Pre-foreclosures: $310M at Moinian’s Grand Central office; $26.65M at Gindi’s Greenwich Village retail
545 Fifth Avenue (Credit - Google)
Special servicers filed two significant pre-foreclosure actions yesterday in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. In the larger, LNR Partners alleged defaults on a $310 million loan secured by Moinian Group‘s office building at 545 Fifth Avenue; and in the smaller, Rialto Capital Advisors alleged technical defaults on a $26.65 million loan secured by Greenwich Village retail at 21 Astor Place owned by members of the Gindi family through ASG Equities.
Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.
Major landlords have been targeted by foreclosure cases for the past several years, with some losing the buildings and others buying the debt, refinancing the loans or selling the properties.
545 Fifth Avenue Case LINK
According to the complaint, “Borrower failed to comply with the terms and conditions of the Loan Agreement by, inter alia, failing to make the payment due on the Maturity Date, which was due on March 6, 2025. As the date of this action, there is due and owing to Plaintiff the unpaid principal balance of $310,000,000.00, together with interest and default interest…”
Recent Moinian Group Stories:
• Fannie Mae files $74.8M pre-foreclosure at Moinian Group FiDi rental (March 02, 2025)
• Moinian signs $111M construction loan with MSD for 250-unit FiDi dev site (December 20, 2024)
• Hiwin Group pays $10.5M to Moinian Group, expands Midtown West dev site (October 10, 2024)
Joseph Moinian’s Moinian Group purchased the 180,349-square-foot office building located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 45th Street, on March 10, 2006, for $116.25 million, then in 2015 refinanced with $310 million originated by Morgan Stanley, which packaged the loan in a commercial mortgage security.
The parcel has frontage of 75 feet and is 150 feet deep with a total lot size of 12,550 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C5-3 which allows for up to 15 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $87.7 million.
The 180,349-square-foot property generated revenue of $14.1 million or $78 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.
In Grand Central, The majority, or 83 percent of the 44.4 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space. In sales, Grand Central has the 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.4 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Grand Central is the 7th most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 5.9 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 13 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.
On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 13 commercial properties representing 1,007,035 square feet of the 1,770,975 square feet. The largest owner is Boston Properties, followed by Brause Realty and then Gyoogwan Kim. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 750,400 square feet. It is a 750,400 square-foot business (B) building submitted by Elizabeth Reilly with plans filed August 5, 2022 and permitted September 27, 2024.
Within a 400-foot radius of 545 Fifth Avenue, PincusCo identified nine commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those nine items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit application filed on June 16, 2025 for a 108,411-square-foot residential (R-2) building with 125 residential units at 16 West 45th Street. Of those nine items, four were sales above $5 million totaling $113.7 million. The most recent of the four was Hiwin Group USA which bought the 18,720-square-foot development site (V1) on 8 West 45th Street for $38.5 million from Buchbinder & Warren on March 20, 2025. Of those nine items, four were loans above $5 million totaling $306.2 million. The most recent of the four was Gyoogwan Kim in which borrowed $8.1 million from Woori America Bank secured by the 14,446-square-foot, four-unit office building (O5) on 3 East 44th Street on November 15, 2024.
Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page.
21 Astor Place Case LINK
The special servicer does not allege a payment or maturity default, the most common allegations lenders file in commercial foreclosure actions. Instead, it is alleging several technical defaults, the first related to retail tenant Starbucks vacating the premises in 2024 and not renewing its lease after approximately 30 years at that location, as the blog EV Grieve reported at the time.
According to the complaint, “The Major Tenant Reserve Deposit Default, the Financial Reporting Default, and the Condominium Defaults each constitutes Events of Default…Starbucks permanently closed its retail coffee shop at the Property and vacated its leased space at the Property on or around July 29, 2024. Thereafter, by letter dated November 8, 2024 (“Notice of Starbucks Termination Event”), Borrower notified Plaintiff that the Starbucks lease had an expiration date of April 1, 2025… requiring Borrower to deposit the sum of $1,500,000… Iron Hound Management Company, LLC, via an email dated November 25, 2024, acknowledged on behalf of Borrower that Borrower had not made the Major Tenant Reserve Deposit… Guarantors failed to deliver the required updated financial statements and information to Plaintiff within 90 days of the end of 2023… Borrower failed to pay $39,060.47 in common charges due to the Condominium Board for the period of January 1, 2024 to February 1, 2025.”
The property in Greenwich Village has 11,188 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $13.6 million.
This property was purchased for $13 million on June 22, 2004.
On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of seven of the 15 commercial properties representing 746,212 square feet of the 1,165,049 square feet. The largest owner is Alan Manocherian, followed by New York University and then Sol Goldman Investments. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.
Within a 400-foot radius of 21 Astor Place, PincusCo identified one commercial real estate item of interests occurred over the past 24 months. It was a loan which United American Land borrowed $9 million from Metropolitan Commercial Bank secured by the 13,990-square-foot, two-unit office building (O5) on 734 Broadway on October 17, 2024.
Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page