A lender has taken aim at a historic hub of Manhattan’s fur industry.
Bank of America is seeking to foreclose on 214 W. 29th St., a 16-story prewar office building between Seventh and Eighth avenues in Chelsea, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
The bank claims owner David Berley, chairman of the firm Walter & Samuels, has been in default since September on a $74 million loan for the building, about half of which was leased to coworking company WeWork before that firm’s spectacular collapse.
Berley, who staked the fortunes of several of his buildings on WeWork’s continued dominance only to run into major financial problems when the tenant ripped up leases, said he isn’t ready just to hand over the keys but that he’s also been trying to sell the embattled property.
“Quite frankly, no one wants to pay the size of the mortgage,” said Berley, 85, who added that he is trying to wind down a long real estate career. “I am trying to remove myself from this building, from other buildings, because of all of this nonsense. And by nonsense, I mean everything that is going on in real estate and the city.”
Shedding the building, in which Berley invested $16 million in lobby and elevator upgrades reportedly to woo WeWork, would seem to deprive the landlord of a fixture of his portfolio.
Purchased in 1976 for $500,000, the 16-story, 200,000-square-foot midblock building was once home to workers involved in the creation and storage of fur garments, a business that bustled on West 29th Street in the early 20th century, even though No. 214’s last furrier packed up its pelts in 2017.
Still, the façade’s four stone gargoyles, which all appear to be handling animal hides, preserve the legacy.
In September bond-rating firm KBRA reported that the building, which is technically owned by shell company Walsam New 29 LLC, was just 12% leased. On Wednesday data service CoStar put the occupancy rate much higher, at 74%, though that rate would still be considered less than ideal.
In any event, the footprints of the current tenants pale in size to that of WeWork, which once controlled seven floors and about 100,000 square feet. For instance, architecture firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, designer of Midtown’s glass-cube-topped Apple store, leases about 2,800 square feet, according to CoStar, while HCKR Agency, which represents actors, occupies 2,000 square feet. They pay around $30 per square foot annually, CoStar estimates.
The coworking provider, which signed its lease in 2018, began vacating the site in 2021 and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, a move that wiped out many of its office leases.
The specific plaintiffs in the suit, trustee Wilmington Trust and special servicer LNR Partners, which are tasked with recouping the 2019 Bank of America loan on behalf of investors, apparently had no luck working out a repayment plan with Berley.
In November they sent him a letter demanding “immediate payment” of the allegedly soured note, plus interest, late charges and other fees, a likely indication negotiations have gone nowhere.
Walter & Samuels’ 315 W. 36th St., which was once 93% occupied by WeWork, is also battling foreclosure over a defaulted $77 million mortgage. And in March the landlord offloaded 225 W. 39th St., which also once contained WeWork office spaces, for $22.2 million.
David King, the lawyer with Herrick, Feinstein handling the West 29th Street suit for the plaintiffs, did not return a call by press time.
