A court held an evidentiary hearing to ascertain the fair market value (FMV) of a 101,000 sq. ft. multi-tenant office and retail building (building) located in Poughkeepsie, New York.

The building was owned by a trust created by the plaintiff. Pursuant to the terms of the trust, plaintiff exercised his right to substitute for the building “other and equivalent collateral to the trust in order to” reacquire “exclusive title” to the building. There was an existing $2,904,127 mortgage on the building. The trustee defendants and the plaintiff agreed that the three buildings that the plaintiff was “prepared to contribute to the trust, have a [FMV] value of $2,035,000,” but the parties disagreed as “to the [FMV] of the [building].” Thus, the court held a hearing to determine whether there was any shortfall between the FMV of the building and the three properties that plaintiff sought to contribute to the trust.