Canadian actual property large Brookfield Asset Administration is shifting to go off hassle with loans backed by workplace towers in Brooklyn and Denver.
This week, Brookfield disclosed {that a} $130M mortgage on 15 MetroTech Middle, a 675K SF workplace tower on Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn, is being transferred to particular servicing forward of its maturity date.
The CMBS on the MetroTech tower at present just isn’t in default, and Brookfield mentioned it’s hopeful it may well attain a deal to switch the mortgage, Bloomberg reported. Brookfield will proceed to handle and lease 15 MetroTech Middle.
Brookfield acquired MetroTech Middle in 2018. Final 12 months, it rebranded the location as Brooklyn Commons and introduced a $50M improve.
Brookfield and MetLife lately labored out a modification to a mortgage on the Republic Plaza tower in Denver. The mortgage, which had gone to particular servicing, might be prolonged via March 2026.
In hailing the deal, Brookfield—which already has misplaced two trophy workplace towers in Downtown Los Angeles this 12 months to receivership—mentioned it views negotiations with lenders spurred by particular servicers as a viable path for mortgage modifications.
“Republic Plaza is an in-demand workplace asset, and we’re glad to have achieved a optimistic final result as anticipated, each for the constructing and downtown Denver,” mentioned Andrew Brent, a Brookfield spokesperson, in a press release. “As we’ve mentioned, particular servicing is usually a path towards a profitable decision for a property that requires a mortgage modification.”
Toronto-based Brookfield’s workplace property have been clobbered this 12 months as rates of interest have elevated and occupancy ranges have been hobbled by hybrid work patterns.
In February, Brookfield defaulted on two senior loans backed by the DTLA’s Gasoline Firm Tower totaling $350M in debt. The landmark tower, headquarters for the Southern California Gasoline Co., is situated at 555 West 5th Avenue.
Brookfield additionally defaulted in February on $319M in loans for 777 South Figueroa St., also called the 777 Tower.
The 54-story Gasoline Firm Tower was positioned in receivership by the Superior Courtroom after CMBS lenders Citi Actual Property Funding and Morgan Stanley filed a lawsuit asking the court docket to nominate a receiver to pave the way in which for the sale of the property, in lieu of a chapter continuing.
In keeping with court docket filings, the REIT did not repay the mortgage by the maturity date of Feb. 9 and it did not pay an advance of $3.6M in property taxes by April 10.
In April, Brookfield defaulted on a $161.4M mortgage backed by greater than a dozen workplace buildings, primarily within the DC market.
On the finish of Might, the identical receiver that was appointed by the Los Angeles Superior Courtroom to supervise the receivership on the Gasoline Firm Tower on the finish of April—Gregg Williams of Trident Actual Property—was once more tapped by the court docket to deal with the receivership for EY Plaza, a 41-story tower at 725 S. Figueroa St.
Initially of Might, Trepp reported that Brookfield defaulted on a $275M mortgage backed by EY Plaza. The mortgage was originated in 2020 by Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo after which bought to CMBS buyers. The delinquent CMBS bundle features a $220M and a $35M mezzanine mortgage.
