After buying a loan on a D.C. office building last month, Douglas Development Managing Principal Matthew Jemal is moving forward with a foreclosure.
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Jemal signed a foreclosure affidavit posted in D.C. deed records Wednesday, kicking off the process to take over The Lion Building, a 155K SF office property owned by another of the city's top real estate owners: MRP Realty.
The building has been in receivership since last year after MRP defaulted on the mortgage tied to the building at 1233 20th St. NW. This week, Jemal appointed Scott Foley, partner at Baltimore-based law firm Shapiro Sher, as substitute trustee to manage the foreclosure process.
Jemal didn't immediately respond to Bisnow's request for comment. Foley declined to comment, as did MRP Realty Managing Principal Bob Murphy.
MRP acquired the Lion Building in 2018 in partnership with GreenOak Real Estate, which has since merged to become BentallGreenOak. The joint venture bought the property for $65M from JBG Smith, and it obtained a $47.6M loan from MetLife Investment Management in October 2018.
In June, MetLife filed a petition to appoint a receiver to manage the property. D.C. Superior Court Judge Julie H. Becker approved the petition in September, and CBRE was named receiver, court documents show.
Jemal acquired the loan in December for $12.3M through the entity Jemal's Lion LLC.
Jemal told Bisnow last month the entity is an affiliate of his Jemal Equities venture that bought two other D.C.-area office properties last year. Deed records show the entity is also connected to Douglas Development, the D.C. real estate giant founded by his father, Douglas Jemal.
Also in December, Jemal's Lion LLC filed a motion with the D.C. Superior Court to substitute itself as the plaintiff in the receivership case, which the judge approved.
The defendant, the MRP-BGO partnership, had failed to appear in the case as of Dec. 19 and was held in default, court records show. A hearing is scheduled for March 6.
The property is the latest in a wave of D.C. buildings to face financial distress over the last few years after the pandemic plunged the values of many office buildings to a fraction of their former prices.
A 405K SF building a block from the White House last year went to foreclosure auction and sold for $60.5M after American Real Estate Partners and Westbrook Partners had paid $259M for it in 2019. A former Brookfield building on K Street went to foreclosure auction in May 2024 and sold to Starwood for $44M — an auction Matthew Jemal attended.
Emily Wishingrad contributed to this story.
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