selling phone numbers with 212 area codes for $500 to $15,000: “I’d sell my 212 area code for $15,000 in a blink.” Response to New Jersey brokers accused of using client home for sex fests: “They should lose their Realtors license, but probably should get a book deal.” Response to Times Square Marriott Marquis sold in controversial $20M deal: “The city should be thankful that this project ever happened. And the results keep pouring in, as values have skyrocketed in the 30 years since the insane idea of breaking ground at the crossroads [took shape.]”