$104.5M pre-foreclosure filed at RFR’s 90 Fifth Ave, no claim of payment or maturity default

Rialto Capital Advisors as special servicer for Series 2017-GS7, which holds the notes for the $104.5 million loan secured by RFR Holding’s 90 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District, Manhattan, filed a pre-foreclosure action February 14, 2025 in New York State Supreme Court, seeking a sale of the property. An unusual feature of the complaint is that it did not mention a payment or a maturity default, which nearly all recent New York City commercial foreclosure cases allude to.

Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.
Case LINK

Goldman Sachs through the entity Goldman Sachs Mortgage Company originated the $104.5 million loan on July 6, 2017, which was then securitized as Series 2017-GS7.

According to the complaint, “Borrower failed to pay the property taxes when due on January 1, 2023 and January 1, 2024, and failed to remit the tax shortfall,” which was $3,893,167.
According to the filing, in November 2024, Rialto notified RFR that the loan was being accelerated and the entire $104.5 million was due.
The complaint says, “By reason of the foregoing Event of Default [over tax funding] and pursuant to Section 7.2(a) of the Loan Agreement, the Borrower was notified by letter dated November 5, 2024, that the Trust had accelerated the maturity of the unpaid balance of the Loan, such that the entire principal balance due under the Loan Documents.”
RFR Holding, led by Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs, bought the building on October 31, 2000, for $30 million, according to a PincusCo analysis of transfer tax figures.

The landlord is a defendant in more than a half-dozen commercial foreclosure cases, even as several such actions have been withdrawn.

The property

The office building in Flatiron District has 132,491 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 103 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 10,325 square feet. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $64.8 million.

Prior sales and revenue

The 132,491-square-foot property generated revenue of $12.4 million or $94 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

The neighborhood

In Flatiron District, The majority, or 71 percent of the 23.2 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Flatiron District has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $535.6 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 21st highest in Manhattan. For development, Flatiron District has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 11th highest in Manhattan. It had 3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 13 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 15 commercial properties representing 609,722 square feet of the 807,766 square feet. The largest owner is Comjem Associates, followed by Epic Llc and then Heli Song. On the tax block, there were three new building construction projects totaling 123,551 square feet. The largest is a 50-unit, 63,248 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Kevin Murray with plans filed February 15, 2019 and permitted March 5, 2020. The second largest is a 49-unit, 49,568 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Hiwin Group USA and filed by Harry Song with plans filed August 22, 2024 and it has not been permitted yet.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 90 Fifth Avenue, PincusCo identified 11 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those 11 items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on February 12, 2025 for a 111,568-square-foot residential (R-2) building with 36 residential units at 5 West 13thstreet. Of those 11 items, five were sales above $5 million totaling $232.7 million. The most recent of the five was Uttkarsh Lal which bought one condo unit in the 6,522-square-foot, eight-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 10 East 14th Street for $8.5 million from Joseph Sutton (Oakhurst) and Marc Sutton on September 3, 2024. Of those 11 items, five were loans above $5 million totaling $242.5 million. The most recent of the five was Legion Investment Group in which borrowed $53.7 million from Maxim Capital Group secured by the 110,000-square-foot, six-unit office building (O2) on 8 West 14th Street on December 19, 2024.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page.