Dealmaker: Mesa West Capital Lends $73M in Arizona

Mesa West Capital, Los Angeles, funded $73.3 million in floating rate non-recourse loans secured by multifamily communities in Phoenix.

In the larger of the two financings, Mesa West lent a joint venture between Optima and DeBartolo Development $49.8 million to refinance Optima Sonoran Village in Old Town Scottsdale. 

A 206-unit first phase of a planned three-phase high-rise development secures the loan. The Class A community on East Camelback Road abuts the two-million-square-foot Scottsdale Fashion Square shopping mall. Old Town Scottsdale boasts the highest apartment rents in the region.

“This was an opportunity to make a loan on a top-tier asset in an affluent market with strong and experienced sponsorship,” said Mesa West Vice President Jason Bressler, who originated the loan from the firm’s Los Angeles office. CBRE Executive Vice President Rocco Mandala arranged the financing.   

Mesa West also lent $23.5 million to a joint venture led by Sunroad Enterprises to purchase Sonoma Ridge Apartments in Phoenix suburb Peoria. Mesa West’s five-year floating-rate loan allowed Sunroad and partners Security Properties and Loma Linda University to acquire the 240-unit asset.  

Sonoma Ridge includes 18 two-story buildings on 15 acres on West Beardsley Road. Bressler said an institutional investor developed the property in 2002 and has operated it since then. He noted that the sponsor plans a multi-million dollar capital improvement program to increase average rents because some units are currently below market.

HFF Senior Managing Directors Aldon Cole and Tim Wright arranged the financing.