BOCA RATON, FL-Dockerty Romer & Co. arranged $10 million in financing for the AMTEC Center. A class B office complex located at 6401-6421 Congress Ave., the AMTEC Center is using the funds to replace a maturing loan on the property.

Chris Caveglia, an associate at Dockerty Romer & Co. , a commercial mortgage banking and real estate brokerage in Delray Beach, arranged the financing through a regional lender. Caveglia negotiated a seven-year term and a 25-year amortization at a “competitive fixed interest rate” to refinance the $6.5 million loan. AMTEC’s owner will use the remaining $3.5 million to make property improvements, and is reserving an undisclosed amount of capital for future real estate investments.

“We had a national CMBS lender lined up, but unfortunately the property was only 82% occupied at the time,” Caveglia tells GlobeSt.com. “With high Boca office market vacancy to underwrite, as well as the possibility of losing more tenants, the deal couldn’t get done with the cash out. A local lender understood the dirt, the real estate, the tenant, and the market.”

AMTEC offers three multi-tenant buildings—one five-story, one single story, and one two-story—totaling 181,000 square feet of rentable space. With 40,000 square feet, Kaplan University is the largest tenant. But there are 39 other tenants in the buildings. That helps the park hedge against high vacancies.

“I’ve got tenants as small as 500 square feet and up to 40,000 square fee with Kaplan,” Jeff Kelly, a senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis who manages AMTEC, tells GlobeSt.com. “My sweet spot is 1,500 to 2,500 square feet. There are not a lot of buildings that can accommodate that size.”

AMTEC is 88% leased. The broader Boca Raton office market is 70% leased. But the Boca Raton market is seeing some renewals and some building-hopping. In August, LexisNexis inked a 10-year, $13 million lease renewal at the Arvida Park of Commerce, a business park in Boca Raton near I-95 and Yamato Road.

Meanwhile, Tyco International asked for $1.6 million in state, county and city incentives to stay in Boca Raton, with the promise of adding 100 new jobs. The company is expected to move from its office at 1 Town Center Road to 1501 Yamato Road. Kelly is confident AMTEC’s market advantages will help it sustain occupancy at around 90%.

“AMTEC is on the lower spectrum on the rent schedule,” Kelly says. “The economy is down and people need to operate out of somewhere but they still need to cut costs and lower their rent. We have inexpensive space.”