Brooklyn-based developer Abraham Leifer is facing at least his third lawsuit this year after a lender claimed unpaid mortgages at an unfinished Brooklyn apartment project.
Lender Parkview Financial filed a lawsuit this week in Brooklyn Supreme Court against Leifer’s Aview Equities over mortgages at 57 Caton Place totaling $66 million, Crain’s reported.
The suit was first reported by PincusCo.
Aview defaulted on the three loans backed by the 131-unit apartment building in April, Parkview claims in the suit. The lender is aiming to take control of the partially completed project, requesting the court to appoint a receiver to collect rents and profits ahead of a potential sale.
Leifer acquired the site in 2014 for $7.2 million. His planned 130,000-square-foot development on the site is supposed to stand 95 feet tall with ground-floor retail space and underground parking.
Aview did not return a request for comment from Crain’s.
The lawsuit caps off a bumpy year for Leifer, with numerous problems popping up at his projects elsewhere in the city.
In June, he filed for bankruptcy to allow for a sale of 291 Livingston Street, a 21-story hotel project in Downtown Brooklyn. The project was nearly complete at the time, but lender Acres Capital was itching to foreclose, alleging the hotel’s ownership group defaulted on a $29.7 million mortgage.
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In March, Merchants Bank filed a lawsuit against the developer seeking to foreclose on a nine-story apartment conversion project at 19 West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan. Merchants alleged Leifer failed to repay the balance of a $36.7 million loan, on top of other defaults.
Leifer planned to expand the original 34,000-square-foot building he purchased from Salim Assa for $50 million in 2018. But he ultimately called off the vertical extension of the property and retained Serhant broker Bernadette Brennan to sell the property, marketing it for $42 million.
— Holden Walter-Warner