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From left: Jared Kushner, Luis D. Ortiz and Dolly Lenz

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Clik here to view.New York real estate had a sizzling 2013, and The Real Deal was there every step of the way with breaking news, features and analyses of the industry’s most important trends. As we march into 2014, we look back at which web stories resonated most strongly with readers over the past year.

The top stories – determined by the number of page views between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 – run the gamut. From the rise and fall of the latest celebrity broker, to an analysis of a major retail deal, to a look at the newest power play in the East Village, the stories reflect both the breadth of our coverage and the diverse interests of our readers. Check out the list below, and be sure to look at our  list of the most popular magazine stories of the year here.

Meet Million Dollar Listing New York’s newest star: Luis D. Ortiz

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Luis D. Ortiz

In May, Puerto Rican-born Luis D. Ortiz announced himself in style with a starring role in “Million Dollar Listing New York,” a show in which he gained admirers for his passion and chutzpah, as well as for holding his own in clashes with co-star Fredrik Eklund. But a month before the show aired, Ortiz sat down with The Real Deal to discuss his life story, his move to New York and his aspirations in the nation’s most cutthroat market.

City law aimed at curbing erotic massage parlors mostly burdens health clubs
In 1978, the city passed a law meant to curb the proliferation of erotic massage parlors, remnants of a seedier New York that are thought to be hotbeds of prostitution. But early this year, our analysis showed that the law was mostly being used to regulate gyms and health clubs, creating a bureaucratic nightmare for owners of these establishments.

Keller Williams says adios to “MDLNY” star Luis Ortiz
Keller Williams NYC initially lapped up the attention that their broker Luis D. Ortiz commanded through his starring role in “Million Dollar Listing New York.” But by August, the firm had had enough and fired Ortiz, telling The Real Deal that his on-air shenanigans were to blame. Ortiz was caught completely unawares – in fact, he heard about his fate from The Real Deal reporter who broke the story. The dismissal came on the heels of a discussion among top industry folk about whether reality television was a pox upon the profession. Ortiz landed at Douglas Elliman, where he remains today.

Inside the record-setting, no-contract purchase of Soho’s 529 Broadway

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Rendering of 529 Broadway looking north on Broadway

One prime Soho retail building, multiple heavyweight suitors. And in the end, a record-breaking $150 million deal. Going behind the scenes, we chronicled how some of the biggest industry players – including Vornado Realty Trust, Invesco and SL Green Realty – lost out to a partnership between Jeff Sutton, Joe Sitt, Bobby Cayre and the Adjmi family. The story also crunched the numbers on what the new owners would look to milk from their latest trophy asset.

Manhattan’s 10 most distressed properties

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Stuyvesant Town

The era of the juicy distressed opportunity — in Manhattan at least – is coming to a close, and real estate investors are ruing the end of a lucrative asset class. Nevertheless, there remain a few big debt buys, and we reviewed data from analytics firm Trepp to find the borough’s 10 most distressed assets.

Kushner buys $130M portfolio of EV rental buildings

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Jared Kushner

Jared Kushner’s been a big name in New York City real estate for some time. But this year, he took it up a notch with some mammoth deals, including this $130 million play on the East Village for a portfolio of 17 walk-up apartment buildings. The portfolio – which was sold by Westbrook Partners and Magnum Real Estate Group’s Ben Shaoul — includes 267 apartments and 25 retail shops.

Dolly Lenz leaving Elliman: sources

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Dolly Lenz

The shot heard around the (real estate) world. In June, superbroker Dolly Lenz decided to part ways with Douglas Elliman after a 14-year tenure. Top industry brokers speculated that Lenz was leaving in order to set up her own shop and leverage her considerable brand, and that the decision had been some time in the making.

Sotheby’s CEO, manager could face penalties in dual agent probe

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Kathryn Korte

In the world of espionage, double agents aren’t treated too kindly. There’s no love lost for them in real estate either. In March, we broke the news that Kathryn Korte, the president and CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty, and Ellie Johnson, the manager of the firm’s Upper East Side office, may also face disciplinary action as the result of a state probe into allegations that top-producing broker Roger Erickson acted as an undisclosed dual agent.

