Port Chester project at center of developer – architect dispute

A Harrison contractor has sued an architect for $30 million for allegedly appropriating control of a major Port Chester development.

Jean Sinis accused Manhattan architect Scott Allen of violating a confidentiality agreement and improperly taking control of the project, in an April 4 complaint filed in Westchester Supreme Court.

“The allegations here are such fantasy,” Allen’s attorney, William Wachtel, said in a brief telephone interview, “they almost make it impossible to responsibly comment.”

He said he expects the court will summarily dismiss the action.

The dispute concerns a development once known as the Sinis Towers project. The proposed apartment building and retail space would replace mostly vacant and underused buildings at Westchester Avenue and East Broadway.

The site is partly owned by the Sinis family and is near the train station at the gateway to the village’s central business district.

The latest version of the project, discussed by the Port Chester Industrial Development Agency last November, is a 12-story, 325-apartment structure with parking garage and retail space and costing $153 million.

Sinis says he has been working on the project for ten years. In 2015, Allen was brought in to begin developing plans for an 8-story building with 250 to 270 apartments.

For several years, according to the complaint, Sinis and Allen talked with and texted one another, shared plans and proposals, and met with potential investors.

In 2017, Sinis formed 2SMSPortChester LLC – named for 2 South Main St. property owned by the Sinis family – and filed an application with the Port Chester Industrial Development Agency for tax-exempt bond financing.

The following month, Sinis claims, he and Allen and businesses associated with Allen entered into a nondisclosure, non-circumvention agreement.

Allen allegedly acknowledged that Sinis had introduced him to the project, including details about properties currently owned by the Sinis family and nearby properties that would have to be acquired.

The purported agreement required everyone to maintain confidentiality and not circumvent the project.

By fall 2020, Sinis alleges, Allen was discussing the project with Hyperion Development Group, a real estate investment and development firm with offices in Miami and Manhattan, and with whom Allen is now employed.

In May 2021, Hyperion formed 2SM Development, the complaint states, choosing a name similar to the Sinis entity so as to mislead the village Industrial Development Agency into thinking that the new 2SM was an affiliate of the Sinis company.

Sinis says Allen stopped returning phone and the new 2SM company bought Sinis family properties by dealing with another member of the family with whom Jean Sinis is estranged.

Sinis accuses Allen of breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and unjust enrichment. He is represented by Manhattan attorney Kenneth F. McCallion.

The complaint is similar to a lawsuit Sinis filed in 2021 against Greenwich, Connecticut real estate developer Michael Caridi that also sought $30 million in damages.

Caridi was to help acquire properties for the project and raise funds from outside investors. Sinis claimed that Caridi acquired properties on his own, rather than for their joint venture, and violated a confidentiality agreement.

Caridi filed counter-claims against Sinis and demanded $25 million, claiming that Sinis had violated their deal by misrepresenting how much property he owned and by not contributing property to the joint venture.

Last September, Sinis and Caridi stipulated that the action should be dismissed, “having resolved their differences.”