Courts roundup: ICBC files $270M foreclosure against RFR; Ashkenazy sues over $22M loan; Bentley Zhao seeks $1.5M;

Courts roundup for April 20, 2021: There were no bankruptcies of interest. There was one commercial foreclosure.

Please note that court filings are the opinions of one party and are not necessarily complete or accurate.

ICBC sues RFR to foreclose on $270M secured by 100 East 53rd: The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China filed to foreclose on 10 loans given to RFR Holding to develop the condo building 100 East 53rd Street in Midtown East. RFR’s development entity is 610 Lexington Property LLC. The loans originally totaled $360 million, but now have a principal and interest totaling $270.1 million, according to the complaint. “As contemplated by the parties and the loan documents, Borrower converted the Property to a condominium containing one retail condominium unit, ninety four residential condominium units and the air rights appurtenant to the Property, and Plaintiffs released the liens of the mortgages securing the Loans from twenty seven residential units as the released residential condominium units were sold by Borrower prior to the filing of this action.” The PincusCo New Condo database also shows 27 units have been sold in the project. Last week, Solil Management as landlord filed to terminate a ground lease RFR holds on the Gramercy Park Hotel.  53rd Street Case LINK

Ashkenazy sues Maverick to block default declaration on $22M loan: Ashkenazy Acquisition filed a suit against Maverick Real Estate Partners seeking to declare the $22 million loan secured by property at 4168 Broadway in Washington Heights is either not in default or alternately if it was in default, that default has now been cleared. Maverick bought the note in March as PincusCo first reported, and the loan was declared in default. The address for Ashkenazy’s company was given as 150 East 58th Street, 39th floor, which is their long-time office address. Vornado filed a suit seeking to eject them from the space, as PincusCo first reported. By stipulation on March 2, Ashkenazy is to vacate the space on April 30, 2021. $22M case LINK

Bentley Zhao sues buyer of Midtown parcel for $1.5M: Plaintiff Bentley Zhao, owner of New Empire Real Estate Development, claims he is owed $1.5 million because the parcel buyer, Hopson Development Holdings, did not negotiate in good faith to allow an EB-5 investment vehicle Zhao had used to finance his original project in the site, to hold a preferential equity piece of the new project. The Chinese mainland company Hopson bought the site at 131-141 East 47th Street in 2019 for $115 million. LINK

Correction: An earlier version of this post misspelled the acronym for ICBC.