New York City-based global banking and investment management firm Goldman Sachs and San Francisco-based multifamily owner and operator Ballast Investments handed over 82 apartment buildings with approximately 1,211 units in three portfolios to affiliates of the Royal Bank of Canada on July 17.

RBC plans to have San Francisco-based apartment owner and manager Hamilton Zanze operate the three portfolios while they are under the bank’s control. The firm’s management arm, Denver-based Mission Rock Residential, has begun receiving tax statements for the portfolios.

In July, California lender Prime Finance sued MSA North LLC, an entity established by Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins Properties, for nearly $101 million in a foreclosure filing after the apartment developer allegedly defaulted on payments on a 27-story high-rise in its hometown.

Prime is asking the court to foreclose on the property and sell it at auction, with the proceeds going to pay debt and foreclosure costs.

Crescent Heights retained control of the 754-unit NEMA San Francisco apartment complex after paying its lenders $10.5 million, according to a July report in the San Francisco Business Times. The Miami-based developer will retain control of NEMA if it does not default on debt connected to the property, according to a modification agreement in February. 

After the capital infusion, lenders reduced the interest rate of a $60 million note, which is part of a $384 million loan backed by the complex. A second $50 million note’s interest was reduced to 0%, and lenders agreed to waive payments on it until the debt on the building matures in February 2029. 

The 13-story, 99-unit Tribeca NoMa project, a joint venture between Urban Investment Partners, Kadida Development, Alliance Development and United Investment, is being foreclosed upon. The property, which is 89% occupied, is set for auction on June 20 at Towson, Maryland-based Alex Cooper Auctioneers.

Silver Spring, Maryland-based HH Fund bought Ranger Properties’ 110-unit project in the Union Market neighborhood of Washington, D.C., for $38.3 million at a foreclosure auction on May 23.

Srinivas Chavali, who bought The Lanes at Union Market’s note from lender Eagle Capital in January, took the property to auction at Alex Cooper Auctioneers. The $33.7 million construction loan, made by Eagle in 2019, increased to $39.5 million in 2020 and came due in 2023.

New York City-based global banking and investment management firm Goldman Sachs and San Francisco-based multifamily owner and operator Ballast Investments are expected to hand 1,200 San Francisco apartments to Toronto-based lender RBC Real Estate Capital Corp. after defaulting on the properties’ debt last year.

Essex Property Trust assumed the common equity interest in a 75-unit property in Sunnyvale, California, in the first quarter of 2024, according to the REIT’s Q1 earnings release.

The Palo Alto, California-based firm said it had provided a $14.7 million preferred equity investment for the property. While it didn’t identify the property or the owner, in a recent Linkedin post the REIT announced it had added the 75-unit Maxwell Sunnyvale to its portfolio. The property had been owned by Daville, California-based owner Tilden Properties.

Parkmerced, a 3,221-unit apartment complex in San Francisco, is in special servicing, according to information shared with Multifamily Dive from data firm Morningstar Credit in April.

Parkmerced’s debt package includes $1.5 billion of securitized debt and $275 million of mezzanine debt. Maximus Real Estate Partners, the San Francisco-based borrower, requested the transfer into special servicing due to the property’s high vacancy rate and a looming loan maturity in December 2024,  according to Morningstar. 

A one-year-old, 110-unit apartment building owned by New York City-based Ranger Properties in Washington D.C.’s Union Market neighborhood is going into foreclosure in May.

Srinivas Chavali, who bought The Lanes at Union Market’s note from lender Eagle Capital in January, will take the property to auction on May 23 at Alex Cooper Auctioneers. The $33.7 million construction loan, made by Eagle in 2019, increased to $39.5 million in 2020 and came due in 2023, according to Bisnow. 

Arbor Realty Trust foreclosed on 41 Marietta St., a 13-story, 135,000-square-foot office tower in downtown Atlanta that was slated to be turned into a 120-unit apartment building.

The owner, 41 Marietta Street Main GA LLC, is an affiliate of Plano, Texas-based Wolfe Investments, which took out a $20 million loan in July 2021. The building is slated to be auctioned on May 7 at the Fulton County Courthouse.

New York City-based apartment owner Conway Capital had three Brooklyn properties transferred to special servicing despite 100% occupancy, according to a report shared with Multifamily Dive by Morningstar DBRS in February.

Two apartment buildings — 350 5th Street and 372 Baltic Street — were backed by a $6.3 million loan. The third building — 566 7th Street — had a $5.9 million loan and has been delinquent for several months, according to Morningstar DBRS. 

Gotham Organization and Carlyle Group recently bought the Aire, a 43-story, 310-unit luxury property on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City in February, from A&R Kalimian Realty, according to the New York Post.

A&R Kalimian Realty, which developed the building in 2013, was staring down the expiration of roughly $200 million in mortgage loans. The firm decided not to seek new financing and sold the property to Gotham and Carlyle for $265 million, according to the Post.

In Janurary, UDR assumed the ownership interest of a 173-unit lease-up property in Oakland, California, built by developer Mill Creek Residential after the Atlanta-based developer told the REIT it would not fund its share of a capital call, according to the Highlands Ranch, Colorado-based REIT’s fourth-quarter earnings release.

