Can you imagine a Four Seasons hotel slipping into foreclosure? Well, that's exactly what happened in Texas two weeks ago to the owners of the Four Seasons Las Colinas in Irving, Texas, just outside of Dallas. With $183 million in debt, the Four Seasons, which manages the property owned by Los Angeles-based BentlyForbes, is a pristine five-star hotel property and the site of the annual celebrity-studded Byron Nelson golf tournament.
But that didn't stop this property and other commercial properties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area from going into debt and foreclosure. Some think the debt may continue to grow as commercial owners struggle to pay property taxes that were due Jan. 31 in the Lone Star State.
The foreclosure comes after BentleyForbes missed a scheduled loan payment in November, and is likely a tactical move to get the lender to lower the interest rate or re-negotiate terms, according to a source in BF's Preston Commons Dallas office. BF owns three other blue chip commercial properties in the area: Preston Commons Shopping Center on the east side of Preston at Northwest Highway; Sterling Plaza at Douglas and Northwest Highway; and Park Center in Plano. The source stressed that the Four Seasons holding is a separate entity and affiliation from the other properties. A bankruptcy attorney estimated the cost of a pre Chapter 11 work-out to be at least $100,000.
BentleyForbes is also the owner of the famed Watergate commercial complex in Washington, D.C., which it acquired in 2005.
The second largest name on the list is a downtown Dallas apartment complex called the Mosaic Downtown Dallas, which had $66.5 million in original mortgages.
The recently foreclosed properties in the area carry more than $900 million in cumulative debt, and include a smattering of office buildings, hotels, shopping centers, raw commercial land and warehouses -- 250 in all.
