MIAMI-LaSalle Investment Management (LIM) has secured a $60 million senior mortgage loan to finance the acquisition of Miami Tower. LIM purchased the 47-story tower in December 2010.
Jones Lang LaSalle’s Capital Markets professionals secured the non-recourse, floating-rate loan through Natixis, the corporate, investment and financial services arm of BPCE, France’s second-largest banking group. JLL Managing Director David Hendrickson and Senior Vice President Chuck Hoag led the transaction team.
“During LIM’s closing of Miami Tower, we began the search for a senior lender with the need to fund within 60 days of their purchase,” says Hendrickson. “Following an extensive search, which included life companies, domestic banks, foreign banks and conduit lenders, we developed a short list of competitive offers and ultimately chose Natixis based on their flexibility and terms.”
Previously known as the Bank of America Building, Miami Tower is a favorite backdrop for TV series, films, music videos and sporting events with its night lighting schemes. The Energy Star-certified tower offers 600,959 rentable square feet and the owner is offering naming rights. A Metromover light rail station is located inside the building, an amenity that will become more important when the rail expands to the Miami International Airport. The building is 82% occupied.
“This is a value-add opportunity because of the vacated BofA space, and it was a particularly strong opportunity for this fund,” Hoag tells GlobeSt.com. “Natixis’ standard play is to take a building that is under-occupied, do some renovations or repositioning to get the occupancy up, and sell it at a substantial profit.”
The ancestor of the Natixis fund that made the loan has a history of success in South Florida, and liquidated its positions in 2006 at the height of the market. Now, the French bank is getting back into the market at a low basis with a strong asset.
Hoag says the second place lender was SunTrust. Although he was surprised that SunTrust was interested in making a $60 million loan in Miami, he says it’s a good sign that the bank is looking to lend at this level.
“The Florida banking community is down on its heals,” Hoag says. “Even though SunTrust isn’t based in Florida, it is good to know that a bank that has a lot of exposure to Florida was willing to take on new exposure in a somewhat challenging environment.”
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