Lender files $3M pre-foreclosure at American Irish organization’s townhouse in Carnegie Hill

The private lender James Doyle, the founder and president of Industrial Repair Service of Cumming, Georgia, filed a pre-foreclosure action against the the American Irish Historical Society seeking the sale of the historic townhouse at 991 Fifth Avenue in Carnegie Hill, to repay an allegedly defaulted $3 million loan.

Doyle allegedly provided the $3 million loan to the American Irish Historical Society that had a maturity date in March 2020. The complaint alleges the loan was not repaid, and Doyle is seeking a sale of the building, located just north of East 80th Street.

The organization has been in financial trouble in recent years, and in December 2022, the New York State Attorney General announced a preservation plan for the group.

According to the Attorney General’s press release, “The AIHS was founded in 1897. In 1940, AIHS purchased a townhouse on Fifth Avenue, which has since served as the organization’s headquarters and represents its primary asset.”

According to Doyle’s complaint, “This action is commenced to foreclose a Mortgage executed by the Borrower in the original principal amount of $3,000,000.00 as more particularly described herein (the “Loan”) relating to the property located at 991 Fifth Avenue… the Note matured on March 6, 2020 and all amounts due thereunder became immediately due and payable. Borrower failed to make the payment pursuant to the Note’s maturity on March 6, 2020.”

 

The property

The property in Carnegie Hill has 9,108 square feet of built space and 18,390 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 27,490 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 25 feet and is 110 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,749 square feet. The zoning is R10 which allows for up to 10 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The property is in the Metropolitan Museum Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.1 million.

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 not received any significant violations in the last year.

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

The neighborhood

In Carnegie Hill, The majority, or 56 percent of the 13.5 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Carnegie Hill has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $1 billion in sales volume in the last two years and is the 14th highest in Manhattan. For development, Carnegie Hill has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 26th highest in Manhattan. It had 794,076 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 22 commercial properties representing 342,333 square feet of the 484,841 square feet. The largest owner is Anita Younes, followed by Centaur Properties and then David Frederick Frankel. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 991 5 Avenue, PincusCo identified 10 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those 10 items, eight were sales above $5 million totaling $143.2 million. The most recent of the eight was The 79th Street Trust which bought the 56,017-square-foot, 15-unit co-op (D4) on 21 East 79th Street for $12.3 million from Ezersky, Peter R on June 9, 2023. Of those 10 items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $17.2 million. The most recent of the two was Centaur Properties in which borrowed $10 million from Webster Bank secured by the 15,167-square-foot, seven-unit mixed-use building (S5) on 24 East 81st Street on November 3, 2022.

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