When news broke last week that Russian financier Andrei Vavilov and Plaza developer El-Ad Properties had settled their nasty lawsuits against one another, it was assumed that Vavilov would no longer be held to closing on the pair of penthouses he had agreed to buy for $53.5 million. Indeed, that's the case, but Vavilov is not storming out of the Plaza puffing on a big fat victory cigar and shooting guns in the air. In his lawsuit, Vavilov demanded his $10.7 million deposit back, but he didn't get it, Max Abelson reports in the Observer. Instead, Vavilov rolled the deposit into the purchase of the smaller of the two penthouses he was contracted to buy. Twist!
Abelson writes:
According to city records, in late January he bought the smaller unit under the name Hayling Island Inc., paying a tad more than $11 million. A source said he didn’t get his $10.7 million deposit back as he wanted, but instead swapped it for the smaller penthouse, paying a few dollars more but getting a discount from the original $14 million he was going to spend on it.So El-Ad got trashed by the guy in public?leading to a fairly embarrassing Vanity Fair exposé?then let Vavilov out of his $53.5 million contract to buy both penthouses while granting him a fairly big discount on one of the shmancy apartments. Hey, the guy survived a Kremlin assassination attempt; we'd be scared of him too.
· Vavilov Settles With Eloise—Buys Disputed Plaza Unit at Discount [NYO]
· The Plaza coverage [Curbed]
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