Bankruptcy filed for East Harlem retail embroiled in decades of litigation valued at $10M-plus

Nourallah Baroukhian, as property owner, filed a bankruptcy petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York as part of an ongoing decades-long battle over control of the single-story retail building at 75 East 115th Street, just east of Park Avenue, in East Harlem, Manhattan.

Baroukhian filed the petition on December 8, 2025, through the Great Neck, New York, based entity East 115th Street Associates, which owns the property.

Doc 1 25-12749-mew East 115th Street Associates

The bankruptcy is the latest court filing, in a string of cases that started with a foreclosure case, 109949/95 filed in 1995 that alleged a $250,000 loan given in 1984 to Baroukhian and a partner, was in default.

According to court filings, Yousef Yahudaii acquired the debt and a branch of the litigation continued: “This is an action by the plaintiff Yousef Yahudaii against the defendant Nourallah Baroukhian and others to foreclose on a mortgage that Yahudaii alleges was assigned to him for premisea located at 77 East 115th Street, which is owned by Baroukhian.”

In the bankruptcy, Baroukhian claims the property is worth at least $10 million. Other court cases include: 850142/2012, a tax lien foreclosure 651512/2017, which has 549 documents filed since it started in 2017.

The property

The retail building in East Harlem has 6,765 square feet of built space and 24,477 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 31,248 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 89 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,440 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R7D which allows for up to 4.2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.1 million.

Prior sales and revenue

The 6,765-square-foot property generated revenue of $215,128 or $32 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Development

Over the past five years, there has been no NYC Department of Buildings new building, demolition, or alteration permit application valued at more than $20,000 filed for this parcel.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received $1,200 in OATH penalties in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In East Harlem, The majority, or 51 percent of the 52.4 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, East Harlem has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $520.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 19th highest in Manhattan. For development, East Harlem has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 16th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 16 of the 30 commercial properties representing 213,280 square feet of the 335,254 square feet. The largest owner is Bardhok Kodra, followed by Cammeby’S International Group and then Chestnut Holdings Of New York. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 75,349 square feet. It is a 96-unit, 75,349 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Kodra Construction and filed by Bardhok Kodra with plans filed November 25, 2025 and it has not been permitted yet.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 79 East 115 Street, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those four items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit issued on December 11, 2023 for a 18,711-square-foot residential (R-2) building with 24 residential units at 1638 Park Avenue. Of those four items, two were for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. They were two permit applications with a total initial cost of $2.4 million. The most recent of these two items was the filing on September 25, 2025 for a 19,808-square-foot residential (R-2) building with nine residential units at 108 East 116th Street. One of those four items was a loan which ABJ Properties borrowed $9.4 million from PGIM Real Estate secured by the 70,300-square-foot, 15-unit rental (D6) on 91 East 116th Street and one other property on June 12, 2024.

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