At a glance
- Firm: The Claremont Group (New York) — a family-owned developer
- Founder & principal: A. Alexander "Alex" Lari (Founder, Chairman/CEO), with principals John Lari and Stephen Lari
- Founded: 1979 (New York City)
- Focus: Office, residential, and lodging development and conversion, built for the firm's own account as sole principal or managing equity partner
- Signature buildings in scope: 8 Union Square South and 99 Wall Street
- Source: The Roebling Team at Compass — verified against public records and published reporting. July 2026.
Who The Claremont Group is
The Claremont Group is the family firm founded in 1979 by Alex Lari, an NYU-trained civil engineer, and run today with next-generation principals John Lari and Stephen Lari. It develops for its own account — as sole principal or managing equity partner — across office, residential, and lodging, and its residential work includes both ground-up condominiums and office-to-residential conversions. (For clarity: this is the Lari family's New York firm, not the unrelated Singapore-based investment company of the same name.)
For a buyer, the useful read is a long-tenured, principal-owned developer that holds and builds for its own book rather than flipping projects — a posture that tends to align the sponsor's interests with the finished product.
Buildings by The Claremont Group
Claremont projects already profiled on this site:
- 8 Union Square South — the boutique condominium completed 2006–2007, designed by Arpad Baksa, with a white sandblasted precast façade looking straight over Union Square Park; Claremont was the lead developer
- 99 Wall Street — the 1931 Art Deco office tower Claremont acquired and converted to a 52-home residential condominium in 2017, with design by Piet Boon and Karl Fisher as architect of record
Reputation and what a buyer should know
No construction-defect litigation, DOB enforcement action, or foreclosure/lender-default filing surfaced against Claremont for either building in the public record — though absence of a public suit is not the same as a clean bill, and a definitive read would require checking court, offering-plan, and DOB violation records directly. The one friction point on 99 Wall was routine: former office tenants were cleared via lease-termination clauses so the conversion could proceed, a commercial/business matter, not a construction or financial red flag. Standard diligence applies — for a conversion in particular, focus on the offering plan, the sponsor warranty, the reserve fund, and the building's mechanical and façade condition, since a converted pre-war office tower carries a different systems profile than ground-up construction.
The Roebling Team on The Claremont Group buildings
We track the sponsors behind Manhattan's condominium inventory because a buyer is partly betting on the developer's quality and staying power — and on a conversion, on how thoughtfully the old building was reworked. If you're evaluating a Claremont building, 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 Roebling Team at Compass does not represent The Claremont Group. © 2026 The Roebling Team at Compass.