Return to Lender: Week of Jan. 25, 2024

Brookfield was the winner of a Jan. 18 auction for a portfolio of 62 distressed San Francisco apartment buildings, due to no one bidding. The auctioneer told the San Francisco Chronicle that the “beneficiary” behind the defaulted mortgages would take over the properties, which had been owned by Veritas. Minimum bids of $386.25 million for one group of the properties and $77.25 million for another group were set. Brookfield completed a deal last month to acquire the mortgages tied to the 62 properties along with 14 others, encompassing 2,165 apartments across numerous neighborhoods including North Beach, Nob Hill, the Castro and the Richmond.

Some of downtown Denver’s most iconic office properties are struggling in a race to fend off lenders as post-pandemic vacancy rates threaten to upend landlord portfolios in the city, reported the Denver Business Journal. Five office buildings with a collective $617.3 million owed to lenders include Republic Plaza, Denver’s tallest building; Wells Fargo Center; Writer Square; Columbine Place; and Capital Center.

Mack Real Estate has scheduled a foreclosure auction for 18831 Von Karman Ave. and 17422 Derian Ave. in Irvine, CA on Feb. 15, according to published reports. TA Partners had planned to build 658 multifamily units across the two sites and secured two construction loans from Mack totaling $262.5 million. The loans were set to mature in 2027.

A $148-million securitized loan collateralized partly by One Pierrepont Plaza, an office property in Brooklyn Heights, is headed for special servicing, according to Trepp. Brookfield Property Partners failed to pay off the loan when it became due last month. The loan is also secured by a mixed-use building in Pittsburgh.

Seven properties in the Point Ruston mixed-use development on the Tacoma waterfront are on the market after a recent ruling by a Pierce County Superior Court judge, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported. The properties were placed into receivership in May after lender TerraCotta Real Estate Services sued to recoup $73.8 million in debt owed on the properties. The amount has since increased to more than $82 million.

A high-profile downtown Baltimore office tower whose lien holder is an entity of MCB Real Estate is headed to auction in foreclosure on Thursday, the Baltimore Business Journal reported. The 10-story 1 E. Pratt St. building across from Harborplace will be sold “as is” on the steps of the Clarence M. Mitchell III Courthouse on Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. Bidders are required to pay a $1-million deposit. Atlantic Auctions Inc., a Baltimore auctioneer, is handling the sale for two substitute trustees. MCB paid $25 million to acquire the mortgage last year, two years after owner Banyan Street Capital tried to sell its outstanding $54.3-million loan on the property.

The owner of the Reston Eastpointe office building in Reston, VA has defaulted on a $38-million CMBS loan that matured in December. Published reports say a joint venture of Lincoln Property Company, Ritz Banc Group and Masic acquired the 195,890-square-foot property in 2016 for $58 million, with JPMorgan Chase providing the $38-million acquisition loan. The CMBS loan went into special servicing ahead of the maturity deadline in December.

Less than a week before it was slated for a foreclosure auction, the Time Century Jewelry Center in downtown Miami was sold for $27.5 million, the South Florida Business Journal reported. Miami-based City National Bank of Florida had won a foreclosure judgment against TC Metro Mall Investments, based on a loan with $26 million in principal outstanding. The 225,054-square-foot retail property at 1 N.E. First St. was set for foreclosure auction on Jan. 16. However, City National Bank filed a motion to cancel the foreclosure sale on Jan. 9 because it was close to resolving the case. TC Metro Mall Investments, managed by Yair Levy of New York-based Time Century Holdings, then sold the property to three buyers as tenants in common.