More One57 buyers revealed — several are apparel magnates

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From left: 157 West 57th Street and Gary Barnett

Extell Development’s One57 is the priciest new development building in Manhattan — and probably the most controversial one too. In July, about a year and half after One57 units first hit the market, we looked at records from the New York Attorney General’s office to determine who was actually splashing down cash on these extravagant apartments. We found that several of them were apparel magnates, and that one purchaser put down a mere five percent deposit for a $47 million unit.

Rubin Schron offers $2B for Empire State Building

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The Empire State Building and Rubin Schron

In June, Rubin Schron, president of Cammeby’s International and one of the city’s major property owners, offered to pay an eye-popping $2 billion for the Empire State Building, an icon of the New York skyline. Schron’s play for the trophy asset came almost a month after the Malkin family, which controls the building, secured the necessary investor votes to take it public as part of a new real estate investment trust.

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Melissa Mark-Viverito and East Harlem home on East 111th Street

City Council member Melissa Mark-Viverito has a net worth of $1.5 million, but continues to receive benefits from a no-interest loan program through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

The city program, intended to assist low- and moderate-income homebuyers, allows Mark-Viverito to pay zero interest on a $70,400 loan she took out in order to buy a three-story townhouse on East 111th Street in Harlem, an investment property. She also saves money in city property taxes, including $2,590 off a 2012 bill of $8,291, through the program, the New York Daily News reported.

Meanwhile, she is partial owner of four Puerto Rico properties, including seven acres of undeveloped land, a house near San Juan, Puerto Rico, valued at $500,000, and two condominium units that are rented out, the News said.

Mark-Viverito is legally allowed to receive the no-interest loan benefits, despite the fact that her financial status is healthier now, the News said. She was eligible for the program in 1998, when she bought the 111th Street home and worked for a health care workers’ union.

As a Council member, Mark-Viverito currently earns $112,500 a year. She has served on the City Council since 2006.

She is a top candidate for the Council speaker seat, which Council members will decide next Tuesday.

“I find it very troubling that this woman who’s a multimillionaire lives in one of these units … (while) the rest of us in East Harlem are struggling to get by,” Gwen Goodwin, who competed against Mark-Viverito for her Council seat in September, told the News. [NYDN] — Mark Maurer

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Holly Leight

New Yorkers for Parks Executive Director Holly Leicht is taking up the director role at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for New York and New Jersey.

Leicht, nominated to the position by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, will oversee the continued roll out of Superstorm Sandy recovery efforts in her new role.

She will replace former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. in the post, which newly-sworn-in Mayor Bill de Blasio held in the 1990s during the Clinton administration. In her work as a parks advocate in the city, Leicht  most recently led a push for increased open space along Manhattan’s East Side. [Crain's] — Julie Strickland

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Shore Club hotel

From the South Florida site: An affiliate of Ziel Feldman’s HFZ Capital Group has acquired the historic Shore Club hotel in South Beach in a $175.3 million transaction, The Real Deal has learned.

New York-based Philips South Beach filed a special warranty deed transferring ownership of the 1901 Collins Avenue property to another New York company, Shore Club Property Owner, on Monday, according to Miami-Dade County records. The county recorded the deed on Tuesday.

The transaction was the most expensive involving a South Florida hotel in 2013.

Shore Club Property is managed by New York-based HFZ Capital Group, according to state corporate records. HFZ is a real estate development and investment firm founded nine years ago by Feldman. Calls to Feldman were not immediately returned.

Two mortgage assignments were filed concurrently with the deed. A $161 million loan from a group of lenders managed by Fortress Credit Corporation was assumed by Shore Club Property Owner. A second note totaling $12 million from the same group of lenders was also assigned to the company.

Those mortgages were obtained by Philips South Beach in June to resolve a lengthy foreclosure case. The company, managed by private real estate development and management firm Philips International, faced a June 25 online foreclosure auction of the property if it did not obtain new financing.

Philips International had a majority stake in the 309-room hotel. It is not immediately clear if the company is involved in the new ownership entity.

Hospitality operator Morgans Hotel Group handles guest operations at the Shore Club and has a minority interest of about seven percent in Philips South Beach, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Morgans’ website currently offers nightly room rates starting at $319.

