Looking for a way to capitalize on the surge of investment near the West Village? Five Star Funding Corp. Mortgage may just want a phone call from you! West Village Renaissance Group has discovered that David Knoll is facing foreclosure on two of his downtown properties. Both are within future shadows of Bashar Issa,Aeos Buffalo City Tower: The Corn Exchange Building at 100 S. Elmwood Avenue and the Lake Hotel at 201 West Huron (photo above). Each has been underutilized or vacant for years.
According to public records, Five Star Funding Corp has begun foreclosure proceedings on a total of five of Knoll’s properties by filing a Lis Pendens in the amount of $1,345, 000 on September 11, 2006. The lien also includes properties at 1655, 2090, and 2110 Genesee Street.
Knoll had grand plans for the Corn Exchange Building which is directly across the street from the Buffalo City Tower site. Knoll,Aeos South Elmwood Realty Co. Inc. has owned the 38,700 sq.ft. office building since 2001. In late-November 2004, he teamed up with Savarino Construction Services to announce a plan to transform the building into a 200 room full-service Ramada Plaza hotel. An addition of four to six floors was planned for the four-story building. The project died quietly.
The circa-1880,Aeos Lake Hotel has been a source of grief for West Village residents for over a decade. The four-story brick apartment building has been vacant since 1995 when police shut-down a brothel that had been operating there. Knoll’s China America Group Inc. purchased the building in 2005 from the City of Buffalo after successfully bidding on the site at a 2003 property auction. His desire to convert the building into offices, a restaurant and guest house went nowhere.
Lis Pendens is a pending foreclosure – 99.9% of the time the bank takes possession. According to NYForeclosures.com, when a property is in the Lis Pendens stage, it is an opportunity to approach motivated property owners or the mortgage holder’s attorney (Frank M. Cassara, Esq: 585-247-9000) before the property reaches the auction block. Often this can be accomplished by taking over an existing mortgage or paying the tax delinquency.
The second step in the foreclosure process is the foreclosure auction itself, a process that sometimes takes twelve to eighteen months. Let,Aeos hope it doesn,Aeot take that long to get these buildings into capable hands. Besides the new Issa tower, the buildings are near the Niagara Center office building on S. Elmwood, the planned Federal Courthouse, Statler Towers, New Era HQs, Hampton Inn, Chippewa Street, HealthNow HQs, the planned Dulski renovation, Shoreline Apts. rehab effort, and the Greystone Hotel renovation project. You can,Aeot get much closer to the action than this!