Downtown L.A.’s Metropolitan to Receivership After Default

The Metropolitan apartment and retail building in Downtown L.A. is in a receiver’s hands after the Fallas family allegedly defaulted on a $32 million loan. 

A Superior Court of Los Angeles County judge appointed a receiver at the request of special servicer LNR on behalf of lender Natixis and CMBS holders. An entity of the family behind the bankrupt discount retailer Fallas “is financially incapable of curing defaults,” LNR said in a court filing. The court appointed Robert Warren as receiver, according to the mid-July order. 

Brokers Matthew Luchs of Zacuto Group and Northmarq’s Mike Hanassab and Elliot Hassan have been shopping the Beaux-Arts style building designed by Los Angeles architect John Parkinson in 1913.

LNR and the Fallas family are still in talks post-receivership, according to a person familiar with the matter, and there are offers on the table to purchase the landmarked, mixed-use building at 449 South Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles’ Historic Core.

The building has 88 apartments, a rooftop pool and vacant ground-floor retail, which was once a Fallas Paredes store. The rental income is about $2.5 million a year. That’s about $1 million dollars less than market-rate rents would command, according to a 2025 offering memorandum.

The latest servicer commentary via Morningstar Credit noted that the servicer was lawyering up and moving on the appointment of a receiver and foreclosure while having discussions with the borrower. The “borrower submitted a proposal which was not viable and which lender subsequently rejected,” the commentary reads. But it is unclear whether that came before or after taking things to court.

Attorneys for LNR and the Fallas family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Many Downtown Los Angeles properties have fallen into receivership in recent years, but most of them are office towers: Santa Monica Clock Tower, One California Plaza and EY Plaza, to name a few. 

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