Dealmaker: Gantry Secures $7.15M Loan for California Winery

(Image courtesy of Gantry)

Gantry, San Francisco, announced a $7.15 million construction-to-permanent loan for the build-to-suit development of facilities for Auteur Wines.

The site will include a production winery, tasting room and vineyard in Healdsburg, Calif.

Gantry’s Jeff Wilcox, Principal, and Andrew Ferguson, Associate, with the firm’s San Francisco production office represented the borrower, a private real estate investor. The 20-year construction-to-permanent fixed-rate loan features an initial interest-only period transitioning to 18-year amortization.

“The new facilities will maintain Auteur’s control over its inputs and provide a home for an experiential immersion in its wine offerings and production culture. We reviewed this requirement across a roster of potential sources specializing in agricultural financing. That careful review ultimately resulted in a bank loan optimized to meet the project’s cost structure and legacy hold strategy,” Wilcox said.

“That being said, it took almost a full year to finalize funding. This has been a challenging cycle for developers and their lenders due to the combined impacts of supply chain disruptions, inflationary conditions, and the higher cost of debt capital. We are starting to see a stabilization of budgets and capital costs and expect 2024 to be the beginning of a turnaround for new development starts,” he continued.

Auteur Wines specializes in pinot noir and chardonnay.