Welcome to the Philly 411, our monthly column on real estate happenings in the Metro area supplied with intel from David Jacobs, a director at Llenrock Group, a local commercial real estate investment-banking firm. You can also follow their blog here. Opinions are the author's own.

Local Developer Reinvigorates the CMBS Market

The CMBS market isn't completely dead after all. While many keen real estate minds have been pondering about the next machinations of the CMBS market, one local developer and private equity group has been taking advantage of its premature demise. Keystone Property Group, based in Bala Cynwyd, recently refinanced Keystone Summit Corporate Park, previously home to Ericsson's (the Swedish telecom manufacturer) Pennsylvania headquarters.

Keystone took out $53.5 million, including a $41.5 million first mortgage from Deutsche Bank AG, and a $12 million junior loan from Pembrook Capital. According to Matt Sigel, Keystone's chief investment officer, Deutsche Bank plans to pool this loan with loans made to other borrowers, making it the first multiple-borrower CMBS offering in almost two years. Could this news spark more CMBS offerings, providing a vital source of credit to the thousands of property owners with a need to refinance maturing debt over the next several years?