A private investment firm, Petermark II, filed suit in New York State Supreme Court November 8, 2010 against Ben Zion Suky and Yossi Zaga, developers of the Duplex, a 37-unit condominium apartment building at 215 Eastg 81st Street, "alleging they defaulted on a $2.5 million mortgage that they personally guaranteed," according to an article today at therealdeal.com by David Jones.

Petermark acquired the $2.5 million mortgage from investors Peter Stern and Mark Pnini, who originally made the loan to the developers September 2009, but Suky and Zaga allegedly failed to repay the loan and the default was declared this past September, according to the article.

"Petermark, the mortgagee, is foreclosing on its collateral, which is made up of six residential units and two commercial units in that building," said attorney Jonathan Freiberger, who represents the lender and is a partner at Gleich, Siegel and Farkas, in Great Neck, N.Y., the article said.

In 2006, the article said, Marathon Asset Management originally loaned the developers $14 million to acquire the former rental building and convert it into condo units. The developers later defaulted on the loan by failing to make monthly mortgage payments or cover the reserve fund, according to a 2009 foreclosure suit filed by Bank of America, the trustee of the loan. Lawyers for Bank of America and Marathon said the note was later sold to new investors, but it remains unclear what the new note holders plan to do with the property, the article said.

Attorney Charles Epstein, who represented Suky and Zaga in the Marathon foreclosure case, declined to comment, saying he did not have authorization to discuss the case.

Meanwhile, the developers were sued in 2008 by a firm called Global Hotels, which alleged it entered a lease agreement with the developers to use some of the unsold units as extended-stay hotel rooms, but the sponsor later kicked them out of the building after unit owners complained to the New York state attorney general's office, the article said.

By March 2009, it continued, "unit owners at the building filed suit against the developers, charging that they failed to pay common charges on the unsold units and also complained of serious defects in the construction of the building. Records filed with the city show the building was the subject of numerous citations by the fire and buildings departments. A partial stop work order was issued in January 2010 and a receiver was later appointed to oversee the property.

Victor Metsch, attorney for the unit owners, declined to comment. Lenore Kramer, the court-appointed receiver, was not immediately available for comment and nor were Suky and Zaga.

A July 6, 2010 article by Joey at curbed.com Tamarkin Anderson, a consultancy firm founded by Gary Tamarkin and Eric Anderson, were called in to "bail out" The Duplex and was "appointed directly by the Court as a referee to provide a detailed plan to complete the development."