GAITHERSBURG, MD-Montvale Center, one of the REO assets acquired by CIM Group last week, is already in new hands. Bernstein Management is now the owner of the 125,000-square-foot office building through a partial assumption and assignment agreement with CIM, Vice President Fred Underwood tells GlobeSt.com. "We got their rights and assumed their obligations to this asset," he says. "It was a simultaneous close." Now the company is the 100% fee owner of the property. The building is currently 60% occupied at the moment, Underwood says. The company plans to lease it up at aggressive market rents and possibly make some moderate improvements. Then, it will hold it for the long term. One reason the company zeroed in on this asset is that it is among the nicest in the Gaithersburg submarket.

"We are buying it on an attractive basis and we believe will be able to compete on rent with such an attractive product," he says.

The lease up should go fairly quickly, Underwood also says. Prior to Bernstein acquiring it, Montvale Center had been lender-owned for some time. Bernstein, he says, "plans to be much more proactive about stabilizing it."