Downtown’s 22-story One Enterprise Center, which lost its major bank tenant four years ago, is in the hands of its lenders following foreclosure.
A certificate of title was filed May 11 transferring ownership of the office tower to 225 Water Street West Holdings LLC.
That company’s sole member is U.S. Bank National Association, the trustee for the lenders. CWCapital Asset Management of Bethesda, Md., was the special servicer.
“It was a straightforward foreclosure, no interesting back story,” said attorney Richard Thames of Thames Markey & Heekin in Jacksonville, who represented U.S. Bank.
CWCapital Asset Management declined comment. A lawyer for the former owner, HUB OEC Properties LLC, did not respond to an email requesting comment.
HUB OEC Properties LLC’s principal address is in Chicago. HUB Properties Trust, a member of the group, is in Newton, Mass.
Plenty of office space is available on the Downtown Northbank. In the first quarter, Central Business District vacancies generally ranged from about 21 percent overall to 26.3 percent specifically on the Northbank, according to real estate firms.
And a lot of space is available at One Enterprise Center, a Class A office tower with a 56 percent vacancy rate, according to CBRE Inc.
CBRE rents space in the building and serves as its leasing and management firm. It declined comment about plans for the structure.
CBRE says in a marketing profile on loopnet.com that about 154,000 square feet of the available space is contiguous, meaning a tenant wanting a large presence in one block of floors could find it there.
The location is in a prime spot at 225 Water St., near the Jacksonville Landing and adjacent to the Omni Jacksonville Hotel, which is separately owned.
Its history dates to 1986, when the more than 350,000-square-foot building was developed to house the headquarters of Florida National Banks of Florida.
Florida National later merged into First Union, then Wachovia and then Wells Fargo.
When Wells Fargo relocated to the Wells Fargo Center in 2011, it vacated One Enterprise Center as a major tenant.
One Enterprise Center’s major tenants include the Smith Hulsey & Busey law firm, First Tennessee Bank and Rayonier Inc., which leased 11,000 square feet there last year.
Meanwhile, the Alexander DeGance Barnett law firm will leave its 3,500-square-foot office there when it moves to its own building in Riverside this fall.
One Enterprise Center’s Duval County market value of $29.3 million is much lower than what the former owner paid for it and also is well below what it owed.
Records show HUB OEC Properties LLC paid $51.4 million for the property in 2008.
The summary final judgment of foreclosure showed that U.S. Bank was owed $41.8 million as of Jan. 23. Accrued interest bumped that up to $42.7 million when the judgment was signed.
U.S. Bank took the property back at the foreclosure auction.
Dav-Lin Interior Contractors Inc. also was listed as a defendant. The complaint filed by U.S. Bank in late November said Dav-Lin might claim an interest in the property because it had filed three notices of commencement for work it was doing there.
U.S. Bank was represented by Thames Markey & Heekin and attorneys with Venable LLP in Baltimore.
HUB OEC was represented by attorneys with Angelo & Banta in Fort Lauderdale and Kirkland & Ellis LLP of Chicago.
One Enterprise Center and the Omni also have access to a parking lot and an adjacent 10-story parking garage with more than 1,000 spaces. The lot and garage are owned by separate groups.
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