Wells Fargo Moves to Foreclose Boca's Workspace Property Trust
The Boca Raton-headquartered landlord, which bought 11 Broward buildings in a 2016 South Florida deal, faces suits after occupancy fell from 89% to 75%.
Wells Fargo, acting as trustee on a $1.28 billion CMBS loan, has filed to foreclose on a 143-property office and industrial portfolio owned by Workspace Property Trust, a landlord headquartered in Boca Raton with a decade-long footprint in Broward County. The unpaid principal balance stood near $1.23 billion as of Sept. 29, and KeyBank, as special servicer, has installed Trigild as receiver while suits move through courts tied to the loan.
Workspace Property Trust entered South Florida in October 2016, closing an 11-building, 1.14 million-square-foot acquisition in Broward and Boca Raton as part of a $969 million portfolio purchase from Liberty Property Trust. The company’s own website still lists active Broward listings today in Sunrise and Miramar, though it is not publicly disclosed which specific buildings, if any, sit inside the defaulted loan pool now heading to foreclosure. Read more on the Miami market.
Why it matters
A landlord with deep Broward roots facing a nine-figure foreclosure is a distress signal for South Florida office owners even where the immediate court filings sit outside the state. Suburban office portfolios bought at 2016-era pricing have not recovered the occupancy or values needed to refinance a maturing CMBS loan, and a Boca-based sponsor losing control of collateral is the kind of event that puts its remaining Broward and Palm Beach buildings in play for opportunistic buyers.
The numbers
The loan covers 143 properties across Arizona, Florida, Minnesota and Pennsylvania, down from 146 at origination. Portfolio value has fallen to $1.24 billion from $1.63 billion at issuance, while occupancy dropped to roughly 75% from about 89% when the loan was underwritten in 2018. The loan went to special servicing in May 2023, and Wells Fargo filed foreclosure suits in August 2026 after a prior maturity extension expired.
What’s next
Court dockets in the states tied to the loan, including any Florida filing, will determine whether receivership extends to Workspace’s Broward holdings or stays confined to the properties named so far in Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Arizona. Brokers tracking Broward and Boca Raton office stock should watch for receiver-driven leasing or disposition activity at Workspace-owned addresses in the coming months.