Big pile of crap on Flushing River is stalled

From the Queens Chronicle:

One of the former owner-developers of the RKO Keith’s Theatre in downtown Flushing has been sitting on a 3.75-acre waterfront site for two years with no immediate plans to build.

Shaya Boymelgreen’s Olympia Heights Management Team of Brooklyn bought the property at 39-08 Janet Place, off Roosevelt Avenue, in 2012 for $33 million and plans to turn it into retail and residential space.

The proposal is as of right, meaning the owner does not need zoning variances to proceed. The area is zoned C4-2, which allows for both residential and commercial space. And thus far, the developers have been tight-lipped about when they might build.

Nick Roberts, project manager of the Flushing, Willets Point, Corona Local Development Corp., said he calls Olympia Heights every month for updated information, but most recently spoke to someone there last fall.

Claire Shulman, who heads the LDC, said the whole area needs to be rezoned “to make the area harmonious and to open up the waterfront.” Shulman and Roberts believe financing may be holding up the project.

The waterfront property has had several owners. They include the Lev Development Group, the Vintage Organization and Abs Flushing Development.

Change of plans for RKO Keith's

From Crains:

The landmarked but badly rundown RKO Keith's Theatre in the heart of Flushing, Queens will be reborn as a huge apartment complex with 357 rental units and 360 parking spaces, according to a new filing by the project's developer, Patrick Thompson.

Developer Shaya Boymelgreen, the previous owner of the site, had planned to build a condominium tower there. Last month, Mr. Thompson submitted an application with the city's Board of Standards and Appeals for changes to the development, which he first proposed after taking over the property last year.

His new application calls for a big increase in the number of units and a slight increase in commercial space, to 17,460 square feet from 10,957 square feet. Previously, the development, located on Northern Boulevard, was approved for 200 units and 229 parking spaces. The 314,000-square-foot project is estimated to cost $160 million.

The BSA is expected to vote on the amendments in March after Community Board 7 meets and provides its recommendation for the plan on Jan. 18. CB 7 approval is not needed for BSA approval, but it will be taken into consideration, said Howard Goldman, Mr. Thompson's land use attorney for the project.

From the Daily News:

Thompson and architect Jay Valgora are revising the plans of Huang's successor, developer Shaya Boymelgreen, to place a senior center, retail and apartments there. They envision two floors of stores and 14 levels of residences.

"We want to really overcome the tragic side of this story and create a new landmark for Flushing," Valgora said.

As a tribute to the site's legacy in film and vaudeville, Valgora designed a "curtain of glass" facade that he hopes will display the landmarked lobby to passersby on Northern Blvd. at Main St.

Valgora plans to protect the lobby during construction by threading steel around its distinct features. Crews will demolish the ruined structure around the lobby in a process he described as architectural arthroscopic surgery.

Inside the three-story lobby, Valgora wants to rebuild a long-lost Moorish fountain that once greeted moviegoers. He said he will restore the staircase and a painted sky on the ceiling.

He vowed to base his restoration on renderings by noted theater architect Thomas Lamb, who first imagined the RKO Keith's in the late 1920s.

Thompson is set to present his plans to Community Board 7's land use subcommittee on Jan. 26 and the full board on Feb. 14.

The land use chairman, Chuck Apelian, said Thompson's plans for 357 apartments and 360 parking spaces at the H-shaped building would be too dense for already bustling downtown Flushing.

But Assemblywoman Grace Meng, state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky and City Councilman Peter Koo have all expressed support for the transformation.

Sheriff can't find Shaya

From the Daily News:

An embattled developer has pulled a disappearing act, a frustrated condo owner charges.

A Boerum Hill couple successfully sued developer Shaya Boymelgreen over construction problems in their building, but he won't pay up - and not even the sheriff can track him down.

"It is looking like he has disappeared," said Paul Bright, 32, who won an $1,800 judgment against Boymelgreen in October.

Bright, an art dealer, and his wife, Mandy Lyons, moved into their Smith St. condo in 2008. An unfinished ventilation unit under their window caused ear-splitting noise, but the developer ignored requests to fix it, Bright charged.

"It was just loud. It was all the time," Bright said. "We made numerous, numerous complaints to Boymelgreen. They laughed it off. They did not take it seriously at all."

After a year and a half of complaining, Bright sued Boymelgreen in Small Claims Court. Only then did the ventilation system get fixed - but a judge awarded him $1,800 to pay for tests he'd had done to prove the unit violated federal noise rules.

"As soon as they lost the judgment, they disappeared," Bright said. "They completely just ignored calls, they ignored e-mails.

"They have absolutely no intention of paying," he said.

After three months, Bright called the sheriff's office to get the judgment enforced - but officials said they couldn't find Boymelgreen either. "They said that without finding the guy, there's nothing you can do," Bright said.

