Joseph Moinian and Dwell95

Developer Joe Moinian filed a lawsuit on Monday to block the scheduled auction of Dwell95, his luxury rental building at 95 Wall Street, however a last minute bankruptcy filing by the mezzanine lender has postponed the proceeding. Monian’s Moinian Group, one of the city’s biggest real estate development companies, filed suit in New York State Supreme Court against Rubicon Finance America, which held a $42 million mezzanine loan on the 507-unit property in the Financial District. Moinian had a $227 million construction loan on the building from Credit Suisse-unit Column Financial, but the value of the property fell below the loan balance due to the 2008 economic downturn, which put the mezzanine loan into default, according to the complaint. Moinian alleges he reached an agreement with Rubicon and Credit Suisse to buy the $42 million mezzanine loan for $1 million, but he says on Dec. 10 that Rubicon agreed to sell $1.4 billion in loans, including the Dwell95 loan , to a joint venture firm that included FBE Limited and Lane Capital Management. Right after the sale, Moinian alleges that FBE and Lane Capital scheduled a Dec. 30 auction to foreclose on 95 Wall Street and basically deprive him of the chance to buy back the defaulted mezzanine loan. [more]

The recent ruling in favor of tenants at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village initially put the city’s landlords on the defensive, but now property owners are asking if the city might owe them money because of the decision. Frank Ricci, director of governmental affairs at the landlord trade group Rent Stabilization Association, said he has fielded calls from “dozens” of landlords asking if the city might owe them for overpayment in taxes. And in recent weeks the law firm Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldman raised more questions in a bulletin, including whether the city must pay landlords for lost tax abatements. Adding to the potential chaos, Stephen Meister, a partner who specializes in real estate law at the firm Meister Seelig & Fein, said he had spoken with building owners who might want to leave the city-run J-51 tax abatement program altogether. [more]

From the October issue: As the real estate industry scrambles to unwind billions of dollars in
distressed inventory, a number of high-profile deals are stuck in
neutral as lenders battle it out with each other to see who will get
paid and who will be left holding the (empty) bag. While creditors often turn on each other during a workout, the massive
number of securitized loans with multiple lenders and third-party
servicing firms managing the funds is creating a level of complexity
that may take years to sort out, analysts said. Unlike the previous downturn in the 1990s, the majority of large deals
during the recent real estate boom were made using securitized loans –
or at least loans with large syndicates, or groups of lenders sharing
the burden of a single loan.

Fitch Ratings downgraded another series of commercial real estate loans, driven in part by concerns that the troubled Riverton Houses apartment complex in Harlem would incur a “significant loss upon liquidation” based on a recent appraisal report. Wells Fargo, the trustee of the Riverton loan, filed a motion last month in New York State Supreme Court for a summary judgment against developer Laurence Gluck of Stellar Management, who defaulted on a $225 million loan and was thus far unable to arrange a workout with his lenders. Sources close to the case said a hearing is scheduled for tomorrow to determine whether to order a judgment against the developer. If such an order is issued, a referee would be appointed to determine the total amount due and what steps would be taken to place the property up for sale and collect on any personal guarantees. [more]

From left: A rendering of the Oliver’s rooftop, images of the stalled project

Bank of America filed to foreclose on two loans totaling more than $30
million provided for the development of a rental project dubbed the
Oliver to be constructed by the luxury developer Alexico Group on the
East Side. The lawsuit describes one mortgage from 2007 as the fee acquisition
loan, valued at $28.32 million, and the second as a development rights
acquisition loan from 2008, valued at $2.3 million. Both loans were originally due November 2008, but the maturity date was
extended to May 1, 2009. The loans were not repaid by that time, and
the bank notified the borrowers that the loans were in default, the
suit filed in New York State Supreme Court August 13, says. The loans cover five mid-block lots from 951 to 961 First Avenue,
between 52nd and 53rd streets, although the planned 30-story
development is only on the three northernmost lots totaling 75 feet by
100 feet, court papers and property records show. The other two lots
are occupied by five-story apartment buildings. [more]