Nightingale buys Whale Square in Sunset Park for $84M

Madison Realty Capital was reportedly in talks to hand the office building over to its lender

Nightingale's Elie Schwartz and Madison's Brian Shatz (Whale Square, Linkedin)
Nightingale's Elie Schwartz and Madison's Brian Shatz (Whale Square, Linkedin)

UPDATED, Oct. 20, 2020, 6:01 p.m.: Madison Realty Capital has brought in a new partner on its industrial-to-office conversion in Sunset Park.

Nightingale Properties paid $84 million for the Whale Square office building, property records show. The sale takes out Madison’s undisclosed partner on the property, and Madison has joined Nightingale as a 25-percent equity partner on the building, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.

Read more

Madison bought the 500,000-square-foot property at 14 53rd Street for $82.5 million in 2015, when investors were looking to convert Brooklyn industrial properties. Under its ownership, the former torpedo factory was repositioned to include a fully renovated lobby, new elevators and windows, according to LoopNet.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Nightingale has also assumed the $90 million loan that Madison took out from TPG Capital’s mortgage arm in 2018, according to property records. Madison was considering handing the building over to the lender instead of paying the debt back and meeting obligations to another investor, the Wall Street Journal reported in May.

Representatives for Nightingale and Madison were not immediately available for comment Monday.

In 2016, Urban Soccer signed a lease for 63,000 square feet at the property as its first indoor facility in the United States.

UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect that Madison is retaining an equity stake in Whale Square.