Office

Transaction Description:

George Smith Partners successfully secured $9,000,000 for the refinancing of two single-tenant assets in Southern California and Colorado. The Southern California industrial property had challenges due to the high dollar per square foot. The Colorado asset had challenges due to the tertiary location. In addition, the tenant for both properties had credit issues.
Despite the risks associated, GSP was able to successfully navigate these hurdles. This execution is fixed at 4.25% for 5 years and was sized to 75%.

Transaction Description:

George Smith Partners successfully secured $19,570,000 in senior acquisition debt financing for a 4-building, garden style office campus located in Ventura. Situated on a rare 7.72-acre infill site, the Property consists of 162,717 net rentable square feet across the 4 buildings and is within walking distance to the high-traffic retail hubs, Mills Street, and the Pacific View Regional Mall. The financing capitalized the Property acquisition as well as a focused capital expenditure program aimed at increasing operational efficiencies and targeted deferred maintenance.

Despite COVID-19 related challenges in the office sector, the Property maintained 70% occupancy through its granular tenant base. While some lenders expressed concern with the going-in debt yield and market leasing dynamics, GSP broadly marketed the Project and was able to identify a lender who understood the underlying value of the asset, the Sponsor’s business plan, and Ventura’s fast-growing market. The interest-only financing was sized to 70% loan to cost, including 100% of future funding for capital expenditures, tenant improvements and leasing commissions. The loan carried a 3-year term and was priced at 1 Month Libor + 500 basis points with a 5.15% floor. Due to an excellent purchase price, the financing had a very tight closing timeframe, and the selected Lender was able to close in 30 days from term sheet execution.

Transaction Description:

George Smith Partners arranged $6,650,000 in owner-user financing for a multi-tenant, 50% owner-user office property located in Beverly Hills, CA. The Sponsor approached GSP to help assist with taking equity out of the Property to reinvest in their company. The Sponsor requested a low interest rate and $2,500,000 cash out. The multi-tenant component, along with a decreased appetite for office lending due to “Work-from-Home”, made it difficult for capital sources to get comfortable with the cash-out and interest-only request. GSP had to identify a capital source that could provide competitive terms, and a certainty of execution. Being in the market daily, GSP was able to successfully structure a first trust deed from a conventional lender and provided the Sponsor with a below-market interest rate of 3.15% fixed, and interest-only payments for the first 5 years of the 10-year term. Thanks to the low-rate and interest-only component, the Sponsor was able lower their debt service from their previous loan, while simultaneously securing over $2.,500,000 in cash-out.

Transaction Description:

George Smith Partners arranged $16,380,000 in permanent financing for a newly stabilized, 7-story office building in the historic core of Downtown Los Angeles. The Sponsor purchased the Property in 2017 and completed a massive renovation to completely modernize the structure, façade, and interiors. The Sponsor leased 85% of the building prior to completing the renovation, including the ground-floor retail suite which is leased to a very high-end restaurant group. Some of the tenants are marijuana-related-businesses (“MRB’s”), meaning they service companies associated with marijuana, which made the financing challenging. GSP identified a recourse bank that was comfortable with the tenants and structured a five-year loan with an earn-out for additional leasing. The financing is fixed at an interest rate of 3.75% for the entirety of the loan term and will amortize over a 30-year period.

Transaction Description:

George Smith Partners placed the refinance of a two-tenant flex-office building in the central business district of Santa Barbara. Currently 100% leased and occupied, there is a 100% roll within the next 20 months. Our Sponsor reduced his current coupon by over 50 bpts and locked in today’s historically low interest rates for five years rather than facing interest rate risk in two years when his current loan would have matured. Our Sponsor also benefited from a nominal return of equity. Despite the tenant roll, there are no holdbacks, reserves, escrows, or impounds. The interest rate was locked at application without the requirement of a deposit. Sized to 65% of appraised value, the ten-year term is fixed for five years before a fixed rate reset for the remaining five-year term. Amortized over 30 years, prepayment steps down from 3% and is open the remaining two years of each five-year term. All prepayment penalties are waived in the event of a sale.

Transaction Description:

George Smith Partners successfully advised on a $8,700,000 construction financing for the development of a 5-story, 23,654 square feet office building located in Denver, CO. The Sponsor’s combined 30-year real estate development experience in conjunction with their partner’s 40+ years of commercial leasing experience was key to securing the financing. GSP worked through several strategies with the Sponsor to source the right non-recourse financing terms for the ground-up ‘spec’ office transaction. Ultimately, GSP successfully obtained several highly reliable financing options, and the Sponsor selected a lender with exceptional terms.

The Sponsor projects a timely delivery for completion of the project in late 2022 and intends to market the lease of the building during design and construction. With the robust economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the greater Denver metropolitan area is experiencing rapid job growth and expansion, increasing the demand for office spaces.

