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As part of this initiative, HFZ focuses on businesses that work synergistically with the HFZ platform and that provide opportunities for expansion of the respective brands. I think theres a lot of other distress going on that people are working on quietly, behind the scenes.. HFZ's Ziel Feldman Lashes Out in Wild Complaint - The Real Deal New York Monroes suit was discontinued in March. Ziel Feldman - Foudner and Principal @ HFZ Capital Group - CrunchBase Read More Meir allegedly used his position as managing partner at the now embattled firm and his control of its finances to divert money to his own pockets. Some still think the XI could come out the other side with no serious wounds. All rights reserved 2023 The Real Deal is a registered Trademark of Korangy Publishing Inc. Watch: Developer Patrick Carroll "spits" on restaurant manager, Former Westchester home of KKR co-founder list for $11M, The texts are now evidence in a legal battle as HFZ the prolific developer Meir launched 15 years ago with co-founder and chair Ziel Feldman fights CIMs efforts to foreclose on the debt. The lawsuit also noted that Meir was terminated when the extent of his malfeasance for his personal benefit came to light. The pandemic has become a convenient excuse, he added, which is keeping everybody in a standoff right now.. The lender was awaiting an overdue payment on $90 million of mezzanine debt it holds on four prewar Manhattan apartment buildings HFZ is converting to condominiums. Childrens could have plenty of reasons for wanting another developer. (TCI is not a defendant in the case.). You are subjecting your financial life to the scrutiny of all sorts of different things, said Andrew Ittleman, an attorney at the Miami-based law firm Fuerst Ittleman David & Joseph who focuses on white-collar crime and money laundering, commenting generally and not about HFZ. Rather than legitimate business expenses, the suit said Meir spent hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions on investment-grade wine. HFZ, however, may be the first big Manhattan developer in the Covid era at risk of losing it all. Meirs own Hamptons mansion is just five miles down the beach. Ziel Feldman's beleaguered development firm HFZ Capital Group has accused its former executive being a "faithless servant" by looting the company's coffers, according to three ;lawsuits filed . HFZ pledged the equity interest in those buildings located in New York, Tennessee and Wisconsin to both Abrahami and Chicago-based Monroe Capital, according to the complaint. Ziel Feldman With his signature project slipping from his control, HFZ Capital Group's Ziel Feldman is slinging some mud. The Manhattan real-estate industry is a game of winners and losers, Feldman says, and even titans lose big sometimes. HFZ Capital Group is a Manhattan-based real estate investment and development company formed in 2005. At the XI, HFZ was mostly silent on sales activity, a common tactic among developers as they are not legally required to publish contract information. A source close to Meir, who. Ziel Feldman, Founder, HFZ Capital Groupon his Chelsea megaproject, why the EB-5 visa program won't die and more.--Check out The Real Deal for more: https://. Former HFZ principal accused of siphoning $15M from developer, HFZ founder Ziel Feldman and Nir Meir (iStock, HFZ/Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal). While the assemblages required to bring these restorations can be complex, it is well worth it from both an aesthetic and investment point of view. But over the past year or so, HFZs business has crumbled. Reich Brothers, which initially assembled the seed portfolio, specializes in acquiring, repurposing and remediating shuttered manufacturing sites across the United States, inclusive of the machinery and equipment. The lender has already held talks with at least one prominent New York developer about getting the project over the line, the people added. By enabling visionary design and inventive finance, HFZ has become amagnet for the worlds top design talent, and is synonymous with agrowing number of firsts. In 2018 he paid more than $40 million for a downtown Manhattan penthouse at 160 Leroy Street, a record price for below 14th Street. That month, Feldman took over day-to-day management of the development firm. According to USIS, Feldman and Meir intermingled the XIs funds with their own in order to hide behind [the] owner and manipulate its assets and liabilities to avoid responsibility for paying the subcontractor. A spokesperson for Meir put the exit down to differences of opinion about the future direction of the business, adding that Meir remains committed to helping the company resolve outstanding issues surrounding its current projects., A spokesperson for HFZ, meanwhile, said only that Meir is no longer with HFZ nor authorized to act on its behalf in any capacity.. A corporate bankruptcy would force it to open its books and disclose all of its business dealings and creditors. He also owns a palatial waterfront home in the Hamptons on Dune Road. By then, 95 of the 215 units were being converted to condos. In the