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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe historic Century Building downtown is headed for a sheriff’s sale after a Marion Superior Court judge on Tuesday finalized a foreclosure request from the building owner’s lender.
The 112-year-old office building at 36 S. Pennsylvania St. will enter the market in a precarious position, as a major tenant plans to depart.
U.S. Bank filed in February 2012 to foreclose on the building owned by Century Building Investment Group LLC, a unit of California-based Blue Real Estate. The bank claimed it was owed $10.5 million on a loan default.
Judge Robert Altice Jr. signed off on the foreclosure Tuesday. A date for the sale has not been set.
Blue Real Estate, which entered the Indianapolis market as an investor in 2006, lost most of its local holdings in 2011 after lenders took control of several properties.
The seven-story Century Building was built in 1901 and is the corporate home of Steak n Shake. Major tenants also include ExactTarget and Denison Parking.
Steak n Shake, however, has purchased the Ober Building on the opposite corner of Pennsylvania and Maryland streets and will be vacating its space in the Century Building.
The departure actually could create new opportunities for a buyer, said Jon Owens, vice president and principal in the local office of Cassidy Turley.
“They might find themselves in a good position to recruit tenants to backfill the space left by Steak n Shake,” he said. “Since there’s nothing being built in the market, the absorption of existing space is going to be important going forward.”
Attractive qualities of the building include its historic architecture and close proximity to several major downtown amenities, Owens said. Bankers Life Fieldhouse and Circle Centre mall are within a block.
Conversely, its unusual configuration—floor plates are U-shaped around an atrium—and lack of building-controlled parking are among its drawbacks, Owens said.
The Century Building contains 115,526 square feet of rentable space. The latest figures available show the building was 89-percent occupied at the end of 2011.
Locally based DTM Real Estate Services LLC was appointed by the court to manage the seven-story building during the foreclosure process.
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