In April 2019, UDR provided $45.2 million in preferred equity to Mill Creek to construct the property, originally known as Modera Lake Merritt. The REIT began consolidating the joint venture in December 2023 and recorded a non-cash investment loss of $24.3 million after the developer gave up its equity interest.

Areeif Lender W LLC, an affiliate of New York City-based lender Ares Commercial Real Estate, foreclosed on Greystar’s Gabriella high-rise located east of downtown Dallas in February, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Charleston, South Carolina-based Greystar, which did not respond to comment from Multifamily Dive, received a $127 million mortgage from Areeif in 2020, according to The Dallas Morning News. 

An entity of Los Angeles-based FMB Development, led by CEO Ilan Kenig, filed for bankruptcy in December on a project that it planned to build but never started at 7111 North Sepulveda Blvd. in Van Nuys, California, according to court documents.

FMB defaulted on the project’s loan to build the six-story, 180-unit complex in October, according to The Real Deal. It paid $9.5 million for the site in 2018. In court documents, the property was listed as a $7 million asset.

The special servicer for eight commercial mortgage-backed securities loans in New York City has instructed its legal counsel to foreclose on the 28 workforce properties that back the loans, according to a recent press release from credit rating agency DBRS Morningstar in Janurary. It did not name the servicer.

The eight loans, which back 747 units in multiple neighborhoods in the Bronx, were delinquent and in special servicing as of November. The properties are owned by New York City-based Emerald Equity Group. The company, which is led by CEO Isaac Kassirer, cited non-paying tenants and inflated expenses as the source of the payment issues. 

A 264-unit Houston-area property recently owned by Austin, Texas-based GVA Real Estate Group went to auction on Dec. 5, according to Bisnow and Harris County, Texas, public records.

The garden-style Retreat at Stafford offers rents ranging from $1,049 to $1,999 and one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging in size from 752 to 1,508 square feet, according to its Apartments.com listing. 

Five Delaware-registered LLCs originally borrowed $288.6 million from Greenwich, Connecticut-based LoanCore Capital Credit REIT for The Retreat at Stafford. The entities are also tied to apartment complexes in Richardson and Lewisville, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; and Greenville, South Carolina, according to Bisnow. GVA owns all five complexes.

A high-profile office-to-apartment conversion — the 215,245-square-foot former BMO Harris bank tower in Phoenix —  went into foreclosure in November, according to Axios Phoenix. 

Maricopa, Arizona-based Camelback Owner LLC, which planned to convert the tower into a luxury apartment called One Camelback, defaulted on its $71.3 million loan in June, according to the Phoenix Business Journal.

The value of the collateral behind the $384 million loan backing the NEMA San Francisco apartment complex that sits next to the headquarters of social media giant X (formerly known as Twitter) fell below the loan balance, according to an October report from real estate data firm Trepp.

In 2018, the collateral behind the 754-unit apartment complex — developed, owned and operated by Miami-based real estate firm Crescent Heights — was valued at $543.6 million. It was recently lowered to $279 million. In August, the loan was sent to special servicing.

The Landings at Northpoint, a 292-unit complex in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Houston, was sold at a foreclosure auction in October, according to Bisnow. The Real Deal said the property, owned by an LLC linked to Michigan-based investor Dylan Borland, received a $20 million loan from Prudential Affordable Mortgage Company in 2021. Special servicer CWCapital now oversees the loan.

In September, MF1 Capital foreclosed on a 282-unit complex in Houston after making a $49.9 million bid for the property. The previous owner, Houston-based Rockstar Capital, defaulted on a $51 million loan tied to the property. MF1 provided that loan and subsequently rolled it into a packaged loan obligation, according to The Real Deal.

Rockstar’s problems mirror those many other apartment firms are facing right now. By the end of 2022, the debt service coverage ratio dropped to 0.96 at Rockstar’s 282-unit complex in Houston. At the same time, occupancy had fallen below 75%, according to The Real Deal.

A group of New York City workforce apartments is facing financial stress, according to a September report from credit ratings agency DBRS Morningstar.

Emerald Equities’ 28-property portfolio, comprising 747 units in multiple neighborhoods in the Bronx, is secured by eight loans. Seven of those loans, covering 25 properties and 663 units, were transferred to special servicing over the summer for imminent monetary default.

The Emerald portfolio is reporting cash flows significantly below issuance expectations, as the properties backing the defaulted loans continue to “show sharp value declines from the issuance appraised values,” according to DBRS Morningstar.

The nearly 3,200-unit Parkmerced apartment complex, which carries $1.5 billion in debt, was highlighted as a “problematic property” by Trepp in August. The complex’s occupancy declined from 94% to 76% between 2019 and 2020. The debt service coverage ratio of the three loans backed by the asset fell to 0.39x in 2022.

Trepp in August reported that the five-asset Mosser Swig portfolio, which has DSCR levels below 1.2x, was affected by problems in San Francisco. “A significant majority of these properties are situated within a mile of the Tenderloin neighborhood, which is identified as the epicenter of crime affected business areas,” it said in a report.

