Former Bowery Savings Bank Up for Auction After $26M Sale Fell Through

Manhattan’s landmark Bowery Savings Bank will go on the auction block again after a planned sale in 2023 fell through.

The 32,700-square-foot historic bank turned event venue at 130 Bowery is set to open a bidding process next month, capping off a long series of auctions, bankruptcies and potential sales of the property, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news.

Bids for the building are due Feb. 4, and an auction will take place Feb. 11 if more than one bid is submitted, bankruptcy court records show. Additionally, lender Wells Fargo (WFC) — which took over the property last year — has credit to bid up to $23.4 million for the property, the amount of debt it’s owed, according to court records.

The landmarked Chinatown property at 130 Bowery, which was designed by Stanford White, was set to be sold to private equity firm SC Holdings for $26 million in 2023, as Commercial Observer previously reported. A nonrefundable deposit was paid but the sale fell through at the end of 2023 because of a gas line issue that has since been resolved, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.

The building between Grand and Broome streets was built in 1894 and served as the headquarters of the Bowery Savings Bank until it moved into 110 East 42nd Street in 1923, according to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Brothers Michael and David Marvisi, under the entity 130 Bowery Acquisition, bought it in 2017 in a deal that valued the building at $33 million, as CO previously reported. They tried to put the property up for auction in 2019, hoping to get more than $50 million for it, then put it back on the market in January 2022 with a $35 million price tag.

However, the property fell into distress in September 2022 when the owners defaulted on their $12 million loan from Wells Fargo when its sole tenant, events organizer Capitale NYC, skipped its rent payments during the pandemic, as CO previously reported. The 130 Bowery Acquisition entity filed for bankruptcy later that same year to stave off a forced sale.

A spokesperson for Wells Fargo and lawyers for the Marvisi brothers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Meridian Investment Sales’ David Schechtman — who’s handling the bankruptcy auction — declined to comment.

Nicholas Rizzi can be reached at nrizzi@commercialobserver.com.