Koreatown’s biggest office landlord is facing foreclosure at Equitable Plaza.
David Lee’s Jamison Properties defaulted on a $86.5 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan tied to the 34-story office tower at 3435 Wilshire Boulevard, according to a notice filed with the county recorder last month. A spokesperson for Lee did not respond to a request for comment.
The dominos began to fall this spring as the loan’s June maturity date neared. Jamison initiated talks with master servicer Wells Fargo Bank several months before its debt came due, according to Morningstar Credit.
That pulled the tripwire. The loan hit special servicing in April due to imminent default, as Commercial Observer previously reported. It’s now been delinquent for six months.
A spokesperson for Florida-based special servicer, LNR Partners, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lee’s firm acquired the 55-year-old office building in the 1990s — one of dozens he snapped up as property values plummeted on Wilshire Boulevard that decade. That buying spree seeded Jamison’s empire in Los Angeles, which now spans more than $3 billion in assets, TRD previously reported.
The firm landed a $95 million refinance for Equitable Plaza from German American Capital Corporation in 2014.
But the deal began to sour towards the end of the loan’s 10-year term. Occupancy dwindled at the 688,000-square-foot building after the COVID-19 pandemic, falling from 67 percent in 2021 to 57 percent today, Morningstar data shows.
And Commonwealth Business Bank and Wilshire Business Center — the two biggest tenants at the property — are nearing the end of their leases. They’ll both expire before the end of this year, county property records show.
LNR is now poised to begin a UCC foreclosure, according to the October 7 default notice.