Thursday, September 27, 2007



My friend Andy sent me the link to an interesting article about the "divorce" settlement of two of the biggest developers here in New York. Since 2002, The partnership of Lev Leviev and Shaya Boymelgreen has been a powerhouse in both Miami, Florida and in New York City where they were "an alliance that at one time looked set to re-draw the luxury housing map in both New York and Florida." Now the partners will go their separate ways. How their partnership will be dissolved have recently been made public. This is interesting for Brooklyn and for the Gowanus area in particular. The Leviev Boymelgreen partnership has been involved with the Gowanus re-development from the beginning and the partners are sitting on quite a few acres along the heavily polluted waterway. According to this article, Leviev is ending up with the "Gowanus Village" project. Here is a great article on the partnership and...the split

Below are excerpts from an Real Estate Daily article by Lind Barr entitled: Leviev and Boymelgreen divvy up property 8/1/2007

Leviev Boymelgreen was originally formed in 2002 when Lev Leviev struck
up a friendship with Shaya Boymelgreen when the two met on a Caribbean
cruise. With Africa Israel owning 65% of the venture and Boymelgreen
owning 35%, the two quickly announced a series of luxury developments in
Miami and New York and enlisted numerous high profile designers and
architects to work on the projects.

When the initial reports of a rift began to surface last year,
Boymelgreen indicated it was likely they would go their separate ways
and split the properties in the portfolio. He suggested his company
would retain the Florida portfolio and Leviev would take over in New
York, where Africa Israel has made no secret of its intention to swell
its portfolio of trophy buildings.

Israel Investments owned by diamond magnet, Lev Leviev--will become the
sole owner of all of the joint venture's Miami properties and it will
become 100% owner of the partnership's major New York City projects,
including 88 Leonard and 23 Wall Street.

In the last few months the firm has made a series of landmark deals in
the city, including the purchase of the luxury Apthorpe, the old New
York Times Building and The Clocktower at 5 Madison Avenue, where it has
reportedly been in talks with superstar Robert DeNiro to create a luxury
hotel. Rosen was spotted dining with the movie star at the nearby
Gramercy Hotel on several occasions.

The one-time partners will complete the groundbreaking Armani Casa
luxury condo conversion they undertook at 20 Pine together by the end of
the year, but that, for the most part, will be the final salvo from an
alliance that at one time looked set to re-draw the luxury housing map
in both New York and Florida.

In filings with the Israeli stock exchange reported in the Israeli media, Leviev and Boymelgreen signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing Africa-Israel will take over all of the Miami projects, including Marquis, Soleil, Vitri and The Performing Arts Center. It will also take 100% ownership of 23 Wall, the commercial part of 15 Broad, Gowanus Village, 88 Leonard and the commercial part of the W Squared project in New York.


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