Sule Aygoren Carranza is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and editor of Multi Housing forum, from which this article is excerpted.

Bethesda, MD—Green Park Financial closed a refinance package worth more than $337.1 million for a portfolio of 55 properties located primarily in the West and Southwest. Nomura Securities International Inc. provided the funds, which were put together and underwritten by a Green Park team led by vice president Andrew Tapley. Scott Jansen of Black Diamond Capital originated the financing.

The borrower, a private investor, was a repeat customer for Green Park. The locally based company closed a $156-million loan last year for a portfolio of 59 Los Angeles-area properties ranging between 20 and 80 units, according to Tapley. "They then returned to us with an opportunity to refinance this much larger portfolio," he says, noting that the existing relationship made it easier to put together the deal.

While Green Park treated the deal as 55 separate loans, the debt was divided into six pools that are cross collateralized and cross defaulted. Nomura will include these pools in its next CMBS offering. "In a securitization, the assets are classified into different tranches of risk based on their quality, the loan-to-value ratios, debt coverage and so on," Tapley explains. "The less risky, better quality properties are put into one pool and the riskier properties would be put in a different pool. It's just a way of spreading the risk across the spectrum." The loans carry 10-year terms with 30-year amortization schedules. The entire pool was underwritten at a 69% loan-to-value with a 1.20 debt service coverage ratio and cap rates ranging from 5.5% to 7.5%.