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A billionaire developer who for years has been ensnared in legal trouble for allegedly defaulting on loans now must give up his stake in a Madison Avenue office building that will be auctioned off in two weeks, according to a court notice last month.
Ben Ashkenazy, who heads Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., recently had his ground lease at 635 Madison Ave. foreclosed on as a result of a lawsuit brought in 2021 by plaintiffs Wilmington Trust and Miami-based property management company LNR Partners after Ashkenazy failed to make payments. The court issued a judgment of $99.7 million, and the property will be sold at auction May 15, according to a New York state Supreme Court ruling.
The 150,000-square-foot building at the corner of East 59th Street is home to medical offices as well as retailers Baccarat, Suit Supply and Montblanc, according to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. The tenants were not named in the suit and will not be affected by the foreclosure, according to court records.
SL Green, billed as New York’s largest commercial landlord, had owned the 1950s-era, 19-story building before selling it to L&L Holding Co. for $153 million in 2018, city records show. But Ashkenazy still owned the property’s ground lease through 2048.
Next door at 625 Madison Ave., Ashkenazy found himself in a similar situation a few years back. Following another foreclosure auction, SL Green was able to seize the entire property after initially owning just the physical building while Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. controlled the land underneath it. The full price SL Green paid for the property could not immediately be determined by press time, but Crain’s reported last year that the commercial landlord was able to acquire it in part after purchasing Ashkenazy’s $195 million loan he had borrowed against the property. And then late in 2023 SL Green sold the Midtown tower for $632.5 million in what was one of the largest deals of the year, Crain’s reported at the time.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Scott Tross, a partner at the New Jersey-based firm Herrick, Feinstein LLP, declined to comment, and attempts to reach both Ashkenazy and his attorneys were unsuccessful.
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Julianne Cuba , 2024-05-03 19:12:29
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