Bauhouse LLC files for bankruptcy at 3 Sutton Place site

Joseph Beninati’s Bauhouse Group filed Friday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the LLC entity that owns the development site at 3 Sutton Place in Midtown.

It is unclear how the bankruptcy filing will affect Gamma’s planned foreclosure auction for Monday. Gamma holds more than $180 million in debt on the property at 426-432 East 58th Street, Crain’s reported.

Bauhouse defaulted on nearly $129 million in loans last month that it had received from Gamma, led by Richard Kalikow, for its planned 68-story, Norman Foster-designed condo tower, known as 3 Sutton Place.

Last week, a Manhattan judge denied Bauhouse’s request for an injunction against Gamma Real Estate and its planned foreclosure action. The restraining order would have given Bauhouse 45 more days to arrange a sale of the site or finance it and pay off Gamma, Crain’s reported.

Beninati told Crain’s after losing the injunction that he stood to lose millions he invested in the development site.

The bankruptcy filings list both Beninati and Herman Carlinsky — whose role was not immediately clear — as the executives of The Company That Owns The East 58th Street property.

Commercial brokerage giant JLL filed a lawsuit last week against Bauhouse, demanding $1.9 million in allegedly unpaid commission. [Crain’s] — Dusica Sue Malesevic