Is oft-postponed Atlantic Yards foreclosure auction really on for Jan. 27? The pattern has been delay.

Maybe it's nothing. 

After all, the announced foreclosure auction of developer Greenland USA's interest in six towers over the Vanderbilt Yard, once scheduled for Jan. 11, 2024, has been postponed so many times I've stopped tracking it.

But I will point out, for the record, that the auction, with six tower sites as collateral, has recently been rescheduled for Jan. 27, 2025, according to a notice in the Wall Street Journal.

Technically there are two foreclosures: one on a loan (from AYB Funding 100) which has the sites B5-B8 as collateral, and the other (from AYB Funding 200) which has the sites B9-B10 as collateral.

Both funds are creations of the U.S. Immigration Fund (USIF), a "regional center" that recruits immigrant investors under the federal EB-5 program. (About $286 million has remained unpaid, from $349 million borrowed.)

The USIF, as manager, controls the funds, though it didn't put the money up, and has reportedly organized a joint venture, involving Fortress Investment Group, a private equity fund, and the developer Related Companies, to take over the project.

It's unclear how and when Fortress made its investment, nor is it clear how much and whether the EB-5 investors, who each put up $500,000 plus fees (and foregoing interest) will be repaid.

Renegotiation at issue

What's certain, however, is that Related would not enter the project without renegotiating deadlines and obligations, including the May 2025 (soon!) deadline to deliver 876 more units of affordable housing.

We're still waiting for information on that. 

Surely only that renegotiation--with Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project--would trigger the formal transaction. Also involved: the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA.

Already behind schedule

Note that the Wall Street Journal last August reported Related Closes In on Deal to Rescue Notoriously Stalled Massive Housing Project. From the article:

About $300 million in debt on the site is held by the U.S. Immigration Fund [USIF] and by Fortress, a big investment firm. The two debtholders are planning to foreclose on the property to take ownership in the fall, according to Nick Mastroianni, the U.S. Immigration Fund’s president.

That didn't happen by fall, for reasons not publicly explained, but surely involving renegotiations.