Bankruptcy Battle Breaks Out Over Greenwich Village Dev Site
UPDATED April 27, 10:50 p.m.: George Filopoulos gave up on a Greenwich Village building, but the troubled loans left behind have triggered a bizarre legal fight over the property, which is now being offered for sale as a condominium development site.
The drama began when the longtime real estate investor’s LLC was notified in August 2020 that it had defaulted its $9.3 million first mortgage at 307-309 Sixth Avenue.
The LLC — in which Filopoulos says he owned a 10 percent interest in separate from his firm, Metrovest Equities — failed to repay the loan at its maturity date and lender Castellan Capital filed to foreclose.
The case laid quiet during the pandemic and in December of 2021 Castellan sold its loan, according to property records. Filopoulos then transferred its interest in the property in May 2022, according to an attorney for his firm. A court filing does not say who took control of the ownership LLC. Paperwork for the entity was signed by a person named William Schneider, who in November filed project plans for a seven-story, 39-unit building with ground-floor retail and community space.
The judge in the foreclosure case ruled in June that the LLC’s debt had grown to about $15 million, and a foreclosure sale was scheduled for Dec. 14.
But on the eve of the auction, another stakeholder went to bankruptcy court to prevent it from going through.
William Rainero, whose family sold Filopoulos’ LLC the property in 2017, said in court papers that he had provided the buyer a $5 million mortgage to close the $17 million deal. That loan is in the second position behind the one originated by Castellan.
Rainero argued in court papers that the new owner was conspiring to wipe him out by agreeing to hand the property back to