An article at nytimes.com today by Charles V. Bagli said that the Fisher family last month filed a motion in the New York State Supreme Court demanding that Sheldon Solow pay them $16,625,000 as its share of the proceeds from a sale of land at First Avenue and 35th Street to the New York City School Construction Authority.
At one time, The Fisher family was a partner with Mr. Solow in the redevelopment plans for nine-acres along First Avenue south of the United Nations that they had purchased from Con Edison.
According to the article, "the Fisher family contends in State Supreme Court that Mr. Solow still owes them about $111 million plus interest for their remaining interest in the deal." The article said that "Mr. Solow countersued." "The two sides had recently hammered out an agreement to settle the dispute. But ultimately Mr. Solow, a highly litigious developer with more than 200 lawsuits to his credit, refused to sign on the bottom line."
"Mr. Solow also rejected the idea of settling his dispute with the estate of Howard P. Ronson. A justice in State Supreme Court had dismissed Mr. Solow's $115 million lawsuit against Mr. Ronson in 2005, calling the developer's conspiracy theory 'absurd' and the action 'completely without merit.' Mr. Solow has been contesting court-imposed sanctions against both him and his lawyer, who is now in prison on an unrelated matter.
Mr. Solow, who is 81, developed the very sleek, sloping office tower at 9 West 57th Street and also owns residential towers such as 245 East 66th Street and East River Plaza and is a well-known art collector.
According to real estate executives and former employees, the article said, Mr. Solow stopped going to his office at 9 West 57th Street in January after dismissing some executives and "his son, Stephan Solow, who had never shown any inclination to work beside his father, took charge, hiring Jay B. Fishoff to manage the holdings and trying to extinguish some of the many lawsuits his father had initiated."
The article said that the developer's 35-year-old son "offered to sell an undeveloped parcel on First Avenue to the developers Leonard Litwin and Douglas Durst, although his father later scuttled that move as well."
"The elder Solow has now returned; Mr. Fischoff has been dismissed. His son? He is back on the family wheat farm in Kansas," the article maintained.
Stephen B. Siegel, a top broker at CB Richard Ellis, quit last November and subsequently filed a lien for $1.6 million in unpaid commissions, the article said, noting that "Mr. Siegel's friends say that he became frustrated with Mr. Solow's refusal to lease space for anything less than boom-time rents of $200 per square foot." "Stefan Solow brought Mr. Siegel back, and Mr. Siegel once again tried to line up tenants. But when Mr. Solow returned to work last month, a deal fell through and, once again, the broker resigned," the article concluded.
At one time, The Fisher family was a partner with Mr. Solow in the redevelopment plans for nine-acres along First Avenue south of the United Nations that they had purchased from Con Edison.
According to the article, "the Fisher family contends in State Supreme Court that Mr. Solow still owes them about $111 million plus interest for their remaining interest in the deal." The article said that "Mr. Solow countersued." "The two sides had recently hammered out an agreement to settle the dispute. But ultimately Mr. Solow, a highly litigious developer with more than 200 lawsuits to his credit, refused to sign on the bottom line."
"Mr. Solow also rejected the idea of settling his dispute with the estate of Howard P. Ronson. A justice in State Supreme Court had dismissed Mr. Solow's $115 million lawsuit against Mr. Ronson in 2005, calling the developer's conspiracy theory 'absurd' and the action 'completely without merit.' Mr. Solow has been contesting court-imposed sanctions against both him and his lawyer, who is now in prison on an unrelated matter.
Mr. Solow, who is 81, developed the very sleek, sloping office tower at 9 West 57th Street and also owns residential towers such as 245 East 66th Street and East River Plaza and is a well-known art collector.
According to real estate executives and former employees, the article said, Mr. Solow stopped going to his office at 9 West 57th Street in January after dismissing some executives and "his son, Stephan Solow, who had never shown any inclination to work beside his father, took charge, hiring Jay B. Fishoff to manage the holdings and trying to extinguish some of the many lawsuits his father had initiated."
The article said that the developer's 35-year-old son "offered to sell an undeveloped parcel on First Avenue to the developers Leonard Litwin and Douglas Durst, although his father later scuttled that move as well."
"The elder Solow has now returned; Mr. Fischoff has been dismissed. His son? He is back on the family wheat farm in Kansas," the article maintained.
Stephen B. Siegel, a top broker at CB Richard Ellis, quit last November and subsequently filed a lien for $1.6 million in unpaid commissions, the article said, noting that "Mr. Siegel's friends say that he became frustrated with Mr. Solow's refusal to lease space for anything less than boom-time rents of $200 per square foot." "Stefan Solow brought Mr. Siegel back, and Mr. Siegel once again tried to line up tenants. But when Mr. Solow returned to work last month, a deal fell through and, once again, the broker resigned," the article concluded.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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