Starwood Hotel and Resorts Worldwide Inc. (NYSE:HOT), the owner of the Sheraton hotel chain, has filed a NIS 126 million ($35 million) lawsuit with the Tel Aviv District Court against Azorim Investment, Development and Construction Ltd. (TASE: AZRM). Starwood is demanding compensation from three Azorim subsidiaries for breach of contract over the transfer of management of Sheraton hotels in Israel to it.

By Michael Rochvarger

This dream has turned into a nightmare. Four years ago Lev Leviev, the controlling shareholder in Africa Israel, and Israeli-American businessman Shaya Boymelgreen, embarked on a fabulous real estate venture in South Florida.

The project's trumpeted plans included residences, hotels, offices and more, with a total investment of $1.5 billion. Now reality has struck back hard, and the two entrepreneurs find themselves in an uncomfortable predicament.

JDate users scouring the Jewish dating Web site in anticipation of Valentine’s Day may have found a surprising match.

Lev Leviev, the controversial Israeli diamond mogul, had appeared to register a profile on the site, including such information as, “in my free time, I enjoy: Exploitation, Profiteering, Union-Busting, and Macrame.”

Leviev, the world’s largest cutter and polisher of diamonds, has been linked to expanding Jewish-only settlements in the Palestinian West Bank and a sketchy human rights record in Angola, where it controls the diamond supply. We speak to two Palestinian and Jewish members of
Adalah-New York, a group that’s held weekly protests outside Leviev’s Madison Avenue store. follow link for transcript

We haven't been all that impressed with progress on Terrapin Playground, the section of J.J. Byrne Park that Novo developer Shaya Boymelgreen pledged to revamp in exchange for using the public park as a staging area during the Novo's construction. The playground, which is supposed to include eight new handball courts, two new basketball courts, a skate area, and a dog run area, was originally slated to be completed this summer, then this fall, and now—who knows?

A group of human rights protesters gathered outside of the gala opening of Lev Leviev's diamond store. Leviev is one of the world's richest men and a real estate partner of Shaya Boymelgreen.

Leviev “is destroying marginal communities in New York City the same way he’s destroying Palestinian communities in the Middle East,” said protester Ethan Heitner, who identified himself as a Jewish member of the group Adalah-NY.

Read: Adalah's Press Realease

Members of Park Slope’s community board want the city to prevent tenants from occupying one of real-estate mogul Shaya Boymelgreen’s new Fourth Avenue buildings until he fulfills his promise to repair a local park damaged during construction.

Even though the promised repairs began on Monday, locals are asking the city to make sure they’re completed before Boymelgreen’s NOVO condo residents can move in.

The two most-recently unveiled luxury high-rises — tall amid the flat-fix shops, gas stations, and four-story rowhouses — are the Crest and NOVO, both drawing reactions ranging from condemnation to plaudits, and averaging something in between.

A Park Slope lawyer whose throat was slit during a 2004 carjacking in his building’s parking lot has won a multi-million-dollar settlement against the big-time construction company that failed to secure his safety.

Christopher Nesterczuk sued the builders of his Sackett Street apartment - Alisa Construction, which is owned by the son-in-law of Brooklyn real-estate mogul Shaya Boymelgreen - on the grounds that the company did not provide adequate security while construction was ongoing.

Leviev Boymelgreen is splitting up, in a move that will leave developer Shaya Boymelgreen with the partnership's South Florida properties.

Developer Shaya Boymelgreen is going it alone in Miami.

The Brooklyn-based builder said Friday that he and partner Lev Leviev, an Israeli billionaire, are splitting up.

Terms are still being worked out, but Boymelgreen said he intends to hold onto the South Florida properties the pair bought while Leviev will take their New York land.

Some projects already underway may be shared, he said.