Oceanwide Plaza Developer In Liquidation After Creditor Seeks Repayment On $175M Loan

The owner of Downtown LA’s long-unfinished Oceanwide Plaza project faces court-ordered liquidation.

A Bermuda court issued a winding-up order against China Oceanwide Holdings Ltd., the parent company of the developer of the Oceanwide Plaza project, Bloomberg reported. The Bermudan court has appointed liquidators. Trading of the company’s stock on Hong Kong’s stock exchange was suspended effective Monday.

The initiator of the legal actions that led to the liquidation of the company is an unknown creditor that filed a winding-up petition in June 2022. The petition involved a $175M loan and secured shares, Bloomberg reported. 

A loan for that amount was made for the project by New York-based DW Partners in 2019. According to documents filed with the New York Department of Finance’s Office of the City Register in June 2021, it appears that $6M of the original principal amount was repaid, leaving a $169M balance. In July 2022, The Real Deal reported that a mysterious LLC had purchased the note secured by the property for $169M. 

This isn't Oceanwide’s first brush with the prospect of a court-ordered liquidation. 

In July, Australian developer Lendlease filed a statutory declaration demanding repayment of $28.4M it said it was owed. The former general contractor on the Oceanwide Plaza project threatened to file a winding-up petition if not immediately repaid. 

That petition hasn't been granted. Lendlease still has a claim against the parent company of the Oceanwide Plaza owner, and it is unclear whether or when that debt will be repaid.

Lendlease is also in a stateside legal fight over the money it says it is owed by Oceanwide. Lendlease is challenging a ruling that would have given lien priority to EB-5 investors in the project, allowing them to be repaid before Lendlease and other contractors who performed work on the site. 

Lendlease declined to comment when reached by Bisnow via email Thursday.