Swig unloads 140 William at 53 percent loss

Kent Swig and 140 William Street (building photo source: PropertyShark)

Real estate developer Kent Swig has sold the empty, 36,000-square-foot
office property at 140 William Street for $11.35 million, or roughly
$315 per square foot, according to public records filed today with the
city. The price is less than half of what he paid for it at the height
of the real estate boom.

The seven-story Financial District property on the corner of Fulton Street, which has been rumored for months to be nearing a deal,
was asking $14.2 million, or $394 per square foot. Swig Equities, of
which Swig is president, paid $23.9 million, or $664 per square foot,
to acquire it in 2007. According to Swig’s website, the building
contains 48,000 rentable square feet, but price per square foot is
generally calculated by gross square footage, which is listed in public
records.

The buyer is Chris Soukas, a New York City-based furrier and investor
who also took out a $6 million mortgage on the property. A call to the
Midtown office of Soukas Furs, which was listed as his address on the
deed, was not returned.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Listing broker Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, told Crain’s in February
that some prospective buyers were considering turning the building into
a residential space. This evening, Knakal declined to comment to The Real Deal other than to confirm that Massey Knakal was the exclusive listing broker on the deal.

Swig, who is meanwhile facing foreclosure on another downtown building
at 80 Broad Street in addition to a slew of lawsuits over failed
boom-time projects, was not immediately available for comment.