Brooklyn, NY - Attorney General Spitzer Investigating Local Developer
Brooklyn, NY - A developer who plans to transform the banks of Brooklyn’s Lavender Lake into a designer subdivision called Gowanus Village is facing a state investigation and legal complaints from construction workers and dozens of disgruntled condo owners.
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is examining a claim by 200 construction workers that developer Shaya Boymelgreen failed to pay overtime for the past three years - the same charge that is being heard in a separate class-action suit at state Supreme Court.
Spitzer’s lawyers are also arbitrating complaints from Park Slope condo owners who bought Boymelgreen apartments only to discover that the windows didn’t keep out the rain, walls weren’t properly insulated and bad engineering meant moldy cellars.
“It was a little shocking to see all the problems in the home we bought,” said Scott Sucher, president of the Park Slope Estates condo board. Sucher was surprised mostly because Boymelgreen’s name is increasingly attached to high-end real-estate.
The developer has been banking on the market power of Brooklyn’s stroller revolution since the late 1990s, snapping up gritty residential blocks and remaking them. This year, he expects to finish construction on the 12-story luxury Park Slope Tower on Fourth Avenue at Fifth Street as well as another apartment tower on Second Street and Fourth Avenue, and a condo-hotel at 75 Smith St., at Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill.
posted by VOS IZ NEIAS @ 8/28/2006 09:16:00 AM
2 Comments:
At 10:26 AM,
Anonymous said…
Its about time someone is taking these "heimishe" developers to task.
At 10:38 AM,
Anonymous said…
The Shaya File
Controversy, lawsuits and protests seem to follow developer Shaya Boymelgreen wherever he puts a shovel in the ground (and even when he doesn’t). Here’s a roundup:
• Unpaid wages: More than 200 workers filed complaints against the developer, charging that he owes thousands of dollars in overtime.
• Troubled condos: Condo owners in Park Slope settled with the developer over leaks and other problems in their buildings.
• Wall fall: Earlier this month, a wall collapsed at Boymelgreen’s hotel site at 75 Smith St., earning the developer violations from the Department of Buildings.
• Empire slowdown: Boymelgreen’s $140-million renovation of the Civil-War-era “Empire Stores” warehouse on the DUMBO waterfront is at least a year behind schedule. The warehouse was to reopen next year as a Chelsea Market-like bazaar of shops, restaurants and galleries.
• Bad deal: Boymelgreen is being sued by Henry Weinstein, a smaller Prospect Heights developer, for allegedly colluding with Bruce Ratner.
• The break-up: In June, a big backer, Africa Israel Investments, cut back its partnership with Boymelgreen.
• Miami cool: Boymelgreen unloaded seven acres of prime Miami real estate where he had planned to build flashy condos, citing changes in the condo market and higher development costs.
• Designer delay: In May, retailer Parasuco sued, alleging that Boymelgreen’s slow construction of a store hurt sales.
• Luxury protest: In April, protesters demanded that Boymelgreen include affordable units in his publicly subsidized luxury condos.
• DUMBO drop: Slow sales at Boymelgreen’s Beacon Tower forced him to slash the price of the feng-shui-themed condos at 85 Adams St. by 30 percent last winter.
• Sun fight: Boymelgreen was forced to redesign 12 condos in DUMBO because their windows reached the property line of an adjacent parking lot, a violation of city law requiring a certain distance between development sites to retain light and air.
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