Creditor Fortress was the one bidder for a handful of properties owned by Charles Cohen at a foreclosures public sale Friday that noticed the lender supply $5 million for U.Okay.’s arthouse theater chain and distributor Curzon.
There have been no bids for Landmark Theatres, an individual acquainted with the state of affairs tells Deadline, and we hear it’ll stick with Charles Cohen and could possibly be enterprise as normal. It doesn’t seem the public sale entertained bids for particular person theaters. Cohen’s group has maintained that the chain isn’t in jeopardy and that it anticipated a optimistic consequence — if zero bids could be thought of optimistic.
The indie distribution group usually isn’t enamored of the best way Landmark’s been run since Cohen acquired it in late 2018, citing lack of funding, a transfer to extensive releases and the shuttering of key theaters together with the Landmark LA, which closed within the spring of 2022 after shedding its lease. To be honest, Covid was a cash sucking catastrophe for cinema house owners together with the nation’s as soon as dominant arthouse chain.
Fortress, it appears, is now on a path to regulate Curzon, the well-regarded exhibitor and distributor throughout the pond. Deadline will replace after we get a way of what’s occurring there.
Fortress lent Cohen $534 million backed by a handful of properties together with Landmark and Curzon and sued him earlier this yr for default. A New York State Supreme Court docket choose agreed to Fortress’ request for an public sale to recoup what it might and set it for Nov 8.
On the occasion Friday, Fortress additionally bid $76 million for the Design Middle of the Americas and $30 million for Le Meridien lodge, each in Dania Seaside, Fla. It bid $37.7 million for the previous Doral Arrowwod golf membership in Westchester, New York, in line with New York actual property publication The Actual Deal. A credit score bid is one made by a lender at a foreclosures utilizing all or half the debt owed because the bid quantity. The lender is usually the best bidder at a foreclosures sale.
Fortress’ credit score bids on the public sale totaled $148.7 million.
In a deposition Fortress made public final month, Cohen was requested in regards to the properties’ underlying its mortgage and didn’t disagree with statements that Landmark confirmed a internet lack of greater than $14 million and Curzon of just below $8.5 million, and that the worth of Landmark specifically had fallen dramatically.
Fortress can also be entitled to a legally binding $187 million private assure by Cohen and has accused the actual property mogul of shifting properties out of his title to evade the order.
