Lender Moves To Foreclose On $156M Loan Tied To Portals Office Building
One of a trio of massive office buildings in D.C.’s Southwest federal corridor is slated for a foreclosure auction.
The owners of the Portals III building at 1201 Maryland Ave. SW face foreclosure, according to a notice filed with the D.C. Recorder of Deeds. ACORE Capital Mortgage, the administrative agent for the deed of trust, issued the foreclosure notice Thursday.
Republic Properties and Samsung SRA own the property, according to the foreclosure notice. Samsung SRA made a $95M equity investment in the asset in 2014.
The building is scheduled to be auctioned at Harvey West Auctioneers on March 19 at 2 p.m., according to the notice, which says the building has a debt balance of $155.7M on a $177M loan made in September 2019.
ACORE manages the loan on behalf of a stack of lenders headed by Global Investment Fund I, a Delaware Statutory Trust, on behalf of TRE ACR portfolio.
The foreclosure notice was delivered to MetLife Investment Management, which manages the asset for Samsung and was listed as the borrower on the $177M loan in 2019. That loan has been turned over to Jeremy Root and James Meizanis Jr., partners at law firm Blankingship & Keith, as substitute trustees, according to records filed on Thursday. A foreclosure notice and affidavit were filed the same day.
MetLife Investment Management and Republic Properties CEO Steven Grigg declined to comment. ACORE Capital Mortgage didn't respond to requests for comment before publication.
Republic developed the property in 1997 for $136M. It was the third development in a trio of buildings near the Southwest waterfront, home to large federal tenants.
The Biotechnology Innovation Organization announced it was leaving its 67K SF at the property in 2021 in a move downtown. A Goodwill of Greater Washington charter school signed a lease in the building for 26K SF at the end of 2021. Newmark was chosen to lease the property in 2017.
Across the street, Portals I sold out of distress in December to London private equity firm Henderson Park in December. LNR Partners, which had purchased the property from Republic Properties at a foreclosure auction for $84M in 2017, sold the property for $26M, the Washington Business Journal reported.
Republic Properties’ downtown office building at 660 North Capitol St. NW also sold at a foreclosure sale in December, Bisnow reported. Eagle Cliff Real Estate Partners purchased the 202K SF property for $30.1M.
