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Will Whittle be around next year?
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Anonymous
| The WBJ has finally woken up! |
Anonymous
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Can anyone get access to that latest story?
https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2022/02/11/whittle-school-foreclose-building-intelsat.html |
Anonymous
The D.C. building occupied by the Whittle School is the subject of a scheduled March foreclosure auction to satisfy a big debt, according to a recent notice filed with the D.C. Recorder of Deeds. The 601W Cos., a New York-based investment firm, has owned 4000 Connecticut Ave. NW since 2012, according to public records. Berkley Properties, a Nanuet, New York-based commercial real estate developer, became a minority partner in 2018 with a $15 million investment, per deed records. The land on which the building was constructed is owned by the federal government and is ground leased to private entities. The balance owed on the debt totals nearly $162.4 million, according to the foreclosure notice. The Whittle School is aware of the potential auction, Chris Whittle, the private K-12 education company's CEO and chairman, said in an email. “The School, friends of the school, and potential educationally-oriented co-tenants of the school have been making plans to be bidders at the auction should it occur so that there would be no possibility of disruption of our current or planned school operations,” Whittle said. “Our parent body has also been made aware of this possibility and have formed a group of families with extensive capital market experience to assist.” Michael Silberberg, who is named in the foreclosure notice, is the founder and CEO of Berkley Properties, as well as a managing member of The 601W Cos. He did not respond to requests for comment, and neither did Berkley Properties or 601W Cos. Berkely and 601W have invested together before in a joint venture that was later subject to foreclosure. Last year, the Civic Opera Building in Chicago, owned by a JV of 601W and Berkley, fell behind on loan payments, resulting in a $195 million foreclosure lawsuit, Crains' Chicago reported. In Minneapolis, meanwhile, the joint venture sued its debt holder on the "Dayton's Project" over allegations of a "predatory loan-to-own scheme," the Minnesota Lawyer reported. The 4000 Connecticut lender and its affiliates — listed in the notice as Axonic Capital LLC, a New York-based commercial real estate debt lender; 4000 Connecticut TCA Lender LLC, based in the Cayman Islands; and Seqouia IDF Asset Holdings SA, a public limited company incorporated in Luxembourg — started the foreclosure process in early January and notified the owner on Feb. 1, according to deed records. A representative for Axonic Capital did not respond to requests for comment. The building is scheduled to be auctioned March 24 at the D.C. office of Baltimore-based Alex Cooper Auctioneers, according to the notice. Franz Rassman, an attorney at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP law firm in D.C., was listed on the notice as the contact to stop the foreclosure sale. Rassman did not respond to a request for comment. RECOMMENDED The State Department opened the 650,000-square-foot building in 1984 as the headquarters of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Intelsat), which became a private company in 2001. In 2012, Intelsat sold the building for $85 million to The 601 W. Cos, according to deed records and Washington Business Journal reporting. Then, in August 2018, Whittle School & Studios entered into a sublease agreement, according to deed records. At that time, 601W and Berkley received a $170 million loan from Ladder Capital Finance LLC — an affiliate of New York-based mortgage lender Ladder Capital Corp (NYSE: LADR) –— and Sequoia IDF Asset Holdings, according to deed records. Ladder Capital is not named in the foreclosure notice. The debt appears to have shifted to Axonic in May 2020, according to deed filings. Whittle renovated the property into an educational complex to house the D.C. campus, which opened in September 2019 as the $187 million project was wrapping up. The campus operations were snagged by Covid delays, and Whittle's company has been accused in lawsuits and mechanic's liens of not paying roughly $35 million to contractors for construction work and services they performed on the D.C. site and the company's other campuses in Shenzhen, China, and Brooklyn, New York. The outstanding mortgage debt, combined with what contractors allege the school owes them, totals more than $200 million, according to Washington Business Journal reporting. The Whittle School's landlords are wrapped up in the allegations of unpaid work, too, according to court documents. The affiliates of 601W Cos. and Berkley Properties have been copied in the mechanic's liens filed by contractors now active in D.C. Superior Court. They're represented by Paul Schrader, an attorney with Fullerton & Knowles P.C., who has argued in court documents that the companies weren't part of those contracts and therefore isn't liable for claims of unpaid work, court records show. A Jan. 26 lawsuit filed by Kogok Corp., a sheet metal contractor based in Upper Marlboro, alleges the building owners owes it $524,873.04 for unpaid work on the renovations dating back to 2018, court records show. Attorneys for Kogok, listed in court records as Adam Harrison and Jordan Stave of Harrison Law Group, didn't respond to requests for comment. |
Anonymous
The best quote from the article (attributed to Chris Whittle) "The School, friends of the school, and potential educationally oriented co-tenants of the school having been making plans to be bidders at the auction...". Sure. They can't afford to clear an invoice from Specialty School Inc. for $6,898 and 29 cents. But they have hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the building 
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Anonymous
And as they haven't been paying their own rent... |
Anonymous
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This is going to be a lawyer's bonanza. Watch for more lawsuits to start flying soon.
A related question. Why would any family want to stick around for this? Especially those with "extensive capital markets experience"? I'd want my kids a million miles away from this s*** show |
Anonymous
Precisely. Nowhere does it get mentioned that Whittle's failure to pay rent is the proximate cause for the foreclosure! But it is in plain sight |
Anonymous
"Whittle renovated the property into an educational complex to house the D.C. campus, which opened in September 2019 as the $187 million project was wrapping up. The campus operations were snagged by Covid delays, and Whittle's company has been accused in lawsuits and mechanic's liens of not paying roughly $35 million to contractors for construction work and services they performed on the D.C. site and the company's other campuses in Shenzhen, China, and Brooklyn, New York. The outstanding mortgage debt, combined with what contractors allege the school owes them, totals more than $200 million, according to Washington Business Journal reporting." It sounds like the reporter can't figure out if the school has been paying rent or not. |
Anonymous
Perhaps the creditors will take Gibberishcoin (TM)? |
Anonymous
Also sounds like the reporter hasn't figured out that plans for the Brooklyn campus are long since abandoned and that the China campuses have no direct connection to DC after the Chinese creditors took that over.. |
Anonymous
Wait, there's no china connection anymore??? |
Anonymous
Because there are a few people out there with WAY too much money. |
Anonymous
They'll have a lot less if they stick around Whittle for too long |
Anonymous
This has been documented earlier in the thread. You'll have to search but the relevant links were posted. Whittle also indirectly gave it away in his email about the Varkey-Whittle merger when he mentioned that the campuses in China would have a close affiliation with the Varkey Whittle Group but were not part of it |