Witkoff Group and Blavatnik’s Access Industries Buy XI Project

Steve Witkoff from Witkoff Group, Len Blavatnik from Access Industries and the XI (Getty, TheXI)

Steve Witkoff from Witkoff Group, Len Blavatnik from Access Industries and the XI (Getty, TheXI)

Steve Witkoff and Len Blavatnik are the new owners of the stopped XI condo project.

The property developers bought the winding tower luxury building at 76 11th Avenue in a forced sale on Thursday after its former owner HFZ Capital Group fell into financial ruin.

The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Witkoff Group and Blavatnik’s Access Industries have secured funding to resume construction of the 900,000 square meter mixed-use towers on the High Line. The group has recently acquired the mezzanine loan on the Bjarkes Ingles-designed project.

The Witkoff-Access partnership plans to begin construction of the apartment, hotel and retail project early next year. The two towers are expected to rise to 26 and 36 floors. The project will have 235 condominiums, 137 hotel rooms, a spa, 85,000 square feet of lettable commercial retail space along with a public space. Asset management firm Monroe Capital is a partner in the company.

“We are committed to completing this long-standing project, which also includes a new public space and entrance to the iconic High Line Park,” Steven Witkoff, chairman and CEO of Witkoff Group, said in a statement.

The project’s lender, a subsidiary of the British hedge fund The Children’s Investment Fund, had originally planned a UCC foreclosure sale by October on HFZ’s share in the mixed-use development, marketing material shows.

The hedge fund provided HFZ with a $ 1.25 billion loan for the project in 2017, including a senior loan and a few mezzanine loans.

XI was HFZ’s marking project, but work on the development stopped at the end of 2019.

The Manhattan development company founded by Ziel Feldman was once among New York’s most productive condominium developers, but has since been besieged by foreclosures, lawsuits and lien. Feldman pointed the blame for the company’s death on its former principal Nir Meir, who he claims used HFZ’s money to pay for personal expenses. Meyer’s lawyers have vehemently denied those allegations.

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