One of Soho’s priciest retail spaces sells at UCC foreclosure auction

One of Soho’s priciest retail properties, which SL Green Realty owned then lost, traded hands at a UCC foreclosure auction.

The roughly 6,000-square-foot retail space at 106 Spring Street, which has been vacant for years, sold to a Texas private equity firm earlier this month, Commercial Observer reported. The sale price was not disclosed.

The buyer, Paceline Equity Partners, called it a “unique asset” that could benefit from the post-pandemic economic recovery. CEO Sam Loughlin said the company has a “patient view of the recovery timeline for the Soho retail property market,” according to the publication.

SL Green bought the space in 2019 for $79.5 million from the Carlyle Group and 60 Guilders. The purchase price was a 25 percent discount from the $105 million those investors paid in 2016. SL Green had acquired a nearby retail space, 133 Greene Street, from the same sellers in 2018.

Citizens Bank was the lender on SL Green’s interest in both properties, and foreclosed on that interest, as well as the one at 133 Greene, late last year. The foreclosure triggered the UCC auction, which was originally set to happen in December.

Mezz lenders — which provide junior debt on real estate projects — are increasingly initiating UCC foreclosures on some major developments in need of “rescue funding.”

It was unclear how big Citizens’ mezzanine position was, but according to SL Green’s second-quarter financials, 106 Spring and 133 Greene streets carried a combined $53.5 million in senior and mezzanine debt as of late June.

[CO] — Amy Plitt