Lender Takes Back Maryland Offices at Foreclosure Rather Than Taking Haircuts

... and rather than allowing affordable housing to be built (truly, a fate worse than death!):

A few of the other properties garnered bids from the crowd, but for each one, the lender was willing to go higher. Ultimately, the lender took over the buildings at 962 Wayne Ave. in Silver Spring and 51 Monroe St., 11300 Rockville Pike, 600 Jefferson Plaza and 6110 Executive Blvd. in Rockville.

McLean-based Elm Street Development tried its hand at acquiring the 1970-built Executive Boulevard building. Jason Wiley, a vice president who leads the firm's acquisitions and development in the region, bid against the lender up until $12M, which he told Bisnow was its limit. The lender took the 206K SF property for $12.5M.

Wiley said the firm would have transformed the property into affordable housing — likely through demolition. Nearby, Tri Pointe Homes is building townhomes, and he believes the county would have wanted to see it redeveloped into housing.

The six properties up for auction Friday were half of a 12-property portfolio that a Brookfield fund purchased in two tranches in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, it securitized its $223.4M senior loan as a CMBS.

The five properties that went to the lender were from a 2016 office portfolio acquisition from Washington Real Estate Investment Trust.