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Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group is in default on a $212.5 million mortgage backed by an Atlanta office tower, another sign of mounting distress in US commercial real estate.
The mortgage on Tower Place 100, in the Georgia capital’s Buckhead district, matured on July 9 and Starwood failed to refinance or pay off the debt, according to a filing compiled by Computershare.
“Borrower confirmed they are unable to payoff the loan at maturity,” the filing says, adding the lenders have hired counsel and are negotiating an agreement.
A representative for Starwood, with more than $115 billion in assets under management, declined to comment.
Corporate landlords, including Blackstone Inc. and Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., have stopped making payments on office buildings they’ve deemed to be money-losers as vacancies increased with the growing acceptance of remote work. In addition, borrowers’ financing costs have soared as the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to cool inflation and property values have declined.
The delinquency rate for offices with commercial mortgage-backed securities swelled to 4.5% in June from 1.7% a year earlier, financing-data firm Trepp reported. Most CMBS financing is non-recourse, which means owners can walk away from properties without exposing themselves to further financial damages.
Tower Place 100 was 62% leased as of the end of 2022, down from 87% in 2018 when the loan was originated. Among the 29-story building’s biggest tenants is WeWork Inc., the office-sharing company co-founded by Adam Neumann that has struggled financially.
The Atlanta area’s office-vacancy rate climbed to 22.4% in the second quarter, compared with the US average of 20.6%, according to brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
