FINANCING

SUNNYVALE, CA-Chicago-based Pearlmark Real EstatePartners LLC, has closed a $40 million mezzanine loan onMoffett Towers II here, consisting of three existing class-A officebuildings totaling 683,000 square feet. Plans for the projectinclude the development of a fourth building for 357,000 squarefeet and expansion of an existing parking garage. The propertyis the second phase of an overall 2.1-million-square-footoffice/R&D campus that includes a 48,000-square-foot sharedamenity building. The overall development spans 52 acreslocated in the Sunnyvale submarket of the Silicon Valley, adjacentto the Moffett Airfield. Hewlett-Packardrecently executed an 11-year lease on approximately 60% of theexisting net rentable area, with occupancy scheduled to commence inApril 2012. This investment was made on behalf of PearlmarkMezzanine Realty Partners III LLC, a fully-discretionaryinvestment fund with $427 million in capital commitments. Theborrower, Jay Paul Co., is the developer andmanager of Moffett Towers. US Bank and three participants,including Wells Fargo, Bank ofAmerica, and JP Morgan Chase, alsoprovided a total senior loan commitment of $284.2 million in therefinancing. Bill Swackhamer, managing director ofPearlmark Real Estate Partners, arranged thetransaction. Swackhamer says that the investment wasattractive “due to the high-end nature of the development,attractive market fundamentals, its credit tenancy and strongsponsorship with significant cash equity i

SEATTLE-CBRE Capital Partners, the debtinvestment platform of CBRE Global Investors, has acquiredSmith Tower, a 42-story iconic office building,and the adjacent Florence Building, a retail/mixed-use building, inSeattle’s downtown Pioneer Square. CBRE Capital Partners acquiredtwo non-performing mortgage loans collateralized by these assets inthe fall of 2011 and subsequently began the foreclosure process,which has now been completed and resulted in Capital Partnersowning the buildings. The firm tells GlobeSt.com that it cannotdivulge the acquisition price at this time. Built in 1914, SmithTower was one of the world’s first skyscrapers and remained thetallest office building west of the Mississippi River until 1931.CBRE Capital Partners expects to engage Goodman RealEstate to asset manage the buildings. CBRE CapitalPartners has engaged the Seattle office of CBRE to lease the262,988-square-foot property, which is currently 30% ccupied. Theteam will re-introduce the asset to the market and reposition thebuildings through a lease-up and capital improvement strategy thatincludes adding bike racks, showers, a state-of-the-art conferencecenter and catering facility.