Return to Lender: Week of Oct. 10, 2024

The $8.5-million purchase of the former Sports Illustrated building at 135 West 50th St. in Midtown Manhattan has been completed, Trepp reported. A leasehold interest in the 23-story building, with 925,000 square feet of office space, was offered at an online auction hosted on the Ten-X platform in August. It fetched a high bid of $8.5 million from an unidentified investor. The 35% occupied property’s former owner, UBS Realty Investors, which acquired the leasehold interest in 2006 for $332.85 million, apparently accepted the offer and completed a deal.

The bank that held the keys to Fort Worth’s tallest tower following a foreclosure earlier this year recently sold the 40-story Burnett Plaza. The Dallas Business Journal reported that Pinnacle Bank Texas granted a special warranty leasehold deed on the tower at 801 Cherry St. to Swiss Burnett LLC, a firm connected to Stephenville, TX developer Andy Hansen, the president of development firm Trafalgar Homes. Public documents show Swiss Burnett LLC assigned a deed of trust to Pinnacle Bank with a $67.54-million loan.

The Albany Business Review reported that a mortgage foreclosure auction has been scheduled for the Troy Atrium and two other prominent downtown Troy, NY properties formerly owned by David Bryce. The Nov. 19 auction at 10 a.m. inside the Rensselaer County Courthouse rotunda at 80 Second St. in Troy is the result of $12.4 million in unpaid debt, interest and other fees that Bryce owes through LLCs to BLC Cos., a private, non-bank lender in Southern California. BLC took title to the properties last January through a deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure.

Morningstar Credit reported that there may finally be some movement on the Club Quarters Portfolio loan ($273.7 million | BX 2017-CQHP), which has been in special servicing since June 2020. Although there have been fits and starts with possible resolutions, the special servicer was the winning bidder at the foreclosure sale on the Boston property. However, rather than take the property REO, the servicer is in process of selling the Boston property by assigning the credit bid. Foreclosure is still being pursued for the Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco properties

CPS Energy’s former headquarters, an office property at 145 Navarro St. in San Antonio, is in foreclosure. The San Antonio Business Journal reported that the property, most recently targeted for a hotel conversion, is tied to default by its former owner. Houston-based hotel developer Blueprint Hospitality is on the hook for a $14.35-million loan from TransPecos Banks, along with another loan from BV Capital. The loans were transferred and reassigned to Colorado-based hotel company 5 Senses Hospitality Management under affiliated entity Riverwalk Reposition Partners LLC over the summer. Shortly afterward, RR Partners issued a default acceleration notice.