A historic FiDi office building has been sold to a Miami-based investment firm that has scooped up other troubled properties in the city, records show.
Rialto Capital Advisors, on behalf of the lender Wilmington Trust, acquired the 5-story property at 70 Broad St., known as the American Bank Note Co. Building, for $20 million, according to a deed that appeared in the city register Thursday.
The seller was Winta Asset Management, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last May after struggling to retain tenants following the pandemic.
The building, completed in 1908 and located between Beaver and Marketfield streets, was slated to be sold at public auction last summer with a judgment of $24.7 million after the mortgage holder, Wilmington Trust, filed a foreclosure action against the property, Crain’s previously reported.
The bankruptcy protection filing, however, halted that process, records show. Jonathan Pasternak, a partner at Midtown-based law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, which represented Winta, told Crain’s that the transaction was the result of a court-approved sale.
Rialto, which is the special servicer for Wilmington Trust, ultimately offered the one and only bid of $20 million, according to court documents and Pasternak. It’s unclear what Wilmington or Rialto intends to do with the building. Rialto did not respond to a request for comment by press time, nor did Keith Brandofino and Bruce Zabarauskas, partners at Midtown-based law firm Holland & Knight, which represented the purchaser. Wilmington Trust declined to comment.
Ephraim Diamond, chief restructuring officer at Winta Asset Management, signed the deed on behalf of the seller, and Adam Singer, managing director of Rialto, signed on behalf of the purchaser, according to the documents.
In a similar foreclosure sale last month, Rialto acquired an Upper East Side crepe shop and apartment building at 1442 Lexington Ave. for $19.6 million.
The firm also was recently sued by Midtown Equities, run by the Cayre family, concerning a loan for a building at 205 Montague St. in Brooklyn, Crain’s reported.
