$265M pre-foreclosure filed at Metro Loft’s FiDi rental
180 Water Street (Credit - Cyclomedia)
The special servicer for a $265 million securitized loan filed a pre-foreclosure action in U.S. District Court in Manhattan yesterday alleging the loan secured by Metro Loft Management’s 573-unit rental building at 180 Water Street, in the Financial District, Manhattan, was in a maturity default.
This action was not a surprise, as it was previously reported the loan was heading to special servicing by CWCapital Asset Management. Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft owns the 29-story, 487,950-square-foot tower, which was converted from an office building to rentals in about 2017. The loan matured on November 6, 2024.
Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.
Case 1:25-cv-02754 LINK
The Real Deal in November 2024, citing a Crain’s article, said Metro Loft was facing default, as both the $265 million senior loan and a $100 million mezzanine loan were maturing that month. The Real Deal said Berman told Crain’s at the time that he was “working things out with both lenders.”
Metro Loft Management is the most active firm in Manhattan for conversions from office properties to residential.
• $332.3M entity level transfer at Metro Loft’s 533-unit 20 Broad conversion (January 24, 2025)
• Metro Loft Management pays $88M office building in Midtown East (January 16, 2025)
• Metro Loft files conversion plans for 1,463 units at former Pfizer HQ buildings (July 08, 2024)
The property
The elevator building with 573 residential units in Financial District has 487,950 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 116 feet and is 127 feet deep with a total lot size of 23,555 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is C5-5 which allows for up to 15 times floor area ratio (FAR) for commercial and up to 10 times FAR for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $134.9 million. The most recent loan totaled $265 million and was provided by Deutsche Bank on October 18, 2019.
Prior sales and revenue
This property was sold for $151 million on July 26, 2013.
The 487,950-square-foot property generated revenue of $26 million or $53 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.
Development
For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on March 16, 2017.
Violations and lawsuits
According to city public data, the property has received one housing violation and $8,955 in OATH penalties in the last year.
There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months.
The neighborhood
In Financial District, The majority, or 74 percent of the 79.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 15 percent of the space. In sales, Financial District has the 5th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.8 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Financial District is the 3rd most active neighborhood among other neighborhoods. It had 12.5 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 16 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.
The block
On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the three commercial properties representing 969,808 square feet of the 971,258 square feet. The two identified owners are Metro Loft Management and Vanbarton Group. On the tax block, there was one new building construction project filed totaling 21,120 square feet. It is a 48-unit, 21,120 square-foot hotel/dormitory/shelter (R-1) building submitted by George Drallios with plans filed December 7, 2018 and it has not been permitted yet.
The owner
The PincusCo database currently indicates that Metro Loft Management owned at least eight commercial properties with 2,468 residential units in New York City with 3,065,011 square feet and a city-determined market value of $770.9 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $595.7 million in debt, with top three lenders as Deutsche Bank, Athene Holding, and Bank Hapoalim respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 66 percent of the 3,065,011 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 34 percent of the space. They are all located in Manhattan.
The owners according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development includes Nathan Berman, head officer and Jack Berman, officer. The business entity is 180 Water Llc.
The surrounding
Within a 400-foot radius of 138 John Street, PincusCo identified eight commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those eight items, one was in new building development. It was a new building permit issued on August 25, 2023 for a 213,017-square-foot residential (R-2) building with 250 residential units at 7 Platt Street. Of those eight items, one was for major renovation including a certificate of occupancy change. It was a permit issued on June 30, 2023 for the $22.2 million renovation of 460,843-square-foot residential (R-2) building with 592 residential units at 160 Water Street. Of those eight items, six were loans above $5 million totaling $456 million. The most recent of the six was Moinian Group in which borrowed $169 million from MSD Partners secured by the zero-square-foot, 253-unit rental (D8) on 110 John Street on December 19, 2024.
Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.