Return to Lender: Week of Oct. 17, 2024

Barchart · 10/17 11:14

A high-profile development site in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County, once slated for a large mixed-use project, is headed back to the lender after receiving no bids at a sheriff’s sale, reported the Philadelphia Business Journal. The 35-acre property at 2201 Street Rd. in Bensalem, PA was to become a development called The Hub at Bensalem with more than 150,000 square feet of retail space and 40 residential units across 11 buildings. Construction never began, owner 2201 Street Rd LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June and lender Zee Bridge Capital LLC is now in the process of taking control of the property.

The shuttered College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY will seek to set a deadline of Dec. 2 for bids for its Pine Hills campus, the Albany Business Review reported. The college, which last fall announced it would close at the end of the academic year, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month as it pursues an orderly wind-down after more than a century of academic instruction.

The Houston Business Journal reported that a downtown Houston office tower that has struggled for years to keep pace with $100 million in mortgage debt, and has been marketed as a potential residential apartment tower, might soon have a new owner. Midland Loan Services, the special servicer handling the loan for One City Centre at 1021 Main St. The property sale should close by Dec. 31. The building is currently 90% vacant.

Jamestown LP has reached a deal with its lenders to retain ownership of 731 Market St. in San Francisco, reported the San Francisco Business Times. Jamestown’s lender, Capital One, has requested the dismissal of a lawsuit it filed against Jamestown in San Francisco Superior Court last year, seeking to place 731 Market into receivership and ultimately foreclose upon the office building. The investor acquired 731 Market for $65 million, or close to $700 per square foot, in 2015.

A major lender to the Armory STL entertainment complex in St. Louis has filed suit against its developer on an unpaid loan, and is seeking control of the massive facility that closed last month. The St. Louis Business Journal reported that Clayton, MO-based Peoples National Bank sued Armory developer Green Street on Friday in St. Louis County Circuit Court. The suit says the bank in March 2023 executed a loan with the defendants for the Armory project, which opened in December 2022 at 3660 Market St. as a partially completed bar and event venue. The loan matured on Sept. 22 this year, the suit says, adding that the defendants haven’t paid anything on the note, on which more than $24 million is now due.

LNR Partners is offering for sale the 846,566-square-foot Riverway office complex in Rosemont, IL, Trepp reported, citing Crain’s Chicago Business. The Miami company, special servicer for the CMBS trust that holds a $111.3-million loan against the property, has hired JLL to market it for sale. It was appraised in July at a value of $87 million. Foreclosure efforts had been initiated at the start of the year, soon after the loan defaulted. The property’s owner, Adventus Realty Trust, acquired the property in 2016 for $173 million.

The PoHo Portfolio ($240.0 million | MSC 2019-PLND) saw its appraised value plummet this month, dropping the value on the REO Portland hotels to $151.3 million, according to Morningstar Credit. The loan backed by two hotels moved to special servicing amid the pandemic in June 2020 and the trust took the title in January 2023. Post-transfer, there were four appraisals reported, each higher than the prior, that topped out at $297.7 million in June 2022. However, the appraisals after becoming REO have decreased rapidly to $254.8 million in March 2023, then to $204.5 million in December 2023. Advances and interest have grown the total exposure to nearly $290.0 million.

Morningstar Credit reported that the Worldwide Plaza ($940.0 million | WPT 2017-WWP and multiple conduits | CMBX.11) moved to special servicing this month for “imminent monetary default” following the exit of Cravath, Swain & Moore. Cravath had been in 30% of the space on a lease through August 2024; its failure to renew had triggered a cash trap that’s accrued a TI reserve balance to $22.4 million as of this month. The loan, backed by a two-million-square-foot office building at West 49th Street and Eighth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, had previously remained current through the loan term.