GSN Roundup: Nixed IPOs, Freddie Mac Debt, and Fulton Market Rental Tower

Top stories in US CRE News this week:

ABA 10.24.25 
JPMorgan Engineered, Nixed Tricolor IPO 

A year before Tricolor Auto’s sudden implosion, JPMorgan Chase tried to take the subprime auto lender public. 

The effort began to unravel, however, when JPMorgan bankers assigned to the project discovered what one source described as financial irregularities at Tricolor while raising concerns about the prior dealings of the company’s chief financial officer. Eventually, the bank scuttled the plan in the wake of the November presidential election. 

It’s unclear if the irregularities that JPMorgan uncovered at Tricolor were related to later accusations that the Irving, Texas, company had pledged the same loans across multiple warehouse providers and securitization pools. However, they apparently didn’t affect the bank’s willingness to continue as a warehouse lender and securitization underwriter for Tricolor, as it went on to run the books on two asset-backed bond deals totaling $545.3 million that the outfit completed this March and June. 

JPMorgan recorded a third-quarter chargeoff of $170 million on its exposures to Tricolor. 

JPMorgan’s skepticism of Tricolor CFO Jerry Kollar, meanwhile, had led the bank to pressure company chief executive Daniel Chu to replace him — but to no avail, sources said. Indeed, Kollar remained on board at least through the pricing of the June securitization. 

Sources said JPMorgan’s concerns about Kollar were related in part to his association with an executive at former employer Mach Speed Holdings whom the bank discovered to have a felony conviction on his record, as well as circumstances surrounding that company’s 2015 bankruptcy. 

Kollar had joined Tricolor that year from Mach Speed, an entity that two private investment banks established to acquire interests in three manufacturers of products including tablet computers, digital-media players and remote-control cars. That Plano, Texas, operation maintained credit facilities with Comerica and Wells Fargo totaling $82 million, and obtained a contract to sell its goods at Walmart stores. 

But that program fell apart, as did one linked with the QVC television network, with sales of Mach Speed’s assets following. At the time of its bankruptcy filing, Mach Speed owed $48 million on its facility with Wells. 

The company’s bankruptcy trustee, meanwhile, hired outside counsel to investigate and subsequently filed a lawsuit against Kollar and others that the parties eventually settled. 

Like Chu, Kollar has dropped all contact with authorities or business partners since August. He did not respond to a request for comment. A JPMorgan spokesperson also declined to comment. 

The election additionally appears to have played some role in JPMorgan’s decision to drop its IPO efforts for Tricolor. That could reflect Tricolor’s focus on lending mostly to Hispanic borrowers, including undocumented immigrants, at a time when the Trump Administration has been conducting mass deportations. 

JPMorgan’s concerns about Tricolor’s finances didn’t end there. Nine months after the election, the bank summoned Chu to New York to explain further irregularities it had discovered in its role as a warehouse lender and securitization underwriter. Sources said Chu was unable to account for discrepancies between Tricolor’s audited financial statements and its actual data, and that JPMorgan quickly engineered the company’s Sept. 5 shuttering after notifying other financing partners. 

Among them was Fifth Third Bank, which like JPMorgan had supplied Tricolor with more than $200 million of warehouse financing and had underwritten its asset-backed bonds.  

Meanwhile, Tricolor’s early bankruptcy proceedings continue to yield evidence that the company was falsifying its loan information for years. The latest nugget to emerge, a source said, was that Tricolor not only was pledging the same loans across multiple facilities but that it on thousands of occasions created vehicle identification numbers for cars that didn’t exist and listed them as collateral for its warehouse lines and securitizations.  

That has added to tensions among the parties involved, including JPMorgan, Fifth Third, Tricolor’s bankruptcy trustee and its securitization trustee, Wilmington Trust.  

Wilmington, the trustee for each of Tricolor’s nine securitizations, also was responsible for flagging defective collateral in another role as loan-verification agent but never spotted the repeated or falsified VINs. Wilmington since has resigned as trustee, with sources saying the bank has zeroed in on a specific sales professional responsible for the Tricolor account for potential disciplinary action. 

The spotlight isn’t just on Wilmington. With Moody’s Ratings, S&P and KBRA having downgraded each of Tricolor’s five outstanding securitizations to junk status amid expectations that they will default, investors are clamoring for an accounting of the company’s assets and loan data.  

To that end, the bankruptcy trustee has submitted a $30 million budget request to JPMorgan, Fifth Third and other Tricolor lenders to cover needs including a forensic analysis of Tricolor’s loan portfolio, a source said. The banks have balked at that figure, however, and are considering a request to hire their own investigators.  

Servicer Vervent and Capstone Partners, which is advising the trustee, have been digging into the data but have warned it will take weeks if not months to complete the process. “There is definitely some tension building with the banks and the [bankruptcy] trustee,” a source said. “The trustee wants them to pony up, but the banks are saying, ‘What the hell, we can do it without the red tape of the trustee.’ This is going to evolve over the next week or two.” 

Government agencies including the U.S. Justice Department, FBI, SEC and U.S. Department of Homeland Security additionally have been investigating. And the Structured Finance Association has formed a task force focused on the matter (see article on Page 6). 

