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‘Little’ developer slaps ‘big boys’ for collusion
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del.icio.usA self-admitted “unsympathetic” developer is battling the two titans of Brooklyn real estate — Bruce Ratner and Shaya Boymelgreen — whom he claims colluded to cheat him out of millions of dollars.
In a legal claim filed this week, Henry Weinstein, who owns properties near where Ratner hopes to build his Atlantic Yards mega-project, said Boymelgreen acted unlawfully when he transferred his lease in a Weinstein-owned building to Ratner last year.
“Two gorillas decided to mate,” Weinstein said.
Weinstein owns a former factory on Pacific Street that Boymelgreen has used as a headquarters since 1999.
Weinstein claims that in 2004, he and Boymelgreen spoke of pooling their Prospect Heights assets to challenge Ratner.
But at the same time, Weinstein says, Boymelgreen was making deals with Ratner, first selling the developer a building for $44 million — $24 million more than he paid for it just a few years earlier.
“Maybe some people are not going to be happy, but I’m not the one to block a big project that everybody wants to see going on,” Boymelgreen told reporters then.
More quietly, Boymelgreen transferred his lease in the Weinstein-owned building to Ratner on the same day.
That was done, Weinstein says, without his consent, cheating him out of millions of dollars and rights to develop the nearly one-acre site.
As a real-estate speculator himself, Weinstein wanted to play hardball with Ratner only to get hit with a beanball.
“Ratner’s people told me if I didn’t sell my building, the state would just kick me out,” Weinstein said. “And then he went behind my back to collude with my tenant to defraud me.”
Weinstein opposes Atlantic Yards — not because it would be bad for Brooklyn, but because of Ratner’s methods.
“He misrepresented the facts and no one would have caught him if I hadn’t,” said Weinstein, who admits that he is an “unsympathetic victim” of Atlantic Yards because he is fighting to make millions, not to kept his home, as some in the footprint are. “He has been disingenuous and certainly hasn’t dealt in good faith.”
Lawyers for Boymelgreen and Ratner declined to comment. Boymelgreen’s lawyer said in court papers that his client sent a copy of the lease agreement he made with Ratner, but the landlord never responded.
©2006 The Brooklyn Paper
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