Maverick buys $7.2M note secured by highly litigated Lincoln Square townhouse

Maverick Real Estate Partners through the entity CPW Townhouse LLC bought a note with an original principal of $7.2 million from Axos Bank secured by Russell Abrams and Sandra Piedrabuena Abrams’s townhouse at 45 West 70th Street in Lincoln Square, Manhattan. There are several active lawsuits related to this property.
The deal closed on August 5, 2024 and was recorded on August 15, 2024. The prior lender was Axos Bank which held debt that had an original loan amount of $7.2 million.
The property has 6,344 square feet of built space and 1,685 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,028 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data.
Russell Abrams and Sandra Piedrabuena are husband and wife, and they are offering the building for sale, with Ryan Serhant as the broker, asking $14.9 million. The building has a pool in the basement.  The litigation includes 153931/2024 in which Russell Abrams sued an acquaintance who lent $2 million.

In another case, 155111/2024, a worker said he was injured and sued under 307346/2012, which was later converted to index number 307346/2012E, and the worker obtained an multimillion dollar award from the jury, though the building owners were only responsible for a fraction.

In another, Russell’s younger brother Marcus Abrams sued Russell over a series of loans related to a car financing company, RussellCar.

The property

The walkup building which formerly had 5 residential units in Lincoln Square has 6,344 square feet of built space and 1,685 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,028 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 20 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,007 square feet. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Upper West Side / Central Park West Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $5.2 million.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial renovation certificate of occupancy on December 27, 2023. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Lincoln Square, The majority, or 61 percent of the 19.1 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space. In sales, Lincoln Square has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $227 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 29th highest in Manhattan. For development, Lincoln Square has 1.6 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 18th highest in Manhattan. It had 1.7 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 9 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 22 of the 36 commercial properties representing 198,135 square feet of the 303,383 square feet. The largest owner is Philip Widlanski, followed by Theresa Veltri and then Marin Management.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 88 percent of the 303,383 square feet of built space are walkup buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 11 percent of the space.

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