Commercial Mortgage Deals Flourish

Meridian Capital Group arranged a $1.2 million loan for The Atrium, a 26,915 square foot shopping center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The borrower, Audett Carby, agreed to a rate of 6.625% over a five-year term, according to an announcement.

Further north, in Duluth, Ga., a retail strip center secured a $6.24 million loan. Meridian said it negotiated the financing for the 24,500 square-foot property for a rate of 5.9% over 10 years.

A 100-unit mobile home park in Raleigh, N.C., secured a $2.08 million loan arranged by the mortgage broker on behalf of Jeff Peterson, who is to repay the amount at a rate of 6.5% over a five-year term, a press release stated.Massachusetts holds two of the six shopping centers sold to Cedar by WP Realty of Bryn Mawr, one consisting of 138,000 square feet, with Big Lots as a tenant, and the other 168,000 square feet big. Connecticut holds a 118,000 square-foot property anchored by T.J. Maxx, Pennsylvania a 92,000 square-foot center leased to K-Mart, Maryland a 159,000 square-foot center and New York a 195,000 square-foot property, according to the announcement.

Meridian, based in New York City, also arranged a $2.5 million loan on a 48-unit multifamily property in Paterson, N.J. The financing has a rate of 5.9% and is structured to have no prepayment penalty for the last three years of the 30-year term, Meridian said. In New York, Meridian arranged a $26 million loan, with a rate of 5.395% over a five year interest-only term, for two adjacent prewar multifamily buildings, according to a press release. The 16-story properties on Park Avenue contain 99 residential units and three professional units for a net rentable area of 90,085 square feet.

New York-based Cedar Shopping Centers Inc. will pay $117 million for six shopping center properties in five states measuring an aggregate 870,000 square feet. About $32 million of the aggregate purchase price will be funded by Cedar’s revolving credit facility and the rest will be paid for by assumption of existing property-specific first mortgage loans of $86 million, with a weighted-average interest rate of less than 6%.Meridian also announced it secured a $1.39 million refinance loan for a multifamily property in Merrillville, Ind. The two-year loan for the 32-unit, colonial style property at rate of 5.62% included a cashout component.

A multifamily property in Indianapolis, Ind., secured an $8 million loan to be repaid over 10 years at a rate of 6.01%, Meridian said, adding that the two-story property holds 208 units.

In Chicago, Ill, a mixed-use property containing 20 apartment units and 12,500 square feet of retail space secured a $4.2 million loan brokered by Meridian. The property holding the 5-year mortgage, with a rate of 5.9%, was converted four years ago from an industrial property and the units were built with condo-like finishes, according to an announcement.

An 87-unit multifamily property in Chicago Ridge, Ill., secured a $5.412 million loan negotiated by Meridian on behalf of SKS & Associates. Sovereign Bank provided the financing for a rate of 5.4% over a seven-year term, a press release indicated.

Meridian reportedly arranged a $4.65 million loan for Cinemark in Arlington, Texas. The 10-year, 6% loan, for the 46,907 square-foot, free-standing movie theater is housed in a shopping center.

First quarter commercial mortgage originations across the country fell 15 percent from the prior quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today. However, production was 37 percent higher than a year earlier.

“Increases in total commercial/multifamily mortgage originations were led by increases in commercial mortgage-backed securities conduit loans and loans financing office properties,” MBA Senior Director of Commercial/Multifamily Research Jamie Woodwell said in the announcement. “The strong first quarter included heavy volume driven by real estate investment trusts privatizations and continues a trend of first quarter-over-first quarter increases going back to the beginning of MBA’s survey which was first released in 2001.”