The company’s most recent quarterly report, filed in November, hinted at a potential management or ownership shakeup. Morgans “continues to operate the hotel pursuant to the management agreement, but no assurance can be provided that [it] will continue to do so,” the company said in the quarterly filing.

The Shore Club was constructed in 1938. The 2.7-acre property last sold for $8.8 million in 1997.

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Sushi

A New York housing court has ruled against an East Village woman’s fight to continue to pay discounted rent, despite a defense based on her love of sushi.

Masako Mogi’s landlord alleged that her primary residence was in Vermont, not the East Sixth Street home, pointing to the unit’s tiny electric bill as evidence. But Mogi argued that the reason for the minimal ConEdision bills was that instead of cooking, she often ordered takeout or made sushi.

A housing court judge didn’t buy the angle and ruled in favor of the landlord, who aims to increase the rent from its current stabilized monthly rate of $992, the New York Daily News reported.

The case was originally filed in 2007, and Mogi has appealed numerous times since then. The Appellate Division overturned the lower court in October, but the case went back down to housing court after the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, ruled that the Appellate Division used the wrong standard in deciding the matter. After that, the Appellate Court changed its October stance and sided with the landlord.

Mogi, a retired interpreter, has lived in the studio apartment since 1980, according to the Daily News. [NYDN] — Julie Strickland

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From left: Alfred E. Smith houses in Lower Manhattan and home repair underway

The New York City Housing Authority, which receives 50,000 new repair requests every week, reduced a backlog of around 350,000 resident work orders in March to 106,000 by the end of the year, nearly hitting the agency’s goal of 100,000.

Over the past year, the number of outstanding repair orders got as high as 423,000, according to NYCHA information cited by the Village Voice. And because the authority classifies 90,000 of its pending orders as “normal work in progress,” the number is actually even better than the official numbers suggest, NYCHA officials told the Village Voice.

“With open work orders now at 16,000, this is the equivalent to the number of work orders NYCHA creates in 12 days,” NYCHA General Manager Cecil House said in a statement cited by the Village Voice.

Improved response times were largely responsible for the reduction in outstanding maintenance requests, NYCHA said. For example, the waiting time for carpenters fell from 270 days to 80 days on average last year. And extermination and mildew removal requests have stepped up in the face of a tenant suit against the authority that demands complaints glean a response within 15 days. [Village Voice] — Julie Strickland

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Higher mortgage rates for 2014? Count on it. Could this be the year to check out hybrid mortgages, which haven’t been popular lately? Maybe.

You can count on interest rates going higher because:
* The Federal Reserve intends to continue reducing its monthly purchases of mortgage bonds and U.S. Treasury securities, which will have the side effect of raising rates.
* The national economy finally appears to be picking up steam, based on the latest quarterly data. Higher growth rates in turn will increase demand for available credit and likely nudge rates higher.
* New federal regulations for mortgage lenders aimed at avoiding another bust take effect Jan. 10. Not only will loan officers and underwriters scrutinize applicants’ income, debt ratios and credit extra carefully, they’ll likely charge more for borrowers whom they see as a higher risk. Some mortgage economists predict that conventional 30-year fixed-rate loans could go to 5.5 percent before year-end.

So what does this mean for you if you’re thinking about buying a house or refinancing and you want to nail down the most favorable interest rate and terms? Should you shop primarily for a traditional mortgage product that guarantees you a specific rate for 15 to 30 years?

Or should you check out what’s also on the shelf in the way of hybrids — loans that provide you a guaranteed fixed rate for a predefined period of time, say five, seven or 10 years — then convert to a rate that can change annually?

The case for sticking with a traditional, fixed-rate mortgage is straightforward. Though 30-year rates are more than a percentage point higher this month than they were a year earlier, they are still not far off multi-decade lows. Bruce A. Calabrese, president of Equitable Mortgage Corporation in Columbus, Ohio, is adamant: “My advice for home buyers” in the new year, he says, “is to lock [early] into a 30-year fixed” while rates are still under 5 percent. “Take a 30-year fixed at 4.75 percent and be happy” because that’s still far below average rates over the past several decades.

