At a glance
Firm: Clipper Equity Founder & principal: David Bistricer (Co-Chairman & CEO); Sam Levinson (co-principal); J.J. Bistricer (next-generation principal) Founded: 2006 (New York City) — building on a family real-estate business dating to the 1950s Headquarters: Borough Park, Brooklyn, NY Public affiliate: Clipper Realty Inc. (NYSE: CLPR) — the self-managed REIT Bistricer and Levinson took public in 2017 Focus: Owned and managed multifamily rental at scale, plus condominium conversion and selective ground-up development, concentrated in Brooklyn and Manhattan Frequent development partner: The Chetrit Group (on the firm's two best-known Manhattan condominiums) Portfolio scale: A private group reported to hold interests in 60-plus buildings and thousands of residential units; the public REIT controls roughly 3,000-plus apartments across ~3.4 million square feet Signature reputation: A value-oriented, income-focused operator that has repeatedly partnered on large Manhattan condo conversions — with a real, documented history of condo-board defect litigation at those buildings, and a decades-old state offering-plan matter, both covered honestly below Source: The Roebling Team at Compass — verified against public records, court filings, and published reporting. July 2026.
Who Clipper Equity is
Clipper Equity is the development and operating vehicle of David Bistricer, a Brooklyn-based investor whose family has bought and managed New York apartment buildings since the 1950s. Bistricer joined the family business in the 1970s and founded Clipper Equity under its current name in 2006, with Sam Levinson as his longtime partner and his son J.J. Bistricer now active in the firm. The house style is different from the trophy-condo developers elsewhere in these profiles: Clipper's center of gravity is income-producing multifamily rental — large Brooklyn and Manhattan complexes held for cash flow — with condominium development pursued opportunistically, often through joint ventures.
The firm's public face is Clipper Realty Inc. (NYSE: CLPR), the real estate investment trust that Bistricer and Levinson took public in February 2017. Clipper Realty holds a slice of the family's rental portfolio — buildings such as Tribeca House, the Aspen in East Harlem, Flatbush Gardens in Brooklyn, and Downtown Brooklyn holdings — while Clipper Equity remains the private vehicle for condo development and other assets outside the REIT. For a buyer, the relevant point is that this is fundamentally a landlord-operator that also builds and converts condominiums, rather than a pure condo house — and its condo record, examined below, is genuinely mixed.
What they build
On the rental side, Clipper builds and holds at scale: multi-hundred- and multi-thousand-unit complexes, a mix of market-rate and regulated, managed for long-term income. On the for-sale side, the firm's signature has been the large Manhattan condominium conversion, executed in joint venture — most visibly with The Chetrit Group. Its two best-known condominiums, 135W52 and Gramercy Square, are both Chetrit/Clipper partnerships in which Bistricer's firm served as co-developer rather than sole sponsor. The firm has also pursued ground-up rental development in Brooklyn (including projects in Prospect Heights and Crown Heights) and a handful of Brooklyn condo conversions (BellTel Lofts, Clover House).
Because Clipper's condos are typically joint ventures, a buyer should read sponsorship carefully: the co-developer structure matters both for who controlled construction and for who is on the hook when a condo board raises defect claims — a live issue at both flagship buildings.
Buildings by Clipper Equity
Clipper Equity projects already profiled on this site — both co-developed with The Chetrit Group:
- 135W52 (135 West 52nd Street) — the former Flatotel, a Rafael Viñoly tower converted by Chetrit and Clipper Equity (with CetraRuddy) into a 109-unit Midtown condominium
- The Modern at Gramercy Square (230 East 20th Street) — the ground-up building within the four-building Gramercy Square enclave on the former Cabrini Medical Center site, developed by Chetrit, Clipper Equity, and the Reed Property Group
Both credits are accurate co-developer roles, not sole-sponsor roles — Clipper partnered with Chetrit on the acquisition and development of each, and (at The Modern) with Reed as well.
Other notable Clipper work — largely rental, and much of it inside the public REIT — includes Flatbush Gardens (a 59-building, roughly 2,500-unit East Flatbush complex), Tribeca House, the Aspen (East Harlem), Clover House and BellTel Lofts (Brooklyn condo conversions), and Downtown Brooklyn holdings on Livingston Street. Earlier headline deals — many since exited — include the firm's stakes (with Chetrit) in the Chelsea Hotel and the former Sony Tower at 550 Madison, and a failed 2007 bid for the Starrett City complex.
Track record
Clipper's record has two distinct halves, and a buyer should hold both.
As a rental operator, the firm has built a durable, cash-flowing portfolio and taken a meaningful piece of it public — a real accomplishment, and the source of most of its scale. Bistricer is described as conservative on leverage, and the REIT's holdings are long-term income plays rather than merchant-build flips.
