The date for auctioning off a 45-acre Texas office park tied to Nate Paul’s World Class Holdings is set.
The bidding is scheduled for September 29 and will be broadcast online for remote participation, the Austin Business Journal reported.
Offices at Braker, a portfolio of 11 properties in North Austin, is at issue in a legal battle between World Class and ATX Braker, which is owned by Los Angeles-based Karlin Real Estate. The portfolio in includes 13 single-story office buildings with almost 550,000 rentable square feet. Their total taxable value was last appraised at $163 million. The market value could be much higher.
ATX Braker has been pursuing a foreclosure sale of the properties. The company issued an original $29 million mezzanine loan for the campus and later acquired a $63 million senior mortgage on the office park from JP Morgan.
World Class filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy — a common strategy of real estate debtors who are facing foreclosure and want to buy time for refinancing or sale — in July. ATX Braker representatives presented an auction schedule before the judge hearing the case, New York State Supreme Court Justice Andrea Masley, on August 1. World Class responded on August 2, but an attorney representing ATX Braker, Mitch Karlan of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, confirmed the date of the auction sale.
Jones Lang LaSalle will represent ATX Braker in the sale offering. Qualified bidders have to put down a $3 million deposit to participate.
The affected properties are at 1836 Kramer Lane, 1908 Kramer Lane, 1901 West Braker Lane, 1909 West Braker Lane, 1817 West Braker Lane, 11109 Metric Boulevard, 11101 Metric Boulevard, 11009 Metric Boulevard, 11500 Metric Boulevard, 1910 West Braker Lane, and 2100 Kramer Lane.
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Paul became a well-known as an Austin investor after buying and holding several high-profile properties in the city. He went on to build a billion-dollar portfolio that included multiple self-storage holdings before the age of 30. More recently he has faced bankruptcies, foreclosures, and a 2019 raid by the FBI, which he is suing.
Karlin clashed with Paul’s World Class in 2021 and won, securing a foreclosure auction a 1.3 million-square-foot property that had been the Austin 3M campus.
— Cindy Widner