Selig Files For Chap. 11 On Towers

Seattle developer Martin Selig has filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition for Metropolitan Park, which encompasses two office towers and a vacant site for a third tower on Olive Way near I-5.

Selig said the two towers are 96 percent full "with considerable equity" and "substantial excess cash flow." He said an $80 million mortgage came due earlier this year with all principal and interest payments current and all bills paid.

However, the mortgage holder, Seafirst Bank, subsequently sold the note to Illinois State Teachers Pension Fund. Selig said he has been unable to negotiate a new mortgage with the fund adviser, KB Realty Advisors Inc., of Newport Beach, Calif.

The Illinois Teachers filed a foreclosure action in King County Superior Court 21 days after buying the note from Seafirst last March, Selig said.

In addition to the $80 million note, Metropolitan Park owes unsecured creditors about $500,000.

Selig said he was confident the mortgage will be restructured with both secured and unsecured creditors paid 100 cents on the dollar.

Selig, who once owned a third of the office space in Seattle, has been hit with foreclosure actions before and has often found new financing at the last minute. He was forced in 1989 to relinquish ownership of his flagship building, the 76-story Columbia Seafirst Center, in order to pay $65 million in loans on other real estate.

Earlier this year, Selig was hit with a foreclosure suit for a $7.6 million delinquent loan secured by his Fourth and Battery Building.