Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the defunct investment bank trying to boost real estate sales to help pay creditors, won a judge’s permission to hire CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. (CBG) to appraise an office building in Los Angeles.
Lehman gained control of the property at 1000 Wilshire Boulevard and other buildings in 2009 when a joint-venture partner needed an extension of loans advanced by Lehman before its 2008 bankruptcy. Lehman needs to appraise the Wilshire property to foreclose on the loan, which is in default, or exercise “other remedies,” the company has said.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck in Manhattan signed an order yesterday authorizing the hiring of the Los Angeles-based real estate firm, according to a filing.
Lehman valued its real estate assets at $13.2 billion in a court filing detailing a $65 billion liquidation plan. Real estate sales will run through 2014, New York-based Lehman said in the June filing. Through March, proceeds from real estate sales totaled $3 billion, it said.
In June, the firm sold an office building at 1107 Broadway in Manhattan for $190.8 million to Steven Witkoff, chairman and chief executive officer of New York-based Witkoff Group.
The case is In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ), 08-13555, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporter on this story: Linda Sandler in New York at lsandler@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at jpickering@bloomberg.net.