Axos files $16.5M pre-foreclosure at Swig Equities Tribeca project

Axos Financial, the holding company for Axos Bank, alleges three loans originally totaling $23.5 million that were given in May 23, 2018, to fund the renovation of 148 Duane Street in Tribeca, are in default and the lender is seeking to foreclose on the loans now at $16.5 million. The borrowers are affiliates of Swig Equities and individual investors including Kent Swig, his family and others. Despite the financial pressure, the developers have continued to file Department of Buildings job applications and the city issued a permit for elevator work as recently as October 2024.
Case 1:25-cv-00251-MMG LINK
148 Duane Street Complaint pdf

Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete.

Kent Swig’s Swig Equities bought the building in 2017 for $19 million, and stepped into the shoes of the prior developer, who had filed plans in 2014 under Job Number 122193223, to renovate the building with four residential units and one commercial unit, and sell the residential units as condominiums. The original condo plan was abandoned in 2017. The project slowed before the onset of Covid, according to a lawsuit filed by an investor who was also a contractor on the project, Arkadi Katselnik. Despite that, construction began again, with a recent filing with the city to create a special elevator dedicated to only one apartment unit.

According to the Axos complaint, “On July 15, 2022, Borrower, Guarantor, and Axos Bank entered into that certain Forbearance Agreement…[agreeing to forbear] until the earlier of October 1, 2022, [or a default]…On November 15, 2024, Axos Bank sent a notice (the “Senior Loan Default Notice”) to Borrower, with a copy to Guarantor…”

In case, 652466/2020, Investor Arkadi Katselnik through the entity Lark Duane LLC alleges condo project at 148 Duane was mismanaged pre-Covid, with the project planned to be completed in May 2019 with a $33 million budget. The deadlines were not met, and the budget ballooned to $40 million, according to the filing. Nonetheless, that court case was discontinued in 2020.

The project owes a judgment that was $197,633 in October 2021, 156655/2018 to Timothy Tabor, “a longstanding rent-stabilized tenants in the subject loft building located at 148 Duane Street.”

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the eight commercial properties representing 46,952 square feet of the 104,963 square feet. The largest owner is Premier Equities, followed by Targo Capital Partners and then United American Land. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 148 Duane Street, PincusCo identified three commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those three items, two were sales above $5 million totaling $26.5 million. The most recent of the two was Zentrinity LLC which bought one condo unit in the 4,942-square-foot, 24-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 137 Duane Street for $17.5 million from Carroll, Jason on November 21, 2023. One of those three items was a loan which Benjamin Partners borrowed $5.8 million from Provident Bank secured by one condo unit in the 12,665-square-foot, 32-unit mixed-use building (RM) on 166 Duane Street on August 1, 2023.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.