Sergio Pino and U.S. Century Bank headquartersMiami-based U.S Century Bank received a $50.2 million federal bailout under the TARP program, but according to a ProPublica investigation the bank was hardly deserving of the funds. In fact, it mostly served as an ATM for the group of commercial real estate developers, including Sergio Pino, who founded U.S. Century in 2002.

For 15 consecutive quarters between 2005 and 2008, the bank ranked among the top 2 percent of all U.S. commercial lenders in the portion of its loans that went to directors or officers of the bank. Many of those insiders were commercial real estate developers who used the bank’s money to fund their risky projects. [more]

Miami-based U.S. Century Bank has disposed of a 1.6-acre oceanfront site in Golden Beach at only a 6 percent discount to its foreclosed mortgage, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The lender took possession of the residential site earlier this year based on a $13.3 million mortgage to Meruelo Pomona LLC and Belinda Meruelo. U.S. Century Bank has become one of Florida’s fastest-growing community banks with more than $1.7 billion in total assets and almost $148 million in equity capital. [SFBJ]

U.S. Century Bank has sold a Coral Gables apartment building at 2524 LeJeune Road for $2.9 million, a 37 percent discount to the mortgage it used to foreclose on the property, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The buyer was Arc Gables, a Pinecrest-based company. The eight-unit building was seized from Valencia Investors after the Doral-based bank foreclosed on a $4.6 million mortgage. Valencia bought the site for $6.1 million in 2005. [SFBJ]

Fox Television Studios President Emiliano Calemzuk bought a 12-unit building at 8118 Harding Avenue in Miami Beach five years ago, with plans for a condo conversion. U.S. Century Bank has filed a foreclosure action naming the LLC owned by Calemzuk and his father, Carlos, as a defendant. According to a foreclosure ruling from February, the Calemzuks owe around $1.8 million in principal, interest and other levies. Alfonso Perez, attorney for U.S. Century Bank, said he was surprised the high-profile Calemzuk had not yet settled the case. [Miami Herald]
[more]

Sales of South Florida warehouses and other types of industrial
property have been small in size and scarce in number in 2009, and the
market will remain weak well into next year if industrial vacancy rates
keep rising. Successful bidders for South Florida industrial properties often are
companies that intend to occupy the space. Investors hoping to profit
from an eventual upturn are having a harder time financing industrial
property, sources said. “About the only purchaser who can get a loan on a building is a user.
If you’re an investor, forget it,” said real estate investor David
Paladino, president of National Land Company in Lake Worth. One of National Land Company’s biggest property disposals in the last
12 months was the $4.95 million sale of a self-storage building in
Riviera Beach. The new owner is the occupant and operator of the
77,800-square-foot building, which had leased the property before
deciding to exercise an option to purchase it. Paladino said many bankers doubt the prospects of investors who want to
buy and lease industrial buildings because “if General Motors can go
broke, anybody can.” [more]

The $4.4 million foreclosure lawsuit aimed at the Coral Gables commercial project Lancaster Plaza named major homebuilder Sergio Pino as a guarantor. According to Miami-Dade County Circuit Court records, Coral Gables-based Mercantil Commercebank filed the suit against Century Lancaster Plaza as well as against Pino, who is a director at U.S. Century Bank, and Juan Carlos Menendez. Mercantil granted a $2.2 million mortgage to Century Lancaster Plaza in 2005, when the group bought the site for $7.5 million. A year later, the mortgage was increased by $26.6 million through a construction advance. [SFBJ]

Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Potentially shaky real estate loans held by Miami community banks more
than doubled in the last year, according to the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation, the agency responsible for maintaining stability
in the nation’s banks. A review of financial statements for 25 community banks in Miami shows
that they had $841 million of real estate loans that are classified as non-accrual, or unprofitable, as of June
30. That’s 139 percent more than a year earlier. Some Miami banks have reported much faster growth in their non-accrual
real estate loans. At U.S. Century Bank in Miami, for example,
non-accruing real estate loans ballooned to $82 million on June 30 from
$14 million a year earlier, a 585 percent increase. [more]

U.S Century Bank concluded a $17 million foreclosure suit with Miami
Lakes-based 46 Acres LLC by taking over a 52-acre site in northern
Miami-Dade County. The vacant site is on the south side of Northeast
215th Street (County Line Road) along San Simeon Way. Bank officials
involved in the transaction described it as a friendly foreclosure. A
development called Fountains at San Simeon was planned for the site. [more]