William Vale owner seeks $165M, termination of ground lease with Goldman, Weiss

The owner of the William Vale hotel filed suit in Brooklyn State Supreme Court on Friday to terminate the ground lease tenants Yoel Goldman and Zelig Weiss have which controls the property at 55 Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The property is owned by an entity that Yoel Goldman and his All Year Management created, Wythe Berry Fee Owner LLC, which developed the property. In 2017, the LLC signed a 15-year ground lease with Goldman and Weiss who as 50-50 partners control the property.

The property owner entity borrowed $166 million from bondholders in 2017 from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

The suit is the position of the plaintiff and is not necessarily accurate or complete.

All Year hit financial troubles and a restructuring officer was placed over All Year assets including the William Vale hotel. It was Ephraim Diamond, the associate restructuring officer for the bondholders, who signed the lawsuit.

The suit says the owner entity notified Goldman and Weiss it was cancelling the ground lease, however the suit says Weiss and Goldman have ignored the termination notice and have not paid the semi-annual, $7.5 million rent payment due in February. According to the suit, “In the wake of Defendants’ defaults and their continued refusal to engage with Lessor, Lessor served Defendants with a Notice of Default dated May 5, 2021, but Defendants failed to cure the defaults. As a result, Lessor served Defendants with a Notice of Cancellation and Termination, terminating the lease effective as of May 20, 2021. “Pursuant to Article 2 of the Lease, Lessee is required to pay Lessor annual rent in the amount of $15,000,000.00 payable in two $7,500,000.00 increments on February 1 and August 1 of each calendar year.” LINK

-Adam Pincus