Transaction Description:

George Smith Partners successfully placed $22,070,000 in bridge financing for a vacant, 34,000 SF office building in West Los Angeles. Considering the negative effects of COVID on the office leasing market, capital providers were hesitant in financing a vacant building. The Sponsor envisioned two potential business plans: leasing the building to a single user or a mixed-use scenario where the ground floor would be converted to restaurant/retail. Supported by a strong Sponsor and backed by collateral with a high parking ratio centrally located in Los Angeles’s premier office market, GSP found a lender willing to finance both scenarios. The loan held back funds for tenant improvements, leasing commissions and capital expenditures. This provided flexibility to cope with the uncertainties of the COVID-era office leasing market. With optionality and competitive pricing, GSP negotiated a flexible loan agreement at the desired level of proceeds. Although COVID has turned office into a difficult asset class to finance, GSP guided the deal to a successful closing.

Transaction Description:

George Smith Partners successfully arranged a take-out loan of $9,542,000 for a recently renovated, two-story, flex property just south of downtown Los Angeles. The total collateral consists of a 40,417 SF building and three separate surface parking lots totaling 86 spaces. The Sponsor, a repeat client, acquired the Property two years ago as part of a three-property portfolio that GSP arranged the financing for. Those proceeds were used to complete an adaptive reuse of this former industrial building into creative office and warehouse. The Sponsor moved its headquarters to this location and occupies over half of the space. The remaining units for lease attract tenants priced out of the more expensive downtown LA and Culver City areas.

There were significant challenges during the construction period, including a total loss fire on one of the properties within the acquired portfolio, the impact of COVID-19 on the Sponsor’s businesses and a maturing loan with the acquisition lender. GSP leveraged its strong relationships and financing expertise to work out extension and repayment solutions with the existing lender while identifying a new capital source to provide favorable terms for owner-user financing. The loan amount turned out to be well above the acquisition price and renovation costs.

Transaction Description:

George Smith Partners arranged $5,350,000 in cash-out permanent financing for an owner-user office building located in Downtown Riverside, CA. The Sponsor approached GSP to help assist with the refinance of the Property to help relocate their company headquarters from the east coast. The Sponsor was on a strict deadline with their existing lender, only having 60 days to refinance before the current loan maturity. At the time of the refinance process, the Sponsor was close to completing exterior and interior renovations, including common area upgrades. GSP had to quickly identity a lender who could deliver certainty of execution on short notice, while delivering competitive terms. GSP was able to provide the Sponsor with a 25-year term, and the first 5 years being fixed at a low rate of 4%. The first 12 months are interest only, before converting to 25-year amortization thereafter. There is additional flexibility within the loan structure because there is no prepayment penalty. The cash-out loan allows the Sponsor to use more equity towards continuing to grow their business. Thanks to our long-standing relationship with the Lender, GSP was able to meet the Sponsors deadline and close this transaction within 60 days.

Transaction Description:

Classified as an owner-user, this multi-tenant office building was being transitioned during due diligence as a new ground floor tenant leased a third of the net rentable but had not taken occupancy due to COVID restrictions. The delayed funding worked to our Sponsor’s benefit as it allowed GSP to restructure the loan for additional net proceeds while reducing the Sponsor’s current SBA pre-payment penalty. All additional proceeds were used to consolidate business lines and other unrecorded debt at a substantially lower interest rate. An early rate lock feature permitted the Sponsor to take advantage of lower indexes prior to the rate bump. This non-SBA execution is fixed for ten years at 3.00% and was sized to 75% LTV and a 1.25 DCR. The loan is open to prepayment without penalty after the 5th year.

Transaction Description:

George Smith Partners arranged $56,500,000 in construction financing for the development of a mixed-use coastal infill project in Solana Beach, CA. The mixed-use development features 55,000 square feet of office space, 9,000 square feet of retail and 25 apartment units.

Located just one block from the beach and the Cedros Avenue Design District, the two-story development focused on sustainability will be the largest mixed-use project along Highway 101 in the past three decades. The dearth of comparable projects, especially ones with large office floorplates, presented a unique opportunity.
Amidst a time of market volatility and economic uncertainty, GSP was able to identify capital who not only understood the value of all three components and the subsequent demand but also the ability of the Sponsor to execute on the intended business plan.

Transaction Description:

George Smith Partners successfully placed $11,825,000 ($200/SF) in non-recourse financing that provided substantial cash-out to the Borrower with a 3.35% fixed-rate coupon for a 20-year loan term on a University-affiliated research and technology office building during the COVID-19 pandemic. The loan was creatively structured as a credit tenant lease financing due to the University’s backstopping the Property’s cash flow through a master lease. GSP worked with the Borrower, Lender, and University to amend the master lease so that it satisfied the needs of all three parties to facilitate both the refinancing as well as successful donation of the building to the University’s technology foundation, which occurred concurrently with the close of this financing.