New York – Through the real estate boom, few new developers filled the city with luxury condominiums as fast as Shaya Boymelgreen. He turned Wall Street corner offices into minimalist bachelor lairs, built TriBeCa apartments snapped up by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and crowded the edges of Park Slope, Brooklyn, with condos.
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But Mr. Boymelgreen, 58, has since retreated mightily from the limelight as his fortune has reversed.
He is battling a bankruptcy filing against one of his companies, eviction from his Brooklyn headquarters — a judge ruled Tuesday morning that the proceedings could move forward early next year — and the seizure of a Queens theater in what the buyer calls a “friendly foreclosure.” Condo owners are filing lawsuits over his construction. He has cut his staff from 200 to 15, his spokeswoman says, and several former co-workers report that the five of his eight children who are in the family business are looking for other employment opportunities.
Mr. Boymelgreen arrived in New York City from Israel in 1969 and worked in asbestos removal before getting involved in small development projects. His break came in 2001, when he met the diamond magnate Lev Leviev on a Lubavitcher-sponsored cruise, and the two became business partners.
Hashem gives & takes.
galgal hachoizer, i think now its my turn to go up!
people love to read stories of how other people fail or fall, it makes them feel good about their own inadequacies. We should wish that our own brothers get wealthier and wealthier and help klal yisroel.
he is a wonderful person – i know him from the country – i wish him well
It is a shame. Nonetheless, businessmen have to know how to evaluate risk. If you bet your whole fortune when things are flush you risk losing it all. There is a reason the word is called “DEBT.” It means you do not own the property free and clear. You have to pay back the money or the lender FORECLOSES on the property. Pshita. There are no free gifts of loans in the business world. Only from Government !!! He should have applied for a Obama Bailout of free money like the big shots on Wall Street.
Hope he gets back onto his feet, what a nice and special guy.
Kind of Ironic that he and his mentor are both falling on hard times. This is the beginning of the iceberg as the air is rushing out of the commercial bubble much the way it did the residential housing bubble 18+ months ago. For many of Achainu B’nai Yisrael, this is going to hit hard.
Hashem Yerachme!
Shaya has always been a person of integrity. One of his great strengths is that he is a very optimistic person with great Bitachon. I”YH he and other Baalie Tzdeka like him that are having problems now will persevere.
I think that the opposite is true!
ppl love to hear when and see his friends get wealthy
i agree with # 11 …if you are involved in commercial real estate you know that the bubble is going to burst very soon. I am a commercial mortgage broker and speak with lenders and clients and i know some people are in big big trouble. The worst has yet to come….not even close.