Wells Fargo files to foreclose on $60M loan at APF’s building on Billionaires’ Row

Lender Wells Fargo filed a pre-foreclosure action related to a $60 million loan secured by a 10-story office buildings at 24-26 West 57th Street in Midtown West, along Billionaires’ Row. APF Properties owns the building, and borrowed the $60 million in 2016.

The lender alleges “the maturity date of the Loan was extended several times, and finally set at August 1, 2023. At maturity, the Borrower failed to repay the Loan in full and make other required payments.” The complaint says $50 million in principal remains outstanding.

According to the complaint, “The Mortgaged Property is a 10-floor commercial property, that spans approximately 110,000 square feet. The building’s commercial tenants use their respective leaseholds for, among other things, offices, art galleries and retail spaces. Multiple units at the Mortgaged Property are occupied by tenants who are obligated to pay monthly rent under written leases. Lender is not seeking to foreclose or otherwise abridge any tenant’s lease right through this action, though for the avoidance of doubt Lender states that it does reserve the right in the future to seek to evict any tenant that materially breaches its lease obligations.”

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

Case LINK

The property

The office building in Midtown West has 88,722 square feet of built space and 11,647 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 100,410 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has two buildings with frontage of 50 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 10,041 square feet. 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 $38.3 million. The most recent loan totaled $60 million and was provided by Wells Fargo on September 27, 2019.

Prior sales and revenue

APF Properties bought the building for $69 million on October 11, 2006.

The 88,722-square-foot property generated revenue of $7.6 million or $85 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on August 13, 2012.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has received $4,800 in ECB penalties and $12,430 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 Midtown West, The majority, or 75 percent of the 75.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 14 percent of the space. In sales, Midtown West has the 3rd highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $2.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Midtown West is the most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 21 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 28 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of nine of the 23 commercial properties representing 1,104,059 square feet of the 1,557,159 square feet. The largest owner is APF Properties, followed by BD Hotels and then LeFrak. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 383,134 square feet. It is a 80-unit, 383,134 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Solow Realty & Development and filed by Anthony Calicchio with plans filed April 17, 2018 and it has not been permitted yet.

The owner

The PincusCo database currently indicates that APF Properties owned at least five commercial properties in New York City with 781,660 square feet and a city-determined market value of $293.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, all identified are office properties. They are all located in Manhattan.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 27 West 56 Street, PincusCo identified 20 commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those 20 items, 17 were sales above $5 million totaling $1.3 billion. The most recent of the 17 was Prada which bought three condo units in the 13,648-square-foot, 11-unit mixed-use building (RC) on 724 5th Avenue and zero other properties for $425 million from Wharton Properties on January 4, 2024. Of those 20 items, three were loans above $5 million totaling $573.3 million. The most recent of the three was Korman Communities in which borrowed $54.8 million from Capital One secured by the 122,889-square-foot, 136-unit hotel (HS) on 42 West 58th Street on April 19, 2023.

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