A San Francisco real estate firm is the key bidder on about five dozen multifamily and commercial properties in Marin and Sonoma counties that are set to be sold next month to settle bankruptcies stemming from the late Ken Casey’s $330 million Ponzi scheme.
The real estate portfolio in play would be the largest number of properties that changed hands in 16 years and the biggest deal since the estimated $400 million sale of the former Fireman’s Fund Insurance campus in Novato at the beginning of this year, according to local real estate sources.
In the past few months, Hamilton Zanze & Associates has emerged as the opening or “stalking horse” bidder for a Bankruptcy Court auction of properties from Casey’s Professional Financial Investors Professional Investors Security Fund set for mid-September, according to court documents. Hamilton Zanze proposes to buy 60 of the 70 properties for $434 million in cash.
List of properties Hamilton Zanze & Associates plans to buy.pdf
After three dozen prospective buyers reviewed the property information, five offered to buy the whole portfolio, three wanted only the apartments, and one only the commercial space, according to court filings. The debtors’ committee selected Hamilton Zanze as the stalking horse bidder from three of the offers, but other entities have been reviewing the property information since then, the documents said.
The pending transaction would be unique for the North Bay in its size and mix of…