CMA 10.24.25 
Starwood Lands $534M of Freddie Mac Debt 

Starwood Real Estate Income Trust has paid off a single-borrower CMBS deal with a $534.2 million package of Freddie Mac loans. 

Berkadia originated the 18 mortgages, backed by a 3,483-unit portfolio comprising 16 properties in Florida and one each in Massachusetts and Utah. The floating-rate loans closed on Oct. 9. 

They paid off a $529.8 million floating-rate, interest-only loan that was securitized by Goldman Sachs in 2021 (GSMS 2021-DM). Starwood had exercised two of its three one-year extension options on the loan, which faced a final maturity date of November 2026. The debt financed Starwood purchases totaling $883 million, or $254,000/unit, in a series of transactions with various sellers in 2021. 

Servicer notes showed an average portfolio occupancy of 96% as of June. Annualized net cashflow supported a debt-service coverage ratio of 1.97 to 1 on the CMBS loan. 

The Freddie package comprises 17 cross-collateralized loans with seven-year terms, plus one with a 10-year term. 

The largest loan, at $118.9 million, is underpinned by a 331-unit complex near Boston known as Seven Springs. Starwood paid $195 million, or $589,000/unit, to buy the complex in September 2021 from a joint venture between Clarion Partners and National Development. 

The garden-style complex was built in 2006 and has a mix of two- to four-story buildings, some with attached garages, on 38 acres. Units have 9-foot ceilings, washer/dryers and granite counters. Some have pond views. Amenities include a clubhouse with a full kitchen, a heated pool and a sports bar with game tables. 

It uses the address 1 Seven Springs Lane in Burlington, 11 miles northwest of downtown Boston. It’s near Burlington Mall, a 1.3 million sq ft mall, and near the interchange of U.S. Route 3 and Interstate 95. Rents for the one- to three-bedroom units range from $2,600 to $4,000. 

The stand-alone 10-year loan totals $80.7 million and is backed by Maison’s Landing, a 492-unit complex in Taylorsville, Utah. 

Starwood bought the complex from Kennedy Wilson in September 2021 for an undisclosed amount. The REIT reported a total cost for the property of $167.5 million in regulatory filings. Kennedy Wilson paid $100.3 million for the 1996-vintage property in 2018. 

The garden-style complex has 21 apartment buildings on 29 acres. Apartments have washer/dryers, walk-in closets and patios or balconies. Rents for the one- to three-bedroom units start at $1,269. The complex has sports courts, a pool, a dog park and a playground. Free-standing garages are available for some units, and there is a clubhouse with a fitness center and a game room. 

The property is at 4341 Riverboat Road, 6 miles south of downtown Salt Lake City. It’s near the Jordan River and a trail, and is less than a mile from Interstate 15. 

All of the Florida properties are affordable housing, and five are age-restricted. They qualify for tax exemptions under Florida’s Live Local Act. Nearly half of the Florida units are concentrated in eight properties in the Tampa area. The rest are in the Daytona Beach, Jacksonville, Lakeland-Winter Haven and Sarasota areas. The properties were built from 1998 to 2008. 

REA 10.28.25
Developers Shop Fulton Market Rental Tower 

A development team is shopping an apartment tower in Chicago’s Fulton Market neighborhood that could draw bids of $175 million. 

The estimated value for the 363-unit Arthur on Aberdeen works out to $482,000/unit. At that price, a buyer’s initial annual yield would be in the low-5% area. 

JLL is representing the sellers, Chicago-based developer LG Group and Boston-based AEW Capital Management. 

The partnership completed the 18-story high-rise in 2024 and began leasing early that year. The property now is 95% occupied, having averaged 20 leases per month during its initial lease-up phase. Over the past eight months, it has maintained resident retention of 66% while achieving 9% rent growth on renewals, according to marketing materials. 

The property has a little more than 10,000 sq ft of fully leased retail space on its ground floor, with tenants on leases that extend through 2035 and 2036 for a weighted average remaining term of 9.5 years. Occupants include a bagel shop, a luxury denim store, a restaurant and a tea shop, with initial rents of $50 to $60/sq ft. 

Arthur on Aberdeen has 290 market-rate apartments. Those studio to two-bedroom units average 793 sq ft and rent for an average of $3,293, or $4.15/sq ft.  

The property additionally includes 73 affordable units, qualifying it for a 30-year tax abatement under Chicago’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance. Those apartments average 744 sq ft, with rents averaging $1,333, or $1.79/sq ft.  

Amenities at Arthur on Aberdeen include a fitness center, a rooftop pool and spa, a coworking lounge, a podcast studio, study rooms, and a dog run and washing station. There are 98 garage parking spaces. 

The tower is on nearly an acre at 210 North Aberdeen Street. The surrounding West Loop submarket has added more than 1.4 million sq ft of Class-A office space annually since 2016, according to marketing materials. 

The Fulton Market neighborhood, a former industrial and meatpacking district, has undergone extensive redevelopment over the past 10 years. The area now includes a mix of offices, apartments, hotels and retail space, anchored by Randolph Street’s so-called Restaurant Row. 

The average household income within a mile of the property is $189,000, and the median age is 33, with 85% of residents holding at least a bachelor’s degree. The average home value within 3 miles is $680,000. O’Hare International Airport and Chicago Midway International Airport are within 14 miles.