Lender alleges fraud delaying $26M Chinatown bankruptcy sale

The trustee for a defaulted securitized loan at a bankrupt commercial building at 130 Bowery in Chinatown, Manhattan, alleges individuals controlling the debtor are intentionally delaying a $26 million sale of the property originally scheduled for October 2023.

The sale to SC Holdings, planned as part of the disposition of the property in bankruptcy, has not happened, and the loan trustee points the finger at the debtor in a complaint filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.

According to the trustee Wells Fargo, “The Sale Contract requires the Debtor to make certain repairs to the gas line at the Property prior to closing on the Sale Contract. Because the Debtor has allowed Capitale to operate its business since the Closing Date and given the passage of time since the Closing Date, upon information and belief, the Debtor intentionally failed to make those repairs by the Closing Date to delay the Closing Date in order to allow Capitale to continue to host events and generate income at the Property… While Capitale has continued to generate income from the Property for the benefit of its principal David Marvisi, the Debtor has failed to make any post-confirmation payments to the Secured Noteholder under the parties’ existing cash collateral stipulation.”

Court records indicate there is a sharp disagreement between the partners who own the property, David Marvisi and Michael Marvisi. According to an affidavit from David in the bankruptcy, “The Debtor’s other member, Michel Marvisi, has sought to continuously impose his will upon David and now seeks to have the Court create the fiction that David is not a member of the Debtor with the rights provided to him in the Debtor’s organizational documents, denying David consideration of his rights with respect to the Debtor’s sale of its real property.”

Bankruptcy 22-11109-jpm

SC Holdings, a diversified investment company based in the Financial District, is in contract to pay $26 million for the historic Bowery Savings Bank building at 130 Bowery, in Chinatown, Manhattan, with a closing set for the end of October, according to court filings.

The owners of the building, the Los Angeles-based Michael Marvisi and David Marvisi, are the sellers. They filed a bankruptcy petition in Manhattan in August 2022, six months after their lender filed a pre-foreclosure action in Manhattan federal court. Daniel Haimovic of SC Holdings signed the contract for the buyer. Michael Marvisi and David Marvisi each signed as the sellers.

The Marvisi partners put the property into bankruptcy just before a foreclosure trial over the defaulted $12 million loan was about to start.

David Schechtman of the brokerage firm Meridian Capital Group is the exclusive broker for the bankruptcy process.

SC Holdings was founded by Jason Stein and Daniel Haimovic. Haimovic, through SC Holdings, is chairman of the Saga Hospitality Group, which is behind two Michelin star restaurants in New York.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page.