Lenders and investors are continuing to work through distress across multiple U.S. office, retail and multifamily assets, with recent deeds-in-lieu, foreclosures and auctions signaling ongoing repricing in several downtown cores.
In Seattle’s University District, the Chapter Buildings office and life science campus changed hands on June 30 via a deed in lieu of foreclosure. The owners transferred the newly completed 10- and 12-story towers, totaling more than 400,000 square feet, to Bank OZK to satisfy a $196 million loan originated in 2022, according to King County records cited by the Puget Sound Business Journal. The move ends the ownership stake of Touchstone, an affiliate of Urban Renaissance Group, and its partners Portman Holdings and Lionstone Investments.
In downtown Pittsburgh, Great Neck, NY-based Namdar Realty Group has emerged as the new owner of the approximately 1.5-million-square-foot Gateway Center complex. The firm lists the iconic office property on its website as a “note” buy, following a foreclosure action filed by Wells Fargo Bank against Hertz Gateway Center LP in October 2024. The loan, which entered special servicing in August 2024, was originally sized at $112 million and had an outstanding balance of $91.8 million.
Philadelphia’s North Broad Street corridor saw resolution of a long-running multifamily workout. An entity tied to Florida-based Kayne Anderson Real Estate acquired the 265-unit Lofts 640 apartment building for $40.5 million from a CMBS trust, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. The trust had held a $46 million loan that matured in late 2021 and took title to the property after a foreclosure judgment in March 2023. The loft-style asset at 630-40 N. Broad St. was originally built in 1913 and redeveloped in 2006.
In San Francisco, a former WeWork location near Market Street changed owners through a receivership sale. Seven Equity Group purchased 25 Taylor St., a roughly 50,000-square-foot office building connected to the Golden Gate Theatre at the intersection of Mid-Market and the Tenderloin, for $6.75 million, as reported by the San Francisco Business Times. War Horse Cities acquired the property in 2012 for $6 million and converted it to a WeWork that opened in 2013, but the coworking operator’s 2021 closure left the building largely vacant.
Downtown Denver’s office market is seeing sharply lower pricing at auction. The 149,222-square-foot Columbine Place tower at 216 16th St. drew a high bid of just under $3.53 million, implying roughly $23.60 per square foot, the Denver Business Journal reported. The building had previously secured a $15.5 million loan in 2015, and its assessed value remains close to $8 million. Separately, a full-block office property at 16th and Sherman streets in Denver’s Capitol Hill area is scheduled for an Aug. 17-19 auction with a starting bid of $1.5 million, in what appears to be a lender-driven sale after a 2018 loan was not repaid.
Further signs of stress are emerging in Albany and Georgia retail. In downtown Albany, a life insurance company holding a $30.5 million mortgage on the 12-story, 207,000-square-foot building at 80 State St. and its adjacent 486-space garage has initiated foreclosure, asserting missed payments in May and June, according to the Albany Business Review. Meanwhile, Morningstar Credit reports that Augusta Mall, backing a CMBS loan totaling $155.3 million in the WFRBS 2013-C15 and WFRBS 2013-C16 transactions (CMBX.7), has transferred to special servicing ahead of its August 2026 maturity after two prior loan modifications failed to restore performance.
