Column Financial provided financing for the Michigan-based investment group that purchased both The Waters Building and the 120,000-sf medical office complex. For The Waters Building acquisition, iCap secured a 10-year, fixed-rate mortgage that includes five years of interest-only payments with 30-year amortization and an 80% loan-to-value ratio. The historic downtown building, which was built as the Furniture Exhibition Co. in 1898, is currently 90% leased to more than 75 tenants, including the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, the law firm Rhoades McKee, Huntington Bank and Northern Trust Bank. iCap also secured a loan that includes five years of interest-only payments with a 30-year amortization schedule and an 80% loan-to-value ratio for the acquisition of the four-building medical office property in Holland.

In the third transaction, iCap secured a 10-year, fixed-rate loan that include an 80% loan-to-value ratio and a 30-year amortization schedule (first three years interest-only), with no reserves or escrow requirements for the acquisition of the International Paper facility. The 150,000-sf industrial/office building at 4140 E. Paris, near Gerald R. Ford International Airport, is fully occupied by International Paper, which has five years remaining on its 10-year lease. The buyer is an out-of-state real estate company with nationwide portfolio, and the lender was CW Capital.

Matt Shane, director of iCap Micigan, says that Grand Rapids' ongoing growth is resulting in increased investor demand for local properties. "Downtown Grand Rapids has seen an influx of commercial and residential development, and the local economy is becoming increasingly diversified. The medical office sector in particular is very active," says Shane, who secured the financing on behalf of the borrowers. Jon Kortz of Dodgson Realty in Grand Rapids represented the buyers and sellers in all three transactions.