December foreclosure auction set for Chelsea retail with $30M loan

A court-appointed referee set December 17, 2025, as the date for a foreclosure auction to sell a six-story Chelsea retail building at 547-553 West 27th Street that has an allegedly defaulted loan with an original principal of $30 million, according to a notice of sale posted Monday on the New York State Supreme Court website. The current judgment is more than $40 million.

Case 850355/2024 LINK
JPMorgan Chase initiated the $30 million pre-foreclosure action at the 97,200-square-foot building in September 2024, alleging the loan was in a payment default. The owner is Yitzhak Pastreich of Pinetree Group.

Yitzhak Pastreich, also known as James or Jim Pastreich, bought the building in 1999 for $750,000. He refinanced the building several times over the years, including the subject loan which he borrowed through the entity Mariners Gate LLC in April 2019. The loan totaled $30 million, provided by First Republic Bank. In addition, Pastreich obtained a $5 million subordinate loan from W Financial in August 2021.
According to the complaint, “On December 1, 2020, Borrower, Guarantor, and First Republic Bank, as lender, entered into that certain Credit Modification Agreement… The Loan has been in default since July 1, 2023 for failure to make required monthly payments. First Republic Bank and JPMC provided a number of notices of default to Borrower, but Borrower has failed to pay delinquent amounts due and owing, which will amount to $34,709,960 as of September 16, 2024.”
First Republic Bank became insolvent and JPMorgan Chase announced that on May 1, 2023, it acquired this and other loans. The court appointed Clark Whitsett referee in April.

Jim Pastreich of Pinetree Group, Inc. submitted a major alteration application for a renovation of an educational (E) building on November 3, 2021 under job number M00602023 and was permitted on December 29, 2021. It calls for a rehab of the six-story building and conversion to retail. The project is described in the filing as: application filed for the conversion of existing retail space to eating & drinking establishment. obtain new certificate of occupancy.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 14 commercial properties representing 300,505 square feet of the 410,898 square feet. The largest owner is Atlantic Development Group, followed by Jame Y.A. Pastreich and then James Y.A. Pastreich. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 76,949 square feet. It is a 60-unit, 76,949 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Silvera Properties and filed by David Silvera with plans filed December 11, 2024 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Jame Y.A. Pastreich owned at least one commercial property in New York City with 97,200 square feet and a city-determined market value of $21.3 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $5 million in debt, borrowed from W Financial. The portfolio consists of at least a single retail property. It is located in Manhattan.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 553 West 27 Street, PincusCo identified three commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. One of those three items was a sale which Raghavan, Pamela bought one condo unit in the 4,552-square-foot, 38-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 527 West 27th Street for $15 million from Wc 28 Realty LLC on June 7, 2024. Of those three items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $49 million. The most recent of the two was Centaur Properties in which borrowed $27 million from Customers Bank secured by the 49,242-square-foot, six-unit retail building (J5) on 530 West 27th Street and two other properties on July 1, 2025.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.