Battle over Chelsea site ends.

Haggling over properties in Manhattan is nothing new, but you know when the Manhattan real estate market is on fire is when two developers--Oaktree Capital Management and Madison Capital Management--duke it out for two hotspots in the trendy Chelsea neighborhood lasting over four years in litigation, and taking their battle all the way to the New York Court of Appeals, including three appeals to the Appellate Division in Manhattan.

The in-demand properties--456 West 19th Street and 397 West 12th Street were finally secured by Oaktree Capital Management and Tamarkin, it was decided last week, states Y. David Scharf, a litigation partner at Morrison Cohen, representing Oaktree.

"This winner take all battle would not have gone on as long as it were it not for how red-hot the real estate market has been," stated Scharf. "it was a battle of high stakes poker with over $22 million dollar in purchase price risk and additional millions more in potential development profits. Millions of dollars were riding on every aspect of the legal strategy and positions, especially when Oaktree bought both properties before the litigation was over. Had the court not decided in favor of our side, Oaktree, which fronted the purchase price and certain hard and soft costs, stood to lose multi-millions of dollars. It was extremely gratifying to have the client place such tremendous faith my legal abilities and acumen to navigate the lengthy legal process." Scharf who said that Madison Capital recently exhausted all their appellate rights to vacate the various rulings in favor of Oaktree and Tamarkin, hopes this is the end of the long, drawn out legal battle.

Oaktree, which recently went public, cemented a deal with developer Cary Tamarkin of Tamarkin Co. for 12th Street to develop the property as residential condominiums with river views. Tamarkin's offices are nearby and centrally located on West 20th Street. Tamarkin Co. began developing its own properties in 1993 and has since done a number of significant residential projects in Manhattan, including the twelve story waterfront property adjacent to the West 12th street project.

Tamarkin is now also in contract to develop the 19th Street site with Russell Bernard and his new fund, Westport Capital Partners to establish that address as luxury residential property with five thousand square feet of prime retail space on the ground floor.

Bernard served as the real estate group portfolio manager at Oaktree Capital Management, LLC, where he was responsible for the formation and management of over $2 billion in real estate investment funds and was the chief decision maker to litigate for the rights to the properties.

Westport Capital Partners, Bernard's newest fund will provide the project equity for the 19th street development and provides investment opportunities, both domestic and internationally, to institutional and private clients.