Friday, May 28, 2010

Washington DC Apartments Going On Auction Block

Seven apartment buildings on auction block in D.C.

Washington Business Journal - by Sarah Krouse


Under pressure from lenders to move properties off the books, seven small to mid-sized D.C. apartment buildings will head to the auction block May 26.
The properties, many of which are in Columbia Heights, include the Park Lee Apartments at 1630 Park Road NW; The Concord Apartments at 5807-5825 14th St. NW; Holmead Place at 3435 Holmead Place NW; the Maderia Apartments 1430 W St. NW; the Buena Vista at 3008-3312 Sherman Ave. NW; The Patton Arms at 5010 Southern Ave. SE and Yorkway Parkway at 2315 Lincoln Road NW.
Those seven properties, which range from 26 to 101 units, are owned by a variety of entities that are controlled by an ownership group that includes Greenbelt-based Tenacity Group and Arlington-based Landmark Atlantic Holdings LLC, according to D.C. records.
“They are all separate entities, but there’s the same general ownership group,” said Jeff Stein, the agent with auction group Tranzon Fox that is conducting the sale.
Messages left at Tenacity Group’s office were not returned.
“It’s a sale basically because these need to get moved off the books. I can’t say it’s lender forced, but there is certainly pressure to get these sold,” Stein said.
Lenders began foreclosure proceedings on a 2004 loan for the Park Lee Apartments at the end of April, according to data from New York-based research firm Trepp. The loan, set to mature in September 2011, was transferred to a special servicer in August 2009 and has a $1.7 million balance.
Lenders sent a notice of foreclosure on a loan for the Concord Apartments May 17, according to Trepp. Part of the same Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp. group of loans as the Park Lee, the Concord loan has a balance of $2.8 million and was set to mature in September 2014.
Lenders have not yet foreclosed on all of the properties, but substitute trustees were appointed for most of the apartment buildings in the first quarter of 2010, according to land records.
Unlike many properties that head to auction, the majority of the apartment buildings up for sale are still performing with occupancy topping 94 percent in four properties, and occupancy at 82 percent and 86 percent in two others.
Stein said all of the properties, built between 1927 and 1957, are rent-controlled and that the sales would be subject to the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, which gives tenant associations the right to buy the property themselves.
“We don’t anticipate major issues, but all of them are subject to TOPA,” he said.
TOPA compliance by the seller is essential to the buyer being able to get title insurance and future loans for the property, real estate legal experts said.


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