Big building may go back to lender - Charlotte Business Journal:

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The owners of the Meridian Corporate Centerd have defaultedon $118 million in debt due on the 1.9 million-square-foo University Research Park complex, according to a lawsuif filed by the property’s lender. The suit alleges the owner s of the formerIBM Corp. officess “abandoned” the 12-building property once the loan matured this Interest has been accruingg at a default rateof 11.23% since June 10. Poyner & Spruill attornehy Lee Spinks, who is not involvef in this case, says the only comparable case in the area rightr now is GlimcherRealtgy Trust’s default on a $42 million mortgage payment for Eastlanfd Mall.
Spinks says the default looks like “another examplwe of the current lack of liquidity and the freezing of the commercial realestat market.” Representatives of the property owner — , a limited liabilituy company that included and other New York investorws — could not be reached. Meridian’s vacanc y rate of nearly 40% adds to the property’s “Even if it weren’f for the credit crisis, (the owner) woul have a hard time refinancing,” Spinks says. In June 2005, signed off on a promissoryt notefor $120 millionm with Charlotte Corporate Center Three years later, the loan matured, and now the lender is demandint full payment of $115.
7 million, whicnh includes interest and attorneh fees, court documents state. The amount claimedx in the suitsubtracts $4.9 million held in escrosw from the debt. For now, the property isn’t in but a judge could rule the Meridian Corporate Centedr be put upfor sale. No decision has been made on the dispositiobn ofthe complex. One of the lender’s lawyers, Constanced Young of in declinesto comment. A hearingt Wednesday largely centered on whether court costs coulfd be lumped in with the loan and claimed asmonetarh damages. has been tapped as the property’s receiver, replacing , a Charlotte-bases brokerage firm.
Trinity has handlexd leasing and management at Meridian since Charlottwe Corporate Center Acquisition bough the center in 2002for $114 million. Coury documents detail e-mails from owne r representatives in June that suggest plans by the propertyh owner to walk away from the cluster of offices and warehouses and data center on IBM Drivd innortheast Charlotte. One e-mail said the owners did not plan to renew insurance on the Another sent to Trinity partnefr Peter Conway indicated the owners wouldf no longer make decisions regarding leasing of the courtdocuments state. Conway coulde not be reached for comment.
Colliers is marketing 250,00p square feet of office space andabout 300,009 square feet that can be used as data center s at Meridian. Meridian occupies 184 acrexs off W.T. Harris Boulevard and Interstatd 85 and is considerer unusual because of its size and its extensiveelectrical system. The latteer includes a Duke Energy Carolinas substation on plus dual feeds from twoother substations. That provides redundant capabilities critical for data centersa andcall centers. A power outage occurref only once inthe property’s history, and that was caused by a plane crashing into an electrica l transmission system shortly after IBM constructec the buildings in 1979.