complaint, Abahramis lawyers accuse Feldman and Meir of fraud and intentional misrepresentation in connection with the loan. Abrahami wants the court to enforce a so-called good guy guarantee, signed in September 2020 by Feldman and Meir, making them personally liable for the loan. HFZs seasoned in house sales and marketing professionals draw on acombined track record of over five decades of experience and more than $20B in sales. NYC Developer Faces $49M Suit Over Defaulted Condo Loans The complaint also names lenders JPMorgan Chase and CIM Group, claiming they were aware of the violations and turned a blind eye. HFZ Capital Group Chairman and Founder Ziel Feldman discusses his current projects in Detroit with EisnerAmper Real Estate Services Group Partner Lisa Knee in Part 3 of this series. . The legal troubles continue for HFZ Capital Group's Ziel Feldman and its former principal Nir Meir: Another lender has sued the developer and his one time colleague, accusing the pair of fraud . Ziel Feldman - HFZ Capital Group | ZoomInfo Just saw the notices not good, Meir replied minutes later. July 09, 2021 03:36 PM. If you're not automatically redirected, please click here. ), The project was recently embroiled in a mob scandal in which members of the Gambino crime family allegedly bought off an HFZ executive so they could skim hundreds of thousands of dollars from it and other Manhattan projects. Feldman once bragged to TRD that he had the fortitude to move forward at a time of immense uncertainty. There appear to be two possible outcomes for Feldman: Suffer huge losses and take the reputational hit for biting off more than he could chew, or turn things around and emerge as one of real estates great survival stories. Paradoxically, distress in the condo market could work in HFZs favor. EisnerAmper Real Estate Services Group Partner Lisa Knee asks HFZ Capital Group Chairman and Founder Ziel Feldman about what drives him in Part 7 of this series. Last month, the company did a round of layoffs, with many of the cuts happening on the construction team and in the corporate office. HFZ obtained its interest in the buildings in a partnership with Westchester, New York-based industrial investment firm Reich Brothers. Following UCC foreclosure proceedings on at least part of HFZs industrial portfolio, Monroe purchased HFZs interest in the buildings at an auction in December 2020 interests that Abrahami says belonged to him. (Elliman is a subsidiary of Howard Lorbers Vector Group, which through its investment arm New Valley has a stake in the XI. Many developers saddled with unsold units in a sluggish market are in a tight spot. Rubin, a billionaire co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, has been on a luxury real estate shopping spree in recent years, Page Six reported. (The lender would need to file a foreclosure action or get HFZ to agree to work with another developer, according to a lawyer with experience in this area.) Depending on how you count, Harry Macklowe and Ian Bruce Eichner are on their third or fourth. Our Personal Tax Guide highlights tax planning ideas that may help you minimize your tax liability. HFZ-Reich will acquire additional properties throughout the US and leverage its vertical integration to serve as asingle solution to purchase facilities in as-is condition and repurposing industrial sites for future use and employment. EisnerAmper Real Estate Services Group Partner Lisa Knee interviews HFZ Capital Group Chairman and Founder Ziel Feldman, who looks back on his first property, in Part 5 of this series. Childrens declined to comment. Good guy guarantees, which make individuals personally liable for debt held by a business, are meant to dissuade guarantors from reckless financial dealings. Meir filed a countersuit in January, claiming he owned 95 percent of the property, and accusing Monroe and HFZ of scheming to fraudulently transfer the property to reduce Feldmans debt. Those efforts are ongoing.. Meir and Feldman parted ways in December as the HFZs real estate portfolio started unraveling and its properties faced foreclosure. Douglas Elliman, which handles sales at the project, has tried, unsuccessfully, to, The project was recently embroiled in a mob scandal in which members of the, Three of the most prolific condo developers in New York got their start together at Property Markets Group, which Feldman, a Queens-born former real estate lawyer, co-founded with banker Kevin Maloney in 1991. HFZ is one of New Yorks most prolific condo developers, with projects like the $2 billion XI development on the High Line in West Chelsea and the conversion of several pre-war apartment buildings into condos, including the famed Belnord apartments on the Upper West Side. Starwood Property Trust is suing Ziel Feldman's HFZ Capital Group for $157 million. HFZs multifaceted organization functions seamlessly, at the highest levels, across all real estate disciplinesfrom underwriting to analytics, structured finance, investment, development, construction and asset management. Ziel Feldman calls Nir Meir a 'sociopath,' compares XI lender to mobsters. Ziel Feldman Real Estate Development HFZ Capital Group Interview Part 6