2 Of Thor Equities' Manhattan Properties Placed In Receivership
Thor Equities has lost control of two more pieces of its Manhattan office and retail portfolio.
The Joe Sitt-owned real estate firm was ordered by a judge this summer to place 597 Fifth Ave. and 3 East 48th St., two adjacent commercial properties, into the care of a court-appointed receiver. The order came after LNR Partners, a subsidiary of Barry Sternlicht's Starwood Property Trust, and Wilmington Trust initiated pre-foreclosure proceedings against Thor in February.
Hope Plasha, a partner with Patterson Belknap, was named as the receiver for both properties, according to a court order filed in June. Plasha and representatives for Thor didn't respond to requests for comment.
UBS loaned Thor $105M in 2014 to consolidate debt on the property, and it packaged that debt into a CMBS trust and assigned Wilmington as trustee later that year. Thor stopped making monthly payments in August 2020, and it was transferred to special servicing two months later. LNR was brought on in October 2022 as a new special servicer, and Wilmington and LNR initiated the pre-foreclosure this February.
According to a December Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the lender was set to “continue to dual track foreclosure/receivership proceedings while discussing potential alternatives with Borrower.”
The receiver filed the bond of $5M, and is in the process of taking control of the Property, according to Morningstar Credit. The properties were 49% occupied as of March, according to Morningstar.
The two properties are next to each other — 597 Fifth Ave. is 12 stories tall and 3 East 48th is six — and feature retail and office space. Thor bought them in 2011 for $108.5M, the New York Post reported at the time.
Known as the Charles Scribner's Sons Building, the Beaux Arts 597 Fifth Ave. was built as a bookstore for the Scribner family and has been a designated city landmark since 1982.
Sitt amassed a large portfolio of high-end real estate on Fifth Avenue in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, but many of his bets have turned sour.
In 2020, SL Green took ownership of 590 Fifth Ave. after Thor defaulted on a $25M mezzanine loan, which resulted in foreclosure. At 470 Broadway, in another ordeal with LNR, Sternlicht's firm took over the building in a $25M deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure transaction from Thor in October, Crain's New York Business reported.
Last month, Thor bought 470 Broadway back, paying LNR $8.1M in a foreclosure auction. While Sitt's firm once again controls the building, investors in the CMBS trust took a $16.2M loss on the loan, according to Morningstar Credit.
