Downtown-based Oaktree Capital Management recently scooped up a Bunker Hill office building in a foreclosure auction.
Oaktree took control of 444 S. Flower St. — a 48-story, 914,000-square foot tower near the U.S. Bank tower — from downtown-based Coretrust Capital Partners following a foreclosure auction on Jan. 30, as reported by The Real Deal. In response to an inquiry about the deal, a representative with Oaktree declined to comment.
A representative for Coretrust did not return a request for comment.
As reported by The Real Deal, Coretrust originally purchased the building in 2016 for $336 million and borrowed $230 million from Bank of China shortly after. Coretrust then refinanced the building in 2018 with a $64.7 million mezzanine loan from Oaktree and a $209.6 senior loan from AIG.
With the loan to Oaktree due in 2021, Coretrust reportedly came to an agreement to pay it by May 31 last year, and when it didn’t, Oaktree initiated the foreclosure, according to The Real Deal.
Coretrust had invested extensively in the building during its ownership, in particular during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a prior interview with the Business Journal, Coretrust Managing Principal Thomas Ricci discussed bringing in a series of robots that used ultraviolet light to disinfect offices, installing a robust air filtration system and adding individual air purifiers to each elevator cap. The building also had a touchless elevator system and parking garage gate installed.
The company had also spent $4 million converting one floor into a 22,000-square-foot Workplace Innovation Lab, and cut out a corner on the fourth floor to create a 1,000-square-foot terrace.
Brookfield Asset Management owns Oaktree, as well as a number of other office buildings downtown.
