Bauhouse LLC files for bankruptcy at 3 Sutton Place site

Developer defaulted on loan to Gamma

from left: Bauhouse’s Joseph Beninati and Gamma’s Richard Kalikow
from left: Bauhouse’s Joseph Beninati and Gamma’s Richard Kalikow

Joseph Beninati’s Bauhouse Group filed Friday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the LLC entity that owns the development site at 3 Sutton Place in Midtown.

It is unclear how the bankruptcy filing will affect Gamma’s planned foreclosure auction for Monday. Gamma holds more than $180 million in debt on the property at 426-432 East 58th Street, Crain’s reported.

Bauhouse defaulted on nearly $129 million in loans last month that it had received from Gamma, led by Richard Kalikow, for its planned 68-story, Norman Foster-designed condo tower, known as 3 Sutton Place.

Last week, a Manhattan judge denied Bauhouse’s request for an injunction against Gamma Real Estate and its planned foreclosure action. The restraining order would have given Bauhouse 45 more days to arrange a sale of the site or finance it and pay off Gamma, Crain’s reported.

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Beninati told Crain’s after losing the injunction that he stood to lose millions he invested in the development site.

The bankruptcy filings list both Beninati and Herman Carlinsky — whose role was not immediately clear — as the executives of The Company That Owns The East 58th Street property.

Commercial brokerage giant JLL filed a lawsuit last week against Bauhouse, demanding $1.9 million in allegedly unpaid commission. [Crain’s]Dusica Sue Malesevic

 

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