Right after 50 several years in the same spot within the Seybold Developing, the leading gemstone retail heart in downtown Miami, jeweler Howard Steinlauf was ready to undertaking into a new place.
Yair Levy, a developer banned for everyday living from offering condos and co-ops in New York, was also hunting for a contemporary get started.
In 2018, he and his companions paid $14.5 million for Metro Mall at 1 Northeast 1st Street, his very first project in South Florida. Two a long time later, Levy — founder of Time Century Holdings — started a $50 million renovation to convert the vacant business office and retail building throughout the road from the Seybold into what he hoped would be the jewelry center’s key competitor.
He rechristened Metro Mall as the Time Century Jewellery Center in a nod to his New York-dependent organization and supplied to make Steinlauf’s business, Freddy’s Licensed Diamonds & Fine Jewelry, Time Century’s showcase tenant.
“We felt it was a fantastic option,” Steinlauf mentioned. “I wished to make a assertion with a attractive new keep.”
A few years later on, the Time Century Jewelry Center is an deserted building internet site.
Steinlauf regrets signing a lease with Levy and claims the developer had confident him Freddy’s new property would be move-in all set by June 2022. Freddy’s is suing the developer and his associates for breach of deal, fraud and unjust enrichment, searching for about $1.2 million in damages.
“I have been having to pay double the hire for 18 months with definitely no new creating to go into,” Steinlauf stated. “Yair Levy misled us the complete time.”
Steinlauf’s falling-out with his new landlord is just just one in a sequence of catastrophic occasions jeopardizing Levy’s hard work to launch the Time Century Jewellery Centre and revive his disgraced enhancement job.
In addition to working with lawsuits from Steinlauf and a different tenant, Levy and his companions have run out of money to finish the venture. Time Century is not the only Miami professional challenge to come across extended delays, particularly in the present local weather of superior curiosity prices. But its failure to continue as prepared is a black spot on Levy’s planned comeback.
Building issues even worse, a loan company lately won a partial judgment to foreclose on the constructing. Without having a new trader to infuse much more cash, the Time Century Jewelry Centre might under no circumstances open.
Levy declined many job interview requests for this tale. His son-in-regulation and Time Century Holdings’ co-controlling director, Dan Deutsch, addressed some of the problems. Deutsch declined to comment on Steinlauf’s allegations, but he verified that the renovation venture has stalled due to a absence of funds.
“We are ideal there,” Deutsch claimed. “It is so frustrating to us. We imagined we hit a grand slam and labored difficult to get this building completely ready.”
Levy seeks redemption in Miami
In 2011, Levy came to the conclusion of his highway in New York.
A decide uncovered that he had defrauded the Rector Sq. condominium in Battery Park Metropolis by failing to deposit thousands and thousands of dollars in the building’s reserve fund and paying some of the funds on personalized costs, like his cellular cell phone accounts. Then-Attorney Basic Eric Schneiderman banned the developer from providing real estate in the Empire State.
Levy appealed the final decision but dropped. He maintains that reserve cash were utilized for genuine functions and that personalized costs had been drawn from independent accounts.
“People feel I have a negative identify, and which is why I am attempting to explain this tale,” Levy claimed in a 2014 interview with Crain’s New York Enterprise. “[People are] mistaken as significantly as what transpired in the earlier.”
And so when he and his companions ordered Metro Mall, a nine-story, 225,000-sq.-foot developing finished in 1926, Levy was not just creating an financial commitment — he was also trying to find a place exactly where he could reshape his job. The website is in downtown Miami’s 4-block jewellery district, which is house to far more than 500 jewelers who build, obtain, market and make repairs.
“I have been paying out double the hire for 18 months with totally no new developing to go into. Yair Levy misled us the overall time.”
In 2020, Levy moved ahead with the renovation of the residence. He gutted the interiors and enlisted Miami-primarily based architect Kobi Karp, a specialist in historic restoration assignments, to deliver the creating “back to its glory times,” the developer informed The Serious Offer at the time.
The new designs showed areas for jewelry wholesalers, stores, artisans and repair companies in the building’s very first 4 stories, with glass storefronts opening onto a three-tale atrium. The upper 4 floors would stay as business house. Levy extra valet parking to the new entrance.
When renovations began, Levy claimed he had pre-leased 40 percent of the constructing. Steinlauf was amongst those people who signed on. He was amazed with the programs for the making and wherever Freddy’s would be located, and he liked that Levy had employed Karp as the designer, Steinlauf reported.
“Yair was definitely convincing adequate,” Steinlauf explained. “I analyzed the upcoming of getting their highlighted tenant. At the time, it appeared great.”
Levy reeled in Big Apple gemstone purveyors like Vlad Yunatanov, owner of the higher-finish Manhattan jeweler Alexander Sparks, which also sells on-line. Yunatanov took a corner suite on the floor flooring of the planned Time Century Jewellery Center, signing a five-yr lease.
