CIM Acquires Distressed 88 University Place for $49M

Lender CIM Group has taken control of the distressed office building at 88 University Place in Greenwich Village from Arch Companies for $48.6 million, according to property records.  

CIM acquired 88 University Place through the entity Crec 88 Tower and through a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) foreclosure sale. CIM had already provided Arch with a $70.5 million refinancing so it could refurbish the embattled 11-story building back in June 2022, but Arch defaulted on the debt in July.

PincusCo. first reported the sale. CIM declined to comment. Arch could not immediately be reached for comment.

The building at 88 University Place was previously fully owned by former WeWork (WE) CEO Adam Neumann and his fashion designer partner Elie Tahari, according to the Wall Street Journal. The pair purchased 88 University Place in 2015 for $70 million. Today, Neumann holds a minority investment in the building, according to The Real Deal.

The property hit hard times after IBM left its 90,000-square-foot presence in the property during the pandemic, and the building was half full in 2022, TRD reported.   

There has been an uptick in UCC foreclosures in the commercial real estate space this year, as Commercial Observer previously reported. Matthew D. Mannion, a principal at Mannion Auctions, told CO back in July that he had worked on 41 UCC foreclosures so far in 2024 and expected to reach 70 by the end of the year. 

A combination of rising interest rates and the disruption to businesses in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic are some of the contributing factors to the rise in UCC foreclosures, bankruptcy attorney Jonathan S. Pasternak, a partner at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, told CO in July.

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.