The new loan carries a rate of 5.06% and replaces a $120-million loan that floated at 2.75% over Libor, Trizec spokesperson Rick Matthews tells GlobeSt.com. Trizec had assumed the floating rate loan in 2002 when it bought out a 75% interest in Ernst & Young Plaza from its former partner, a Goldman Sachs fund. Trizec secured the new loan directly from the lender, German bank Eurohypo, which was formed with the merger of Deutsche Hyp and Rheinhyp.

"This refinancing helps us to progress further in our efforts to reduce our exposure to floating rate debt," Matthews tells GlobeSt.com. He says the REIT has reduced that exposure significantly in the past year.

Ernst & Young Plaza, built in 1985 and 83% occupied, comprises 915,000 sf of office space and the rest retail. The property at 725 S. Figueroa St. was one of the earliest and largest modern mixed-use developments to be completed in Downtown Los Angeles. Before Trizec bought the remaining 75% interest in the property, which it acquired from Goldman's Whitehall Street Real Estate Limited Partnership VII, it owned a 25% interest in the property. The acquisition was Trizec's first after it launched in 2002 as a publicly traded US office REIT.