A judge has ordered the foreclosure sale of the historic Riverton Houses, a middle-class Harlem apartment complex.
Residents have included jazz pianist Billy Taylor; former Mayor David N. Dinkins; and former Motown Records vice president Suzanne de Passe. Clifford L. Alexander Jr. also lived there; he was secretary of the Army in the Carter administration.
State Supreme Court Justice Richard F. Braun ordered a public auction to satisfy the owner's $240.6 million debt. Several groups have expressed interest.
Riverton was bought in 2005 by a company led by developer Laurence Gluck. It planned to replace rent-stabilized tenants with more profitable market-rate tenants.
Last month, it was announced that two massive middle-class complexes, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, would be turned over to creditors.
