Isle of Misfit Toy Buildings
The New York Post reports: There's no end in sight to the mess at 1107 Broadway, the northern-most of the two former Toy Buildings that was slated for condo conversion.
Two years after developer Yitzchak Tessler said he planned super-luxury condos and an eight-story addition on top of the existing 16-story structure, the former toy-wholesale building stands vacant except for a ground-floor bank branch. Many windows are boarded up -- an incongruous sight over Madison Square Park.
Tessler bought 1107 Broadway from Joseph Chetrit for $235 million in 2007 and filed expansion plans with the Buildings Department in September 2008. But the site's been listed on the department's "stalled" projects list since April, and recently popped up on research firm Real Capital Analytics' roster of "troubled assets."
Tessler did not return calls. But industry sources said 1107 Broadway, although in no imminent danger of foreclosure, is likely to remain in a miserable state for years.
Sources said a complicating factor is that Chetrit's "still in the deal" -- which might explain why the $235 million sale price was so low compared with the $480 million sale of comparably sized sister Toy Building 200 Fifth Ave. the same year.
Another issue involves $343 million of debt to Lehman Brothers Holdings.
RCA Research Director Dan Fasulo said, "It isn't clear whether the loan was securitized" prior to Lehman's bankruptcy. Some $203 million was for the purchase and the rest for redevelopment.
A different source said, "The debt was carved up in a confusing way where no one knows what will happen, and there's a lot of finger-pointing going on."
It's all a far cry from what's happened at 200 Fifth Ave., which is linked to it by a sky bridge.
Since David W. Levinson's and Robert T. Lapidus' L&L Holding Co. bought the address from Chetrit in 2007, they lured ad giant Grey Group to be the anchor office tenant with 370,000 square feet, and recently signed Eataly for a 42,000 square-foot gourmet emporium.
View the full article on The New York Post: Isle of Misfit Toy Buildings
Posted by: Nina Turner