A signed agreement, a personal lender dispute, and a closing that never happened
A New York land deal for residential development fell apart after sellers allegedly refused to close, citing the controlling owner's personal dispute with a lender.
Toll Northeast Building, Inc. filed suit on March 30, 2026 in the Southern District of New York against Paul Camarda, Hudson Valley Realty Corp., and Par Four Realty Company, LLC (Toll Northeast Building, Inc. v. Camarda et al., Case No. 7:26-cv-02591), alleging breach of contract, tortious interference, fraud, and deceptive business practices.
The court filing states that Toll and the corporate defendants signed an Agreement of Sale on January 2, 2024 for property in Carmel, Putnam County. The deal was split into two closings at Camarda's request. The first, for a parcel called the "Gateway Property," closed in January 2024. The second, for a parcel called the "Fairways Property," was set to close by February 13, 2026.
Toll says it held up its end. After the first closing, the company invested substantial additional capital developing the property, treating both parcels as a single project to build and sell residential homes and amenities in Putnam County.
Then things fell apart.
The filing alleges that Camarda — the sole director, officer, and shareholder of Hudson Valley Realty Corp., which is the sole member of Par Four — began conditioning the second closing on the resolution of his personal financial disputes with Jefferies LLC. Toll says it knew before signing the deal that Camarda had a personal loan from Jefferies, secured by his interests in real estate parcels including the property at issue, and that Jefferies held a mortgage or similar interest on that property. According to the filing, Toll made clear it would only enter the deal if those issues would not affect closing, and Camarda assured Toll they would not.
By October 2025, that assurance had evaporated. The filing quotes Camarda writing to Toll: "At this point I am no longer interested in a one off partial settlement. After two frustrating years dealing with Jefferies and Mr Handler, I decided in late August to move away as fast as I can from any more dealings with Jefferies." Richard Handler is identified in the filing as the CEO of Jefferies, upon the plaintiff's information and belief.
The sellers did not close on February 13, 2026. Toll sent a default notice demanding a cure within thirty days. The sellers' counsel acknowledged the missed closing and stated that closing without an agreement with Richard Handler and Chris Papas — whom the filing describes as Camarda's former friends who invested in the seller — "would render the Seller insolvent." A closing date of March 16, 2026 — the final day of the cure period — was proposed, but the sellers' counsel stated that his client would "not sign the closing papers unless it has an agreement in place with its Lenders/Investors." The closing never happened.
Toll is now asking the court to compel the sale and award compensatory damages, treble damages under New York General Business Law Section 349, and punitive damages. The filing also seeks to pierce the corporate veil and hold Camarda personally liable, alleging he used the corporate entities as instruments of his personal interests and caused them to be undercapitalized.
No determination has been made in the case. The allegations remain unproven.
