Crain’s New York Business: Neveloff and Greenberg Comment on TriBeCa Condo Win

The New York Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Kramer Levin clients KBS Capital Advisors and other defendants in a dispute concerning sales contracts for two commercial TriBeCa condominiums, reports Crain’s New York Business. In 2008, buyer Cari agreed to purchase the condos, originally priced at $5 million, for only $1.75 million. Cari brought suit in 2010 to require the sale to go forward. In dismissing the action, the court ruled that the sales contracts were unenforceable for lack of mutuality of obligations because they gave Cari a unilateral right to terminate at any time -- in effect, binding Cari to nothing. Real Estate partner Jay A. Neveloff and Litigation partner Ronald S. Greenberg commented that KBS Capital Advisors was a mezzanine lender that only recently took over the project and did not enter into the original contracts. They noted that the contracts were suspect both because the sales price was approximately 70% below the original offering plan price and because Cari was not actually obligated to close. The court agreed and dismissed the case.