Uncertain future for Tribeca building

The future of 56 Walker Street, a mixed residential and commercial building owned by Guy Morris, hangs in limbo, the New York Times reported. A 2007 loan agreement went into foreclosure proceedings and the building’s owning entity, 56 Walker Street LLC, has declared bankruptcy, according to the Times.

In 2007, the Times reported, Morris signed an $11.3 million loan with Broadway Bank and Wexford/HPC Mortgage Company to pay off a previous loan and to pay off condominium construction. However, the lenders did not provide the money. The Times wrote that WexTrust went into receivership and two of its executives pleaded guilty to charges of federal fraud. Broadway Bank in Chicago was shut down in 2010.

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Last week, a judge presiding over the bankruptcy appointed a Chapter 11 trustee to replace Morris and the building’s current management.

Morris purchased the building back in 2003 for $3 million. Originally, he planned to add a floor to the building’s existing five stories, build condominiums on the floors and use money from their sales to pay for construction and to help subsidize a news program, the International News Net World Report, that operated out of a room on the second floor. [NYT]