Opal Holdings rescued a Soho development site out of bankruptcy and agreed to buy a neighboring townhouse. The firm is planning a seven-story, 37,278-square-foot condominium-and-retail development.
Opal is paying $31.6 million for the site at 182-188 Spring Street, according to Madison Realty Capital [TRDataCustom], which provided a $23.3 million acquisition loan. The site happens to include the former home of Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz.
The previous owners of 182-186 Spring — Stéphane Boivin and Stéphane Bibeau’s Nordica Soho and Joel Schreiber’s Waterbridge Capital — first planned to build condos but ended up defaulting on $26 million in loans and filed for bankruptcy in June 2016. The site, which Opal bought in a bankruptcy auction, is partially razed. Meanwhile, Opal also went into contract to buy a four-story townhouse at 188 Spring Street.
The site has a long and tangled history, as The Real Deal reported. Nordica Soho paid Horovitz $5.5 million for his home at 186 Spring and dished out another $10.1 million for 182 Spring. A year later, the lender filed for foreclosure and, in 2013, Waterbridge bought a 49 percent stake. In their June 2016 bankruptcy filing, Nodica and Waterbridge argued the site was worth $38 million.
Opal, a real estate investment firm headed by Shaya and Shulamit Prager, last year picked up an East Village development site at 644-652 East 14th Street for $23 million. Madison backed that deal with a $52 million acquisition and construction loan.
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