“What definitely keeps me seeking to be there is that it is likely to be a manufacturer-new mall,” Yunatanov explained. “There are also a whole lot of companies that are going to be there. So if we have to have to resize a ring or do repairs, there are a great deal of persons who can do that stuff.”
New York Times to tricky periods
In January 2023, Levy’s tattered track record bought a enhance from an effusive story in the New York Occasions about the Time Century Jewellery Heart.
The report observed that Levy and his partners had signed more than 60 leases with asking rents at about $150 per sq. foot for key spaces. David Primak, chief working officer of New York-dependent diamond retailer Sasha Primak, advised the newspaper that Levy’s undertaking “feels like a all-natural suit for us.”
But Primak instructed TRD in a recent cellphone connect with that he eventually made the decision not to lease house in the making.
“I experienced a great deal of motives for why we did not sign the lease,” Primak claimed. “I really do not actually want to get into it.”
As the Situations tribute strike newsstands, Levy’s challenge was presently in difficulties.
3 contractors submitted liens versus the property among December 2022 and January 2023 for a complete of $133,400 in allegedly unpaid get the job done.
Levy and his partners settled these money owed in March, but eight more construction liens for a put together $724,200 ended up filed among April and August of 2023. Of that sum, Levy and his partners have compensated $60,500, courtroom information show.
In September, the task faced an even greater setback. Metropolis Countrywide Lender of Florida filed a foreclosures lawsuit versus Levy’s growth entity for allegedly defaulting on a $27.2 million construction loan received in 2021. The bank loan was originally for $23.6 million, but the financial institution experienced specified Levy’s partnership an added $3.6 million in 2022.
The advancement entity allegedly unsuccessful to fork out again the mortgage in spite of getting a forbearance that expired in June. It also unsuccessful to attain a certification of occupancy and did not replenish its interest reserve accounts, the lawsuit states. On Dec. 12, Gina Beovides, a Miami-Dade circuit court docket choose, awarded Town Countrywide a partial judgment of $31.2 million that incorporated more fees and fascination.
Deutsch, the co-handling director and son-in-regulation, acknowledged that the project confronted delays and cost overruns, but insisted that the jewelry centre is approximately complete. A recent tour of the creating verified that most of the operate has been finished, but development was at a standstill. Sawdust caked the new Spanish tile flooring, and pallets of building products were scattered all over the to start with, 2nd and third floors. A enormous chandelier hung from the ceiling of the atrium, nonetheless included in plastic.
“The setting up appears to be wonderful,” Deutsch mentioned. “It is just about all set to go. It’s just a subject of having some more funds to total it.”
Time Century is nonetheless hoping to operate points out with Metropolis National, Deutsch said. A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment.
“There is however communication involving us and them,” Deutsch said. “We are hoping we are equipped to occur out of this on excellent conditions, even although it is in foreclosure.”
Lawsuits mount
About a 7 days just after City Nationwide submitted its lawsuit, Freddy’s sued Levy, his daughter Galit Levy and two Time Century affiliates, together with the improvement entity. The jewellery store claims it paid out Time Century $815,937 for the security deposit and make-out costs, as well as $790,000 in holdover rent to its recent landlord.
Freddy’s lease at Seybold expired in June 2022, when the retail store was intended to move into Levy’s creating, the lawsuit claims. The criticism also alleges that Levy hardly ever disclosed his lawful troubles or ban in New York ban when he was wooing Steinlauf.
In September, Levy held a assembly with Steinlauf and other signed tenants to advise them that his partnership had operate out of money to finish the challenge and required a new investor, Freddy’s lawsuit alleges.
Another tenant, New York-based mostly luxurious purse retailer Privé Porter, sued Levy and the Time Century affiliates in October, creating comparable allegations.
Privé Porter President Jeffrey Berk and his lawyer declined remark.
During the tenant meeting, Steinlauf stated, Levy claimed that he experienced a new trader lined up and that the developing would be up and operating in two months. “That was a few months ago,” Steinlauf explained. “They gave no rationalization about how they ran out of money.”
Deutsch reported he could not remark on the allegations and pointed out that he was not present for discussions Steinlauf experienced with Levy. He insisted that Time Century is extremely shut to landing a new husband or wife, but he declined to disclose the investor’s identity or contribution.
“We’ve tried using to talk to the tenants, reassuring them we are pretty shut to ending up the setting up,” Deutsch reported. “They may possibly even remain.”
Alexander Sparks’ Yunatanov is a single of those people being. “I am anxious,” he claimed. “I can afford to wait around it out.”
Even if Levy and his associates get their act alongside one another, Steinlauf doesn’t want to shift into the Time Century Jewelry Center any longer. He hopes to remain at Seybold, he said.
He just doesn’t trust Levy.
“I am previous-school and realized to do things on a handshake,” he explained. “We have been entirely defrauded from day one particular.”
