The 274,000-square-foot One Financial Plaza office building in Downtown Fort Lauderdale inched closer to the auction block this month.

Trimont, acting as special servicer on a $61.5M collateralized loan obligation tied to the property, filed a foreclosure complaint Aug. 12 against Alliance HP. The vertically integrated real estate firm not only owns One Financial Plaza but also has one of its two U.S. offices at the property at 100 SE Third Ave.

In the suit, filed in Florida’s 17th Judicial Circuit for Broward County, the lender argued the appointment of a receiver was necessary because Alliance HP has been collecting rent payments but not making required debt service payments.

“The Defendant has continued to collect the revenues and profits from the Property, while the payments due to Plaintiff under the Mortgage have not been paid,” unnamed attorneys from Holland & Knight representing Trimont wrote in the suit. 

Judge John Bowman granted the motion Tuesday, appointing Chris Neilson, president of Trigild Florida, to act as receiver for the debt settlement. The lawsuit was identified and distributed by property intelligence platform Vizzda.

The special servicer alleges in the suit that Alliance HP has defaulted on $61M in fees and costs, including $59M in unpaid principal after the debt matured and an additional $2M in default interest, which the suit says continues to accrue at a 5% rate.

Source:  Bisnow