EL SEGUNDO, CA—Griffin Capital Corporation, says its Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, Inc., has closed a portfolio financing of eight assets with a subsidiary of Guggenheim Partners, LLC, in the principal amount of $105.6 million. The financing proceeds were used to pay down a portion of the REIT's $175 million revolving credit facility.

This 10-year first mortgage loan has an interest rate of 3.94%, and the loan represents a 57% loan-to-value ratio. The collateral pool includes a diversified portfolio of single tenant business essential properties totaling over 1.5 million square feet including three industrial assets and five office assets. The properties' tenants include such household names as Comcast Cable Holdings, GE Aviation, Westinghouse Electric and others, and the weighted-average remaining lease term exceeds nine years. Key Bank Real Estate Capital represented the borrower on this financing.

"We are pleased to have closed this refinancing with a book lender that was both creative from a structuring perspective and competitive from a pricing standpoint," said Michael Escalante, Griffin Capital's Chief Investment Officer. "Allowing for maximum flexibility, such as collateral substitution rights, was an important and differentiating feature of this loan."

"This refinancing proves out the efficacy of our strategic capital markets plan, whereby we accumulate assets using our line, achieve critical mass and break off a multi-property portfolio we can finance on terms more competitive than we would have otherwise achieved were we to finance the properties on a stand-alone basis," added Kevin Shields, Griffin Capital's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Following this term financing, over 75% of the REIT's portfolio is now financed with long-term, fixed-rate debt, which effectively match funds our asset and liability duration and provides a highly predictable, stable cash flow for our REIT."