DENTON, TX-A Dallas-based retail powerhouse has leveraged a 312,944-sf key piece of real estate in a two-university town for $20 million, securing an 80% loan-to-value package that includes capital to help with the debut of a four-screen cinema eatery.
The McLean, VA-based Prudential Mortgage Capital Co. cleared a 10-year loan with a 30-year amortization at a 5.5% fixed-rate interest for Retail Plazas Inc., owner of Denton Center at 500-1042 W. University Dr. "It wasn't easy, but this is a very successful center," Joseph Hevey, a managing director for Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP's Dallas office, tells GlobeSt.com. "We had to structure the loan to incorporate the theater. The theater is a sizable tenant, but it's a center with good cash flow." The 97%-leased center, with Kroger as the anchor, is a mix of national retailers with long-term leases.
Hevey says the Pru financing, with an interest-only provision, retired a loan with the New York City-based Lehman Brothers and delivered some extra capital to renovate the exterior of the 10-building shopping center, built in three phases since 1964. The center is situated near the University of North Texas and Interstate 35 and relatively close to Texas Woman's University.
Denton Movie Tavern, set to open in early June, will be the fourth first-run cinema eatery for the Great Texas Movie Co. LLC, founded in 1998 by Jeffrey P. Benson of Granbury. He says the chain, which also has two traditional stadium-seating theaters, is closing in on a major deal with an equity backer for a nationwide expansion. "We've got a real good plan that we're trying to finalize real soon," he says.
The 25,000-sf, four-screen Denton Movie Tavern is Benson's second venture with Retail Plazas, which lured the chain to 6801 Ridgmar Meadow Rd. near Ridgmar Mall in Fort Worth. Since the June 2001 opening, the theater has become a magnet for the mall and sundry retail neighbors, just as it has in South Arlington at 5727 W. Interstate 20 and Bedford at 2404 Airport Freeway.
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