Baruch Singer’s Midwood Office Project Faces Foreclosure

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The battle between Baruch Singer and Parkview Financial at a Brooklyn office development rages on.

Parkview filed a foreclosure suit against the developer this week in Kings County Supreme Court, Crain’s reported. The Los Angeles-based lender alleges Singer owes at least $125 million for failing to complete an office and school development at 1508 Coney Island Avenue in Midwood.

The 10-story, 215,000-square-foot project was supposed to be completed in October, according to the lawsuit. Singer also allegedly failed to lease at least 80 percent of the development’s office space by last January, another violation of the mortgage terms.

Singer filed a lawsuit of his own in December, alleging Parkview engaged in an “extraordinary and brazen pattern of calculated bad faith, broken promises, coercive tactics, and deliberate contractual sabotage.” Singer claimed Parkview’s failure to disburse financing led to lengthy delays and cost overruns for the developer designed to put the project into foreclosure.

Parkview did not respond to Singer’s lawsuit, which remains active. Attorneys and the companies involved in the latest litigation either declined or did not comment to the publication.

Singer also sued Parkview in March 2024 over construction delays and funding problems. The project delays affected the ability of Bet Midrash, a yeshiva for the Syrian Jewish community that leased 60,000 square feet, to relocate and open by a planned fall 2024 start.

Parkview funded construction of the building with $92 million in May 2022, replacing prior debt and providing new financing to finish the project. The development, located between Avenues K and L, will have 51,000 square feet of multilevel retail and 112,000 square feet of office space.

The property was originally expected to be completed in October 2023.

Singer has dealt with years of legal trouble since becoming persona non grata to city and federal housing authorities, which accused him of jeopardizing tenants in Harlem. In 1995, the collapse of one of his apartment buildings killed three people.

— Holden Walter-Warner