In a motion filed last Friday in the Greenbelt, MD division of US Bankruptcy Court, all the key parties to the bankruptcy said they had finalized and signed off on documents needed to fund CRIIMI Mae's recapitalization efforts. The court documents gave all the parties until Tuesday to finalize the agreement. Named parties in the documents were CRIIMI Mae, Merrill Lynch Mortgage Capital Inc. and German American Capital Corp.

"All sides of the table worked very hard to get to this point, and their efforts are greatly appreciated," says David Iannarone, CRIIMI Mae's executive vice president.

CRIIMI Mae filed for reorganization in 1998 when its lenders, concerned about problems in the debt and equity markets, filed collateral calls and the company couldn't raise capital to cover them. Meanwhile, CRIIMI Mae's $155 million loss in 2000 followed a $132.4 million net loss in 1999.

According to the company, the net loss last year is primarily the result of impairment charges from its retained portfolio of commercial mortgage-backed securities, as well as coming from the CMBS sold as part of its reorganization plans. Company officials blamed defaults and delinquencies in the commercial mortgage loans underlying the company's CMBS assets, primarily from hotel and retail properties.