WASHINGTON, DC-Republic Properties has secured $243 million in bridge financing for Portals III, a 509,716-square foot office building located at 1201 Maryland Ave., SW. Cassidy Turley’s David Webb, Jamie Butler and John Campanella arranged the financing, a complex, multi-tiered structure that included five banks participating in a senior debt piece, plus a mezzanine loan provided by a private equity fund, and preferred equity position provided by a national pension fund adviser. The bridge financing proceeds will refinance the previous loan and fund future leasing costs.

The Portals is the largest privately held development in Washington, DC. It is comprised of more than 2 million square feet of office and retail, as well as the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The building is currently 68% leased.

Republic Properties structured a similarly complex loan in 2008—a time of intense difficulty to get even plain vanilla deals done in the capital markets. The then-Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers’ capital markets group structured a $212 million senior-and-mezz loan package to refinance existing debt. For that transaction, a West Coast commercial bank provided the senior loan. Then, as with the current loan, a mezz piece was also part of the mix, in that case provided by a national pension fund advisor.