Owners of 620 Sixth Avenue (left, source: PropertyShark) removed a parcel (see red box on image on red) once covered by a $235 million mortgage.

Top real estate investors including Yair Levy and Joseph Chetrit are close to defaulting on a $235 million loan on the Bed Bath & Beyond building in Chelsea, a recent lawsuit by an SL Green affiliate says. But to preserve some value in their holdings, the owners transferred a vacant slice of the building’s lot to another entity they own without SL Green’s consent, the court filing says. “With a payment default looming and foreclosure proceedings inevitable, [the owners] sought to convey away a necessary and valuable piece of lenders’ collateral to obtain an unfair advantage in future negotiations, in blatant and egregious violations of the bargains struck by the parties to the loans,” the lawsuit by Green Loan Services, an affiliate of SL Green, says. Developers Levy, Chetrit and Charles Dayan are investors in an entity called CF 620 Owner One LLC, which bought the property at 620 Sixth Avenue between 18th and 19th streets in December 2005 for $289.8 million, city property records show. [more]