$30.6M West Village retail bankruptcy

A member of the family that owns two retail condominiums at 354 Sixth Avenue, also known as 88 West Washington Place, filed a bankruptcy petition in Manhattan on Friday, claiming the prior lender had frustrated the owners’ multiple attempts to lease the space. The two properties are estimated to be worth $30.55 million and debts total $19.4 million.

The parties are engaged in litigation in a related pre-foreclosure case in New York State Supreme Court, DCC Vigiliant LLC v. NuvoCiao-Di LLC, et. al. 850102/2020, The original lender was Argentic, but Dry Creek Capital now owns the debt and is pursuing the pre-foreclosure case.

Another case, over condo payments, is the Board of Mangers of 88 Washington Place Condominium v. NuovoCiao-Di LLC, et. al. 160861/2021

In the pre-foreclosure action, the lender sought to foreclose on property located at 350-354 6th Avenue, New York, New York 10011 and is known as Commercial Unit 1 a/k/a 1FLR and Commercial Unit 2 a/k/a 2FLR in the premises known as 88 Washington Place Condominium.

The complaint says the Mortgaged Premises is a two-level, 16,121 SF retail condo, which secures a loan having a face amount of $15,850,000 of which $14,600,000 has been advanced to date (the “Loan”). “The Loan has matured and Defendants have defaulted under the Loan and Plaintiff now seeks its remedies,” according to the original complaint, filed in June 2020.

The guarantors are William Rainero, Michael Rainero, Joseph Rainero, Yvonne Rainero, and Denise Rainero.

According to an affidavit by William Rainero, “Companies owned by the Raineros were the founding Sponsors of the Condominium upon which the Properties are located and the original developers of the Condominium. Notwithstanding diligence on the part of Nuovo during this same time period, the First Floor Unit remained vacant throughout the term of the Loan. It is worth noting this ongoing vacancy was not a result of a lack of demand; rather, the perpetual vacancy was due to the fact that Argentic rejected every proposed tenant Nuovo presented. When Nuovo presented over and over again a qualified candidate to let the Property at market value, Argentic rejected each an every proposal. (While we have submitted some detailed emails concerning some of these tenants, the other information is not currently in our possession. I am advised by my attorneys that we have subpoenaed non-party Argentic and have sought the information from Plaintiff in discovery, but the information has yet to be produced. This inhibits our ability to present all the information establishing the breach of contract of Argentic to the Court at this time as we have not obtained the information during discovery in the case…Nuovo proposed to Argentic over eight qualified renters at market value, including but not limited to 350 JBD Inc., TashKent Supermarkets, Avena, PowerCore Yoga, Greenwich House, Citibank, Whole Foods, and Lee and Associates.”

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