Carlton To Sell $400M in REO Assets & Loans
June 7, 2010
GlobeSt.com – Hortense Leon
MIAMI-With so many distressed properties in Florida, a Miami lender with loans on many of them has engaged the New York-based Carlton Exchange to auction off over $400 million of REO assets and loans on multifamily, retail, hospitality and office properties as well as land. Although the properties are scattered in various parts of Florida, most are in South Florida, especially Miami-Dade.
Included among the loan collateral being auctioned by the Carlton Exchange are: a 148-acre former golf course, once known as the California Club golf course in Miami-Dade County, which had been approved for 825 detached and multi-family homes; a new, Class A, 86,000-square-foot-office building in the city of Miami, and three small hotels on Ft. Lauderdale Beach.
According to Joe Korbar, managing director for the Carlton Exchange, the new Class A office building in Miami has 17,000 square feet of retail and 69,000 square feet of office space. Although it was designed as an office condominium, today, most of the office space is being rented, while the mortgage being sold is on 54,000 square feet.
On Ft. Lauderdale Beach, the three separate loans were taken out by one mortgagor on an assemblage of low-rise, older hotels. The city of Ft. Lauderdale had approved a plan for a 22-story resort on the property on April 15, 2008. One of the existing hotels is known as the Tropic Cay motel.
There are lots of failed residential condominium conversions, many with 200 units or more, in this group of properties, which, for the most part, are in receivership, says Korbar, who adds that they have high occupancy rates as rentals, which makes them cash-flowing assets. “They represent a great opportunity for investors who can come in, continue the foreclosure process, which in Florida can take up to two years, and collect the rents,” he says. “When the market turns and property values stabilize, investors will have an asset purchased at a fairly low cost basis,” says Korbar.
