Challenge Questions GM Building Ownership

NEW YORK CITY-Leslie Dick, president of real estate investment firm Leslie Dick Worldwide Ltd., has filed a Notice of Appeal against the General Motors Building here. The appeal challenges the April 18 Order by Judge Karla Moskowitz removing the original Lis Pendens on the GM Building.

Recording a Lis Pendens against a piece of property alerts a potential purchaser or lender that the property’s title is in question, a prepared statement from Leslie Dick Worldwide explains. And according to Peter Schillinger, a partner with White Plains-based law firm Odesser, Schillinger & Finsterwald LLP, who is not involved in these particular legal matters, “recording a pre-judgment Lis Pendens against a property often results in the property owner’s losing the potential sale or refinancing. The potential buyers or lenders typically do not want to have to deal with the dispute and title uncertainty.”

CB Richard Ellis is currently marketing the 50-story GM Building, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. The appeal of the New York State Supreme Court Order is another step that the plaintiff is taking to overturn what he claims to be a “fraudulent conveyance and transfer of ownership of the GM Building to Harry Macklowe in 2003, out of the Conseco bankruptcy estate.” As GlobeSt.com previously reported in July 2006, Dick had filed court papers claiming there was a bid rigging fraud conspiracy in the sale of the 50-story building at Fifth Ave and 59th Street.