In the News: Our own collusion, Tribeca real estate style

Kevin Sun at The Real Deal reports that the partners who *were* developing the big hole in the ground at 456 Greenwich have accused the Ponte family and Related of collusion — and plotting to ruin their plans for a luxury French hotel at the site. It’s a high-stakes, complex web that leaves us neighbors with another couple years (at least?) of construction delays and an ugly boarded up site.

Mactaggart Family & Partners and Caspi Development Corp. filed last month for bankruptcy, after, they claimed, the lease terms with the Pontes prevented them from securing a construction loan for the Hotel Barrière Le Fouquet. Related Companies has 70 Vestry, the condo a block away, also built on Ponte property. Mactaggart and co. are now asking for a legal investigation of the communications between Related and the Pontes, both of who claim in initial court documents to be innocent of any plot. A court date is set for May 3.

Sun digs into the bankruptcy filing as well as a court case from 2017, when Mactaggart — Scottish royalty, folks call them — backed out on another financing plan for the hotel. It’s Ponte property underneath the Arlo Hotel as well, which was developed by the same partners that originally had a stake in 456 Greenwich. It’s not easy to follow — have your coffee first — but it’s a fun read. “Whether or not these suspicions are confirmed, there’s more to Tribeca’s long-delayed Hotel Barrière Le Fouquet than meets the eye – more developers, more investors, and more lawsuits,” Sun writes. Here’s more:

Now the developers have proposed an explanation for the landlord’s alleged behavior. “The Debtor believes that the reason for the Landlord’s actions may be that they are seeking to develop the property with a third party,” according to the motion filed in bankruptcy court two weeks ago.

“This would be consistent with Ponte Equities having a lengthy relationship with Related, having also partnered with them in building a 13-story condominium building in Tribeca and developing 261 Hudson Street, along with 460 Washington Avenue,” a footnote in the filing adds.

 

6 Comments

  1. And yes, in the meantime, North TriBeCa remains a massive construction site. The city council seems not to care about how long we are without sidewalks or awaiting street repairs. And for what … a tiny elitist hotel.

  2. To blame City Council about this overbuilding mess is laughable. This is so above their pay grade. Bloomberg put the knife in and De B pulled it out.

  3. I’m just going to repeat this TRIBECA IS ONE BIG CONSTRUCTION SITE. We are in north east tribeca. Every corner is scaffolded the noise is deafening. The trucks busses garbage trucks construction vehicles is never ending. All I think about is greed. It’s been going on for years and the minute one ugly building ( the reveal on the Toll brothers on broadway? ) another goes up.

  4. Can we have a pop-up park in that empty lot in the meantime? ITs bad enough that we lose half a street and one side of sidewalk, but why not plant something, install benches, anything but years (how many?) of urban decay and misery.

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