BUSINESS HEADS WILL ROLL AT LINCOLN

Major changes are ahead for partners at Dallas-based Lincoln Property Company during the first quarter of this year. Lincoln, one of the country’s largest real estate developers, has managed to keep its own debt problems quiet for some time while [he struggles of its competitors (namely Dallas-based Vantage companies) have been loudly heralded.

But Lincoln has not escaped the suffering, which will become obvious soon in a major restructuring among its sixty-six internal partners, sources close to the company say. In other words, heads are going to roll.

Lincoln managed to hold its own most of last year, avoiding local press exposure about its financial struggles. Quietly, the company “sold” properties back to its lenders when it could no longer meet loan payments. The word “foreclosure” never appeared in local accounts of these transactions, even though the effect on Lincoln was virtually the same. In Dallas, Lin-coin Centre. Union Bank & Trust, 10210 Central Expressway, and Lincoln Oaks were all lost when Lincoln could no longer maintain debt service to lenders such as Aetna, Equitable, and Metropolitan Life. And the bleeding didn’t stop.

Early in January, the jugular was cut when Lincoln was forced to give properties-in locations from Dallas to Boston-back to lenders. With the exception of Lincoln Plaza in downtown Dallas, even commercial property Lincoln had that was Financed by Metropolitan Life and its Centennial Equities subsidiary was given back. Those properties, representing more than a half billion dollars of Lincoln’s portfolio, included some of its newest and most visible buildings.

After that bloodletting, you could almost hear the incoming choppers filled with wounded.