From left: Leon Charney, Peter Malkin and 119 West 40th StreetBillionaire investor Leon Charney is facing a new lawsuit filed last month from Malkin Properties for allegedly reneging on a deal to buy a $22 million mezzanine loan on his Midtown office tower, almost a year after the property was placed under a court-appointed receiver.
The 340,000-square-foot building, at 119 West 40th Street, has been in trouble since December 2009, when CW Capital Asset Management filed to foreclose on a $160 million senior mortgage. Charney, the Manhattan-based head of L.H. Charney Associates and former Carter administration advisor, originally acquired the property for $182 million in 2007 with Manhattan-based George Comfort & Sons and Brooklyn-based Fortis Property Group, one of the city’s top commercial real estate firms. [more]

Riverton Apartments is at the top of the list of New York City’s commercial properties that are at least 60 days delinquent, by size of loan balance, according to data from commercial loan tracking firm Trepp updated through today. (See full list of delinquent properties — and zoom in on it — here, plus see a slide show of some of the properties above.) Laurence Gluck bought Riverton, the 12, 13-story buildings that lie between 135th and 138th streets and Fifth Avenue and Harlem River Drive, for $135 million in 2005, then refinanced the property with a $225 million mortgage. The foreclosure auction is set for March 11. Other large delinquent properties include Hampshire Hotels & Resorts’ Dream Hotel at 210 West 55th Street, with a loan balance of $100 million, and Time Hotel at 224 West 49th Street, also owned by an affiliate of Hampshire Hotels & Resorts, with a balance of $55 million. Also included on the list are the Meyberry House at 220 East 63rd Street with a $90 million loan balance and and the Core Club retail condominium at 60 East 55th Street, with an $18 million balance. The Real Deal looked at commercial properties that were 90 or more days delinquent in its 2010 Data Book. TRD [more]

From the February issue: As New York City construction firms get slammed by the downturn, they are turning to more modest projects, in some cases taking on multimillion-dollar renovations rather than the multibillion-dollar skyscrapers. While it’s clear that the collapse of the New York development market has taken a toll on builders and brokers, there may be nobody in the industry hit as hard as construction firms. As banks have largely cut off financing for new projects and cranes have been mothballed, thousands of contractors have lost their jobs. “It’s having a devastating impact on the construction market,” said Lou Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers’ Association, which represents 1,700 construction management and contractor firms. “There are very few, if any, new projects moving forward.” To combat that lack of work, major New York construction firms are bidding for much smaller projects and diversifying into public-sector work, while other firms have been forced into bankruptcy protection.[more] [more]

From left: Leon Charney, owner of L.H. Charney, Peter Duncan, president of George Comfort, and 119 West 40th Street (Building photo source: PropertyShark)

Just weeks after negotiating an agreement to rescue 119 West 40th Street from a mezzanine loan default, George Comfort & Sons and L.H. Charney Associates are facing foreclosure on a $160 million senior mortgage at the site.

CW Capital Asset Management, which is servicing the senior loan on behalf of Bank of America, filed suit in New York State Supreme Court Dec. 14 to foreclose on the property.

George Comfort and Charney originally borrowed $160 million from Wachovia Bank and Greenwich Capital Financial Partners in April 2007, according to the lawsuit, with half coming from each bank. The loan was later sold to GS Mortgage Securities Corp. II, as part of a July 1, 2007, loan purchase deal signed between Greenwich and GS.

In July 2009, Fitch Ratings warned that the 119 West 40th Street loan was performing below expectations. Fitch said the loan was underwritten based on the expectation of resigning below-market leases at higher rents; however, the building fell behind schedule and was transferred to the special servicer in June 2009 with the expectation of imminent default.  More

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George Comfort & Sons, the firm that made the largest office investment purchase this year when it bought World Wide Plaza for $590 million, is 30 days delinquent on a $160 million loan on a Bryant Park office building, commercial loan tracking firm Trepp reported.
The securitized loan on 119 West 40th Street, a 340,219-square-foot building, was listed as 30 days late “because the terms of the loan are currently being renegotiated,” a source familiar with the situation said in an e-mail, but would not elaborate. [more]