A former New York executive facing lawsuits over the collapse of real estate empire HFZ Capital Group has been arrested in Miami, charged with grand larceny and tax fraud, Bloomberg News reported. Nir Meir was arrested Monday, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Police Department confirmed. Meir was detained on an out-of-state warrant, suggesting his arrest may be the result of an investigation by law enforcement in New York. Meir, the former managing principal of HFZ Capital Group, has been battling multiple lawsuits in New York over his involvement in the once-prominent real estate firm. He’s denied wrongdoing. HFZ, headed by Chairman Ziel Feldman, was one of Manhattan’s highest-flying condo developers, known for paying premium prices for coveted land and bringing numerous large projects to the market simultaneously. But in 2018, while still selling its earlier developments, HFZ unleashed more than $3 billion of new luxury units, essentially competing against itself. By then, demand for lavish condos had cooled from the days when investors would plunk down record-shattering sums for homes before construction even began. In early 2021, lender CIM Group took control of four HFZ developments in Manhattan: the Astor on the Upper West Side, 301 W. 53rd St. in Hell’s Kitchen and 88 and 90 Lexington Ave. in NoMad.
