News & Events
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July 28, 2021
Commercial Banking
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Jul 26 -
Citigroup is poised to take over as the underwriter of a $95 million municipal-bond sale that will finance the construction of an indoor water park in Atlantic City, New Jersey, replacing previous underwriter Janney Montgomery Scott. The Atlantic County Improvement Authority, the agency that is issuing the debt on behalf of a private developer, is scheduled to meet in a special session to vote on Citigroup’s appointment. The decision to replace Janney was made after the Philadelphia-based underwriter was unable to sell the unrated bonds despite surging investor demand for high-yield debt. The planned 100,000-square-foot theme park marks an effort to draw more families to Atlantic City, whose tourism industry has struggled for years after other East Coast states legalized gambling.
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Jul 26 -
JPMorgan became the first major U.S. bank to offer crypto funds to retail customers beyond the very wealthy. The bank said wealth-management advisors could receive trading orders for five funds invested in the asset class: Four are offered by Grayscale Investments and one is available from Osprey Funds. The funds give investors indirect exposure to Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Ethereum Classic. The investment vehicles are available to JPMorgan clients who use a variety of wealth-management products: self-directed customers that use the bank’s Chase trading app, mass-affluent JPMorgan Advisors users, and ultrarich private bank customers.
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Jul 22 -
Velocity Ventures Partners landed more than $100 million in CMBS financing for three last-mile industrial assets in the Philadelphia region. Wells Fargo supplied a $75 million senior loan with Morrison Street Capital chipping in a $10 million mezzanine loan for Velocity's Lansdale Portfolio, which comprises two properties totaling 1.1 million square feet. JPMorgan Chase also provided a $17.75 million CMBS loan for the Pennsauken Logistics Center, which Velocity acquired from Aluminum Shapes in February 2020 for $10.1 million. Velocity purchased the Lansdale Portfolio last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the properties, located at 2750 Morris Road and 1180 Church Road, were at a combined 55% occupancy. Occupancy has since been raised to more than 90%.
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Real Estate Finance
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Jul 27 -
The Hakimian Organization landed a $156 million construction loan for its residential project in Queens that will have nearly a third of its units designated as affordable housing. A partnership of Canyon Partners Real Estate and Pacific Western Bank provided the construction financing to the firm’s affiliate HG Capital. Meridian Capital Group brokered the construction loan. With the financing in place, the developer is expected to start construction in July for an expected competition in 2024. The 12-story residential building will offer 364 units in studio and one- to three-bedroom floorplans that average 665 square feet. Canyon Partners said 20% of the units will be reserved for those making 80% AMI and 10% of the units at 130% AMI.
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Jul 26 -
TPA Group secured a $51 million loan from Deutsche Bank’s New York branch for a mixed-use development in Pembroke Pines, Fla. Plans for the development — located between 1200 and 1300 SW 145th Avenue along Interstate 75 — include three office buildings, 350 apartments and a hotel, though the developer is still waiting for approvals. TPA purchased the assemblage of parcels for a combined $17.3 million between 2017 and 2021, according to property records. So far, the site holds a 177,346-square-foot office building called Edison Pembroke Pines, which was delivered in 2019.
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Jul 26 -
US Senior LLC received $48 million of construction financing to build a rental community in Sarasota, Fla., for adults over the age of 55. Trez Capital is providing the construction loan for The Alloro at University Groves, a 183-unit apartment complex to be constructed on six acres. The project is underway and expected to be completed in roughly two years.
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Commercial Bankruptcy
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Jul 26 -
A California environmental regulatory agency lost its appeal of the Chapter 11 plan of battery recycler Exide Holdings when a Delaware federal judge said it would be a moot exercise to unwind the company's confirmed bankruptcy plan. In an opinion from U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Andrews, the court said the appeal of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control was equitably moot because Exide's plan that transferred its 10 facilities into an environmental remediation trust to maintain and clean up the locations had been largely consummated and the agency wasn't facing any risk that the debtor's site in California would be abandoned. The DTSC filed its appeal in October 2020, days after a Delaware bankruptcy judge confirmed Exide's Chapter 11 plan. Judge Andrews denied the agency's request to delay the effectiveness of the confirmation order pending the results of the appeal, after which the DTSC complied with the terms of the remediation settlement embodied in the plan by filing a covenant not to sue Exide. As a result, the Vernon, California, site that is the focus of the DTSC's involvement in the bankruptcy case was transferred to the environmental remediation trust and $2.6 million of remediation funds were made available under the terms of the Chapter 11 plan in addition to $26 million already pledged by Exide prior to its bankruptcy case.
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Jul 23 -
A downtown Miami hotel filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Florida bankruptcy court in an attempt to escape what it claims is a loan servicer's aggressive foreclosure attempt on its $17 million mortgage. Pedro Villar, manager of the Aloft Miami Brickell hotel, which is owned by Mary Brickell Village Hotel LLC, claimed the hotel's mortgage servicers deliberately failed to engage with its attempts to negotiate a plan to deal with the hotel's loss of income due to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to seize the property. Villar claimed that in March 2020, the hotel contacted loan servicer Wells Fargo to create a contingency plan in case the loss of income made loan payments difficult. However, he said Wells Fargo informed the hotel the loan had been transferred to an affiliate of Torchlight Investors, which demanded the payment of default interest and servicer and legal fees, he said. The hotel believed the payments were unjustified because it had reasonably relied on statements by Wells Fargo that it would help the hotel. He said the company intends to use the bankruptcy to either cure the alleged mortgage defaults and reinstate the loan on market terms or pay off the debt in full after right-sizing Torchlight's claims.
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Jul 23 -
A Delaware bankruptcy judge provisionally approved a $152 million sale of the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel to Carmel Partners Realty VII, LLC. The hotel sought Chapter 11 protection in January after the pandemic and a court ruling forced its shutdown. At the time, the Marriott-flagged hotel reported $130 million in secured debt and was struggling to complete millions of dollars worth of court-ordered improvements mandated by Marriott Hotels Services Management.
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