Metro Loft Faces Potential Foreclosure at 180 Water Street Over $265M Loan

Nathan Berman’s Metro Loft Management has been hit with a pre-foreclosure filing at one of its Manhattan office conversion projects just months after the site hit special servicing.

Metro Loft is facing foreclosure at 180 Water Street — a former 29-story office tower that was converted into luxury rental units — after defaulting on a $265 million loan for the property, according to a Wednesday filing by special servicer CW Asset Management in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The $265 million commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loan from Deutsche Bank (DB) headed to special servicing in December after Metro Loft failed to pay off at its November 2024 maturity, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

However, Metro Loft is planning to avoid the foreclosure by providing the financing to settle its debts, Berman said.

Spokespeople for CW Asset Management and Deutsche Bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Metro Loft acquired the roughly 460,000-square-foot 180 Water Street, which now comprises 580 market-rate residential units, from Vanbarton Group in 2017 for $450 million, as CO previously reported.

In 2019, Berman secured the $265 million loan from Deutsche Bank, which included an additional $100 million mezzanine loan controlled by Rockwood Capital, CO reported.

Rents at the Financial District apartment building between Fletcher and John streets are pretty high, with studios going for up to $4,495 per month and one-bedrooms going for as much as $6,450 per month, according to StreetEasy. And its occupancy rate was at 98 percent in November.

And 180 Water isn’t the only Metro Loft building facing some troubles.The $250 million CMBS loan on Metro Loft’s office-to-residential conversion at 20 Broad Street hit special servicing in August.

But the issues with those two buildings aren’t turning off Metro Loft from other projects, as the developer joined Quantum Pacific in January to lead an office-to-residential conversion project at 767 Third Avenue, as CO previously reported.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.