Assa Loses 511 Ninth Avenue at Auction, Deed Not Yet Recorded

Capital Insight, the investment banking business tied to the lender on 511 Ninth Avenue, took the former hotel, retail and parking condominium units at a foreclosure auction from Solly Assa’s Assa Properties, Commercial Observer reported Sept. 17, citing court records that put the figure between $68 million and $71.3 million. The two numbers are a judgment amount and a bid, and neither is confirmed in the city record. As of this writing no referee’s deed appears on the lots in ACRIS, so the transfer is reported, not recorded.

Why it matters

The record shows the trade was set up well before the gavel. On April 22, 2025, Wilmington Trust as trustee, care of CWCapital Asset Management, assigned the mortgage to Manhattan Gem Holdings LLC at 12301 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles. On June 30 that entity assigned the same paper to Axos Bank, recorded Aug. 25, 2025. A loan sold out of special servicing and immediately financed by a balance sheet lender is the shape of a loan to own position, and the auction is the last step, not the first. For anyone tracking distressed New York hotel paper, the date that matters is the assignment out of servicing, public and free, months ahead of any auction calendar. See our New York coverage and this week’s Bronx pre-foreclosure filing.

The numbers

The collateral is narrow: block 736, lots 1002, 1004 and 1005, the hotel unit, a commercial unit and the parking unit, severed under a $37,750,000 consolidation agreement dated March 29, 2016 in favor of Natixis Real Estate Capital LLC. The borrower on that instrument, 9th Ave Hotel Property Holding LLC, filed from 410 Park Ave., Suite 1630, the same suite used that day by the Assa side entities on the companion filings. A reported $68 million judgment against $37.75 million of 2016 principal is roughly 1.8 times, the cost of a decade of accrued interest, advances and fees. The residential and community facility units went separately in October 2017 for $80,500,000, the last arm’s length deed on the property. PLUTO lists 144,243 sq ft on a 14,808 sq ft lot, 12 stories, built 2008, zoned C1-7A inside the Special Hudson Yards District, assessed at $26,080,674.

What’s next

Watch lots 1002, 1004 and 1005 for a referee’s deed. The transfer tax on it will settle whether the number is $68 million or $71.3 million, and the grantee name will show which Capital Insight vehicle holds title. Watch too for a satisfaction of the Axos Bank assignment. Vida Steakhouse’s lease status under new ownership is unresolved, and a signed retail lease is the difference between a cash flowing asset and a dark hotel unit.