The south tower of Coral Gables office project 396 Alhambra has been completed. The 15-story building includes 156,000 square feet of space, and is part of the planned 273,000-square-foot mixed-use office and retail development. The tower has already signed 30,000 square feet of leases, with tenants including RTKL Associates, Terra Networks and Citibank. “We continue to see steady tenant activity in Miami-Dade’s urban areas, such as the Coral Gables business district,” said Tere Blanca, CEO of Blanca Commercial Real Estate. “This is consistent with national trends that have seen office users shift their interests from suburban to urban submarkets.” [GlobeSt]
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JPMorgan Chase is facing two class-action suits alleging foreclosure fraud after the bank temporarily halted foreclosures nationwide in September, the Wall Street Journal reported. JPMorgan also became the latest big Wall Street bank to disclose a list of lawsuits it is facing that allege that the bank underwrote mortgages used in securitizations which harmed investors. The lawsuits allege “common law fraud and misrepresentation, as well as violations of state consumer fraud statutes.” JPMorgan said it encountered the same lawsuits that other banks — including Citigroup and Bank of America — have said they face. JPMorgan also said it was facing suits from nine Federal Home Loan Banks, Cambridge Place Investment Management and Charles Schwab. [WSJ]

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Two non-profit housing organizations have teamed up to transform foreclosed and abandoned homes into affordable housing. Habitat for Humanity, which has built more than 350,000 houses for impoverished families worldwide since its founding in 1976, and National Community Stabilization Trust, a federally sponsored initiative that revitalizes neighborhoods badly damaged by the foreclosure crisis, will partner for two years to purchase and rehabilitate the “REOs” or real estate owned properties. The homes will be purchased from participating lenders, including Bank of America, Chase Bank, Citibank, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, through funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, [more]

Citibank has inked a 5,500-square-foot retail lease at the North Tower of Coral Gables’ 396 Alhambra, making it the new luxury office complex’s first tenant. Citibank, whose current branch building is being demolished for the construction of the 15-story North Tower, will temporarily move into the South Tower while it awaits the completion of its new home, slated for the third quarter of 2011. The lease is for 10 years with an option to renew. The developers of the complex, which will have 273,000 square feet of Class A office space once it is finished, are being led by Agave Florida Investments, an affiliate of Mexico City-based Jose Cuervo Group, Alhambra Investors and Miami developer Eduardo Avila.

Ocwen Loan Servicing, a West Palm Beach company and pillar of the mortgage industry in Florida, has gone global, outsourcing broker opinions on the value of bank-owned foreclosure properties, arranging real estate-owned property cleanings and repairs, and arranging showings, all from Mumbai, India. The surge in depressed property volumes in the state and nationwide has created a backlog of work so large that selling the properties has now become part of the $50 billion offshore outsourcing industry. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank are all among the banks using overseas labor to handle their foreclosure inventory, said Joe Greco, director of the Institute for Research and Education in Outsourcing at California State University, Fullerton, and author of “The Outsourcing Bible.” [Inman]

The legal tussles surrounding the lengthy, messy bankruptcy of builder Tousa got a bit of clarity last week, when a judge said Starwood Land Ventures could collect a $1.8 million breakup fee if it failed to acquire the Hollywood-based homebuilder. But only a bit, said commercial lenders, who are pondering how the case could affect the business more broadly.

The fee ruling followed an earlier commentary from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Olson, who slammed the lending and due diligence practices of Tousa’s syndicate of prominent banks. He said Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America had committed wrongdoings so egregious as to be called a “fraudulent conveyance,” and ordered that they pay back Tousa’s subsidiaries, whose assets secured the loan, more than $400 million.

Olson’s 182-page ruling, issued in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, is being appealed. Spokespeople for each bank declined to comment, citing the pending appeal.

The rise of Starwood as a likely new owner of Tousa is the ultimate aim. While the breakup fee could serve as a further inducement for Starwood, a Bradenton-based residential real estate investment firm, Olson’s comments make many lenders nervous. The detailed ruling attacks some of their basic lending practices, including the hiring of solvency experts. Tousa declared bankruptcy in January 2008. [more]