Courts roundup: 2nd Moskovits affiliate in bankruptcy, Simon Baron’s $55M ground lease loss, more
UPDATED 8:55 a.m., Feb. 24, 2021: Courts and litigation roundup covering filings from Monday February 22 and Tuesday, February 23, 2021:
Williamsburg Hotel at 96 Wythe Avenue bankruptcy: Toby Moskovits and Heritage Equity Partners placed the Williamsburg Hotel at 96 Wythe Avenue, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The entity that filed for bankruptcy was 96 Wythe Acquisition LLC.
David Goldwasser of FIA Capital Parters was identified as the chief restructuring officer. The Real Deal and Commercial Observer reported on the bankruptcy Tuesday.
This is the second Moskovits-affiliated entity to be placed into bankruptcy since 2020.
The other was 232 Seigel Acquisition LLC, which is valued at $18 million and filed for bankruptcy July 2020. “Acquisition owns the real property at 232 Seigel Street, Brooklyn, New York (the “Property”) valued at $18,000,000 based on the February 26, 2020 purchase and sale
agreement with 232 Seigel Property, LLC, a copy of which is annexed to the Plan as Exhibit A (the “Sale Contract”). The Property is an assemblage of properties with approved plans to develop full-service hotel with 150 rooms with amenities, community space, parking and other features.”
Two other entities that were listed as affiliates of 96 Wythe Acquisition LLC on the Chapter 11 filing were MY2011 Grand LLC and S&B Monsey LLC, which each filed in November 2019 and claimed an ownership interest in property at 227 Grand Street in Brooklyn. However, Moskovits is not affiliated with those properties.
Suzuki Capital LLC files for bankruptcy: Real estate manager and investor Sam Suzuki filed to place his company in bankruptcy protection, claiming assets of $500,000 to $1 million and liabilities (including disputed liabilities) of approximately $3 million.
Simon Baron Development and Quadrum claim $55M loss on ground lease: Simon Baron Development-plaintiff accuses the defendant law firm of poor advice on a 99-year ground lease at 267-
269 West 87th Street and 271-273 West 87th Street, that has 5% escalations starting in year five that has resulted in a “net-present-value of QSB’s future overpayments of rent… in excess of $55 million” and making “apartments expensive to maintain and difficult to sell.” The Simon Baron entities assigned their interests to the investment firm Quadrum. Allegations in court filings are the positions of the plaintiff and may or may not be accurate or complete. LINK
227 Grand Street suit to vacate $9.2 confession of judgment: The entity Grand Living, LLC, which has an interest in 227 Grand Street, sued Yoel Goldman and others, seeking to vacate a $9.2 million confession of judgment. The signatory for Grand Living, LLC was Yechial Michael Lichtenstein. LINK
$1.7 million commercial pre-foreclosure: Flushing Bank filed to foreclose on a commercial mortgage totaling $1.7 million secured by 856-858 Dekalb Avenue in Brooklyn. LINK
$21.7 million pre-foreclosure in the Bronx: Jonathan Wiener is suing to foreclose on a $21.7 million loan secured by 975 Walton Avenue. Benzion Kohn is named herein by virtue of: his execution of the Loan Documents in his capacity Managing Member of 15-21 Crooke LLC, as Sole Member of Borrower. Wiener bought the debt from Investors Bank, in a deal that included Wiener in turn borrowing from Investors Bank and assigning a collateral interest in the property. LINK
CORRECTION: A prior version of this post reported that Toby Moskovits was involved in three prior bankruptcies, relying on the Chapter 11 filing for 96 Wythe Acquisition LLC which listed the additional three filings. However, Moskovits is no longer involved with two of those filings, which are MY2011 Grand LLC and S&B Monsey LLC.