Hungerford gets six weeks to stop auction on troubled Rochester building

Hungerford gets six weeks to stop auction on troubled Rochester building

Wed, September 16, 2026 at 10:52 PM GMT+3 2 min read

Peter Hungerford has six weeks to save a Rochester investment that shares his name.

An auction for Rochester's "Hungerford Building" — named for a distant relative of the Staten Island real estate investor — has been scheduled for Oct. 29. The lender filed a foreclosure case in September 2025 and has moved to take the building.

Hungerford says the sale won't happen. He said he's working on securing a construction loan to pay off the debt on the building.

Hungerford first made headlines for his bullish take on rent-stabilized properties in New York City and his involvement with the Haruvi real estate family.

A Hungerford affiliate took out an $8.25 million loan on the building in 2022 from a lender associated with Sheridan Capital. The plan was to add 200 apartments to the four-story former industrial building.

Hungerford said the scope of construction ballooned as investors discovered issues with the building and its structural integrity. Combine that with less favorable debt markets, and the building's investors struggled to source a construction loan.

"The construction needs of the building increased by about tenfold," Hungerford said. "But we're very close to having a construction loan for the property."

He said they expect to announce a $45 million to $50 million construction loan in the next 30 to 60 days. A referee has set the borrower's debt at more than $10 million. The lender declined to comment.

The building has garnered headlines in Rochester. Artists who used the space for studios before the sale to Hungerford have complained to the local press that the building has fallen into disrepair.

WXXI News, a local Rochester NPR affiliate, reported in January 2025 that the building was dotted with homeless encampments, alongside "piles of rotting food, toiletries and grime," as well as "the stench of mold."

"The local artists really hate us because they think we ruined their building," Hungerford said. "They don't appreciate their building was falling apart before we showed up, and that was not our fault. It was like a fire disaster waiting to happen."

In New York City, Hungerford estimates he has invested more than $500 million to acquire 4,500 units in rent-stabilized buildings — an aggressive move when many fair-weather investors are leaving the market as state policy has made it difficult to increase rents.

"We don't do easy stuff. If it were easy, everybody would do it," Hungerford said. "The last chapter is far from written."

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This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story.