Cohen Financial secured the partial recourse loan with 85% loan-to-value and five years interest only priced at a spread of 180% over Libor from a national real estate finance company.
The deal, which closed about 10 days ago, was originated by Ben Greazel, a director in Cohen Financial's Skokie, IL, and is illustrative of the growing bulk in the firm's Mid-Atlantic pipeline, Chris Carroll, managing director in Cohen Financial's Chicago office tells GlobeSt.com.
"Over the last 12 months we have done $404 million in transaction in the Mid-Atlantic," he says. Another recent transaction, originated by Carroll, is the $26.09 million in acquisition and construction financing ($8.8 million for the land and $17.29 million for the construction) arranged for a local developer to build a 136,000 sf retail center in Lexington Park, MD. It is one of the few remaining sizable parcels of available land fronting Route 235, the submarket's main commercial road.
Currently the company has another $500 million of deals in its pipeline, originating from its 10 or so offices around the country.
Transactions such as these, Carroll says, led the company to establish a local presence here in order to better target the region. Cohen Financial opened the DC office last fall. With several months of operation behind it, the office is in full growth mode, Bill Curtis, director of Capital Markets in Cohen Financial's DC office, tells GlobeSt.com. According to Curtis, the DC office alone expects to close $180 million to $200 million in transactions this year--a number he offers by assuming the office stops placing loans right now, which of course it won't. "Who knows what the final number will be when the year closes," Curtis says.
The Greater DC area is generating much of that activity. DC is an extremely vibrant commercial real estate market, Curtis says, and has been ratcheting stellar returns in recent years. "Even for the size of this market and the federal government's presence the growth has been fairly remarkable," he says.
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
