NEW YORK | 430 East 58th Street (Sutton 58) | 844 FT | 67 FLOORS

[chris08876]

For now, the foreclosure sale looks like its happening. The injunction was denied.

[NYguy]

Well, I wonder who's hands this will end up in....hopefully someone who can pull off the development. But this can sit on the backburner for a while.

[CityGuy87]

Originally Posted by NYguy

Well, I wonder who's hands this will end up in....hopefully someone who can pull off the development. But this can sit on the backburner for a while.

My bet is on Extell

[chris08876]

Grassroots Sutton Place Rezoning Plan Gets Backing from Community Board

Community Board 6 has thrown its support behind a rezoning proposal aimed at stopping the construction of skyscrapers in Sutton Place.

CB 6 voted nearly unanimously earlier this month to support a community-funded rezoning application that would limit the height of all new towers, east of First Avenue, from East 52nd to East 59th streets, to 260 feet, or 25 stories.

The zoning plan was created by Sutton Place residents and supported by local lawmakers, following an outcry from neighbors fearing the impact of an over-saturation of tall buildings in their neighborhood.

The plan still needs to go through the city's uniform land-use review process, or ULURP, before it can be applied.

The proposed rezoning would also ban any commercial development along residential side streets with the exception of “community uses” such as medical offices and day cares.

The plan would also mandate that 25 percent of any new development be dedicated to on-site below-market-rate housing. In a gesture to potentially squeamish developers, the rezoning would allow a slight increase in maximum floor-area ratio, from 12 to 13 — permitting slightly higher density than current rules allow.

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https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/201...ommunity-board

[Vortex11]

Does this have a good chance of passing all required groups/boards and getting approved?

[chris08876]

We will see if a developer buys this lots and gets things done. Although the NIMBYs must be rejoicing right now.
=============================

SUTTON PLACE DEVELOPER RISKED IT ALL AND LOST

Joe Beninati, the developer behind the troubled Sutton Place supertall, had hoped the project would establish him as one of New York’s real estate heavyweights.

Joe had only a series of relatively small projects in Connecticut under his belt last year, when he bought three apartment buildings on East 58th St to lay the groundwork for his planned 1,000-foot tower.

Eager to get the ball rolling, Joe took a big risk: he borrowed $147M at a 30% interest rate from Gamma Real Estate, a lender with a track record of playing hardball when its terms aren’t met, Crain’s reports.

Joe turned down offers from top builders like DDG and CIM Group to partner on the project. After a string of complications and over-budget spending, Joe’s Bauhouse Group was unable to keep the momentum going and defaulted on the Gamma loan. The lender might’ve been banking on that all along, Crain's reports, especially given onerous terms like the $45M “exit fee” tucked into the contract.

Joe has since filed for bankruptcy and is suing Gamma, alleging the lender improperly tried to meddle in the foreclosure bidding process to snatch the development for itself. For now, Gamma’s foreclosure has been staved off by the bankruptcy, and it remains to be seen how the various lawsuits surrounding the property will shake out.

==========================
https://www.bisnow.com/new-york/news...medium=Browser

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Vortex11

Does this have a good chance of passing all required groups/boards and getting approved?

The planning groups and community boards have no official say over anything. (They do have a say, though its only advisory, as much as anyone else who shows up to testify). It's the City Planning that will decide if anything moves forward and then further if it is approved. It's why they had little chance of stopping this tower. Anyone who wants to move forward with this site would be wise to move forward sooner, however, to make it a moot point.

[NYguy]

Good to know someone's still out there leading the fight...



http://rew-online.com/2016/04/21/kal...g-super-talls/

Kallos vows to keep fighting super-talls





BY REW
APRIL 21, 2016

New York City Councilmember Ben Kallos was stumping against super-tall towers at last weekʼs B’nai B’rith luncheon at the Cornell Club.

Kallos is among the leaders of a residential re-zoning plan for the Manhattan area between 52nd Street and 59th Street, east of 1st Avenue, to limit the height of so-called supertowers and prevent over-development in the neighborhood.

“We are drawing a line on the march of superscrapers at billionaireʼs row to protect our cityʼs residential neighborhoods,ˮ said Kallos when the plan was announced earlier this year.

