And the winner is…
A high-stakes foreclosure dispute over Jeff Sutton’s Herald Square retail property at 29 West 34th Street has come to an end. The court-appointed receiver, Ian Lagowitz, will be discharged, and control of the property will be immediately returned to Jeff Sutton’s 29 West 34 Owner LLC, according to legal filings.
On Aug. 5, attorneys representing key parties — 29 West 34 Owner LLC, the new lender and the court-appointed receiver — signed a stipulation to settle the case. The parties are currently waiting for Judge Francis Kahn III to officially sign the order, which will formally dismiss the lawsuit without prejudice and close the case.
Helaba’s departure was a key signal that a settlement was coming.
The resolution comes shortly after Helaba, the German bank that originated the $50 million mortgage in 2018, exited the litigation. Court records show Helaba assigned the mortgage package on July 17 to 29 W. 34th Street Holdings LLC, which immediately reassigned the debt to 29 W. 34th Street Lender LLC. Financial documents show SL Green’s Chief Legal Officer, Andrew S. Levine, is acting as executive vice president of the Holdings entity.
After issuing formal notices of default over unpaid real estate taxes in early 2025, Helaba filed a foreclosure action that September. Sutton, who allegedly signed a limited guarantee on the loan, was named as a defendant, and the court appointed Lagowitz as receiver.
Because the settlement officially ends the receiver’s job managing the property, his separate lawsuit against the owner — filed in January, seeking to recoup $12.2 million in unpaid real estate taxes from Sutton personally — is expected to be dropped.
Sutton, New York’s “King of Retail” worth an estimated $2.7 billion, according to Forbes, originally acquired the property in a joint venture with SL Green in 2006 and bought out the partner’s stake a few years later.
Sutton and the attorneys involved did not return requests for comment by press time.
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