Tishman restructures $175m Seattle office debt

The firm will invest a reported $15m of new capital into an office complex located in the heart of downtown Seattle to ensure ‘a firm financial footing’ until 2017 when the debt is set to mature.


Tishman Speyer has agreed with its lenders to restructure a reported $175 million of debt secured against the Seattle office complex Second & Seneca.

The firm said the restructuring provided the property with “a firm financial footing into 2017” when the current debt was set to mature. Bloomberg reported that Tishman would inject $15 million of fresh equity into the deal.

Tishman purchased the property in April 2007 for a rumoured $234 million, according to data provider Real Capital Analytics. In July 2009, the firm called in special servicer Midland Loan Services to help Tishman renegotiate the debt. Second & Seneca was originally part of the $39 billion Equity Office Properties portfolio acquired by The Blackstone Group from Sam Zell’s Equity Group Investments in February 2007. The buildign was quickly sold as part of a smaller portfolio to Chicago-based Beacon Capital Partners, which in turn sold the asset to Goldman Sachs’ Archon Group before it was acquired by Tishman, RCA reported.

Tishman’s co-chief executive officers, father and son, Jerry and Rob Speyer said the deal gave the office property “sufficient capital to lease the property to stabilisation and create long-term value”. Second & Seneca includes a 22-storey office tower totalling more than 435,000-square-feet of space, together with a four-storey office and data centre, comprising 74,000-square-feet of space.

The deal is the third debt restructuring for Tishman in roughly six weeks. In June, Tishman’s lenders agreed to restructure a reported $1.4 billion of debt secured against five downtown Chicago office properties. That deal enabled Tishman to meet its obligations and “complete all leasing and capital projects” on the five properties, managing director Casey Wold said in a statement at the time. Wold added that Tishman would continue to pursue real estate ownership and operational positions in Chicago for “many more years”.

Later that month, Tishman also invested $700 million of equity in the former CarrAmerica Portfolio – a group of 28 Washington DC-area office buildings – paying down $600 million of debt and providing $100 million of working capital. Brookfield Properties had reportedly acquired about half the DC-portfolio’s debt at a discount and had launched foreclosure proceedings in April.