The Art District Lofts at 1275 Santa Fe Drive. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
An apartment building along Santa Fe Drive in Denver’s Lincoln Park has been taken back by a lender.
An affiliate of Vancouver, British Columbia-based Trez Capital was the sole bidder at a foreclosure auction for the Art District Lofts at 1275 Santa Fe Drive.
The eight-story, 115-unit building with ground-floor retail space was originally developed by Leon Cisneros of Denver-based CRE Development Investments. He also developed another apartment building on the same block, at 1225 Santa Fe.
Cisneros, acting as Santa Fe Thirteen LLC, purchased the half-acre site in May 2020 for $4.1 million. Construction began around the end of that year and was completed by 2023.
In March 2022, Cisneros took out a $30.88 million loan from Trez Capital. That loan was set to mature one year later, meaning it needed to be paid off by that date. The agreement was later modified.
Trez appears to have taken ownership of the building in March 2024, when the property was transferred from Santa Fe Thirteen LLC to TC 1275 Art District LP. That entity listed an address corresponding to Trez Capital’s Canadian headquarters.
Asked about the transfer at the time, Cisneros told BusinessDen in an email that it was “part of debt restructuring of this property to get thru stabilization and sale or refi.” He later acknowledged it left him without an ownership stake in the property.
“I am not involved with that new entity,” he said in a text message.
In November of last year, Trez Capital assigned the loan to TC Colorado Art District II LP, records show. That entity, which lists its address as a Trez Capital office outside Dallas, Texas, then initiated the foreclosure process in December.
The loan balance had ballooned to $41.08 million as of the foreclosure auction, records show. The debt holder submitted a credit bid of $33 million.
Two Holland & Hart attorneys representing the lender did not respond to a request for comment.
Asked why Trez Capital appeared to have foreclosed on a property it already controlled, David Brewster, an attorney with Denver’s Otten Johnson who works on foreclosures but was not involved with 1275 Santa Fe, said it was likely done to clear the property’s title and clear out any junior interests, such as liens.
The apartment building isn’t the only property that Cisneros lost to a lender recently. Last summer, Greenwood Village-based Lead Funding foreclosed on 1245 E. Colfax Ave., a small office building where Cisneros once planned to build apartments on the parking lot behind.
The Art District Lofts at 1275 Santa Fe Drive. (Matt Geiger/BusinessDen)
An apartment building along Santa Fe Drive in Denver’s Lincoln Park has been taken back by a lender.
An affiliate of Vancouver, British Columbia-based Trez Capital was the sole bidder at a foreclosure auction for the Art District Lofts at 1275 Santa Fe Drive.
The eight-story, 115-unit building with ground-floor retail space was originally developed by Leon Cisneros of Denver-based CRE Development Investments. He also developed another apartment building on the same block, at 1225 Santa Fe.
Cisneros, acting as Santa Fe Thirteen LLC, purchased the half-acre site in May 2020 for $4.1 million. Construction began around the end of that year and was completed by 2023.
In March 2022, Cisneros took out a $30.88 million loan from Trez Capital. That loan was set to mature one year later, meaning it needed to be paid off by that date. The agreement was later modified.
Trez appears to have taken ownership of the building in March 2024, when the property was transferred from Santa Fe Thirteen LLC to TC 1275 Art District LP. That entity listed an address corresponding to Trez Capital’s Canadian headquarters.
Asked about the transfer at the time, Cisneros told BusinessDen in an email that it was “part of debt restructuring of this property to get thru stabilization and sale or refi.” He later acknowledged it left him without an ownership stake in the property.
“I am not involved with that new entity,” he said in a text message.
In November of last year, Trez Capital assigned the loan to TC Colorado Art District II LP, records show. That entity, which lists its address as a Trez Capital office outside Dallas, Texas, then initiated the foreclosure process in December.
The loan balance had ballooned to $41.08 million as of the foreclosure auction, records show. The debt holder submitted a credit bid of $33 million.
Two Holland & Hart attorneys representing the lender did not respond to a request for comment.
Asked why Trez Capital appeared to have foreclosed on a property it already controlled, David Brewster, an attorney with Denver’s Otten Johnson who works on foreclosures but was not involved with 1275 Santa Fe, said it was likely done to clear the property’s title and clear out any junior interests, such as liens.
The apartment building isn’t the only property that Cisneros lost to a lender recently. Last summer, Greenwood Village-based Lead Funding foreclosed on 1245 E. Colfax Ave., a small office building where Cisneros once planned to build apartments on the parking lot behind.
