Dune files to foreclose on Mark Hotel loans

From left: Simon Elias, the Mark Hotel and Izak Senbahar

Dune Real Estate Partners has filed to foreclose on loans granted to the Alexico Group’s Mark Hotel at 25 East 77th Street by Anglo Irish Bank, according to Public Documents Filed With State Supreme Court last month. Dune bought the loans earlier this year.

Alexico’s Simon Elias and Izak Senbahar pledged the hotel and co-op building as collateral for a total of five Mark Hotel-related loans, all of which are now in default, according to the public foreclosure filing dated June 9. The loans include a pre-development one totaling $14 million in 2006, a building loan mortgage totaling approximately $60.78 million, dated 2007, a project loan totaling around $22.7 million, a $17 million supplemental building loan and a $6.3 million supplemental loan mortgage. All of these debts are accompanied by unpaid interest, late charges, protective advances, service fees and attorney expenses.

The property has 150 hotel rooms and suites and 10 co-ops, according to data from Streeteasy.com. As of March, only two of the co-op units had sold.

This is just the latest in a string of unfortunate issues for the developers.

As The Real Deal previously reported, Fillmore Capital Partners filed a $21.1 million suit in March alleging that the two defaulted on a mezzanine loan at the hotel. The suit claims that the two developers guaranteed repayment of a $25.8 million mezzanine loan from Anglo Irish in 2006, which was then acquired by San Francisco-based Fillmore in May 2007.

The building encountered difficulty from the outset. After Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group launched condo unit sales in January 2010, at least four buyers filed suit against the company to try to back out of their contracts. Alexico originally planned to sell 42 residences, but ultimately reduced the number to only 10 due to demand.

The developers filed a $1 billion suit this year against the Anglo Irish for allegedly selling loans at some of its other buildings — the Alex at 205 East 45th Street and the Flototel at 135 West 52nd Street — to a competing development firm.

In March, Dune Real Estate Partners agreed to pay $190 million for Anglo Irish’s mortgage loan on the Mark. The note had several interested bidders, including Starwood Capital.

Simon Elias and Izak Senbahar were not immediately available for comment. Anglo Irish declined to comment via their legal representation at Bingham McCutchen.