HOUSTON-Locally-based Whitestone REIT reports it has secured a $37-million loan that will be used to repay existing higher cost debt.

Whitestone REIT, which re-develops, leases, manages, and operates community centered properties, reported on Thursday that it closed on the $37-million loan with a fixed interest rate of 3.76% and a maturity of Nov. 26, 2020. Loan proceeds will be used to pay off an existing $23-million floating rate loan that was maturing on Dec. 1, and pay off approximately $10.1 million of fixed rate debt maturing in 2014 with a weighted interest rate of 6.1%. The loan is a non-recourse loan secured by nine Houston properties, and a limited guarantee by the company.

James C. Mastandrea, Whitestone's Chairman and CEO, said of the refinancing transaction, “We now have 58 properties well-located in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Chicago and Phoenix in multiple stages of repositioning with increasing cash flow that conservatively supports our restructured and extended debt. Our relationships with top-tier lenders provide us the ability to grow our asset base using a combination of debt and equity to increase our profitability per share.”

Earlier in the year, Whitestone expanded, restructured and extended its corporate-level unsecured credit facility, growing the borrowing capacity by $50 million and adding an accordion option, giving the company the availability of $225 million in the facility. Lowering the interest rate by 100 basis points reduced interest expense by $1.1 million or $0.06 per share through the first nine months of 2013.

Including this loan, the company has completed $84.2 million in refinancing in 2013 with a weighted average fixed rate of 4.13% and a weighted average term of 8.1 years.