“The East River Fifties Alliance has proposed a rare community application to rezone a neighborhood, making it impossible to build superscrapers as of right. They have risen to the challenge of winning support from elected officials, the community board, buildings and residents to bring an application to rezone and save the neighborhood.ˮ

Called the East River Fifties Alliance, the group has raised money themselves to pay for lawyers and city planners for a rezoning bid and won the support of State Senator Liz Krueger, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, as well as city council member Dan Garodnick.

Its development opposition was ignited, in part, by a plan by the Bauhouse Group to build a 68-story tower in Sutton Place at 426-432

East 58th Street. The project, called 3 Sutton Place, would go on even if a rezoning happens because work is already underway on the site.

However, the East River Fifties Alliance are pressing ahead with their rezoning plan, which was submitted to the Department of City Planning. The proposal, which is meant to replace the area’s R10 zoning designation, imposes a building limit of 260 feet, which comes to about 25 stories.
Currently, the zoning in the area imposes no height restrictions. The plan also included an affordable housing requirement, with at least 25 percent of units in new residential developments set aside for affordable housing.

“Our ‘people’s plan’ is one of the largest and most comprehensive re-zoning proposals put together by a community in the City’s history. It’s also the first plan of its kind to include affordable housing as a component. We’ve worked hard to create a plan that will not only maintain the character of our own neighborhood, but will potentially serve as a template for other communities too,” said Alan Kersh, the president of the ERFA.

Speaking at B’Nai Brith, Kallos pointed to other super-talls in the city, including 432 Park, 53 West 53rd Street, One57 and JDS Development Group’s 111 West 57th Street.

Kallos said he will continue to campaign against the super-talls and thatnked B’Nai B’rtih for giving him the opportunity to express his opinion.

Earlier this year, the Real Estate Board of New York dismissed a report slamming New York Cityʼs newest generation of skyscrapers.

“The latest generation of tall, slender and mostly residential towers positively contributes to our city architecturally, economically and environmentally,ˮ said John Banks, president of the Board.

“These new additions to our skyline signal across the globe a city ascendant. They symbolize an urban environment that is vibrant and exciting. We are confident that over time, the latest generation of towers — like their predecessors — will become beloved members of our skyline.ˮ

The comments came following the release of a Municipal Arts Society of New York (MAS) report calling for revisions to the city’s building codes earlier this week.

[CityGuy87]

I thought this project was effectively cancelled but did they at least demolish the buildings on site?

[chris08876]

Its technically still up for grabs. This site that is. I wouldn't rule it out as 100% canceled as something may arise. Its a great parcel with great potential. We've seen with previous sites that they tend to spring back to life. Years sometimes, but hopefully a real developer who's serious can get into the action and that has better management skills.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by CityGuy87

I thought this project was effectively cancelled but did they at least demolish the buildings on site?

It's a buildable site on the east side of Manhattan, with zoning that would allow for a tall tower with views. The site won't sit empty and wasted, there just aren't that many such sites in Manhattan, ready to go.

Its development opposition was ignited, in part, by a plan by the Bauhouse Group to build a 68-story tower in Sutton Place at 426-432 East 58th Street. The project, called 3 Sutton Place, would go on even if a rezoning happens because work is already underway on the site.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by CityGuy87

I thought this project was effectively cancelled but did they at least demolish the buildings on site?

The bank, alongside another developer, is fighting the former developer, for the rights to the project. The project isn't in question, it's the ownership.

[chris08876]

Gamma sues Pilevskys over 3 Sutton Place

Gamma Real Estate, the mezzanine lender on the beleaguered condominium project at 3 Sutton Place, is suing real estate investors Philip, Michael and Seth Pilevsky, alleging they helped developer Joseph Beninati to file for bankruptcy at the project in order to take a piece of it.

In June 2015, Gamma lent Beninati’s Bauhouse Group about $147 million to fund the planned 113-unit, 68-story condo tower. In January, the Bauhouse-controlled LLC that owns the Sutton Place project defaulted on Gamma’s loan, and a month later filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to ward off foreclosure. According to Gamma’s complaint, the Pilevskys loaned Beninati $50,000 to hire a law firm (where a fourth Pilevsky is a partner) to execute the bankruptcy proceedings in the nick of time. The Pilevskys were not previously involved with the Sutton project, Gamma claims.

