Ashkenazy Hit With Foreclosure Suit At Harlem Retail Property
Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. is facing foreclosure on a retail space on Fifth Avenue in Harlem, with lenders claiming it hasn’t met its repayments there in nearly two years.
A trustee for the loan’s bondholders filed a foreclosure lawsuit against Ashkenazy in New York State Supreme Court this week, alleging that it has defaulted on the $12.3M loan on the retail of the condominium building at 1400 Fifth Ave, The Real Deal reports.
The loan came from Barclays in 2018, and was then sold onto investors, per the publication. Ashkenazy CEO Ben Ashkenazy and Andrew Cohen, who runs Cohen Commercial Properties, personally guaranteed the loan, the trustee claims in the suit, which is seeking $16.7M in damages.
The property at 1400 Fifth Ave. spans eight stories and has 129 units. Ashkenazy has owned the retail space there since 2014, having paid $12.5M. Ashkenazy is also facing a separate lawsuit, which claims it has failed to pay common expenses and assessments to the building’s condo board, per TRD.
The suit is just the latest in a series of legal woes for Ashkenazy. Last year, a court ordered the firm to pay $136M on a defaulted loan on the New York Marriott East Side hotel. A few months later, SL Green Realty took control of Ashkenazy’s 690 Madison Ave., where Hermès leases space, after launching a UCC foreclosure auction.
The year before, a mall the firm owns in D.C.'s Friendship Heights neighborhood, the Mazza Gallerie Mall, was sent to foreclosure auction. Ashkenazy had acquired the property for $78M in 2017.
