A Denver District Court judge appointed a receiver to oversee Republic Plaza, Denver’s tallest building on Tuesday, three weeks after a lender asked for that to happen.
New York-based Brookfield Properties, which owns the downtown office tower and defaulted on a $230 million loan, didn’t oppose the request.
“Defendant is ready to vacate the Property and accommodate the appointment of the receiver as a means to preserve and protect the Property pending Plaintiff taking title to the Property,” U.S. Bank, the trustee for the loan backing Republic Plaza, said in court documents.
Trigild IVL will now run the 56-story tower at 370 17th St., collecting rents from tenants and arranging for needed maintenance while giving regular reports to the judge.
The national firm has handled over 3,000 receiverships in 48 states, according to U.S. Bank. Locally, Trigild has been brought in on a distressed Hyatt in Broomfield, the Industry Denver building in RiNo and a distressed office building in Greenwood Village. The last has resulted in a lawsuit.
At Republic Plaza, Trigild will be paid $400 an hour or 0.5% of revenue each month, whichever is greater.
Trigild regularly negotiates the sale of properties, including the Broomfield Hyatt, Industry Denver and the Greenwood Village office.
In court documents, U.S. Bank allowed for the possibility that could also happen at Republic Plaza. Trigild will be paid 0.25% of the sale price if it does.
Republic Plaza was completed in 1984 and has been owned by Brookfield since the 1990s. In 2014, the company sold a 50% stake to insurance firm MetLife. That deal valued the structure at $480 million.
The tower was last appraised in 2023 at $298 million. Denver’s assessor values the building at $267 million.
The building’s loan originally came due in 2022, and Brookfield failed to pay it off. Its lender later agreed to extend the loan through March of this year, but Brookfield again defaulted.
As of March, the tower was 65% leased, according to CoStar. Oil firm Ovintiv is the largest tenant, with more than 200,000 square feet. In the coming months, the building will lose Bank of America and the law firm Morrison Foerster, both of which have leased space elsewhere downtown.
Brookfield has had a rough go downtown since the pandemic. Last year, it sold the City Center towers at 707 and 717 17th St. for a $340 million loss.
Brookfield, which didn’t respond to a request for comment, also owns the Wells Fargo Center at 1700 Lincoln St., which has been in receivership since August 2023.
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