“Defendants, who were strangers to the Project, intentionally and improperly caused these contractual breaches in a scheme to benefit themselves and obtain an ownership interest,” Gamma’s lawsuit states.

The suit is the latest chapter in a drawn-out legal battle over the site. In July, Beninati sued Gamma for allegedly conspiring with his cousin, who is Beninati’s lawyer, to take control of the Sutton property “and reap the greedy reward.”

Neither the Pilevskys nor the lawyers representing Gamma could immediately be reached for comment

The Real Deal reported that at the time of the bankruptcy filing, the property located at 428-432 East 58th Street, was valued at $270 million, and up to $1 billion once the proposed Norman Foster-designed tower gets built, according to an appraisal by Cushman & Wakefield.

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http://therealdeal.com/2016/09/16/ga...-sutton-place/

[chris08876]

Gamma’s bet on 3 Sutton Place was backed by UK hedge fund

BlueCrest Capital Management, once one of Europe’s largest hedge funds with $37 billion in assets under management at its peak, was the real money behind Richard and Jonathan Kalikow’s $147 million bet at 3 Sutton Place, according to one of its former executives.

Headed by English financier Michael Platt, BlueCrest contributed more than $100 million of the high-interest loan provided to developer Joseph Beninati of Bauhouse Group by the Kalikows’ Gamma Real Estate for the construction of the planned, but ultimately stalled, 68-story, Norman Foster-designed condo tower.

BlueCrest, which reportedly faced an SEC probe earlier this year over possible conflicts posed by an internal fund that managed money for employees, was investing its own funds in the Sutton Place project as well as those of another unidentified foreign investor, Van Nguyen, the former head of equities derivatives trading at BlueCrest, said late last month in court papers relating to a lawsuit between Gamma TRData LogoTINY and Beninati.
The hedge fund has since followed the leads of fund magnates such as George Soros and Steve Cohen in returning all outside money to its investors and becoming a private family office.

“Approximately two thirds of the economic interest in the lender, Sutton 58 Associates LLC, is held by an overseas investor,” Richard Kalikow confirmed in court papers.

Nguyen and Kalikow’s testimonies emerged as part of an ongoing legal battle between Beninati and his financial backers. Beninati has accused Gamma of engaging in a 15-month-long, calculated “loan to own” scheme, designed to sideline him from his own development.

“Manipulative actions taken by the lender to sidetrack the debtor forced the debtor into an untenable situation that made it virtually impossible to refinance its debt and develop the project,” he said in a April complaint.
Nguyen argues that a loan to own scheme made no sense for him, since neither BlueCrest nor its former client had any interest in holding an equity position in the project.

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http://therealdeal.com/2016/11/10/ga...an-hedge-fund/

[chris08876]

I still have hope that something nice will rise down the line on this parcel.

We will have to see who picks it up, and what they develop.

============================

Auction scheduled for Beninati’s Sutton Place site

Bauhouse Group head Joseph Beninati’s distressed Sutton Place development site is scheduled to hit the auction block in December.

Beninati, who had planned to build a 1,000-foot-tall luxury condo tower at 3 Sutton Place, threw the project into bankruptcy earlier this year after defaulting on a high-interest loan to lender N. Richard Kalikow.

In September, a judge approved a sale in order to pay back the loan and other creditors. Bids for the site are now due by Dec. 8 with the auction scheduled for Dec. 13, but the parties have the option to delay the proceedings for a week, Crain’s New York reported.

JLL’s Description: RData LogoTINY Scott Latham, Richard Baxter, Ron Cohen and Jon Caplan and Meridian Capital Group’s David Schechtman are marketing the property, located at 426-432 East 58th Street.

The tower’s proposed height had caused an uproar from nearby residents who claimed it would be out of context with the surrounding neighborhood. In January, a neighborhood group filed an application with the city that would set a height limit in the area of 260 feet, which just so happened to be a hair below the height of a condo owned by one of the group’s leaders.

The proposal is supported by a number of Manhattan elected officials.

