Courts: Watermark, Albanese sign leases; Busted $62M hotel contract; $20M UWS development suit

Watermark Capital signs lease with Catholic Church for South Slope dev site: This is for a 99-year ground lease for 783 4th Avenue, 216 27th Street, 220 27th Street, 183 28th Street in South Slope, Brooklyn, that starts at $1.1 million per year. The landlord is St. Roch’s Roman Catholic Church and the tenant is Watermark Capital with Wolfe Landau as signatory. According to the filings, “Tenant agrees to redevelop and use the Premises for “market based” (and at Tenant’s election, with an affordable base housing component) multi-family residential purposes only (in a manner currently permitted for NYC Planning Use Group 2 or any similar NYC Planning Use Group for multi-family residential properties enacted after the Effective Date) and ancillary residential amenity uses (such as gyms and laundry rooms) that are customary in residential apartment buildings in the City, subject to (i) the certificate of occupancy for the Premises, (ii) any applicable Requirement and (iii) Section 23.05 hereof. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Tenant may use the ground floor, the second floor and any space below the ground floor for non-residential purposes, provided such use does not violate (i) the certificate of occupancy for the Premises or any applicable Requirement or (ii) the provision of Sections 23.02, 23.03, 23.04 and 23.05.” LINK

Albanese Org. signs lease with Catholic Church in East New York for dev site: This is for a 99-year lease with the fourth year rents of $1.1 million and increasing to $1.8 million in year 50. The first three years are $363,000, $550,000 and $825,000. “Tenant agrees to redevelop and use the Premises for (x) multi-family residential purposes only, including for affordable and/or low-income housing (currently permitted for NYC Planning Use Group 2 in effect as of the Effective Date), and ancillary residential amenity uses (such as gyms and laundry rooms that are customary in residential buildings), (y) commercial and/or community facility uses on the ground floor permitted or required pursuant to the Zoning Resolution and (z) does not violate (i) the certificate of occupancy then in effect for the Premises, (ii) any applicable Requirement and (iii) the provision of Sections 23.02, 23.03, 23.04 and 23.05 hereof.” LINK

Erik Ekstein battles Joel Wiener at unfinished UWS condo project with $20M loan: Developer Erik Ekstein, who leads Ekstein Development Group, alleges that Joel Wiener of the Pinnacle Group is an investor in the project to redevelop 142 West 81st Street into six high-end condos and create space for a church.
Court filings are the positions of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete. The complaint alleges that Ekstein made a capital call to Wiener for $2 million in DATE that was not funded, and at the same time, Wiener has alleged substantial construction issues and has declared himself in control of the project, which threatens a refinancing deadline of June 22, 2022, on the construction loan. The project is 88 percent complete, according to Ekstein. Ekstein bought the parcel in 2016 for $6.7 million and obtained a $20 million construction loan from S3 Capital. Outstanding issues include that the roof is not installed and the south facade is not complete. According to the complaint (excerpts) : “In addition, there is a delay in completing the curtain wall on the south façade of the Project due to the delay in obtaining LPC approval caused by DXA’s design flaws and described above. Defendant Joel Wiener, falsely and fraudulent representing that he is the CoManager of the Company, sent the NYPD a letter, dated May 11, 2022 claiming that the Contractor had been terminated and that he had the authority to restrict entry to the Project (copy annexed as Exhibit 22). As a result of his false and fraudulent statements, the NYPD appeared at the Project in the early morning of May 12, 2022 and removed all personnel from the Project, which is not locked up and currently at a standstill, which, in addition to the default of the Loan Agreement noted above, is also a default pursuant to section 12(d) of the Loan Agreement. Defendant West 81st Street’s actions have damaged the plaintiffs in that the Lender has refused to issue further advances under the Construction Loan and has refused to extend the maturity date of the Construction Loan. https://www.edgre.com/creative-agency/new-developments/142-west-81st-street-new-york-ny LINK

Seller alleges broken $62M contract for a Sheraton-branded Chelsea hotel: The plaintiff Kin Chung Lam, the signatory for the owner of a hotel branded as the Four Points by Sheraton Manhattan Chelsea New York at 158-162 West 25th Street alleges that they signed a contract April 2021 as seller to sell 158-162 West 25th Street for $62 million with Wenfeng International, which posted a $6.2 million deposit. Wenfeng assigned the contract June 2, 2021, to Milestone, with a closing date set for October 4, 2021. The sale has not closed and the seller is suing to retain the $6.2 million deposit. Alternative investment firm H.I.G. Capital bought the $50 million loan in December 2020. LINK