In recent weeks one of Israel’s richest men, billionaire diamond dealer Lev Leviev, and his partner Maurice Mann have become embroiled in a dispute regarding the famed Apthorp apartment building — where Al Pacino is a resident.
Last week, according to New York business paper Crains, a New York State Supreme Court judge ordered the warring owners of the famed property into arbitration.
Leviev is attempting to remove Mann as manager, alleging that he has not managed the condo sales properly of the 163-unit Upper West Side landmark.
The pair bought the building for an estimated $420m in March 2007, borrowing $520m to purchase, renovate and market the development. It was the most expensive sale of a residential property ever in the US, at $2.4m per unit. US reports said that more than half of the units were rent-stabilized at the time of purchase, and warned that it could prove costly for the new ownership.
The banks reportedly began to worry about their loans, and court documents say they had threatened to push the project into default if various conditions had not been met, including a resolution of the dispute between Leviev and Mann.
According to the real estate site StreetEasy.com, to date only one unit in the building has been sold. Eight are on the market, ranging in price from $3.4m to $15.5m.
The building was developed in 1908 by the Astor family to resemble the Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy. It has an interior courtyard and an interior drive, with access from Broadway and West End Avenue.
Leviev went on a buying spree in New York in 2007 but is already paring back, selling half his stake in the New York Times building — among others.
It was reported today that Africa-Israel Investments Ltd., a subsidiary of Africa-Israel Properties Ltd., also one of Leviev’s companies, has signed a contract to sell half of its holdings in a Tel Aviv tower to a British fund for NIS 400-500 million.
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