RXR Loses 340 Madison Ave. To Lender At Auction
Barings is the new owner of a Midtown office tower after placing the only bid on the property at a foreclosure auction.
RXR lost the 22-story office tower at 340 Madison Ave. at an auction Thursday after defaulting last year on a $315M mortgage from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, Barings' parent company, Crain’s New York Business reported.
Barings acquired the 760K SF building from a court-appointed receiver for $161M last week, property records show.
Three prospective bidders contacted the receiver, appointed in December to find a buyer for the property, but Barings was the “only qualified bidder to attend,” per court records reported by Crain’s.
The sale follows months of foreclosure proceedings against RXR, which MassMutual kicked off in May after RXR defaulted on the building's debt. The property is currently 60.6% occupied, according to CoStar data reported by Crain’s.
MassMutual provided the $315M loan to RXR in 2011. The loan’s original maturity date was August 2023, but after a six-month extension, RXR still had not paid it off by the new maturity date of February 2024, the lender claimed in court filings.
RXR owns millions of square feet of New York City office space, and in early 2023, it was beginning to sort its buildings into lists of keep or sell under an initiative that CEO and Chairman Scott Rechler named Project Kodak, Crain’s reported at the time. Properties were either designated as “film,” translating to obsolete, or “digital,” meaning they were worth holding onto. The Madison Avenue building was among the properties on the “digital” list.
A spokesperson for RXR declined to comment to Bisnow.
RXR is also battling to hold on to one of its signature properties, the landmarked Helmsley Building on Park Avenue. In December, SL Green, acting as the special servicer for CMBS bondholders, filed a preforeclosure suit after RXR allegedly defaulted on a $670M loan.
It already has agreed to relinquish one of its “film” buildings. It defaulted on the 33-story office tower at 61 Broadway in the Financial District in 2023, and a lender is marketing the loan as a takeover opportunity.
But the company has had some success in recent months. It signed one of the largest office leases of the year last year with law firm Ropes & Gray’s relocation to 1285 Sixth Ave. Last week, Amazon also signed a giant sublease deal at 237 Park Ave., which RXR co-owns with Walton Street Capital.
Rechler also plans to take advantage of the same type of distress that took hold at 340 Madison. He launched a $1B office distress fund last year with Ares Management to buy troubled loans and buildings.
