By: Ellen Cans
A pair of developers, working together to create a Downtown Brooklyn skyscraper, have gotten themselves into a dispute.
As reported by Crain’s NY, the real estate titan, JDS development, spearheading work on the Brooklyn Tower at 9 DeKalb Ave., which is slated to become the tallest building in the borough, has found itself in a legal spat. As per the new lawsuit, Joseph Chetrit claims that JDS Development owes roughly $20 million on a deal they apparently sealed.
In 2015, the former partners had purchased the property for the construction site for about $90 million. Then in 2018, JDS had agreed to buy Chetrit’s stake in the project and pay for part of it with a $20 million promissory note, as per the lawsuit. They closed the deal in April 2019, and JDS gave Chetrit a promissory note for the $20 million, with owner Michael Stern himself personally guaranteeing the note. The promissory note matured April 22, 2020, and the deal said that an extra $1.5 million would be due if the note wasn’t paid off by that maturity date, court papers allege. So, the suit claims that JDS and Mr. Stern owed Chetrit $24.4 million, of which $10 million was paid off on Jan. 5, 2021. The balance remaining, according to Chetrit, was $14.4 million, for which about $8,000 in interest will continue to accrue daily. The outstanding balance continues to grow and as of Feb. 21, it was at roughly $17.6 million, with the $8,000 daily interest continuing to accumulate.
As per Crain’s, Chetrit’s lawsuit requests a judge to grant a summary judgment granting his companies the funds. A company representative for JDS disputed the allegations in the lawsuit. Chetrit and his attorney did not respond to the publication’s requests for comment.
The building at 9 DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn, situated by the historic Dime Savings Bank, is being marketed as the borough’s first supertall skyscraper. In November, construction topped off at the 93-story tower, which is clad in glass and bronze, reaching its full height of 1,066 feet. The project towers over the neighborhood, on a triangular lot facing Albee Square and bound by Flatbush Avenue Extension and Fleet Street, in what is considered Brooklyn’s most important commercial thoroughfare. Once complete, the project is slated to add roughly 400 apartments and 150 condos to the downtown Brooklyn neighborhood. About 30 percent of the apartments have been designated as affordable housing.
