Meridian Capital Group’s Carlsbad Office Arranges $94 Million in Financing for 13 Properties

Meridian Capital Group, LLC, a leading national commercial real estate finance and advisory firm, negotiated 13 loans totaling $94 million for multifamily, retail, hotel and manufactured housing community properties located in California, Illinois, Minnesota, Arizona and Colorado.

These recent closings bring the year-to-date total closed for Meridian’s Carlsbad office to 50 loans totaling $550 million. Meridian covers a broad array of clients and in doing so, loan sizes for the Carlsbad office year-to-date have ranged from less than $1 million to $114 million for property types including hospitality, multifamily, age-restricted multifamily, manufactured housing, retail, mixed-use and self-storage. The office has also closed loans on specialty-use assets such as a portfolio of single-tenant mental health facilities and a construction loan and line of credit for a religious day school. Financing structures are tailored for each client’s business strategy and range from construction and bridge loans to 30-year fully amortizing mortgages. These transactions were negotiated by Meridian Capital Group Managing Director, Seth Grossman, who is based in the company’s Carlsbad office.

Recently, Mr. Grossman and Associate, Sarah Kuebler, negotiated a cash-out refinance for a multifamily property in Park Forest, IL owned by a private REIT. The sponsor paid off an existing $5 million Fannie Mae mortgage that was assumed through a distressed acquisition in 2011 with a new $21 million thirty-year self-liquidating mortgage. The pair also closed a Fannie Mae assumption for a $1.3 million loan on a multifamily property in Los Angeles, CA that an existing client sold to an overseas buyer.

Mr. Grossman closed a $30.5 million cash-out refinance for a full-service hotel located in Bloomington, MN on behalf of an institutional sponsor. The hotel, containing more than 500 rooms, was purchased in 2011 and underwent a substantial renovation process that was completed in January of 2013. The new loan features interest-only payments for the full term and a flexible prepayment schedule.

Mr. Grossman, along with Vice President, Kovi Elkus, and Associates, Sarah Kuebler and Andy Strauss, also arranged nine loans totaling $34 million for multifamily and retail properties located in Phoenix, AZ. The financing was composed of five and seven-year non-recourse mortgages, with fixed-rates ranging from 3.63% to 4.25%, all rate-locked at application. All of the mortgages have 30-year amortization schedules and flexible pre-payment penalties. The smallest loan closed, totaling $900,000 was for a retail strip center in Tempe, AZ, located across from the Arizona State University campus. Tenants include a restaurant and a sports bar. The largest loan was a $9.5 million cash-out refinancing of a multifamily property that paid off an existing CMBS loan while bringing the interest rate down more than 250 basis points. 

Mr. Grossman and Associate, Ryan Gandell, recently closed a $6.5 million cash-out refinance of the Collins Aire manufactured housing community. The new CMBS loan paid off an existing $4.2 million loan for the 328-pad property.

“Each loan we close requires customizing terms in order to meet the specific needs of the client. In the case of acquisition loans, we can quickly coordinate with all necessary parties to meet required time-of-the-essence closings. For refinancings, Meridian has been able to structure payoffs of acquisition loans in certain situations that enable recapitalizations to occur less than one year into their original loan term, allowing for a quick repatriation of capital,” said Mr. Grossman.

Founded in 1991, Meridian Capital Group, LLC is one of the nation’s largest commercial real estate finance and advisory firms. Meridian is headquartered in New York with offices in New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, Florida and California. Working with a broad array of capital providers, Meridian arranges financing for transactions ranging from $1 million to more than $500 million for multifamily, co-op, office, retail, hotel, mixed-use, industrial, healthcare, student housing, self-storage and construction properties. www.meridiancapital.com