A state judge has ordered the condominium developer at Westchester”™s Ridge Hill to pay the owner of the open-air Yonkers shopping center $500,000 due on their 2007 purchase deal for the condominium site.
State Supreme Court Justice Alan D. Scheinkman on May 30 issued a summary judgment in favor of Ridge Hill developer Forest City Ratner Cos. for its claim that Horizon at Ridge Hill L.L.C., owner of the Monarch condominium tower at Ridge Hill, breached its contract when it failed to make the final $500,000 payment for the nearly 7-acre condo site.
Horizon attorneys in court claimed that a half-million-dollar payment in 2010 that Forest City Ratner applied to Horizon”™s separate site development bill was meant as the final land payment.
The judge also granted Forest City Ratner”™s request to evict Horizon from its 10,500-square-foot showroom and sales office in the Ridge Hill office building at 73 Market St. The Brooklyn-based landlord about 10 months ago terminated Horizon”™s license to occupy the space.
Horizon apparently vacated the office space this year, as its website lists the sales office address as 701 Ridge Hill Blvd., Monarch”™s location.
Forest City Ratner in a lawsuit filed last year also claimed the developer of the 162-unit Monarch residence owes $588,900 for infrastructure and site development work done by Forest City, $476,055 for submetered electricity used during the Monarch”™s construction and at least $42,000 for charges and expenses related to Horizon”™s former sales office. The judge has not ruled on those claims.
David Marom, managing member of Horizon at Ridge Hill and founder of the Horizon Group, a residential and commercial real estate development and investment company in the metropolitan area, did not return a call for comment.
Marom and his company”™s Israeli investment partners opened the Monarch in early 2012 as the first of what was to be four condo towers in a planned 500-unit complex on the western edge of Ridge Hill. But only about one-third of the Monarch”™s condos reportedly had been sold as of February. A broker this year has shown the condo property for possible purchase by a multifamily residential developer.
North Fork Bank, a division of Capital One N.A., holds $62.4 million in mortgages on Horizon”™s Ridge Hill property, Westchester County land records indicate.
