Prime Brooklyn development site up for auction

Ludlow developer Edison Properties owns non-performing debt on property

A 17,227-square-foot development site at 75 Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn is slated to hit the foreclosure auction block May 24, according to data from PropertyShark.com, after its owner and developer PLC Partners defaulted on its mortgage on the property. The outstanding lien on the site is $25.81 million, approximately $3 million more than the amount PLC paid for the parking lot site in 2007.

A 12-story Cambria Suites hotel was at one point slated to rise on the property – approved plans called for a 300-room hotel with 117 parking spaces — but the project fell victim to the recession. In 2010, Massey Knakal Realty Services was retained to sell the promissory note and mortgage for the site on the north side of Schermerhorn Street,Between Court Street and Boerum Place.

The loan was non-performing at that time and was offered on an all cash, as-is basis, according to Massey Knakal’s offering plan.

According to public records, privately held development firm Edison Properties, the developer of the Ludlow rental building on the Lower East Side, bought the non-performing debt on the property from lender Wells Fargo, which had taken over from Wachovia upon purchasing the smaller bank in 2008. The purchase price was not immediately clear and Edison was not immediately available for comment.

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While it is not clear if Edison has plans for the property, the firm has been active recently. The company intends to build a 407-unit residential tower at 249 West 28th Street, according to previous reports, and will build a residential development and a public park on a site at 270 Spring Street if a pending zoning proposal goes through.

Neither PLC nor Massey Knakal was immediately available for comment.

The auction will take place at The Kings County Supreme Court at 360 Adams Street in Brooklyn.