Dealmaker: Cohen Financial Secures $116M for Office Properties

Cohen Financial, Chicago, arranged $115.5 million for a Skokie, Ill., biotech and pharmaceutical office campus and a Newark, N.J. office property.

Cohen Financial Managing Director Dan Rosenberg and Vice President Matt Terpstra closed a $73.5 million acquisition loan for the Illinois Science & Technology Park in Skokie. The loan for the 24-acre multi-building campus closed on January 26.

Rosenberg and Terpstra secured a short-term floating-rate loan from Prime Finance Partners, Chicago, for borrower American Landmark Properties Management LLC, Skokie. 

Terpstra said the loan represents the second acquisition transaction that Cohen Financial arranged between American Landmark Properties and Prime Finance Partners within the last year.

Illinois Science & Technology Park contains multiple buildings used for biotech and life-science company research and office space. Key tenants include LanzaTech, a carbon recycling company, NorthShore University HealthSystem and Vetter Pharma. The property previously served as corporate headquarters for pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle. 

Rosenberg and Terpstra also secured $42 million for Kaufman Jacobs, Chicago, to refinance Centre Market Building in downtown Newark, N.J. 

Several federal government tenants including Customs and Border Protection and the Drug Enforcement Agency occupy 90 percent of the 393,000-square-foot asset. 

Rosenberg said the 10-year fixed-rate commercial mortgage-backed securities loan replaced an existing CMBS loan. “The existing loan on the property was originated in 2012,” he said. “Even with the post-election increase in interest rates, we achieved our objective for the client which was to secure significantly better terms than the current loan.”

SunTrust Bank, Atlanta, acquired Cohen Financial in December.