CHARLOTTE — Deutsche Bank Trust Co. will foreclose on Charlotte’s EpiCentre by spring, ending a court-ordered receivership imposed in August as the uptown property’s owner worked to resolve a default on an $85 million loan.
Those efforts were unsuccessful despite cooperation between the bank and the center’s owner, EpiCentre SPE LLC, a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based CIM Group.
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“We’re in the process of implementing the foreclosure now,” Jim Pulliam, who represents Deutsche Bank, told N.C. Business Court Judge Louis Bledsoe during a hearing Tuesday in Charlotte. “The normal run on that process is 90 to 120 days, and we’ll look to complete this some time in the first quarter, I would expect.”
Felton Parrish, representing the EpiCentre complex, said he expects the owner of the property will continue to cooperate with Deutsche Bank and the court-appointed receiver, Sabrina Jones of CBRE Group.
Jones filed a report with the court last week that said the mixed-use entertainment center at 210 E. Trade St. is 69.4% vacant. That was a little worse than the 63.3% vacancy rate reported in August.
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CIM, a commercial real estate firm with an estimated $29.3 billion in assets managed, bought the EpiCentre in 2014 for $131 million. It borrowed $85 million using that development as collateral. The $85 million loan matured in June and came due.
In April, the Charlotte Business Journal reported the note was sent to special servicing because of an “imminent monetary default.”
At that time, the 304,772-square-foot property was 36% leased. In 2020, eviction notices were sent to multiple businesses at the property, including Blackfinn Ameripub, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Suite, Vida Cantina and Vault on 210, as Channel 9 reported.
[ ‘I don’t see anything positive’: Five EpiCentre tenants evicted ]
Bledsoe set another status conference on the case for March 30. Once the foreclosure is filed and Jones has time to make a final report to the court, the receivership will be dissolved.
(WATCH BELOW: Uptown’s Epicentre faces financial trouble)
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