One of the city's grandest apartment buildings and one of the few major courtyard buildings, the Apthorp is one of the most important landmarks on the Upper West Side.

This is the handsomest, full-block courtyard building on the Upper West Side, considerably more elegant than the Belnord, which is on Broadway at 86th Street.

It was designed in 1908 by Clinton & Russell, who were the architects also of the Astor and Graham Court apartment buildings and the Cities Service skyscraper at 70 Pine Street.

In their excellent book, "The A.I.A. Guide to New York City, Fourth Edition," (Three Rivers Press, 2000), Norval White and Elliot Willensky wrote that "monumental and magnificent, this richly ornamented limestone Renaissance Revival building occupies an entire block," adding that "the individual entrances are reached through high vaulted tunnels and a large interior court in its center."

The double-height-entrance vaults have very handsome cast-iron gates and the facade is richly decorated with putti beneath the cornice.

It is across 79th Street from the First Baptist Church that was designed by George Keister in 1894 whose eclectic style was designed by White and Willensky as "overexuberant Italian Romanesque (Broadway division)?" The inside of the entrance gates facing Broadway have large heads of antelopes.

In his book, "New York's Fabulous Luxury Apartments with Original Floor Plans from the Dakota, River House, Olympic Tower and Other Great Buildings" (Dover Publications, Inc., 1975), Andrew Alpern noted that the Apthorp "originally contained ten apartments per floor," adding that "during the thirties and forties many of these were cut into smaller units to accommodate changing patterns of urban living."

"The apartments are particularly well detailed, with each of the original suites containing a room-sized foyer with a mosaic tile floor. There are glass-paneled French doors throughout, and many of the rooms are ringed with Wedgwood-esque [sic] friezes."

In her excellent book, "New York, New York, How the Apartment House Transformed the Life of the City 1869-1930," (An Owl Book, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1993), Elizabeth Hawes provides the following commentary about the Apthorp:

"William Waldorf Astor, who was called the landlord of New York despite the fact that he had lived in England since the 1890s, had been sitting on his properties for almost a generation, and his decision to build apartment houses on them now served to signal the world that the movement for development was nigh....Where a pretty two-story stone-and-frame house had stood for a century and a half, the Apthorp Apartments rose now. Until conversion to a roadhouse and hotel in the late 1850s, the house had been the country seat of Baron John Cornelius Van Den Heuvel, the son-in-law of the prominent lawyer Charles Ward Apthrope, and sat at the southern end of Apthorpe's rolling two-hundred-acre estate....Astor's endorsement of the Beaux-Arts courtyard building was early and expansive....The Graham was grand; the Apthorp was triumphant....Inside and out, the Apthorp was an exceptional building, and it showed off the new aesthetics to advantage....One hundred and four families lived in the Apthorp, which made it a vast holding, the largest of its kind in the world to date....There were hundreds of house phones or ash bins or mail chutes in the building, for example. On the top floor, there were 150 porcelain tubs, 20 boiling tubs, and 20 steam dryers in the laundry rooms - and as many irons in the ironing room...."

The Apthorp was built by the Astor family who also erected Astor Court, ten blocks to the north, which also has a large garden courtyard, but is not a full block building.

There is a subway station at Broadway and 79th Street. Riverside Drive is nearby as is Zabar's. There is excellent local shopping.

The free-standing, 12-story building has 163 rental apartments, no balconies, a rusticated limestone base, protruding air-conditioners and no health club.

In March, 2007, Africa-Israel USA, which is headed by Les Leviev, became a 50-50 partner with Mann Realty Services, which is headed by Maurice Mann, in the ownership of the Apthorp apartment building at 2207 Broadway.

Mann Realty Services acquired the landmark building in 2006 for $426 million.

In an interview March 8, 2007 with Bloomberg News, Mr. Mann said "this building is a big, beautiful, expensive, high-end rental and that's what we intend to keep it."

A two-paragraph article at the bottom of page A15 in that day's edition of The Wall Street Journal, however, reported it "will be converted to condominiums."

An article by Shira Horesh in that day's edition of Globes Online, Israel's Business Arena, said that the Apthorp has 163 apartments, of which 100 are rent-controlled and "up to 6,000 sq. m. in unused building rights." It said that Africa-Israel "intends to renovate the building" and "obtain building permits to expand the building in line with its unused building rights," adding that "the company plans to invest $95 million in the renovations, which it expects will take five years, including the sale of the apartments."

John Herbitter of Mann Realty Services told CityRealty.com March 8, 2007 that an application to the Landmarks Preservation Commission about the unused air rights "is in planning." He declined to comment on what the 50 percent partnership will cost Africa-Israel and also indicated that plans to convert the building to a condominium were not accurate.

The plans to convert the building to condominium apartments, however, did proceed but in December 2008 the partnership between Mann Realty and Africa Israel ran into difficulties.

According to a December 24, 2008 article by Christina S. M. Lewis in The Wall Street Journal Lev Leviev, the head of Africa Israel Investments Ltd., filed an emergency injuction in mid-December to "wrest control" of the condominium conversion of the Apthorp apartment house on Broadway from its managing partner and 50 percent owner, Maurice Mann, owner of Mann Realty.

The article maintained that the conversion "is in danger of defaulting, and only one unit has sold in the six months since the $1 billion project was announced, according to court documents and interviews with people familiar with the project." The court douments filed by Mr. Leviev's company charged that Mr. Mann has "run amok as manager" and spent "operations money on his personal legal fees" and allowed "employees in live in the Apthorp s vacant apartments."

