New York Life Posts Foreclosure Notice on D.C. High-Rise
Tokyo-based investment firm Unizo Holdings acquired the building in 2017 amid its D.C. office buying spree, but still owes more than $100M.
By Nick Trombola November 14, 2024 4:56 pm
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The lender on a Washington, D.C., building owned by a bankrupt Japanese investment firm has filed a foreclosure notice on the property.
In the latest tale of D.C. office distress, New York Life Real Estate Investors has foreclosed on 1111 19th Street NW, a 12-story high-rise spanning roughly 263,000 square feet in D.C.’s Golden Triangle neighborhood. An affiliate of Tokyo-based Unizo Holdings owes $107.4 million in outstanding debt on a $115 million loan New York Life provided in 2017, according to the Business Journals, citing property records.
Unizo spent $203 million on the building in 2017, acquiring it from Clarion Partners. The deal was just one of several the investor made for D.C. office buildings in the mid- to late 2010s, spending some $1.2 billion on properties in 2016 and 2017.
Yet just a few years later, Unizo was marketing those properties for sale. That included 820 First Street NE, a 280,000-square-foot building that the company said it was willing to part with at an “extraordinary loss,” though a deal for the property fell through due to the nascent COVID-19 pandemic.
Unizo ultimately filed for bankruptcy protection in April of 2023.
A representative for New York Life did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Unizo could not immediately be reached.
The foreclosure notice is the latest in a long series of distressed properties in Washington, D.C., lately. Earlier this month, Bridge Investment Group foreclosed on a 117-unit building, dubbed The Rushmore, in the District’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. In late October, Blackstone Mortgage Trust was handed the keys to a four-property portfolio in D.C.’s L’Enfant Plaza, which it acquired at auction.
New York Life meanwhile filed foreclosure notices on two other D.C. properties owned by Unizo in October, per the Business Journals — 1030 15th Street NW, dubbed The Executive Building, and 1341 G Street NW, dubbed The Colorado Building. New York Life provided $165 million in financing toward the properties in mid-2017.
Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.