As a condo developer, the picture is more complicated. The firm's two flagship conversions sold into strong Manhattan cycles, but both have since drawn condo-board construction-defect litigation (detailed in the next section). On the rental side, the firm's largest asset, Flatbush Gardens, has carried a long, well-documented history of housing-code violations and disrepair, and its 2023 40-year city tax break drew scrutiny precisely because it arrived amid thousands of open violations. Those are rental-maintenance and tax-policy matters, distinct from condo quality — but they speak to the operating posture of the sponsor, and a condo buyer is entitled to weigh them.
Reputation and what a buyer should know
This section is where a buyer's diligence should sharpen, because Clipper's condo record is not clean, and the honest reading matters.
Condo-board defect litigation at both flagship condominiums. The record here is real and specific, and it is the single most important thing for a buyer to know:
- Gramercy Square — In January 2025, the Gramercy Square condominium board sued the original developers, naming David Bistricer and Chetrit's Meyer Chetrit, alleging serious construction defects: recurring leaks, improperly installed boilers, inadequate fire-stopping, cracked interior window panes, and improperly installed flooring. The board's engineer characterized certain conditions as life-safety issues, and the complaint sought damages reported in the range of $75 million, plus claims over condo funds, seeking to hold the sponsors personally liable as majority owners of the sponsor entity. Bistricer denied the allegations and stated he was working to resolve issues with the board. These are allegations in pending, engineer-supported, board-initiated litigation — not adjudicated findings — but they are substantive and should be studied.
- 135W52 — In 2022, the 135 West 52nd Street condominium board filed suit in New York County against Bistricer, Meyer Chetrit, and their firms, seeking a money judgment tied to construction and sponsor obligations at the building. As reported, the specific defect detail is less fully documented than at Gramercy Square, but the existence of a board-initiated construction claim is confirmed in court records.
A buyer at either building — or at any Clipper/Chetrit condominium — should have counsel pull the current litigation docket, review the condo board's reserve and assessment history, obtain the most recent engineer's report, and confirm the status of any sponsor-repair obligations before signing.
A decades-old state offering-plan matter — stated accurately. Published reporting and public records show that in the 1990s the New York State Attorney General (under the Martin Act, which governs condo and co-op offering plans — not the federal SEC) charged the Bistricer family with inadequate financial disclosure in certain conversions. A 1998 state ruling barred the family from selling co-ops and condos in New York; those restrictions were loosened through court-approved consent orders beginning in 2001 and substantially lifted by 2009, with the AG noting no complaints of financial improprieties in the interim. This is a disclosure/offering-plan matter administered by the state, and it is the reason Clipper's condo offerings require project-by-project AG review — a fact disclosed as a risk factor in the public REIT's securities filings. It is not an SEC enforcement action, and it is not a building-defect matter; a buyer should understand it as history, on the record.
Matters to distinguish (not condo defects). A 2022 state Attorney General settlement over tenant-screening practices, the Flatbush Gardens violation history, and commercial/financing distress at certain Downtown Brooklyn office assets are all real but belong to the firm's rental and commercial operations — they are fair-housing, maintenance, and financial matters, not construction defects in a condominium a buyer would purchase. Frivolous and NIMBY complaints are not treated as issues here.
For a buyer, the takeaway is straightforward: Clipper is a substantial, long-tenured operator, but its condominium buildings carry active defect litigation, and its sponsor history includes a documented state offering-plan chapter. That is not a reason to walk away from a well-priced unit — it is a reason to do sharper-than-usual diligence, with counsel, before you do.
The Roebling Team on Clipper Equity buildings
We publish developer profiles because a buyer choosing a new-construction or recently-converted condominium is, in part, betting on the developer — its quality, its staying power, and its record when things go wrong. The Roebling Team at Compass tracks the sponsors behind Manhattan's luxury inventory building by building, and we bring that context to every new-development transaction: what the developer has built, how those buildings have held value, and what to verify before you sign.
If you're evaluating a Clipper Equity building — 135W52, Gramercy Square, or another — or weighing it against another sponsor's product, a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point. Given the open condo-board litigation at both flagship buildings, we'd treat the diligence conversation as essential rather than optional.
Corey Cohen, Principal · The Roebling Team at Compass 646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com
This developer profile reflects publicly available information — including NYC public records, court filings, securities filings, and published reporting — and The Roebling Team's transaction experience. It is provided for research purposes and is not legal advice; the litigation described is a matter of pending allegation unless a court has ruled, and nothing here alleges wrongdoing or building defects beyond what the cited public record supports. The Roebling Team at Compass does not represent Clipper Equity. © 2026 The Roebling Team at Compass.