Courts roundup: Bo Jin Zhu puts $57M site in bankruptcy

Courts Roundup for Thursday, March 17, 2021: Bo Jin Zhu put a $57 million Greenpoint site in bankruptcy. There were no additional real estate bankruptcies of note. There were no commercial foreclosures.

Bo Jin Zhu puts $57M site in bankruptcy

By Adam Pincus

Developer Bo Jin Zhu yesterday filed a bankruptcy petition to restructure finances on his Greenpoint, Brooklyn, development site which he valued at $57.12 million. Madison Realty Capital holds the secured debt, totaling $54.2 million, according to the filing, made in the Eastern District of New York.

The filing lists the assets of Dupont Street Development LLC at 49 Dupont Street at $57.12 million and the liabilities at $58.9 million. Zhu noted in the filing his affiliate Clay Riverview LLC was placed in bankruptcy protection in January 2020 and Dupont Street Development LLC was placed in bankruptcy in 2018 but exited after only a few months.

Several developers have owned the site or claims in the parcel over the past decade.

The 10-parcel assemblage, according to an article in The Real Deal from 2018, has 335,000 square feet of development potential. The property addresses are 49-93 Dupont Street, 2-36 Clay Street and 280 Franklin Street.

Dupont Street Development LLC is involved in a number of state court actions, including an active suit brought by a vendor and another brought by Chaim “Harry” Miller to foreclose on an “equitable vendee lien” filed against the property.

Madison Realty Capital’s entity, Dupont Street 1 LLC, has not filed a foreclosure action on the parcel, according to a PincusCo review of court records.

The largest secured creditor is Madison Realty Capital, with its $54.2 million loan through the entity Dupont Street 1 LLC. The original principal was $28 million, provided in August 2017.

The largest unsecured creditor was All Year Management, with its $3 million contract deposit, which is listed as “disputed.”

The website Bedford + Bowery provides a long history here.