Bahram Benaresh files bankruptcy to halt auction of Tribeca building valued at $45M

Bahram Benaresh, the owner of the mixed-use 175 Franklin Street in Tribeca, Manhattan, filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York yesterday in his own name to halt the UCC foreclosure auction scheduled for today, December 17, of the property which the filing says is worth $45 million. Dalan Real Estate through the entity DC Franklin Lender LLC scheduled the auction for the equity interest in the entity that owns the property, Franklin 175 LLC.

According to the filing, “I have had extensive negotiations and discussions with DC Franklin, but they have declined to further postpone the UCC sale. I believe that I have equity in the Property and intend to utilize the Chapter 11 process and to restructure the loan.”
Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.

Bankruptcy 24-12341 LINK
Bahram Benaresh declaration pdf

Dalan Real Estate through the entity DC Franklin Lender LLC bought a note with an original principal of $11.2 million from G4 Capital Partners secured by Bahram Benaresh’s five-unit mixed-use building (S5) at 175 Franklin Street in Tribeca, Manhattan, as PincusCo reported at the time.

Dalan Real Estate declined to comment.

The bankruptcy filing says the secured debt on the building is approximately $30 million, but does not provide a total for unsecured liabilities.

The filing notes that Benaresh filed another bankruptcy recently, 24-12080-mg, to place two rental buildings in Harlem at 24 to 30 West 125th Street in Chapter 11. They have a secured loan of $16.4 million, and he values the properties at $30 million.
At 175 Franklin Street, the prior lender was G4 Capital Partners which held debt that had an original loan amount of $11.2 million. The property has 15,244 square feet of built space and 875 square feet of additional air rights according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.
A forbearance agreement was most recently amended on September 10, 2024, before Dalan bought the note on October 1. To finance the note purchase, Dalan borrowed an undisclosed amount from Northeast Bank. G4 Capital Partners also borrowed from Northeast Bank to provide the original loan in April 2022.

The property

The mixed-use building with 5 residential units in Tribeca has 15,244 square feet of built space and 875 square feet of additional air rights according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 88 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,188 square feet. The zoning is C6-2A which allows for up to 6 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 6.02 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Tribeca West Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.1 million. The most recent loan totaled 0.0 and was provided by Dalan Real Estate on October 1, 2024.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold for $1.9 million on July 24, 2003.

The 15,244-square-foot property generated revenue of $815,402 or $53 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.

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on April 13, 2018.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received $300 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 Tribeca, The bulk, or 47 percent of the 15.3 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 28 percent of the space. In sales, Tribeca has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $604.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 16th highest in Manhattan. For development, Tribeca has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 15th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 17 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 12 commercial properties representing 24,400 square feet of the 114,416 square feet. The two identified owners are 177 Franklin Llc and Bahram Benaresh. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Bahram Benaresh owned at least three commercial properties with 51 residential units in New York City with 49,718 square feet and a city-determined market value of $6.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $27.6 million in debt, with top three lenders as Cathay Bank, G4 Capital Partners, and Dalan Real Estate respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 69 percent of the 49,718 square feet of built space are walkup properties, with mixed-use properties next occupying 31 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 175 Franklin Street, PincusCo identified one commercial real estate item of interests occurred over the past 24 months. It was a sale which Renanin Real Estate Investments LLC bought the 8,490-square-foot, two-unit office building (O9) on 182 Franklin Street for $14.5 million from Thierry Despont on April 2, 2024.

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