At a glance
Firm: HFZ Capital Group Founder & chairman: Ziel Feldman Former managing principal: Nir Meir (forced out December 2020; later criminally charged) Founded: 2005 (New York City) Headquarters: New York, NY (formerly 600 Madison Avenue) Focus: Ground-up and conversion luxury condominium development — design-forward towers and pre-war conversions across Manhattan Frequent design partners: Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), David Chipperfield, Thomas Juul-Hansen, BKSK, Robert A.M. Stern Architects Portfolio scale at peak: Reported at more than $10 billion of development around 2019 — one of the most prolific luxury developers of the 2010s cycle Signature reputation: A once-formidable, design-obsessed luxury developer whose empire collapsed in a well-documented financial and fraud implosion beginning around 2019–2021 Source: The Roebling Team at Compass — verified against public records, court filings, and published reporting. July 2026.
Who HFZ Capital Group is
HFZ is the firm of Ziel Feldman, a real estate attorney turned developer who co-founded Property Markets Group before launching HFZ Capital Group in 2005. Through the 2010s, HFZ became one of the most prolific and design-conscious luxury developers in New York — a portfolio the firm valued at more than $10 billion around 2019, spanning ground-up towers and a series of high-profile pre-war conversions. Feldman's second-in-command and the public face of much of the development machine was Nir Meir, the firm's managing principal, whose role — and later downfall — became central to the HFZ story.
For a buyer, HFZ is a cautionary case study in a real and important distinction: the difference between a developer's financial record and the quality of the buildings it delivered. HFZ's collapse was one of the most spectacular in the modern city — but it was a collapse of capital, not of construction. Understanding which is which is the whole point of reading this profile before evaluating an HFZ-associated building.
What they build
HFZ's signature was architecturally ambitious luxury — the firm consistently hired the top of the profession and let the design lead the marketing. Its flagship, The XI, was Bjarke Ingels Group's twisting twin-tower composition on the High Line. Its Midtown tower, The Bryant, was David Chipperfield's first ground-up U.S. residential building. In West Chelsea, 505 West 19th was Thomas Juul-Hansen's High Line-straddling pair. Alongside the ground-up work, HFZ ran an active conversion business — taking distinguished pre-war buildings (The Astor on the Upper West Side, the 88 & 90 Lexington pairing, 11 Beach in Tribeca) and relaunching them as amenitized condominiums.
The product itself was well-regarded on design and finish. What sat behind it — the capital stack, the payment discipline, the partner relationships — is where the firm came apart.
Buildings by HFZ Capital Group
HFZ projects already profiled on this site:
- The XI (76 Eleventh Avenue) — HFZ's flagship: Bjarke Ingels Group's twisting twin travertine towers with an integrated hotel, on the High Line in West Chelsea
- One High Line (500 West 18th Street) — the same project, stalled when HFZ defaulted, taken over by Witkoff Group and Access Industries in 2021, and completed in 2024 under the new name
- The Bryant (16 West 40th Street) — David Chipperfield's first NYC residential building, above a boutique hotel overlooking Bryant Park
- 505 West 19th Street — Thomas Juul-Hansen's waffle-grid twin towers flanking the High Line
- The Astor (235 West 75th Street) — HFZ's gut conversion of William Waldorf Astor's landmark Beaux-Arts building
- 88 Lexington Avenue (88 & 90 Lex) — a paired NoMad/Gramercy conversion of two 1920s buildings into one condominium
- 11 Beach Street — a BKSK-designed Tribeca loft conversion
Other HFZ work from the firm's peak included additional Manhattan conversions and ground-up projects that were, in several cases, lost to lenders during the collapse.
Track record and market performance
HFZ's track record splits cleanly in two.
Through the mid-2010s, the firm delivered a series of well-designed, well-selling condominiums — The Bryant, 505 West 19th, and the conversions among them — that stand today as respected buildings in their corridors. On that work, HFZ executed at a high level.
The flagship is where the story turns. The XI — a roughly $2 billion, ~236-residence project financed with a large loan from a UK investment fund — stalled when HFZ stopped paying its general contractor. The contractor filed a mechanic's lien approaching $100 million, construction halted, and the project became the emblem of the firm's failure. In December 2021 it was sold at foreclosure to Witkoff Group and Access Industries, who redesigned the hotel program, retained the BIG exterior, relaunched it as One High Line, and completed it in 2024. The completed building has sold strongly — but under different developers. The delivered flagship's quality reputation attaches to the firms that finished it, not to HFZ.
For a buyer, the practical lesson is that HFZ's name on an offering plan tells you about the design of a building but not necessarily about who stood behind its completion, its warranty, or its post-closing service — a question that varies building by building and must be checked directly.
Reputation and what a buyer should know
Here the distinction is essential, and it is the reason this profile exists in the form it does.
HFZ's collapse was financial and, ultimately, criminal — not a building-defect story. The record is extensive and well documented: mounting debt, missed loan payments, mechanic's liens from unpaid contractors, investor lawsuits, and a cascade of foreclosures that saw the firm lose The XI and a cluster of other Manhattan projects to lenders between 2020 and 2021. The human center of the case is former managing principal Nir Meir, whom Feldman forced out in December 2020 and later sued. Meir was arrested in 2024 and indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney on charges including grand larceny, tax fraud, conspiracy, and falsifying business records, in a scheme prosecutors valued at roughly $86 million; he has pleaded not guilty, and the case is proceeding toward trial. The corporate entity, HFZ Capital, entered a guilty plea in the same matter. Ziel Feldman has not been criminally charged and has publicly blamed Meir.
None of that is a building-quality defect. Public records, court filings, and published reporting reviewed for this profile turned up no construction-defect litigation, no facade or water-intrusion failure, and no verified pattern of homeowner defect complaints — mechanical, structural, or otherwise — at HFZ's delivered condominiums (The Bryant, 505 West 19th, 11 Beach, The Astor, 88 Lex). On workmanship, the completed HFZ buildings have a clean record. Where a conversion-era co-op alleged that HFZ starved a project of funds and left building work unfinished, the origin of that grievance was financial mismanagement — non-payment — rather than defective construction of a finished product, and a buyer should read it in that light.
For a buyer, the diligence here is sharper than usual, but it is diligence, not disqualification. On any HFZ-associated building, confirm who ultimately completed and delivered it, check for any open liens or unfinished-work assessments at the building level, read the offering plan and warranty closely, and understand who is standing behind post-closing obligations today. On the flagship specifically, remember that One High Line was built and delivered by Witkoff and Access, not HFZ — a materially different sponsor picture than the original marketing implied. The financial history is real and worth understanding; the buildings themselves, where completed and delivered, have held up on quality.
The Roebling Team on HFZ 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 an HFZ-associated building — or the completed One High Line, or another sponsor's product — a 30-minute consultation is the right starting point.
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, and published reporting — and The Roebling Team's transaction experience. It is provided for research purposes and is not legal advice; nothing here alleges wrongdoing or building defects beyond what the cited public record supports. The financial and criminal matters described are stated as reported in the public record; nothing here is alleged against any individual beyond what those filings support. The Roebling Team at Compass does not represent HFZ Capital Group. © 2026 The Roebling Team at Compass.