By JAMES FANELLI and BRAD HAMILTON
Posted: 4:23 am
October 12, 2008
Inside of a decade, multimillionaire Eric Hadar went from a small-time Realtor snapping up tiny, rundown Big Apple buildings to a superstar ty coon who shocked the in dustry in a mega-deal for the Citigroup Center in 2001.
But both before and after he assembled $725 million to buy the iconic blue-window skyscraper on Lexington Avenue, Hadar's personal life was tanking from drug addic tion, a messy divorce and run- ins with the law.
Allegations made by his ex-wife in court records paint a picture in striking contrast to his career suc cess - one during which the hand some workaholic was at times pop ping 30 pills of a potent painkiller each day and impersonating a doctor to get the prescriptions he needed to fuel his habit.
That drug abuse led to an air-rage arrest on a flight from New York to Arizona, contributed to his falling into a coma, and set off a series of bizarre outbursts at his wife and mother over issues as innocuous as their cooking, according to a divorce complaint brought by his wife, Allison, in 2004.
Hadar, 43, hit rock bottom on Oct. 3, when he was busted for carrying a witches' brew of illegal drugs on the Saw Mill Parkway. Yonkers police stopped him that afternoon for driving erratically and found a quarter-pound of cocaine, 703 OxyContin pills and 352 Xanax tablets in his car, according to a criminal complaint.
Following the arrest, he dried out at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, according to his criminal lawyer, Ronald Fischetti. Hadar is expected to transfer to a monthlong program at a drug-treatment facility.
"In our opinion, this could be something that will wind up being good for him," Fischetti said. "He will lick this illness."
The salt-and-pepper-haired CEO's ascension began in 1993, when he formed Allied Partners with $500,000 in seed money from his father, Richard, a multimillionaire who made a fortune in a direct-marketing business during the 1980s.
Hadar's first real-estate forays included the $900,000 purchase of a Lower East Side bodega. Eventually, he amassed an eclectic portfolio around the city, including the building that once housed Studio 54, a candy factory on Lafayette Street and 1 E. 57th St.
His crowning achievement was cobbling together an investment group to buy Citigroup Center in 2001.
He sold his share of the building for $100 million in 2006, but Allied Partners still holds multiple properties and is a major stakeholder in Terra Holdings, which owns the Brown Harris Stevens, Halstead Properties and Feathered Nest realty companies.
Both his defenders and critics of his aggressive tactics describe Hadar as a brilliant businessman.
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