Return to Lender: Week of Feb. 27, 2025

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Craig Goldblatt on Wednesday approved and authorized the sale of the assets of Joann Inc., the fabric and craft retailer based in Hudson, OH. The sale will result in the liquidation of Joann’s 802 stores in 49 states, reported the Cleveland Business Journal. The winning bidders for Joann’s assets are expected to soon begin going-out-of-business sales at the 200 or so Joann stores that aren’t already holding them. The winning bidders are GA Joann Retail Partnership LLC — a unit of GA Group, an asset disposition, valuation, appraisal and real estate services firm in Los Angeles — and Wilmington Savings Fund Society, the agent for the retailer’s term loans.

Oaktree Capital Management has taken control of the Two22 tower, the fifth-largest office building in downtown Minneapolis, according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. An entity tied to Oaktree recently took over the 42-story office building, located at 222 Ninth St. S. via a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. The previous owner, an LLC tied to Richmond, VA-based Lingerfelt, executed the deed agreement with the Oaktree entity on Dec. 11 following a mortgage default. Lingerfelt initially acquired the tower in 2019 for $81 million, then obtained a $98.9-million mortgage from an entity at the same address as Oaktree.

The owner of the Lincoln Place office building in Miami Beach surrendered the property to its lender in exchange for releasing its $84.71-million mortgage. The South Florida Business Journal reported that NG 1601 Washington Ave LLC, JBL 1601 Washington LLC, and Review Avenue Miami LLC, all affiliated with New York-based Nightingale Group, issued a ground lease assignment in lieu of foreclosure for the 110,000 square feet of office and 30,000 square feet of retail at 1601 to 1605 Washington Ave. It gave the property to its lender, GP 1601 Miami Owner LLC, led by Roger You of New York-based Granite Point Mortgage Trust, based on the remaining value of a mortgage issued in 2016. The Nightingale affiliates bought the property for $80 million in 2016.

The San Francisco Business Times reported that Barings took ownership of a Hayes Valley apartment complex backed by a $75-million loan it had attempted to offload in recent months. Rescore 1699 Market LLC handed the North Carolina-based lender control of a ground lease at 1699 Market St., the site of a nine-story, 160-unit apartment complex known as the Rise, in a deed-in-lieu transaction that closed Feb, 20. Rescore is an entity linked to Florida-based Encore Capital Management and San Francisco-based Presidio Development Partners.

Another Miami-area office building, this one located on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, could be seized in a $24.2-million foreclosure lawsuit. The South Florida Business Journal reported that Wilmington Trust, as trustee for a CMBS trust with LNR Partners as the special servicer, filed a foreclosure complaint on Feb. 24 against CGI…