The show is not over yet for this cabaret owner.
Financially struggling co-owner Robert Gans filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday to prevent his portfolio of at least 11 properties from falling into the hands of lenders.
Gans’ holdings include the adult entertainment establishments of Manhattan Executive Club, Hell’s Kitchen, and Chelsea’s Scores New York, which inspired the 2019 film ‘Hustlers’ – as well as a large 11th Avenue property currently used as a lumberyard, a retail building in Soho and two addresses in Queens, Crain reported.
By filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the indebted homeowner temporarily halted multiple lenders’ lawsuits against him over defaulted mortgages, including a $130 million loan. Mack Real Estate Group says Gans missed more than $6 million in payments on the loan and held it in default in October, according to court documents.
More recently, Extell Development and Eli Tabak’s Bluestone Group – among other lenders – took legal action against Gans in June after Gans himself sued them for a ‘radical and predatory scheme’ to steal his wallet. $200 million real estate. Gans also alleged that lenders – who bought mortgage debt on several of his properties in April – had blocked him from repaying and refinancing his debts, according to Crain’s.
The companies, which are “controlled by members of the Tabak real estate family,” had “conspired with each other” to sell his portfolio, Gans said in the lawsuit, seeking $100 million in damages, reported the Real Deal.
This is far from Gans’ first headline-worthy legal misfortune. The gentlemen’s club czar has previously been prosecuted over allegations including letting an escort service out of a Midtown building and violating federal and state labor laws. In turn, he also once sued Deutsche Bank.
The German financial services giant “pulled the rug out from under it at the last minute” and forfeited a $17 million loan after learning it owned two of Manhattan’s biggest strippers, a Gans claimed at the time.
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