Bank of America Tower Foreclosed, Sells for Half Price
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- The Bank of America Plaza building in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., Feb. 6, 2012.
With the forced public auction yesterday of Bank of America’s signature 55-story office tower in Atlanta, the U.S. foreclosure crisis–commercial division–just got significantly worse.
Atlanta’s troubles and those of other cities, say experts, are the result both of overbuilding and of the issuance of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) that inflated office building prices. Nationwide, some $5.8 billion worth of five-year office loans, bundled into CMBS, must now be refinanced. With all that debt coming due, experts predict, more distressed properties will soon come to market, and the price per square foot of commercial office space will continue to fall.
“It’s a fine building, a beautiful building, and still very much a landmark,” Atlanta real estate expert Kirk Diamond, speaking to Bloomberg News, said of the former Bank of America Plaza. “It just needs to be recapitalized.”
The tallest tower in the U.S. Southeast went for $235 million at auction, after landlord BentleyForbes had missed mortgage payments. BentleyForbes bought the building from Bank of America Corp. in 2006 for $436 million.
More than 25 percent of loans on commercial buildings in Atlanta that were bundled into bonds are delinquent, the highest rate of the largest U.S. metro areas, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
BofA sold what had been its namesake office tower in San Francisco, the bank’s original home, for $1.05 billion in 2005. The black, 52-story crenelated edifice is now called 555 California Street.
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Where are all the right wing cries about commie Fannie and Freddie promoting market collapse?
This foreclosure is a perfect example of the rebublica no robber barons getting their just deserts.
CMBS= one example of the 1%’er grand theft of the USA.
Posted by: Robert | February 8, 2012, 12:43 pm 12:43 pm
“Atlanta’s troubles and those of other cities, say experts, are the result both of overbuilding and of the issuance of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) that inflated office building prices. Nationwide, some $5.8 billion worth of five-year office loans, bundled into CMBS, must now be refinanced. With all that debt coming due, experts predict, more distressed properties will soon come to market, and the price per square foot of commercial office space will continue to fall.”————————– Bu but but Fannie and Freddie !!! Wah , it’s all Obama’s fault because I say it is !!
Posted by: Rusch Limberger | February 8, 2012, 1:03 pm 1:03 pm
Sucks when Bank of America can’t even give themselves a “loan modification”. Ha!
Posted by: tstorm | February 8, 2012, 1:19 pm 1:19 pm
‘ll bet if this tower had any name besides Bank of America we wouldn’t be reading about this foreclosure.
Posted by: Centrist | February 8, 2012, 2:44 pm 2:44 pm
“Sucks when Bank of America can’t even give themselves a “loan modification”. Ha!” — Um, Bank of America didn’t own the building. The article says they sold it in 2006. You might want to read more than the headline.
Posted by: Working_Class | February 8, 2012, 3:28 pm 3:28 pm
Hmm. I’m thinking maybe if they had lowered the wages and bonuses of the CEOs maybe they could have prevented this from happening.
It’s funny, though, really funny to see BoA get bitten by their own dog, so to speak.
Posted by: MP | February 8, 2012, 5:24 pm 5:24 pm
This structure may be NAMED the Bank of America building, but it is not owned by BofA. It is just another multi-story commercial office building that happens to have a name that can be used in a headline to inflate the number of people who will read the “article”. How many of us would have come here if the title was “Landlord No One Has Heard Of has Office Building Foreclosed, Sold for Half They Originally Paid”
Posted by: AGFATOZO | February 8, 2012, 6:10 pm 6:10 pm
Some people cannot read. Bank of America didnt own the property.
Posted by: rippedpockets | February 8, 2012, 7:13 pm 7:13 pm
……Give a bank enough rope, well you know the rest.
Posted by: RP---STAR | February 8, 2012, 7:18 pm 7:18 pm