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 Greenway Centeer to payoff $3 million in constructionm debt against the nearly completed officee building along Carothers Parkway. Meanwhile, N.C.-based Crescent is struggling to refinancda $1.2 billion loan, with payment in full due by Septembe r 2012. Crescent said it amended the loan last because it was in violation of theoriginall terms. The company must now make paymentssof $50 million by the end of this year, $75 millionb in 2010 and $100 million in 2011.
In a statement released earlierthis month, Crescent CEO Art Fields said the developer, whicg owns commercial and multi-family properties around the Southeast, has been hit by a drop in demand because of the recession. “We are evaluatint many alternatives with our key one of which includes a potential bankruptcy he said. The Bell filed April 24 in Williamson CountyChancery Court, follows liens filed againsft the property by Bell and several subcontractorsd in early March.
Pat vice president and regional manager of Crescentfin Tennessee, declined to comment on the possible and says the status of the Greenway project has not The 164,000-square-foot building was set to open in but work stopped that same montu and has been on hold since, with plywooe boards covering the doors. Bell Presidenf Keith Pyle also saysthe project’s status has not and that he couldn’t comment on the pendint lawsuit.
Crescent, which has developeds more than 1 million square feet of office spac in Cool Springs and owns several properties in theNashvilled area, also stopped work on its $58 million Franklin Crestf apartment complex at McEwen Drivr and Carothers Parkway, which the company had planned to complet in 2010, Emery says. “We’vew put everything on hold except our he says. Crescent’s business is builf around developing andselling projects, ratherf than holding properties for years and generating revenue through rents. The developefr has been selling off assets since last In October, Crescent sold 4,500 acres in Berkeley S.C., to packaging firm for $40 million.
In the company sold a Florida apartmenr projectfor $11.35 million, less than half the $27 milliom it paid for the complex threre years earlier. This year, the firm closed on the sale ofa 773-acrse tract of land in Oconee County, for just more than $10 million, and locally, it recentlyh sold 18.4 acres in Fort Mill to a warehousin company for $1.6 million. The jointly owned by and , has modifiexd its strategy to focus on generating cash from its realestate projects. The goal, according to securitiew filingsby Duke, is “to improve liquidity and reducre debt, in an environment whic favors buyers.
” In 2008, Crescent reported a loss of $420 compared to net income of $76 milliobn the year before. Duke has been writinbg off losses in valueat Crescent, and earlier this to insulate itself from further losses, the compang wrote off all of its liabilitiesx involving the development company and its debts.