Long Island company wins bid for Oheka Castle in foreclosure auction

Two partners in a newly formed Long Island firm won the bid at Tuesday’s Oheka Castle foreclosure auction.

Ronald Browning and Paul Alflen are pending buyers of the historic Huntington property after an offer of $71.8 million, according to real estate industry sources.

Alflen, a Merrick resident, confirmed that the two partners from Carle Place-based Gold Coast Property & Estate Management submitted the winning bid at the foreclosure auction hosted by Concierge Auctions, in cooperation with The Modlin Group, a boutique real estate agency.

Asked about the buyers’ plans for the 22-acre Oheka property, Alflen told LIBN their plans are preliminary, although they include preserving the castle.

“We are going to leave the castle as it is and ensure that it retains its historic presence,” he said. “We’re excited about what’s next.”

Browning, principal of Rye Brook, New York-based Carben Construction, could not be reached for comment. Successful bidders will have to offer around 16 percent of the sale price next week, according to sources.

The Oheka property is being sold by Manhattan-based Taconic Capital Advisors, which purchased Oheka’s debt in June 2023 for approximately $28 million, according to sources. That debt has since ballooned to about $61 million, including interest and penalties, which Taconic used as an opening bid for the property.

It’s been a long road for the historic property to change hands. The first foreclosure action was initiated in June 2016 by lender U.S. Bank National Association, after Oheka owner Gary Melius defaulted on a $28 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan for the 22-acre Huntington property. The original complaint accused the borrower of stopping paying the debt in the fall of 2015 and not making any payments since, according to documents later filed with the court.

As the foreclosure case dragged on, the frustrated lender and its special loan servicing company put the debt on the market. A previous auction in October 2022, where Oheka’s debt had a minimum bid of $9 million, found no takers, but the May 2023 auction allowed Taconic Capital to take ownership of the debt, assuming the position of Oheka’s former lender in a foreclosure proceeding that was reheated, after a February 2023 summary judgment in favor of the lender by Court Judge Elizabeth H. Emerson supreme of Suffolk County.

An auction for Oheka was scheduled for August 2025, but a Melius entity filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a last-ditch effort to stop the sale. Melius told LIBN he would block any takeover of Oheka for as long as possible. “I held them off for seven years… Melius said in 2023. “Then my next step is to go through Chapter 11, and it will take them another three or four years to get it, if they ever get it.”

But the bankruptcy court ultimately ruled that Taconic could proceed with another foreclosure auction.

The Oheka property comes with approval from Huntington Town for a 95-unit condominium project on a 5-acre portion of the site, which had once been paired with 13.3 acres of the adjacent Cold Spring Country Club for a larger development project that fizzled amid disputes between Melius and some subsequent project partners.

Taconic ended up purchasing the 13.3-acre country club parcel from Manhattan development company FBE Limited for $14 million in December 2025, which was not offered at auction. It is unclear whether this parcel will be offered to Oheka’s new owners and Alflen declined to comment on this.

Originally built for financier Otto Kahn in 1921, the 126-room Oheka is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Cold Spring Golf Course and surrounding property, which was used to develop approximately 300 single-family homes, as well as the Otto Keil Nursery behind the country club were all part of Kahn’s original estate.

Once used as a retirement home for the city’s municipal employees and later as the headquarters of the Eastern Military Academy, the castle was abandoned and collapsed when Melius took ownership in 1984. Over the years, Melius claimed to have spent $46 million on renovations and improvements to the Oheka property.