Angela Iannelli and her 11-year-old Blue Macaw, Luke, missing.
It isnt about the parrot, a lawyer for Angela Iannelli told me.
The issue, insisted the lawyer, Michael Rosenzweig of Edgar Snyder & Associates in Pittsburgh, was the distress inflicted on Ms. Iannelli by Bank of America Corp.s bungling. As we reported Wednesday, the bank apologized for an incident in which its contractors entered her home near Pittsburgh while she was out, cut off utilities, padlocked the door and confiscated her pet parrot. Though Ms. Iannelli had fallen a month or so behind on mortgage payments, her case hadnt reached the stage at which Bank of America would be justified in taking such actions to secure the collateral.
She had to find someone with a bolt cutter to get back into her own house.
Ms. Iannelli, 46 years old, alleges that the incident — which separated her from her 11-year-old parrot, Luke, for more than a week — caused so much emotional distress that she needed a prescription medication for anxiety.
Journalists who cover the foreclosure crisis get calls and emails every day from Americans who complain about banks disorganized and sometimes cold-hearted responses to people trying to save their homes. (We dont hear about the cases in which bank employees do a good job, and surely that happens in many cases.) So why write about Luke the parrot? Because Luke makes a good symbol of what happens when bureaucratic organizations are overwhelmed by a wave of human misery.
Banks mortgage-lending departments are efficient when it comes to making loans and collecting payments. Theyve honed their employee incentives and procedures over decades. They didn’t spend nearly as much time thinking about how to handle defaults and foreclosures because it was always assumed those would remain the exception, to be handled by an obscure department known as loss mitigation.
Today distressed borrowers are hardly exceptional. Nearly eight million households, or 15% of those with mortgages, are behind on their payments or in the foreclosure process. Many borrowers complain that they get the runaround when they call their lenders for help, receive contradictory information from different employees and are required to repeatedly fax in same documents.
Suicide threats from distressed borrowers are so common that one lender, OneWest Bank Group, Pasadena, Calif., has had to establish procedures for alerting the police. Lenders call-center employees are under heavy pressure. These people make $14 or $15 an hour and we ask them to move mountains, a OneWest executive said at an industry conference last month.
In her suit, filed Monday in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, Ms. Iannelli says a contractor hired by Bank of America entered her house about 15 miles north of Pittsburgh in mid-October when she was away. In what it describes as an invasion of the home, the lawsuit says that the contractor stopped utility services, cut water lines and electrical wiring, damaged flooring and finishings, poured antifreeze into sinks and toilets and stole the parrot.
Ms. Iannelli, who owns a diner and works part time as a bartender, alleges in her suit that Bank of America representatives were unhelpful when she called in to protest. They first told her they had no idea where the parrot was. Days later, they finally determined that Luke was at the offices of the contractor in Ebensburg, Pa. — 80 miles from her home. Bank of America didnt deliver Luke home. Instead, Ms. Iannelli had to drive across a mountain range to fetch him. The round trip took about four hours.
Anyone who has ever tried to sort out a minor problem with a credit-card bill or bank statement by dialing an 800 number will sympathize with Ms Iannelli. She says bank representatives at various times during her ordeal told her they were tired of hearing from her, said their computers were down, put her on hold, asked her to called back later, hung up on her, and advised her to seek help from the police if she was so worried about her pet.
Her lawyer, Mr. Rosenzweig, said Ms. Iannelli is seeking damages of more than $50,000. The amount of any damages would be decided by a jury if the court goes to trial.
A Bank of America spokesman said the bank will quickly to review the allegations in the lawsuit, the actual events that led to them and the causes of those events, and consider any hardship that resulted.
After she drove two hours to reclaim her parrot in October, Luke initially seemed nervous, Ms. Iannelli said in an interview Wednesday. Hes doing very well now, she said.
Luke, a macaw with blue and orange plumage, now may be the nations most famous parrot. His picture was in The Wall Street Journal; he appeared on ABCs Good Morning America television show Thursday.
