Transaction Overview
George Smith Partners arranged an 80% acquisition financing for a large office building in Monterey Park, California. The sponsor for this transaction was a religious institution who was acquiring the property to serve as its main campus for community service and fundraising events. The religious institution previously operated its community service and fundraising events out of several smaller locations in Orange County, but needed to consolidate into one larger main campus. Fixed for 10 years at 6.75%, the acquisition loan represented 80% of the property’s value and is recourse to an entity. The loan amortizes over 30 years and has a 5,4,3,2,1 prepayment penalty.
Challenges: Conventional lenders could not get comfortable with the transaction because of the niche religious use of the property. The owner-user element further complicated the deal. Many lenders also struggled because the large office building sat vacant for many years and there was no warm body guarantor. The religious institution also required a highly leveraged loan to complete the purchase of the office building.
Solution: George Smith Partners understood the unique aspects of this transaction and ultimately identified a community development lender who was comfortable with both the religious use and the owner-user component of this deal. GSP also structured the transaction to be recourse to the entity, giving the lender further comfort with the deal. GSP was able to push leverage to 80% of the purchase price.
