Commercial Briefs

MBA (10/9/2008 ) Murray, Michael
Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust obtained $40 million of additional funding under a previously announced unsecured term loan. New lenders to the term loan, led by Wells Fargo NA, San Francisco, include National City Bank, Harleysville National Bank and Trust Co., and Citicorp North America Inc., New York.

The term loan's total outstanding balance is $170 million. The REIT has swapped $130 million of the loan to an average fixed rate of 5.33 percent. The remaining $40 million bears interest at the stated term loan rate of LIBOR plus 2.5 percent.
Pennsylvania REIT also exercised a 14-month extension to the term of its $500 million senior unsecured credit facility. The new expiration date is in March 2010. The revolving credit facility bears interest at LIBOR plus 1.40 percent.

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Citizens Bank, Providence, R.I., and Bank of America, Charlotte, N.C., provided $80 million to STAG Capital Partners, Boston, to finance the company’s fourth realty investment fund acquisition, consisting of warehouse, flex, manufacturing and office building properties.

Citizens Bank served as the agent and Bank of America as the co-agent on the financing deal. STAG Capital Partners acquires and manages single-tenant, net leased real estate assets purchased through third-party transactions and corporate sale-leasebacks.

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Green Park Financial, Bethesda, Md., partnered with Bethesda-based J.S. Watkins Partners to purchase multifamily small loan pools from commercial banks and other financial institutions that cannot be sold to government sponsored enterprises in current markets because of size limitations.

J.S. Watkins would source transactions, and Green Park Financial would aggregate pools and sell them to Fannie Mae.

“There is inefficiency in secondary markets for small loan pools under $100 million,” said Howard Smith, COO of Green Park Financial, “We are launching this program with J.S. Watkins to provide smaller banks and institutions with capital and access that they would be challenged to find without a program like this.”