After being blamed for allowing the Faneuil Hall Marketplace to fall into disrepair, Ben Ashkenazy is washing his hands of it altogether.
Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation is selling the famed Boston property to the J. Safra Group, the Boston Business Journal reported. The two sides announced the transaction on Monday, but terms of the deal have yet to be publicly disclosed.
New York-based Ashkenazy acquired the long-term lease for Faneuil Hall in 2011 from General Growth Properties; the city owns the land, while the landlord operates under a 99-year lease.
Both locals and officials were not happy with Ashkenazy’s decade-long management of the property, however. In 2020, the Boston Planning and Development Agency sent a notice of default to Ashkenazy over $2 million in outstanding payments-in-lieu-of-taxes owed to the city, according to NBC Boston, and in 2021, merchants complained of poor upkeep of the property which affected their sales. Last year, Lawyers for Civil Rights accused the landlord of treating shopkeepers of color unfairly.
Mayor Michelle Wu is pushing for more local businesses to occupy the dozens of shop stalls and restaurants in the marketplace, rather than national brands. Her administration is also calling on more investments towards the upkeep of the property. Safra promised to collaborate with the city on this.
In a statement, Ashkenazy COO Joe Press said it was an “honor and a privilege to have served Faneuil Hall Marketplace.”
The hardballing Ashkenazy has found himself in plenty of real estate skirmishes lately. He was recently accused in court documents of secretly recording a lender as the two sides fought over the $1 billion Union Station development in Washington, D.C.
Homeowners on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and in Chelsea are the latest to pick a fight with Ashkenazy, who has a reported net worth of $2.6 billion. In lawsuits, they’re claiming that they’re being forced to pay higher costs because Ashkenazy refuses to pay bills.
The J. Safra Group manages more than $300 billion in assets across the globe. Early in the pandemic, its real estate family office pushed ahead with plans to convert a portion of Manhattan’s 660 Madison Avenue (formerly the Barney’s department store) into residential and hotel units.
— Holden Walter-Warner