Troubled Retail, Office Mortgages for Sale

In the largest sale of its kind to date, CWCapital Asset Management LLC is offering $345 million of distressed real estate debt, mainly from retail properties and office buildings, to investors. Responding to demand from commercial real estate investors, the firm, which specializes in troubled commercial mortgages, aims to resolve problem real estate contained in securities by selling a portfolio including properties from the East Coast to the West Coast. The special servicer is selling the debt at an opportune time, as investors are ready to take advantage of defaults.

A Wells Fargo and Co. report showed that in March the delinquency rate on commercial-mortgage bond deals recorded the largest increase since November 2010. According to the report, property owners fell behind on $4.3 billion in commercial property debt—compared with about $3.3 billion in February.

CWCapital oversees $21 billion in office building, shopping center, hotel, and apartment delinquent mortgages.