Paul Skeens, president of Colonial Mortgage Corporation in Waldorf, Md., agrees. “If fixed [rates] are under 5.5 percent and you are going to live in your home for five years or more, they are still a great deal,” he says. “I’m very partial to fixed rates since I remember when anything under 7 percent was a great deal.”

To illustrate Skeens’ and Calabrese’s historical point, consider these average annual 30-year fixed rates: In 1974, they averaged 9.19 percent nationwide, according to mortgage investor Freddie Mac. By 1984, they were at 13.88 percent. In 1994, fixed rates averaged 8.38 percent; and in 2004, 5.84 percent.

But what if you say: I don’t care about what rates were in previous decades. That was then. I’m here and now. I’m more concerned about being able to afford today’s housing prices on today’s income and household expenses.

Jeff Lipes, a lender in the Hartford, Conn., area and former president of the Connecticut Mortgage Bankers Association, believes that hybrids with fixed rates for between five and 10 years “are fantastic options for borrowers” in 2014, and can lock in rates that are one or more percentage points below competing 30-year fixed loans.

“Most first-time buyers purchase a home that will be sold when the family income increases or the family outgrows the house,” Lipes says. “That usually occurs in the first 10 years, so that is why a [hybrid] is a great option. The borrower saves a lot of money” — sometimes hundreds of dollars a month — “paying a lower rate.”

A check of Bankrate.com’s online rate monitor in late December found five-year hybrids averaging around 3.4 percent nationwide, seven-year hybrids at 3.81 percent and 10-year hybrids at 4.16 percent. Thirty-year fixed rates averaged 4.63 percent.

Ted Rood, senior mortgage consultant with Wintrust Mortgage in St. Louis, says he’s already seeing a shift in demand toward five- and seven-year hybrids. He just closed a seven-year at 3.5 percent on a house in Wyoming for a borrower who fully understood the risk that he could face higher rates at the conversion point in late 2020.

Bottom line for you if you’re in the market: Check out all the options on the menu. If you are comfortable with the potential risks, and the monthly savings advantages of a hybrid are substantial, go for it.

Kenneth Harney is a syndicated real estate columnist.

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Gary DePersia and shoring up the shore in Sagaponack

An ongoing $26 million project to extend the Hamptons beachfront and protect homes against future storms is already boosting real estate prices in the area.

About 3 million cubic yards of sand is helping to expand the beachfront toward the sea at an average of 75 feet to 100 feet in towns such as Sagaponack, Southampton and Water Mill. Homeowners in a beach erosion control taxation district pay for the project over the course of a decade, the New York Times reported.

Brokers say that this will boost buyers’ confidence and lift prices even higher. At the moment, there are 10 oceanfront listings in those towns, one of which is a Bridgehampton home asking $29 million.

Corcoran Group associate broker Gary DePersia hiked up the listing price of a three-bedroom cottage on the ocean in Water Mill in August, to $9 million from $8.5 million. He immediately received several offers and, in four months, it was in contract.

The project “will stabilize the beach, enhance the aesthetics and add value to every house that is on the ocean,” DePersia told the Times. [NYT] — Mark Maurer

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From left: Faith Hope Consolo and Louis Vuitton’s Madison Avenue outpost at 1 East 57th Street

As European fashion houses and high-end newcomers remain undeterred by rising retail rents, rates are expected to continue their skyward climb in 2014.

Along fashionable Madison Avenue, particularly the stretch from East 52nd Street to East 72nd Street, rents now average $1,380 per square foot — a 42 percent rise from the fall of 2012, according to data from the Real Estate Board of New York, cited by Crain’s. Fifth Avenue retail spots are topping $3,100 per square foot for the first time, and Times Square rates have stretched as high as $2,175 per square foot between West 42nd and West 47th streets, between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, REBNY said.

“I expect the rents not only not to go down, but to climb a little more,” Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail leasing at Douglas Elliman, told Crain’s. “If this momentum continues, in the first quarter we’ll see a 5% to 7% increase.”

For posh brands such as French clothier Kering and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, top-dollar rates for prominent locales are well worth the extra cost, Robert Futterman, who runs the brokerage firm RKF, told Crain’s.

