Courts roundup: $32M LES bankruptcy; $25M LIC pre-foreclosure
139 Bowery (Credit - Cyclomedia)
$32M Lower East Side bankruptcy: Hung Kwong Leung as president of Global Joint Venture Inc., the sponsor of a mixed-use condominium project at 139 Bowery with 18 residential units, 14 commercial units, one community center and one retail space, filed the bankruptcy petition May 1, 2025 in Brooklyn.
139 Bowery Condo Unit Planned Sale Prices
The bankruptcy was filed to halt a May 2, 2025 UCC foreclosure auction. The total projected sell out is $59 million. Developers borrowed $32 million in 2019 to develop the project. It was delayed by Covid, but was completed in 2024. The sponsors put in $6 million of their own cash. “The Debtor has agreed to retain BKREA as its real estate broker in the Chapter 11.”
The office building with 18 residential units in Lower East Side has 58,390 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 50 feet and is 109 feet deep with a total lot size of 5,446 square feet. The lot is irregular. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $15.9 million. The most recent loan totaled $32 million and was provided by Emerald Creek Capital on July 10, 2019.
On the tax lot, the most recent condominium plan was filed by GLOBAL JOINT VENTURE, INC. to create 18 residential units and 18 commercial units in a building at 139 Bowery in Little Italy, New York, called 139 Bowery Condominium that has a $59 million sellout, according to an March 31, 2022 submission to the New York State Attorney General. The principals of the sponsor, GLOBAL JOINT VENTURE, INC., were Lew Chung and Patrick Wu.
Hung Kwong Leung of Lew Chung and Patrick Wu submitted a new building construction project for a 19-unit, 53,364 square-foot business (B) building at 139 Bowery. The plan was filed on June 10, 2014 and was permitted on October 15, 2019. It calls for the construction of a 181-foot tall, 14-story building and was filed with the New York City Department of Buildings under job number 121185984.
For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on October 28, 2024.
Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page.
$25M pre-foreclosure at Alma Realty rental in LIC: M&T Bank alleges a maturity default for a loan with a $25 million original principal secured by an 80-unit rental building at 37-21 31st Street in Long Island City, Queens.
Case LINK
Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.
M&T Bank refinanced the loan with $25 million in November 2019. The complaint says the loan matured December 1, 2024 but was not paid off, and the bank alleges a maturity loan default.
The elevator building with 80 residential units in Long Island City has 123,820 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 108 feet and is 180 feet deep with a total lot size of 19,672 square feet. The zoning is M1-2/R6A which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing and up to 3 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The property has a 421A exemption that started in 2015 and expires in 2030. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $13.7 million.
This property was sold with another property for $12 million on August 10, 2005.
The 123,820-square-foot property generated revenue of $2.4 million or $20 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.
Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page