Savanna keeps surviving the clarion call of a foreclosure sale at 521 Fifth Avenue, even as it continues to chart a future without the office building.
Its lender, Deutsche Bank, requested a 90-day extension on a foreclosure sale of the 496,000-square-foot property near Bryant Park, the Commercial Observer reported, citing a credit alert from KBRA. The borrower consented to the request.
In the last six months, three extensions were granted to prevent a foreclosure sale of the property. Deutsche Bank doesn’t appear interested in taking possession of the office and has been jointly marketing the property for sale with Savanna.
That process has been full of fits and starts. Just last month, the property was taken off the market following a $265 million listing; a sale fell through after a due diligence period, according to KBRA.
The property was appraised for $270 million in June.
Savanna’s faced trouble at 521 Fifth Avenue since November 2024, when Wells Fargo — acting as a trustee on behalf of CMBS bondholders — filed a preforeclosure suit against the landlord. The bank pushed for a sale of the 39-story property to recoup losses.
Savanna was allegedly past due on a $242 million loan backed by the property, which features an Urban Outfitters store and an Equinox gym, in addition to office space. The loan matured in June 2021, according to the suit, but Savanna received three extensions that took the loan through June 2024.
A default judgment in favor of the lender was issued last August. At that point, the debt had ballooned to $259 million with interest accumulating. An auction would presumably be the next step, but no date has been set.
The loan helped finance Savanna’s $381 million purchase of the property from SL Green in 2019.
The property is 67 percent occupied as of December, according to special service commentary, a decline from 81 percent in December 2021 and from 90 percent in December 2020. Roughly 17 percent of the building’s gross leasable area was available as of last month, according to KBRA.
Savanna declined to comment to the publication.
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