Nightingale sues Capstone over Sunset Park note sale, seeks $20M

Nightingale Properties alleges in a summons filed yesterday that Capstone Equities interfered with Nightingale’s attempt to buy a note secured by the commercial buildings at 14 53rd Street in Sunset Park Brooklyn, known as the Whale Building. The filing alleges that Capstone signed an agreement to buy the note. Nightingale is seeking $20 million. The filing is a summons, not a full complaint, so the filing lacks details.
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Court filings represent the position of one party and are not necessarily accurate or complete. Capstone Equities has not yet responded in court.
According to the filing, Capstone’s “wrongful and intentional conduct in usurping Plaintiffs’ confidential and proprietary information concerning the finances of the subject building to intentionally interfere with the Loan Purchase Agreement (the “Agreement”) between Plaintiffs and TPG RE Finance 2, LTD. and enter into an agreement to purchase the subject loan itself. The relief sought is a judgment for money damages in an amount to be determined at trial but not less than Twenty Million Dollars ($20,000,000.00).”

Nightingale bought the property in 2020 from Madison Realty Capital for $84.1 million, with Madison keeping a 25 percent stake, according to the Commercial Observer at the time. TPG Capital provided $88.9 million in financing.

The office building in Sunset Park has 382,080 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The property is owned by Nightingale Properties. The parcel has frontage of 621 feet and is 181 feet deep with a total lot size of 112,666 square feet. The zoning is M3-1 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $35.4 million. The most recent loan totaled $88.9 million and was provided by TPG Real Estate Partners on September 25, 2020.

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