The investors who wanted to buy a piece of a trophy office building in Atlanta on the CrowdStreet platform come from all walks of life: real estate pros trying to make a little extra on the side, but also tech workers, physicians and a college professor. The minimum investment in the deal was $25K, and the sponsor of that investment, New York-based Nightingale Properties, told investors it had a sterling track record and a rare opportunity to acquire trophy real estate at a bargain. But rather than all sharing a piece of the Atlanta Financial Center as they hoped, these investors are now bound together for a more ignominious reason: They are out tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars after Nightingale allegedly misappropriated their investments, moving more than $8M into other accounts and never closing on the deal, an independent fiduciary said. 
“You’ve got to accept business risk and that things happen in the market. You’re looking for big returns on real estate deals, but this is a risk you never plan for or is inherent in a deal,” said Eli Johnson, an accredited investor out of Chicago who put $25K of…  Read the full story here. | 
