Loop foreclosure looms
Crain's Chicago Business reports: A New York real estate investment firm must pay off a $48.5-million loan on 500 W. Monroe St. next week or face the first foreclosure on a downtown skyscraper in a decade.
If Broadway Partners Fund Manager LLC misses the February 9 deadline, Chicago-based Transwestern Investment Co. is expected to foreclose quickly on the 46-story tower, which Broadway bought for $336.7 million at the peak of the market in mid-2007, sources say. Transwestern's loan is part of a complicated package of mortgages that accounted for about 90% of the purchase price, sources say.
The threatened default is a sign that the wave of foreclosures that began pounding homeowners and homebuilders last year is starting to hit major office buildings. The last big Loop foreclosure was in 1999, when Travelers Insurance Co. seized One Financial Place, 440 S. LaSalle St., to satisfy a $220-million loan.
Local office properties account for just 9% of the $937.0 million in Chicago-area commercial real estate that is in default or controlled by a lender, according to New York research firm Real Capital Analytics Inc. But that total is likely to grow as corporate layoffs sap demand for office space.
View the full article on Crain's Chicago Business: Loop foreclosure looms
Posted by: Matthew Stone