Courts roundup: $13M Malekan dispute, Pinnacle unsold condo dispute, $4M garage pre-foreclosure

Michael Malekan sues Albert Malekan for $13M: Michael Malekan claims in a summons filed in Manhattan that he owns minority stakes in three Albert Malekan commercial buildings that have total debt of $58 million. The buildings are 466 Broome Street, 75 Greene Street and 552 Seventh Avenue. Michael does not allege what percent he owns in each building. He alleges Albert has refused to make unspecified distributions to Michael, that he is not reporting the books and records to Michael and alleges record keeping is inaccurate.
Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.
Disputes among family members are common in New York City commercial real estate as one member often manages the properties and others don’t, leading to a natural tension. Recent examples include the Golyan family and the Kalimian family.
466 Broome is the security for a CMBS loan Series 2021-B31, which does not mention Michael Malekan. “With respect to the 466 Broome Street Mortgage Loan, Behrooz Hedvat holds a non-controlling 17.35% limited membership interest in the related borrower,” according to a prospectus. The other two loans are not securitized.
Case LINK

Piermont Bank filed $3.9M in two garage pre-foreclosure suits: Piermont Bank filed two pre-foreclosure suits against entities owned by Perry Finkelman. The larger was for a $2.3 million loan secured by the garage condominium unit at 500 Waverly Avenue in Brooklyn, and the other was for a $1.6 million loan secured by a garage at 150 East 24th Street in Kips Bay. $2.3M LINK and $1.6M LINK

Pinnacle sues Ekstein for partition of 10 unsold condo units in NoMad: There are 10 unsold condo units at the condominium development at 30 East 31st Street in Noho, and Pinnacle wants to divide, keeping eight and giving two to Ekstein Development. The complaint does not put a dollar value on the unsold units, but PincusCo estimates they are worth at least $20 million based on listings and comparable sales in the building. Ekstein, the complaint says, has not agreed to the plan and so Pinnacle filed a partition to enforce the plan.

According to the complaint, “In December 2019, ZEF LLC obtained financing from Man Real Estate Debt Investments (“Man Real Estate”), which loan is currently in default. 30 East has arranged a refinance of the Man Real Estate loan, but agreement cannot be reached with EDSP about the refinancing… The deadlock relates to numerous issues regarding management and operation of the company, including but not limited to the terms of the refinancing, whether to sell or rent the remaining units in the Building, and the choice of the selling agent.” LINK

Correction: A prior version of this post misspelled the name of the company Ekstein Development.