And the Second Tower Too: The Montage Foreclosure

Real estate agent Sandra Gunn informs us that the Montage, the second glass Almeda St. tower across from Hermann Park, was foreclosed on yesterday. Originally named Mosaic to match its adjacent twin directly to the north, the Montage has been a rental property since it was completed.

Almost exactly a year ago, the developer of both buildings — a limited partnership between Phillips Development & Realty and Florida Capital Real Estate Group — declared bankruptcy in order to avoid foreclosure on the Mosaic, which at the time was officially a condominium tower. And Florida Capital’s chief operating officer expressed hope that the Montage’s separate $71 million loan with Corus Bankshares could be renegotiated.

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But none of this went well for the bank: Last September, the FDIC seized Corus, a few days after the Chicago Bank foreclosed on the Mosaic. The federal agency then sold 40 percent of the bank’s extensive real estate assets to a group calling itself Northwest Investments — a venture of Starwood Capital Group, TPG Capital Group, Perry Capital, and WLR LeFrak. It appears that both towers are now owned jointly by Northwest and the FDIC, but we haven’t come across any official confirmation.

For their efforts, the Montage and the Mosaic earned second place in the Best Vacancy category of our recently completed Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. Have any more details on the towers and this transaction to contribute? We’re all ears!

Photo of Mosaic and Montage from Hwy. 288: Gina Regenbogen

8 Comment

  • Surprise, surprise, surprise.

    Or not.

  • These were expensive buildings compared to the usual cardboard and styrofoam-eifs towers that developers usually build here in Houston. Check out the massive cast-in-place concrete fin structure on the top of the garage on the west side, as well as the Ando-esque shear walls on the east side of the towers. Using a curtain wall like that? Seriously…

  • Mosaic, Montage and money down the drain.

  • All those high-rise customers have been ignoring the Mosaic(s) because they are waiting for the Ashby to be built, yessirree, they’re out there. Somewhere. Clap your hands if you believe.

  • by chance, anyone know who the architect was?

  • Sounds great to me. Houston gets two nice residential buildings and an out of town bank and the FDIC lose tons of money. A whole bunch of those construction dollars were spent right here in Houston. Now a bunch of Houstonians get to buy or lease the units at the true market price, which obviously is much lower than amount needed to make this project economically viable.

    Too bad we couldn’t do the same thing with Regent Square.

  • One has to wonder how Wood Partners got this building going? Was Corus Bank that stupid?

  • Today HCAD shows Mosaic North Marketing Corp still owns 70 units.