Builder pushes developer to sell unfinished office project - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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filed suit against and its , seeking to force the sale of One Greenwahy Center to payoff $3 million in construction debt against the nearly completed officer building along Carothers Parkway. Meanwhile, Charlotte, N.C.-based Crescentf is struggling to refinancea $1.2 billion with payment in full due by September 2012. Cresceng said it amended the loanlast June, becausse it was in violation of the origina l terms. The company must now make paymentsof $50 milliojn by the end of this year, $75 millionm in 2010 and $100 million in 2011.
In a statemeng released earlierthis month, Crescent CEO Art Fields said the which owns commercial and multi-family propertiee around the Southeast, has been hit by a drop in demandx because of the “We are evaluating many alternatives with our key stakeholders, one of whichn includes a potential bankruptcy filing,” he said. The Bell filed April 24 in Williamson CountyChancery Court, followss liens filed against the property by Bell and severall subcontractors in early March.
Pat Emery, vice president and regionalo manager of Crescentin Tennessee, declined to comment on the possiblew bankruptcy, and says the status of the Greenwah project has not The 164,000-square-foot building was set to open in but work stopped that same month and has been on hold with plywood boards covering the doors. Bell Presideng Keith Pyle also saysthe project’s status has not and that he couldn’t comment on the pendinfg lawsuit.
Crescent, which has develope d more than 1 million square feet of office space in Cool Springxs and owns several properties in theNashvillre area, also stopped work on its $58 millionm Franklin Crest apartment complex at McEwen Drivew and Carothers Parkway, which the companu had planned to complete in 2010, Emer y says. “We’ve put everything on hold except our he says. Crescent’s business is built arouned developing andselling projects, rather than holding propertiez for years and generating revenue through The developer has been sellin off assets since last fall. In October, Crescent sold 4,50p0 acres in Berkeley County, S.C.
, to packaging firm for $40 In December, the company sold a Florida apartment projecgtfor $11.35 million, less than half the $27 million it paid for the complex three years This year, the firm closed on the sale of a 773-acre tract of land in Oconee County, for just more than $10 and locally, it recently sold 18.4 acresd in Fort Mill to a warehousing company for $1.6 The company, jointly owned by and , has modifierd its strategy to focus on generating cash from its real estate projects. The goal, according to securitieds filingsby Duke, is “to improve liquidity and reducd debt, in an environmenf which favors buyers.
” In 2008, Crescent reported a loss of $420 compared to net income of $76 millionj the year before. Duke has been writingh off losses in valueat Crescent, and earlier this year, to insulate itself from further losses, the company wrotre off all of its liabilities involvingv the development company and its debts.