Golub & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)’s Whitehall real estate fund have about $400 million in loans coming due next month on the 100-story John Hancock Center, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The debt, including a $182 million mortgage that was packaged into bonds, financed their acquisition of the property in January 2007, when it was valued at $410 million, the data show.

Borrowers are struggling to refinance a wave of loans made at the market’s peak, allowing investors to acquire marquee buildings through debt purchases. Blackstone, based in New York, is close to completing a deal to buy $100 million of mezzanine debt on John Hancock Center so it can try to take control of the tower, according to people with knowledge of the situation who declined to be named because the talks are private.

Peter Rose, a Blackstone spokesman, and Andrea Raphael of Goldman Sachs declined to comment. A call to Michael Newman, president and chief executive officer of Chicago-based Golub & Co., was referred to Mary Ellen Smith, the company’s director of marketing, who didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Buying slices of lower-ranking debt to take ownership of commercial properties has become a common strategy as defaults surged in the past two years.

‘Often a Race’

“Once a maturity default occurs on multiple loans securing a property, that frees the lenders up to go ahead and enforce their remedies,” said Kevin O’Shea, head of the U.S. real estate group at law firm Allen & Overy LLP, who isn’t involved in the John Hancock Center transaction. “It’s often a race to see who goes first.”

The Willis Tower, formerly known as Sears Tower, is the tallest building in the city, followed by the Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago and the Aon Center, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, based in Chicago. John Hancock Center is 1,128 feet (344 meters) tall.

To contact the reporters on this story: Sarah Mulholland in New York atsmulholland3@bloomberg.net; Hui-yong Yu in Seattle at hyu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Taub at dtaub@bloomberg.net; Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-26/blackstone-said-to-seek-debt-in-bid-to-take-over-chicago-s-hancock-tower.html

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