Brent Carrier, a Larchmont real estate developer who has been mired for years in disputes over a Queens project, has filed for bankruptcy.
Vernon 4540 Realty LLC petitioned U.S. Bankruptcy Court, White Plains, Aug. 5 for Chapter 11 reorganization.
The company, based at Carrier”™s home in Larchmont, estimated assets and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million, but it has yet to file several bankruptcy reports that would detail its finances.
In 1997, Carrier founded CRE Development, a Queens company that developed and leased properties, his personal website states, “from Boston to D.C., all the way to California and Florida.”
The company was dissolved in 2016, according to a state Division of Corporations record.
In 2013, Carrier partnered with Simon Baron Development to build a 28-story retail and apartment tower at 45-40 Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City on property with a dilapidated structure previously used by the Paragon Paint Co. and on contaminated land.
Local residents opposed the project, arguing that the scale of the proposed building threatened the character of the neighborhood”™s small homes, low-rise buildings and small businesses.
The developers estimated that cleaning up the property would cost $30 million.
Last year, New York County Supreme Court ordered the seizure of $1.9 million in Brownfield tax credits, to which Carrier and Vernon 4540 Realty were entitled, to ensure a pending outcome in an arbitration case.
“Following years of litigation and a related arbitration proceeding,” CSC 4540 LLC, a Simon Baron Development affiliate, filed a new petition with the same court on June 18 to enforce the seizure.
“Carrier is adept at dissipating, concealing and/or absconding with money he has taken from the LLC,” CSC alleges. “He has admitted that he is insolvent and that his wholly-owned entity dissipated every last dollar that he diverted from the LLC, in direct violation of a previous temporary restraining order.”
Carrier has not yet answered the allegations.
But three years ago, in an unrelated lawsuit, he vigorously asserted his integrity. A Russian model had sued him, claiming that he had kicked her out of a Chelsea apartment he owned when she stopped sleeping with him.
Carrier countersued, alleging slander. He stated that he had allowed the woman to live in the apartment but he denied any intimacies.
He has “a reputation for honesty and uprightness in his dealings with the public,” according to his counterclaims, and he has “a good reputation for honesty in the real estate development business.”
The cost of his legal battles are indicated in the Vernon 4540 Realty bankruptcy petition.
He lists nearly $2.3 million in legal fees to six law firms, all of which he disputes.
Overall, he lists $9.6 million in unsecured claims, including $6.9 million to the Quadrum Property Fund and $450,000 to CSC. He also claims that his LLC owes him $1.5 million.
The petition lists no assets.
Vernon 4540 Realty is represented by Harrison attorney H. Bruce Bronson.
