Cosmopolitan Square Picks Up Nearly $29M in Financing

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SAN DIEGO-A mixed-use project going up near Petco Park picks up $28.5 million in financing. La Jolla-based private equity lender, Scripps Investments & Loans, has provided financing on Cosmopolitan Square.The project is a mixed-use residential high-rise project located one block north of the ballpark. It includes 235 condos, 12,485 sf of retail space and restaurants, 17,106 sf of office space and a 450-stall parking garage.The financing includes a $19-million credit facility to refinance existing debt. Additional funds will be available to complete site development and the entitlement process. Liberty Bankers Life Insurance provided $15 million in senior debt, while Scripps provided $13.5 million in mezz debt, which was secured by a second trust deed on the project. According to Scripps officials, both senior and mezz debt was structured as 12-month loans.”The location of the project is one of the best available developable blocks in Downtown San Diego,” says Jeffrey E. Lubin, Scripps’ president. “Having participated in the acquisition financing for the project, we saw this next round of financing as a good opportunity for our investors.”The Centre City Development Corp. (CCDC) granted design review approval on the subject site for construction of 235 condominiums, 12,485 sf of retail space and restaurants, 17,106 sf of office space, and a 450-stall parking garage. In other recent Downtown news, the CCDC picked up a 10,000-sf site at the southeast corner of Cedar and Pacific Highway for $2.5 million. The site will be developed for the first of two new Downtown fire stations. The purchase of the parcel that will be known as Bayside Station is part of “a $253-million development impact fee program to improve the public realm Downtown with seven new parks and two new fire stations,” according to an official release by CCDC.”It is important to match the intensity of new development with an appropriate level of life safety infrastructure,” says Mayor Jerry Sanders. CCDC has plans to acquire another site, at 13th and 14th streets and Broadway, for the second fire station. No timetable has been set for construction to begin on either site. According to CCDC officials, financing on the projects will come from tax increment and development impact fees.