We just recently learned that Crescent Resources, the owner of Portland Place in downtown Phoenix filed Bankruptcy yesterday.

An article in the Charlotte Observer stated:

"Duke [Duke Energy - a Fortune 500 energy producer] created Crescent in 1969 to manage its surplus land along the Catawba River, transferring title to 300,000 acres. By the 1990s, Crescent had become a prominent developer. Duke sold a 49-percent share to Morgan Stanley in 2006.

But the company reported a net loss of $420 million on $407 million in revenue last year as it liquidated properties in Arizona, Florida and Texas, three states hit hard by the real estate meltdown.

Restructuring its debt last June left it with a $50 million payment due by the end of 2009, $75 million in 2010 and $100 million in 2011, with the rest of a $1.2 billion loan due in 2012.

Rating agency Standard & Poor's lowered Crescent's corporate credit and bank loan ratings in April to noninvestment grade or "junk" status."

We don't know yet how this will affect Portland Place but we have calls out to find out.  We would expect one of two solutions to develop; either a restructuring of the debt for Crescent allowing some "breathing room" so that it can eventually sell the condos, brownstones and lofts at Portland Place or the sale of all the remaining condos to a major investor.  We'll look into this further and post our findings.

Oh and for those of you who don't know, Portland Place is a FANTASTIC building; one of my personal favorites.  So, if you're into great architecture and a fun urban location, definitely watch this blog for news, as prices MIGHT be on the verge of going down.

4:00pm June 11, 2009 - Just learned that there should be no worry of Portland Place getting slapped with mechanic's liens or anything like that as, according to our source, Portland Place has no outstanding debts.  So hopefully, this BK will buy Crescent time to restructure and come out stronger.  WD