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LOS ANGELES-The owner of three Southern California warehousestotaling 934,000 sf has a $54-million loan on the properties at anunusually favorable rate for today's lending environment, alongwith proceeds for future investments, thanks to a rare 27-monthrate lock that was negotiated by Johnson Capital. Kevin Burkhalter,a senior vice president in Johnson Capital's Los Angeles office whoarranged the loan with a major insurance company, tells GlobeSt.comthat the rate lock is one of the longest he knows of involving aninsurance company lender. In addition, the negotiations to arrangethe financing also established a set of conditions that provided anunusual degree of flexibility for the borrower in terms ofidentifying the properties to be financed.

"Most insurance companies don't want to go more than 12 monthsforward on a rate lock," Burkhalter says. Another unusual aspect ofthe financing, he points out, is that the loan security remainedunidentified until August, when construction was nearing completionon the last of the three warehouse buildings selected for theloan.