Greenmal Holding Corporation was a financial and real estate business started by Henry Greenberg and David Malzmal in New York City, in the 1920s. The firm is significant because it was a company which dealt in large amounts of capital, and was based in the financial hub of the United States.
In February 1929 Greenmal Holding Corporation announced the acquisition of a $4,050,000 loan to be used to erect a thirty-three story office building[1], located at 114[2] - 120 Wall Street.[1] The cost of construction was estimated at $12,000,000, with the edifice resting upon a fifty-one[3] caisson foundation.[4] Designed by Buchman & Kahn, the building was planned to occupy a plot measuring 23,000 square feet (2,100 m2). The site was at the South Street (Manhattan) block front, between Wall Street and Pine Street.[1] Greenberg and Malzmal purchased the property in 1928 from the American Sugar Company.[5] Space in the building was leased to the Foreign Commerce Corporation, the American Sugar Refining Company, the J.G. White Management Corporation, Case, Pomeroy & Company, Anderson & Fox, the Mortgage Bond Company of New York, the Luckenbach Steamship Company, and Coverdale & Colpitts. Floor areas ranged from 4,300 to more than 20,000 square feet.[6]
Greenberg and Malzmal purchased a four-story office building valued at $125,000 in April 1929. It was in the vicinity of Wall Street.[2]
New York Life Insurance Company bid $1,000,000 to foreclose a $5,569,605 lien against the skyscraper at a June 26, 1933 auction.[5] The insurance firm previously initiated a $5,000,000 suit to foreclose a consolidated mortgage on the property, on November 23, 1932. A first mortgage of $4,050,000 was given in 1929. Liens of $200,000 and $750,000 were made subsequently. The lawsuit was based on nonpayment of $150,000 in interest, on May 1, 1932. Of the amount owed only $46,040 was paid by Greenberg and Malzmal.[7]