The new facility replaces an existing $340-million unsecured revolving credit facility, which has an initial outstanding balance of $137.5 million and which Equity One will pay off, according to Howard Sipzner, EVP and CFO. "Typically our investments are of small size, and we didn't feel we needed the larger facility," he tells GlobeSt.com. "This facility's reduced size provides lower origination and ongoing costs.

"We have exactly 50% usage of this facility today. We have a pipeline of acquisition and development activity, and we'll use this facility to begin to fund that pipeline. If we get within shooting distance of about $200 million, then we might do a bond deal," he adds. The locally based company raised $120 million in a bond deal in September 2005. "Meanwhile, we will use this line as a holding pen," Sipzner says.

Wells Fargo Bank, a returning lender from the former facility, is administrative agent and sole lead arranger of the new one. Other returning lenders are Wachovia Bank and Suntrust Bank as co-syndication agents; PNC Bank and JP Morgan Chase Bank as co-documentation agents, and Deutsche Bank Trust Co., Comerica Bank and Israel Discount Bank of New York. New lenders are Bank of America, Harris Nesbitt Bank of Montreal, and Branch Banking & Trust Co. as managing agents; and Eurohypo AG New York Branch, UJF Bank Ltd., First Horizon, Regions Bank, and Chang Hwa Commercial Bank.