Three Twin Cities Structures Default On Their Loans,
Face Imminent Foreclosures
Three popular structures in the Twin Cities have defaulted on their loans as later reports indicated that owners of the three properties, the Minnesota Center, One Financial Plaza and the Hotel Sofitel, were currently engaged in negotiations to restructure the loans totaling to $88 million.
Industry experts said that the latest defaults were among the biggest incidence of non-payments that could lead to eventual foreclosure, which also involved securitized commercial property debt.
Commercial real estate researcher Trepp LLC said on its report that a total of 42 commercial buildings were either facing the prospect of or already were in the process of foreclosures by August 1 as their owners amassed a total default loans of $434 million.
The New York-based commercial property think-tank said that the properties involved ranged from commercial properties to office towers as it clarified that the total count only covered securitized loans but already accounted for some eight percent of delinquency rate form the 3.5 percent seen last year.
According to Trepp, their report was a substantial mirror-image of the national situation where discussions for loan restructurings have become the norm since the commercial segment started succumbing to the property market crisis, with the hotel sector specifically taking some serious beating.
The 14 floors glass tower of the Minnesota Tower and Minneapolis’ 27 floors One Financial Plaza were two commercial buildings owned by a real estate investment trust (REIT), Behringer Harvard, which defaulted with a total of $70.4 million on both properties.
Behringer Harvard’s Jason Mattox said that the company is currently holding talks with lenders on the two properties for restructuring efforts of the total amount owed or allow the company some leeway by accepting payment with some reductions.
The company admitted that if negotiations failed to come up with some form of acceptable settlements for all parties, the possibility of foreclosure could not be far-fetched.
Trepp said that both structures in question were more than 50 percent occupied though it noted that financial difficulties for entities such as Behringer Harvard REIT were not surprising as investors for their projects were effectively flirting with substantial risks since they don’t trade in any exchange.
On its last report, the company disclosed that it suffered losses of $89.7 million from its revenue of $138 million in the second quarter of 2010, adding that annual losses have been incurred by Behringer beginning in 2005.
Meanwhile, the Hotel Sofitel has already entered the process of foreclosure since its registered owner, the Ownerco LLC, already defaulted on the $18 million interest only loan provided by Eurohypo, a subsidiary of Commerzbank Group of Germany.
On its report, Trepp said that records showed that Sofitel’s actual owner could be Accor Business & Leisure North America, which is a division of France’s Accor SA and one of the world’s biggest hotel owners.
Trepp said that Sofitel is Accor’s luxury lines for its hotel operations and the company currently maintains six Sofitel hotels in the US mainland though when reached for comments, the Accor management simply stated that they were the hotel’s long term manager and could not comment “about the business of the property owner.”
Also, Hotel Sofitel Bloomington city manager Mark Bernhardson admitted that the hotel chain has been encountering problems on its maturing debts across the country but he discounted any possibility of major overhauls once foreclosure gets underway.
Bernhardson said that the usual practice on such cases is “it’s generally in the lender’s best interest to continue that operation.”
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