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Nate Paul sets back his comeback

Rising Tide opts out of $95M deal, NIA ATX swoops in

Nate Paul with 510 South Congress Avenue (World Class, Getty Images)
Nate Paul with 510 South Congress Avenue (World Class, Getty Images)

Nate Paul’s “comeback” has hit a snag.

Rising Tide Investments LLC — a shell company tied to Nate Paul’s World Class Holdings — has “declined to close its court-approved bid” to purchase a South Congress Avenue property up for auction in connection with the bankruptcy of another World Class affiliate.

Rising Tide had won the bankruptcy auction for the six-acre site with a bid of $95.1 million, but now NIA ATX LLC will pick it up with its bid of $95 million.

Paul did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter, the Austin Business Journal reported.

The South Congress property — home to offices, apartments, and the dive bar Ego’s — is considered prime real estate and ideal for redevelopment.

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In recent months, several shell companies tied to Paul have been buying up the assets of five World Class entities that were sold off during the company’s bankruptcy proceedings. Rising Tide alone has bid more than $221 million for these acquisitions. But the South Congress property is the second World Class asset which Rising Tide has declined to close on.

Last month, Rising Tide informed the Chapter 7 trustee overseeing the liquidation of property at 309 E. Third St. — home to a Fogo de Chão location— that it would not proceed with its $39.3 million bid. The property was previously owned by a World Class entity called WC 3rd and Trinity LP.

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Over the past three years, World Class-connected entities have filed at least two dozen bankruptcy cases — presumably to stave off foreclosure of their properties after loan defaults.

The bids by Rising Tide to buy up those assets at auction show how Paul is reinvesting the proceeds from unloading $588 million of his storage portfolio in the spring of this year. World Class reportedly netted at least $95.5 million from the deal, though $82 million was held in reserve for unresolved claims, so it’s unclear how much Paul ended up with.

— Maddy Sperling

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