Madison 92nd Street Associates, an affiliate of Madison Equities and owner of the Upper East Side Courtyard by Marriott at 410 East 92nd Street, has filed for bankruptcy protection in an effort to prevent a foreclosure sale of the property and is working with Westport Capital Partners to line up refinancing, Bloomberg News reported. The corporation listed assets of as much as $500 million and debt of as much as $100 million, according to the filing.

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance holds the biggest unsecured claim of $679,581, Bloomberg said, and lender General Electric Capital, owed $74 million, has scheduled a foreclosure sale for Aug. 24. [more]

Once among the top construction firms in New York City, HRH Construction, the 86-year-old company that built Citigroup’s Midtown headquarters and many of Donald Trump’s metro-area projects, is now mired in bankruptcy court and fighting off allegations of fraud. Crain’s reported that HRH’s downfall began in the early 2000s during the construction of 2 Broadway, a building owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The project went $300 million over budget, thanks in part to HRH overbilling the construction costs, according to arbitrators who ordered the firm to repay $6.5 million in 2007. [more]

The foreclosure auction of a piece of defaulted mezzanine debt on the Flatiron District’s MAve Hotel at 62 Madison Avenue between 27th and 28th streets, was postponed today when the property’s developers filed for Chaper 11 bankruptcy, according to Crain’s.

Madison Hotel Owners, purportedly the public face of Joseph Ben Moha, the owner of Roxy Deli, and Benzion Suky, a principal at Livorno Properties, filed late last night, according to court documents. The developers have total liabilities of $9.3 million, the documents revealed. [more]

The auction of developer Yehuda Leib Puretz’s stalled Waterfront Commons mall site in Staten Island was canceled yesterday, a day after his firm filed the $90 million project into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The Brooklyn-based developer, who was planning the 380,000 square-foot mall in the Richmond Valley section of Staten Island near the Outerbridge Crossing, defaulted on a $21.5 million loan connected to the project after the economy stalled in 2008, sources said.

“It [was] largely just a factor of the economy,” said Andrew Boyle, a consultant on the project and COO of the Boyle Group, based in Malvern, Pa. [more]

Lehman Brothers Holdings has asked for permission in bankruptcy court to invest $255 million in Broadway Partners’ 237 Park Avenue, the 21-story office tower in which the liquidating bank already has a $437 million investment. Lehman loaned Broadway $1.23 billion to buy the property in 2007 and began negotiating a possible restructuring in August 2009, when it believed Broadway was in danger of imminent default on part of that loan. In a court filing today, Lehman said Broadway Partners is now selling part of its debt and that an additional investment by the failed bank “represents the best means of protecting [LBHI's] current investment…which could be potentially wiped out if a party other than LHBI buys the debt.” [Bloomberg]

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Even in bankruptcy, General Growth Properties is feeling pressure from New York City officials to pony up $500,000 in back rent it allegedly owes for South Street Seaport, according to the Wall Street Journal. The city has filed a court claim demanding payment, but General Growth is disputing the city’s stance for as-of-yet unknown reasons and plans to file its response to bankruptcy court soon. [more]

Lehman Brothers plans to recover $12 billion from its real estate assets in five years, as it liquidates much of its holdings in bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg news. The failed investment bank will hold on to certain illiquid assets, per a bankruptcy judge’s approval on April 15, with plans to sell them within the next five years. Lehman also said it will recover approximately $17 billion in private equity assets during the same time period.

One of the developers of Williamsburg’s Warehouse 11, the 120-unit luxury condominium at 214 North 11th Street, has exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The deal cut down the debt load of developer Isack Rosenberg and his partners at McCaren Park Mews to $35 million. The partners, who defaulted on their $50 million mortgage with Capital One Bank last summer, hope to pay off their remaining balance through sales of the remaining 36 units in the Karl Fisher-designed building. Sales had come to a halt during the bankruptcy process, but relaunched with verve in January as the developers slashed prices and raced against the clock to raise cash by a lender-imposed deadline. Aptsandlofts.com, which is marketing the building, expects the remaining units to go quickly now that the developers have worked through the bankruptcy. [Brooklyn Paper]

The Lenox Condominium at 380 Lenox Avenue on the corner of 129th Street in Harlem has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to Crain’s, after missing the due date for its $10 million mortgage on unsold apartments. Developer Uptown Partners, which filed for bankruptcy early last year (note: correction appended), said that it has applied for a loan extension with its lender and that the company is hopeful the situation will be resolved soon. “We had to temporarily protect our rights to give us enough time to negotiate and get apartments sold,” Lewis Futterman, Uptown Partners co-founder, said. “We are inches away from a settlement with the bank. I would be surprised if this filing is not withdrawn in three weeks.”

H. Thomas O’Hara Architect designed Twenty9th Park, on left, and the Mondrian Hotel, on right

The luxury Manhattan design firm H. Thomas O’Hara Architect filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, but remains in operation, recent court documents show. The firm, which designed buildings such as Twenty9th Park at 39 East 29th Street and the Mondrian Hotel at 150 Lafayette Street, filed for Chapter 11 protection Dec. 11 in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan. The filings show assets of $1.2 million and debts of $4.3 million. The bulk of the money counted as assets, some $1.1 million, was in unpaid money owed to the firm by clients, the papers show. The largest amount the firm owes was $1.5 million to Citibank Commercial Loan Servicing, while the second largest amount was owed to the Internal Revenue Service for unpaid payroll taxes, totaling $643,166. The president and managing member of the firm, H. Thomas O’Hara, said in an interview with The Real Deal today that he filed the suit because of the difficult financial pressures brought on by the declining economy. [more]