Orlando Bravo, founder of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, has seen some bad deals in his life.
His firm’s purchase of algorithmic rent-setting company RealPage came just before the firm faced a deluge of antitrust lawsuits, and he has sworn off cryptocurrency after investment in exchange FTX before the company’s fraud-induced flameout.
Now, Bravo is claiming another deal gone bad.
The investor, who holds the claim as the first Puerto Rican-born billionaire, was outed as the buyer, along with his wife, of the $79 million penthouse at 520 Park Avenue in court filings by the property’s developers, Arthur Zeckendorf and William Lie Zeckendorf.
Bravo was unidentified when he sued the developers in March over an impending neighboring skyscraper that he claimed was “all but certain to ruin the Penthouse’s unobstructed Central Park view, the unit’s defining feature.”
The Zeckendorfs on Friday filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, excoriating Bravo’s claims “as completely without merit” in a memo endorsing the motion — but not before revealing the Bravos as the buyers for the first time.
In his complaint, Bravo claimed that the Zeckendorfs knew of “secret plans” for a view-obstructing skyscraper abutting 520 Park because of “their status as part of a small circle of New York City real estate insiders,” along with Extell Development’s Gary Barnett, the developer of the offending skyscraper.
“This shameless suit, a blatant attempt to renegotiate an $80 million transaction, rests on rank speculation and disregards clear, written disclosures,” lawyers for the Zeckendorfs, Terrence and Darren Oved, said in a statement.
The Zeckendorfs claimed in the filing that “even accepting [the complaint’s] allegations as true, it must be dismissed as a matter of law,” citing New York’s Martin Act, which bars condo owners from suing sponsors over an allegedly fraudulent omission from a condo offering plan.
They also claim Bravo lacks sufficient evidence to pursue a claim of fraudulent omission, writing that the complaint does not include details as to “when, where, how, by whom, or to whom, the unidentified ‘secret plans’ were allegedly conveyed.”
The Zeckendorfs also cite their offering plan, which discloses that “lot line windows are considered amenities that potentially can be lost” and includes the penthouse unit as one of the at-risk properties. They also claim that the photo used as evidence of the marketing of the apartment’s expansive views comes from north-facing windows, not the potentially obscured lot line windows.
In their complaint, the Bravos admitted the offering plan disclosed the risk to lot line windows, but claimed that none of the 26 amendments to the plan included a disclosure suggesting the west-facing windows faced a “specific, existing risk of obstruction.”
The Bravos are seeking to rescind the sale and recoup any other potential damages. But the Zeckendorfs claim that the case should be dismissed as “unripe” because nothing has risen yet to obstruct the penthouse views.
“Plaintiff alleges merely that developers might combine several lots adjoining the Building, and if they do, they might construct a skyscraper that might be tall enough to obstruct the Lot Line Windows on the 53rd and 54th floors,” the developers write. “Unless and until these potential events actually happen, Plaintiff’s claim is not a justiciable case or controversy.”
Bravo’s professional investments have not been strangers to the courtroom either.
His private equity firm Thoma Bravo purchased RealPage for over $10 billion in 2022, only for the company to face a flurry of antitrust lawsuits from state and federal justice departments. Last month, the state of New Jersey added to the tally, suing RealPage and 10 landlords for allegedly colluding to illegally raise rents.
Bravo’s firm also led a $900 million investment for Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX, only for him to claim he would “never touch” crypto again after the company’s collapse.
The penthouse sale was the fourth-priciest deal in the city last year. The duplex penthouse was initially conceived as a triplex, which at one point was asking $130 million when it hit the market in 2014.
Five years later, the developers split the gigantic home into a duplex covering the top two floors and a simplex below, which sold for $34.5 million in 2022.
Read more
Buyer of 520 Park’s $80M penthouse sues Zeckendorfs over obscured views
Zeckendorfs’ final penthouse at 520 Park Avenue sells for $79M
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