Nightingale Dodges Foreclosure on SoHo Office Building

The beleaguered Nightingale Properties has averted foreclosure at its SoHo office building.

Elie Schwartz’s firm had fallen behind on its loan for the boutique office space at 300 Lafayette Street. Lender TPG Real Estate Finance argued in filings that it was owed about $129 million, putting Nightingale at risk of losing the 86,500-square-foot building.

But Lafayette Portfolio Funding, an entity of InterVest, stepped in to halt a foreclosure by purchasing a $143 million note. PincusCo first reported the move.

In 2019, InterVest, then known as Wafra Capital Partners, teamed up with Nightingale to buy the leasehold that controls the property, according to PincusCo and a New York Post story. So the debt purchase this month by InterVest may be a move to save its co-owned asset.

The property contains seven floors including 63,000 square feet of office space and 18,000 square feet of vacant retail.

The owner offered the property for sale last year, looking for bids of about $200 million — or $2,444 per square foot of leasable space.

Related Companies and LargaVista developed the site, which was previously home to a BP gas station, and sold the completed project for about $125 million.

Microsoft occupies most of the building, having inked a lease in 2019 for more than 60,000 square feet soon after construction concluded. The deal runs until late 2034, with an estimated office rent of $102 to $125 per square foot, according to CoStar.

Nightingale and InterVest did not immediately return a request for comment.

Manhattan-based Nightingale has been at the center of a storm this summer, accused of misappropriating money sent by small-time investors through a crowdfunding platform. Nightingale appears at risk of losing control of at least six properties that cost it more than $1 billion.

In addition to the SoHo office building, the firm is facing foreclosure on the Whale Building in Brooklyn, which it bought for $84 million in 2020. The next year, the company’s lender at 645 Madison Avenue seized the leasehold Nightingale bought for $76 million in 2015.