Victor Homes set to take control of failed Madison Square Park hotel site

New Jersey-based developer Victor Homes expects to take control of the failed Madison Square Park hotel project at 241 Fifth Avenue in a foreclosure auction tomorrow, clearing the way for a change of plans at the stalled site, according to the Wall Street Journal. As The Real Deal reported earlier this month, Victor Homes purchased $32 million in debt on the property at a discounted price of $20 million and has been planning to turn the project into a 48-unit condominium.

The site currently contains a four-story commercial building, which the owners — an investment group led by Daniel Shavolian, Al Cohen and Jack Hazen — had once planned to demolish and replace with a 100-room boutique hotel. They had purchased the property for $26.5 million in 2007 but never began construction and later defaulted on their $22.75 million loan from Inland Mortgage Capital. Inland filed to foreclose in 2009. The developer’s new plans for the site call for a 20-story residential building with one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units. Pricing has yet to be finalized, but three-bedrooms would probably ask between $2 million and $2.5 million, according to Victor Homes’ Ran Korolik. Work is slated to begin in July. [WSJ]