Bankruptcy sale of S.A. office highrises falls through

The sale of two office buildings near San Antonio’s South Texas Medical Center for $61 million in a bankruptcy case has fallen through.

Georgia-based Highpoint Lifehope SPEC previously reached a deal to sell the Highpoint Towers at 8401 and 8415 Datapoint Drive in San Antonio to two LLCs, but each failed to pay $100,000 earnest money deposits by the Jan. 30 deadline set by a judge in the owner’s bankruptcy, the San Antonio Express-News reported. 

LLCs connected to the potential buyers had agreed to pay $32.2 million for one building and $28.5 million for the other. Missing their deadlines means their purchase agreements are terminated, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Parker said.

Highpoint Lifehope filed for bankruptcy protection in August, and its lender Capital One petitioned a court to appoint a receiver to seize control of the properties after the owner defaulted on a $51 million loan. 

The landowner, Woodbranch Highpoint, subpoenaed the potential buyers for information about their finances and previous deals to prove their ability to pay for and run the office buildings.

“There seems to have been some shrieking and some ‘Oh my gosh, you’re asking for that?’ kind of reaction,” Jeff Carruth, a lawyer for Woodbranch, told the judge. “So I don’t think we’re going to get anything.”

Capital One can now begin a sales process that the court approved in December. Judge Park warned that a “sale process solely for the benefit of Capital One and Woodbranch without any benefit to the [bankruptcy] estate will make it difficult for this court to see why it should grant such relief when Capital One could simply foreclose outside the bankruptcy.”

The 11-story buildings were constructed in the early 1980s and renovated in 2010, according to Loopnet.

 — Victoria Pruitt