Princeton University’s secret societies have nothing on real estate’s clandestine deal makers.
The mystery lender that took back the former home of the Princeton Club in foreclosure has now put the property up for sale and is eyeing a price of $40 million, The Real Deal has learned.
The 10-story, 64,000-square-foot building at 15 West 43rd Street is being pitched for a variety of uses. Options include mixed-use combinations that range from office and hotel to residential rentals and condos, student housing or a United Nations headquarters, according to a marketing memo from CBRE. Marketing is being led by CBRE’s Dan Kaplan, who declined to comment.
The building, constructed in 1962 and renovated in 2008, has 52 guest rooms, two restaurants, a squash and fitness center, a library and business center and 16,000 square feet of meeting and events space.
Exactly who’s selling the former Ivy League club is unknown.
The Princeton Club had been struggling financially for several years as it reportedly lost a third of its dues-paying members. By the end of 2019 the club, which had no financial relationship to its namesake university, had $49.4 million in liabilities and $30.3 million in assets. The club ran a $3.4 million deficit that year, according to tax records.
The Princeton Club was forced to close during the pandemic and in October 2021 defaulted on a $39 million mortgage from Sterling National Bank.
Sterling sold the note to the current owner, which foreclosed on the property in December 2023.
But it’s not clear who the current owner is. It’s been operating through an attorney at the Midtown law firm Kleinberg Kaplan named Kelly Zelezen, who could not be reached for comment.
A representative from New Jersey-based Peapack-Gladstone Bank had been servicing the loan during the foreclosure process. It wasn’t clear if the bank owned the loan or had merely been servicing it.
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