An Orange County real estate entity has sued a potential buyer for allegedly defying a court order to buy a property in Monroe for $1.5 million.
Pamela Brown-Lee, the owner and manager of 6 Turtle Knoll LLC, is asking U.S. Bankruptcy Court to order Joel Levi of Monroe to consummate a deal to buy the property.
Levi allegedly exploited the facts that 6 Turtle Knoll is in foreclosure and under bankruptcy protection to pressure the company for a lower price, according to Brown-Lee”™s complaint filed March 13 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Poughkeepsie.
His conduct, the complaint declares, “is calculated and malicious and the very essence of bad faith.”
Levi”™s attorney, Benzion Frankel of Brooklyn, did not reply to a request for comment.
The property at 6 Turtle Knoll for which the single-asset real estate entity is named consists of 18 acres and 5-bedroom house built in 1987.
Brown-Lee, of Blooming Grove, bought 6 Turtle Knoll as in investment property. He idea was to subdivide the site and market it for residences, according to an affidavit she submitted when she filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2022.
But zoning and subdivision approvals required her to connect the property”™s private road to public roads, a cost that she was “unable to bear.”
She fell behind on mortgage payments, according to her account of events, and in 2020 Wilmington Savings Fund Society filed a foreclosure action in Orange County Supreme Court.
The property was supposed to be sold at a public auction last year. But Brown-Lee lined up a deal to sell it to Levi.
Levi is a “sophisticated real estate investor who buys, sells, negotiates and closes multi-million-dollar real estate transactions,” the 6 Turtle Knoll complaint states.
He visited the property several time, reviewed government property records and signed a contract last August to buy it for $1.5 million.
On Nov. 18, bankruptcy court approved the deal and ordered the transaction to close within 30 days.
Then Levi allegedly refused to set up a closing unless the price was reduced to $1.2 million, and later to $1 million.
According to 6 Turtle Knoll LLC”™s bankruptcy petition, the property was worth $465,000 in February 2022. The Redfin online real estate marketplace estimates the property is now worth $693,842.
Before the deal was struck, the complaint states, Levi had all the information he needed at his disposal and had failed to raise any objections or issues.
Attorney Joseph E. Ruyack III, representing 6 Turtle Knoll, set the closing for Jan. 17 at his law office in Middletown. If Levi didn”™t appear, he declared in a letter to attorney Frankel, 6 Turtle Knoll would retain the $150,000 down payment.
Frankel responded that the title report shows a problem with the condition of the property. He had cancelled the contract, his letter stated, and he demanded the return of the down payment.
The closing was held on Jan. 17. Levi did not appear.
The complaint accuses Levi of breaches of contract and asks bankruptcy court to award the $150,000 down payment to 6 Turtle Knoll LLC and direct Levi to complete the transaction.