Pistilli has some company

Flushing RKO Keith's Theatre sold

From Crains:

A Manhattan condo developer paid $20 million for the landmarked RKO Keith Theatre in Flushing. The deal was arranged by the bank that holds the mortgage which was taken out by the former owner, troubled real estate investor Shaya Boymelgreen.

Patrick Thompson said he hasn't decided what to do with derelict property on Northern Boulevard that has stood vacant for nearly 25 years. Options he is considering include building a condo or nursing home on the site. Mr. Thompson said Doral Bank, one of his lenders, contacted him about buying the property after Mr. Boymelgreen defaulted on the loan.

“I picked it up for the price of the loan,” said Mr. Thompson. “I saw a real economic opportunity here.”

Mr. Thompson says he can build a 389,000-square-foot building.

“It is going to be good for the community to have something in the location,” said Craig Price, a lawyer for Mr. Thompson who worked on the deal.

Unhappy holidays for Boymelgreen

From the NY Times:

Through the real estate boom, few new developers filled the city with luxury condominiums as fast as Shaya Boymelgreen. He turned Wall Street corner offices into minimalist bachelor lairs, built TriBeCa apartments snapped up by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and crowded the edges of Park Slope, Brooklyn, with condos.

But Mr. Boymelgreen, 58, has since retreated mightily from the limelight as his fortune has reversed.

He is battling a bankruptcy filing against one of his companies, eviction from his Brooklyn headquarters — a judge ruled Tuesday morning that the proceedings could move forward early next year — and the seizure of a Queens theater in what the buyer calls a “friendly foreclosure.” Condo owners are filing lawsuits over his construction. He has cut his staff to 15 from 200, his spokeswoman says, and several former co-workers report that the five of his eight children who are in the family business are looking for other employment.

Feds order Boymelgreen to cease and desist

From Crain's:

LibertyPointe Bank, an institution co-founded four years ago by developer Shaya Boymelgreen, has been ordered by federal regulators to cease and desist from excessively risky lending.

The bank, which is headquartered in lower Manhattan, was deemed to operating with excessive levels of delinquent loans, setting aside inadequate allowances for loan losses, and overly concentrating its portfolio in commercial real estate lending, according to the order dated July 16 but posted Friday on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s Web site.

LibertyPointe, which operates one branch in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn, caters largely to the Orthodox Jewish community. It had $222 million in assets, $207 million in deposits, and $11.8 million in capital as of the quarter ending June 30. Its total risk-based capital ratio of 8.3% puts it below the FDIC’s definition of a well-capitalized bank, as such it could be forced to raise fresh funds.

In addition, LibertyPointe’s $182 million portfolio seems to have a high amount of troubled assets.

So that's why the RKO Keith's is for sale. But the price has gone down considerably. It's now listed at $24M, down from $31.5M a year ago.

Wheels coming off Atlantic Yards project

From Crain's:

Two New York state appeals court rulings could put a wrench in Forest City Ratner Cos.’s plans to build its sprawling Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.

The recent rulings give Henry Weinstein, a developer who owns almost an acre within the proposed Atlantic Yards footprint, the right to evict the property’s tenant, Brooklyn developer Jeshayahu Boymelgreen and Forest City.

Forest City was given an illegal assignment to Mr. Weinstein’s properties according to last week’s rulings. The court also said Mr. Weinstein can sue the entities involved in the case for monetary damages. The unanimous decisions reverse a March 2007 decision made by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Ira Harkavy, which allowed Mr. Boymelgreen to remain an occupant despite termination of the lease.

From Atlantic Yards Report:

Forest City Enterprises, 5/13/09 press release:
The Company anticipates investing approximately $169 million of equity to satisfy existing completion guaranty obligations on eight projects currently under construction as of January 31, 2009. In addition, although Forest City does not anticipate commencing any new vertical development in the near term, it does anticipate potential capital needs related to existing development opportunities and the preservation of entitlements on a number of long-term projects of approximately $331 million over the course of the next four years.

Bruce Ratner also doesn't know when he'll break ground for the project.

The plaintiffs in the eminent domain case will appeal the most recent court rejection of their petition.

There are rumors of the Nets being sold...

But one thing that's for sure is Ratner's selling off his properties.

Photo from The Real Deal

Will developer donate the RKO Keith's?

From the Daily News:

Representatives of Brooklyn developer Shaya Boymelgreen insisted he "would not consider a sizable reduction" on the price tag nor making a donation of the historic RKO Keith's theater in Flushing.

But far-flung fans of the landmark movie house - who want to transform it into a multicultural performing arts center - think Boymelgreen may change his mind, given a host of publicized financial woes.

The Israeli business newspaper Globes reported Monday that Boymelgreen was nearing a debt-rescheduling deal with his firm's largest creditor, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, because he can't afford an upcoming $2.4 million interest payment.

Globes also reported that Boymelgreen investors are expected to convert part of their bonds into shares, diluting Boymelgreen's 89.8% stake in the company.