(Bloomberg) -- The owner of a historic office building in Manhattan’s Financial District has filed bankruptcy to sell the property, which has been subject to foreclosure and suffered from a lack of tenants due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Winta Asset Management LLC, owner of the former American Bank Note Company office building located at 70 Broad Street, filed Chapter 11 on Friday. The company is valuing the 5-story building, notable for its granite columns and eagle sculpture perched over its entrance, at $16 million, according to court documents. 

Winta had been locked in a multi-year dispute with Wilmington Trust N.A., trustee of the underlying mortgage for the building, from defaults that occurred in the early weeks of the pandemic under a $15 million note. The building faced operational issues and lost tenants during the crisis, according to the filing.

The Chapter 11 filing came days after a federal judge entered a $24.7 million judgment against the company and weeks before the building was scheduled to be sold at a public auction.

The filing halts the Wilmington Trust action and pauses the auction, which was scheduled to take place outside the main entrance to the office building on June 12, according to court documents. 

Winta said in the filing it intends to run “a robust marketing process through a real estate brokerage” which will result in more potential buyers considering the property, compared to the foreclosure auction.

The bankruptcy comes as Wall Street firms have helped push New York City’s return-to-office rate to almost 80% of pre-pandemic levels. Banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. were among the first companies to require employees return to the office, helping Manhattan’s occupancy rates rebound.

Completed in 1908, the building has been classified as a historic landmark by NYC’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. American Bank Note, a producer of stock and bond certificates and other documents, sold it in the late 1980s after moving its offices out of the city, according to commission documents. The building was subsequently sold to investors and has since changed ownership multiple times, according to the commission.

The case is Winta Asset Management, number 24-10848, in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

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