While most of Downtown was thrown into darkness last night because of Hurricane Sandy, there was at least one beacon of light in Soho: Bapple Real Estate at 157 Prince Street. Curbed reader and fellow reporter Peter Mikkelsen tells us that he ventured out last night around 11:30 p.m. to take in "the serenity of a post-frankenstorm downtown," and he spotted Bapple's storefront, glowing with Christmas lights on the pitch-black street.

Mikkelsen writes:

I stopped in to catch my friend Nick Spanos with a few agents, the founder and owner of the brokerage for over two decades. Flamboyantly donning some gas generator-powered Christmas lights and WiFi (perhaps mocking every other business caught not quite as prepared), I asked him what in the world he was doing, door open near midnight during the historic freakstorm.



"I just wanted everyone in the neighborhood to feel safe and welcome. I let officers in the area know they were welcome all night to stop in for coffee, to charge their radios, use the bathroom if they needed?and many neighbors as well have stopped in just to charge their phones," said Spanos.



When I followed up by asking if he'd expected to make any deals, Spanos laughed, "One of my agents, Zach Huff, actually just showed an apartment next door by flashlight fifteen minutes ago, the guy said he needed to move by the first!"· Bapple Real Estate [official]

· Hurricane Sandy coverage [Curbed]