Arad Holdings Buys Financial District’s 70 Broad Street at Steep Discount

Arad Holdings has paid $9.35 million to buy the landmarked American Bank Note Company Building at 70 Broad Street in Manhattan’s Financial District, Commercial Observer has learned.

It’s a steep discount from both the $88 million the five-story property originally hit the market for in 2016 and the $20 million former lender Wilmington Trust paid for it in an auction last year.

Arad Holdings, which is also involved in the joint venture that purchased the 298-room former Ritz-Carlton/Wagner hotel in Battery Park City, was represented by Louis Franco and Joseph Isa of Isa Realty Group along with attorney Eric S. Schoenfeld of Tannenbaum Helpern.

Arad plans to reposition the 19,478 square-foot 70 Broad Street, which sits between Beaver and Marketfield streets and was once home to a bank note maker. Arad’s exact plans for the long-vacant property are unclear, but the first, second and lower levels have commercial spaces. A private elevator leads to three full-floor residential units on the third through fifth floors.

The Neoclassical property was designed in the early 1900s by Kirby, Petit & Green to be the American Bank Note Company’s administrative and sales offices. It has two long, formidable columns, as commonly used by financial institutions, as well as a carved eagle over its doorway. The company produced currency, stock certificates and other materials that require engraved printing.

The building sold to the Bank of Tokyo in 1988 and was later purchased by fast-food franchisers Murray and Irving Riese for $3.5 million. Tony Goldman, later the creator of Wynwood in Miami, bought the property in 1995 for $1.3 million for a restaurant and his offices.

More recently, a Chinese investment group affiliated with the Chen family and Winta Asset Management acquired the property for approximately $18 million in 2010 and subsequently undertook a major renovation and repositioning.

In 2015, Winta financed the property with a $15 million loan originated by Silverpeak Real Estate Finance, which was subsequently securitized. The property was brought to market in 2016 with an $88 million asking price. By 2018, the asking price had been reduced to approximately $43 million.

The building remained largely vacant for years.

Foreclosure proceedings began in 2020, leading Winta to file for Chapter 11 proceedings in 2024. Wilmington Trust, as trustee for the commercial mortgage backed-securities (CMBS) trust, ultimately took control through a $20 million credit bid in 2025.

For the sale to Arad, Wilmington Trust was represented by a Cushman & Wakefield team of Dylan Walsh, Bryan Hurley, Jeremy Stern and Kieran Baker.