The parrot had no comment.
Please follow me for housing news on Twitter @jamesrhagerty
Tribeca's Independence Plaza North has been among the many bidders for the "next Stuy Town" title, but according to the state's Division of Housing and Community Renewal, it shouldn't get it. A bit of backstory: landlord Laurence Gluck pulled the 1,339-unit Independence Plaza North complex out of the Mitchell-Lama program in 2004 but continued receiving J-51 tax breaks for two years after that. Realizing this could end up causing rent problems, Gluck repaid two years of the tax breaks to the city, and the city retroactively agreed that he had stopped getting them in '04. Tenants sued, arguing that their rents just should have been stabilized all along, and the judge in the case asked for DHCR's opinion, the Times reports. DHCR's ruling was...not to make a ruling. The city runs the J-51 program, DHCR said, so if the city says Gluck stopped receiving J-51 benefits in 2004, '04 it was. The judge still has the final say, so this could all go the other way. But given what the rest of his day looks like, Gluck's probably happy for any positive vibes.
· Albany Sides with Independence Plaza in Rent Suit [NYT]
· Tribeca's Stuy Town Case Gets a Little Help From the Feds [Curbed]
1. Former Cendant owner Henry Silverman on Hamptons, NYC real estate buying spree [Post, 5th item] 2.Prudential to launch collaborative virtual tours [Inman News] 3. $19.5M townhouse at 26 West 76th Street in contract [Post, 3rd item] 4.Westin Times Square Hotel forced to pay $3M in damages for hidden camera above baker's work station [NYDN] 5. Inside "Real Housewife" Ramona Singer's UES condo [Post] 6.City-run Bronx apartment buildings more hazardous than meets the eye [NYDN] 7. Homes of the world's richest people, in pictures [Forbes] 8. Screenwriter Paul Schrader buys $1.9M condo at Modern23 [Post, 2nd item] 9.ZipRealty loses $2.1M in fourth quarter [Inman News]
Manhattan residential sales activity picked up for the Corcoran Group in February, according to market data from the residential brokerage. Condominium unit sales
closed by the company increased 9 percent month-over-month, according to the
company’s monthly market snapshot, while co-op sales shot up 23 percent
during that same time period. But while co-op sales prices were able to hold
steady with an approximately 5 percent increase between January and
February, condo prices were 4 percent lower in February 2010 than they were
in the previous month. TRD
While he’s been facing his share of woes at the World Trade Center site, the drama has now moved uptown for developer Larry Silverstein. His building at 575 Lexington Avenue on the corner of 51st Street is facing imminent default, according to Crain’s, as the $325 million loan that he and the California State Teachers Retirement System jointly hold was transferred to a special servicer today. A Silverstein Properties statement said that the company requested the transfer as a part of ongoing negotiations between the lender and the loan holders.
