A new front in Charles Cohen’s ongoing legal battles: Houston. Last month, one of the billionaire landlord’s lenders filed to foreclose on the Decorative Center Houston and sell it at auction. The notice, first reported by The Real Deal, claimed that Cohen had defaulted on a $50 million loan taken out in 2014, and that his Texas design center was collateral. The original lender, a company called Ladder Capital Finance, had transferred its note to Wells Fargo, which was coming to collect.
The sale was set for Tuesday, June 3. According to a report from Foreclosure Information & Listing Service Inc.—a site that monitors local Houston foreclosure auctions—the DCH did not make it to the block that day, suggesting that Cohen and his lenders were able to work out some kind of a deal. However, both the status of the loan and the long-term fate of the building remain murky. A representative for Cohen Brothers Realty did not respond to a request for comment.
Cohen originally purchased the Decorative Center Houston in 2001 for a reported $42 million, adding the building to a growing portfolio of design centers, which included the Decoration & Design Building in New York and the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles. (He would go on to buy Southeast Florida’s Design Center of the Americas in 2005.) In a recent county appraisal, the DCH lost more than 10 percent of its value this year, going from an estimated $64.9 million valuation in 2024 to $57.4 million.
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This foreclosure drama in Houston comes hot on the heels of a string of troubles for Cohen. Last year, an ongoing legal spat with lender Fortress Investment Group over nonpayment on a $534 million loan led to a foreclosure auction that saw him lose the DCOTA. A judge also ruled that Fortress could pursue a $187 million personal guarantee Cohen made on the loan, which means that the company could repossess the billionaire’s direct assets, including homes and yachts.
Cohen has remained relatively quiet during this period. However, in January he granted an interview to Forbes, in which he insisted that his real estate portfolio was turning a corner and expressed defiance in the face of Fortress’s legal onslaught. “I’m not paying that personal guarantee,” Cohen told the publication. “I’ve got defenses, I’ve got an appeal pending in the appellate division. It’s not over by a long shot.”
