FiDi lot sells for $19.6 million at auction

A vacant lot on 133-135 Greenwich Street in the Financial District sold for $19.6 million in a bankruptcy auction this morning, Crain’s reported. Greenwich Thames Realty purchased the lot at 35 percent above the starting bid of $14.5 million. The site, which could hold a 156,000-square-foot, mixed-use development, generated some attention when the Wall Street Journal reported that Sam Zell’s Equity Residential was eyeing the property. It was not immediately clear who is behind Greenwich Thames Realty. There were two competing bidders at the auction which lasted a few hours, according to Kevin Nash of the law firm Goldberg Weprin Finkel Goldstein, who represents the owners of the property, Greenwich Street Developers, a subsidiary of Ofek International Real Estate. Ofek, which purchased the site for $45 million or about $288 per buildable square foot, was forced to file for bankruptcy protection during the recession. U.S. Bancorp provided $39 million in financing for the site and had an option to reject the bids and keep the property. [Crain’s]