Developer Kent Swig has given up the ghost at 90 Broad Street. Shortly after losing a bid to force JPMorgan Chase to postpone the $126 million sale of his former Lower Manhattan office building, he has withdrawn a suit to block the transaction.
Swig’s lawyers voluntarily withdrew a Nov. 14 Suit From New York State Supreme Court on Wednesday. The move came about a week after Judge Jeffrey Oing denied the developer a temporary restraining order, which would have prevented JPMorgan from proceeding with the closing, scheduled for Dec. 22.
There was no indication of a settlement or a motion from the lender to dismiss the case since the last court hearing on Nov. 19. Spokespersons for JPMorgan and Swig declined to comment.
JPMorgan entered a deal in October to sell the tower to Princeton International Properties, a Manhattan-based real estate firm led by investor David Tawfik. Tawfik declined to comment.
In his suit, Swig claimed that the bank had denied him a chance to make a “last look” offer before selling the building to a third party and refused to disclose any terms of the deal to him.
JPMorgan, a mezzanine lender with an $86 million securitized loan at the building, countered that Swig lost control of the property after a 2010 default, and that he made a failed bid during an auction after commercial brokerage Eastdil Secured was hired to find a buyer. Swig had acknowledged that the bank had control over major decisions at 90 Broad but still attempted to make a deal with Princeton International to manage the property, JPMorgan alleged.
“The plaintiffs here were well aware of the auction process,” said attorney Joseph Moodhe, who represented JPMorgan, at the Nov. 19 court hearing. “They participated in it. They lost.”
Judge Oing had scheduled a Dec. 13 hearing to go over additional arguments in Swig’s motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the sale.