A long-vacant Park Slope corner is back in court instead of under construction. Hanover Capital has sued developer Claudio Soifer over a stalled project at 167 Fourth Avenue, accusing him of backing out of a $21.7 million mortgage and stiffing the lender on a break-up fee. The empty lot at Fourth Avenue and Degraw Street has already spent years in planning purgatory, tangled in shifting designs, lender disputes, and foreclosure threats. The new lawsuit risks stretching that delay even further.
Hanover Capital filed its complaint in state Supreme Court, saying Soifer signed on to the $21.7 million loan, then walked away, and is now on the hook for roughly $218,000 plus interest and legal fees, according to The Real Deal. The filing argues Hanover burned through "substantial time, effort and money" prepping the mortgage, only to see the deal collapse, and is seeking a contractual break-up fee. Soifer did not respond to requests for comment, the outlet reported.
How the plans evolved and then stalled
Back in 2019, Soifer first moved to redevelop the corner with a 12-story, 57-unit condominium building, according to New York YIMBY. That condo concept did not stick. The proposal was later reworked into a taller rental plan, an 18-story project with roughly 135 apartments, and yet the site has remained vacant since 2019. City records and neighborhood coverage show an affiliate tied to Soifer bought the parcel in 2015, and local reporting tracked the early filings and sales history, per Patch.
Loans, refinancing and foreclosure threats
On the financing side, recorded documents show that Hirshmark Capital provided a $10.5 million bridge loan on the property in late 2022, according to loan tracking and reporting by PincusCo. That refinancing, along with earlier loans and lender filings, appears in public records and loan databases that collectively chart several reshuffles of the capital stack. Those repeated financing moves have made it harder to lock in construction funding and get the revised rental project out of limbo.
Partnership history adds another wrinkle
Soifer’s prior business ties have not helped calm nerves. He previously partnered with developer Josh Schuster on a Manhattan deal, and Schuster later pleaded guilty in a federal securities case after prosecutors said he misappropriated investor funds, as reported by Norwood News. That guilty plea and its legal fallout sent former partners and lenders back through their files, double checking exposure and paperwork. That kind of extra scrutiny is one reason some would-be lenders have approached the Park Slope proposal with caution.
What the new lawsuit could mean on the block
Hanover’s suit asks for the break-up fee and legal expenses and says the lender was left eating significant costs when the mortgage deal fell apart, according to The Real Deal. The amount sought is relatively small next to a full development budget, but any fresh litigation can complicate title issues and creditor claims, which in turn can slow an already delayed construction schedule. Urban Development Partners has previously pegged the project cost at roughly $140 million and told reporters that construction was still months away, a timeline now cloudier with the new case pending.
For neighbors, the prominent corner remains more legal saga than building site. The next few weeks will show whether the fight over fees gets quietly resolved or simply becomes the latest chapter in a long-running dispute that leaves 167 Fourth Avenue exactly as it has been for years: fenced off and empty.
