Former Bowery Savings Bank to Sell for $26M After Bankruptcy
By Nicholas Rizzi July 20, 2023 4:38 pm
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The former Bowery Savings Bank — which has been used as a venue for high-end parties — could be sold for $26 million after its owner filed for bankruptcy last year, according to court records.
Lawyers on behalf of 130 Bowery Acquisition — the holding company for owners Michael and David Marvisi — filed a motion for a judge to approve the sale of the Chinatown building at 130 Bowery Street to private equity firm SC Holdings, court records show.
Last year, 130 Bowery Acquisition filed for bankruptcy to stave off a forced sale of the 129-year-old building after it defaulted on a $12 million loan from Wells Fargo, Commercial Observer previously reported.
Hoping to force an auction of the property, Wells Fargo sued the Marvisis for allegedly missing two years of payments on their loan after the property’s sole tenant — events operator Capitale — fell behind on its rent, CO previously reported. Bowery Savings Bank’s sale to SC Holdings is listed as private, meaning the Marvisis were able to skip out on the auction process, said Adam Stein-Sapir, a bankruptcy expert and portfolio manager at Pioneer Funding Group, who’s not involved in the case.
The Marvisis bought the 32,000-square-foot building, designed by Gilded Age architect Stanford White, in 2017 in a deal that valued the property at $33 million, according to property records. The brothers put the property up for auction in 2019 with hopes to reel in more than $50 million for it, Bloomberg reported.
They tried to offload it again in January 2022 — a month before Wells Fargo sued them — this time looking for about $35 million, Crain’s New York Business reported.
While the $26 million sale price is lower than what the Marvisis were previously looking for, it’s enough to cover its debt with Wells Fargo and is expected to be approved at a hearing at the end of the month, Stein-Saper said.
However, Capitale will lose its lease immediately after the sale goes through and instead switch to a $200,000-per-month licensing agreement until the end of the year, to finish out its booked events, according to court documents.
Capitale, SC Holdings and the Marvisis’s lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Nicholas Rizzi can be reached at nrizzi@commercialobserver.com.
