Developer Gary Melius has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a bid to save Oheka Castle from being sold.
According to the bankruptcy filing, the property owes $63.5 million to creditors and has just $57.27 in a checking account, Newsday reported. Its assets total $92.8 million, including the property itself, machinery, equipment and vehicles.
Filing for Chapter 11 will allow the politically connected Long Island developer some breathing room, providing a temporary stay on foreclosure proceedings that have plagued the property for almost a decade.
“I had a foreclosure; I was going to lose the place on Aug. 7. I’ve been in foreclosure for 10 years, but the judge gave them permission to sell it, so I could no longer keep them at bay,” Melius told Newsday, speaking about banks and lenders. The property was set to be sold at auction on Thursday.
The 109,000-square-foot chateau acts as a hotel, restaurant and wedding venue. Melius hopes to bring in more cash with plans to build a 95-unit, four-story condominium on castle grounds. His lawyer told Newsday that these concurrent ventures will allow him to pay back lenders.
The condominiums were the source of a 2023 lawsuit brought by the Cold Spring Country Club, which alleged the town board “abused its authority” after approving a permit Melius needed due to the chateau’s location within Huntington’s historic building overlay district.
The castle was built in 1921 for banker Otto Kahn and is the second-largest private residence ever constructed in the United States, according to the castle’s website. Melius originally bought the property in 1984 and resides there himself.
In 1941, the castle was used as the set for Xanadu in the movie “Citizen Kane,” appeared in the HBO show “Succession” and was the site of the music video for Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space.” It’s also been the venue for several celebrity weddings, including musician Kevin Jonas and disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner.
Melius was shot in an apparent assassination attempt outside the castle in 2014. The case remains unsolved.
— Quinn Waller
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