The Long Beach, New York city council approved a tentative settlement on Tuesday evening with a real estate developer who was awarded a judgment this year now estimated to be worth nearly $150 million, that threatened the city with insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. Long Beach, a city of about 34,000 on a barrier island off Long Island’s south shore, agreed to pay developer Sinclair Haberman $75 million in cash and permit him to build two 13-story buildings with a rooftop penthouse on a long-vacant lot along the boardwalk. The parties have 90 days to finalize their settlement, which also needs ratification from the city’s zoning board. Long Beach and Haberman have been warring since the 1980s, after the city first granted a variance to zoning rules to Haberman’s father to build beachside developments, then changed its zoning laws and denied permits to a large part of the project. In May a judgment of $140.83 million was entered against the city and its zoning board of appeals. With interest accruing at about $1.1 million per month, Long Beach estimated the judgment in the Haberman litigation now to be around $148.9 million. To pay for the settlement, according to M3 Partners, Long Beach’s financial adviser, the city intends to issue general obligation bonds that will likely cost $5 million to $6 million annually to service.
