A Manhattan appellate panel has ordered developer-linked Bryant Park Funding 100 LLC to hand over title to two condominium units across from Bryant Park to investor Ying "Vivian" Ding, wiping out the intervenor's mortgage claim in the process. The ruling caps years of bruising litigation around The Bryant, the 33-story condo-hotel at 16 West 40th Street, and pushes ownership of the contested units firmly in Ding's direction.
Appellate panel affirms lower court
According to amNY, the Appellate Division, First Department unanimously upheld a July 2024 Supreme Court decision that canceled Bryant Park Funding 100 LLC's mortgage on the two units and directed that the condos be transferred to Ding. Court filings in the record state that Ding began negotiating with Nicholas Mastroianni and HFZ Capital in early 2017 and put about $11.5 million into the project, with a Qiaoshang International entity acquiring the two units on her behalf, per the complaint. The appellate panel also shut down Bryant Park Funding's push for expanded discovery, finding that more document digging would not change the outcome already laid out in the case papers.
Project background and developer troubles
The units at the center of the fight are in The Bryant at 16 West 40th Street, the HFZ-developed tower sitting directly across from Bryant Park. CityRealty details the building's condo offerings and background. HFZ's broader financial unraveling, including a high-profile default on project-related debt in 2019, helped spawn a thicket of claims involving buyers, lenders and investor groups with stakes in the development, as reported by The Real Deal.
Procedural posture and who’s who
Intervenor Bryant Park Funding 100 LLC, which court papers describe as being controlled by Nicholas Mastroianni II, argued that Ding never completed the paperwork needed to finalize her purchase and asked for more discovery to back up that theory. The appellate court was not persuaded. It declined the discovery request and left in place the lower court's cancellation of the mortgage and its order transferring title, as reflected in the Appellate Division's motion decision list maintained by New York Courts, which shows the matter among its December motions.
What the ruling means for buyers and lenders
The decision erases the intervenor mortgage on the two condos and is expected to clear the path for title to be placed in Ding's name, removing one potential pressure point for developer-linked creditors. While that settles this specific ownership tug-of-war, other lawsuits and claims tied to The Bryant and HFZ's larger web of project litigation are proceeding on their own tracks and could still affect current or future owners and lenders. Prior Appellate Division battles involving Bryant Park-related entities, including disputes over contracts and lis pendens filings, show how frequently this development has pulled parties back into court. FindLaw.
The case appears in New York County Supreme Court filings under docket numbers connected to the Qiaoshang and Ding complaints, and the Appellate Division's orders are now part of the public record. For this dispute, the Appellate Division caption is listed in motion calendars and in slip opinions tracked by legal reporters, with Leagle showing the entry and related motion history.
