TexasBank has seized control of a chunk of developer-held condos at Bleu Ciel in Uptown Dallas after a foreclosure auction this week, yanking several unsold units off Harwood International’s books and dropping a batch of bank-owned luxury inventory into a neighborhood already rattled by ownership shakeups. For residents and brokers, it is a brisk reminder of how fast developer leverage can spill into the housing market.
Deed records show the bank took the properties with a $23.6 million credit bid, according to The Real Deal. The mortgage, issued in December 2024, originally covered 26 units. At least six of those condos have since been sold, leaving roughly 19 that never left Harwood’s hands. Bleu Ciel opened in 2018, and the remaining block includes multiple high-end penthouse units.
The foreclosure sale was slated for March 3 on the steps of the George L. Allen Sr. Courts Building and included parking and storage tied to the developer’s stake in the tower, as reported by The Dallas Morning News. That outlet also noted Harwood took a $30 million loan in December 2024 and has either surrendered or sold off multiple Harwood District properties over the last year.
How credit bids work
A “credit bid” lets a secured lender bid using the debt it is already owed instead of fresh cash at auction. If no one tops that bid, the lender takes the property in exchange for cancelling the loan balance. The right to credit bid is spelled out in 11 U.S.C. § 363(k), as outlined by Cornell Law’s Legal Information Institute.
Where this leaves Harwood and Uptown
The auction adds another chapter to a yearlong unraveling for Harwood International. The developer has already lost several office buildings to lenders and sold others to private equity, and San Francisco-based TPG has picked up five Harwood office properties and signaled plans to invest in renovations, according to Bisnow. The Bleu Ciel foreclosure is the first time that distress has spilled into Harwood’s residential holdings, a sequence tracked by The Real Deal. Uptown’s leasing market remains solid, but the episode underlines how short-term, high-leverage financing can flip ownership in a hurry.
TexasBank did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Harwood’s public statement stressed that it still plans to keep building in the district despite broader market pressure, according to The Dallas Morning News. What happens to the Bleu Ciel units now hinges on the bank’s strategy: lenders sometimes park foreclosed condos as real estate owned and slowly relist them, or they may try to sell the whole block to an institutional buyer if pricing lines up.
