Newsday from New York, New York • 29

Eichners? Empires Suffer Big Setbacks The real estate boom of the 1980s brought instant wealth to former private attorney Eichner, who styled turn-self a patron of the arts, took the penthouse of CitySpire. for his use and moved in the glittery social circles of and East Hampton. It was a fast rise for the attorney, who bought his first building in 1977 for $600,000 at the age of S3. But now, his net worth is unknown, given the array of financial difficulties he currently faces. Hes a survivor, said attorney Jay Sdden, who helped Bruce Eichner cut his first development deal 18 years ago.

He can live through anything. Certainly, few developers can right-' fiilly claim more success than the cocky and brash Bruce Eichner, who in his -glory days was able to buy full-page newspaper ads boastingof CitySpire asa Never-never land, where you never have to do what you dont want to da 'The golden-domed CitySpire on West 56th looks down on midtown Manhattan and lays claim to being one of the -tallest condominium towers in the world. It is only one gem in Eichners collection. But now. the Eichners are feeling pmhattlwt pnH liafaneivn.

My mother calls me on the phone and asks, How are things with you and Jonathan? the 45-year-old Bruce Eichner recounted in an interview earlier this year. He snapped back: What does that biii, Mon? In Manhattan now, Bruce Eichner is trying to erect an office building on at 45th, convert the Boulevard on Broadway at 86th from co-ops to condominiums, and sell the last 70 units of CitySpire. Headaches abound in all three. The office tower suffering huge cost overruns, according to industry sources stalled earlier this year when his partner, a Chicago-based syndicate named VMS Development, reeled from its own financial problems and restructured its activities. Homstein said the building now has been finished, and a hunt for a prime tenant continues.

On the Boulevard, Eichner in recent -months has failed to make loan building maintenance payments, and an Aug: 31, the state attorney general made him cancel the sale, of an $816,050 apartment because it and others are pledged as collateral to the unpaid sums. Three weeks later Eichner submitted papers saying Citibank had agreed to restructure his outstanding. $100 million loan so he can finish the conversion. The attorney general is examining hia new plan. Meanwhile, the attorney general has opened a new investigation into CitySpire after foments there complained about not receiving critical financial information snd promised mninfainna abatements from Eichner, said Gary Connor, assistant attorney general in the Real Estate Financing Bureau.

In filings dated Oct. 10, Eichner reports that he owes the tenants $665,000 in abatements and common charges, the bank $28 million in interest, and the city $5.2 million in real estate taxes, not including interest. The city alao is prmwinc Eichner to good on his promise that he would build a $3-millon dance studio if allowed to keep the extra 14 feet he knowingly built onto the top of CitySpire. Hes 12 months overdue, and is still seeking a building permit. There's been an unbroken history of bad faith and misrepresentation, said Joe Rose, who battled Eichner when he chaired Community Board 5.

Homstein, who went to work for Eichner in 1983 and who spoke for Eichner during the many wrangfings with city officials over the 14 feet; contends that the city's own red tape was to blame for most of those problems. Eichner built too high, for example, be-lieving hed eventually fin the necessary city approvals. Eichner now can blame the condo market for many of ills. CitySpire ales were slow and incomplete, with 70 of the 370 units still unsold not good enough to pay off his debts. Hornstem said there are continuing negotiations with the buk that he describes as very sensitive As part of the pending deal, said Homstein, Eichner the developer would turn landlord and rent the unsold units.

Jonathan Eichner also has suffered reversals. On Aug. 29 Chase Manhattan foreclosed a $20 million loan for his prqject, the Rose Cove Marina condominium prqject at Gravesend Bay. Sitting on a little cove with views of the Verraxano Bridge, Rose Cove Marina was originally conceived by a tax ao-. anunUnt named Tml RmnlHn Rmnlhin was fighting a losing battle with the state for an environmental permit in 1984 when Homstein suggested he on Jonathan Eirhne nd Edward Elenson as partners, Smolkin recalled.

Homstein denies knowing Elenson. Rose Cove was restructured, with Elenson and Eichner each taking 25 percent shares, while Rmnlfcin and a group of his friends kept 50 percent. Eichner was made the sola general, or managing, partner, and the permit came through. Construction begpn on the $30 million prqject, but two years BROTHERS from Page 3 -K that former Staten Mender Edward J. -Elenson, 39, who alao uses the name Ed Coletti, has run drags ainoe 1978, Acconling to federal law enforcement aourcea citing government, documents, Elenson, as part of his sentencing deal, agreed to forfeit his cigarette boat and $2,560,280 in other poaeeaaiona that were purchased with drug money.

Among them: a 4-story, 12-unit Brooklyn apartment building. According to 1988 real estate records kept by Real Estate Data taxes on the walk-up were paid by a partnership of Elenson and Jonathan Eichner, while Knee Eichner ia listed as the owner. The elder Eichnnr said through an attorney late Friday that he currently has no financial interest in the building. The sources said investigations continue in an effort to trace all of Elenaoms real estate dealings that might be tied to his drug business. As if that wasnt enough for one six-week period starting late August, last week Bruce Richness lender on City-Spire, European American Bank, filed suit in State Supreme Court in Nassau County to challenge the worth of collat-eral he posted for $50 million in loans.

Bruce Eichners attorney said he ia having "very sensitive negotiations with his lenders to reconfigure loans involving many tens of millions of dollars. Jonathan Eichner, 37, and a third brother, Stuart, who lives in and works for CitySpire, did not return numerous calls to their homes and offices. Bruce Eichner refused to be -interviewed for this article. Their attorneys and friends say. they're just part of the beleaguered real estate community, choked by the con-.

