A loan on an Ogden shopping center has been moved to special servicing “due to imminent maturity default,” according to a recent report.

The nearly $11 million loan on Ogden Commons, a Food Lion-anchored shopping center at 6932 Market St., has a balance of nearly $9.4 million, says a report by Trepp, a company that maintains a database of securitized mortgages for the commercial real estate and banking industries. Originated by CIBC and securitized by JP Morgan, the loan was moved to special servicer C-III Asset Management LLC in July, according to the report.

“The loan transferred to Special Servicing on July 15, 2016 due to imminent maturity default on Jan. 1, 2017. Outside counsel has been engaged. Third party reports are being ordered. File review remains ongoing pending updated third party reports,” says the loan’s special servicer commentary for August, part of the latest Trepp report on the loan.

The status of the loan doesn’t mean the shopping center will be affected, said Sean Barrie, research analyst with Trepp.

Ogden Commons is owned by ZP No. 173 LLC, a Zimmer Development Co. entity, according to New Hanover County property tax records. Arlene Zimmer Schreiber, director of leasing for Zimmer Development, declined to comment on the shopping center.

In a WatchList commentary for the loan dated June 28, the Trepp report said, “The borrower has requested for loan modification, as submarket has faced increasing competition, impairing the property’s competitiveness. Full access to anchor tenant will be eliminated, substantial portion of parking/access will be seized under eminent domain and rents will decline by 75%; gross rent by 50%. It will be insufficient for them to support the debt payment.”

The loan report does not specify the reason for the threat of eminent domain, but the upcoming Military Cutoff Extension project could have some impact on the center, an N.C. Department of Transportation spokesman said in an email in July.

At that point, the department was waiting on appraisals to see what issues the Rite Aid, which is part of Ogden Commons according to the Trepp report, and nearby CVS and Walgreens locations might have if the project proceeds as it is currently designed.

“We don’t know yet if these businesses may or may not have to be relocated until the appraisals show the results and costs/damages of having to purchase them," wrote Brian Rick, a DOT communications officer, in the email. "It may show that the costs outweigh the design of the project and some adjustments may have to be made to save costs to the project. These businesses have leases with specific language as to how many parking spaces are required for their businesses to operate and if affected specifically, they may be able to get out of their lease. That would result in the Department having a right-of-way and relocation claim with each of the businesses. New Hanover County requires so many parking spaces in regards to the size of a business building and its location.”
 
In Ogden Commons, Food Lion occupies more than 50 percent of the 76,000-square-foot center, which was built in 1996. The grocery store’s lease is scheduled to expire in November 2017, according to the Trepp report.
 
Currently, Food Lion officials don’t have any changes planned for the Ogden Commons store, according to company spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown, who said in July, “We are very pleased with the performance at the Market Street store and definitely appreciate our customers who regularly shop at the store.”
 
Jon Messina, owner of Memories of a Child, a children’s consignment store that occupies 6,000 square feet of space in the center, signed a five-year lease last October.

Of the upcoming road project, Messina said, “I’m sure it will impact us some. I can kind of see it going both ways to where if there’s a bunch of traffic, people coming home from work will just want to come home or they could stop by the store and wait the traffic out here to shop around.”