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

• El-Gamal who has a lengthy arrest record still does not own the Con Edison property envisioned as part of the mosque. Another bidder offered Con Ed $12 million to buy the lease and property.

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. "...

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8/30/10, CBS New York's Marcia Kramer interviews Sharif El-Gamal:

• "It’s a community center, if you call it a community center, we would talk,” El-Gamal said.

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.”

• 
  
• Lately, he has been trying to resurrect his image, sitting down for a lengthy 60 Minutes interview with Scott Pelley.

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."

• NY Post, 9/5,"Mosque Building owners nixed $18M offer before taking $4.8M one"

Reference, 8/30, The Daily Beast,"Rift Imperils Ground Zero Mosque, Sharif El-Gamal's-owner of Ground Zero Building-Revelations" by A. Nomani

• Reference, 8/30, CBS New York, "Who is the man behind the Ground Zero Mosque?"

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