The borrower in question is part of Cabi Properties, the U.S. arm of a large Mexican-based real estate developer. Cabi borrowed $1.5 billion to buy a bunch of Socal office buildings last year from Arden Realty (that's the company formerly run by Dick Ziman and sold to GE a while back). Cabi saw the office properties as a way of entering the California market. Anyway, the OC Register's Jon Lansner reports that Cabi is late on $105 million of the principal owed the lender, Newport Beach-based KBS Real Estate Investment Trust. Payment was due Oct. 6; Cabi is trying to work something out. Here’s what the LAT reported when the deal was announced in 2007:
This would be its first outright purchase here, said Rich Mayo, who is in charge of acquisitions for Cabi’s Los Angeles office. “Southern California has one of the strongest economies in the world and is a great place to invest,” Mayo said. “It also has a lot of cultural synergies with Mexico. It’s a familiar place.” More investments are in the works, Mayo said. “Our goal is to have several significant transactions under our belt in the next several months.”