EEmerge, an office business center subsidiary of SL Green Realty, has just moved into the 11th and 12th floors of SL Green-owned 1515 Broadway, the famous Times Square home of Viacom and site of MTV studios. The 54-story, 1.9 million-square-foot building, which counts Viacom as its main tenant, will now serve as eEmerge’s main headquarters. The affiliate group, which focuses on flexible and short-term office space, will be utilizing a total of 65,000 square feet in the 72 percent occupied building. TRD
SOHO—The streets of Soho have its many protectors, especially around Howard Street. Today's gripe from a Curbed reader has nothing to do with Canal Street spillover, and everything to do with ConEd's recent underground repairs: "Where can someone like me denounce this scarring crime on Crosby Street between Howard and Grand? It is ridiculous how ConEd just removes the cobble stone and replaces it with asphalt. How can they get away with this! This is ridiculous!" We thought chicks dig scars? [CurbedWire Inbox]
UWS—Anger seems to be a common thread running through the CurbedWire today, as another reader writes, "OK. SO THE 20TH FL PENTHOUSE IN THE 'HOUSE' PORTION OF 15 CPW IS FEATURED IN THE APRIL 2010 ISSUE OF ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST. WHY HAVEN'T YOU REPORTED THIS !!!!" We're sorry! Our only magazine subscription is to Cracked. The AD website still has the March issue stuff up, which happens to include a rather lovely 45th floor apartment somewhere on the Upper West Side. Anyone care to identify that one while yelling at us? [CurbedWire Inbox]
Prudential Douglas Elliman gave The Real Deal an update on its new Web site, which will include VOW capabilities and track listings’ price changes. Elliman has spent a year and more than $1 million developing the new Web platform, which is slated to launch the first week of April, according to Stephen Kotler, an executive vice president at the company. The redesigned site will include a virtual office Web site, or VOW, that allows customers to see not only Elliman’s listings, but all of the properties for sale in the markets where Elliman has offices: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Hamptons, and Long Island. Kotler, who is overseeing the launch of the new site, said the fact that Elliman’s VOW capabilities extend to markets outside New York City will set it apart from other brokerage Web sites. “What will make ours stand out is the fact that it’s not just Manhattan,” he said. “There’s nobody in the marketplace that is going to deliver all the [region’s] listings in one place.” “What will make ours stand out is the fact that it’s not just Manhattan,” he said. “There’s nobody in the marketplace that is going to deliver all the [region’s] listings in one place.”
Another New York office building is in imminent default.”
Larry Silverstein, of Silverstein Properties, Inc. and the California State Teachers Retirement System paid $416 million in 2006 for the Manhattan skyscraper at 575 Lexington Avenue.
Today, the propertys $325 million loan has been transferred to a special servicer, because the lender thinks the loan has a higher probability of defaulting during the term, according to Fitch Ratings, which analyzes commercial mortgage-backed securities. As of Oct. 2009, the building had $7 million remaining on its $10 million cash reserve, according to Fitch.
A spokesman for Silverstein, Dara McQuillan, emailed a statement in response to our query:
The transfer of the 575 Lexington Avenue loan to special servicer was done at our request to help facilitate ongoing discussions with our lender about a modification to our loan, which is not currently in default. We are optimistic that these discussions will be productive. This action has no impact on tenant services. Further, the debt is secured exclusively by the property and is not cross-collateralized with any others. It does not impact any other developments or properties in which Silverstein Properties and its various partners are invested. ”
The skyscraper was built in 1958 and renovated in 1990, according to CoStar Group. After buying it in 2006 for roughly $650 a foot, Silverstein installed a new entrance, renovated the lobby with Italian marble and put in new elevators, with the goal of renewing new tenants at higher rents when their leases expired, according to Fitch. At the time the building was 94% occupied, according to Mr. McQuillan. But today, the buildings vacancy has risen. Silverstein said that it is in negotiations with a tenant that would put the building at more than 89% occupancy.
Mr. Silverstein is best known as the developer who purchased the World Trade Center lease six weeks before the September 11 terrorist attacks. His company is currently negotiating with The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey in an attempt to work out a stalemate over that site’s redevelopment. An arbitration panel set a deadline of Friday close of business for the parties to hash out a new construction timetable agreement.
Pricespotter is Curbed's asking price guessing game. We provide you with some details and pictures from an apartment listing, and you take a crack at the price in the comments. Tomorrow we reveal the answer. And hey, no cheating!
What/Where: 3BR, 2.5BA condo on Prospect Park West between 9th and 10th Streets Square Feet: 1,800 Maintenance/CC: $507 The Skinny: There's a whole lotta green in this Park Slope unit. And we're not just talking about the paint colors! The apartment comes with a "semi-private" green roof deck, whatever that means, and park views. For the less environmentally preoccupied, there's also keyed elevator access. Plus, it's, uh, close to the F train. Okay, we're running out of steam, so we'll cut right to the question: how much?
