Historic FiDi Building Sells for Miniscule $9.4M Sum
Another chapter was written in the sordid tale of a historic Financial District building, lost to a lender and sold for crumbs.
An undisclosed buyer picked up 70 Broad Street for $9.35 million, the Commercial Observer reported. That breaks the deal for the 19,000-square-foot property down to roughly $492 per square foot.
The seller of the landmarked American Bank Note Company Building was Wilmington Trust, the former lender at the property. The trustee for the commercial mortgage backed-securities trust took control of the property last year through a $20 million credit bid.
A Cushman & Wakefield team including Dylan Walsh, Bryan Hurley and Jeremy Stern represented the seller in the deal, while Isa Realty Group’s Louis Franco and Joseph Isa represented the buyer. Wilmington Trust did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Real Deal.
While it’s tempting to use the sale of 70 Broad Street as a barometer of where the office investment market is in New York City, the FiDi building is a singular case.
Two years ago, Winta Asset Management filed for Chapter 11 protection for the property, valuing the five-story building at $16 million. Winta had defaulted on a $15 million note at the beginning of the pandemic and struggled with operational issues and tenants’ departures; the property is vacant today.
A federal judge entered a $24.7 million judgment against the office owner and an auction of the property was scheduled before being put on hold initially due to the bankruptcy.
The building’s name comes from its former tenant, a producer of stock and bond certificates. American Bank Note sold the property in the 1980s after moving out of New York City.
Ownership changed multiple times since then. In 2010, a Chinese investment and construction firm purchased the landmarked building for $18 million. It had been listed for $45 million in September 2009, before being chopped to a final asking price of $25.5 million.
In 2016, the Chinese firm put the building back on the market, seeking $88 million. That proved particularly lofty compared to what it just sold for.
Read more
Historic FiDi BankNote building heads for bankruptcy
American Bank Note Building in FiDi back on market, asking $88M