“It’s not just for a flagship, it’s a marquee for the brand,” he told Crain’s. “You can chalk up part of the rent to advertising and marketing.”

High rents along trendy avenues is also making less-prominent spots increasingly viable options, such as areas south of $600-per-square-foot Soho and an increasingly active Lower Manhattan. [Crain's] — Julie Strickland

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54 Bond Street and Jerome Benayoun

A Bond Street corner retail condominium housing designer menswear store Billy Reid has hit the market for $13 million, listing broker Jerome Benayoun, founder of investment company Black Diamond Advisory Group, told The Real Deal.

The 4,622-square-foot space, at 54 Bond Street, is located on the ground floor of a luxury condo project built by developer Adam Gordon. The white, cast-iron building, on the corner of the Bowery, was previously the site of the Bouwerie Lane Theatre.

Gordon sold the retail condo to a foreign investment partnership for $5.5 million in 2010. The partnership is now looking to offload the property since its principals have different priorities moving forward, according to Benayoun.

The partnership, known as YHD Bowery Commercial LLC, could not be reached for comment.

It was rumored last year that luxury fashion retailer Intermix had signed on to lease the condo, but those rumors were quickly quashed. Indeed, Billy Reid’s lease does not expire until 2018. Intermix later signed on for another location nearby, at 332 Bowery.

The condo is comprised of two retail spaces separated by the lobby of the building. Each has a dedicated entrance on both Bowery and Bond Street. Billy Reid occupies 1,024 square feet of ground floor space and 1,049 square feet on the lower level.

Meanwhile, Bowery retail has been heating up. In one recent high-profile transaction, David Edelstein’s Tristar Capital paid $15.75 million for the 11,000-square-foot retail condominium at VE Equities condo development 250 Bowery last year. Prior to the sale, the retailer slated for the location, Athropologie, backed out of the reported deal to lease the space.

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From left: Queen Latifah and her listed home in Colts Neck, New Jersey

The Colts Neck, N.J., home of “Living Single” and “Chicago” star Queen Latifah is on the market for $2.39 million.

Coldwell Banker Residential’s Robin Jackson has the listing for the 7,500-square-foot home, which boasts six bedrooms and five full- and three half-baths on 9 acres, the Wall Street Journal reported. An exercise room, game room, five-car garage and heated, Olympic-sized swimming pool are also features.

Queen Latifah, whose real name is Dana Owens, purchased the sprawling pad in her home state for $1.685 million from a developer in 2001, the Journal reported. Now that she has her own daytime talk show, “The Queen Latifah Show,” based in California, she is spending less time in the Garden State, Jackson told the Journal.

“Many incredible memories have been shared with those closest to me and my family in this home,” Owens told the Journal. “I am confident that the new owners will love the home and the Colts Neck community as much as I do.”

Likely not up for grabs, Jackson told the Journal, is a Yamaha piano on the home’s ground floor that was featured in Alicia Keys and Jay Z’s music video “Empire State of Mind.” Emblazoned with an image of the New York City skyline, Owens picked up the ivories at a charity auction. [WSJ] — Julie Strickland

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From left: Dan Garodnick and Melissa Mark-Viverito

City Council member and would-be Speaker Dan Garodnick, a thorn in the Bloomberg administration’s side during the failed Midtown East rezoning bid, is softening the real estate industry’s stance against him.

Up against Melissa Mark-Viverito for the speakership, Garodnick is beginning to convince industry insiders that he is the more experienced of the two contenders, Capital New York reported.

“Most if not everyone in the industry believes [Garodnick] is clearly qualified to do the job,” a Democratic lobbyist told Capital New York. “The issue is Mark-Viverito doesn’t have much experience with [land use decisions].”

In a recent speaker forum, Mark-Viverito dubbed the Midtown East rezoning plan a “big giveaway,” the lobbyist said. “Now I understand one would argue there were flaws with the plan, but the rhetoric seems excessive.”

Mark-Viverito currently has Mayor Bill de Blasio’s backing, but Garodnick has won the support of real estate executives aligned with Democratic county leaders in Queens and the Bronx. And the Hotel Trades Council, despite Garodnick’s push for hotel worker labor agreements as part of the Midtown East proposal, is backing Mark-Viverito, Capital New York reported.

