14 Vesey placed in bankruptcy, pressured by $27.8M pre-foreclosure

A family office based in Connecticut, through the entity 14 Vesey Street Partners (Del) LLC filed to place the vacant office and retail building at 14 Vesey Street in the Financial District, Manhattan, into bankruptcy on February 28, 2024. The debtor filed two cases, both in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey.

JTRE Holdings sold its interest in the property to the Connecticut family office, according to a source familiar with the building. David Goldwasser is the Vice President of restructuring for the debtor entity, according to the filing.

The property had been subject to a $27.8 million pre-foreclosure case Columbia Pacific Advisors filed against the former owner of the property, JTRE, in December 2023, under index number 656413/2023. In addition, the lender had scheduled a UCC foreclosure auction on February 28, which this bankruptcy filing halted.

Bankruptcy 24-12086

Chapter 11 filing LINK

In response to the bankruptcy filing, the lender Columbia Pacific Advisors, called this a “last-ditch effort” to delay its acquisition of the assets, in a pdf of the motion to dismiss the bankruptcy.

Columbia Pacific Advisors and JTRE were engaged in a funding dispute over construction at the building, as well as two others, according to court filings.

JTRE bought the property from New York County Lawyers Association for $19 million on April 22, 2021, then borrowed $26 million from Columbia Pacific Advisors at the time to purchase and renovate the asset. The company is a retail-focused investment firm headed by Jack Terzi.

The property

The office building in Financial District has 30,000 square feet of built space and 45,801 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 75,830 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 75 feet and is 101 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,583 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C5-3 which allows for up to 15 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial 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 $5 million. The most recent loan totaled $18.1 million and was provided by CPIF Lending on April 22, 2021.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold by New York County Lawyers Association for $19 million to JTRE on April 22, 2021.

The 30,000-square-foot property generated revenue of $1 million or $34 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Development

Over the past five years, there has been no NYC Department of Buildings new building, demolition, or alteration permit application valued at more than $20,000 filed for this parcel.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received five DOB violations in the last year.

The property was involved in two lawsuits and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The highest value suit was a $28 million judgment concerning a UCC sale filed on February 22, 2024, by JTRE and Jack Terzi against Columbia Pacific Advisors.

The neighborhood

In Financial District, The majority, or 74 percent of the 79.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Financial District has the 5th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Financial District is the 3rd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 10.5 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 surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 16 Vesey Street, PincusCo identified seven commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those seven items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit issued on May 25, 2022 for the $15.5 million renovation of 84,369-square-foot residential (R-2) building with 19 residential units at 1 Park Row. Of those seven items, six were sales above $5 million totaling $102.8 million. The most recent of the six was The Garden Hue LLC which bought one condo unit in the 3,699-square-foot, 158-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 99 Church Street for $12.1 million from Salmira Residences, LLC on December 18, 2023.

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