OFFICE: Two, class-A office buildings in downtown Greenville, SC of which we took possession via a mezzanine loan foreclosure. With the senior lender demanding a deed in the box and an immediate sale, a lease was negotiated with the largest tenant in this very small market, increasing the buildings’ occupancy to 74%, and allowing the property to be marketed as a lease-to-stabilization play rather than as empty buildings, thereby creating significant value for our position.
CONDO-HOTEL: A luxury, 580-unit, condo-hotel project in North Miami Beach, FL., which required innovative strategies to respond to constantly-changing financial, legal, and physical conditions. The strategies we employed included 1) negotiating a deed in lieu of foreclosure with the developer, 2) negotiating a revised hotel management agreement, 3) convincing the bankruptcy court to invest capital for a property-wide cosmetic upgrade to spur condo sales, 4) launching, with bankruptcy court approval, a $200MM residential mortgage lending program, which facilitated selling out all but 4 of the condo units, and 5) structuring the eventual sale of the property.
HOTEL: A 486-room hotel occupying a building with a department store that was ground leased from the City of Cincinnati. We took possession of the hotel via foreclosure. With very little negotiating leverage, brought the retailer and the city to the table and led negotiations to buy out the ground lease and enable our exit culminating in a $61 million sale, more than double the value of a leasehold.