Apartment Owners Land $33M in Loans Via Meridian

According to Alex J. Katz, a managing director in Meridian's Los Angeles office, the $20 million in financing for Capital Foresight LP included loans for a portfolio of 10 properties in Southern California. Katz negotiated the five-year, non-recourse fixed-rate loans at interest rates of 5.75% with a national portfolio lender.

Katz notes that the loans also feature what he calls "an attractive variable-rate extension option." He says that closing such deals in today's capital markets environment requires working extremely closely with borrowers throughout the process to ensure the successful closing of the loans "despite unprecedented marketvolatility." The portfolio of properties secured by the loans has undergone extensive renovations in recent years and currently enjoys strong operating fundamentals, he adds.

One of the other two borrowers was Poinsettia Properties LLC, for which Ben Grossman of Meridian's Los Angeles office arranged $7.9 million in financing for a 66-unit multifamily property at 1444-1452 N. Poinsettia Place in Los Angeles. The 10-year loan, which carries a rate of 5.81%, required Meridian to coordinate a same-day funding and closing in order to meet the payoff deadlines of the borrower's existing three loans.

The third borrower was a private investor that secured a $5.25 million loan for the acquisition of the Val D'Amour Apartments, located at 854 S. Oxford St. in L.A. The $5.25 million, which accounted for 70% of the $7.5 million purchase price, was a fixed-rate, interest-only, seven-year loan at a 5.8% interest rate—terms that Meridian describes as "extremely aggressive."

The property is a six-story, 72-unit building of 1920s vintage. Jonathan Wintner of Meridian's Los Angeles office, who arranged the financing, says that the New York City-based mortgage brokerage "will continue to find aggressive money on stable products."