Courts roundup: Forest Hills yeshiva fights eviction with bankruptcy, $6.8M Greenpoint bankruptcy

Forest Hills yeshiva fights imminent eviction with bankruptcy: The Yeshiva Gedola Lubavitch Inc., which claims to have 60 rabbinical students set to start the fall classes next week, filed a bankruptcy petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn to block an eviction set to occur on August 19, 2023. With the filing, the eviction has been stayed, according to a letter from the attorney representing the school. The landlord, has been battling the yeshiva in landlord-tenant court (LT-077973-18/QU) and in State Supreme Court (701131/2023) for alleged back rent totaling more than $500,000, building violations and more. The landlord-tenant judge approved the warrant of eviction, which has now been stayed. The original lease was signed in 2011, but the landlord alleges the tenant-school has not abided by the lease or an agreement to buy the building. The tenant’s original attorney in the state court case withdrew, alleging the firm had not been paid.
The specialty building in Forest Hills has 11,032 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has two buildings with frontage of 120 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 11,999 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R4B which allows for up to 0.9 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $3.1 million.
According to the yeshiva’s attorney, “without warning to the debtor or the other tenants at the property, the landlord and/or its agents boarded up windows and changed the locks even though they had no right to do so…”
The landlord, for its part, alleges a string of improper activities including lying, not abiding by a stipulation in addition to refusing to pay rent, on the part of the yeshiva and its representatives.
Bankruptcy LINK

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page. 

$6.8M Greenpoint bankruptcy filed to block foreclosure auction: The debtor Hendrick Weiss bought the industrial building at 58 Dobbins Street in Greenpoint in 1994, and refinanced it several times over the years. More recently he obtained a $2.55 million loan from Hirshmark Capital in 2017, and that loan was paid off with a $3.45 million loan in 2018 given by Skybrook Capital. That loan fell into default and Skybrook initiated a pre-foreclosure action in 2019. (523368/2019) The judge in that case ordered a foreclosure sale, and the date was set for August 17, 2023. The bankruptcy filing was made to halt the sale.
According to the notice of sale, the “Approximate amount of lien $5,810,050.20, plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and terms of sale.”
The petition claims the property is worth $6.8 million but Skybrook Capital’s lien according to the filing is $7 million.  The industrial building in Greenpoint has 10,000 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 55 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,294 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is M1-1 which allows for up to 1 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.2 million.

Bankruptcy LINK

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page.