Crete canyons that in better times made so many so rich. There are six thousand people in the real estate industry who are in' similar, or the same, or about the same position, said Howard Homstein, a former city planning com-' mimrioner who now represents Bruce 1st Anchorman Is Dead at 73 1 EDWARDS from Page 3 Award for best television news in 1956, and the show which began airing coast to coast five years earlier became the worlds Ingest single news marinim with 5U miliums wwiiw Because he', was a pioneer and achieved so much as a professional, Douglas Edwards is in the pantheon of news broadcasters, said current CBS News anchor Dan Rather. He already had 10 years of broadcast experience when he joined CBS in 1942. He became part of Edward R. Murrow's London staff toward the end of World WarIL In 1948, he joined Murrow and Quincy Howe in CBS radio coverage of the 1948 presidential conventions.

Afterward, CBS asked me to go into television, and I did it with some fear -T 1 and trepidation, not because I was nervous about being cm television I had done quite a bit of it but radio was the power, and I was pretty young at th time, he once said. He made the transition smoothly, retired colleague Eric Sevareid readied yesterday in Washington. He was one of the very few who set the standards of objectivity mid cool-headedness for the later RmnlVin had misgivings end sued Eichner in State Supreme Court, daim-: ing Eichner was misusing partnership funds, keeping him in the dark about finances aid plotting to force him out of the venture. Eichner denies the charges, and counter-accused Smolkin of interfering. The suit, still pending; seeks to dissolve the partnership.

Eichner in court papers also has accused Smolkin of bringing muscle along on one of his periodic visits to the construction site on June 19, 1987. The man fMuminnn waa t.ha wwirin rtf slain mob boss Paul Castellano. Giam-mona was shot dead the following year in what police called a mob-related killing. Eichner claims Giammona threatened him. Smolkin said he had no idea of Giammona's connections, and fiirther argues that had Giammona meant any hum he would not have left Eichner hu business card fnm his firm.

Wholesale Marble Importers, Inc, which Eichner submitted in court papers. More trouble arrived when, aa New York Newaday reported, Eichner in December 1988 filed his Rose Cove Marina sales plan with the attorney general and foiled to disclose Smolkina then-3-year-old suit against him. Eichners lawyers, BerleKassA Case, and his banker. Chase; said they saw no reason to disclose the suit. The attorney general thought otherwise, suggesting that condo buyers might want to know that project owners are in a Utter feud that might well land the prqject in court receivership.

And federal authorities may betaking alook at Roee Cove, as they untangle the financial operations of Edward Elenaon tied tohia conviction far drug smuggling from 1978 through 1986. Law enforcement sources say that, in addition to the Brooklyn walk-up, authorities have seized a rental building at 100 Union St. On a Schedule K-l form filed with the IRS in 1987, Elenson, a limited partner with a quarter-share in the Rose Cove prqject, repented that he materially participated in the partnershipa busi-nesa activities. Three weeks before Chase foreclosed on its three-yearold construction loan to Rose Cove Marina, aomeone walked into the city registrar's office in Brooklyn and filed the first of a series of documents claiming that the Chase loan had been satisfied, paid in ftilL The satisfactions were evidently fraudulently said Chase spokeswoman Amy Sudol, adding that the signatures of two bank officers Wendell Clarke and Joseph Hedrick were forged. Jonathan Eichner's name also waa signed to the documents, but the submitter remains a mystery.

The registrar said it did not keep records of who submitted them. At this time we believe Jonathan Eichner did not submit the documents, Sudol said, adding that Chase's internal investigation continues. We plan to take it up with federal authorities if the probe shows a need for outside scrutiny, she said. Real estate records show that Bruce Eichner is a substantial investor in Jonathans prqject by holding a one-third interest in Rose Hill Associates, which has a $4.6 million mortgage for the Rose Cove Marina prqject. But in an interview on Jan.

10, Bruce Eichner said that he is completely uninvolved in decision-making in Jonathans projects despite his financial interest The brothers annually go fishing to Panama, he said. But when it comes to business, Pve had a handa-off policy for a long time, he said. Eichner and Eichner is really not City Sounds Snake Alarm SNAKES from Page 3 less ones it thought it had purchased from a wholesaler. Redneck Keelbacka closely resemble garter nalraa ni health said it would take an expert to toll them apart. Robertson, 36, a self-taught snake expert, said he spotted the difference when he peered into the tank at Petlands store near his home on the Upper West Side.

The guys in the store didnt believe me and got nasty about it, said Robertson, who is now unemployed but has -applied for a job working with snakes at the Bronx Zoo. brought back a book, but they still didnt believe me. But they believe me now. Anyone who may have one of the snakes is urged to call (718) 257-6000 for bite from the fonged creatures can be fatal if left untreated. As of yesterday, 14 of the 50 nt had been recovered and placed in quarantine at the reptile house at the Bronx Zoo, according to the New York Zoological Society.

At least five of the snakes were sold to the city, according to Health Department spokeswoman Margaret Karan-jaL She said two of them were recovered in Bronx and Brooklyn from people who saw news accounts of the danger and called authorities. Karaqjai said the department could not account for the other 36 snakes at this point." She said an investigation 3 oi anchor position, he wnd. 3Heis survived by hiswife. May; three conducted to 'find out how children' fata WpifeVioUahiarfiagd, two Vjtatlarfd-DiScotirit stepsons, and four grandchildren. dangerous snakes instead of the harm someone to pick up the snake.

Anyone Eichner end Eichner. Its Eichner and bfttn byaariakeshovDdphone the Poi-'t'i-Eichheryaa brothers arid! want it to be on Control Center at (212) 340-4494. that way for a hundred years, he said. KV I if i.