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 aware of the state of affairs tells Deadline, and we hear it can stick with Charles Cohen and might be enterprise as traditional. It doesn’t seem the public sale entertained bids for particular person theaters. Cohen’s group has maintained that the chain just isn’t in jeopardy and that it anticipated a constructive end result — if zero bids may be thought-about constructive.
The indie distribution group usually isn’t enamored of the way in which Landmark’s been run since Cohen acquired it in late 2018, citing lack of funding, a transfer to huge 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 manage Curzon, the well-regarded exhibitor and distributor throughout the pond. Deadline will replace once 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 12 months for default. A New York State Supreme Courtroom decide 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 Heart of the Americas and $30 million for Le Meridien resort, each in Dania Seaside, Fla. It bid $37.7 million for the previous Doral Arrowwod golf membership in Westchester, New York, in keeping 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 commonly the very 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 web 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 be entitled to a legally binding $187 million private assure by Cohen and has accused the true property mogul of shifting properties out of his identify to evade the order.
