Dealmaker: Newmark Secures $82M for Mixed-Use, Retail, Industrial

Newmark, San Francisco, arranged $82.4 million for mixed-use, retail and industrial assets in California and Arizona.

In Santa Cruz, Calif., Newmark Principals Jeff Wilcox and Robert Slatt and Associate Charlie Kokernak secured $29.9 million in financing for Class A mixed-use property Five55 Pacific. Completed earlier this year by Swenson Builders, the beachside apartment community includes 94 rental apartments over four ground-floor retail spaces currently managed by Woodmont Real Estate Services.

Wilcox, Slatt and Kokernak structured the financing as a first deed of trust with Benefit Street Partners, New York. The new loan paid off the construction financing that Newmark had arranged, covered closing costs and returned equity to the borrower. The interest-only loan came with limited recourse and multiple term extension options.

Newmark also arranged $35 million in two transactions for two San Francisco Bay Area apartment and retail assets. Vice President Andrew Mekjavich and Associate Ben Johnson secured the loans through a regional bank for the individual borrowers.

To provide significant cash-out to each borrower, aggressive underwriting and 30-year amortization schedules were required to close each loan, Mekjavich said. “Both assets were underwritten at extremely tight debt coverage ratios in order to achieve the leverage required to make each deal happen,” he said. 

In Chandler, Ariz., Newmark’s Phoenix office arranged $17.5 million for two properties, including $10.5 million for a 140,000-square-foot Class A industrial asset and $7 million for a 60,000-square-foot LA Fitness store. Newmark Principal Tim Storey, Associate Chad Metzger and Principal Emeritus Tom Dudley secured the loans. “Lender appetite for quality real estate with vetted sponsorship remains strong nationally across primary, secondary and tertiary markets,” Storey said. “Here in Arizona, we continue to see a high level of lender allocations in the fourth quarter for assets across the board including industrial, multifamily, office and even retail assets.”