Courts roundup: $63.6M East Harlem technical pre-foreclosure; $13M pre-foreclosure in Gowanus

Ladder Capital affiliate files $63.6M pre-foreclosure alleging technical defaults in East Harlem: Ladder Capital’s wholly owned insurance company, Tuebor REIT Sub LLC, filed a pre-foreclosure action yesterday alleging HAP Investments’ properties at 2211 Third Avenue, 329 Pleasant Avenue and 2338 Second Avenue, all in East Harlem, Manhattan, were in technical defaults. The lender did not allege the more typical defaults, either maturity or payments.
Court records reflect the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete. HAP Investments has not yet responded in court filings.

Case LINK

HAP Investments signed the loan in December 2021 with lender Allegiant Real Estate Capital, which immediately assigned the loan to Ladder Capital affiliates.
According to the complaint, “by letter dated December 29, 2023 (the “Notice of Acceleration”), Borrowers have defaulted under the terms of the Loan Documents by… inaccurately stating the total accounts payable by Borrowers in financial statements…accruing $1,200,045.77 in accounts payable that are more than 60 days past due… failing to purchase a replacement Interest Rate Cap Agreement.”

Within a 400-foot radius of 329 Pleasant Avenue, PincusCo identified one commercial real estate item of interests occurred over the past 24 months. It was a new building permit application filed on April 19, 2022 for a 14,225-square-foot residential (R-2) building with 18 residential units at 507 East 118th Street.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS.

East West Bank files $13.3M pre-foreclosure in Gowanus: Lender East West Bank filed a $13.26 million pre-foreclosure at 114 15th Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

Case LINK

The development building with 21 residential units in Gowanus has 26,431 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 75 feet and is 115 feet deep with a total lot size of 8,442 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R6B which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.5 million. The most recent loan totaled $13.3 million and was provided by East West Bank on December 29, 2022.