Dealmaker: Cohen Financial Secures $32M

Cohen Financial, Chicago, secured $31.75 million for the Uptown Newport development in Irvine, Calif. and a Roanoke, Va. shopping center. 

The firm secured $25.75 million to refinance phase two of Uptown Newport, a mixed-use development in the City of Newport Beach. A 323,000-square-foot Jazz Semiconductor manufacturing facility occupies a 12-acre parcel but the facility has entitlements for more than 500 residential units in the future. 

Mark Strauss, managing director of Cohen Financial’s Irvine office, and Robert Quarton secured the five-year fixed-rate loan with CorAmerica Capital LLC, El Segundo, Calif., for owner Shopoff Realty Investments, Irvine.

“Because of the unique situation regarding the value of the entitlements running with the land in comparison to the value created by the existing cash flow, we exposed the property to the full spectrum of lender prospects,” Strauss said. They found a lender comfortable with the underlying security of the land value as well as the current cash flow from the industrial facility. “We were able to secure a non-recourse loan at a very competitive rate at full proceeds relative to in-place cash flows,” he said. 

The county approved the entire Uptown Newport project for more than 1,200 multifamily and traditional residential units. Phase one of the development, currently underway, will deliver 455 Class A apartments next year. 

Cohen also arranged $6 million for Southwest Plaza, a 94,000-square-foot retail center anchored by a Food Lion grocery store in Roanoke, Va. Dan Rosenberg, managing director of Cohen Financial’s Chicago office, secured the 10-year non-recourse commercial mortgage-backed securities loan with Morgan Stanley, New York. The borrower, an affiliate of Streak Investments, owns shopping centers throughout the region. 

“Southwest Plaza is a longstanding, neighborhood grocery-anchored shopping center and the financing was accretive to Streak and to their business plan at the center,” Rosenberg said.