Garodnick had no comment for Capital New York’s story. [Capital NY] — Julie Strickland

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The Real Deal has new content seven days a week.

Introducing The Real Deal: Weekend Edition. Starting at 9 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday, TRD brings you the must-read New York City real estate news from across the web, with a focus on design, architecture, neighborhoods and international properties. Now get your real estate fix every day of the week. Check out TheRealDeal.com, our Twitter feed at @trdny, or our free mobile app, available in the iTunes App store and on Android.

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From the January issue: December was a robust month for office leasing in Manhattan, with high-profile deals signed in all three major markets of Midtown, Midtown South and Downtown. As of Dec. 27, a total of 9.1 million square feet of office space was leased in Manhattan in 2013’s fourth quarter, according to data from commercial brokerage Colliers International. [more]

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11 Avenue A

Lower East Side development and investment firm Better Living Properties, led by Abraham Soudry, is converting a three-story retail building into a six-unit apartment complex in the East Village.

For more than 50 years, Jewish religious supplies shop Ben Ari Arts has occupied the space at 11 Avenue A, between East 1st and East 2nd streets. Midtown-based Robert Strong Architect has been hired to handle the conversion, according to Department of Buildings records filed today. The property will gain an extra floor and go to 5,020 square feet from 3,782 square feet.

Better Living acquired the site last month from the storeowners for $3.4 million, BuzzBuzzHome reported. Ben Ari, which originally opened at 201 Allen Street in the 1940s, sells menorahs, prayer shawls, mezuzahs and Seder plates.

Soudry pleaded guilty in 2010 to bribing an undercover investigator who was posing as a building inspector, the New York Daily News said. [BuzzBuzzHome] — Mark Maurer

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Brooklyn’s River Cafe at 1 Water Street

1. ShoP Architects draws up mansion plans for Rhinelander Children’s Center, listed for $20 million on the Upper East Side [Curbed]
2. Hercules wreaks havoc on institutionally-owned properties [HousingWire]
3. The latest fad in billionaire real estate? Making over entire New York City buildings [NYO]
4. De Blasio’s Stan Brezenoff appointment sparks brief outcry among anti-hospital closure activists [Brooklyn Paper]
5. Brooklyn’s River Cafe to reopen Feb. 1, following New Year’s Day test run [NYO]
6. Fulton Street retailer closes to make way for 22,000-square-foot Planet Fitness gym [DNAinfo]
7. Media company Video Concepts picks up $2.15 million Woodside property [Brownstoner]
8. Peek inside Jill and Jimmy Haber’s 25-foot wide Upper East Side townhouse [NYT] — Julie Strickland

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2198 Cruger Avenue in Bronxdale (Inset: Jeff Klein)

Tenants of a six-story Bronxdale apartment building have called on local leaders to urge their landlord to provide adequate heat and hot water, which they allege he has not.

The 88-unit property at 2198 Cruger Avenue has 92 open housing code violations, according to city Department of Housing Preservation and Development records cited by the New York Daily News. The ownership corporation, 724 Pelham Parkway LLC, has refused to address the complaints, tenants said.

Some of the tenants have had to leave to find warm shelter, or attempt to heat the home with an oven. Tenants met with state Senator Jeff Klein of the Bronx, who plans to speak to the landlord Monday. The landlord declined to comment to the Daily News.

“I can’t take a shower. Do you know what it’s like to put on dirty clothes? It’s disgusting. It messes up your whole day,” Marisa Davis told the Daily News. “We’ll have heat for three days, then we won’t for four days.”

Inspectors from HPD visited on New Year’s Eve and found that the building had an appropriate level of heat. [NYDN] — Mark Maurer

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The Lenox condominium at 360 Lenox Avenue

For the buyers at one of Harlem’s first market-rate condominium projects, the living quarters haven’t matched expectations.

The board of managers of the Lenox condo building at 360 Lenox Avenue in Upper Manhattan is suing the former sponsor, an entity controlled by Lewis Futterman’s Uptown Partners, over claims that the property is riddled with building code violations and rife with construction defects. The board also claims that Futterman has attempted to defraud the board and avoid facing liability over the alleged construction failures.

