Barry Sternlicht’s LNR Takes Control of Midtown Building After Foreclosure Auction

Starwood Property Trust subsidiary LNR Partners has snatched back a Midtown building after the former owners defaulted on its debt to the Barry Sternlicht-led firm.

An LLC sharing the same office address as Starwood’s Miami Beach office filed a new deed in property records showing that ​​29 West 35th Street was back in its possession for $22 million after an August foreclosure auction.

The seller was Shapour Sohayegh, who runs an organization called United Group.

Sohoyegh purchased the 12-story property in 2007 for a total of $30 million, property records indicate, and Sohayegh took out a $41 million loan from Wells Fargo (WFC) in 2019, which is the most recent debt package listed on the building before the keys were handed over to Sternlicht’s organizations.

LNR — the special servicer for the loan — foreclosed against the property in August after Sohoyegh failed to repay the loan before its due date, Crain’s New York Business reported.

Starwood declined to comment on the transaction while Sohayegh could not be reached.

Leasing prospects were good in the building from 1911 before the pandemic rocked the boat in the office market and Knotel had taken a 39,000-square-foot deal in 2019. A year later, however, Knotel had stopped paying rent alongside software firm Sprinklr leading to a lawsuit between the tenants and the landlord.

Sohayegh had also faced foreclosure on the building between Fifth Avenues and Avenue of the Americas in 2010 when it failed to pay the $29.2 million mortgage, The Real Deal reported last year.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.