The market may be cooling, but this real-estate mogul is still a hothead.
Heavy hitter Yair Levy was slapped with an assault charge after allegedly pummeling busi ness partner Kent Swig with a metal ice bucket.
The two men joined forces last year in a $418 million deal to purchase the Sheffield – a 50-story apartment building on West 57th Street – for what was billed as one of the largest condominium conver sions in New York City history.
Levy, 58, is described by sources as having anger-management is sues. He was attending a meeting at the Park Avenue offices of Swig’s attorney this past Sept. 11 when he allegedly snapped, pick ing up the ice bucket and striking Swig on his right shoulder and right hand.
Law-enforcement sources say Levy, the Israeli founder of YL Real Estate Developers, smashed Swig, 47, on the same parts of the body where he recently had sur gery.
Sources said the dispute stemmed from another deal the duo struck in 2005. In that project, they purchased two rent-stabilized six-story rental buildings on Am sterdam Avenue for $54 million and planned to build luxury con dominiums above them on steel stilts.
That plan apparently fell through. They sold the buildings for $61 million in July after holding on to them for three years and in vesting a fortune on lawyers, en gineers and architects.
Levy “went into a fit of rage and his behavior was intolerable,” according to a Swig spokesman. Several people present in the room had to restrain the attacker.
The spokesman declined to comment on the future of the two men’s business relationship.
Reached by telephone, Levy at first denied that he was named in the criminal complaint. He then said he didn’t want to discuss the incident.
Levy was arrested on Oct. 10 and charged with misdemeanor assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
He was released on his own recognizance and ordered to keep away from Swig.
Levy returns to court in December.
Swig is president of Swig Equities and is also a major downtown residential and commercial developer.
He recently went to bat for Larry Silverstein in defense of the real-estate titan, insisting that all three World Trade Center towers be completed, despite a lagging economy.
“I’d rather build in a bad market delivering into a good market,” he told The Post two weeks ago. “The logic [of waiting until there is a good market to build] is completely flawed.”
cbennett@nypost.com