Steve Croman is fighting more than 28 active foreclosure lawsuits against properties he manages. In total, lenders allege that Croman’s entities have defaulted on more than $231 million in loan repayments.
Twenty-one of the foreclosure cases were filed in the past week, many from lender Orange Owner LLC. The principal amount of these associated loans totals over $189 million
In a lawsuit, Croman denied many of the allegations.
But it’s just the latest problem for the man once called the city’s worst landlord, who spent eight months in prison for mortgage and tax fraud and was sued this summer by his own father.
Croman isn’t the only real estate figure involved in a difficult family matter. The Ostad brothers, a trio of New York real estate investors, were named as defendants in nine foreclosure cases involving loans totaling more than $70 million.
According to the plaintiff, the brothers stopped paying the loans in April. That’s the same month Michael and Edward sued Steven, hoping to dissolve their family partnerships; Steven is only mentioned in three instances, while his brothers are mentioned in all of them.
The older Ostad brothers run fix-and-flip lender Flatiron Realty Capital. Steven is the founder of residential real estate brokerage Empire City Realty and lender Real Quick Capital, although both appear to have closed.
No stranger to some family drama, Alex Sapir is in the middle of the messy process of winding down his company.
Sapir Corp placed its Nomo Soho hotel into Chapter 11, the latest development in the ongoing collapse and liquidation of the Israeli-backed real estate company.
The company wants to organize a court-supervised auction for the 26-story boutique hotel at 9 Crosby Street. The petition aims to secure a sale and pay off Sapir Corp’s $155 million in bond debt, spread across two Israeli bond series.
The bankruptcy filing comes three weeks after Sapir initiated insolvency proceedings in Israel, where the company told the Tel Aviv-Jaffa District Court that it could no longer meet bond payments or cover operating costs. All directors have resigned and a trustee is overseeing the company as it winds down.
Elsewhere in the city, Manhattan’s favorite controversial sculpture garden was in the news again this week, thanks to a feud between the outgoing and new mayors.
The potential developers of the Haven Green affordable housing complex at Elizabeth Street Garden have sued the city, claiming the mayor illegally developed the site as a city park.
Pennrose, Riseboro and Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester, which were chosen in 2017 to build 123 senior housing units on city property, filed a lawsuit Wednesday.
They want the court to annul the designation as a park area.
Ahead of the November elections, newly elected mayor Zohran Mamdani indicated that he would move forward with Haven Green and clear the garden. After the Adams administration declared the land a park, Mamdani told reporters that pursuing the project would be “almost impossible” because using city parks for other purposes would require action from the state legislature.
Maybe the lawsuit will make it a little less impossible.
When the city finally began its search for developers of a site in the Meatpacking District, the request for proposals encouraged — but did not mandate — the inclusion of an “emerging developer.”
The RFP described a candidate who had completed fewer than ten projects in the past decade, each with fewer than 150 residential units, no more than 100,000 square feet and a cost of less than $30 million. Simple enough.
That’s why the EDC selected Kinwood Partners – in addition to Douglaston Development – to build 590 homes on city-owned land.
Kinwood didn’t develop anything, so all good, right?
Well, it’s run by someone – David Himmel – who spent a decade working for a major real estate company and on projects in the area. Himmel is the former chief operating officer at Jamestown and son of Leslie Wohlman Himmel, co-founder of investment firm Himmel & Meringoff Properties.
Naturally, the company’s selection raised questions about the purpose of “emerging developer” designations among public-private companies.
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Steve Croman has defaulted on the $231 million principal, lenders allege
The Ostad brothers are facing foreclosure proceedings on more than $70 million in loans
Sapir Corp is putting Nomo Soho into bankruptcy and preparing for liquidation
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