Last week, Swapnil Agarwal reached a forbearance agreement with his lender to avoid foreclosure on three apartment communities in his portfolio. He remains under financial pressure as he works to maintain his portfolio of approximately 15,000 apartment units.

The three North Texas properties—The Interlace Apartments in Dallas, The Palace Apartments in Arlington, and Chaparral Apartments in Fort Worth—were scheduled for auction on June 2, according to The Real Deal.

Agarwal is the CEO of Houston-based Nitya Capital. He paid his lender, One William Street Capital Management, $1 million on June 1 to delay the auction process until at least June 30, he told Multifamily Dive. He also needs to pay a total of $1 million in two installments this month.

After that, Agarwal can obtain monthly extensions for up to three additional months. But each extension requires a $1 million payment, meaning the total amount Nitya would need to pay to avoid foreclosure would reach $5 million. "I bought myself four months," Agarwal told Multifamily Dive.

But he doesn't think he will need that much time. Agarwal said he is in the final stages of arranging long-term debt for the portfolio through Morgan Stanley and repaying his existing lender. "My refinancing is scheduled to close this month," he said. Morgan Stanley did not respond to Multifamily Dive's request for comment.

Agarwal's properties were not included in the June 2 foreclosure auction list for Dallas and Tarrant counties published by Roddy's Foreclosure Listing Services. His efforts to prevent the auction of these three North Texas properties are just one of many attempts over the years to address problem loans in his portfolio. Here's how he is buying time and trying to pull his business back from the brink—as of now.

Attempts to save Texas properties

Before The Interlace Apartments, The Palace Apartments, and Chaparral Apartments were placed on the auction list, Agarwal was already dealing with other issues in his portfolio.

Last month, Morningstar Credit reported that Domain at Waco and NTX Denton were transferred to special servicing after Agarwal failed to obtain property tax exemptions, due to a change in Texas law that closed a loophole for Public Financing Corporation.

Swapnil Agarwal

According to the Morningstar report, Agarwal was required to repay part of the loans to meet a 10.33% debt yield threshold. Agarwal said he has a plan to pay $1.5 million in installments to his lender, Argentic Real Estate Finance. Argentic did not respond to Multifamily Dive's request for comment.

"Additionally, Denton County has approved the exemption, and Waco will follow suit," Agarwal said. "If any of these exemptions are approved, there is no need to repay the loans."

Representatives for Denton County did not respond to Multifamily Dive's request for comment. However, Jim Halbert, chief appraiser at the McLennan Central Appraisal District, which oversees the Waco area, said in an email comment, "The account for the Domain at Waco property currently has no tax exemption, and we cannot confirm any related agreements."

In October of last year, a $63.5 million loan backing Dallas' Muse and Houston's Eden Pointe was transferred to special servicing due to violations, according to another Morningstar Credit report shared with Multifamily Dive. Agarwal said he is also "close to resolving" these issues at Muse.

"We have resolved all the cited violations," Agarwal said. "We even mediated with the city and are trying to resolve it simultaneously with the servicer, Rialto. The loan is currently performing, with no delinquent payments. Once the city issue is resolved, the loan will return to good standing."

Rialto did not respond to Multifamily Dive's request for comment.

Ongoing discussions

Agarwal currently owns 52 properties, including 40 traditional apartment assets, primarily in the Sun Belt, with a high concentration in Texas and Florida, he told Multifamily Dive. He owns 10,000 apartment units and approximately 5,000 student housing units.

His last traditional apartment purchase was in September 2021. After the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in 2023, he realized that fixing his portfolio would be a "long marathon."

Three years later, the process continues. "For each of these assets, I have either refinanced them into long-term loans, restructured the current loan with the existing lender, or am in the process of refinancing some of them," Agarwal said. "But there is not a single asset where I have handed the keys back to the lender."

For example, after a $356 million default on the 12-property Hatteras portfolio, Agarwal secured a $700 million fixed-rate senior loan, originated and securitized by Citi, according to a company press release. When the refinancing closed in June 2025, Nitya added six Class A student housing properties to the portfolio, located in Dallas, Indianapolis, the Carolinas, Nashville, Phoenix, and Las Vegas.

"I also completed approximately $500 million in refinancings in 2023 and 2024," Agarwal said. "Through these refinancings, two-thirds of my portfolio has been converted to long-term debt."

Nevertheless, Nitya's CEO remains steadfast, describing himself as a good sponsor working to find solutions for the problems in his portfolio. He noted that cutting corporate overhead, integrating artificial intelligence for efficiency, and reducing insurance costs are all ways he is shoring up the balance sheet to "make the numbers work."

Additionally, he has invested his own money when necessary, including providing over $12 million in loans to support the three North Texas properties and a total of $100 million in loans over the past three and a half years to support the entire portfolio, including deferred fees.

"Overall, I haven't taken a single dollar in fees in the last four years," he said. "I've also provided an additional $70 million in loans to support the portfolio so we can weather the storm. We haven't had a single deal fail, which is a huge achievement in today's market."

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