Columbia Pacific alleges LIC commercial dev site owner owes $67.1M on defaulted loan

Columbia Pacific Advisors alleges defaults in loans it made starting in December 2021 that ultimately totaled $56.9 million, that were secured by Gary Segal’s equity interest in the Dynamic Star entity that owns the commercial development site 23-10 Queens Plaza South in Long Island City, Queens. Columbia Pacific scheduled a UCC auction for May 9, but in this action, the lender is seeking to enforce an alleged guaranty agreement that calculates the amount due under the guaranty at $67.1 million, which is more than the loan total.

In 2023, the City Council passed zoning changes to facilitate the development of Opus Point, an approximately 400,000 square foot office building planned for the property, Yimby reported at the time.
Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.

Case LINK

Gary Segal acquired several high profile development sites over the past several years, and is facing a challenging financial landscape, including foreclosure at a Bronx site Dynamic Star co-owns with Namdar Realty Group.

In the Bronx case, Blackstone Group filed a $55 million pre-foreclosure (850030/2025) on January 10, 2025, against Namdar Realty Group, Dynamic Star, Igal Namdar and Gary Segal at 2371 Exterior Street, 2391 Exterior Street, 2401 Exterior Street and West 192 Street. On February 28, 2025, the entity Fordham Landing North Holdings LLC, at the Brooklyn address of CREMAC Asset Management, bought the note.

In addition to Segal’s commercial headwinds, lender JPMorgan Chase, which provided loans secured by three residential condominium units Segal owns at 10 Little West Street, filed pre-foreclosure actions totaling $12.6 million in December 2024 (850501/2024) and January 2025 (850083/2025).

The Long Island City complaint alleges, “Borrower also made, executed, and delivered to Lender that certain Third Amended, Restated and Consolidated Promissory Note, dated as of March 14, 2024, in the total principal amount of $56,900,000… Pursuant to the Loan Agreement, as amended by the Fourth Modification, the Loan matured on August 8, 2024…Borrower failed to repay the Obligations on the Maturity Date … On October 18, 2024, counsel for Lender delivered to Borrower and Guarantor a Notice of Default and Reservation of Rights… On March 12, 2025, Lender delivered to Pledgors a Notification of Disposition of Collateral… The Auction is currently scheduled for May 9, 2025 at 10:30 a.m… As of March 12, 2025, the amount of due and owing Guaranteed Obligations was not less than $67,139,656.32.”

Columbia Pacific Advisors lent to several other New York City borrowers such as JTRE, Grant Shapolsky, Eastone Equities, where one or the other resorted to litigation.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold by Property Markets Group for $27.5 million to Dynamic Star on November 20, 2019.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received one DOB violation, $5,650 in ECB penalties, and $5,650 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 Long Island City, The bulk, or 32 percent of the 60.1 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 31 percent of the space. In sales, Long Island City has the 8th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Long Island City is the 7th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 6.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 10 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the two commercial properties representing 498,824 square feet of the 498,824 square feet. The two identified owners are Dynamic Star and Stonehenge Nyc. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Dynamic Star owned at least seven commercial properties in New York City with 118,090 square feet and a city-determined market value of $32 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $368.2 million in debt, with top three lenders as Columbia Pacific Advisors, Signature Bank, and Churchill Real Estate Holdings respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 95 percent of the 118,090 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with office properties next occupying 5 percent of the space. The bulk, or 91 percent of the built space, is in Queens, with Bronx next at 9 percent of the space.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 42-11 23 Street, PincusCo identified six commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those six items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit issued on June 22, 2023 for a 93,514-square-foot residential (R-2) building with 116 residential units at 24-03 Queens Plaza North. Of those six items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $67.1 million. The most recent of the two was Ketan Patel and Prakashkumar Patel which bought the 31,500-square-foot, one-unit hotel (H3) on 42-24 Crescent Street for $18.1 million from Young Jun Ahn, Daniel Chung Sung Ahn, Kwi-Won Y. Ahn, and Ike Ahn on February 21, 2024. Of those six items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $61.7 million. The most recent of the three was Montperia Group in which borrowed $25 million from Fiona Wu secured by the 74,105-square-foot, one-unit industrial (W4) on 24-02 Queens Plaza South on July 24, 2024.

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