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A lender that stumped up $47.4 million to help Walter Bowen refinance part of the Broadway Tower on Southwest Broadway in downtown Portland sued the developer in November, alleging a default.
CLF II-SL HV LLC, an entity registered in Delaware, sued Bowen, a trust in his name, and an LLC that he controls, asking the court to appoint a receiver to take over the property and then sell it to repay the loan. The suit applies only to the Hotel Vance, which occupies a portion of the building.
The Oregonian first reported the lawsuit, filed Nov. 22, last week. Multnomah County records indicate that CLF II-SL HV LLC is an affiliate of Canyon Partners, a Dallas-based investment firm.
The complaint suggests financial trouble for Bowen, who developed the 35-story Block 216, a tower in downtown Portland’s West End that contains office space, a Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and Ritz-Carlton Residences. Attorneys for Bowen at Black Helterline LLP didn’t return emails seeking comment.
Bowen, founded his company, BPM Real Estate Group, in 1977. He started building office towers and hotels after buying and developing 44 senior living communities, then selling 16 of them to diversify.
BPM broke ground on Block 216 on Southwest 10th Avenue between Washington and Alder streets in July 2019, eight months before COVID-19 sent millions of employees home from their offices nationwide and 10 months before the George Floyd protests turned into riots, prompting downtown shops and offices to board up windows.
Bowen made a well-timed move on the office portion of Broadway Tower in January 2020, when he sold it for $132.3 million to an entity called Broadway Tower Office LLC, which public records show is controlled by Saltbox Village REIT LLC in Des Moines, Iowa. But Bowen kept the hotel floors.
According to the November lawsuit, trouble at the Broadway Tower started last year. Because of “underperformance of the property, the lender demanded on July 31, 2023, that Bowen’s firm deposit $2.5 million in a reserve to cover interest on the loan within 30 days.
Bowen agreed to pony up the reserve in installments, the complaint says. His company made the first payment, of $600,000, by the deadline of Sept. 11, 2023, but missed a second one for $1.9 million, due Nov. 13, 2023.
Financial statements sent to the lender, CLF II-SL HV LLC, in December of last year “indicated a net worth lower than required” by the loan agreements, the complaint says. Bowen continued to miss payments, despite changes that gave him more time, the complaint says.
In October of this year, CLF II-SL HV LLC says it sent Bowen a notice of default. Bowen missed another payment in November and failed to make an insurance payment, the complaint says, prompting the lender to sue.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said that Walter Bowen bought the office portion of Broadway Tower in 2020, just before the pandemic struck. He sold the office portion and kept the hotel that year. WW regrets the error.