Brickell CitiCentre

The Brickell CitiCentre project is set to begin construction late next month, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The $1.05 billion project, by developer Swire Properties, will have 520,000 square feet of retail space, 800 condominium units, 243 hotel rooms and a 110,000-square-foot office tower in its first phase. The second phase would include a 750,000-square-foot office tower. In March, Swire announced $140 million in financing for the project from HSBC Bank. The first phase is expected to be completed before 2015. [SFBJ]

Having punished the five largest mortgage servicers for their foreclosure practices to the tune of a $25 billion settlement, federal regulators are now setting their sights on the next tier of financial firms, whose methods are increasingly coming under fire.

According to the New York Times, the Federal Reserve has recommended fines for eight more firms: HSBC’s U.S. division, SunTrust Bank, MetLife, U.S. Bancorp, PNC Financial Services, EverBank, OneWest and Goldman Sachs. [more]

Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony and Icon Brickell

In a bizarre series of events, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony’s Icon Brickell condominium was sold out of foreclosure, although the former couple doesn’t appear to be suffering from financial distress.

According to Kevin Dickenson, an agent in Prudential Florida Realty’s Palm Beach Garden office, Anthony and Lopez never actually owned the condo they were widely reported to have bought in late 2009. [more]

While many real estate investors are hoping for a global market stabilization, a special report from the Economist argues that property investment might be a terrible mistake — in any financial climate. In fact, the report points out that the launch of some of the most ambitious skyscrapers in history — including the Empire State Building and the half-mile tall Burj Khalifa completed recently in Dubai — often coincide with some of the worst global economic crises (the Great Depression and the current recession, respectively). Brian Robertson, head of HSBC bank’s European operations, said that the amount of debt involved in real estate makes it such a tenuous investment. [more]

According to a financial report released last night, HSBC has suspended foreclosures indefinitely, citing problems with processing of the cases. “Management is reviewing foreclosures where judgment has not yet been entered and will correct deficient documentation and re-file affidavits where necessary,” the report said. “We have suspended foreclosures until such time as we have substantially addressed noted deficiencies in our processes.” The report said HSBC is responding to federal inquiries concerning its foreclosures and other practices, including processing and signing of affidavits. [Palm Beach Post]
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Bulk buyer Miami Icon Hotel Room has purchased 15 units at Icon Brickell for the second time in four months. The buyer purchased 10,500 square feet in the project’s North and South towers for $4.4 million, or a total of $418 per square foot, according to Miami-Dade County Circuit Court records. Miami Icon Hotel Room has Carlos J. Mattos as its registered agent with member Francesco Lignarolo. The units were purchased from a consortium of lenders led by HSBC. In September, the group also bought 15 units at Icon for a total of $5.1 million or $337 per square foot. [SFBJ]

Icon Brickell

HSBC has brought in a new sales team to Icon Brickell, hiring Fortune
International to help sell some of the nearly 1,200 remaining units in
the project, and replacing Related Cervera Realty at Tow [more]

From left: Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao, Foster’s HSBC Building and Piano’s Menil Collection

Starchitect Frank Gehry has nabbed yet another accolade: the title of Modernism’s “greatest renegade,” courtesy of Vanity Fair, which surveyed 52 industry experts to name their choice for most influential piece of architecture built since 1980. Gehry’s winning work, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which was completed in 1997, shared the honor with other recent works, including Sir Norman Foster’s HSBC Building in Hong Kong, which was finished in 1985, and Renzo Piano’s Menil Collection, completed in Houston in 1987. But, despite the other worthy contenders, Paul Goldberger, a noted architecture critic, said that the Guggenheim Bilbao has a universal appeal. “Bilbao was one of those rare moments when critics, academics and the general public were all completely united,” Goldberger said. [Vanity Fair]

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Peter Zalewski

A group of three lenders controlled by HSBC Bank, Bank of America and iStar Financial have taken control of over 1,900 new unsold condos in the greater Miami region in the last month and a half, according to real estate tracking firm Condo Vultures. The seizures were largely localized at troubled developments, including Everglades on the Bay, which filed for bankruptcy in August 2009 and saw its title transferred to its lender late last month. Peter Zalewski, head of Condo Vultures, said that the takeovers signal a new phase in the market. “We are entering the phase of the real estate cycle where the lenders, not the developers, are dictating the course of the condo market going forward in greater Miami,” Zalewski said. TRD

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The Related Group owed $351 million to its lenders when it deeded back the project on May 11. A group of lenders led by HSBC granted a $502 million loan on two towers four years ago, with the loan finally maturing in June of last year. Despite a discount on the 1,800 units in the building, along with acquiring financing from the construction lender, Related could not close it. On May 12, in what was termed a “friendly settlement,” Related deeded back the unsold units in the building, announcing that it would work with Fortune International to sell the units. The lender took title to the condo units yesterday. [SFBJ]

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