Monday, September 6, 2010

Original owner of Ground Zero mosque site had better offers than El-Gamal and his emerging legal and unpaid tax entanglements

9/5, "The original owners of the Ground Zero mosque site mysteriously spurned dozens of higher bids before selling the prime downtown real estate at a bargain-basement price.

The Pomerantz family, which had owned the building since the late 1960s and fielded offers after the patriarch died in 2006, rejected at least one bid that was

  • nearly four times what prospective mosque builder Sharif El-Gamal eventually paid, The Post has learned.
El-Gamal did offer what could be viewed as a sweetener to his $4.8 million bid in July 2009 -- a job as a property manager for a son of the family, Sethian Pomerantz.
  • New York developer Kevin Glodek was livid when he found out the building sold for a fraction of what he offered in 2007 -- $18 million cash -- and wondered whether money changed hands under the table, according to sources close to the deal.
Glodek and his partners wanted to build a 60-story condo tower with retail space on the Park Place site, had inked a purchase agreement and even had keys to the existing building,
  • according to sources and documents obtained by The Post.
But Kukiko Mitani -- whose late husband, Stephen Pomerantz, owned the property -- and her brother-in-law, Melvin Pomerantz, a trustee to the estate, went silent at the end of 2007 and Glodek's deal disappeared, sources said....
  • In addition to selling the building to El-Gamal, Mitani sold him the long-term lease for the property next door -- a former Con Edison substation -- for $700,000. The buildings had once been joined to create a store.
El-Gamal has told the utility he wants to buy the building, and appraisals to determine the sales price are under way.
  • Glodek was also negotiating with Con Edison
before his deal fell apart, the source said. He had offered $12 million to buy out the lease and the property itself. "...
  • ####
8/30/10, CBS New York's Marcia Kramer interviews Sharif El-Gamal:
Kramer reports the developer’s reluctance to talk may have been related to his prior run-ins with the law.
  • His most recent arrest was in 2005 for assault on a man he met while working as a waiter at Serafina Restaurant, who sublet an apartment from his brother.
  • He reportedly punched the man, breaking his nose and cheekbone and spit on him.
El-Gamal first said he didn’t hit the man, but arrest documents obtained by CBS 2 showed he later conceded

  • “his face could have run into my hand.”
Records showed El-Gamal also had trouble coming up with the $15,000 settlement reached in 2008, and had to pay interest . El-Gamal also has a number of other arrests on his record:-

  • -In 1990, he was arrested in Nassau County and pled guilty to disorderly conduct.
  • -In 1992, he pled guilty in Nassau to DWI and paid a $350 fine.
  • -In 1993, he pled guilty in Nassau to attempted petit larceny and paid a $100 fine.
  • -In 1994, arrested for disorderly conduct in Manhattan.
  • -In 1998, there was another Manhattan disorderly conduct arrest.
  • -In 1999, yet another Manhattan disorderly conduct arrest.
A potential problem for the mosque developer is a deposition he gave in the assault case in October 2007. When asked if he was ever convicted or pled guilty to a crime, El-Gamal replied “no.”
When Pelley asked if it occurred to him that putting a project so close to Ground Zero would heighten tensions, El-Gamal replied “not at all.”
  • “I did not hold myself or my faith accountable for the tragedy,” El-Gamal said.
El-Gamal also owes over $227,000 in unpaid real estate taxes and a spokesman for the Department of Finance said interest will be added for each and every day its unpaid.
  • Another question surrounding the debate is whether the Muslim cleric of the mosque — Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf — knew about El-Gamal’s criminal background and unpaid taxes before partnering with him.

  • El-Gamal refused repeated requests from CBS 2 Monday to comment on the story."
Reference, 8/30, The Daily Beast,"Rift Imperils Ground Zero Mosque, Sharif El-Gamal's-owner of Ground Zero Building-Revelations" by A. Nomani
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