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<\/p>\nBillionaire investor Charles Cohen has sold off one of his best pieces of land in Midtown Manhattan and plans to use the proceeds to partially repay his most aggressive creditor: Fortress Investment Group, which is coming after him for a nearly $200M personal guarantee.<\/p>\n
But Fortress isn’t happy with the way the deal went down.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n 3 East 54th St., which sits between Fifth and Madison avenues in Manhattan\n <\/p>\n
Vornado<\/a> announced Wednesday afternoon that it acquired 3 East 54th St., a property that sits between Fifth and Madison avenues in the Plaza District<\/a>, for $141M.<\/p>\n The REIT bought the debt tied to the\u00a0property, totaling $107M, in 2024 and 2025, it said in the release, and it applied that as credit toward its purchase price. It plans to demolish the property immediately.<\/p>\n The price is far less than what Cohen’s attorneys told Fortress<\/a> and a New York State Supreme Court judge last year the property would fetch. Its\u00a0sale, along with that of 623 Fifth Ave., was intended to generate proceeds to pay down a $187.2M personal guarantee tied to a half-billion-dollar loan Fortress\u00a0gave Cohen\u00a0in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cohen defaulted on the debt in 2024, but after a foreclosure didn’t cover what Fortress was owed, the private equity giant has continued to press Cohen in the courts to cover the guarantee. An appeals court\u00a0ruled in February<\/a> that Fortress could\u00a0collect on\u00a0the guarantee.<\/p>\n In an\u00a0August letter<\/a>, an attorney for Cohen said his real estate firm, Cohen Brothers Realty Corp<\/a>., was under contract to sell the 19-story, Emery Roth-designed building for $188M to an undisclosed buyer. It owns a 63% stake in the 300K SF property, Crain’s New York Business reported last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cohen’s attorneys wrote that \u201can international wire has been initiated (for both the Deposit as well as the balance of the Purchase Price).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In an October email filed as an exhibit to a motion on Monday, Cohen Brothers told Fortress’ attorneys that \u201cbuyer\u2019s funds have not been wired despite daily assurances from buyer that funds are expected soon,\u201d and \u201cthe sale is imminent with a closing date to be determined.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But that deal never happened, and Vornado’s deal was revealed and executed in a matter of days, according to court filings.<\/p>\n In a letter to New York Supreme Court Justice Joel Cohen on Tuesday, Cohen’s attorneys said they had accepted an offer from Vornado that was expected to close as soon as Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be a significant surplus of $30 million or more to pay down the judgment,\u201d Kevin Nash, a partner at\u00a0Goldberg Weprin Finkel Goldstein LLP representing Cohen, wrote in the filing.<\/p>\n Tuesday afternoon, Fortress’ attorneys\u00a0wrote in their own letter to Justice Cohen that they were blindsided by the new deal, adding that it covers only a pittance of the $170M Charles Cohen<\/a> still owes.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a very far cry from satisfying the Judgment debt,\u201d the filing states.<\/p>\n