A Manhattan real estate executive is facing foreclosure on a bayfront cottage on one of Southampton’s most sought-after streets following a yearslong, multimillion-dollar divorce.
Michael Fuchs, co-founder and principal at Park Avenue real estate investment firm RFR, could lose the Meadow Lane property after City National Bank filed a foreclosure lawsuit against Fuchs and 797 Meadow Lane LLC on Oct. 7 in Suffolk County Supreme Court, according to a court filing.
The LLC is listed as owner in property records, with Fuchs named as the borrower on mortgage documents, according to court records.
Fuchs, 65, born in Germany and a U.S. citizen, listed the 700-square-foot cottage on 1.2 acres on Shinnecock Bay for sale in September at $8.45 million, according to an online listing.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Michael Fuchs, co-founder of Manhattan real estate firm RFR, faces foreclosure on a cottage on Southampton’s Meadow Lane, which is home to some of the world’s most expensive real estate.
- A British High Court judge had recently ordered Fuchs to sell the cottage to enforce part of a multimillion-dollar divorce judgment and a listing shows an asking price of nearly $8.5 million.
- Fuchs, whose company lost control of the Chrysler Building last year, has sold off properties around the world from Manhattan to the French Riviera following a $44 million divorce judgment in London in 2022.
Earlier this year, he aimed to sell the Southampton cottage combined with a neighboring 4,700-square-foot estate house on two 2 bayfront acres. The estate, which juts into Shinnecock Bay facing the Shinnecock Indian Nation, was listed for $44 million in March. But only the larger 2-acre property sold in a $26 million July sale to the nondescript 809 ML LLC, property records show.
Fuchs has been forced to sell properties in some of the world’s most expensive real estate markets from the Hamptons to the French Riviera as part of his split from Alvina Collardeau, who filed for divorce in 2020 ending the couple’s eight-year marriage.
In 2022, a British High Court judge in London granted Collardeau a divorce judgment valued at 37 million British pounds, about $44 million at the time, in cash and other assets. More recently, lenders have pursued Fuchs in New York courts over missed mortgage and other debt payments, court records show.
In September, another British High Court judge handed down a ruling ordering Fuchs to sell the Meadow Lane cottage after Collardeau, 50, had sought the court’s help enforcing the divorce judgment, alleging Fuchs had failed to make millions in required payments, according to court records.
Separately, Fuchs’ company RFR lost control of the Chrysler Building last year, when Cooper Union terminated the company’s ground lease after it owed $21 million in unpaid rent.
If the Los Angeles-based City National Bank prevails in court, it could sell or auction off the Meadow Lane cottage. The lender provided a $4 million adjustable-rate mortgage to Fuchs in 2014, and he owed nearly $3.7 million as of Oct. 7, City National Bank said in its foreclosure filing. However, Fuchs could sell the property before a judge rules on the foreclosure.
While foreclosure auctions for Southampton estates don’t happen often they do pop up, including following divorces, said Judi Desiderio, senior vice president at real estate brokerage William Raveis in East Hampton.
“You will see this from time to time. It’s a one-off,” she said. “It doesn’t mean prices or values are going down.”
The median home sale price in Southampton Village was $3.2 million in the second quarter, according to a William Raveis report, but Meadow Lane homes on the ocean can sell for far more. Fuchs’ cottage on the bay is less than a half-mile from Mylestone, an 8-acre oceanfront estate that sold for $112.5 million in 2023.
Newsday could not reach Fuchs for comment, and no attorney representing him had responded to the foreclosure lawsuit as of Wednesday. Attorneys representing Fuchs and Collardeau in a separate case tied to the Southampton property in New York County Supreme Court did not respond to a request for comment.
City National Bank and its attorney in the foreclosure action also did not respond to a request for comment.
Property records show Fuchs purchased the Southampton cottage in 2014 from fashion photographer Arthur Elgort and opera director Grethe Barrett Holby, the parents of “Baby Driver” actor Ansel Elgort.
Global real estate sell-off
Before the divorce, the couple owned homes around the world, including the Hamptons estate, two Manhattan apartments, four Paris apartments, a Miami penthouse, and homes in Cap d’Antibes on the French Riviera, Capri and London, according to British court records.
British judges have ordered many of those properties sold, records show, as part of the divorce proceeding.
In April, CitiMortgage filed a foreclosure lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Manhattan against the couple to take back their West Village condo, which they had purchased from late-night host Seth Meyers, after the family failed to pay its nearly $3.3 million mortgage, according to the lender’s lawsuit.
HSBC also sued Fuchs in July in state Supreme Court in Manhattan over a debt of 14.7 million British pounds, or roughly $20 million. The Real Deal previously reported on the West Village condo foreclosure and HSBC lawsuit.
Fuchs founded RFR Realty with Aby Rosen, his childhood friend from Frankfurt, Germany, in 1991, according to the company’s website. The pair built the firm by acquiring development sites and later iconic office buildings in Midtown, including the Seagram Building on Park Avenue. The company says it owns more than 100 office, residential, hotel and retail buildings in its portfolio including properties in Denver, Miami, San Francisco and Seattle.
Newsday’s Caroline Curtin contributed to this story.
Jonathan LaMantia covers residential real estate and other business news on Long Island. He previously covered the business of health care for Crain’s New York Business.
