Fred Ohebshalom’s Empire Management Faces Foreclosure at 250 Fifth Avenue Hotel

Madison Realty Capital has started foreclosure actions against Fred Ohebshalom’s Empire Management for allegedly failing to pay its $81.5 million loan secured by the hotel at 250 Fifth Avenue, court records show.

The lender, which took over the loans from Santander Bank earlier this year, filed the case in New York State Supreme Court on Thursday, and argued that Empire has failed to make monthly payments on several loans tied to the property and went into default in March, according to the records.

PincusCo first reported news of the foreclosure notice. Spokespeople for Madison and Santander did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The property last sold for $15 million in June 2013, PincusCo reported.

Empire closed the loan agreement, valued at a total of $81.5 million, with Santander through Cosmic Realty Partners in August 2019 to convert the historic NoMad building on the corner of West 28th Street into a hotel.

Soon after, Empire completed a 23-story, 90,000-square-foot hotel — The Fifth Avenue Hotel — with about 155 rooms, according to its website. Madison bought the loans from Santander in March, according to PincusCo.

“The Fifth Avenue Hotel continues to operate at the highest level, attracting and delighting travelers from across the globe,” a spokesperson for Empire said in a statement to Commercial Observer. “Ownership is committed to its long-term vision for The Fifth Avenue Hotel as it works through its refinancing process.”

Empire, which has a portfolio of more than 2,000 multifamily apartments and over 1 million square feet of commercial space, currently has $310.7 million in debt with lenders Barclays, Santander and New York Community Bank, according to PincusCo.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.