Anonymous note buyer files $22.6M West Village dev site bankruptcy

The anonymous buyer of $15.077 million in senior debt secured by a West Village development site mired in a foreclosure action and another bankruptcy, filed its own Chapter 11 petition yesterday, in order to effectuate a sale of the property that is also subject to a $7.5 million second mortgage. The property is estimated to be worth $14.5 million.
The development site at 307-309 Sixth Avenue has changed hands several times in the last eight years. In 2017, William Rainero and other family members sold the two tax lots for a combined $17 million to George Filopoulos and his Metrovest Equities. To finance that purchase, Metrovest borrowed $8 million (in 2018 increased to $9.3 million) from Castellan Capital and $5 million from Rainero and the family through Sei Insieme LLC. Ultimately, that $8 million loan rose to $15 million, and the $5 million loan to $7.5 million.
In 2018, Rainero through his Sei Insieme LLC, borrowed $5 million from the Galinn Fund, secured by the loan given to Metrovest.
Metrovest fell behind on its loan, and Castellan in 2020 initiated a pre-foreclosure action, 850138/2020. In December 2021, Castellan sold the debt to 307-309 Sixth Avenue LLC, an entity with anonymous ownership, which continued the foreclosure action.
In June 2022, Filopoulos turned over the keys to the anonymous debt holder, which then controlled both the equity and the debt. It ultimately won in the summer of 2022 a foreclosure sale date of December 14, 2022, for the auction.
But, on December 13, 2022, a day before the auction, Rainero placed his entity Sei Insieme LLC in bankruptcy, which halted the foreclosure sale which would have wiped out his loan position, which is also the security for the loan from Galinn.
This new bankruptcy filing, submitted by bankruptcy expert David Goldwasser of FIA Capital Partners.
According to the filing, “This case was primarily filed to effectuate an orderly sale of the Property with marketing pursuant to a Chapter 11 plan to ensure a fair recovery for all parties in interest, including the Second Mortgagee.
“Recognizing that the Property was underwater, George Filoupolos [sic], the Debtor’s beneficial owner agreed not to contest the foreclosure and to transfer ownership to an entity friendly to the Mortgagee. In June 2022, he thus transferred the Debtor’s sole membership interest from Emilio Holdings LLC to 307-309 Sixth Owner LLC… The Debtor anticipates there will be unpaid Administrative Expenses totaling approximately $20,000 for legal fees and $435,000 for real estate broker fees.”

In November 2022, developer William Schneider submitted a new building construction project for a 39-unit, 22,339 square-foot residential (R-2) building at 307 to 309 Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. The plan was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings on November 22, 2022 under job number M00791192. It calls for the construction of a seven-story building.

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