In re NNN Parkway 400 26, LLC

505 B.R. 277, 2014 WL 309734
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, C.D. California
DecidedJanuary 28, 2014
DocketNos. 8:12-bk-24593-TA, 8:13-bk-16598-TA, 8:13-bk-16603-TA, 8:13-bk-16608-TA, 8:13-bk-16611-TA, 8:13-bk-16612-TA, 8:13-bk-16614-TA, 8:13-bk-16616-TA, 8:13-bk-16617-TA, 8:13-bk-16706-TA, 8:13-bk-16621-TA, 8:13-bk-16623-TA, 8:13-bk-16627-TA, 8:13-bk-18271-TA, 8:13-bk-16628-TA, 8:13-bk-16633-TA, 8:13-bk-16634-TA, 8:13-bk-16635-TA, 8:13-bk-16636-TA, 8:13-bk-16637-TA, 8:13-bk-16638-TA, 8:13-bk-16639-TA, 8:13-bk-16641-TA, 8:13-bk-16642-TA, 8:13-bk-16643-TA, 8:13-bk-16645-TA, 8:13-bk-16646-TA, 8:13-bk-16696-TA, 8:13-bk-16697-TA, 8:13-bk-18271-TA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 505 B.R. 277 (In re NNN Parkway 400 26, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re NNN Parkway 400 26, LLC, 505 B.R. 277, 2014 WL 309734 (Cal. 2014).

Opinion

AMENDED MEMORANDUM OF DECISION DENYING CONFIRMATION OF CHAPTER 11 PLAN AND GRANTING RELIEF OF STAY

THEODOR C. ALBERT, Bankruptcy Judge.

The debtors are some 31 affiliated limited liability companies, each of which own undivided tenancies in common (collectively “debtor TICs”) in the property commonly known as 11720 and 11800 Amber Park Drive, Alpharetta, Georgia (“the property”). The property is improved by office buildings which have been partially leased. The debtor TICs each hold a percentage ownership in the property, aggregating approximately 86%. There are at least four tenants in common owning the remaining H% which are not debtors (“non-debtor TICs”). By earlier order these cases are administratively consolidated.

The plan is opposed by the major creditor in the case WBCMT 2007-C31 Amber-park Office Limited Partnership (“lender”). The lender is owed about $27 million secured by a first mortgage on the property. The lender had actually foreclosed on the property January 3, 2013 but was prevented from consummating that foreclosure by the Chapter 11 petition of the lead debtor, NNN Parkway 400 26, LLC (“lead debtor”) representing about a 2.3% ownership of the property. Despite its serious misgivings voiced at the time, this court reluctantly found that, under, the teaching of Harsh Investment Co. v. Bialac (In re Bialac), 712 F.2d 426 (9th Cir.1983), the foreclosure was stayed not only as to the lead debtor but as to all of the other TICS as well because reciprocal rights of redemption from the lender’s claim were a form of “property of the estate” which would be destroyed by the foreclosure. Consequently, under Ninth Circuit law the foreclosure sale as to the TICS other than the lead debtor was not just voidable, it was void, and so the sale was unwound by the lender. The initial petition was then followed by petitions from the other thirty debtor TICs. This matter first came on for hearing on attempted confirmation of the debtor TICs’ plan of reorganization and lender’s motion for relief of stay December 19, 2013. Those motions were considered together with motions to value the proper[281]*281ty and to dismiss. In anticipation of that hearing the court published its tentative decision December 18, 2013 (“tentative”) wherein the court outlined several areas of concern it had over the confirmability of the plan. The court now adopts and incorporates herein by reference the tentative, subject to the decision as articulated below. The court will again address each of those major areas of concern from the tentative in light of the evidence and arguments of the parties:

1. Fair and Equitable

The court at the December 19 hearing determined that the value of the property for plan purposes was $21 million. Under 11 U.S.C. § 506(a) this means the secured claim of the lender was $21 million and the unsecured claim was the approximate $6 million deficiency. The court also determined that a 5.94% per annum interest rate fixed would provide “present value” equal to the remaining $20 million secured claim (after a promised $1 million pay down) for the payments promised under the plan within the meaning of 11 U.S.C. § 1129(b)(2)(A)®. The hearing was continued for evidence and argument on remaining issues to January 13, 2014. At the continued hearing, the debtor TICs reported that their financial backers, ASB Acquisitions and Steelbridge Capital, would still contribute the promised approximate $5.11 million new capital notwithstanding that these findings were at variance with the original conditions for the contribution as previously expressed. Therefore, it appeared that the debtor TICS cleared at least the initial hurdle to plan confirmation described in the tentative.

2. Absolute Priority Rule

Because the lender is easily the largest unsecured creditor at around $6 million (in fact, the lender represents about 99.79% of all debt), and Class 5 (of which it is the sole member) has voted against confirmation, there arises an issue under the “absolute priority rule” found at § 1129(b)(2)(B)(ii) because the debtor TICs do not propose to pay the unsecured creditors in full but would keep their interests as Class 8 under the plan. As discussed in the tentative, the debtor TICs could still confirm the plan if they could show contribution of sufficient “new value” within the teaching of the U.S. Supreme Court in Bank of America Nat’l Trust & Sav. Ass’n v. 203 N. LaSalle Street P’ship, 526 U.S. 434, 456-57, 119 S.Ct. 1411, 1424, 143 L.Ed.2d 607 (1999). LaSalle requires that the quantum of new value be market tested; otherwise the parties and the court cannot know whether the amount of new value proposed in the debtor’s plan is the most available. And if more (or better) could be gotten elsewhere, then the equity is effectively keeping a form of property or interest in the debtor despite not paying the dissenting creditors in full, by exercising its exclusive “option” to direct/determine the source of the new value. But LaSalle is frustratingly vague as to what exactly a debtor must do to “market test” the interest; the Supreme Court expressly left the question open while naming some alternatives, such as the right to bid for the same interest or the right to file a competing plan. Id. at 458, 119 S.Ct. 1411

The debtor TICs argue they have effectively met the La Salle suggestion of ability to file a competing plan as one means of “market testing” because, at least as to the lead debtor, the exclusivity period found at 11 U.S.C. § 1121(b) had lapsed. Therefore, the debtor TICs argue, the lender could have filed a competing plan. This argument is not persuasive because the exclusivity period as to several other of the debtor TICs had not passed [282]*282when the plan was filed (which triggered the further period found at § 1121(c)(3)), and any meaningful reorganization of these interests would require that they all be addressed (and the non-debtor TICs as well, as discussed below). Attempting to deal with 31 separate debtors piecemeal would be at best an awkward, expensive and largely hopeless exercise. This cannot be an effective means of “market testing” within the holding in LaSalle. Nor is the court persuaded by counsel’s argument in his summation that had the lender confirmed a competing plan in the lead case it would have thus obtained a blocking position preventing 100% ownership of the property by tying up 2.3%. There is a vast difference between a strategy and market testing. Such a strategy might have worked, assuming that the debtor TICs’ new money source continued to insist on 100% control, but could also easily have been an expensive waste of resources had that condition changed.

As a fallback position, the debtor TICs filed the last-minute declaration of Nick Montague, a director at Breakwater Equity Partners (“Breakwater”) on January 10, 2014. Breakwater is a workout consultant retained by the debtor TICs in February 2012.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
505 B.R. 277, 2014 WL 309734, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-nnn-parkway-400-26-llc-cacb-2014.