Albert Rabizadeh faults Crescent Heights over delayed Lenox Hill retail condo sale

Real estate investor Albert Rabizadeh sued Miami-based developer Crescent Heights over the disputed contract of a Lenox Hill retail condominium unit at the base of the residential condo building the Hanley at 165 East 66th Street. The sale price was not disclosed in the court filing, which is a summons and does not include a more detailed complaint.  The summons does not disclose a purchase price. The last loan provided on the condo unit was $6 million, given by First Republic Bank in 2022.

Case LINK

Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.

According to the summons, “The nature of this action is that Defendant has failed to comply with its obligations under the Agreement of Purchase and Sale dated July 19, 2023 (the “Agreement”), under which Defendant agreed to sell to Plaintiff that certain condominium unit known as the Retail Unit (the “Unit”) in the building known as The Hanley Condominium, located at 165 East 66th Street, New York, New York, a/k/a 1140 Third Avenue, New York, New York. Defendant has also failed to provide Plaintiff with necessary documents and information.” The summons does not specify what documents were allegedly not provided.

The $10 million dispute value is a PincusCo estimate based on the $6 million loan provided in 2022. Crescent Heights bought the building in 2013 for $230 million, then sold the residential portion and the garage to CIM Group in 2019 for $210 million, but retained the retail condominium unit.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 1148 3 Avenue, PincusCo identified seven commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. One of those seven items was a sale which Son Dinh Tran bought the 4,400-square-foot, seven-unit mixed-use building (S5) on 1126 3rd Avenue and one other property for $7.9 million from Ernest F. Stadler on November 16, 2022. Of those seven items, six were loans above $5 million totaling $58.4 million. The most recent of the six was Son Dinh Tran in which borrowed $7.5 million from Citibank secured by the 4,400-square-foot, seven-unit mixed-use building (S5) on 1126 3rd Avenue and one other property on October 5, 2023.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.