Accesso Partners is nearing an exasperating erasure from Chicago’s office market after being forced to turn over several assets due to massive losses and foreclosures.
The firm, based in the Miami area, suffered its latest blow at 20 North Clark Street in the Loop, a 36-story tower that it surrendered to New York-based lender One William Street Capital Management through a deed in lieu of foreclosure. The maneuver allows borrowers in default on their debts to turn over the keys to their creditors while avoiding the lengthy court process in a formal foreclosure. One William loaned the landlord $67 million ($170 per square foot) against the building in 2021.
Accesso’s Clark Street giveaway marks perhaps the final nail in the coffin for its Chicagoland office portfolio, which it amassed with a huge buying spree of nearly $400 million a little more than a decade ago. The firm is facing a $75 million foreclosure at 200 West Monroe Street, which is next door to 230 West Monroe; Accesso sold that building for just $45 million to Oregon-based Menashe Properties in 2023, a massive discount after buying it for $122 million in 2014.
Accesso has also defaulted on multiple suburban Chicago office loans, and faces foreclosures of a $33 million debt for the 320,000-square-foot Highland Oaks Complex in Downers Grove, as well as an $18 million debt for the 211,000-square-foot Park Plaza office building in Naperville.
While Accesso is down at 20 North Clark, it’s not totally out. One William is keeping the firm on to continue to manage operations at the tower, and Accesso will retain a minority piece of its equity, a spokesperson for the firm said. The lender, however, appears to have taken over a majority stake in the ownership of the property, records show. Similar arrangements have also been entered by other large Chicago-area office landlords — such as Glenstar when it gave up the Schaumburg Corporate Center to lender Affinius — upon surrendering most of its ownership to creditors over unpaid debts.
“This is a regular part of our efforts to consistently evaluate and rebalance our portfolio,” Accesso said.
Accesso further said it was not the party that owed One William Street $67 million, and that it had sold its interest in the property to a group of investors represented by Accesso’s LLC that surrendered the property; Accesso’s Moises Benzaquen, a founder of the company, signed the deed in lieu, however.
Accesso partnered with an investor client of UBS Global Asset Management in 2013 to pay nearly $64 million to buy the building, and then Accesso bought out its partner’s interest in the property in 2017 in a deal that valued the property at $94 million, property records show. It refinanced in 2021 with One William’s loan.
One William Street didn’t immediately return requests for comment Friday.
Meanwhile, Newmark is suing the Accesso affiliate that owns 200 West Monroe for skipping out on skipping on paying the brokerage firm nearly $900,000 it claims it’s owed for property tax appeal work that saved the landlord about $6 million in tax bills.
It’s unknown how much principal and interest Accesso still owed One William Street for the 20 North Clark loan before turning over the property to settle the debt. An online listing shows the 393,000-square-foot building has about 185,000 square feet available to lease, meaning it’s about half-vacant.
The lender’s plan for recovering as much return on its investment as possible with the property isn’t yet clear. An entity tied to One William issued a $44 million mortgage to its separate, newly formed ownership entity that stripped the property from Accesso, public records show. It’s not clear whether those funds would be used to pay for leasing commissions, tenant concessions, improvements to the building or other strategies that could improve the property’s financial performance.
Accesso is far from the only office landlord to be battered in Chicago of late. Reputable firms with major holdings in the city such as Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners and New York-based AmTrust RE have faced nine-figure foreclosure lawsuits as tenant demand remains muted in the post-pandemic era of remote work preferences and higher interest rates than the previous buying cycle, decimating property values.
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