Urban Partners has handed over ownership of the Burien Town Square to its lender, Corus Venture LLC. Urban Partners is being retained by Corus to manage the property.
Pete Marino, a spokesman for S.T. Residential said the property has been transferred to BTS LLC, an affiliate of Corus S.T. Residential.
Urban Partners has been working for nearly a year to renegotiate the terms of their construction loan on the Burien Town Square Project after the original loan lender, Corus Bank, failed in October of last year.
“We are extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished with the city and the extraordinary building we have given the community; we want to continue to be involved in its success,” said Paul Keller, Principal and Founding Partner of Urban Partners, LLC.
While the loan was being negotiated none of the remaining 118 condos or retail space could be sold. This has left the project a veritable ghost town. Six of the 124 condos were sold before Corus Bank failed.
The holder of the loan threatened earlier this year to foreclose on the property this morning if Urban Partners did not pay $3.5 million before September 1st 2010. When that deadline passed Urban Partners had to either reach an agreement or pay back the remainder of the loan, $34.8 million, to avoid foreclosure.
This morning to avoid foreclosure Urban Partners handed over the property to the loan holder, Corus Venture LLC.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) formed Corus Venture LLC in December to manage the loans from the failed Corus Bank. The FDIC owns 60 percent of Corus Venture LLC, the other 40 percent is owned by private investors.
“We feel a battle over the property or a contentious bankruptcy proceeding is not in the best, long-term interest of the project, its residents, the City of Burien or Urban Partners long-standing investment in the community,” said Matt Burton, Principal and Chief Financial Officer of Urban Partners, LLC.
Marino said S.T. Residential will be taking the coming months to determine what additional investments need to be made on the property and to decide when to relaunch the condos and retail space onto the marketplace.
Burien Economic Director Dick Loman has said the units are worth 30 percent less now then they were when the project was finished in 2009.
Nothing has been done yet, but Loman has said it is likely the prices on the condo units will be decreased.