1. City to retain rights to Tavern on the Green name [Newsday] 2.Vornado, Brookfield out of the race to own WTC space [NYO] 3. State officials give city go ahead to complete Brooklyn Bridge Park [NYT] 4. AY opponents decry Nets arena groundbreaking as burying “the Soul of Brooklyn” [Atlantic Yards Report] 5. Patrons braving tiny eateries, as space rents at a premium [Post] 6.NYC coffee shops gaining clout, street cred [NYT] 7.WNET getting on-the-street studio space [NYConvergence] 8. Oakland Lake Park Queens cleanup almost finished [NYDN] 9. The downfall of One Madison Park[NYO] 10. Some renters may get cash back by paying online [Rented Spaces] 11. Safety concerns abound over World Trade Center construction[NYO] 12. Rooftop sculptures raising suicide concerns [NYT] 13. More housing information available on smart phone apps [WSJ] 14. Retail receivership chances few and far between [Retail Traffic Mag]
Flushing's Sky View Parc may be coming out of the freezer, Crain's reports. That's right: the $1 billion mixed-use project with 1,100 luxury condos on top of a mall, with amenities like a putting green and tennis courts, is on the verge of handing off sales and leasing to Related. Three of six planned residential towers are almost done, with the first and second apparently partially sold. Does this mean the plan to take Flushing development upscale in the middle of a recession wasn't actually totally crazy? [Crain's; previously]
The scaffolding is coming down at 143 Spring Street, the 1818 Federal-era building taken over and extensively renovated by footwear company Crocs, and our history-loving homey Lost City has the pictures. The biggest change (other than the building going from selling BBQ to rubber sandals) is the re-bricked south wall, which Lost City thinks looks "a bit antiseptic, a tad too scrubbed clean. Is it me, or does that brick wall look like it could be on the side of a brand new condo in Queens?" Racked seems to agree, calling the botoxed beauty the "Nicole Kidman of Federal-era architecture." Ouch! Still looks better than what's going to be displayed on the inside, no?
Here's how the building looked back in the Tennessee Mountain days:
The latest foreclosure prevention initiative unveiled by the Obama administration may have some homeowners scratching their heads. The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives initiative is not a home loss prevention program but, rather, a way of facilitating short sales to eschew the foreclosure path. The program is, as Today Show financial editor Jean Chatzky explains in this video, “for people who’ve tried to get a loan modification, but haven’t been able to or didn’t succeed… Essentially it’s offering a formulaic short sale.”
Giving this dude's downtown party central walk-up a run for its money is the basement condo at Tribeca's 109 Reade Street. A new lawsuit against the condo's owner, James McGown, charges that he turned the place into an "extreme party" zone, with "fire massages" and a stripper pole, the Post reports. Neighbors allege McGown and his tenant, Dimitri Dimoulakis, worked together to hold paid parties, charging $10 or $15 per person for one November party where "a woman [waved] a wand of fire over the bare back and legs of a man, who is lying down on what looks like a kitchen counter." Scandalous! An ACRIS search suggests McGown purchased the apartment for $1 million in 2006 and transferred the deed to his daughter in '07. Above the million dollar den of sin? A pediatrician's office.
· Condo dwellers claim neighbor's apartment is an 'extreme party spot': suit [NYP]
The
Intercontinental Times Square
is set to open
in July.
From the March issue: Just as New York City's painful and protracted hotel sector slump finally seems to be hitting bottom, the industry has a new problem on its hands: It's about to be slammed with a dramatic increase in new hotel rooms.
Research by The Real Deal and by hospitality analyst HVS found at least 28 new hotels slated to open this year or next. The largest is the more than 600-room Intercontinental Times Square, which is set to debut in July; the smallest is the boutique 56-room Habita Hotel on the High Line on the West Side.
