1055 Park and Trevor Davis
Developer Trevor Davis reached an agreement to stop the auction of his luxury condominium building at 1055 Park Avenue and work out a deal with lenders, The Real Deal has learned.
Manhattan-based Zimco Holdings was scheduled to auction the debt at 2 p.m. today after Davis defaulted on a $6 million loan used to help complete the six-unit property. Davis filed suit in New York State Supreme Court last Friday and reached an agreement yesterday after a hearing on an injunction to stop the sale.
“The auctions have been withdrawn and we’ve come to an agreement with our lenders,” Davis told The Real Deal in a telephone interview.
Asked if there would be changes or price cuts at 1055 Park Avenue, Davis praised the marketing and sales efforts at Prudential Douglas Elliman and noted there were interested buyers for the units.
“We work with the marketing people and I feel the units are being priced to the market,” Davis said.
According to Streeteasy.com, four of the six units are listed at prices starting at $4.3 million for a 2,164-square-foot two-bedroom apartment. Prices have been cut by more than 20 percent in many of the units since 2009. Just six days ago, a four-bedroom unit measuring 3,246 square foot was slashed by $1.45 million to $7.5 million.
The market for super jumbo loans has been extremely difficult in the New York market because lenders cannot resell the debt on the secondary market and Fannie Mae will not guarantee loans anywhere near that size. Millionaire buyers have been able to buy luxury apartments for cash, or obtain 65 percent loans at lenders with whom they have existing business relationships.
Zimco is a closely held real estate firm led by Mikhael Kurnev, a Russian real estate developer who made a splash locally through his leadership at Coalco. That firm was behind the 34-story Element condominium at 555 West 59th Street in Manhattan and Canco Lofts in Jersey City.
Davis first approached Zimco in March 2010 for the $6 million loan after senior lender Wrightwood Capital cut off his funding, according to court documents filed yesterday. Zimco alleges that a default was called in because Davis failed to enter a single sales contract by his Oct. 1 deadline and neglected to make his October and November monthly payments under the Wrightwood loan.
Zimco officials were not immediately available for comment.