This could end up being Beninati’s second high-profile loss this year. Forum Absolute Capital Partners and its management partner, Mikhail Kurnev, were registered as the sponsor of Bauhouse’s 15-unit condo project at 515 West 29th Street as of late March.

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http://therealdeal.com/2016/11/18/au...on-place-site/

[NYguy]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/communit...wer-1480297309

Community Groups on Manhattan’s East Side Fight Proposed 950-foot Tower
Building would be too tall, say opponents, who want delay until new zoning plan can be put into effect





By JOSH BARBANEL
Updated Nov. 27, 2016

Community groups are organizing to delay and shrink a proposed 950-foot tower on Manhattan’s East Side, even as the site is headed for a court-ordered auction in December.

Last Monday, a bankruptcy judge ordered the sale of the East 58th Street site, assembled by Joseph Beninati’s Bauhouse Group. But the community groups, along with elected officials, are hoping to delay the project until a new zoning plan limiting building heights can be put into effect.

The plan, which the groups and officials said they were ready to formally propose to the City Planning Commission as early as this week, calls for buildings in the neighborhood to be no taller than 260 feet.

“I want to stop the march of 1,000-foot towers into residential neighborhoods,” said Councilman Ben Kallos, a Manhattan Democrat who is supporting the zoning change.

The groups hope it is approved before development work begins at the site. The proposed change also could discourage bidders at the auction, which was ordered by the court following a dispute between Bauhouse Group and its lenders, led by N. Richard Kalikow.

The zoning change isn’t the only hurdle the project faces. On Wednesday, the Department of Buildings blocked a permit needed to complete demolition of the site, after conducting an audit requested by Mr. Kallos.

The delay is a further setback, since the demolition was intended to enhance the site’s value to potential bidders.

The permit application, submitted as a result of a bankruptcy court order, was for stabilizing a building next door to the tower site, so demolition could proceed. But the buildings department blocked it.

Mr. Kallos said he was told that plans to protect tenants of the building, 426 E. 58th St., weren’t adequate.

Charles Fernandez, a 71-year-old retired security guard who lives there, said construction workers wanted to spend several days in his apartment cutting holes in his ceiling to brace the joists in the buildings. He prefers that they wait until spring.

A lawyer for the building’s owner declined to comment.

Alan Kersh, president of the East River 50s Alliance, which represents the neighborhood residents and civic groups pushing for the zoning change, said it is an unusual move for a community group since it requires application fees and consultants that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In this case, members of the group include affluent residents of a high-rise co-op across the street from the site, whose views may be blocked by the proposed tower. ​

[NYguy]

http://therealdeal.com/2016/12/13/ga...osure-auction/

Gamma wins 3 Sutton Place at foreclosure auction
Deal is "canary in the coal mine" for high-end condo land market: source





December 13, 2016
By Katherine Clarke

N. Richard Kalikow’s Gamma Real Estate outbid Brooklyn investor Isaac Hager Tuesday to acquire a prime Upper East Side development site at 3 Sutton Place in a hotly anticipated foreclosure auction, The Real Deal has learned.

Gamma, which was the original lender on the deal, paid about $86 million for the site plus $12 million to secure additional air rights. Insiders previously speculated that Gamma would pay as much as $187 million to take control of the property, which offers a little over 260,000 buildable square feet. But sources said the final price signaled that the land market for luxury condominium development has plummeted.

“It’s a canary coughing in the coal mine solely for the development market,” said David Schechtman of Meridian Capital, who brokered the deal alongside colleague Lipa Lieberman and a team from JLL. “It’s the bellwether for high-end condo developments.”

Kalikow’s plans for the site were not immediately clear. He could opt to sell the property, move ahead with the condo himself or bring in a joint-venture partner.

[Crawford]

Very good news. Kalikow is the developer of 45 E. 22nd and other superluxury NYC condo towers.

[chris08876]

Something will rise here, we just have to be patient. But good news nevertheless. Could be a blessing in disguise. Sutton Place in its design wasn't the best to begin with. The height was kinda all it had, so another design could eclipse it. Hopefully its a super tall. But I could also trade the height for something that's 700 ft but looks fantastic.

[NYguy]

^ A better design is one thing I am looking forward to.