Citibank files $4.2M pre-foreclosure at one of Bill Cosby’s Lenox Hill townhomes

Lender Citibank through the entity Citimortgage Inc., filed a $4.2 million pre-foreclosure action at retired comedian Bill Cosby’s 5,000-square-foot Lenox Hill townhouse on East 61st Street, in Manhattan. The bank filed the case in New York State Supreme Court on December 2, 2024.

Cosby, by his full name William H. Cosby Jr., and his wife Camille own the building after buying the four-story brownstone in April 1980 for $327,250 through a trust.

Case LINK

Cosby, famous from a decades-long entertainment career, has been accused by dozens of women of sexual assault. He was convicted of sexual assault by a Pennsylvania court in 2018, but that was overturned and he was released in 2021.

Court cases represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.

According to the pre-foreclosure complaint, the Cosbys, “have defaulted under their note of $4,200,000 owing to plaintiff by failing to make the required payments when due. By virtue thereof, plaintiff herein elects to accelerate the entire principal balance of $3,680,077.21 to be immediately due.”

Cosby also owns a larger Lenox Hill home 10 blocks north, on East 71st Street with more than 12,000 square feet. The New York Post reported in 2017 that he was looking to borrow as much as $30 million against the building, but the latest loan secured by the property is for $5.25 million from 2014, which is on top of a $12.25 million loan from 2010. He bought the townhouse in 1987 for $6.2 million, the New York Observer reported in 2005.

The property

The property on East 61st Street with one residential units in Lenox Hill has 5,000 square feet of built space and 3,032 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 8,032 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 20 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 2,008 square feet. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Treadwell Farm Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $8.5 million.

Development

Over the past five years, there has been no NYC Department of Buildings new building, demolition, or alteration permit application valued at more than $20,000 filed for this parcel.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.

The neighborhood

In Lenox Hill, The bulk, or 34 percent of the 53.3 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 30 percent of the space. In sales, Lenox Hill has the highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $4.5 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Lenox Hill has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 8th highest in Manhattan. It had 3.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the nine commercial properties representing 66,962 square feet of the 105,267 square feet. The largest owner is Robert Stone, followed by Solil Management and then Wendy Jaffe. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of the building on East 61 Street, PincusCo identified four commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those four items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $11.4 million. The most recent of the two was Series 2007-I which bought the 2,584-square-foot, two-unit two-family building (B3) on 231 East 62nd Street for $5.9 million from Elizabeth Lowe on January 30, 2024. Of those four items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $60 million. The most recent of the two was Forkosh Development in which borrowed $53 million from Bank of America secured by 30 condo units in the 66,237-square-foot, 1,122-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 305 East 61st Street and one other property on June 6, 2024.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.