SEATTLE-Thornton Place, a large-scale mixed-use project in the gateway city of the Puget Sound, obtained $75.5 million in financing from Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC. In an indication of the warming mood of lenders in this rainy city, a number of firms competed for the financing deal, enabling the owners to take on “very attractive” terms, according to Michal Makar of CBRE Capital Markets Debt and Equity Finance.

The owners are Stellar Holdings and Lorig Associates LLC, which developed the $130 million complex north of downtown Seattle.

Makar arranged the financing along with fellow CBRE Capital Markets executive Mark Capeloto and Gary Beem of Northwest Commercial Mortgage.  

Named for a nearby creek which the developers restored as a condition of developing the site, Thornton Place is located at the southern edge of Northgate Mall. Completed in 2011, the development is one of the largest mixed-use projects in the Puget Sound region, with 115,000 square feet of commercial space anchored by a 14-screen Regal Cinema and the University of Washington Northgate Clinic.  

The remainder of the retail space is filled by in-line shops. The residential portion of the complex includes of 279 rental units in a pair of midrise buildings, plus 109 townhouses and flats located along the restored riparian edge of the creek.  

The project also contains 922 underground parking spaces, of which 350 stalls have been leased to King County Metro Park and Ride for local transit users. 

Lenders were competing for the Thornton Place financing, reports Makar. "The biggest reasons are that it has stabilized occupancy, it's well located and has a stabilized income, and all the lenders are looking for that," he says of the Thornton. The deal terms on the long-term financing were not disclosed.