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Tempe Centerpoint towers in foreclosure
By Chris | February 2, 2010
The empty Centerpoint high-rise condominium towers that loom over Tempe, once a symbol of the city’s downtown residential boom, have fallen into foreclosure.
A foreclosure auction date is set for April, according to documents filed on Tuesday with the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office. The property could be sold to the highest bidder.
ML Manager LLC, acting on behalf of a dizzying list of investors, filed foreclosure on the high-rises. Officials for ML Manager placed the unpaid principal of condo developer Tempe Land Co. LLC at $135 million. Tempe Land is a subsidiary of Tempe-based Avenue Communities LLC.
Centerpoint’s foreclosure is the second high-profile Valley development to be foreclosed on in less than two weeks.
Chicago-based Capmark Finance filed to foreclose on Phoenix’s CityNorth’s High Street, the first and only phase of the 144-acre development to be built so far. A foreclosure auction date for High Street is set for March 31, according to county-recorder documents filed on Dec. 30.
Centerpoint Condominiums’ path to foreclosure shares similarities with High Street’s financial collapse.
Both were victims of the recession, built at the peak of the real-estate boom and almost ready to open when the bust began. Both faltered when lenders filed for bankruptcy protection.
Centerpoint broke ground in downtown Tempe in 2005. The development was to include an estimated 375 condos in two towers near Maple and Sixth streets. The project was to include an upscale retail plaza, fine dining and a winery.
The Tempe City Council waived height requirements to approve the 22 and 30-story buildings. Tempe leaders hailed the coming of hundreds of affluent condo dwellers and wagered Mill Avenue’s future on the promise of an urban mecca.
Instead, weathered plastic tarps now drape the windowless towers, and the fenced structures have become shelters for transients.
Centerpoint’s slide became public when Mortgages Ltd., once the state’s largest private commercial real-estate lender, went bankrupt in 2008 after the suicide of CEO Scott Coles. Centerpoint Condominiums was among the lender’s many investments.
Although Tempe Land principal Ken Losch sought to secure additional financing to complete the project, the collapse of the financial markets froze lending. Mortgages Ltd. investors’ wrangling to protect their losses created hurdles.
After the bankruptcy, the investors formed a new company, ML Manager, the company that is foreclosing on the condos.
Much of Centerpoint’s first 22-story tower was complete when Tempe Land began looking for new financing. Thirty-story Tower II was about half done when Tempe Land filed for bankruptcy in 2008.
Mark Winkleman, a chief operating officer for ML Manager, is part of the team representing the collection of real-estate moguls, Phoenix Suns players and the hundreds of other investors who had a stake in Mortgages Ltd. Winkleman said that buyers already are inquiring about Centerpoint.
“It’s a high-profile project . . . in a terrific location that’s attracted the attention of major companies around the country looking for a project like this that needs to be completed,” he said.
ML Manager’s investors will vote on the project’s future.
Source: Arizona Republic, Dianna N. Nanez, January 11th, 2010
Topics: Foreclosures/Bank Owned, Uncategorized | No Comments »