$11.4M pre-foreclosure filed at Little Italy office building

The entity Centre Street Lender LLC affiliated with Elliot Sasson, filed a pre-foreclosure action yesterday in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan alleging a loan with an original principal of $11.4 million and secured by Bijan Nassi’s 225 Centre Street in Little Italy as well as a property in Nassau County, was in default.

Sasson’s entity purchased the loan May 15, 2025, from Safra National Bank of New York for an undisclosed amount.

Court records represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.

Case LINK

Bijan Nassi bought the property in June 1997. In May 2008 he refinanced it with a $10.3 million loan from the lender now known as Dime Community Bank. A decade later, in 2018, that loan was refinanced with the $11.4 million loan secured by both 225 Centre Street as well as 51 Middle Neck Road in Great Neck.

According to the complaint, the loan is in several types of default, including for unpaid taxes, a mechanic’s lien, city environmental control board fines and more, but does not allege a payment default for the loan which matures on September 20, 2025.
The complaint alleges, “Borrower failed to pay taxes for the tax years 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025 and failed to provide Mortgagee with written evidence of such payment… Original Lender made protective advances on April 17, 2025 in the amount of $244,712.16 and on May 12, 2025 in the amount of $1,911,272.02 to satisfy the tax lien in the same amount.”

The property

The office building with 3 residential units in Little Italy has 44,034 square feet of built space and 32,397 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 76,410 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 70 feet and is 104 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,641 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-5/R10 which allows for up to 5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Individual Landmark. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $9 million. The most recent loan totaled 0.0 and was provided by Elliot Sasson on May 15, 2025.

Prior sales and revenue

The 44,034-square-foot property generated revenue of $1.8 million or $41 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received four DOB violations, $11,875 in ECB penalties, and $13,375 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Little Italy, The bulk, or 33 percent of the 4.1 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 25 percent of the space. In sales, Little Italy has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $335.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 25th highest in Manhattan. For development, Little Italy has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 41st highest in Manhattan. It had 108,035 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of four of the 13 commercial properties representing 101,584 square feet of the 170,344 square feet. The largest owner is Bijan Nassi, followed by Jaime Solari and then Kow Quen Realty Corp.. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Bijan Nassi owned at least nine commercial properties with 129 residential units in New York City with 243,642 square feet and a city-determined market value of $53.6 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $36.2 million in debt, with top three lenders as Northeast Bank, Avant Capital, and Elliot Sasson respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 52 percent of the 243,642 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 40 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 156 Baxter Street, PincusCo identified five commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those five items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit application filed on May 14, 2025 for the $387,000 renovation of 4,238-square-foot residential (RES) building with three residential units at 145 Grand Street. Of those five items, three were sales above $5 million totaling $69.7 million. The most recent of the three was Iyad Hamsho which bought the 12,425-square-foot, 16-unit rental (C7) on 146 Mulberry Street for $12.7 million from Veracity Equities on October 16, 2024. One of those five items was a loan which Iyad Hamsho borrowed $8.7 million from Series 2017-H1 secured by the 12,425-square-foot, 16-unit rental (C7) on 146 Mulberry Street on October 16, 2024.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.