{"id":668197,"date":"2026-03-20T02:46:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T02:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/668197\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T02:46:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T02:46:27","slug":"fifth-avenue-condo-conversion-project-placed-in-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/668197\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifth Avenue Condo Conversion Project Placed In Bankruptcy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The developers of a Rafael Vi\u00f1oly Architects-designed\u00a0Fifth Avenue<\/a> condo conversion\u00a0held off a foreclosure\u00a0sale Thursday by placing the project into\u00a0Chapter 11 bankruptcy<\/a>\u00a0on the eve of\u00a0the auction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n Puma’s flagship store occupies the base of 609 Fifth Ave.\n <\/p>\n

Top Rock Holdings<\/a> and RJ Capital Holdings plan to transform the existing 14-story office and retail building at 609 Fifth Ave. into a 31-story mixed-use tower with 66 apartments, according to 2023 filings with the Department of Buildings. However, the project\u2019s status is listed as on hold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Top Rock secured\u00a0an $80M mortgage from Valley National Bank<\/a>\u00a0in June 2022, along with mezzanine debt from GW Asset Management, to purchase 609 Fifth Ave.<\/a>\u00a0from SL Green<\/a> for $100.5M.<\/p>\n

An affiliate of GW Asset Management filed a notice of public UCC sale on Jan. 13, alleging that the borrowers were in default of\u00a0a mezzanine loan that closed Nov. 18.<\/p>\n

A UCC foreclosure involves the ownership entity that controls the underlying asset, allowing the winning bidder to seize control of the building while keeping the senior debt in place. There is a $71.8M balance on the senior debt, according to the notice.<\/p>\n

GW Asset Management is a subsidiary of Naperville, Illinois-based Gar Wood Securities, an investment bank and brokerage with \u201cbuilt upon Midwest sensibilities,\u201d according to its website.<\/p>\n

Hilco Real Estate<\/a>\u00a0was tapped to conduct the auction for 609 5th Junior Mezz LLC, which was scheduled for Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the LLC filed for bankruptcy protection, citing $50M to $100M in assets and $10M to $50M in liabilities. The auction notice has since been removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a process turns value-destructive, you step in and stop it,\u201d Leo Jacobs, the attorney representing the developers in the bankruptcy, said in a statement. \u201cThat\u2019s what we did here. Chapter 11 gives us the ability to reset and drive toward the highest-value outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bankrupt entity lists the mezzanine lender, GW Assets FZE, as an unsecured creditor with a disputed claim of an unknown amount.<\/p>\n

GW Asset Management, Top Rock and RJ Capital didn’t immediately respond to Bisnow\u2019s requests for comment. A Hilco representative declined to comment.<\/p>\n

The office portion of the building has been empty since WeWork<\/a>\u00a0terminated its lease in 2021. The retail space, anchored by Puma<\/a>, was purchased by the Reuben Brothers<\/a> for about $165M in 2020, according to property records.<\/p>\n

Top Rock and\u00a0RJ Capital\u00a0planned to secure a luxury brand<\/a> to launch the condo project, but property records indicate that the developers haven’t secured construction financing for the conversion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The building’s debt was previously subject to a different controversy between Top Rock and Northwind Group<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In June 2022, Northwind sued Top Rock and founder Uri Mermelstein. Northwind claims it had agreed to provide nearly $76M for the redevelopment, according to court records.<\/p>\n

As part of their agreement,\u00a0Northwind claimed the developer couldn’t pursue financing with other lenders after a 50-day \u201cno shop period.\u201d Despite that exclusivity requirement and other confidentiality provisions, Northwind alleged that Top Rock sought alternative financing from Valley Bank.<\/p>\n

Top Rock withdrew from its loan with Northwind but never paid closing costs or breakup fees, according to the lawsuit. Northwind sought damages in excess of $38M, but the lenders\u00a0settled the lawsuit a few weeks later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The developers of a Rafael Vi\u00f1oly Architects-designed\u00a0Fifth Avenue condo conversion\u00a0held off a foreclosure\u00a0sale Thursday by placing the project…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":668198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[282342,5229,28970,7744,282344,282340,282345,405,403,5226,5225,245638,5228,5227,37499,282343,229662,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,282341],"class_list":["post-668197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-609-fifth-ave","tag-america","tag-chapter-11-bankruptcy","tag-fifth-avenue","tag-gw-asset-management","tag-hilco-real-estate","tag-leo-jacobs","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-northwind-group","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-puma","tag-rj-capital-holdings","tag-top-rock-holdings","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-valley-national-bank"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116259218237341400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}