Joe Sitt’s Thor Equities is facing big problems at two Soho retail properties.
A special servicer on the company’s defaulted loan secured by the 470 Broadway property filed to foreclose on the loan, according to PincusCo. The plaintiff, who is a CMBS trustee, filed to foreclose on Monday, citing $22.9 million in debt. The debt consists of $18 million in unpaid principal, $2.6 million in unpaid interest and $2.3 million in protective advances.
The building is behind $17.5 million in CMBS debt for a loan that has been delinquent since May 2020, when management was assigned to a special servicer.
PincusCo reports this is the third pre-foreclosure suit filed against Thor since 2019.
Thor bought the 6,600-square-foot building in October 2007 for $15.5 million. The developer took out a $20.5 million loan on the property in July 2012.
Thor’s problems at 470 Broadway surfaced in August, when The Real Deal reported the value of the property dropped from $29.2 million to $5.6 million since 2012, according to Trepp. The value was cut in half from the $11.2 million appraisal last year.
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Aldo has the entire two-floor lease of the building, which expires in October 2023. The shoe retailer in 2019 paid $296 per square foot, equivalent to almost $2 million in annual rent. But the company filed for bankruptcy last May and has previously defaulted on rent at 470 Broadway, according to Trepp.
The issues at 470 Broadway come as a New York State Supreme Court judge ordered the developer’s two retail condos at 115 Mercer Street should be sold at auction in the next 180 days, PincusCo reported. Thor’s $37 million loan from Deutsche Bank was turned over to a special servicer, which said in March 2019 the developer had defaulted on payments.
Foreclosure was filed in October 2019. On September 1, the judge signed the order for foreclosure and the sale of the retail condos with a default judgment of $49 million, PincusCo reports.
However, Thor’s legal troubles don’t end in Soho. The Real Deal reported in November Trepp data that show Thor was delinquent on a $105 million loan at 597 Fifth Avenue after missing payments in August and September 2020. The loan was provided by UBS Real Estate Securities to refinance the property in 2014.
Additionally, East West Bank filed a lawsuit to foreclose on a mixed-use property at 17 West 125th Street in Harlem in the spring. The lender claimed that Thor was delinquent on three loans totaling approximately $20 million.
[PincusCo] — Holden Walter-Warner