Loop Building In Danger Of Foreclosure

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Feb 3, 2009 7:20PM

Illinois ranked ninth in the country for total number of foreclosed properties in 2008 -- at almost 100,000 -- but it’s not just homeowners who are suffering. A New York-based investment firm has only a few days left to pay off more than $48 million in loans on the building at 500 W. Monroe St., or it could be become the first Chicago skyscraper in a decade to face foreclosure, Crain’s Chicago Business reports.

Broadway Partners Fund Manager LLC bought the 46-story tower for $336.7 million in 2007 at the peak of the real-estate market. If Broadway does not make its February 9 payment deadline, it is expected that its loan-holder, the Chicago-based Transwestern Investment Co., would foreclose quickly on the property. The last major Loop foreclosure was in 1999 when Travelers Insurance Co. took control of One Financial Place at 440 S. LaSalle St.

Experts say the undecided fate of 500 W. Monroe is an unsettling marker of a darker trend: in 2009 even major office buildings are having a hard time coping with the economy. More than 77,000 Chicago properties were foreclosed in 2008 -- which was a 53 percent increase over the rate in 2007 - according to data in a January report issued by property-listing site RealtyTrac.

Post By Kalyn Belsha
Image from 500 W. Monroe's site