The building at 400 W. 48th Ave. in Denver’s Globeville last year. (BusinessDen file)
A lender wants a receiver appointed to oversee a Globeville office building after its largest tenant moved out ahead of a bankruptcy sale.
Independent Bank made the request last week regarding the 95,000-square-foot Globe4Hundred office building at 400 W. 48th Ave. in Denver.
Fluid Truck, a startup that facilitated truck rentals, once occupied about 32,000 square feet in the building. But the company gave up the space in October as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Fluid was later sold for about $10 million — a far cry from at least $80 million it had raised from investors.
Globe4Hundred is owned by 48th Office Investment LLC, which purchased it in June 2021 for $11.2 million, according to public records. That entity is made up of Fluid founder and onetime CEO James Eberhard; the developer Ryan Arnold, then with Tributary Real Estate and now of Armada Venture Partners; and JLL broker Ken Gooden, alongside some smaller investors.
The plan was for Arnold to manage the property and for Fluid to be its anchor tenant. The group financed the acquisition with a $9.75 million loan from Independent Bank and took out an additional $455,000 loan on the building the following year.
In its request for a receiver, Independent Bank said last week that Globe4Hundred was 50% vacant as of January, with 48,000 square feet sitting unused. It said it believes an additional 10,000-square-foot tenant has either moved out since then or will be moving out.
“A receiver is needed to protect and lease up the Property, which is losing more than $55,000 per month, and is in danger of being materially injured and impaired, and reduced in value,” the bank said in a filing.
Independent Bank said the ownership group defaulted on the loans when it failed to deposit any funds into a “rollover reserve account.” The bank said the loan agreements require the group to deposit nearly $800,000, or $16.50 for every square foot that is vacant.
Independent Bank said a receiver also is needed because the ownership group withdrew $400,000 in building operating funds to put down a retainer for legal services. The bank said Denver-based Cordes & Co. should be named receiver.
The former Clarion Inn hotel at 200 W. 48th Ave. in Globeville is seen from Fluid Truck’s headquarters at 400 W. 48th Ave. last year. (BusinessDen file)
Reached by BusinessDen, Gooden and Arnold declined to comment. But in a response filed in court, the ownership group said its inability to finance the reserve account was directly related to Fluid’s exit, yet highlighted that it continued to make payments on the loans even after the company moved out.
The group defended using funds to hire an attorney and said the bank did not have the right to control use of those funds.
“Ensuring legal representation was necessary in view of … the issues surrounding the Fluid Truck bankruptcy proceeding, an anticipated default by a separate tenant and possibly other tenant defaults, and to perform leasing work related to new prospective tenants,” the group wrote.
The group also said Independent Bank froze its bank accounts Dec. 20, despite default not having occurred at that time.
“The only justification offered by Plaintiff for its conduct was that it, in essence, anticipated a default,” the group wrote.
The group acknowledged that Independent Bank has a right to a receiver in the event of default, but said the bank’s proposed order grants the receiver authority that goes beyond that established in the loan agreements. A hearing is slated to be held on the matter.
Attorney David Laird of Fennemore is representing building ownership. Richard Beller of Fort Collins’ Ringenberg & Beller is representing the lender.
The members of 48th Office Investment LLC previously sparred among themselves. Last spring, Eberhard sued Arnold and Gooden. He alleged the two misled him, in part, by failing to mention that a former hotel next door was being converted into transitional housing for the homeless. That dispute was subsequently settled.
Eberhard, meanwhile, was ousted from his job as Fluid CEO last summer amid allegations of mismanagement.
The building at 400 W. 48th Ave. in Denver’s Globeville last year. (BusinessDen file)
A lender wants a receiver appointed to oversee a Globeville office building after its largest tenant moved out ahead of a bankruptcy sale.
Independent Bank made the request last week regarding the 95,000-square-foot Globe4Hundred office building at 400 W. 48th Ave. in Denver.
Fluid Truck, a startup that facilitated truck rentals, once occupied about 32,000 square feet in the building. But the company gave up the space in October as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Fluid was later sold for about $10 million — a far cry from at least $80 million it had raised from investors.
Globe4Hundred is owned by 48th Office Investment LLC, which purchased it in June 2021 for $11.2 million, according to public records. That entity is made up of Fluid founder and onetime CEO James Eberhard; the developer Ryan Arnold, then with Tributary Real Estate and now of Armada Venture Partners; and JLL broker Ken Gooden, alongside some smaller investors.
The plan was for Arnold to manage the property and for Fluid to be its anchor tenant. The group financed the acquisition with a $9.75 million loan from Independent Bank and took out an additional $455,000 loan on the building the following year.
In its request for a receiver, Independent Bank said last week that Globe4Hundred was 50% vacant as of January, with 48,000 square feet sitting unused. It said it believes an additional 10,000-square-foot tenant has either moved out since then or will be moving out.
“A receiver is needed to protect and lease up the Property, which is losing more than $55,000 per month, and is in danger of being materially injured and impaired, and reduced in value,” the bank said in a filing.
Independent Bank said the ownership group defaulted on the loans when it failed to deposit any funds into a “rollover reserve account.” The bank said the loan agreements require the group to deposit nearly $800,000, or $16.50 for every square foot that is vacant.
Independent Bank said a receiver also is needed because the ownership group withdrew $400,000 in building operating funds to put down a retainer for legal services. The bank said Denver-based Cordes & Co. should be named receiver.
The former Clarion Inn hotel at 200 W. 48th Ave. in Globeville is seen from Fluid Truck’s headquarters at 400 W. 48th Ave. last year. (BusinessDen file)
Reached by BusinessDen, Gooden and Arnold declined to comment. But in a response filed in court, the ownership group said its inability to finance the reserve account was directly related to Fluid’s exit, yet highlighted that it continued to make payments on the loans even after the company moved out.
The group defended using funds to hire an attorney and said the bank did not have the right to control use of those funds.
“Ensuring legal representation was necessary in view of … the issues surrounding the Fluid Truck bankruptcy proceeding, an anticipated default by a separate tenant and possibly other tenant defaults, and to perform leasing work related to new prospective tenants,” the group wrote.
The group also said Independent Bank froze its bank accounts Dec. 20, despite default not having occurred at that time.
“The only justification offered by Plaintiff for its conduct was that it, in essence, anticipated a default,” the group wrote.
The group acknowledged that Independent Bank has a right to a receiver in the event of default, but said the bank’s proposed order grants the receiver authority that goes beyond that established in the loan agreements. A hearing is slated to be held on the matter.
Attorney David Laird of Fennemore is representing building ownership. Richard Beller of Fort Collins’ Ringenberg & Beller is representing the lender.
The members of 48th Office Investment LLC previously sparred among themselves. Last spring, Eberhard sued Arnold and Gooden. He alleged the two misled him, in part, by failing to mention that a former hotel next door was being converted into transitional housing for the homeless. That dispute was subsequently settled.
Eberhard, meanwhile, was ousted from his job as Fluid CEO last summer amid allegations of mismanagement.
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