Sharif El-Gamal’s Tribeca money pit has become a burial ground for its lender.
Malayan Banking Berhad, which has been trying for nearly three years to foreclose on El-Gamal’s stalled 45 Park Place condo project, is ready to move on after a judge ruled against its efforts to take control of the property.
The lender, which does business as Maybank, is looking to sell its $108 million non-performing loan on the property, according to marketing materials from Newmark seen by The Real Deal.
The move comes after the judge overseeing Maybank’s lawsuit in November denied its motion for summary judgment seeking to foreclose on the 43-story condo tower. The judge ruled that the lender’s poor documentation of the loan “raises the specter of the mortgages being invalid.”
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“You don’t often see that in mortgage foreclosures,” said El-Gamal’s attorney, Matthew Hearle of Goldberg Weprin Finkel Goldstein, who added that it looks like the case will have to go to trial. “I think I’ve seen decisions denying summary judgment requiring trial in a foreclosure maybe two times, maybe three.”
“There’s a possibility here that this is going to be a real mess,” he added.
Representatives for Maybank did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Newmark’s Dustin Stolly and Jordan Roeschlaub, who are marketing the debt, declined to comment.
El-Gamal and the bank have been in court since early 2020. The 45 Park condo, meanwhile, has languished. Construction on the Michel Abboud-designed tower’s glass curtain wall, which is only about two-thirds of the way up the 43-story building, has been stalled since 2019, NY YIMBY reported in November
The orange construction netting on the upper floors is torn from exposure to the weather.
The project has a projected sellout of nearly $450 million, according to the condo offering plan filed with the state Attorney General’s office.
To finance his tower, El-Gamal pulled together a complex debt package in compliance with Islamic law, which has complicated matters in the foreclosure suit.