Meanwhile, another nine are in the works with unknown completion dates. Smith Travel Research estimates the increase of rooms in New York at
5.1 percent, while PKF senior vice president John Fox puts the increase
at a possible 8 percent, with 5,000 to 6,000 new rooms set to be added
to Manhattan's roughly 72,000 existing rooms available per night. The
jump, Smith estimates, is the largest annual increase in hotel supply
in Manhattan since 1987, the year the firm set up shop. [more]
Celebrities just can't stop pretending to call this epic five-bedroom penthouse in Chelsea's 129 West 20th Street home! The listing doesn't shy away from blabbing, pointing out that the 4,500-square-foot duplex "has been featured in the motion picture Last Night starring Kiera Knightly and Eva Mendes and in an AT&T ad campaign featuring Mariah Carey as the resident." Does it need to rely on star power to sell? The jury is still out on that one. Don't get us wrong, we're enjoying the 25' ceilings, 2,000 square feet of private outdoor space and the second level that's "the perfect place to host a dinner party for 2 - 50 friends." It's just that this penthouse has been down this road before.
The place has been bouncing on and off the market since 2006, with a seesaw pricing pattern. It first asked $8 million, then eventually went down to $6.95 million, then back up to $8.25 million, down to $7.695 million, up yet again to a high-water mark of $8.5 million and now down yet again to $7.25 million. Adding to the schizophrenia, it's now with its fourth brokerage. So is the time finally right to sell, or should they just not even bother waking Mariah up to tell her she doesn't actually live there?
· Listing: 129 West 20th Street, #PHAB [Citi Habitats]
The Empire Ballroom at the Grand Hyatt New York hotel at 109 East 42nd Street between Park and Lexington avenues has just completed a $12 million renovation, according to the Hyatt Hotels Corporation. The 18,000-square-foot space was redesigned by Looney and Associates. The nearly-century-old ballroom, once known as the Commodore Ballroom, has been an historic site, particularly for political figures -- it’s where John F. Kennedy accepted the Democratic nomination for president 50 years ago and where Hillary Clinton once celebrated her successful senate race. TRD
This morning brought the news that the city's getting control of Brooklyn Bridge Park. Now a press release from State Senator Daniel Squadron, who has been an outspoken opponent of using condos to finance the park, fills in more of the city's plans. No surprise, Squadron's still pretty opposed to creating new housing within the park's boundaries. He has veto rights over housing at the park's John Street site, and according to his press release, a new subcommittee "will conduct an open process to consider alternative financing mechanisms to housing in the park." But enough negativity! What does Squadron want to see happening at the park? A recreational bubble on Pier 5, an ice skating rink, rooftop tennis courts on the Maintenance and Operations Building, and a permanent floating pool. Good news for the thousands who spent the summer of 2007 waiting in line when the floating pool last passed by.
· For $55M, City Nabs Control of Delayed Brooklyn Bridge Park [Curbed]
Tenants were evacuated today from 1182 Broadway at 29th Street, a former manufacturing building that had been illegally transformed into a residential rental space, according to Curbed. The building lacked several basic safety features, the Department of Buildings said, including fire sprinklers, secondary exits and adequate stairwells to avoid entrapment. The building owner, Mocal Enterprises, was handed violations for the improper conversion and for allowing tenants to move in despite the building's lack of necessary permits. The units, which had rents ranging from $2,900 to $6,000, were marketed as “live-work space[s],” that would cause “your artistic juices… to flow.” Mocal, for its part, said it’s currently working with DOB to “resolve this unfortunate situation.”
Tribeca's Independence Plaza North has been among the many bidders for the "next Stuy Town" title, but according to the state's Division of Housing and Community Renewal, it shouldn't get it. A bit of backstory: landlord Laurence Gluck pulled the 1,339-unit Independence Plaza North complex out of the Mitchell-Lama program in 2004 but continued receiving J-51 tax breaks for two years after that. Realizing this could end up causing rent problems, Gluck repaid two years of the tax breaks to the city, and the city retroactively agreed that he had stopped getting them in '04. Tenants sued, arguing that their rents just should have been stabilized all along, and the judge in the case asked for DHCR's opinion, the 
Giving 
This morning brought the