Design center landlord Charles Cohen’s legal battle with lender Fortress Investment Group has been dragging on for years, but a new deadline may soon bring an end to the saga. This week, a New York State Supreme Court judge gave the real estate mogul 45 days to settle his nearly $190 million debt—after that, Fortress will be given the go-ahead to begin selling Cohen’s properties.
The dispute originated in 2022, when Cohen borrowed $533 million from Fortress and put up several properties as collateral, along with a $187 million personal guarantee. After Cohen’s company began missing payments, Fortress took legal action, forcing an auction that led to its $76 million acquisition of the Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach, Florida, and several other properties in the landlord’s portfolio.
However, that only settled a fraction of the total balance. For the past year, the lender has also been seeking to recoup its outstanding debt by requesting that the court allow it to sell off Cohen’s assets.
Earlier this year, Cohen asked the court for more time to gather the funds on his own. At the time, he had already sold off his New York properties at 623 Fifth Avenue and 3 East 54th Street to help reduce the debt load, and he claimed to be in talks to sell a million-square-foot tower in Midtown Manhattan and an office building in White Plains. Still, even with the proceeds from the two completed sales, Cohen would remain at least $135 million in debt. (The latest filing still lists him as owing the full $187 million.) Now it seems the court has given his efforts a firm end date.
In addition to implementing the 45-day deadline, the March 9 court filing granted Fortress’s motion to appoint a receiver (the lender’s head of U.S. real estate asset management, David Moson) to oversee the sale of any of Cohen’s properties—a list that includes the Decoration & Design Building in New York and the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles—to recover any outstanding debt once the timeline has elapsed. The filing also instructed Cohen to submit operating and financial information on his assets, and to provide the court with status reports on potential property sales.
In the meantime, it appears to be business as usual for Cohen’s design centers. Just days ago, the D&D Building announced the debut of a new 14th-floor restaurant and café in late spring, and invitations are circulating for a Cohen-hosted cocktail party at the end of the month to celebrate the PDC’s 50th anniversary.
A representative from Cohen Brothers Realty did not respond to a request for comment.