A $384 million loan backed by NEMA San Francisco, a 754-unit residential tower in San Francisco next to the headquarters of social media giant X (formerly known as Twitter), has been sent to special servicing, according to a report from real estate data firm Trepp. 

The property — developed, owned and operated by Miami-based real estate firm Crescent Heights — began struggling financially around the time of the COVID-19 shutdowns, according to Trepp. The loan’s debt service coverage ratio level has posted below 1.0x since 2020, and its net cash flow has come in below 1.0x since late July. 

The loan faces imminent default, according to Trepp, and the borrower has stated in writing that it can no longer cover the monthly debt service.—Mary Salmonsen contributed to this report.

Twenty-three buildings holding 762 rent-controlled apartments owned by San Francisco-based Veritas Investments are on the market as of March.

In November, San Francisco-based Prado Group took over loans backed by 20 properties in San Francisco from Veritas, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. In February, New York City-based Brookfield Properties and San Francisco-based Ballast Investments acquired notes and then foreclosed on other Veritas buildings, encompassing 2,165 units, according to The Real Deal. 

A $195.8 million loan backing The Aire, a 310-unit luxury apartment tower in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, went into special servicing in June, according to a Trepp email shared with Multifamily Dive. The asset is owned by New York City-based A&R Kalimian, according to Commercial Observer.

Trepp reports that the occupancy at the property, which also has street-level retail, fell from 97% in 2018 to 70% in 2020. Although occupancy rebounded to 97%, The Aire’s debt service coverage ratio has sat below 1.0x since 2017. The DSCR dropped to 0.36x in 2021 before rising to 0.84 times in 2022.

In 2013, The Aire was valued at $365 million. The current loan, which matures in November, is broken up into a $117.5 million piece and a $78.3 million slice. The deals are part of the CMBX 7 index, which includes a mix of retail, office, multifamily, lodging and industrial loans.

Loans backing 61 beleaguered multifamily properties in San Francisco were offered for sale in May, according to The San Francisco Business Times.

Two securitized deals back the properties, owned by a joint venture between San Francisco-based Veritas Investments and affiliates of Boston-based Baupost Group, according to data provider Trepp. One has a balance of almost $350 million, while the other has a balance of $104 million. There is also non-securitized debt by insurance companies, bringing the total debt stack to almost $675 million, according to a Trepp note shared with Multifamily Dive.

The properties are struggling from an occupancy perspective, only sitting at 65%, according to Trepp. Last year, the data provider put out a report saying that “the loan was facing imminent maturity default and that the borrower was not going to exercise its extension option.” 

Arbor Realty Trust foreclosed on four Houston apartment properties totaling 3,200 units after Dallas-based Applesway Investment Group defaulted on nearly $230 million in loans in April.

In a statement to Multifamily Dive, Arbor said that it took no loss on the loans and restructured the debt, despite reports saying otherwise. New York City–based investment firm Fundamental Partners, an existing investor, recapitalized the transaction.

Applesway, led by founder Jay Gajavelli, purchased the Heights at Post Oak, Redford Apartments, Reserve at Westwood and Timber Ridge Apartments between August 2021 and April 2022.

A $270.35 million loan backing 11 apartment properties — totaling 637 units — owned by Blackstone went into special servicing in February, according to Trepp.  

Sources told Multifamily Dive that Blackstone’s 11-property portfolio faced certain deal-specific headwinds, including higher-than-expected capital expenditures and increased borrowing costs for floating-rate debt.

Although Blackstone remains committed to apartments, sources said the company believed it was not in its best interest to continue to fund shortfalls at the Manhattan properties. By letting the assets go into servicing, the company can engage its lenders about how to best move forward.

The Chetrit Group has taken steps to reduce its debt in an 8,671-unit portfolio comprising 43 properties in 10 states. The $481 million loan backing the assets went into special servicing for default in November, according to Trepp.

The New York City–based firm paid down $100 million of the loan in November and is under contract to sell 12 of the assets in the loan pool in Tennessee, Florida, Indiana and Ohio, according to The Real Deal. The company is working with special servicer SitusAMC on a forbearance agreement, a spokesperson told The Real Deal. The property sales should bring in roughly $175 million.

In addition to the 43-property portfolio, Chetrit’s $225 million mortgage, securitized through PKHL Commercial Mortgage Trust, for the 538-unit Parkhill City apartment complex in Queens, New York, was newly delinquent at year-end. The property was not stabilized when the loan was originated, according to Trepp. 

A joint venture between San Francisco-based Veritas Investments and affiliates of Boston-based Baupost Group has defaulted on a $448 million loan backing 1,734 rent-controlled units in 62 multifamily properties across San Francisco, according to Fitch Ratings.

The Veritas multifamily pool comprised over 40% of the maturity default volume in commercial mortgage-backed securities in November. Sixty-plus day delinquencies jumped from $283 million in November to $911 million across commercial real estate in December. Thirty-day delinquencies increased to $642 million in December from $514 million in November, according to Fitch.