The suit was filed Dec. 31 in New York State Supreme Court.

Futterman declined to comment, except to say that the issue was between the residents and the construction company which built the project.

To the board, however, it was the developer who failed to provide residents who bought off floor plans in 2006 with units that met the guidelines of the original offering plan. Indeed, the building has fundamental structural flaws, a defective roof and pervasive leakage, the board claims.

Thus far, unit owners have ponied up $260,000 for repairs, but an additional $4 million is required to complete the necessary work, according to the complaint. As a result, the board is seeking a judgment against the sponsor for damages for fraud and breach of contract, and seeking at least $4 million.

The 77-unit, 12-story building initially launched sales in 2006, when 42 of the units sold, but the sponsors soon fell into financial difficulties and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009. Sales relaunched when the sponsor came to a deal with its lender in 2011.

Futterman and the sponsorship entity did not try to rectify construction problems after the residents complained as early as 2010, according to the complaint.

In another twist, the board alleges that Futterman attempted to defraud buyers by transferring ownership of unsold sponsor units from the sponsorship entity to Uptown in December 2012 in a bid to put him beyond the reach of the board. Without the units in the sponsor’s name, the sponsorship entity would be unable to pay any judgments to the board.

“Uptown partners and the sponsor is one and the same,” said Andrea Roschelle, the attorney for the board. “This is a scheme to make sure that the condo unit owners are going to have to pay for these repairs when, in fact, it’s the responsibility of the sponsor.”

Futterman, the complaint claims, actually lives in the building and has been heard to complain about the construction problems himself, including leaks in his own unit from the dodgy roof.

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From left: Setsuko Hattori, Masae Fujimoto and 15 Central Park West

Price: $15,500,000
Listing broker: Setsuko Hattori and Masae Fujimoto of Douglas Elliman
Address: 15 Central Park West

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From left: Carol Staab and 1049 Fifth Avenue

Price: $14,950,000
Listing broker: Carol Staab of Douglas Elliman
Address: 1049 Fifth Avenue

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From left: C.B. Whyte and 22 Jane Street

Price: $9,100,000
Listing broker: C.B. Whyte of Stribling & Associates
Address: 22 Jane Street

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From left: 210 Lafayette Street and Kyle Blackmon

Price: $6,900,000
Listing broker: Kyle Blackmon of Brown Harris Stevens
Address: 210 Lafayette Street

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From left: Jennine Gourin, Marcos Cohen and 502 Park Avenue

Price: $6,800,000
Listing broker: Jennine Gourin and Marcos Cohen of Douglas Elliman
Address: 502 Park Avenue — Julie Strickland

Sources: StreetEasy and The Real Deal. Footnotes: Data is for closed deals filed with the city this week through Friday. The chart only includes sellers’ brokers, because buyers’ brokers’ names are not available in city data or listings. The data does not include deals in contract. To obtain broker information, listing information was compared with sales records filed with the city. Only deals where an individual broker and address can be identified are included. As a result, private sales, listings where an address has not been provided and new development sales by a sales center are not included.

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Porsche Design Tower

It’s no secret that Miami has long been an epicenter of luxury living for celebrities and billionaires. Luxury condo developments are springing up all over the area, and the housing recovery is going strong throughout the state.

The 60-story Porsche Design Tower is no exception, and now it’s attracting billionaires at rapid speed.

Though it won’t be ready for move-in until 2016, 22 billionaires (2 percent of the world’s total) have purchased units there so far, according to the Atlantic Cities. And they’re going fast — 80 percent of the 132 units are already under contract, representing a whopping $624 million in sales.

Like many of the other luxury condo developments in Miami-Dade County, the Porsche Design Tower has some crazy amenities, including a movie theatre, spa, and plunge pools on almost every balcony.

The tower’s most distinctive feature, however, is clear from its name. Three car elevators will bring billionaires and their luxury vehicles straight to the door of their condo, allowing them to park their cars in a “sky garage” connected to each unit.

The building is a collaboration between South Florida-based Dezer Development and Germany’s Porsche Design Group, whose $214 million loan is the largest that’s been approved for a major construction project in the Southeast since the recession. In fact, it’s nearly 30% larger than the previous largest post-recession construction loan.

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