Dealmaker: George Smith Partners Secures $133M for Mixed-Use, Office Assets

George Smith Partners, Los Angeles, arranged $124.2 million in permanent financing for a 500,000-square-foot Class A mixed-use retail and office development in Ohio.

The non-recourse cash-out financing was arranged by George Smith Partners’ Principal and Co-Founder Gary Mozer with Senior Vice Presidents Kyle Howerton, Katie Rodd and Michael Anderson and Assistant Vice President Nicholas Rogers. 

Mozer said the sponsor sought maximum flexibility during the property’s stabilization. “The property is already 93 percent leased to a mix of both credit and non-credit tenants, however tenants are still in the process of moving in,” he said. He noted the new financing fully funds future tenant improvements and leasing commission costs associated with stabilizing the property while also repaying the existing construction loan and covering closing costs. The company did not disclose the property’s location.

Mozer said the loan’s initial five-year term eliminated fees and performance requirements for each extension term compared to a typical 3+1+1 structure. It also delivered cash-out at close prior to the property’s stabilization. “Further, we secured flexible pre-payment terms, no forced funding date for the future funding component and an accretive interest rate hedging requirement that reduces costs for the property owner over time,” he said.

The floating-rate loan priced at 2.35 percent over the one-month LIBOR with four years of interest-only payments and a 35-year amortization during the fifth year.

GSP also placed $8.5 million in permanent financing to refinance a 270,000-square-foot Class B office building in downtown St. Louis, Mo. Principal/Managing Director Bryan Shaffer, Vice President Max Lehrman and Assistant Vice President David Danesh made the arrangements.

The building has national and local office tenants as well as storage and data center space. It previously had an expensive floating-rate bridge loan against it, so the borrower asked GSP to find cheaper long-term fixed-rate debt. GSP sourced a 10-year non-recourse loan fixed at 5.39 percent. The loan remains interest-only for the full term.