A&E Real Estate faces foreclosure on 1,268-unit Queens portfolio

Santander Bank has moved toward foreclosure on a $165 million loan tied to a 1,268 unit, 12 property residential portfolio A&E Real Estate controls in Queens, Crain’s New York Business reported October 27. The portfolio sits in Kew Gardens Hills, anchored by 147-07 72nd Road.

Why it matters

A foreclosure action against the borrower, not a tenant dispute, puts a major rent-stabilized landlord’s hold on thousands of units at risk, which matters to every lender and buyer watching how multifamily debt in New York is pricing against operating costs right now. A&E Real Estate Holdings has already shown up in this market’s distress column once this year. In September, The American Developer reported that a $295 million figure tied to the firm’s 160 Riverside Boulevard loan was mostly an assigned balance plus $9.2 million of new money, not fresh capital, in our earlier coverage of A&E’s Upper West Side refinancing. A Santander foreclosure on a Queens rental book is a different kind of pressure. This is the lender stepping toward control of the collateral, not a refinancing.

The numbers

• $165,000,000: the Santander Bank loan amount tied to the portfolio, per Crain’s.
• 1,268: units across the portfolio, per Crain’s.
• 12: Queens properties in the portfolio, per Crain’s.
• 2: the Public Advocate’s citywide rank for landlord ID 21518, the entity group tied to this address, with 36 buildings, 865 units and 3,889 open HPD violations.
• 74: open HPD violations at 147-07 72nd Road alone. The adjoining 147-08 72 Road carries 176.
• $130,047: average loan balance per unit, computed from $165,000,000 divided by 1,268 units.

That per-unit balance sits well under typical multifamily replacement cost in Queens, which is the arithmetic a lender taking back a rent-stabilized book has to live with. It also means A&E’s leverage on this piece was comparatively light relative to the number of units, which raises the question of what pushed the loan into default rather than the debt load itself.

What’s next

A Santander foreclosure filing does not transfer the portfolio. It starts a court process that can run for months, during which A&E typically retains operating control unless a receiver is appointed. The open HPD violation count on the Kew Gardens Hills buildings means any receiver or eventual new owner inherits an active repair backlog, not a clean asset. For other lenders holding paper against rent-stabilized Queens portfolios, this is a live data point on how a 2026 workout gets priced when the collateral carries both unresolved violations and a watchlist-ranked operator.