Mosque Developer and Financial Backer

MYFOXNY.COM - There are so many questions yet to be answered about the development of the mosque and Islamic cultural center planned for Lower Manhattan. Yet for some reason the real estate mogul behind it won't answer them.

Sharif el-Gamal, 37, is the waiter turned mogul behind Park51. He wanted no part of some tough questions about his development of the mosque near ground zero -- his finances, associations, or past.

Why a reputable businessman involved in a project with worldwide interest wouldn't be willing to answer a few questions is hard to understand.

El-Gamal is the president and CEO of Soho Properties, which owns 45 Park Place, the building most now known as the so-called ground zero mosque.

He bought it for $4.8 million in cash. He's getting his 15 minutes of fame. It's quite a rise for a guy who was waiting tables just a few years ago at trendy upscale Manhattan restaurants.

Now he's a real estate developer in the middle of a politically charged, highly sensitive and controversial project. Many have wondered who el-Gamal is associated with and how he's financing the deal.

We started following the money and found el-Gamal's real estate holdings included at least four buildings in Manhattan, including the mosque near ground zero, two residential buildings in Washington Heights, and a 108,000-square-foot building in Chelsea. He bought the building for $45.7 million just four months after purchasing the future mosque.

Fox 5 has learned that he had a list of investors including the very people who sold him 45 Park Place -- the mosque site.

But el-Gamal's biggest boost came from Egyptian-born Hisham Elzanaty.

We tried to ask Elzanaty some questions, but he said he didn't have the time.

Mortgage documents confirm Elzanaty is the guarantor on the $39 million loan el-Gamal's company assumed in buying the building.

It seems el-Gamal's money man couldn't get away from us fast enough either. He darted out of a nearly $2 million Roslyn Heights home and made a bee-line to his car, again refusing to answer our questions. We asked him how he knows Sharif el-Gamal.

But we've been able to find out a bit about Elzanaty without his help. He is the owner of several medical companies run out of a building in the Bronx. East Tremont medical center is a clinic. In the reception area, there is a picture of Elzanaty proudly posing with his staff.

But as state records show, Hisham Elzanaty was ordered to repay more than $331,000. An audit showed that one of his companies was overpaid by Medicaid.

We tried again to talk to Elzanaty, but once again he took off without answering any of our questions.

Much the way his associate, mosque developer Sharif el-Gamal, did.

El-Gamal remains stubbornly silent. And we've now learned he's also involved in developing another Islamic center in Harlem.

And Hisham Elzanaty -- the man who is essentially the co-signer on el-Gamal's $39 million mortgage for the office building in Chelsea -- is no stranger to headlines.

In 1999, his parents were killed when Egyptian Air Flight 990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off of Nantucket Island, according to a report.