Gowanus’ eight-year legal drama ended in foreclosure.
Marvin Azrak’s Maguire Capital Group, an active player in New York City’s troubled real estate sector, has stepped in to take over the foreclosure of 255 Butler , the site of a long-running feud between the Akkad family and Sam Boymelgreen, son of controversial New York developer Jeshayahu. “beat“Boimelgreen.”
The ownership group has the same name as its address. The 99,500-square-foot property belongs to family members Ariel Akkad, Nathan Akkad, Solomon Akkad and Benjamin Akkad.
On June 15, Maguire purchased a $11 million note from Cathay Bank, guaranteed by 255 Butler Group.
The swap comes two months after Cathay Pacific, the Akkad family’s original lender, filed a pre-foreclosure lawsuit. $8 million Weeks later, the family defaulted on the loan in a dramatic lawsuit that eventually awarded Boymelgreen $36 million in March.
Azraq declined to comment on the acquisition.
The Akkad family bought the property in 2013 with an $11 million mortgage from Cathay Bank. Shortly after, Sam Boymelgreen stepped in, signing a 49-year lease with initial plans to convert the empty warehouse into a hotel.
Instead, after investing approximately $8 million in the property, a new opportunity arose. Co-working giant WeWork has offered to sublease the property from Boymelgreen in a 15-year deal, turning the 100-year-old space into a co-working space.
But the Akkad family didn’t like that. After hearing about the arrangement, the family allegedly began working to keep Boymelgreen out of the arrangement, hoping to benefit directly from the WeWork lease, according to a legal complaint.
In July 2015, the Akkad family served Boymelgreen with a notice of default, claiming his company failed to pay taxes on the property and that the proposed multi-unit commercial property did not meet the requirements of the original lease.
Those notices terrified WeWork and prevented Boymelgreen from operating the property, costing his company tens of millions of dollars, the suit says.
