BATON ROUGE — The second tallest office building in Baton Rouge's downtown skyline could be seized by the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office following a lawsuit claiming the tower's owners defaulted on mortgage payments.

The East Baton Rouge Clerk of Court’s Office on Thursday issued a writ of seizure for One American Place following a lawsuit filed in June.

According to the suit filed in the 19th Judicial District Court, One American Place Operating LLC owes $24.2 million in principal, interest, late charges and other fees to the Wilmington Trust National Association.

Court records show that the operating company borrowed $31.5 million from JPMorgan Chase in August 2018, calling for monthly debt payments and a maturity date of Sept. 1, 2023. 

The suit says that the borrower did not pay the outstanding balance by the time of the loan's maturity. The lenders are now asking that the Dallas-based property management company Trigild IVL take over as the manager of One American Place, whose 24 stories house several businesses, including Capital One Bank, McGlinchey and multiple law firms.

The creditors' lawsuit is one of multiple suits filed against the building owners and operators.

Law firm Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson sued the owners of the building in May and charged that they had failed to repair the roof. According to the suit, a 2016 lease agreement said the owners would replace the roof no later than the end of 2023. The law firm claims that by not replacing the roof, the owners have defaulted on the lease agreement.

"This is kind of crazy to hear about. I don't know what everyone in the building is going to do. Hopefully, we'd get to stay because I don't know where else we would go," employee at One American Place Thomas Hudson said. 

As of now, it is unknown what will happen to the tenants if the building is seized. 

One American Place, built in 1974 and renovated in 2003, was listed for sale earlier this year, but the listing was recently removed, The Advocate reports.