Pinnacle Group Puts 5K Units With $574M in Debt in Bankruptcy

Pinnacle Group has placed roughly 5,000 residential units it owns across New York City in bankruptcy after facing approximately $574.4 million in debt, according to a Wednesday filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Pinnacle CEO Joel Wiener filed bankruptcy petitions for 82 entities controlling a total of 91 properties throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, the filing shows. The petitions claim the assets and liabilities for the portfolio are each between $500 million and $1 billion.

Wiener also filed a motion to consolidate the petitions under one entity — Broadway Realty I Co. — which owns the 73-unit multifamily building at 4530 Broadway in Washington Heights, according to the court documents.

The news comes after Flagstar Bank filed four separate pre-foreclosure actions against more than half of Pinnacle’s residential portfolio — including the units that went into bankruptcy — over a group of loans totaling more than $600 million, as Commercial Observer reported in March.

In total, Flagstar filed summonses against nearly 5,200 units in Pinnacle’s Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx portfolio, meaning Wiener did not file bankruptcy petitions for all of those properties.

A spokesperson for Flagstar did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while a spokesperson for Pinnacle could not be reached for comment.

Pinnacle is one of the largest multifamily owners in New York City, with approximately 136 properties totaling 7.5 million square feet and 8,700 residential units, according to PincusCo, which first reported the news.

Before its March filing against Pinnacle, Flagstar’s largest pre-foreclosure action was a $100 million filing against Extell Development over its retail condos at the base of the Upper West Side’s Belnord building, CO reported.

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