Exclusive: Oakland Tribune Tower, two other office buildings being marketed for sale

Three Oakland office buildings tied to embattled businessman Tom Henderson, including the city's iconic Tribune Tower, are being marketed for sale, according to three sources and promotional materials provided to the Business Times.

The buildings include the Tribune Tower at 409 13th St.. the Community Bank of the East Bay building at 1740 Broadway and the Dufwin Theater at 517 17th St. Colliers International is marketing the properties separately.

"The property is being sold on an 'as is, where is' basis. Any sale is subject to Court approval. Seller/Client is a court appointed Receiver," marketing materials state for each building. Aileen Dolby, the listing broker, didn't immediately return a request for comment.

The potential sales are tied to legal action taken by Henderson's former business partner, Allan Young, who filed a lawsuit in September alleging that Henderson improperly diverted funds to buy the buildings. The complaint also names Henderson's sons, Matthew and Michael. Henderson previously said that funding came from bank loans. The case number is RG15778891 in the Alameda County Superior Court.

In April, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Julia Spain transferred control over Henderson's CallSocket companies to a receiver, Susan Uecker, at Young's request.

Henderson said that litigation is ongoing. Court records show future hearings are scheduled for March 2017 and June through August 2017.

"There's no bankruptcy and no insolvency," he told the Business Times. "It's a dispute between former partners in the CallSocket call centers."

He declined to comment further.

Uecker, Young and his lawyer, Jonathan Levine of Pritzker Levine LLP, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday evening.

CallSocket operates call centers as part of Henderson's efforts to creates jobs using the EB-5 foreign investment program and also purchased four downtown Oakland office properties to house the companies. Henderson said he has raised around $100 million from 200 investors, mostly Chinese, through the EB-5 program.

Henderson sold one of the four properties, the I. Magnin Building at 2001 Broadway, in March to HP Investors, which prompted Young to seek receivership of the remaining assets, according to the East Bay Times. The remaining three buildings are the ones being marketed by Colliers.

With Oakland's office rents soaring to all-time highs, the three buildings are likely much more valuable than when Henderson purchased them. In 2011, Henderson bought the 88,000-square-foot Tribune Tower for around $8 million, or $90 per square foot. Office buildings are now trading for over $300 per square foot. The I. Magnin building, for example, sold for around $19.4 million in March, according to property records, almost double the $9.8 million that Henderson paid for the building in 2013.

Separately, a West Oakland nonprofit is suing Henderson over a stalled redevelopment of a grocery store.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2016/06/oakland-tribune-tower-tom-henderson-eb-5.html

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