Maguire About to Foreclose on Financial District Buildings

Marvin Azrak’s Maguire Capital is moving to foreclose on two historic properties in the Financial District.

Maguire initiated a U.C.C. foreclosure on the equity interests of two mixed-use buildings at 53 and 55 Stone Street next to a cobblestone, pedestrian-only street. The properties are owned by Alicia CastroLeal Harper, ex-wife of the late TV producer Alan Harper.

It is not clear why Harper went into default on a $9 million loan after her company Orsipel V bought the properties just a year ago from Sean Lefkovits’ Davean Holdings for $15.1 million. Davean had bought them for $10.1 million in 2021.

The properties, built in 1900 and 1913, total 16,700 square feet and consist of seven free-market apartments and two restaurant spaces — one occupied by the pub Underdog, the other formerly by a taco joint — at street level. Both buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.

The net income for the properties totals $777,300 per year, according to marketing materials from Meridian Capital. Before Davean, the buildings were owned by the late Tony Goldman, who acquired them in the early 1990s.

A foreclosure auction set for Oct. 15 was postponed the night before as the lender granted the borrower forbearance. Matthew Mannion of Mannion Auctions was lined up as the auctioneer. David Schechtman of Meridian is marketing the foreclosure.

Harper got the $9 million, 12-month bridge loan from Port Washington, New York–based BEB Capital. In May, BEB sold the loan to Maguire.

Meridian was hired to sell the property. At one point, the brokerage was looking for $16 million, according to marketing materials.

U.C.C. foreclosures sidestep the lengthy process of traditional foreclosures by foreclosing on a property’s ownership entity instead of the property itself. The equity interest is then marketed at a public sale. Often, the lender acquires the ownership entity through a credit bid — bidding with the debt it’s owed. The lender then becomes responsible for any senior mortgage on the property.

Maguire Capital, led by Azrak, has become a prominent player in the distressed debt space. The firm teamed up with Madison Realty Capital to acquire a $81.5 million distressed loan on the Fifth Avenue Hotel in Manhattan.

Madison and Maguire also bought an $80 million loan on Aby Rosen’s massive Gowanus development site at 175 Third Street, across from Whole Foods. They launched a U.C.C. foreclosure at that property as well.

This article has been updated to include a forbearance agreement reached Oct. 14.