The article said that Theodore Steingut, Mr. Mann's attorney, said he had not seen the injunction papers but maintained that "sniping" from Africa Israel "had made the project's management more difficult, and that many of Africa Israel's claims are in error."

According to the article, the conversion proceeded with Mr. Mann as the managing partner and "Anglo Irish Bank Corp. provided a $385 million loan and Apollo Real Estate Advisors LP gave a $135 million mezzanine loan to purchase, renovate and market the development."

"Last summer, the developers began offering condos at nearly $3,000 a square foot, placing the building's sell-out value at approximately $1 billion. But as the real-estate market plummeted, Apollo began objecting to the project's budget, saying its business plan no longer made sense because of falling prices and cost overruns. In August, Apollo made a capital call of $12 million to bring its loan back in balance. It was paid. In the first week of December, Apollo made another $22.7 million capital call. Apthorp's management, controlled by Mr. Mann, responded with a $500 million lawsuit, claiming the repayment request was an improper "ransom" payment and accusing Apollo of trying to take over the Apthorp at a bargain price. Mr. Mann quickly dropped the suit, but it infuriated Mr. Leviev, who moved to oust Mann Realty as manager," the article continued.

The article also noted that the former headquarters building of The New York Times at 229 West 43rd Street, which had been acquired last year by Mr. Leviev, an Israeli diamond merchant, remains "largely unleased even though the building's renovation is complete."

"Africa Israel shares have fallen more than 80% in the past year," the article said, "nd plummeted 20% in the past month alone, to $4.25 Tuesday on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. In the fall, Africa Israel announced a $475 million third-quarter loss because of falling real-estate values, mainly in Russia, and sold several of its New York assets to pay down debt. These included half its stake in the Times building, which an unnamed investor is buying for $50 million plus an assumption of half the building's $720 million debt. Mr. Leviev paid $525 million for the 780,000-square-foot landmarked building in 2007, triple what the New York Times Co. had sold it for just three years earlier. The 16-story building recently completed a $200 million renovation, according to a person briefed on the project. All floors are listed as available on its Web site, and some Midtown Manhattan office-leasing brokers said they hadn't heard of any deals. The Times building's leasing agents at CB Richard Ellis declined to comment."

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the Apthorp

A October 12, 2011 article at therealdeal.com by David Jones noted that Attorney General Eric Schneiderman shut down the sales office at the Apthorp, fined the developers $190,000 and ordered rescission for all contracted buyers following an investigation into misleading statements made to the AG months before they filed suit to block Anglo Irish Bank from selling their $385 million mortgage loan."

The Apthorp developers, led by Africa Israel USA and Broadwall Management, filed suit, the article continued, against the Anglo Irish Bank September 12, 2011, alleging the sale of the $385 million Apthorp loan would "adversely impact sales" and potentially "threaten the conversion project itself."

The Real Deal had reported in September that the suit directly contradicted a February filing with the AG, where the developers said the bank may sell the loan, but it would have no impact on them or on the 163-unit building, at 2211 Broadway.

"After The Real Deal inquired about the statements," the article said, "Schneiderman immediately fired off a letter to the developers Sept. 22, demanded a halt to all marketing and sales and demanded answers about the contradictory statements. A settlement was signed today with the signature of the sponsor's four principals, Tamir Kazaz, CEO of Africa Israel USA; Andrew Ratner, executive vice president of Broadwall and investors Ralph Braha and Robert Spiegelman."

Schneiderman said that "today's settlement will allow those who may have been misled by the Apthorp developers to be released from their contractual obligations, and makes it clear that this office will hold developers accountable to the law."

The developers, without admitting nor denying the allegations, the article continued, "will offer contracted buyers a 15-day window to get their deposits back. They will also wire $190,000 within the next few days to the AG, who will upon receipt, allow the sales office to open back up. According to Streeteasy.com, the Apthorp has 42 recorded sales and three listings under contract."

"The developers restructured the Apthorp debt in 2010 in a bid to get the condo on the right footing amid a weak market, but sales continued to be difficult as few buyers could obtain loans and the developers were unable to dislodge rent stabilized tenants at the property. In the lawsuit, the developers claimed the bank had agreed to hold 51 percent of the loan, but the bank decided to sell its entire U.S. portfolio following a 2009 takeover by the Irish government. The Real Deal reported last month that the bank specifically changed language in the loan documents that gave Anglo Irish the right to sell the loan to a third party without permission.

The Apthorp loan sale is part of a $9.5 billion loan sale to JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Lone Star Funds. Dallas-based Lone Star is buying a total of $5 billion in non-performing and sub-performing loans, including the $385 million Apthorp loan. The Apthorp loan balance was $224.9 million as of Sept. 3, court documents show."

In another article, published October 17, 2011, Mr. Jones wrote that "the developers of the Upper West Side's Apthorp condominium are planning to withdraw their lawsuit against Anglo Irish Bank, according to documents filed in New York state Supreme Court this past Friday, and will allow the lender to sell the property's troubled $385 million building loan to Dallas-based Loan Star Funds."

Anglo, the senior mortgage lender at the troubled condo, at 2211 Broadway, blasted the developers, led by Africa Israel USA and Broadwall Management, in a proposed order submitted to Judge Jeffrey Oing, detailing what it considers numerous attempts by the building sponsors to squirm out of their crumbling lawsuit, which sought to block the bank from selling the senior mortgage.