Receiver appointed to manage troubled Century Building

The historic Century Building downtown has been placed in the hands of a court-appointed receiver as a lender seeks to foreclose on the property.

Marion Superior Court Judge Robyn Moberly last week appointed locally based DTM Real Estate Services LLC to manage the seven-story building at 36 S. Pennsylvania St.

U.S. Bank filed in February to foreclose on the building owned by Century Building Investment Group LLC, a unit of California-based Blue Real Estate, claiming it’s owed $10.5 million on a loan default.

The building, built in 1901, is the corporate home of Steak n Shake, ExactTarget and Denison Parking.

Blue Real Estate, which entered the Indianapolis market as an investor in 2006, lost most of its local holdings last year after lenders took control of several properties.

U.S. Bank claims in its Century Building foreclosure suit that Blue received a loan in December 2006 from original lender Countrywide Commercial Real Estate Finance Inc. in the amount of $8.5 million.

U.S. Bank assumed the loan in June 2008, and alleges in its suit that Blue defaulted on the loan when it started missing payments in July 2011.

The unpaid principal on the mortgage still is $8.5 million, or nearly the total amount of the original loan. But U.S. Bank is seeking $10.5 million, including interest charges and payment penalties.

The Century Building contains 115,526 square feet of rentable space, ranking it as the 19th-largest office building in downtown Indianapolis, according to IBJ research.

The latest figures available show the building was 89-percent occupied at the end of 2011.

Receiver DTM Real Estate Services, at 1 N. Meridian St., will be paid $5,750 per month, or 3.5 percent of the building’s gross monthly revenue, to manage the building, according to court documents.